HP: A Magical Journey

by Little Merger

Follow Quinn West, who finds himself in the world of Harry Potter, but are things as they seem, is the world he has landed in the same as the one he once read about. Will Quinn able to find his way in this new world? Will he ever be able to feel like he belongs here? What opportunity would the magic of this world provide him? Will it lead him to the light or drown him in the dark?

3. 65

HP: A Magical Journey #Chapter 65 - Madness, Chaos, And Silence - Read HP: A Magical Journey Chapter 65 - Madness, Chaos, And Silence Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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A/N: This is the second part of the two-part CLIMAX of the [COLORS ARC].

- [Climax Part 2: Madness, Chaos, and Silence.] -

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Nights at Hogwarts were quiet with comfortable yet eerie silence. Students comfortably slept in their dorms, teachers who were off-duty either went out to Hogsmeade to enjoy some nightlife or stayed in for a quiet day. House-elves performed tasks in the cover of the night. Portraits also went to sleep in their frames, emulating human behavior. Ghosts who were awake and couldn't sleep were few in numbers to bring 'life' to the castle.

In that quiet castle, a boy could be seen dancing in the Hogwarts castle as he moved in the corridors. He was doing nothing but taking a walk in the silent castle, feeling the cool breeze caress his skin.

Today had been another good day in series of good days for him.

Gilderoy Lockhart, the fraud, the person who had tried to wrong him by trying to erase his memories and take his memory, was stripped of his position as the professor of Defense Against Dark Arts.

The official reason was that Gilderoy Lockhart had become sick and was quitting his job because of health reasons.

But he knew better.

Anyway, Gilderoy Lockhart had quit his job, and to soften the blow for his numerous fans, he had announced a sale for the next week, dubbing it the Get-Well-Soon sale week. The Lockhart goods were being sold at never-before-seen prices just so that his fans could show their support in the time of need.

Even in his absence, Gilderoy Lockhart was giving him profits.

A pity that he had to go.

While he was dancing in the corridors, Recon, his trusty map, was floating in front of him, diligently doing its job to show who was present around him.

His walks in the night were a private affair, and he preferred them to remain that way. With no people, elves, ghosts in his sight.

He would occasionally look at the map, changing his direction if he was moving towards someone or they were moving towards him.

It was polite to give people their space. And while they didn't know that he was here, he did know that others were around, so it was only normal to get out of their way so that both he and the other party could enjoy their peaceful night.

When he looked at the map, he found someone ahead in his path. It was a blue dot, meaning that the other party was a student. A rare sight this late in the night.

He was about to follow the usual protocol and avoid them, but the name tag with the blue dot caused him to still in his path.

The map showed that Luna Lovegood was around the corner from him.

This puzzled him greatly. Why was Luna here? She didn't stay up this late. It was past her bedtime; she had told him so.

Worried about his friend, he moved towards the girl. Softly taking steps as he turned around the corner bend and saw her.

She was standing there, at the side of the corner. Looking outside at the bright moon that was illuminating the velvety night sky. She looked like a fairy, admiring natural beauty in a way humans couldn't.

But her appearance caused him to frown.

She was wearing her Hogwarts robe. But there was nothing on her feet, barefoot were her soles.

She looked fine, but that didn't say anything about why she was here so late in the night. So, after some contemplation, he called out.

"Luna."

The younger girl had badgered him to call her by her first name, going as far as not responding to her family name. According to her, it was nice to hear Luna instead of Loony, like everybody had started to call her.

The silvery-blonde swirled her head towards the voice. There she saw him standing there, looking at her with a worried look on his face.

"Quinn," she said. Her feet moved, moving her body towards him.

"What are you doing here, Luna?" Quinn, who saw Luna moving towards him, asked. "It is past your bedtime."

The blonde stopped in front of him and replied with questions of her own.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you sleeping?"

Quinn's reply was a simple one.

"It is not my bedtime, so I am taking a walk."

To Luna Lovegood, the answer was a fitting one. She got answers to both of her questions.

"So, tell me, young lady. Why are you here and not in your bed, sleeping?" asked Quinn. "And, why aren't you wearing anything on your feet?"

Luna looked down at her feet; her toes moved in nervousness. She spoke softly.

"I was kicked out of the common room, and now I can't enter the common room."

Quinn frowned at the answer.

"What do you mean you were kicked out of the common room?" No person other than the faculty members could kick a student out of the house common room. And he was sure that Flitwick wouldn't kick a student out of the common room this late at night.

"Some seventh-year girls came to my dorm room and stunned me," Luna answered while clutching the ends of her robe. "When I came to be, I only had this robe on me and was in the first-floor girls' lavatory."

Quinn's blood went cold as he heard that.

She narrated her story straightforwardly with no cracks in her voice, but he could see the signs she displayed. She hadn't looked at his face ever since she walked near him. Her hands had been clutching her robe so hard that her hands were white.

"When I went to the common room. I couldn't answer the riddle from the eagle, and no one came in or out of the common room, so I was locked out."

"And, why didn't you go to professor Flitwick or any other professor?" Quinn asked. He successfully hid the anger he was feeling.

"I don't know professor Flitwick's bedtime," she answered. Her face still facing downwards. "What if I woke him up from sleep."

Quinn closed because of the anger he was feeling. His anger rose again because even though Luna's words sounded idiotic, Quinn knew that Luna was scared to even ask for help. She was just saying this to hide the real reason.

"Luna," he spoke to the young girl in front of her. When she didn't look up, he used her hands to cup her cheeks. Lifting her head up to such that she was looking at him. "You don't have to be scared to ask for help. You can go to any professor. Even if it is professor Snape in the middle of the night. You can even knock on the headmaster's door, and it would be fine."

Luna stared at Quinn as he spoke.

"And, you can come to me with any problems you have." He showed a comforting smile and spoke. "You are my friend, and I always help my friends out. So, come to me anytime you want, and I would be waiting for you."

"Really?" asked Luna. Her eyes stared at Quinn as if looking for something.

"Really."

Luna's chin quivered a little. She released her robes from her hands and raised them to hug Quinn. Her thin arms grabbed onto Quinn tightly.

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Quinn, who was surprised for a moment, snapped out of it and hugged back. He could feel her silent sobs and gently stroked her back and let her cry it out.

Luna didn't have any friends in Hogwarts. Her quirky personality didn't help her make friends.

She was friends with Ginny Weasley, but the Gryffindor girl was in another house and busy with her new friends. The two couldn't meet as frequently as they did before Hogwarts, leaving Luna alone.

Quinn was Luna's friend, but he had been too busy himself. Spending his time in the Restricted Section of Library, Room of Requirements, or the A.I.D office. He was rarely seen in the Ravenclaw common room.

Luna would usually spend her time in the gardens exploring the greens by her lonesome. But she could only do it so much, and after that, any child would want someone to play with them.

So, when Quinn heard that Luna could come to him anytime and that he was her friend. She broke down.

When she woke up in the bathroom, she was scared and alone. It frightened her when she couldn't figure out the puzzle to go inside her common room. She was sure that she would have to spend the night, out, alone.

Quinn waited for Luna to calm down before he spoke.

"Are you feeling fine?"

The girls in his arms nodded but didn't separate from him.

"Good, now let's get you home," said Quinn. It was too late in the night, and it was time to sleep. Even Quinn was feeling sleepy. "It is late, and we should go sleep."

Luna finally released him from her hug but grabbed the edge of his sleeve as if scared that Quinn would disappear if she let him go.

The two walked in comfortable silence until they reached the common room entrance on the fifth floor.

Quinn looked at the bronze eagle knocker and used it to knock on the door. Immediately the eagle spoke the entry riddle.

"A container without hinges, lock, or a key,

Yet a golden treasure lies inside me.

What am I?"

The answer from Quinn came immediately,

"An egg."

Luna, on the side, finally understood the riddle, and her eyes shone when she heard the answer.

There was no answer from the eagle, but Quinn and Luna knew the answer was correct when the door opened, allowing them entry to the common room.

The two Ravenclaws stepped inside. When the pair reached the stairs to the girls' dormitory. Quinn made Luna face him and looked her into the eye and asked.

"Luna, tell me the names of the girls who stunned you."

Luna's eyes widened before she shook her head, refusing to answer.

"Luna, I can help," Quinn tried to explain. "We will go to professor Flitwick together, and he will punish those girls. It will be fine."

Luna still shook her head. She didn't want to go to the professor. Today terrified her, and she was afraid that if she complained, then the girls would do something terrible again.

"Alright," sighed Quinn. He tried, but Luna didn't speak a single word. "Now go up and sleep. I will be waiting for you here tomorrow morning. We will go to breakfast together, okay?"

Luna showed a sleepy smile and nodded.

"Good, now go sleep. Good night, Luna."

"Good night, Quinn." She gave Quinn one final hug before climbing the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Quinn waited for a while before all expression drained from his face.

"Sorry, Luna." He apologized. "But, if you don't want to go to the professors, then I would have to take this matter into my own hands."

He already knew the identity of the girls who bullied Luna. He had pulled the knowledge when he looked into the eyes using legilimency.

The thing was that the splash of red was present on Quinn's nape from the second Luna told him about what happened to her. It only deepened in color with time, and Quinn only hid the anger because Luna didn't need anger but comfort from him.

"Maximum suffering," Quinn spoke in the empty common room.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The next few days, Quinn stalked the group of three seventh-year Ravenclaw girls.

From his observations, the three girls were high up in the Ravenclaw social hierarchy. The three were below average on the Ravenclaw exam grading scale, which meant they were above average in the Hogwarts exam grading scale.

Two of them had boyfriends, third had broken up with her's two months ago. Not a useful piece of information. But information nevertheless.

What Quinn did in the few days was to find their daily routine. Find their usual routes, timings, people they sit and stand with. When they were in the common room. Places they went to in their free time.

He found things that would help him track them. This time around, Quinn didn't call in his favors to get some blackmail material because he wasn't looking to blackmail the girls. He was going to hurt them they did to Luna.

Tit-for-Tat was the theme.

When Quinn thought that he had enough information and familiarity with their daily routine, he decided to strike.

On the day he was planning to execute the plan, he went down inside his suitcase and retrieved an object that he would use against them.

Quinn looked at the thing in his hand and smiled,

"Maximum suffering."

He pocketed the thing and moved out. After spending the school day attending classes, he was finally free. So were the three girls.

It was a Friday, and on Fridays, these three girls would go to one of the many secluded in Hogwarts with a bottle of Fire-whiskey and drink the fire-inducing booze, alone away from the eyes of anyone who could get them in trouble.

Quinn chose this moment because the area they drank was secluded, and no one would be there to see Quinn or the girls. He could work without any witnesses, so no danger of him getting into trouble.

The girls arrived in the secluded place full of boulders.

Quinn waited behind an enormous boulder till they were settled down, and he was sure no one else was joining them.

With his eyes on the girls, Quinn's hand went into his robes, and when it came out, he was holding something.

He lifted his hand and pointed at the girls. His face had a savage grin on it.

But then something happened, something clicked in Quinn's mind.

Quinn looked at the object in his raised hand and stared at it.

'...What?' he thought.

In his hand was the thing that he hadn't touched for more than two-and-half years, close to three years. He had not looked at it for the same amount of time.

And, the last time he was near it was before the school year started, but other than that, Quinn had no contact with the object.

So, imagine his surprise when he found the object in his hand that he wasn't willing to touch other than the situation where things were on the level of FUBAR.

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This situation was nowhere near the level of FUBAR, but Quinn still had it in his hand.

This told him one thing. Just having the object in his hand eliminated all other possibilities and left one single possibility.

Which was... that something was wrong with him.

Why did he come to this conclusion? It was because Quinn was pointing a wand at the girls. Not his fake wand that he made before his first year. The wand in his hand was the real deal.

The wand in his hand was an Ollivander piece. Made from the wood of an Acacia tree. With a phoenix's feather as the core. Fourteen inches and rigid flexibility.

It was indeed like the calm before the storm.

Quinn stayed still for a moment. In that stillness, a clarity befell upon Quinn. A clarity that felt strange to Quinn because he hadn't felt like this in months. It was like something clogging the back of his head was cleaned, and all motors were running smoothly again.

Instinctively Quinn dove into his mind, and the first memory that popped into his mind was when he dropped unconscious in the second vault. From there on out, Quinn introspected the entire school term, and it finally became clear what he had done.

All the things he did, which he would usually steer clear of. His attitude towards things, slight changes in his personality, and substantially lowered inhibitions.

Time passed as Quinn stood in his hiding spot. It was like a Basilisk had petrified him as three girls he was going to target drank the booze, had a fun time, and left the place.

Finally, Quinn reached the part where he obliviated into forgetting everything about his identity, and now, as he looked at the real wand in his hand, Quinn's heart started to beat quicker.

"What have I done?" Quinn's tone was grave and remorseful. "What was I going to do with those girls."

There was a clear sound of glass shattering in Quinn's mind. The sudden sound startled him, and he turned towards his back. And while there was no one behind him, Quinn's magic moved on its own and froze the rocks behind him.

"Huh?"

He didn't mean to use ice magic to freeze the rocks. It just happened on its own. Then Quinn heard the sound of sizzling behind him, and turning, he saw that half a boulder had been turned into dust.

"W-What?"

Suddenly, Quinn's hands felt hot, and when he looked down, he saw veins of blood magic on his forearm.

At this point, Quinn was experiencing a full-blown panic attack, and with those erratic feelings, the magic around started to become more and more unstable.

More and more of the area froze and melted at the same time. Rocks transfigured and transmuted before everything turned into dust or exploded. Lacerations and deep gashes made from destructive and dark magic appeared on the rocks and boulders around him.

With labored breathing and sweating from all over Quinn's body, he looked around as his vision blurred and his ears buzzed.

"S-St-op," Broken words came out of Quinn's mouth as he clutched his head and attempted to stop his magic from lashing out without his will.

It took a while, but the magic stopped, leaving the horrid destruction around him. But, the trouble wasn't over as Quinn stood up on his feet and immediately ran inside the castle.

He was holding magic, but he was hanging on a thread, and the magic, was pushing against his control, rampaging his body, threatening to break out.

Quinn somehow got to the seventh floor. His entire journey to the seventh floor had been rough as some of his magic had leaked out, leaving patches of magical damage in his path.

'A strong room... a strong room... a strong room.'

Quinn desperately thought about wanting a strong room as he paced up and down to activate the Room of Requirement.

When the door finally appeared, Quinn directly ran into the door, opening it with his body. He stumbled into the Room of Requirements, falling within a few unstable steps.

"Aaaaaaaah!" A scream pierced the room as Quinn finally couldn't stop the bubbling magic inside him, and instantly, the surrounding room shook.

Whips of fire, layers of ice, streaks of lightning, quaking floor, lacerations, and cracks appeared along the walls and floor. The room descended into pandemonium as Quinn's magic wreak chaos in the room while the Room of Requirement fixed the damages continuously.

After an unknown period, Quinn gained some semblance of control. Quinn once again tried to stop his magic, which wasn't following his will and order, but nothing worked. It lashed out without his lead.

Quinn had no control over his rampaging magic. Any effort to direct his magic was met with failure.

The rapid expulsion of magic started to hurt his body as Quinn felt like his veins were on fire. In that desperate time, an idea struck him, and he reached into his mind.

He used the emotional aspect of occlumency to reach out to all his turbulent emotions, and at that moment, he cut all his connections to his emotions.

He disconnected his emotions from his body, and instantly his face went blank.

Next went the emotional connection to his mind, and everything he was feeling become distant and like a buzzing in his mind, annoying but manageable.

Finally, Quinn cut the emotional connection to his magic. His wandless focus ability heavily depended on emotions and his will to perform magic. The lack of magical focus made Quinn's emotions and will crucial to his ability to cast magic.

Now, without a single ounce of emotional connection from Quinn, the magic stopped. The room went silent as Quinn sat on his knees, his hands hanging loosely to his sides.

There was not an expression on his face or a look in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, and words came out in a monotone.

"I screwed up. I need help."

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Blue - S L O T H -- A C E D I A

Pink - L U S T -- L U X U R I A

Red - W R A T H -- I R A

Yellow - G R E E D -- A V A R I T I A

Violet - P R I D E -- S U P E R B I A

Green - E N V Y -- I N V I D I A

Orange - G L U T T O N Y -- G U L A

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Quinn West - MC - !!FUBAR!!

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George West looked around the room he was in. It was a plain room that clearly been cleaned recently to make it presentable. Presentable to whom? His best and probably correct guess was for him. He owned the building of which the room was part. Actually, this building was owned by the West family business, and he was the owner of said business, so technically, he owned this building.

Back to the room, he was in; It had a single wooden table and two chairs, sitting opposite to each other on opposite sides of the table. On the table rested a pitcher of water with two glasses, courtesy of the manager of the small, West-financed ventures operated in the building.

There was no decor on the walls, and the walls were painted in a simple white color that looked dull because of the time it had been since the room was given a coat of paint. Other than the table and the chairs, the room was bare.

He got and walked to the window and looked outside the window. Through the glass, he could see the view of the all-wizard Hogsmeade village. People who lived in the settlement went on with their lives as George watched them from above. Not knowing that the richest man in the country was looking at them.

George thought of the reason he was here. Quinn, his younger grandchild, had sent him a mail through the machine they were calling MagiFax.

The MagiFax was a big hit in the offices of the West business. In the past year, MagiFax was introduced to almost all of the West family offices and ventures. And as it was expected, the addition of the machines was a big hit everywhere. The memos were being sent faster than ever before.

Just by employing the instantaneous feature of the MagiFax, the business all around the world had gained major profits. The information was being exchanged much faster than their local competitors, that West business was faster and better at everything because they had more time to plan and act.

George smiled when he thought about the profits that the MagiFax brought them. Soon, the MagiFax would be rolled out for all to buy and bring in more profits.

His grandson, Quinn, didn't know it, but George had opened an account for him that would hold a part of the profit for every MagiFax sold. His grandson didn't know it, but he was about to get very rich in the coming future.

George walked back to his chair and sat down. He didn't know why Quinn had called him here at the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop at Hogsmeade, but the letter said that he needed to get here as quickly as possible even if it meant to drop everything he was doing.

George did what he was asked for and immediately replied that he would meet him the next day, and here he was, sitting in a room in Hogsmeade, waiting for his grandson to arrive.

"But, today isn't a Hogsmeade weekend," murmured George. He had asked the shop manager, and he was told that today (a Saturday) wasn't marked as a Hogsmeade weekend. "I wonder how Quinn will get out of the castle."

George didn't know that there were hidden passages to get in and out of the castle, and Quinn knew every one of them.

He picked up a glass from the tray and placed it on the table, took out his wand, and cleaned it himself with magic before pouring himself a glass of water. Just as his glass was full, the door to the room opened.

George looked up to see his grandson, Quinn, standing at the door.

"Grandfather," greeted Quinn. George noticed the flat tone in which Quinn spoke and the slump in Quinn's shoulders, and the tiredness in his posture.

"Quinn, you look..." George greeted back but couldn't finish his sentence as there was something off about Quinn. George couldn't know what it was, but something about Quinn looked unnatural.

Quinn sat down on the opposite chair and looked at George. When the eyes met each other, George's widened when the unnatural feeling disappeared, but what remained wasn't what George was expecting.

George saw Quinn's face distort, and gone was the unnatural feeling and what remained was heavy bags under Quinn's eyes and sickeningly pale skin. His tired face didn't have an expression on it.

"Quinn!" George exclaimed in worry as he reached out his hands towards Quinn's face and held it against his cheek. "Oh my dear child, what happened to you?"

Quinn stared at George with the same expressionless face he had on since the last two days and spoke monotonously.

"I got into trouble. I am in big trouble and need help."

George frowned in worry as he noticed the monotone in Quinn's voice and no expression.

"Quinn, why are you using occlumency to hide your emotions?"

After another stare, Quinn spoke, "Please, step back and keep your wand at ready."

"What?" George was confused. Quinn's words didn't answer his question. His words only confused him more and caused more worry.

"If you push your chair back and make some distance between us, I would be properly able to explain what is happening," The flat tone seemed to be the only tone that Quinn spoke in. "And, please keep your wand ready to protect yourself."

He stared into George's eyes and asked, "Do you understand?"

George observed Quinn with a critical eye before following his grandson's instruction. He pushed his chair away from the table and readied his wand to defend himself.

"I am going to undo my occlumency." Quinn's voice cracked a little. "Be ready."

George didn't know what to expect, but what happened blew his mind.

A pained expression appeared on Quinn's face. It was the first facial expression he had shown since entering the room.

Then it all started.

The walls of the room changed. Some of the patches of the wall turned into liquid and dripped. Spikes jutted out from other patches. Paint on the wall caught on fire, but at the same time, the walls became whiter than ever.

George gripped his wand as he felt the room getting colder and colder, but when he looked up at the ceiling, it was on fire. The table shook violently before floating up in the air. Deep gashes and horrid laceration tortured the floor.

George removed his eyes from the bizarreness around, looked at Quinn, and saw multicolored veins all over his face.

The rampant magic stopped after ten seconds, leaving a panting Quinn, who slowly went back to becoming expressionless within the following few seconds. The room, on the other hand, didn't go back to normal. It remained damaged from Quinn's magic.

"Please do damage control," came Quinn's request in the same monotone.

George didn't respond for several seconds and just stared at Quinn before he finally used magic to extinguish the fires, repairing the destroyed table and fixing the walls to a certain degree. The room didn't go back to before Quinn's magic bruised it, but it was much better than the mess when Quinn cut the emotional connection from his magic.

"What happened," George pulled his chair towards the table and put his hand on Quinn's hand, which was shivering. "What was that?"

Quinn held George's hand. George felt the nervousness in the grip.

"Then, I should start from the beginning."

Quinn pulled his hand back and took out a wooden cuboid from his clothes, and placed it in the middle of the table. The cuboidal box had crude runes carved on its surface.

"What is this?"

Quinn stared at the box with a blank expression, but no one but him knew what was going inside his mind.

"Inside that wooden block is my wand."

George frowned as he asked, "Your wand?" He couldn't comprehend why Quinn would keep his wand in a wooden box.

He wasn't expecting the answer that Quinn gave him.

"Grandfather, I have only held my wand two times since the day I bought it. The first time was on the day we bought the day and the second time was before this week. Other than those two times, I haven't touched the wand with any part of my body."

"That doesn't make sense," George spoke, not believing what Quinn said because his situation didn't allow Quinn to leave his wand. "Child, you are learning magic; you can't perform magic without a wand."

Quinn's hands were palm-faced down on the table. He slightly raised his index finger on his right hand, and immediately George's wand expelled from his hand and twirled in the air before falling over the table.

"I don't need a wand to use magic."

George looked at his wand on the table, which was snatched from his hands. He couldn't believe that an unarmed child had just disarmed him.

Then came the story that explained to George what just happened.

"Grandfather, if you remember, I showed my first sign of magic when I was four." there was a pause before Quinn continued again, "When I fell from my room's window, and that triggered the accidental magic to save my life."

George, of course, remembered the day. All the people had a scare followed by joy because of Quinn's fall.

"It was exactly one year after that I gained deliberate control over my magic," Quinn narrated the event where he first used magic. "It was frustration-induced, accidental magic. I sent a rubber ball across the room. That allowed me to control my magic on smaller levels."

Quinn remembered the days he would play with glass marbles and rubber balls.

"I moved small objects by using magic for an entire year before I got my hands on one of Lia's books." If Quinn didn't have a tight grasp on his occlumency, he would have smiled. "From that day onwards, I learned about magic theory and how it worked."

George recalled the days when Quinn would carry Lia's book with him all around the house.

"Then came the time when he left for the world tour. That was the start of my magical journey. Lia had given me books of my own as a gift, and I had you buy books from every country we visited. Unlike what everybody thought I didn't buy them because I enjoyed reading, I bought them because I wanted to learn more about my magic."

George's eyes widened at the revelation. He couldn't believe that his grandson had been doing wandless magic since he was five years old.

"I learned on that trip. To this day, I consider those years were the best time of my life. I traveled the world while learning magic. At that time, it was everything I wanted from my life."

"I never stopped practicing magic after that." Quinn stared at George's face and continued, "I have over eight years, closer to nine years of experience with wandless magic. I can use magic without a focus with no problems. I don't even notice it anymore."

Quinn stopped talking to let George absorb the information. After a while, George put up a question.

"Why didn't you use your wand after we bought it for you?"

Memories of the day he bought his wand passed through Quinn's mind, "As I said, I had been using magic without a focus since I was five years old. That was six-year of experience of wandless magic. By that time, I had a solid connection to my magic. But when I held the wand, what it did was try to divert the connection between me and my magic through the wand. Meaning that if I kept using my magic, then there would come the point where I would reach a point where I would have to use the wand as a link between me and my magic."

Quinn did a robotic shrug as he explained, "I didn't want my solid connection to my magic to wither away with time. But the wand made me feel so powerful. Just holding the wand in my hand increased my magical capabilities by several levels. I struggled with the temptation of the power it made me feel, so to escape it, I locked the wand in a woodblock and threw it in one of the rooms in my suitcase."

George couldn't understand what Quinn was talking about as magic theory wasn't his forte.

But, George did have another question for Quinn.

"Quinn," he looked at his grandson with a slightly hurt look on his face. "Why did you think you needed something like this hidden from me or anyone in the family?"

Seeing the hurt look on George's face shook Quinn. He almost lost control over his occlumency. The look of vulnerability was not something he had seen on George's face. The older man always had a stern and stoic exterior. Quinn knew that George was a caring person, but the hurt expression on his face something Quinn had never seen before.

There was a long pause before Quinn replied.

"I didn't tell anyone because I thought you would stop me from using magic."

Quinn was grateful for the occlumency that kept his magic at bay because it made his voice sound absolutely flat with no emotion in it. If Quinn wasn't using occlumency right now, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to lie to George.

It was a complete lie when Quinn said that he thought they would stop him from using magic.

The real reason was something entirely different.

The five-year-old Quinn didn't consider the Wests as his family.

He didn't trust them even a single bit.

He didn't see George West as his grandfather, nor did he see Lia West as his sister.

He was dropped in this world with no warning. He had suffered from a panic attack within minutes of coming to this world.

Quinn found himself in an unfamiliar body and lived in a house with the original Quinn's family. At that point in time, they were complete strangers to him. And, they weren't any strangers, who were family to the original owner of this body, who was now dead.

He didn't dare to reveal that he could do magic without a magical focus because it scared him that they would somehow know that he wasn't their family and just somebody possessing their family member's body.

If they ever found out, he was sure that he would be dead, with no one ever finding of his death.

It was the reason why he acted as the perfect child so that they won't get suspicious. Quinn did what every child would do and behaved as a well-behaved child so that they won't have any reason to become suspicious.

For the first two years, Quinn wore a permanent mask of a perfectly behaved child. A method actor as he had once called himself.

It was all an act to maintain his life in this world.

It took time before Quinn learned to see them as his family. It took spending years with them to finally see them as his family. To finally look at George West as his grandfather, Lia West as his sister, Elliot Dalton and Ms. Rosey as his all-but-in-blood family, and Polly as the dependable house-elf who completed his family.

It took time to finally consider himself as a genuine member of the West family and not some imposter.

But by the time he finally accepted them, it was already had been years since he started practicing magic. He felt guilty for not telling them and decided to keep it a secret until he got a good chance to reveal that he could do magic without a wand.

Losing control over his magic wasn't the lemon he imagined about, but it was the one that life gave him, so he made lemonade with it.

There was a long silence between George and Quinn as they stared at each other. Neither of the two said a single word.

"I am sorry," spoke Quinn. He apologized for being so late. "I am sorry for hiding it this long."

"I will not lie and say that it didn't hurt me to see that you thought I would stop you from doing something you so clearly loved," George spoke, his voice softer than Quinn had ever heard from the man. "But I am glad that you told me about this. And Quinn, I would say this: I would never ever stop you from doing what you love."

"Thank you," said Quinn.

"But, this still doesn't explain why you are in this condition," asked George. While his talk with his grandson had brought them together, it said nothing about the condition Quinn was currently in. "What happened to you that you lost control of magic."

Quinn poured himself a glass of water from the slightly deformed pitcher before continuing.

"There exist a few secret mysteries in Hogwarts that not many know about." Quinn was starting the cursed vaults explanation to his grandfather. "The castle is a thousand years old with generations of magical humans starting their magical journey with Hogwarts. So, it is not strange that there are unidentified areas in the castle. I just so happened to come across one of those mysteries."

Quinn reminisced about the day he met Friar and how it changed his life in Hogwarts.

"In my second year at Hogwarts, I found that there are these five vaults hidden across Hogwarts. Only the ghosts remember about them because some of them have been here for centuries. The Hufflepuff ghost, Friar, shared with me the knowledge about these vaults."

George listened to Quinn, who spoke with a flat tone and blank expression, but George could see how these vaults would have excited Quinn.

"I cleared the first vault last year." There was a pause in which Quinn thought if he should tell George about how he got hospitalized for ten days because he almost died. Quinn decided that if he was going to tell George about the vaults. Then he should just opt for full disclosure, sort off. "I got hospitalized for ten days, had to grow most of my skin, all of my hair, heal my bones and plenty of organs."

"What?!" George screamed. "Why wasn't I told about this?!"

Quinn expected that reaction. He was just glad that he didn't use the words like death or almost died in his sentence.

"It was nothing to worry about." Quinn lied to lessen his grandfather's worries. "Madam Pomfrey fixed me up in no time. Plus, she is a great company."

"Moving on, I solved the first vault and found what was behind it. No problems, it just took a lot of time and effort." Quinn looked George in the eyes. "The problem started this year when I found the second vault, and in my first and only exploration of the vault, I fell unconscious."

George sharply inhaled. He didn't like where this was going.

Quinn took a deep breath before continuing.

"Something happened to me that day. And whatever happened was undone before this week because I now have no control over my magic." Quinn's hand shivered as some emotions started leaking. "I went from feeling on the top of my game to having no control over my magic. It actively tries to escape my body and cause rampage."

George could feel that Quinn was struggling because he could feel the slight temperature dropping in the room, and there were small glimmers of facial expression on Quinn's face.

He took Quinn's hand in his and spoke.

"But, you just used magic when you disarmed me."

Quinn shook his head and explained,

"I can still do minor magic that I find easy. My magic is seriously limited right now. Plus, right now, I feel stifled when I use magic. Using magic without a connection to my will feels extremely wrong."

He pointed to the time just a few minutes ago.

"You remember when I come into this room, I was hiding my face with magic? That was illusion magic, at least a physical illusion, not a mental illusion. I am not in the condition to perform much mental magic, and your occlumency defenses are too much for even the normal me to use a mental illusion."

Quinn looked at George's face and realized that he had gotten off the point. "Ah, anyway, I saw your face and noticed that you found something wrong. The current me wasn't able to pull off a physical illusion with my magical capabilities. I am not having a good time with my magic. I don't feel good."

"It is alright, Quinn," George spoke in a comforting voice. "Everything would be alright. I will find a way to fix whatever is wrong with you. So, don't worry. Everyone in the house would help."

George meant it as he already started to plan to hire the best healers money could buy. He needed to find the best in the fields and provide his grandson with the best healthcare.

"Help! Yes, help." Quinn's eyes shined, and he gripped George's hands. "I need help with this, and you can help me with this."

"Of course, anything you want, Quinn." George didn't deny any request. While he couldn't see any expression on Quinn's face, he could tell that something was wrong with Quinn. His emotions were all over the place.

"I want you to call someone," Quinn said. "I want you to get them to West manor the day I return home."

The request confused George. He didn't know who his grandson wanted to meet so eagerly.

"Who is it?"

Quinn took another deep breath before speaking in a flat monotone.

"I want you to call Alan D. Baddeley."

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - More stone-faced than a certain blonde.

George West - Grandfather - Extremely worried about his grandson.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

It was weird to wake up from petrification, thought Ivy Potter as she looked at the hospital wing ward from her bed. One moment she was looking around the corner through mirrors just to make sure there wasn't a gigantic snake waiting for her, but then she saw acid-yellow eyes in the mirror, and everything went black.

The advice saved her life even though she didn't like the source of the said advice.

She was miffed that she was taken out twice in a single day. Once by Quinn West and then by the Basilisk later that day. It was a weird thought to have after being petrified and coming as close to death as she had been, but for Ivy, those events were the last memories she had before the petrification.

There was no fear or dread when she was petrified as the petrification from Basilisk was instant. It didn't give Ivy a chance to feel anything at all. Sure she woke up with a slight scream of terror because she could remember the Basilisk, but what she saw was her mother standing by her bed, hugging her tightly.

Ah, she was petrified, were her thoughts. It felt almost anticlimactic, being petrified by the deadliest snake in the world. The only thing she didn't like was the stiffness in her body from no activity for weeks, but Madam Pomfrey cured it in a jiffy.

Ivy's first worry came when she remembered Hermione was with her and asked what happened to her best friend. She was told that the students were being released from their petrified state one every half hour so that Madam Pomfrey could have ample time to check if something was wrong before moving on to the next student.

Ivy was the second last to be cured, and Hermione was after her, making Hermione the last student to be given the mandrake juice.

The bushy-haired witch's first reaction was funny. She woke with a yell of "Bullocks!" That was something Ivy wasn't expecting from a person who always chided Ron for his language.

Then Ivy was told that the Heir of Slytherin took her into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron had gone in there to save her. It made her feel grateful to her brother and childhood friend.

The two dummies had ventured into the Chamber of Secrets just for her. There was no way that her heart didn't feel warm for the two. She forgave them for being so annoying all the time.

Then came the tough part where the now reinstated Headmaster told the students before them that the Slytherin's monster had petrified them for months. It wasn't a nice thing to see when Colin Creevey found he had lost a big chunk of his first year at Hogwarts or when Susanna Heselden found she missed out on crucial time in school during her O.W.L year.

Justin Finch-Fletchley yelled that they should kick her brother Harry out of Hogwarts. But the Headmaster explained to him that Harry wasn't the Heir of Slytherin and the whole incident was because of a dark magic artifact that opened the Chamber of Secrets but didn't go into detail.

Ivy thought that she and Hermione were lucky because they were only out for a few weeks and didn't lose time on the level as the others did.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Ivy, Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat huddled in Harry's bed in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. The curtains around the poster bed were drawn, providing privacy to the golden squad. It was the first time since Ivy and Hermione were waken up from petrification that the four had sat down together to talk about what happened.

"Let's start," Ivy spoke to her friends. She was leaning against the headboard of the bed. "Tell us what happened down in the chamber."

Harry and Ron looked at each other before Harry started telling the events that transpired.

"We found the parchment in Hermione's clutches and immediately found the information about the Basilisk in it. Then there was the note on it which said that Moaning Myrtle knew about the location of the Chamber of Secrets."

"Then it clicked in my head," Harry explained, "That if the Basilisk could kill with its gaze, then the what if the girl who died the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened never left the place which she died. What if she was there the whole time?"

Ivy and Hermione's eyes widened as they understood. Harry, who saw the expression, nodded.

"Moaning Myrtle was the girl killed by the Basilisk last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened," Harry recalled the conversation he had with the ghost. Ron, who was on the side, nodded. "Myrtle said that she was crying in a stall when she heard a boy making strange sounds while Myrtle was in the lavatory and when Myrtle stepped out, all Myrtle saw were big yellow eyes before she died."

Hermione had a strange thought that she decided to put out.

"Do you think glasses provide protection against Basilisk's glare?" Hermione asked, wondering about the information Quinn had given her and Ivy. "I mean, look at all of us who got petrified; we all saw the Basilisk's eyes indirectly. Shouldn't meeting the Basilisk's eyes through the glass count as looking at it indirectly?"

Ivy shook her head in disapproval, "I don't think so. In every case this time, the Basilisk's eyes were seen through reflections. Water, mirrors, and viewfinder, all of which showed reflections of the eyes. And, Creevey saw the Basilisk through a ghost; I don't think we can take ghost bodies and glasses as the same thing."

She looked at Harry and thought of something.

"And, even if glasses do provide protection against death by glare, then I don't think Myrtle was wearing glasses at that time."

Hermione frowned and questioned, "Why do you think that? Myrtle's ghost always has glasses on, which means she had glasses when she was alive."

"Harry said that she was crying when she was in the lavatory," Ivy jutted her chin towards Harry and said, "I have seen him cry. He always removes his glasses when he cries. I mean, doesn't everyone who wears glasses remove their glasses when they cry. So, it is reasonable to think that Myrtle wasn't wearing her glasses at that time."

Harry, who was telling them the ordeal he went through, was flabbergasted when the two girls started to talk about him crying. How did they go from Basilisk and Chamber of Secrets to him crying?

"Alright, stop talking about me crying. I don't cry," Harry said so that they could move on from the current topic and spoke the last words with some weight as if insisting on them. "Let's move on."

Ivy and Hermione giggled while Ron chuckled as he looked at his best mate. Harry felt heat rush to his cheeks and hurriedly spoke.

"So, when we asked about what she saw that day. Myrtle pointed at the sink right in front of the toilet she haunts. And, when we searched the sink, Ron found a tap with a snake on it."

Harry gave Ron a thumbs up before turning back to the girls and revealed.

"There is something that you don't know about this year is that I have been hearing voices." Harry winced when he saw Hermione and Ivy glared at him.

Ivy massaged her temple and spoke in a voice that clarified that she was holding back her anger. "I have said this a lot through the year, and I can stress this enough, but you are really an idiot! Do you know what you just-..! If you had just told us-..!"

Ivy and Hermione had gone into Quinn West's office and got caught by him and were blackmailed into being under his debt. Ivy was sure that either she or Hermione would have figured out the monster's identity with that piece of information.

And while Ivy didn't know if she would have broken into Quinn West's space. Ivy was sure she wouldn't have asked West for the monster's identity, and that would have saved her from doing a job for him.

Harry remained quiet for a while and observed his two female friends. He waited for them to calm down before continuing.

"Well, then I spoke to the tap in Parseltongue, and the whole sink came disappeared and left behind a huge hole which was the entrance to a tunnel that I think went down below Hogwarts."

He remembered the entire tunnel ride into the Chamber of Secrets. With him trying to stifle his screams and Ron loudly screaming as he slid behind him.

"When I reached the Chamber of Secrets, I saw an unconscious student there." Harry stopped to recall his name. "His name is Terence Higgins, a Slytherin."

Ivy and Hermione noticed Harry didn't show his usual reaction when he talked about Slytherin. Harry would show signs like a shallow frown or a wrinkled of his nose. But right now, he didn't show any of those. Even Ron didn't snort in derision or snarl things like bloody snakes.

Ivy even saw light sympathy in her twin's eyes. That was new, she thought.

"So, Terence Higgins was the Heir of Slytherin," Hermione asked the question.

Harry shook his head and revealed. "No, Higgins wasn't the Heir of Slytherin," he looked at the two girls and spoke, "Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin."

Ivy and Hermione's eyes widen at the revelation.

"What do you mean Voldemort was the Heir of Slytherin?!" Hermione's voice fully expressed her shock.

"Terence Higgins was being controlled by Voldemort. Voldemort possessed him and opened the Chamber of Secrets and released the Basilisk."

Hermione was still frowning as she asked, "But, how did he possess Higgins?"

A haunted look flashed on Harry's face as he explained, "He used Tom Riddle's diary to possess Terence Higgins."

"What do you mean?"

Harry got up from his bed and walked to his desk. He picked up a piece of parchment and quill from his table and wrote something on it.

After staring at the parchment for a while, he returned to the bed. The parchment went to the middle of the bed.

Ivy, Hermione, and Ron leaned forward to look at the parchment.

[

[ TOM MARVALO RIDDLE ]

[ I AM LORD VOLDEMORT ]

]

Every letter of the first line was connected to the letters of the second line with arrowed lines.

Ivy, Hermione, and Ron were shocked to see the words transform into Voldemorts' name.

"An anagram," gasped Hermione.

"Yes, Tom Riddle was Voldemort," Harry's face was pale as he stared at the parchment. "There was a memory of Tom Riddle in that diary which could manipulate people who wrote on it."

The other three understood what that meant. Harry had that diary for some time, and in that time, he had become withdrawn and something of a recluse. Harry was under the control of Tom Riddle's diary, and they could see how that knowledge was affecting Harry. A slight change in events, and Harry could have been lying in the Chamber instead of Terence Higgins.

"Tom Riddle was the one who opened the Chamber the last time," Harry told them about the memories that Riddle had shown him. "He didn't want Hogwarts to close because of Myrtle's death, so he blamed Hagrid for it, and everyone believed it because of Aragog."

Harry then proceeded to tell them about his struggle with the Basilisk and how Fawkes, the phoenix, helped him by blinding the Basilisk and how the Sorting hat gave him the sword of Gryffindor.

"... Fawkes cried on my wound and healed them and then burst into flames. I was so scared that he died, but it turned it was just a burning day. It is normal for phoenixes, and Fawkes had exerted himself enough to trigger a rebirth from ashes."

The other three listened with silent attention. Taking in every word coming out of Harry's mouth. It wasn't every day when they heard a tale from a person who fought the Basilisk and lived to tell the fable.

"What happened after that?" asked Ron, engrossed in the story.

"Oh, then I passed out."

"You passed out?!" The same sentence came from the mouth of the three listeners.

Harry scratched the back of his head and ruffled, "Well, I had just been bitten by a Basilisk after I drove a sword through its head. I think it is normal for anyone to pass out after that."

"But what happened to the young Voldemort? Did he escape?" asked Ivy.

Harry shook his head and revealed something that surprised all.

"That is the thing. When I woke up to baby Fawkes's loud chirps, I saw that Riddle's diary had a Basilisk fang stabbed into the diary." Harry said the sentence like he couldn't figure it out. "Riddle said that he was going to use Higgin to come back to life, but when I woke up, he was still alive, and Riddle wasn't anywhere to be seen."

"But, that doesn't mean that Voldemort is gone. What if he escaped?! What is he is out there right now?!" exclaimed Ivy. Voldemort being out there scared her a lot.

Harry shook his head and refuted Ivy's worries, "Professor Dumbledore told me that when the diary was stabbed with the Basilisk fang, the memory of Tom Riddle inside was destroyed. He assured me that Tom Riddle didn't return to life. He was destroyed with the diary."

Ivy, Hermione, and Ron breathed a sigh of relief at that. Dumbledore's assurance was all they needed to believe that Voldemort wasn't returning as Tom Riddle.

"What I don't understand is that who stabbed the diary. There wasn't anyone in the Chamber other than Riddle and I." Harry glanced at Ron and said. "Neither did Ron see anyone entering the Chamber."

Ivy and Hermoine shot quick and discreet glances at each other.

Someone entered the Chamber, he says? Which meant that someone knew the Chamber's location. And, both of them knew someone who fit that description.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

"Hey, Ivy?" muttered Hermione as the two climbed down the stairs from the boys' dormitory to the common room. "Do you think..."

"It might be him," answered Ivy. "But we can't be sure. It could be entirely someone else."

Both girls knew who they were talking about. The person who had given them the information about the Basilisk knew the Chamber's location.

"I am sure that even if we asked him. He would deny everything," added Ivy.

Hermione nodded at that.

"What about the payment? What do we about it?"

The two girls exited the staircase as Ivy answered. "We need to get West what he wanted. I don't know what he will do if we don't get him the Marauder's Map."

She jutted her chin across the common room and spoke, "And we are going to do it now."

Hermione looked in the direction Ivy pointed at and saw the Weasley twins huddled together in one corner.

The two walked over to the twins, and Ivy spoke,

"Fred, George, we need to talk."

Weasley twins looked up from whatever they were doing and spoke in their usual twin-speak.

"Ivy," "Hermione," "What can we" "do for you today?"

Ivy wasted no time and got to the point.

"I want you to give me the Marauder's Map."

The identical twins made identical expressions of surprise. They looked at each other before staring at Ivy and asked.

"Why do you" "want the map?" "No, let us ask," "How did you know" "about the map?"

Ivy sighed as she answered, "My father is part of Marauders. He told me about the map. Now, give it to me."

The Weasley twins' jaw dropped as I stunned them at the sudden revelation.

"James Potter," "Senior Auror," "Is a Marauder?" "You must be joking!"

"No, he is Prongs. Do you know about that name?" she said, giving them proof her father was a part of the Marauders.

The twins nodded in unison and perfect coordination.

"Good, so now give me the map. I really need it."

Fred, or maybe it was George, took out a folded parchment from his pocket and handed it to Ivy.

The daughter of Prongs took the parchment and awkwardly stared at it as she didn't know what it was. She licked her lips before asking the twins."Dad didn't tell me what it was or how it works," she spoke. "Tell me about it."

'Ah, I should have given this more thought,' she thought simultaneously.

Fred took the map from Ivy's hands and laid it on the floor. He gestured his twins and the girls to stand facing towards the wall to create a barrier.

"This, Ivy, is the secret of our success," said Fred, patting the parchment, fondly.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said George, "but your father did make it, so we guess it can't be helped."

"Anyway, we know it by heart," said Fred. "We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."

Ivy and Hermione noticed that the twin-speak had gone down. Even though they spoke in turns, they weren't completing each other's sentences.

'The map must be genuinely important to them,' she thought.

"Ah, we got emotional," said George, wiping an imaginary tear with his finger. "Explain, Fred."

"Well... when we were in our first year, Ivy - young, carefree, and innocent -"

Ivy snorted. She doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.

"-well, more innocent than we are now - we got into a spot of bother with Filch."

"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor, and it upset him for some reason-" "-So, he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual -." "-Detentions, disembowelment. It was then -," "- we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

"Don't tell me -" gasped Hermione. Ivy gave her friend a side look, the rule-abiding witch had stolen from Snape; why was she acting so shocked now.

'Not that I am the one to talk,' thought Ivy, having stolen from Filch.

"George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb. I whipped the drawer open and grabbed - this." pointing at the folded parchment.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."

"And you know how to work it?" asked Ivy, getting curious about the parchment's functionality.

"Oh yes," said Fred, smirking. "This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."

"Get to the point," sighed Ivy.

George smiled as he took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said,

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly words, that proclaimed:

[

「Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present -」

「THE MARAUDER'S MAP.」

]

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labeled with a name in minuscule writing.

Astounded, Ivy and Hermione bent over it.

A labeled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris, was prowling the second floor; and Peeves, the Poltergeist, was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as Ivy's eyes traveled up and down the familiar corridors, she noticed something else.

This map showed a set of passages she had never entered.

"Hidden passages are littered around Hogwarts," said Fred and George continued for him, "Passages that go out to Hogsmeade, or passages that connect different parts of the castle."

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," sighed George, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."

"Noblemen, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," said Fred solemnly.

"Right," said George briskly. "Don't forget to wipe it after you've used it -" "- or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly.

"Just tap it again and say," "Mischief managed!" "And it'll go blank."

Ivy traced her finger on the map as if trying to find someone, and finally, her finger stopped on the fifth floor, in the West corner, at a certain classroom.

「Quinn West」

George saw Ivy's finger stopping on Quinn's name. "Ah, little lord West -" "- the information broker, the all-knowing Ravenclaw." completed Fred.

"Now that I remember, he knows about the map, doesn't he, my less handsome twin?"

"Yes, he does. It was a big surprise, wasn't it?"

Ivy looked at them with shock and said, "You two know that he knows about the map?"

"Oh, yes. We don't know how West knows about it -" "- but he does. It was a surprise back then, but now?-" "- now it just seems normal given that he seems to know everything."

Fred and George had plenty of interaction with the Quinn West. They regularly employed Quinn West for testing out their trick potions. It was a boon for them because they didn't need to check the trick/prank potions on themselves.

The twins didn't know how he did it, but Quinn West would modify the potion recipes and return recipes that would be better than before and perfectly safe to consume with no lasting effects. Perfect for prank potions.

"We occasionally have tried to follow him -" "- but he would always slip away from us." "He probably knows the castle-" "-as well as we do."

The twins saluted and said in unison, "We can respect that."

"So, young ladies," said Fred, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "mind you behave yourself."

"See you girls later," said George, winking.

The twins bounced away, leaving behind Ivy and Hermione with the map with them.

It was time to go back to the place they were held captive and talk to the devil.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Harry Potter - Boy-who-lived - After being bitten by the Basilisk, that is.

Ron Weasley - Didn't do much - But, props for bravery.

Ivy Potter - Nani Intensifies! - Obtained [Marauder's Map] x1

Hermione Granger - Un-petrified - Bullocks!

Fred and George - Weasley Twins - ... Goodbye, map - Man, they are superb guys, aren't they?!

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Even though she had only been to this part of the fifth floor twice, it was one of her least favorite places in Hogwarts. The first time she had been here, Ivy had gotten help, and the host had been pleasant enough, and she had gotten what she wanted with something little extra for a great price. It was just that the parting had been a mixture of shock and surprise.

The second time, she had come to do something not so ethical, and the results were not the ones she was expecting. She would still groan and sigh for several minutes after remembering the events that had transpired.

And she sincerely considered that it wasn't wholly her fault. Quinn West had shown so many signs of suspicious activity. Yeah, he had brought that on himself.

Now, here she was for the third time, standing at the door of the same classroom-turned-office, her hand on the doorknob of the entrance. She genuinely didn't want to enter the room.

Ivy could feel the stare of her best friend from her side and muttered, "Alright, alright, just give me a second."

"You already had two minutes' worth of seconds," replied Hermione in a slightly exasperated tone. "If you don't want to, I can take the lead. He did ask us both to get the map."

Shaking her head, Ivy replied, "No, I asked for the information, and the map belongs to my dad. I need to deal with this."

"You are overthinking it, you know? Think back to the time when we came here for the notes. The exchange at that time was simple." Hermione sighed at her friend's actions. "We gave him money and got the notes and the information on the Philosopher's stone. There was no stunning and being bound to chairs."

"But, what if tells us to do something," Ivy looked worried. Quinn had said that he might make her do something that she was uncomfortable with. "And, we can't really refuse him after all that happened."

"Again, we can do nothing about it. If West wanted us to do something, he would have found us to collect his favors." Hermione shrugged and even though she didn't like someone having her under their control. She had given this situation some thought. "It is inevitable; he will ask for something one day, might as well worry about it when the problem comes. No reason to waste time by worrying about it right now."

Hermione gave Ivy a push and asked Ivy to open the door and enter the door.

The redhead pursed her lips before opening the door with determination.

Inside the office, the two girls saw Quinn West sitting behind his table. His eyes were closed, and there was no expression on his face. He was sitting so still that they thought he was a statue.

But, the door chime on the top of the door alerted Quinn of their presence as he opened his eyes and saw the visitors.

He showed no change in expression and just stared at them. No, he was observing them.

"Yes?" he asked with a flat tone.

Ivy, who was walking towards the table, frowned when she saw Quinn. She could see the telltale signs that he was using that.

"What are you doing?" she asked. The question was vague, and Hermione, who was just behind her, frowned.

'Is she again going to start something?' Hermione's experience while Ivy and Quinn West interacted was full of situations like this. Ivy would act recklessly and ask questions that stumped Hermione.

She wanted nothing out of the ordinary to happen this time around and just wanted to quickly complete the transaction and get out of here.

"You know what I am doing, exactly." Quinn's reply came in the same flat tone and no expression.

Ivy's eyes narrowed, and she asked back, "I know what you are doing. What I meant was, why now? Drop it - it is unsettling."

"I am practicing," said Quinn. "Not my fault you find it unsettling. Deal with it."

Hermione was part confused, part confused, and part irritated. It was always like this. Whenever these two meet, she was sidelined.

"What are you two talking about?"

"He is using occlumency," came the reply.

Hermione didn't know what occlumency was, so it still didn't clear Hermione's confusion. "What is occlumency?"

"I will tell you later." She quickly replied before turning back to Quinn and asked, "You are more expressionless than Daph - I mean Greengrass."

"You know that Daphne's expression is not because she is using occlumency," Quinn replied back. "That is just her resting face."

"Let's move on. Why are you two here?" Quinn wasn't having a good time, and right now, he didn't want to deal with anything. Especially with these two. "The card isn't showing that I am in for consults, so why did you two come here?"

Ivy frowned before talking out the folded parchment and said, "We bought you the Marauder's Map."

She was expecting a crack in Quinn's face, but he stayed expressionless.

"Ah... I see. So you bought it. Good job, I guess." replied Quinn. He stood up from his barstool and raised his hand for the map.

Ivy didn't immediately hand the map over and asked. "What are you going to do with the map? I hope you are not going to keep it. It is my dad's, and I am not going to let you keep it."

"I have no wish or desire to keep the map," Quinn replied. He didn't need it. "I just want it for a couple of minutes, and you will get it back after that."

"But, what are you going to do with it?" Ivy pressed on. She didn't care that this could get her in trouble. She wanted to know.

"You are smart. You will figure it out after I am done." He once again raised his hand to ask for the map. "Rest assured, I won't damage it."

Ivy's eyes wandered between Quinn's hand and face before she handed the map over. "Take care of it." she softly said.

"Sure," came Quinn's reply as he stared at the parchment.

Ivy sighed because Quinn's flat voice made it impossible to detect any vocal tone clues. It was like she was talking to a robot.

"Feel free to sit while I return in a while," Quinn offered without looking at them and entered his workshop leaving the two girls behind.

"So, what is occlumency?" Hermione immediately asked.

"Sit down," Ivy sighed as she took a seat. "This will take some time to explain."

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- (Scene Break) -

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On the other side of the glass wall, Quinn stood with both his hands on the table, his head hanging down and eyes closed.

The reason he had asked for ten minutes and not a minute to work on the map because he was busy groaning in his head. Trying to maintain his occlumency because of the stupidity he had done while he was under the influence was threatening to break his already thin spread emotional occlumency bounds.

'Why did I have to ask her to get the map?!' While Quinn's face was calm as a cucumber, inside it was a raging turmoil of emotions and regrets. 'Why me?!'

His entire interaction with Ivy Potter after he had come out of the second vault had been a series of blunders that had now become a huge mistake.

The first and biggest mistake was to confront Ivy Potter while she was Polyjuiced into Daphne. This whole mess started at that point. If he was not under the influence at that time, Quinn would have ignored the thing and just turned a blind eye to the entire situation.

Getting a Potter under his debt was outstanding in almost every situation. But this situation wasn't one of those.

'Hell, no! It is the worst situation!' cried Quinn. 'Blackmail! Really, Blackmail! What was I thinking?!'

After that came the break-in, which Quinn was fine with. He would have done the same thing even without the influence from the second vault.

He would have stunned them and then probably got them to owe him just like he did, but he would have done it much more calmly and did damage control by the time they were done.

And, then was the bigger deal.

'Why did I have to tell them about the Basilisk?!' screamed Quinn internally. It was the mistake that could have and might still backfire. 'How am I going to answer if somebody asks me why didn't I tell professors? How am I going to answer this?!'

Similarly, he was slumped because he had given them the Chamber's location. Just these two things could ruin his peaceful life at Hogwarts.

Quinn was snapped out of his self-loathing when he felt something. He looked down and saw that his hands were sinking into the wooden table because the entire tabletop had turned into sand.

He clamped down on his occlumency to cut down his leaking emotions.

Quinn raised his hands as the surrounding sand trickled down, and almost in a robotic and inorganic manner, bits and pieces of sand turned back into the wooden table as Quinn used his incomplete magic.

After taking in a lot of deep breaths, Quinn calmed down his emotions and decided to end this, and after that, never to talk to anyone in the golden squad.

He touched the parchment and softly spoke,

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

The map came to life, and Quinn immediately found his position on the map by browsing through the spread parchment. He put his finger on his position, and within the next few seconds, the footsteps and name tag representing Quinn West on the map lightened until it was no longer visible.

"Done," said Quinn. "Now, I am free from any tracking."

This was the only good thing that came from this. If Quinn was under the radar of Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and with them the golden squad, then erasing himself from Marauder's Map allowed him to roam unseen.

He had Recon, and they had nothing to track him. He could outrun them all day long, and they could never find him.

"Mischief Managed."

After he was done, Quinn moved back to his office.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"Here you go. I am done." were Quinn's first words while he returned the map to Ivy Potter. "Your payment has been recorded and completed. The deal is finished. Thank you for doing business with me."

Quinn skipped the part where he says to the clients to return if they had problems. He didn't want them to ever return.

Ivy took the map from Quinn and gave it a close observation. Trying to figure out what Quinn did.

"You can look at it after you get out of here," said Quinn. "Please, leave."

Ivy and Hermione raised their heads and stared at Quinn, who stared back. The two parties stared at each other before Ivy nodded and stood up from her seat to leave. Hermione looked at Ivy and then Quinn before fidgeting a little and decided to go for it.

"Are you selling the notes for this year?"

Quinn, who wanted them to leave, clenched his hand under the table and nodded. He stood up, went to his workshop, and brought out two sets of notes.

Quinn placed one set in front of Hermione and then eyed Ivy, "Do you want one?"

Ivy nodded but didn't say a single word. Neither Quinn nor Ivy wanted to speak to each other at this point in time.

"Same as last year," Quinn quoted the price. He didn't say anything about a discount because right now, it wouldn't even be funny.

Hermione put down money for both sets and replied to Ivy, who looked at her with a quirked brow.

"... I was always planning to buy these and well thought it won't harm in carrying money for yours as well." Hermione blushed under the gaze of the other two people in the room as she picked up the notes.

"Let's leave," muttered Ivy as she turned to the door and exited without saying a word.

Hermione followed after her friend but not before throwing a quick glance at Quinn.

After the door was closed, Quinn suddenly felt very tired. He wanted the school year to end.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"I found it," Ivy yelled. She had the Marauder's Map opened on her bed as she touched a spot on the map.

"What did you find?" asked Hermione. Looking up from the notes she had gotten today.

"I found what he did to the map," Ivy was frowning.

Hermione stood up from her table and walked to Ivy's bed, and asked, "What did he do?"

"He erased himself from the map," spoke Ivy. "I can't find him anywhere on the map. Yeah, that must be it."

Hermione sat down on Ivy's bed and looked at the Marauder's Map. She studied the map, which was one of the more fascinating works of magic she had seen.

But right now, she had something else on her mind.

"So, you didn't ask him if he was down in the Chamber of Secrets," asked Hermione.

Ivy stilled at the sudden question before answering the question, but she didn't look at Hermione.

"It doesn't matter, and I don't care."

But Ivy knew why she didn't ask that particular question.

The reason was simple...

She didn't want it to be true. She didn't want to hear from Quinn's mouth that he was down in the Chamber of Secrets.

Ivy Potter didn't want to hear that Quinn West saved her and her twin's life.

He had threatened and blackmailed her twice. In both cases, he had implied that he would make her family's life hard. Her image of Quinn was anything but positive.

She didn't know how she would feel if she was told from that same person's mouth that he was indeed the one to save her and Harry's life.

Things were simple this way.

As long as Quinn West was the bad guy in her mind, things would remain simple.

And, Ivy Potter preferred simple after the events of this year.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The last few weeks had been tough. Quinn had found that if someone went from happy to the point of extreme giddiness to showing no expression, people would notice something was wrong.

To combat that problem, Quinn had to force himself to show fake expressions. Which proved to be mighty difficult when he was so detached from his emotions. He even had to put fake emotions in his voice, which was difficult in its way.

Quinn's magic was just too glitchy to keep illusions on his face the entire day. Which made it necessary to fake his expression.

To lesson this hardship, Quinn had chosen to spend the entirety of his in hiding. He would spend all his time in the Room of Requirement.

Room of Requirements was the reason he had chosen to stay in Hogwarts rather than going home. He didn't know what was happening to him, and while his grandfather contacted Mr. Alan, it could be dangerous for Quinn to stay at home and risk losing control of his magic.

His family could get injured by him. And Quinn didn't trust anyone other than Alan with his mind.

Every day inside the Room of Requirements, Quinn would undo the bindings on his emotions, letting them and his rampant magic flow out.

While letting his magic was painful, it was also stress-relieving. Quinn binding his emotions all day wasn't good for his health.

For the few minutes that Quinn let go of his emotions, he felt whole again. While it was painful, and Quinn struggled to force his magic to stay inside the entire time he let loose, it was the only time he felt whole.

His exams weren't a problem because even with his current condition. Quinn could still perform magic above the asked level. He made sure that his results would be the same as last year because he didn't want anyone to know that he was suffering from an ailment.

All his free time went in researching what had happened to him. But in the few weeks before the term end, he made little progress about his condition.

So, when he deboarded the Hogwarts Express and saw his grandfather standing there. It was like a beacon of hope in the darkest of nights.

"Is he at home?" Quinn skipped the greetings and directly asked.

"Yes, he is waiting," answered George.

George had sent a MagiFax to Quinn, telling him he had agreed to see Quinn and meet him the day Quinn returned home.

"Good, let's go home," Quinn said in the flat tone he had for weeks.

George had prepared a winged-horse-pulled carriage because Quinn didn't trust himself with magical transportations like Floo, Apparation, or Portkey.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"Where is he?" Quinn asked Elliot just as he entered the manor. His patience had run thin the second he saw the West manor from the carriage.

And usually, this would be considered rude Elliot knew what was happening to Quinn and answered,

"He is sitting in the reinforced training hall."

Quinn nodded and bee-lined his way to the hall, which was reinforced just in case Quinn went ballistics. It was reinforced to withstand strong magic.

He opened the door to the hall and saw the old man from which he had learned the magic that kept his magic at bay.

The old man turned his face towards the door and then shifted his body when he saw Quinn.

"Oh, Quinn. It has been a while, hasn't it?"

Alan D. Baddeley had arrived.

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Alan D. Baddeley - My favorite character - Guess, who is back?

Quinn West - MC - Hey, why am I in the second place?! I am always in the first place!

Ivy Potter - Complicated emotions - Possessor of modified Marauder's Map.

Hermione Granger - Bookworm - Worried about exams.

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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Quinn turned back and closed the door behind him. He nodded to George and Elliot, who were standing there as he closed the door. "I will be back in a few."

Turning back towards Alan, Quinn slowly walked to the chair in front of the old man and took a seat.

"Hello, Mr. Alan," greeted Quinn. Alan could see the clear signs of occlumency from Quinn's face.

"So, I hear you messed up," Alan spoke, and Quinn just stared at his mind-arts teacher's usual, almost ever-present smile.

He hadn't changed a single bit in the three years. Alan D. Baddeley was still the joyous old man who had a penchant for peeking into other's mind,

"I did. I really did." Quinn nodded in response. Alan was here to help him, so Quinn didn't gain anything from lying or hiding things. And, currently, with his occlumency operating full time, he had a serious edge of logic in his thoughts.

"I want you to ready your bracelet and get ready to defend yourself." Quinn got straight to the point. "This is what is happening with me."

"Ah, yes. The rampaging magic I was told about. I think that is a good place to start." Alan brought his hands together and touched his focus bracelet with his other hand. "Go ahead. I am ready."

The two people in the room didn't waste any time catching up after three years of separation. Both knew that they could do it afterward. Quinn desperately wanted to know what was happening to him and solve it to get this crisis behind him. While Alan could see that Quinn wasn't having a good time.

"Okay, here I go."

The next second, Alan immediately pulled up a transparent shield just as a spell was hurled towards him. "Oh, that was close."

He watched with keen attention as various activities of magic manifested into the room. There was nothing to be observed from the out-of-control magic. As the name suggested, it was out of control.

After Alan was satisfied seeing this unusual sight, he turned his eyes to his young student, who had his eyes squeezed shut and struggle on his face.

Immediately Alan sent a mental probe into Quinn's mind, and he was a little surprised to see that Quinn's shields were fully down. Right now, he was no different from a person without an occlumency shield.

Alan dove into Quinn's mind and saw that the mindscape had changed in the last three years.

"Oh my, now that is a magnificent structure," Alan smiled as he saw the enormous building in front of him.

Hogwarts castle stood in all its magnificent glory. Even the surroundings were changed to look like the surroundings of the real Hogwarts.

"He built this in three years? Impressive." Alan was impressed because of the sheer size of the castle. He could tell that the castle was functioning memory storage and not a work in progress before a memory gateway initiation.

But right now, he didn't have time to admire the structure, neither did he need to go through Quinn's memories.

'Let's go check his emotional status,' said Alan, and instantly, he was not in the mindscape with the enormous castle.

The space he arrived in was grey, with the color tending towards black rather than white. Inside the grey, there were dark distortion-like vortexes littered around the space.

"Well, with his magic out of control, it makes sense that his head is not right," noted Alan as he looked around. "He loves magic after all."

Alan was standing in Quinn's emotional representation. An experienced legilimens or occlumens could access their own or someone else's sentimental representation. You couldn't influence emotions from here, and this was just a place you could judge a person's emotions.

Emotions were a complex concept that every mind-arts user studied extensively. And if they were serious about learning about mind-arts and the mysteries of the mind, then there would come a time in every mind-art user when they would have to confront their emotions.

The dark greyness in Quinn's emotional representation clearly showed that Quinn was in a darker state of mind, and the darker vortexes that he was struggling with some mental problems.

Take Alan for an example: he was an avid advocate of mental health, and if anyone got the almost non-existent opportunity to get a look inside Alan's emotional representation, then they would find that it was a very light color of grey, a color very close to white.

The lighter the color of the space, the better mental condition they were in.

Alan took care of his mental condition and didn't have any delusions about himself. He confronted almost every issue about himself and got to the root of the problem. In doing that, he would attain closure and help his mental situation.

A complete white emotional space was only present in infants, toddlers, or very young children. Any age above that would have different shades of grey because such was life, and they were sentimental beings; no person was perfect.

The distortion-like vortexes were the real cause of problems; they were what messed up with Quinn's mind and, in turn, his magic.

Removing his eyes from the grey space, Alan gazed at the bright and colorful arrangement in front of him.

What Alan was seeing was a vast network of light orbs of various sizes connected to each other. The connections between them were of varying lengths and pulsed from time to time. Alan could think of every color he knew, and he would find it in the bright and colorful network.

There were so many connections that, to the naked eye, it was a complex network of lines and orbs. But, to a mind-arts specialist like Alan, it was nothing but an open book.

"No matter how many times I see this. It never ceases to amaze me," murmured Alan as he looked at the complex network.

This was the core of Quinn's emotions. Every emotion he had ever felt connected to each other in a complex network.

This was a core part of Quinn West's personality. Personality was defined as the character sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors.

Emotions heavily influenced a person's personality and attitude toward things. The more you experienced various situations, the more you form opinions, and with those opinions would come emotions regarding those experiences.

"Hmm... this isn't out of coordination," noticed Alan. There was nothing wrong with Quinn's emotional network. "He isn't feeling unnatural bouts and spurts of emotions or nothing else."

"Well, Quinn did state that whatever was done to him came undone."

Alan remembered the day when George West personally had come to his door to request his help. It was a shock to see the influential man contact him personally and not through someone else.

George had told him that Quinn had requested his help. The initial information given to him was that Quinn's magic was out of control, and it was because he was under the influence of some kind of magic.

Quinn stated when the magic came undone, his magic went out of control.

"This enough for now," said Alan.

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- (Scene Break) -

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When Alan came out of Quinn's mind, he spoke to his student.

"Alright, you can stop, Quinn," spoke Alan.

With a sudden, sharp, and erratic intake of air, Quinn clamped down on his occlumency. Immediately, all magic stopped, and Quinn went expressionless.

Quinn's eyes remained closed for around a minute before he opened them and flatly asked, "What is wrong with me?"

"Other than a darker state of mind, I have found nothing wrong with your mind," replied Alan. "Of course -."

But a shout from Quinn cut Alan's explanation.

"What!" Immediately, Quinn's occlumency cracked slightly under the bout of anger. "Did you just not see the rampant magic?! How can you say that nothing is wrong with me?"

Rampant magic once again manifested in the room as the temperature rose.

Alan sighed before he cast magic, and immediately Quinn's pupils dilated, and he calmed down.

"I am using mind magic on you to calm you down," spoke Alan. "How are you feeling now? Calmed down?"

Quinn nodded as he patched up his occlumency and detached his emotions from himself. Alan also retrieved his magic as Quinn brought himself under control.

"As I was saying, that there is nothing wrong with your emotions right now. They are functioning like a normal person, albeit a normal person under a lot of stress," Alan spoke in a calming voice, making sure that he didn't agitate Quinn. "But, we have only started. There is a good chance that I might have missed something, so have patience. You have already been like this for a few weeks; you can wait for a little while."

Quinn nodded in reply and patiently waited for Alan's instruction.

"I will need some memories," Alan said as he crossed his on his lap. "I need to know what actually happened to you."

Alan didn't even ask for Quinn's account of the entire situation and went straight for the memories. He was sure that his student would recognize that showing memories would be much more efficient and resourceful than Quinn telling him things using words.

"I expected that," replied Quinn. "It took me days under this condition to create a collection of memories that will get you up to speed."

"Oh ho ho, you are prepared. That is nice," Alan remarked at the news from Quinn.

"I had weeks to think about this situation. Even though I wasn't able to get myself better, I did make sure that I had everything in hand for you."

Alan tilted his head and asked, "What would you have done if I had refused?"

Quinn mechanically shrugged, "I wasn't thinking about that. I am sure that if you refused, grandfather would have brought in someone else. But, if I am being honest, I knew you would come."

If Quinn didn't have his occlumency detaching his emotion from him, then he would have been smiling, but he couldn't even do that as his magic would have come alive and shot out fireworks into the air at the very least.

Alan laughed at that statement, "Well, it turned out you were right. Here I am sitting in front of you."

The old man rubbed his hands before saying, "Alright, show me those memories."

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- (Scene Break) -

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A mental representation of Quinn waited inside his mindscape with a book in hand. He looked up to see Alan manifest into the mindscape.

"Let's get started," said the representation of Alan as he walked to Quinn. He looked at the book in Quinn's hand and asked, "Is that the collection?"

Quinn nodded as he raised his hand. "Put your hand on it."

Alan followed, and without a break, put his hand on Quinn's memory-book, and immediately the memories, snippets from the time Friar told him the riddle to the memories of a few days back, greeted Alan.

It took Alan just over a minute to go through every single memory present in the compilation. It would have taken Quinn at least a couple of hours to do the same.

"Meet me outside," Alan said and promptly disappeared from Quinn's mind.

When Quinn opened his eyes to return to the real world because right now, to do anything inside his mind took his entire concentration, and he couldn't operate in the real world and his mindscape at the same time.

Alan sat in deep thought about what he had seen. The memories had given him a lot to think about, a lot of information to process.

"Well, did you find something?" Quinn asked in impatience.

"Hmm... there were a lot of snippets," said Alan as he stood up. Quinn looked up at the standing man, waiting for the mind-arts master to tell him some good news.

"I have some ideas. Give me some time to analyze." Alan walked to Quinn and put a hand on his head. Ruffling his hair. "Until then... sleep."

Quinn was confused to hear it, but the next second, darkness took over him.

Alan looked at his sleeping student and sighed.

There were a lot of things to go over in Quinn's compilation. He needed some time to think those through, and he needed some hours for preparation, so he just put Quinn to sleep until then.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn opened his eyes with a groan. He sat up on the bed and just stared forward towards the wall. Quinn frowned when the wall ahead wasn't part of his dorm room or his room in the West Manor.

'Where am I?' he thought, and immediately he recalled what happened before he went to sleep.

He was in the training hall sitting across Alan when he put his hand on his head, and then everything went black.

"He put me to sleep, didn't he?" spoke Quinn. He ruefully smiled at the old man's actions. It fit Alan's personality, dropping him without warning.

But then immediately, Quinn's eyes widened as he recalled he wasn't using his occlumency. Every morning since the accident, Quinn would wake up, and within a few seconds, he would be assaulted with pain that would function as a reminder to pull up his occlumency.

Right now, there was no pain and, more importantly, no outbursts of magic.

"Good morning."

Quinn moved his head to see Alan sitting in a chair with a book in his hand. A small table with tea and snacks stood beside him as he enjoyed the treats while reading his book.

"Did you cure me?" Quinn asked with hope. For the first time in weeks, his voice wasn't flat and had emotion in it.

"Of course not, child." Alan smashed the hope within seconds. "You should know better that your condition is much more serious to be cured overnight."

Quinn closed his eyes in shattered hope and felt miserable that he wasn't cured but opened his eyes to ask the question.

"Then why isn't my magic acting up? What did you do?" Currently, he was feeling as normal as he had ever been. His magic wasn't acting up, his emotions weren't detached, and he felt whole again.

Alan sipped some tea from his cup before answering, "I gave you a magic dampening potion ten minutes before I woke you up."

"A magic dampening potion?" Quinn exclaimed. He felt around for his magic and felt that his connection to it was weak. "Something like that exists?" If he had known that something like this existed, he would have used it a long time ago.

"Oh yes, magic dampeners exist." Alan chuckled and took a bit of a scone before continuing. "They aren't used that much, so it is not strange that you haven't heard of them."

Quinn didn't care that he wasn't aware of something like a magic dampening potion. He was just glad that something like this existed. "Thank magic. At least with this, I won't have to keep using my occlumency to keep my magic under control."

"... About that," Alan closed his book and looked at stared at Quinn. "I am afraid that things aren't that simple."

"What do you mean?" Quinn felt dread build up in his ribcage.

"The reason that the magic dampening potion isn't famous or widely known is that it is harmful to the drinker," Alan dropped a bomb on Quinn.

"What? W-What do you mean it is harmful?"

"If someone is put under the effects of magic dampening potion every day, all day, then their body starts to malfunction." Alan imparted grim knowledge to Quinn, who was under the effects of magic dampening potion. "Tumors form in various parts of bodies, the immune system starts to weaken, multiple organ failures, degradation of senses, and overall the body starts to give up."

"Then why did you give it to me?!" Quinn screamed at his teacher, who just that he had given him a potion that could kill him.

"One dose of the potion won't do anything like that. You would need multiple doses every day for a certain period will cause what I was talking about." Alan waved his hand in dismissal as it wasn't a big deal.

Then he dropped a bomb.

"But yeah, you will be taking it every day."

Quinn wanted to shout and scream, but he was just too much in shock to do so. He had just woken up, and this was the first thing he heard. He already knew how this day was framing out to be.

"...Please, explain."

Alan cleared his throat before starting, "You can sense your magic, right? It is not completely cut off from you."

Quinn nodded. The connection to his magic was weak, but it was there.

"The potion I gave you is a diluted recipe. It just weakens your connection and doesn't hamper it completely." Alan raised one finger in his right hand. "This is the first thing that will reduce the negative effects of the potion."

He raised another finger and continued, "The dose you will be given will only work for maybe six to seven hours. So, the rest of the time, your magic will still be rampant, and well... you will have to use your occlumency. That also reduces the progress of negative effects of the potion."

Alan smiled and finished, "That way, I can keep giving you the potion for an extended period, and the effects won't creep on you like they are supposed to do when given the full treatment." Alan made air quotes as he said treatment.

"Wait, wait, wait," Quinn raised his hand to speak up, "All the things regarding the potion are fine, well...no, it is not fine, but let's put that aside for a second. I want to know the cure for this. I can keep taking the potion, but it will not help me cure anything."

Alan put down his empty teacup and said, "Quinn, there is nothing to cure with you. You are fine. There is nothing wrong with you."

Alan enunciated every sentence to stress them.

Quinn stared at the mind-arts teacher with an expression that was a mix between shock, confusion, and disbelief.

"What do you mean there is nothing wrong with me?"

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Quinn West - MC - What the hell is the old man talking about? Has he finally gone senile?

Alan D. Baddeley - Master of Mind-arts - I am not old... well I am, but I am not senile.

FictionOnlyReader - It is a cliff SuckerZz - Eh, the word count was reached.

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"What do you mean there is nothing wrong with me?"

Quinn was stunned to hear Alan's statement. Here he had been having trouble controlling his magic. Whenever he set his magic free, it would go berserk and hurt him in the process.

Just so that his magic doesn't go out of control, he had tortured himself and detached his emotions from himself. He had learned the very first day he had read upon the emotional aspect of occlumency that blocking his emotions for long periods was harmful. But, he still did it because it was the only way he could think.

Now, the old man in front of him was telling Quinn that he had nothing wrong with him.

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

Alan sighed at his student and explained.

"Quinn, I diagnosed you while you slept. I didn't find anything wrong with you," Alan raised his hand when Quinn tried to speak up. "I know your magic isn't under your control. But, that isn't a disease or injury."

"Then why is acting out and rampaging?"

"Before I answer that, let's go back to the start," Alan suggested and put up his first question. "Tell me, what do you think happened to you?"

"I was clearly under the control of magic or curse. It all started when I fell unconscious in the vault," Quinn recalled the time when he returned to his dormitory. "It lowered my inhibitions. I did plenty of things that I wouldn't do. Plus, vault made it so that I won't return to it for exploration. I was planning to return to the vault but changed my mind and didn't visit. I was clearly under some kind of mental curse..."

Quinn trailed off at the end and then raised his voice at Alan.

"Why in the bloody name of magic didn't occlumency work?! I regularly spend time on that damn magic. Why didn't it work for months, months!"

"Hmm, tell me, Quinn, what is your current system of occlumency defense?" Alan asked a question from his student. He already knew the answer to the question. But was walking his student through the process so that he would arrive at the answer.

"It hasn't changed from the time we ended our lesson," said Quinn. He wondered why Alan was asking him the question. "A shield layer built under a defense layer, with another set of the same configuration following under the first set."

"Correct, and I have to say that you have made noteworthy progress in strengthening your shields. They have grown quite a bit since the time I taught you." Alan gave Quinn praise on his progress before asking. "Now, let me ask you this. Do you think that right now, I am inside your mind?"

"Definitely," Quinn replied almost immediately. He knew his teacher's personality. He had spent a couple of years under his tutelage, and he was sure that Alan was in his mind the entire time.

"Did you sense me entering? Or can you feel me operating legilimency right now?"

"... No, but where are you going with this," asked Quinn. He wasn't following whatever Alan was trying to show him.

Alan sighed before he said, "Quinn, with your current system of occlumency, you won't be able to detect anything as long as they get past your shield. If someone or in this case something passes through your defenses, you will have no idea that they are inside."

"Your defenses will tell you that there is an incoming attack if they are strong enough, but once the attack is inside, your defenses won't do squat." Alan folded his hands on his lap and continued, "Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the system you are following. You can build your defenses until they are at my level. There is no limit there, but your system of occlumency defenses doesn't have any other feature beyond that. Your defenses won't do something that it wasn't designed for."

Alan pointed at himself and said, "If someone manages to break past my covering shields, that doesn't mean my defense is over. I have various fail-safes present beyond that to protect my mind." He pointed at Quinn and continued, "You, on the other hand, have nothing other than your detection layers and shields. You have the castle and the manor inside, and you have sorted the memories in a way that even if someone gets past your defenses, they would have a mighty difficult time to get to the memory they are looking."

"And, while I was teaching you, we never went over the possibility of something like this happening. We worked on legilimens breaking into your mind to get access to your memories. We never worked on something like this that would target you in such a way that would alter your personality." Alan paused and stated, "You don't have a way to protect your mind from being manipulated like this."

"B-But, I-I worked hard on t-this," Quinn was shocked to hear that his defenses were useless. He wasn't expecting to hear that after the time and effort he put on his occlumency.

"I know you worked hard. Your defense-aspect and your efficiency-aspect have grown beyond what I had thought you would be able to accomplish at your current age. I can assure you that your progress is quick, and other than myself and some select individuals, your speed of progress is second to none."

Then came the 'but' of the sentence.

"But... your progress in the emotional-aspect is lacking. While you are able to detach your emotions so that become nothing but a buzz at the back of your head, and that allowed you to keep your magic in check all this time..."

Alan had seen the memories, and with his level of legilimency, he didn't just watch the memories like a film and was able to feel what Quinn was feeling during his memories.

"...You have done nothing to make sure that your emotions won't be manipulated. The one to blame here is time. You just didn't have enough time to devote to the emotional-aspect while you learned other magic."

When Alan said Quinn's progress was below himself and some other individuals, he didn't consider that Quinn devoted time not just to occlumency but various other fields of magic.

Quinn had recovered from the reeling shock that his occlumency had failed him because he hadn't designed it sufficiently.

"...Shields."

Quinn said something that Alan wasn't able to hear, so he leaned forward and asked. "Pardon, I didn't get that."

"Shields, you said my shields are strong. Why didn't they stop the magic from entering my mind? Even if my emotional-aspect occlumency was lacking, my defense-aspect was strong enough to block out an attack."

Alan nodded to that question and gathered his thoughts to answer. "Friar? was that his name. Yes, Friar. The ghost who gave you the riddle said that another ghost had ceased to exist because of that vault. What did you think about that?"

"That the vault was harmful to ghosts, what about it? I am not a ghost," said Quinn. He would have answered better if he was in another time, but right now, Quinn was defending his occlumency.

"Alright, what are ghosts?" asked Alan.

"A ghost is the imprint of the soul of a once-living magical, and as such, a type of spirit. These fleshless spirits are either afraid of death or have some extremely potent connection to the locations they haunt." Quinn gave him the textbook definition of a ghost.

Alan smiled as the words were right there. "Exactly, they are imprints of souls. Imprints of souls have similar properties as actual souls. You get what I am talking, right?"

Quinn gave it a thought, and after some time, he exhaled.

"The curse was soul-based. Is that what you are talking about?"

Alan made a face that said, 'kind of, but not really.'

"The curse was emotion-based, but I can safely conclude that the curse definitely had a soul aspect. It might as well have been the entry point as after that your neither your mind nor soul had no defense for your emotions."

Alan gazed at Quinn as he thought about how to explain it to his student.

"Emotions are connected to both mind and soul. Some believe that it might even be connected to the body as negative emotional states can affect physical output. But, emotions are definitely connected to mind and soul. Mind connection, you already know, and the existence of ghosts show conclusive proof of the soul connection."

They remained in the mortal world because they had unfinished business, whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets, or overt attachment to the material world who refuse to move on to the next dimension. The choice to come back as a ghost was emotionally based.

"You never noticed something was wrong with you the entire time the curse was active. You made decisions and acted in ways that you wouldn't have. A lot of things should have triggered some suspicion inside you, but it never did. Not once did you think that there was something wrong with you. All of this was because the curse was acting on your emotions and, in turn, your personality. It attacked from two sources, both closely connected to magic; Mind and Soul."

Quinn just grabbed his head and groaned. He was regretting the decision to dive into the second vault.

"What about my magic rampaging out," Quinn questioned. "How is that connected to my magic? What about the changes the curse bought to my magic before it broke?"

"About that, I have no idea how did the curse, if we can even call it that at this point, increased the capacity of your magic, but I can tell you that the increase in control was because emotion and will is an essential aspect to magic. The curse definitely brought your emotions close to your magic. Your magic responded to your emotions better than ever while you were under its influence."

A magical's emotional state can affect their inherent abilities. For instance, an agent of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force was said to have produced better results with their Inn Charm after channeling the goodwill they received from inn-keepers they met on their travels into their spell-casting.

While in service, Gareth Greengrass, a senior researcher in the Department of Mysteries, at one point, documented over seven hundred instances of spells being cast in anger. He found they were all more powerful than even the casters themselves had thought themselves capable of producing.

"The curse targeted your emotions with cardinal sins, or the capital vices, or the seven deadly sins."

Quinn collapsed back into his bed, and while gazing at the ceiling, he asked, "Do continue."

"It triggered your emotions when you felt things that were even remotely in connection to the cardinal sins," Alan listed all the seven sins. "Pride. Greed. Envy. Sloth. Wrath. Gluttony. Lust."

"Let's talk some examples of how the curse affected you," spoke Alan as he got up from his chair and walked around Quinn's bed.

"First, let's take an example of how it amplified your emotions from something small to an exaggerated state. Your first duel in that dueling club of yours."

The mention of the event bought Quinn's memory of the duel against Miles Bletchley to the surface.

"You felt a little insulted by the way he looked at you. Tell me, what would you have done if you had another chance and weren't influenced by the curse."

Quinn didn't have to think much about it, and he answered, "A single Disarming spell and end the duel within seconds. I would have ended the duel so fast that he wouldn't have a chance to even twitch a muscle, but I wouldn't have humiliated him by not even drawing my wand. That was too flashy for me."

Quinn could hear Alan's footsteps as he walked around, "That was wrath. He insulted you, and that triggered wrath. Your opponent just looked at you funny, and I think you decided to humiliate him even before the nasty spells he shot."

"I guess you are right," Quinn thought about the times he had been angry in the last few months. Some regrettable decisions flashed through his mind.

"Next, let's move on to the times where the curse took advantage of your body to take effect," Alan spoke, moving on to the next observation. If Quinn could see his teacher's face, he would have found a huge shit-eating grin on the old man's face.

"Body? When did the curse affect my body?" Quinn wasn't sure there were changes to his body. Quinn was sure that his body wasn't touched by the curse.

"I am talking about puberty, Quinn."

Quinn froze in his bed, and he immediately knew Alan was talking about lust.

"I am sure that you wouldn't have included those memories in the memory package, but you were working with logical thinking that spanned for days on end. So, a lot of those ended up in there."

Alan laughed for a while before continuing.

"Lust triggered in short, but many bursts, and that was because of your hormones. You were so affected by it because you started to feel attracted to the fairer sex." Alan chuckled at the embarrassment his student was feeling. "Lust just took over from that point on. I really saw youth in there."

Quinn had spanked the monkey, jacked the beanstalk, auditioned with his hand puppet, charmed the snake, took the dog out for a walk, or wanked... twice a day without fail.

Now laying in his bed, Quinn remembered the times he had been doing something and just ended up staring at the passing by girls. Then there was the incident with Daphne.

'Dammit, why did I have to say that Daphne,' Quinn mushed his face into the pillow. Lust might have been the most enjoyable, but just like others. It made him do things he regretted.

"Let's move on, please."

A muffled shout from Quinn made Alan laugh.

"Alright, let's move on to the case where curse made sure that you won't go back to the antechamber. Only one sin kept you away from the vault."

Quinn gritted his teeth and almost snarled, "Sloth."

"Yes, sloth." Alan had gone through Quinn's memories, and the one sin that was as far away from Quinn was the sin of sloth.

Quinn West was a busy person. He had magic to learn, and Quinn made sure to spend every productive minute of his time learning magic. So, Sloth was Quinn's mortal enemy.

"Surprisingly, it didn't affect you that much, didn't it? Except making sure that you didn't go to the antechamber, skipping your morning runs, and the frequent short flashes of zoning out, all you got was becoming extremely rowdy if you were awake past your bedtime."

Quinn didn't say anything because it was true. The reason sloth didn't take root inside Quinn was because...

"Greed didn't let me be lazy," said Quinn as he stood up from the bed. The talk about sloth made him want to get away from the bed.

"Right, about that. I never understood why you spent that much time in the library? I know you like to learn, but the time you spent in the library was unusually lengthy. I, for a fact, know that you like to use magic as much as you like to read about it," asked Alan as he watched Quinn stand up from the bed and stretch.

Quinn spoke while he stretched his body.

"I had tricked a professor into signing a pass to the Restricted Section of the library. The problem was that there is a curse on the position of the Defense Against Dark Arts position. No professor lasts more than a year. I think it has been going on for decades. The teacher I tricked was the Defense Against Dark Arts professor."

A strange flash passed through Alan's eyes as Quinn mentioned the Defense Against Dark Arts professor.

"I was sure that the professor would be gone by the end of the year, which meant that pass would only last for a year. So, I had to make sure to squeeze the maximum out of the one school year I had," Quinn made eye contact with Alan and continued, "My magic was increasing by the day, and my control was getting better, so the decision I made was to spend all my time in the library."

"Now that you mentioned the sins, I think greed was the most prominent sin out of all seven. It was always present in the back of my head. Guiding me to learn more and more," Quinn sighed as he leaned against a wall with his hands behind his back.

"Sitting in that library made you happy, and that was because greed made it such. Your greed for knowledge was fulfilled while you stayed in the library, and it affected your emotions, making you happy," Alan made some conclusions out from the knowledge he had.

Quinn nodded, but then he pushed away from the wall and point-blank asked.

"Enough of this. Tell me what had happened to my magic?"

Alan stopped his walk and turned to face Quinn. The two stared at each other for a moment before Alan spoke up.

"Your mind, soul, and magic are fine. They don't have anything wrong with them. The problem is that while the curse was active, it increased your capacity and focus, but the way it was achieved was not natural, or should I say the process was artificial."

Quinn felt his heart beat faster as Alan continued to speak.

"I don't think that curse was supposed to break down. I don't know what it was designed to achieve, but it wasn't meant to break down in the middle like it did in your case. With my knowledge, it was meant to go until the end, whatever the end was."

All of this was what Alan had been able to find out from Quinn's memories and an entire night of diagnostics on Quinn while he slept.

"The curse had total control over your focus abilities as it was raising it artificially. So when it came undone, your bond to your magic which was being raised artificially broke down and with it everything you had worked hard to established."

Alan pursed his lips when he saw the despair on Quinn's face. He knew that Quinn had worked hard to build his control since he was five years old. But now, it was all gone.

"O-Okay... Mr. Alan, this isn't helping me," Quinn's voice had a shakiness and desperation in his voice. "W-What does this mean?"

Alan knew what was coming, but he had to continue,

"Your focus ability is gone completely, Quinn, and the reason your magic is lashing out is that it was had been artificially raised. You weren't meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."

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Quinn West - MC - No control over his magic.

Alan D. Baddeley - Teacher - Breaker of bad news.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Don't worry, things will be fixed in the next chapter. (I hope nobody reads this because I am kind of building tension here, but... I know what happens when I do it.)

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"Your focus ability is completely gone, Quinn and the reason your magic is lashing out is that it has been artificially raised. You weren't meant to gain that much magic in that short amount of time. Your own magic is rejecting itself and is trying to get out."

Quinn, who had his eyes wide open, started to tap a foot against the floor. He didn't blink his eyes; all his attention was on Alan. He was hanging on his every word. The news wasn't getting good, but it was something he needed to hear.

"If you want to get your magic back, you just need to get it back under your control. The current you doesn't have even a bit of focus ability. You might be the only one at your age who can't keep his magic under wraps even when everything is alright. People don't have magic lashing out against their will. Their magic might not respond to them, but it doesn't act on its own."

Alan was as straightforward as he could be and sledgehammered his way to tell Quinn his current situation.

"Any solution?" asked Quinn. There was a lump in his throat that was threatening to break out.

"It's simple," Alan smiled. The usual smile that he always had. "You need to build it up like you did since you started learning magic. The connection has broken down, and you need to build it back up."

"You could have started to get your magic back the second it went out of control. I didn't need to come back here to help you out," Alan walked towards Quinn while speaking. "The only thing I can actually do to help is to make things easier."

"With your magic rampaging against you, it will be difficult for you to keep it under control." Alan took out a vial from his robes and showed it to Quinn.

"So the solution to all that is to numb down the magic. By giving you the magic dampening potion, we can level the field. By numbing your connection to your magic, we can make sure that you can work in a calm sea and not in a storm."

Quinn closed his eyes to hide the pain he was feeling. The question came out,

"I lost all my progress?"

Alan nodded and confirmed his fears. "Yes, you lost all your progress."

"But, I can regain it back?"

The question made Alan's eyes sparkle and widen his smile. The old Quinn was coming back, the Quinn who surprised him time after time. He could feel it.

"Yes, you can. You built a tower, and it broke down. You just need to build it again."

Quinn opened his eyes, and there was a glint in his eyes, "I will build a damn pyramid this time. Something that can't be broken down. Hell to it all if I am going to let something like this happen again."

"Excellent, that is the spirit, my child. You did it once, and you can do it again," Alan patted Quinn's shoulders and said, "Now, go meet your family. They had been worried sick since you came home. Go and assure them that everything is fine."

Quinn looked up at Alan and earnestly said, "Thank you for all of this."

Alan smiled but said nothing, prompting Quinn to walk outside the room to meet his family.

Just after he closed the door, Quinn looked down at his left hand, and immediately an orb of white light manifested above it. A simple, small, somewhat dim orb of light.

In the hallway, with no one else but Quinn.

He stared at the dim orb of light, which flickered as if it were almost about to go out. The intensity wavered every second. It would brighten for a moment but dim the next.

The light was weak, but it shone brightly in Quinn's eyes.

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Quinn emotionlessly stared at the vial that Alan had handed to him. It had been three days since Quinn had returned home, and his daily routine was to wake up, go out for a run, have breakfast, wait for Alan to arrive, and then drink the magic dampening potion to finally free himself from the binds of occlumency.

He looked up at Alan, who watched him, before opening the cork on the vial and downing the potion in one gulp. Quinn closed his eyes and felt the potion take its effects. As Quinn felt the magic dim down, his occlumency also weakened till he was no longer able to keep it operational.

It was a weird feeling, not having his mind operating with occlumency aid. He couldn't remember what it was like before he got the mind-aiding art. Right now, it just felt like there were drapes over his mind, stopping him from peeking inside.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Quinn asked as he opened his eyes. He looked at Alan, who sat on a chair in front of him. A table in between them separated the young and the old.

"I am going to leave today," announced Alan. "I have nothing else to offer. Your grandfather has the recipe for the potion, and I am sure that he has potioneers at his disposal, so I am not really needed. Your magic is your problem, and no one but you can solve it."

Quinn crossed his legs before asking, "You could always help me out with the emotional-aspect of occlumency. I learned the other two aspects from you; how about making it a complete set of three?"

Alan chuckled as he refused, "I think it would be better if you learn it yourself. Your spoonfeeding days have passed. Learn it on your own: you already know how to disconnect emotions on different levels, so you have already started on the path; just keep going."

"You didn't spoon feed me anything," Quinn sounded miffed. He surprised Alan quite a bit, so Quinn did anything but being spoonfed knowledge.

"Whatever you say, kid," Alan chuckled before continuing on a serious note. "Before I go, I think this is the right time to address some issues."

Quinn furrowed his brows, uncertain, "Issues? You said that there was nothing wrong with me other than that I am the worst magic user in the world... For now, that is."

Alan gave one of those soft stares that Quinn was not used to when they came from Alan.

"What?" Quinn questioned, eyeing at his teacher.

"Quinn, we need to talk about the obliviation incident," Alan's voice was soft. He tried to make sure that Quinn was not threatened and felt as comfortable as he could.

Quinn froze on his barstool and stilled as he stared at Alan with vigilant eyes.

"That incident wasn't in the memories I gave you," Quinn glared at Alan, who showed no reaction at all to the glare.

"True, but a lot of times, patients hide things from their healers. You especially like to hold your cards close to your chest." Alan pointed at his temple and then pointed at Quinn. "You were in a dark state of mind when I first checked. Even though there is nothing physically or magically wrong with you, your mental health is still not at the level I consider healthy."

Quinn continued to glare at Alan for a solid minute before softening his glare. "Alright, let's talk about it." The harshness in the tone was still evident, even if it wasn't as pronounced as before.

"Let's get this clear, what you did was wrong," Alan came out strong without beating around the bush. This matter wasn't when Alan wanted to dance around the topic and bring Quinn to enlightenment.

"Of course, I know what I did was wrong," Quinn growled. "You don't think I know that? I erased a person's life, leaving them without an identity."

It was one of, if not Quinn's biggest, regret out of all the things Quinn did while under the influence of the curse.

"He was a prick, a fraud, and built his entire life by robbing people of their memories," Quinn clenched his hands and spat. "Despite all that, I still feel wrong about erasing his entire identity off of him."

He massaged his temples but couldn't meet the eye of his mind-arts teacher. Even if the fate of Lockhart was the same as canon, it didn't fit well with Quinn that he was the one to cause that fate.

"The reason I am bringing this up is that I have experienced something similar," said Alan, shocking and causing Quinn to look up towards his teacher.

It was the first time Quinn had seen such a somber expression on Alan's face. There was a haunting reminiscence in the mind-arts master.

"You see, when I was young... I was forty years old at that time. Making way into the field of the mind arts. I was well into my travels when I arrived in a country. I won't name names."

Quinn tried to imagine how a young Alan D. Baddeley would look like.

"It turned out that one of the ministry bigwigs there knew about me. He also held an interest in my work, so he offered me an opportunity. An opportunity that at that time interested me a bit too much." Alan looked Quinn straight in the eye and spoke in a grim voice. "He offered me dispensation to experiment on human subjects who were on death row."

Quinn sucked in a deep breath at that. There was nothing wrong with human trials if they were conducted properly, but with how the topic started made Quinn feel that this would not end well.

"It was a rare chance to ethically perform mind magic on humans. At that time, using the Killing curse to execute death row subjects was considered a normal practice. So me experimenting on people who were sentenced to death wasn't a moral dilemma either." Alan leaned back into his chair and stated, "So, as you might have guessed, I readily accepted. I took the opportunity to experiment on death row inmates with no restriction on the things I could do. I was given full reign on how to operate. I didn't even have to care about their health or well beings."

"So, I got six people to work with. Their fates before their death laid in my hands," A faraway look appeared in Alan's eyes as he continued. "I was so arrogant and full of myself at that time. I thought I couldn't do anything wrong, so I did whatever I wanted with the patients. I followed the protocol well because I was a professional in how I did things."

"The experiments went well. The six inmates were left all twitchy and with some tics because of the constant experimentation. I might have gone a little overboard, but there wasn't any permanent damage to any of them. But you see, during the experiments, a single thought plagued my mind."

Alan's gaze locked on Quinn as a self-mocking smile rose on his face.

"I thought, I have never actually seen what would happen if I went all out of someone's mind." Alan opened and closed his fist. "Mind-arts is a controlled art; it needs finesse and subtlety. So I never actually knew what the mind-arts could do if someone turned the dial all the way up. It was a professional curiosity that I shouldn't have tried to sate."

"So after thinking about it, I choose to use the Memory charm. I decided to use an unchecked Memory charm on one of the six people. To see what would happen, what would come out on the other side."

There was a long pause as Alan went silent, and Quinn watched without saying a word as the tension in the room built up.

"The result was that the inmate forgot everything. He forgot every single thing."

Alan tilted his head to the side and elaborated.

"Your guy just lost his identity, but he can still start a new life if he wanted. But, my guy? My guy forgot everything. He forgot his identity, his life experiences, and he forgot how to be a human. I ended up making him forget how to function as a human. I erased a human out of existence, and what I left behind was nothing better than a newborn baby."

Alan derisively laughed at himself. "The jailors thought I drove him mad. But they didn't understand. I hadn't driven him insane. No, I had erased a person out of existence. In a way, I had killed that inmate before the authorities executed him. It hit me a week after I had done it, and it took me time to get over it."

Quinn gulped as he heard Alan recount his story. He felt chills go down his spine as he found out the conclusion of the incident. It was laborious to erase Procedural memories because they were so deep-seated in a person.

Procedural memory was a part of the long-term memory responsible for knowing how to do things, also known as 'motor skills'. As the name implies, Procedural memory stores information on performing various procedures, such as walking, talking, and riding a bike.

Alan had erased everything that was learned through living. He had reverted the inmate back to a newborn state, who had just entered the world.

"Quinn, I don't know what you feel about obliviating your professor. I don't know if you feel guilty about it, or if you don't consider it your fault as it was done under the influence of the curse," Alan addressed Quinn after letting the story sink in Quinn's mind.

"But whatever it is, don't ignore it. Think about the incident and get some closure, whatever, to put this behind. I didn't get closure for a long time, and I don't want you to go through the same. So, just make sure that you have no lingering regrets about it," Alan tapped the table in between them, and Quinn felt the taps on his shoulders. "Believe me, it will do you good. Clear things when they are fresh. Don't put out things for later and work while the wound is still ripe."

Quinn nodded and got up when he saw Alan get up.

"Come, let's go out for a walk. The mood is too heavy for my liking," said Alan. His usual smile was back on his face.

"You should have seen it coming when you brought it up," replied Quinn.

Quinn didn't comment on the sudden change in Alan's mood. He was used to it, and he didn't understand how the mind of a person with Alan's level of occlumency worked.

The student and teacher, young and old, walked outside the room towards the garden.

"So, tell me more about this A.I.D thing of yours. What happened to laying low, not wanting to garner attention and all that jazz you talked about before you started school?"

"Oh, that. That plan went down the drain in a single year. But let's talk about you. What have you been doing for the past three years?"

"Hmm... Well, I met this beautiful lady whom I have been spending time with."

"Really? You dawg!"

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"Thank you, Polly, I will be fine from here," Quinn looked at the house-elf and thanked her. "I will call you when I am done."

"Will little master be alright? Polly worried that you get all hurt," asked the house-elf with worry in her big eyes. She knew what was wrong with Quinn and that he had taken a potion that weakened his magic.

"Don't worry, Polly. I will be fine. I will go in there, and when I come out, I will call for you," Quinn pointed at the building in front of him and smiled in comfort.

"... Okay, call Polly if in trouble," asserted the motherly house-elf before popping away back to the manor.

Quinn looked at the building; it was a red-bricked, condemned departmental store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The departmental store was the magical gateway to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

The place had a shabby, miserable air; the window displays consisted of a few chipped dummies with wigs askew, standing at random and modeling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read:

「CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT」

The hospital was placed here because no one could find a better place to house it. Everywhere in Diagon Alley was too small, so people came up with ideas to build it underground like the Ministry of Magic, but it was decided that underground was too unhealthy. Eventually, a muggle building was purchased so that patients could come and go and fit in with the crowds.

Quinn walked towards a window displaying nothing but a particularly ugly female dummy whose false eyelashes were hanging off and modeled a green nylon pinafore dress. He leaned close to the glass, looking up at the very ugly dummy and said,

"I am here to see Gilderoy Lockhart."

The dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned its jointed finger. Quinn took that as the signal and stepped into the building. Just like the barrier at King's Cross Station to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, he didn't crash into the building and arrived in a different place.

He was in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of men and women sat upon rickety wooden chairs; some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly. Others sported gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests.

The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises... people in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards. Quinn noticed the emblem embroidered on their chests: a wand and bone, crossed.

Quinn ignored all the hustle and bustle of the area and just made his way into the hospital. He found the floor guide on a wall and found the place he was looking for.

「

SPELL DAMAGE ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Fourth Floor

(Unliftable jinxes, hexes, and incorrectly applied charms, etc.)

」

He found the stairs and made his way to the fourth floor. It took some asking around, but he was able to find the right place. He stared at the double doors that marked the start of a corridor signposted:

「SPELL DAMAGE」.

He entered the corridor and looked around to find the ward, "Janus Thickey ward, Janus Thickey, Janus, ah, found it."

It was the ward for permanent spell damage. The door was locked. Quinn took a deep breath, and with a shaking hand, channeled all the bits and pieces of magic that he could muster and unlocked the locked door.

Gilderoy Lockhart sat in his bed. He had a quill in his hand and parchment in front of him. The man was scribbling on it with his tongue sticking out.

He knocked on the door, and Lockhart looked up.

"Yes," asked the man in hospital clothing.

Quinn walked towards the bed and sat on the armchair beside it.

"Good afternoon. My name is Quinn West."

Lockhart smiled and introduced himself, "A wonderful afternoon to you as well. My name is Gilderoy L-Lockhart. Do you want an autograph?"

Quinn smiled and nodded, "I would love to have an autograph."

"Alright, wait a minute. I am going to write up a good one. I am getting better at this."

"Sure, I will wait."

Quinn watched as the man drew on the parchment with his quill. He didn't feel much guilt about erasing Lockhart's memories. The man would have continued to steal credit from people if he got out of Hogwarts unharmed.

Then the time would come when Lockhart wouldn't be satisfied with his current level of fame, and it was inevitable with his personality that he would end up doing things much worse than what he did before.

So, in Quinn's mind, what happened was better for all because from what he remembered, Gilderoy was able to continue his work as an author, after a fashion, getting someone to help him write the book:

「Who Am I?」.

Quinn felt Lockhart got what he deserved. The only thing that irked Quinn was that he was the one to deliver that fate.

"Here you go, one autograph," said Lockhart, handing Quinn the parchment. "From me to Quinn West."

Quinn took the parchment and saw one decent-looking piece of calligraphy. He could see the flashes of Lockhart in there.

His hand went to the satchel he was carrying and took out a box and set it on the bed-top table in front of Lockhart.

"What is this?" asked Lockhart, excitement flashing in his eyes.

"A gift, Mr. Lockhart," replied Quinn, as he got up from his chair. "Please open it. It is all yours."

The man ripped open the box and took out a figurine.

"Oh! Isn't this me! How handsome am I."

Lockhart was so engrossed in the stuff in the box that he didn't notice that Quinn had left him long ago.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - A journey to regain magic.

Alan D. Baddeley - Mind-arts - Has made his share of mistakes.

Gilderoy Lockhart - Hospital patient - Recovering.

FictionOnlyReader - I lied, kind of - It will take two more chapters.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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[The chapter was edited by my new Editor: Alan_Loo / AlanL.]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

The calm and serene lake was a beautiful sight to experience. The steady, undisturbed water of the lake's surface reflected the sky above and the lake's surrounding scenery. The scenic beauty was enhanced as the lake was surrounded by lush green.

The current location was as described. Quinn and Lia were sitting at the lakeside with fishing rods set up in front of them.

"Neither of us knows how to fish," Quinn said as his other sibling stared at the lake. One could only watch the reflection in the lake for so long before it got boring. "This is a bad idea."

"We just need to give it time. Fishing is all about patience, my little brother," pointed out Lia. She then raised her wand to send a pinching hex on Quinn's upper arm.

"Ow! Why would you do that," glared Quinn at his sister as he rubbed the hurting spot.

"I am spending my precious free time with you," Lia took out a bottle of beer from the cooler beside her and popped the cap off with magic. "Be grateful."

"Yeah, yeah. I am Lia West, look at me, I am a big business lady," Quinn mocked his sister. He rubbed the red spot on his arm and whined. "Dammit, this still hurts. Couldn't you have been gentler?"

"Like you are any better. I am Quinn West; look at me. I will be the big magic guy in the future," Lia imitated Quinn, her voice filled with sarcasm. "But I am stupid enough to lose all control over my magic, so maybe I won't be the big magic guy."

"I am going to be the 'big magic guy'. This is just part of my glorious journey to the top," said Quinn, and gave his sister a sideways glance.

Their grandfather had been caring and supportive throughout the ordeal. He just wanted Quinn to be safe and didn't care about anything else. Elliot had been supportive in the same way and always spent time with Quinn when he wasn't under the magic dampening potion. Ms. Rosey had scolded him some before taking care of him in her own way.

Lia, on the other hand, showed a different reaction. Quinn's elder sister hadn't known about the entire ordeal until she returned from spending a month in Barcelona for work.

The first thing Lia had done after she was told of the situation was giving Quinn a tight slap. If you asked Quinn, it was a really tight slap.

Quinn, who hadn't been hit in this manner, was shocked. He had been hit with magic during his duels with Elliot. Sure, he had been hurt by backlashes while he learned and experimented, but he hadn't been slapped on the face in this life.

After slapping him, Lia had made him sit in front of her and recount the story in detail. She had listened with a stoic face that closely resembled George when he was in his serious mode. Lia's momentum swept Quinn, who was in shock after being slapped, and he retold everything that happened.

She was the only one to actually scold him for being careless. And after screaming and yelling at Quinn, she hugged him tightly. Quinn could still clearly remember her tears on his shoulders as she hugged him.

Before she went back to work, Lia freed herself up for a weekend, and here they were, West siblings camping overnight at a lakeside.

"Do we have food in case we don't catch any fish," asked Quinn. He wasn't optimistic about the prospects of catching fish for their meal.

"Unlike you, I make sure to prepare for things," quipped Lia at Quinn's recent screw-up.

Quinn winced and sighed, but the younger sibling couldn't say anything in reply because what she said was true, and the whole ordeal was rather recent.

"Excellent, what are we eating tonight?" asked Quinn. He was getting hungry as they had skipped lunch.

"If, and only if we don't catch any fish," Lia stressed her words because she really wanted to fish. "Then we are going to eat Beef Stroganoff."

Quinn liked the sound of that, "Nice, that sounds perfect."

He looked at his sister and said, "You know you can just cast a bubble-head charm around your face and go into the lake to catch some fish."

Lia finished her beer before replying, "I want to catch fish with the rod. Otherwise, I wouldn't have rented them. And, I know what you are thinking, but no, I am not going to cast one on you so that you can go diving."

"Oh, come on, why not? I know how to swim."

"You are going to sit here and relax," said the overprotective hen.

"Buzzkill," grumbled Quinn.

"I am in my early twenties. I travel all the time. Between you, who is stuck in a castle for the most part of the year, and me, who do you think has more fun?" said Lia as she chewed on some jerky.

"You travel for work," countered Quinn.

"Ha!" Lia laughed, "I don't work all day long. My nights are free for me to do whatever I want. My nightlife is much more colorful than yours."

"Don't you feel embarrassed when you compare yourself with a teenager?" asked Quinn because Lia's nightlife was indeed more colorful than Quinn's. He would usually spend his nighttime in the Room of Requirements repeatedly practicing spells, manning potion cauldrons, or hunching over different materials, trying to find what worked for them.

While it may be fun for Quinn, it wasn't what you usually considered fun.

"Nope, no embarrassment here," came Lia's joyful reply. She looked at her brother before saying, "But Quinn, you should really spend some time on things other than magic. Get a hobby or something."

"I have my piano and violin. Playing instruments is a hobby," said Quinn as he got up from his seat and stretched. "Magic is my hobby and passion. Doing magic is all the fun I need," Quinn said as he looked at the blue sky.

"That is probably true," said Lia. She could still remember how her dear brother had become so attached to her first-year magic theory book.

"You did a terrific job on MagiFax, Quinn," Lia praised Quinn. The invention of MagiFax was the thing that really opened her eyes to Quinn's passion for magic.

"Hmm? Oh, that. Thanks. I actually have some design improvements for it. Even though MagiFax hasn't been launched, when it does, I'm sure it will gain traction at a professional level. I have a few designs for models for personal home use. Remind me to give you those when we get home."

MagiFax was set to launch in a few weeks, and the first motive for it was to set its feet in the professional environment. If MagiFax was a hit in the professional market, then the personal home use market would open up. By using the reputation from the professional model launch, they could launch models suited for home use.

Lia remembered something and shared it with Quinn because she knew he would love to hear about it.

"Quinn, do you remember the pitch meeting you did for MagiFax?"

"Hmm, yeah, what about it?" asked Quinn as he looked for jerky in a bag. 'Where is that jerky? I just saw it.'

"Well, you said that it would probably take a year for someone to figure out how to make MagiFax, but no one is anywhere near to figuring it out."

That caught Quinn's attention. He got up from squatting near a bag and turned to face Lia. "How do you know no one has gotten close to figuring out the design? No, wait, did anyone get their hands on a MagiFax unit? There's still a few days until the release, right? Did you disconnect it from the network?"

"No, no, nothing like that," laughed Lia. "I actually set up two separate groups of researchers in order to make them figure out how MagiFax works. I gave them a year's worth of time to work out how MagiFax was designed because you gave us that estimated time. But neither group is nowhere near figuring out how it works."

Lia's motive for setting up research groups was to get a proven estimate of the time taken to figure out the design of MagiFax. Even though Quinn had said one year, she couldn't just take his word for it, so she set up two separate groups to research the design of MagiFax.

Her doubts turned out to be correct, as Quinn was wrong in his estimate, but she wasn't expecting the result she saw. She was expecting them to figure it out quicker, but almost a year had passed, and both teams were not even close to figuring out how it worked.

"Really? I really thought it would take at most a year," Quinn thought his estimate was a pretty accurate one as he hadn't actually invented something new to make the MagiFax. All the magic used was already discovered; he just found new practical ways to use it.

"Are you sure you hired the right people? Did they have adequate qualifications?" Quinn asked to confirm.

Lia widely smiled. "Yes, all of them are learned, magic researchers."

'They might not be good ones,' thought Quinn but didn't say it aloud.

"Come on, let's make that Beef Stroganoff, already. We are not going to catch any fish," said Quinn. He was really getting hungry and the jerky had gone missing.

"Alright, get all the stuff ready. We will start then," Lia didn't want to get up, so she instructed her little brother without making a move.

"Roger!" saluted Quinn and ran off to prepare the food.

...

After Quinn was done setting things up, he smiled and finally hoped that he could get something to eat.

Just as he was about to call out to Lia that the meal was ready to be prepared, he heard:

"Quinn! Quinn! I think I caught something huge! Come help me out!"

Quinn's jaw dropped before he gritted his teeth as he ran towards Lia.

"Dammit! I am hungry! This better be worth it!"

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

It was after dinner, and Quinn was sitting with George in the parlor. The grandson and grandfather pair were playing chess as an after-dinner activity.

Quinn was expressionless, as the magic dampening potion's effects were already over, and the limit was a single dose a day.

Currently, he was clamping on his occlumency to detach his emotions from himself. All his emotions were like a buzz in the back of his head; he could still feel them, but they were at a distance.

"How are you feeling? Any problems?" asked George as he made his move on the chessboard.

Quinn stared at the chessboard and the pieces at the middle of the squares.

"I haven't felt any problems with my body yet; no weakness, loss of appetite, or anything else. Everything seems fine right now," Quinn answered as he moved his bishop four spots diagonally.

"What about your magic? Any improvements on that front? How is it coming along," asked George as he took one of Quinn's pawns.

Quinn stayed silent. He had no expression on his face, so George had no idea what his grandson was thinking about. Quinn spoke after they had exchanged a few moves between them.

"It hasn't been going well, at least not at a level I want it to go." Quinn's voice was quieter than before. It was the only difference George could discern in the voice of his grandson. "My connection to the magic is weak when I take the potion; it gets difficult to draw out the magic under that condition. On the other hand, my magic is just too turbulent for me to even get started when I am not under the effects of the potion."

Quinn massaged his temple as he spoke after a pause, "I am struggling between two extremities. Too less or too much."

"But are you making progress?" George didn't mind if Quinn wasn't making substantial progress with his magic as long as he made some progress.

The magic dampening potion was harmful to the body. As such, George wanted Quinn off the potion as soon as possible.

"Some progress, sure," answered Quinn as he moved his queen to a more offensive position. "Things are trudging along."

"I see, I see..." George wanted to say something but trailed off at the end, opting to not say whatever was on his mind.

But Quinn noticed his grandfather wanted to say something.

"What is it?"

George leaned back into his chair and took a drink from his whiskey glass. He made up his mind before speaking,

"Do you think you'll be able to go back to school at the end of your break?"

Quinn's hand, which was just above his rook, stilled. He stayed in that position for a second before pulling his hand back and setting it on the armrest.

"At my current progress, I think I will be barely able to get myself to the level required for my fourth-year classes at Hogwarts. I will definitely struggle, but I'll manage. But, I don't know when my magic will calm down. The amount of magic inside my core was raised unnaturally. I don't know how long it will be before it settles down."

Quinn's hand clenched as his occlumency slipped a bit and some of the magic leaked outside, rocking the chessboard. Quinn had to take deep breaths to get his emotions back in his control.

"I don't know how much longer I have to stay like this," Quinn pointed at his face. His expressionless face, the distant state of emotion he had to keep for a part of his day, every day. It wasn't something Quinn enjoyed but had to do it for his own safety.

"If you want to rest for a year, you can take an off-year and join back next year," George suggested even though he already knew the answer.

Quinn raised his head to look at George and gave a tight shake of his head, "I am not skipping a year. I will be going back after the break."

George nodded before speaking about something he didn't completely understand, but maybe Quinn did. "Quinn, I am a businessman. I don't use lots of kinds of magic daily, just some magic that makes my daily life easier."

Quinn felt confused at George's words. He couldn't connect the conversation with them.

"I've read a lot about the magic that there is being in products. Specially, on what is being used by our competitors in their products. I have to keep myself updated on different fields because it helps me be a better leader," said George. "Take the MagiFax for an example. I read how MagiFax works. I know that the Protean charm is used in it, and the other magic used to create it, but I just understand things on a surface level. I don't understand the finer details that you explained, the details that even Lia's teams of researchers failed to deduce."

Quinn was getting more confused by the minute. He didn't understand where this was going.

George looked at Quinn and pointed out, "I don't know how wandless magic works. I tried to read about it when you told me about it, but I couldn't comprehend much of it. I don't know the mechanics behind using magic with an external focus. Just that it is difficult to learn."

"You have been using magic without focus your entire life. You use magic in a different way than I do, but now this situation has come along. You have lost all your progress, and now you are struggling to get your magic back," George paused just a second before asking, "Do you think you will try using your wand if you aren't able to get back your magic to the level you were before?"

Quinn would have frowned if he didn't have his occlumency up, "Are you telling me to start using a wand?"

George shook his head and explained, "Not at all. I am fine with your decisions as long as you are healthy. I don't care if you take time off to build your magic to its previous level. But, what if your magic takes time to get back to its previous level and clearly this is bothering you. Do you think you will switch to using a wand? Because from what I understand, a wand helps you focus your magic, and that is exactly what you need right now."

George really wanted Quinn to stop taking the magic dampening potion, so even though he knew Quinn wouldn't like his suggestion, he still had to try.

Quinn didn't know what to say or think at this point. He hadn't thought of using a wand to get his magic under control. A wand was never part of his magic, so it didn't enter his mind to use a focus to get his magic.

And...

'If I used a wand right now, wouldn't all my hard work would have gone to waste.'

Channeling magic without a focus was something Quinn prided himself in. He felt different from others around him. It made him feel unique.

Quinn would be lying if he said he hadn't considered using a wand. During the time he had been under the influence of the sin curse, Quinn had felt envious of the entire school population because by using wands, their magic came easier to them. The only reason he hadn't used his wand at that time was that pride overpowered envy.

"I don't know," answered Quinn. He didn't know the future of his magic.

He looked at George and asked to be excused

George nodded, and Quinn got up and left by wishing George a good night.

As Quinn walked back to the training hall where he was living since he came back from Hogwarts, he only had one thought.

'Things need to change.'

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Deep in the Aftermath.

Lia West - Elder sister - *Slap!*

George West - Grandfather - Health is wealth.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo / AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

"Are you going to that place today as well?" asked Ms. Rosey as she saw Quinn off at the gate of the West manor. "You have been going there daily."

Quinn tied his shoes and replied with a single word, "Yes."

It was five-thirty in the morning, and Quinn was dressed in a tracksuit, ready to go out. He hadn't taken the magic dampening potion because he liked to take it sometime around noon, and that would last him till dinner time.

"Is fighting that much fun?" Ms. Rosey asked. She didn't like the prospect of Quinn participating in something so inelegant.

"It isn't the fighting I like, Ms. Rosey... Well, I don't dislike it, but I like the physical exertion that comes with it. I like my body responding swiftly to my commands when I am sparring against someone else. It gives me a sense of control."

Quinn answered as he got up and spoke out, "Polly, let's go."

When he opened the door, he found the house-elf was standing there as if waiting for Quinn to get ready.

He turned back towards Ms. Rosey and informed her, "I will be back before lunchtime."

Polly raised her hand, and Quinn held it. The next second, both the house-elf and human disappeared with a pop.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Polly and Quinn appeared in a deserted alleyway, appearing with the distinct pop of elf-apparition.

"Thank you, Polly," said Quinn letting go of the hand of the West family house-elf. "I will call you when I'm ready to leave."

Polly nodded and popped away, leaving Quinn in the alleyway.

The raven-head boy exited the alley, crossed the road, and walked for half a minute, and reached the destination he visited every day at the same time.

「Kaewpadung Gym」

It was one of the few Muay Thai gyms in Britain. Quinn had been coming here in the summer breaks since he had started Hogwarts.

At first, it was just for fun, and didn't take things too seriously, and just did it to remain fit because he thought that he had been spending too much time sitting. But, this year, he had been going there every day and had been spending many hours in that place before returning home.

Muay Thai was developed centuries ago as a form of close-combat that utilizes the entire body as a weapon. Referred to as the art of eight limbs, Muay Thai uses eight points of contact that mimicked the weapons of war.

The hands become the swords and dagger. Shins and forearms hardened in training transform into armor.

Fighters used the elbow as a mace or hammer. Legs and knees became the ax and staff.

The body acted altogether as one unit.

...

He entered the gym and shouted "Good morning!" as he walked inside.

"Morning!" ... "West." ... "Kid." ... "Good morning!" ... "Morning."

Multiple shouts greeted him back as he entered the gym. He went to the back, deposited his duffle bag, and walked back out.

"When are we starting," asked Quinn as he walked to the group of young adults and adults.

One of the guys in the group ruffled Quinn's hair and said, "You should smile more, kid."

Quinn sighed and swatted away the hand on his head. He had learned to portray fabricated expressions while under emotional occlumency. But even then, Quinn came out as a quiet boy.

"I will smile when I find something funny," said Quinn as he stretched as he waited for the instructor to arrive so that they could start.

Suddenly a rather loud yell greeted the people present,

"Good morning!"

Instinctively, everyone responded back in unison.

" "Good morning!" "

The people who were sitting down or talking in separate groups gathered around as the man walked towards them.

"How is everyone today? I presume all of you are feeling well."

There were lots of ayes and 'yes' in response, which made the man smile.

The man standing in front of the group of ten was Sken Kaewpadung. He was a British-based Thai Muay Thai trainer, fight choreographer, and fighter promoter. Sken decided to learn Muay Thai to avenge his father's murder, but in the end, was dissuaded from such a path to devote his life to teaching Muay Thai to anyone who wished to learn.

Sken Kaewpadung was the only person largely credited with bringing Muay Thai to the United Kingdom.

"Let's get started with a five-kilometer run to warm ourselves up," said Sken as everybody nodded.

As everyone there was an adult, Quinn trailed behind the group and arrived a couple of minutes after them.

"Alright, fifteen minutes, skip-rope, three sets of five," shouted Sken as he moved around the gym, instructing everybody. "Boxer step, high knee, criss-cross, and show me some speed!"

The repetitive motions of skipping rope while staying light on their feet helped the fighter become fast on their feet when moving around an opponent in the ring. It improved coordination and timing; to jump a rope for a sustained period required coordination and timing, or you would keep snatching the rope with your ankles. Jumping rope was a highly energetic cardiovascular exercise that made it great for conditioning training for boxers and other striking styles. And finally, it was a great way to build stamina, keeping the intensity high during skipping.

After everyone was done skipping, it was time to do rounds of shadowboxing.

Quinn started his own drills of jab, cross, hook, followed by a knee. But just as he was about to get into it, he heard a shout.

"Quinn! Move after a rep. You don't want to stay in the same position after striking. Move to a different position," Sken shouted from a distance. "Build that into your muscle memory. I don't want to see you standing still. Move! Plus, give me a double-teep double-check after this. You are ignoring the legs."

"Yes, sir!" Quinn replied.

"Louder!" shouted Sken.

"YES, SIR!"

"Excellent!"

They ended the shadowboxing session with burnouts and pushups.

After that was time on the bag. It was just more striking but against a heavy bag. Quinn repeated the same drills he did during shadowboxing.

Shadowboxing and bag-work complemented each other.

The heavy bag was great for developing power and explosive endurance. You were essentially punching the bag with a very high degree of force you can exert over time. But there were limitations to overworking the heavy bag. Generally, people tended to stand way too close to the heavy bag, at a distance where you would not stand in a real fight situation. This was okay when strictly working for power. But if overused, it could inhibit the perception of proper distance and striking ability at full reach of the fighter.

Shadowboxing helped with that as it forced you to focus on your own body movements and proprioception (awareness of your body with its environment) without looking for the satisfying feel or sound of striking. This was a good thing because people often strayed into poor techniques to hit harder or hear what they thought sounded impressive.

Heavy bags were for working more on the form while hitting a moving target. Fighters had to focus on speed, coordination, and power while also having to move to hit the target they wished to strike.

Shadowboxing allowed total freedom of footwork as you didn't have to position yourself relative to an apparatus like a punching bag. Plus, it also allowed unrestricted body methods as strikes weren't unimpeded by the unhuman-like dimensions of the heavy bag.

...

Pad work is arguably the most representative and important part of training in Muay Thai. Unlike many gyms in the West, pad-holding is a task that is more commonly performed by a trainer and not a gym partner. It is a role that is taken seriously by the Thai trainers. Pad work was one of the most intimate moments in training. Where an instructor got to shape and sharpen the style of a fighter. Something that couldn't be achieved by only training with a partner.

Sken and other trainers made sure to point out things during pad work. Besides, pad-work at Sken's gym was intense as the gym's standard practice was to mimic ring action with three to five rounds of three to eight minutes. Quinn did four rounds of three minutes in one stretch of pad-work.

After that came the part of training that Quinn hated; clinch wrestling.

The clinch was defined as 'stand-up close-quarters grappling'. This is a position where both competitors are fighting for control to gain a dominant position.

What made the Muay Thai clinch so different from clinching in other striking combat sports like Boxing or Kickboxing was that the referee would not immediately break the clinch up. Clinch was allowed As as long as there was action going on in the clinch. Which meant that as long as either fighter was in a fighting position to get in strikes, the clinch was allowed to continue.

Unlike some other Muay Thai gyms in the West part of the world, Sken paid extra attention to teach clinching just as it was done in the combat sports' homeland, Thailand.

Afterwards, all the people in the group ended their session with warmup and stretches. All either had work or college, so they needed to go home to get prepared.

Quinn, who didn't have anything to do, just continued with his shadowboxing and heavy bag. He didn't have anywhere to go and liked to spend his time there because there was nothing much to do at home.

"Quinn, come, let's do some light pad work," said Sken as he was free around this time. He would do with Quinn another session of pad work.

Quinn walked over and did pad work with Sken.

"No, not like that. You need to plant your other foot firmly on the ground to create ample force for a knee strike. Do it again."

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"Don't flap your foot while kicking. Bring your knee up fully before extending it. You want to kick like you are stabbing something. Good, that's it."

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"Keep your hands up and try to grab some kicks to counter. You need to take advantage of the openings."

...

Quinn kept on doing whatever Sken was throwing at him.

"So, Quinn. Why did you join the gym?" asked Sken as Quinn continued to kick and punch.

"Hmm... For fun, I guess," replied Quinn between moves. He had other motives, but those motives were for the future.

"Why do you only come in the summer?"

"I attend a boarding school in Scotland," replied Quinn. He wasn't lying as Hogwarts was a boarding school in Scotland. "So I am not at home for most of the year."

"Oh, why did your parents send you off to a boarding school? Have you caused trouble?"

Quinn fakely chuckled and denied it, "No, my grandfather attended the school, so I also went there. It is quite fun, actually."

"Hmm..." Sken hit Quinn with his shin, who wasn't able to dodge, and asked as Quinn punched in retaliation. "But, you have been coming here daily this summer, and you have been working hard as well. Is it just for fun?"

Quinn didn't know where Sken was going. "...Yeah, why?"

"Even though you don't show it in your expression or words, your strikes show great anger and frustration. So I'm sorry, but I can't believe that you are still doing it for fun."

The student was surprised to hear that, and it showed when he was flipped over by Sken. Quinn went down with an 'oof.'

"So, tell me, what angers you so much?"

He just laid down there, and while staring at the gym's ceiling, Quinn didn't know what came over him, but he spoke,

"I was good at it, you know. I didn't consider myself a genius or something. Even when everybody praised me for being so great, I didn't think I was some kind of prodigy. I thought of myself as a normal bloke who just worked hard at what I loved."

Sken listened to Quinn. He didn't know what the 'it' meant. But he just listened as the boy vented.

"I spent all my time on it. I barely had a life out of it. Now, when all my hard work has broken down into shambles because I've made a mistake, I don't know what to do. I don't even know how to fix this. It's just so frustrating when all the work I put in crumbled, when I was just trying to gain more, just trying to get better at it."

Quinn's detached emotions felt numb. It had been a month and a half since he lost his magic. He had already spent a little less than half of his summer break doing what felt like pushing against a wall, trying to make it move.

"It is just so damn frustrating."

Sken sat down beside Quinn and spoke,

"You know, I trained in the art of Muay Thai because I wanted to avenge my father who was killed by some bastard back in Thailand. I thought that if I became strong enough, I would be able to kill that man," Sken said, not considering the fact he was talking to a nearly fourteen-year-old teenager. "I was so focused on to achieve that goal that I lost sight of everything else. Just like you, I had no life outside of fighting. Just going into fights to hone my skills and earn money to live another day."

Quinn turned his head and stared at Sken as he spoke.

"But, one day, I found out that, without knowing it, that bastard had already died. There I was, having trained all my life, without knowing what to do. All of a sudden, I had no aim in life. Nothing to focus upon. All I was left with was skills in fighting."

Quinn opened his mouth to ask, "So, what did you do?"

Sken glanced at Quinn and smiled, "Negative emotions like rage, fear, loneliness, or anything that isn't considered positive have an important role to play in a happy life; they are big, flashing signs that announce that something needs to change." He looked around the gym and motioned at it. "I left the country because it brought me so many bad emotions within myself. I needed a change, so I traveled here and opened this gym, as teaching was the only thing I knew to do."

Sken took a deep breath and spoke,

"When something bad happens, you have three choices." One by one, Sken counted the things on his fingers. "You can either let it define you. Let it destroy you. Or, you can let it strengthen you."

Quinn's pupils dilated in surprise. It just clicked in his mind. It was sitting there, and he didn't see it.

'Ah, maybe this would work,' Quinn thought as he looked at Sken. He got up and spoke, "Thank you, let's continue."

Sken nodded and set up his pads for Quinn to strike against. After some strikes, Sken smiled. He felt it; something that had changed, as Quinn's strikes were no longer of anger but of hope and determination.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Time passed and August 31, 1993, arrived. It was just one day before Quinn had to leave for Hogwarts.

"So, where is he?" asked Alan. The old mind-arts master had come to get one final look at Quinn.

"He is in the garden. He's been outside for quite some time this past week," replied George.

George had called Alan in order to have him take a look at Quinn. He feared that Quinn wasn't ready to go back to Hogwarts. It worried him that Quinn would force himself to go to Hogwarts and keep on taking on the magic dampening potion.

"How long do you think it will take for the potion to show a negative effect?" asked George. Quinn hadn't been showing any negative effect, but George wanted to know if something could go wrong.

"From my estimates, I think he could take it for another month before his physical condition starts to deteriorate," answered Alan. "The potion is a modified version. The effects are diluted, and the doses are regulated so that it isn't active around the clock. It isn't strange that Quinn hasn't shown any symptoms."

"I'm worried that he will become dependent on the potion." George sighed. He knew his grandson's personality; Quinn loved magic more than anything else and would do anything to be near magic.

"Well, let's see how has he been doing. Do you know what his progress with magic is lately?," Alan asked. Quinn's progress with his magic would be the deciding factor. He would look at Quinn's condition before making any suggestion. "Has he been doing magic while under the potion?"

"I don't know, actually," answered George, causing Alan to frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Quinn spends a lot of his time running in the backyard, doing exercises. While he is in the house, he plays his instruments or silently reads a book. When he is not under the potion, he either goes to the gym he has been going to or locks himself in his room to only come out for meals."

At first, George thought Quinn was distracting himself, but after a month of Quinn not speaking much at all, he started to get worried. Plus, George had been told that sometimes Quinn would spend hours intensely thinking about something.

"... I see," murmured Alan. He couldn't think of a reason why Quinn would behave as he did. But he was about to meet Quinn, so maybe he would get some answers.

The two adults arrived at the West estate garden, and in the lush green of a well-maintained garden, they saw Quinn standing with his hands behind his back, facing away from them.

George was about to call Quinn when Alan raised his hand and quietly asked, "Is Quinn under the potion right now?"

"Yes, why do you ask?" questioned George. Quinn had been taking the potion at the same time every day, so today shouldn't be different.

"Quinn's shields are operating in full effect," Alan replied, and for once, he didn't sneak into Quinn's mind. He was confused. "Let's go talk to him."

The two adults walked towards Quinn, and the sound of their footsteps in the grass caught Quinn's attention, as the boy turned around. They saw Quinn had a smile on his face.

"Mr. Alan, what a surprise. Not that it is not good to see you. What are you doing here?" asked Quinn. He wasn't expecting to see Alan today.

Alan eyed Quinn before asking, "I'm here to see if you're doing okay..." He took a pause before continuing. "... and to see if you are set to go back to school."

Quinn laughed in response. He guessed the motive of Alan's visit and George tagging along with him. It was just a day before he had to leave.

"You two don't have to worry. I am fine now." Quinn looked at his hands and spoke. "I'm back to my full capabilities and healthy as ever."

"What about your magic?" asked Alan. George looked curious about the question, too.

Quinn stared at the two older men and grinned. Immediately, flowers sprouted out of the ground. Rainbow-colored flowers littered around the green of the ground.

The two men's eyes widened as they saw the flowers growing, and the next thing they knew - bees, butterflies, and beetles started to futter around the flowers as if to collect pollen from the newly grown flowers.

"My magic is back under my control," Quinn smiled when a butterfly on his finger. "I haven't felt better in such a long time."

"How? How did you regain your magic so quickly?" asked Alan, bewildered at the scene. He could only explain the rapidly growing flowers with magic, as the tiny butterflies fluttering around them weren't indigenous to the region.

George chimed in and asked a question of his own, "But you said that you were having trouble with progressing your magic."

"That was a month ago, grandfather," replied Quinn as he stretched his arms. "I have made a steady and fast recovery since then."

"How? How did you regain your control so fast?" questioned Alan, genuinely curious.

"I always thought that I understood the place of emotion and will in magic," Quinn spoke as he walked towards the two. "But it turned out I was wrong. I was so wrong. The past 'me' knew nothing about the place of emotion in magic."

A cool breeze of wind swept through the area as Quinn continued spoke,

"I thought about it, you know. If the curse increased my control by utilizing the emotional connection between me and my magic, why couldn't I use the same method? I could use my emotions to strengthen and build up the focus I lost."

Suddenly the three watched as a deer hoped into the garden before stopping to nibble on some grass.

"I drew on all my emotions to increase my connection to my magic. Steadily, I used my emotions to emulate the same thing that the sin curse did to me. And, you know what? It worked," Quinn laughed as he joined his hands. When he separated them, tiny orbs of light flew out of his hands.

"The curse forced my connection to my magic by manipulating my magic. It wasn't me who was in control. This time around, I was the one who felt my emotions on a deeper level and actively tried to connect them to my magic."

Alan frowned. He knew about emotions and this wasn't how emotions and magic worked together.

"Quinn, that is not how things are supposed to go. You couldn't have gained your focus back so fast. You lost years worth of progress." He stepped forward. "How about you let me check if there is something wrong."

Quinn chuckled, "Of course, you can check. But you are wrong. The thing about magic is that there is no dark or light magic. We, humans, categorize magic as such. I always subscribed to this school of thought. And then I thought, why aren't emotions subjected to the same way of thinking? Why are emotions like fear, anger, hate, and suffering termed as negative emotions?"

"Love is said to be the strongest emotion of all, but I think every emotion can be just as strong if utilized properly." Quinn stared at George and Alan and revealed, "I used the so-called dark emotions to regain my focus."

Alan's eyes widened at the statement.

"Quinn, you know that the negative emotions could consume you. Rage, resentment, failure, sadness can consume magic users. Especially someone with a deep connection to magic as yourself." He was getting worried about Quinn. If Quinn utilized the darker emotions, then it could become a problem later. The darker emotions had a seductive charm that had ruined a lot of people.

Quinn quickly stepped forward and spoke, "True, they have a certain quality to them, don't they? But, they will only consume you if you aren't true to yourself." He quoted what Sken had told him, "I could have let them define me, I could have let them destroy me, or I could use them to strengthen myself."

"I felt frustrated that I was not able to use magic. I feared that I would never be able to get my magic back. I hated myself for not having thought it through. I was miserable because I had nothing other than magic going for me. I was drowning in feelings like those." Quinn looked at his two hands, bending his fingers into claw shapes. "I had all these emotions, emotions that I was trying to run away from. I had them in such abundance. Now, wouldn't it be a waste to let them go unused?"

Quinn had a sad smile on his face which then turned into the brightest of smiles as he said, "So I tapped into every single type of emotion I was capable of feeling, it didn't matter if it was 'good' or 'bad'. I opened every door, turned every stone, and plundered everything I could get my hands on. I used the frustration I felt —as I wasn't able to use magic— to push myself towards, in the hope of, one day, regain my magic back. I hated my previous self, so I strived to be better than him. The determination that this wasn't my ceiling overcame the fear of never getting back my magic. I didn't believe that this was the end of my magic."

He stared Alan right into the eye and laughed, "Don't you get it. I used both sides of the spectrum to progress my magic. I didn't struggle by using the only side which is seen as proper. No matter what I am feeling, be it joy or misery, turmoil or serenity... all the emotions are mine. I had to accept that I was feeling down and the emotions that went along of it. A mix of emotions coming together to create a magnificent symphony. When you mixed that blend with magic? Magic would reward you, it would dance at your fingertips, move at a single thought of your mind. You just need to… feel."

Quinn turned to George and beamed. "Adversity is what builds character and strength. I was at rock bottom, and you know what? After hitting rock bottom, there is nowhere else but to go up."

"I used adversity to regain whatever I lost in just a month. I used everything that I had, every resource I had available, to claw my way out of the pit." Quinn's voice gained some solemnity as he continued, "Humans need adversity to grow. They need hardship to appreciate the good times. Without it, we become lazy and stale. Adversity to gain happiness keeps us moving. Being happy all the time is not at all bad. Everyone should aim for happiness, but without knowing what is on the other side, how would you learn to understand yourself."

"Do you know that I haven't taken the potion in close to three weeks, and even before that I was skimming on doses" Quinn softly smiled as he looked at the two older men, who were stunned at the sudden piece of information. "I stopped taking it because it was dulling my connection to magic as it was supposed to do. I shouldn't have run away from my magic in the first place. I should've faced it head-on. But let's not talk about the past."

"I let my magic flow. It was painful, oh so painful... I hated every second of that time, but I had to continue because it was helping me," sighed Quinn as he remembered those times. "Pain is a powerful motivator, so I endured it. Slowly but surely, under the pressure to reduce the pain and solve the consequences, I was able to stop my rampaging magic by getting all of it under control. Negative thoughts combined with the positivity I was feeling from seeing progress, so I combined it together to boost my progress. It helped that I was rebuilding something that I had lost, so my progress was so fast."

"The time I spent feeling all these emotions, even those I didn't want to feel, made me learn a lot about myself and my magic. I felt free. I actually feel much better from before the sin curse got a hold on," Quinn stretched his hands above his head and stated, "My magic, which was made to grow artificially, is now under my control. Do you know that I gained an extra year and a half of progress? My artificially expanded magical core has now become a natural part of my magical physiology. My control might not have gotten the same boost because I had to rebuild it in such a small amount of time, but I learned a lot about emotion and will, and that will help me in the long run."

By the time Quinn stopped speaking. The garden was full of short shrubs and beautiful flowers. Squirrels, butterflies, three dears, one peacock graced the transformed landscape.

"Do you know how difficult it is to fool the senses of two practiced occlumens? It gets more difficult when one of them is literally on the top of the mind-arts field," Quinn waved his hand over the colorful scene and said. "This much amount of work is required. I wouldn't have been able to do it before, but now I've been able to pull it off."

"What do you mean?" asked a frowning George.

Quinn raised his hand and snapped his finger. Instantly, half of the flowers and shrubs vanished like they were a mirage. The larger animals like deers and peacocks ceased to exist.

"I did not conjure those things or transfigure those animals. They were the work of an elaborate illusion," Quinn stated in a quiet voice. He pointed at the butterflies and bees and said: "Only a quarter of these flying insects are conjured; the rest of them aren't real. A huge share of the flowers and shrubs weren't even corporal and were just accompanying the small amount of transfigured flora. They gave an illusion that they were real. I used small details so you wouldn't look at the bigger picture."

He turned to face Alan and said, "I distracted you with the buzzing of bees, the chirping of crickets, so you would believe that all of this was real. My words kept most of your focus on me as I continued to add more illusions. None of them were mental illusions because you would catch them instantly, so I used physical light manipulation. I faked sounds, created light gusts of wind to immerse you in the scene. A lot of delicate illusion work combined with a small amount of corporal mixed together to form something you thought was completely real."

Quinn gave a beaming chuckle, "Fooling a master of mind-arts, who has complete control over his mind is great for a day's work, don't you think?"

Quinn closed his eyes and yelled at the sky.

"I AM BACK! QUINN WEST IS BACK! WOOHOO!"

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End of Volume Four: Hogwarts: Year Three

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Quinn West - Light and Dark mix to create brilliance - Yeah~!

Sken Kaewpadung - Your typical wise master - My words are wise and I am real.

Alan D. Baddeley - Mind-arts master - Feeling shocked.

George West - Worried grandfather - Still hasn't comprehended what happened.

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[The chapter was edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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In northwestern London lay King's Cross Station, a Muggle railway station that was one of the busiest in the city. It was a perfectly ordinary station, with big plastic numbers over each track and guards who had never heard of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

However, every September 1st, as the clock overhead approached eleven o'clock, the InterCity-125 was pulled into platform nine. A strange crowd turned the occasional people's heads. The pack was wizarding children, bearing enormous trunks and caged owls and other unusual pets, making their way toward —and then through— the solid metal barrier between platforms nine and ten.

Through this barrier, of course, lay Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, home of the famous Hogwarts Express. A look back at the barrier revealed it was a wrought-iron archway with the words "Platform Nine and Three-Quarters [Platform 9?]" on it. Over the scarlet steam train's billowing smoke was a signboard that said the Hogwarts Express would depart at eleven o'clock.

Though the platform was only used six days a year, a round trip for the beginning and end of term. One on Christmas and Easter holidays each; the platform on those days, was awash with activity. Steam from the scarlet engine flooded the platform as cats wound their way around the wizards' legs and owls hooted to each other, as hordes of students and parents moved around through the steam "like dark ghosts", their voices carrying through the mist.

Near one of the pillars inside Platform 9?, stood Quinn with Lia talking with each other until the time for Hogwarts Express to leave.

"So what do you think about the Azkaban breakout? Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters," asked Quinn, having idle talk with his sister.

"Hmm... I would say that he choose the right time to break out. A lot of Aurors are busy right now," replied Lia, thinking about the recent events that had been going on the front page of every magical newspaper and magazine.

Quinn nodded in agreement. "What do they call themselves, ah, yes, Novellus Accionites. They have been targeting no-majs and first-generation magicals in Voldemort's name. Not sure if Novellus Accionites is a good name, though."

"Why not?" questioned Lia. She knew about the origins of the group's name. "Weren't the Accionites, a group of anti-no-maj, magicals? That seems a good name for their group; it goes well with their current agenda."

"Maybe you are right. People don't know the complete history of the group," conceded Quinn. Then he proceeded to tell Lia the history of the original group.

"The thing about original Accionites is that their leader was dumb, really dumb. First, he tried to steal from the goblins by summoning gold from the Gringotts. He got away with a mere lifetime ban. In that time, goblins executed anyone who tried to steal from them. After all that, he died when he summoned a large barn over his head."

Quinn laughed as he snorted, "So dumb~. I can't take those guys seriously knowing what I know."

"Quinn," called out a voice.

Lia turned her head to see who was calling her brother to see two girls walking towards them. One of them was waving her hand with a beaming smile on her face while the other girl followed her with a bland expression on her face.

'Now, who are these two girls,' she thought as a mischievous light flashed in her eyes.

"Hey, you two. How have you been?" said Quinn, greeting his two favorite Slytherins.

He had avoided everyone he knew as much as he could. He completely avoided Tracy and Daphne because, first, they were in a different house, and second, they were not in the same year as him. So it was fairly easy to avoid them.

Tracy was about to continue speaking when she met the person Quinn was standing with. The bubbly brunette peered at the woman and observed her.

She was beautiful. Tracy would describe her as one of those girls who often caused double-takes as she passed by and looked good no matter the occasion. Her first impression was that she was someone confident and outgoing.

Daphne also looked at the women with some curiosity. Given that the unknown person was talking to Quinn, it was clear that Quinn knew her. And after a second look, Daphne noticed the black hair and stone-grey eyes.

'Same as Quinn,' the blonde thought, noticing the similarities between Quinn and the woman.

"Why don't you introduce her to us, Quinn?" asked Tracy, curious about the woman.

"Oh, right," Quinn turned and introduced the two parties.

"This is Lia West, my sister," said Quinn, gesturing at Lia. Then the younger West child turned his face to his two friends and spoke, "And these two are Tracy Davis-," pointing at the brunette. "- and Daphne Greengrass," pointing at the blonde. "They are my friends."

Lia pushed herself off the wall, put a hand on Quinn's shoulder, and asked, "So which one do you like?"

Tracy and even Daphne blushed at the sudden question.

Tracy looked at Quinn and found that her male friend had changed in the break. For one, Quinn had grown a few inches. Overall, his jaw and face was now sharper as he had lost the baby fat. Tracy felt his shoulders had widened a little. Even his arms looked a little bigger overall, and Quinn was more filled out than before.

He was much more handsome than last year.

Daphne, on the other hand, recalled the memory of Quinn holding her close. She remembered him saying that he would have invited her to Hogsmeade if she wasn't a second year. She was a third-year now and was allowed to go to Hogsmeade this year onwards.

Would he invite her this year... were Daphne Greengrass' thoughts as she stared at the boy in front of her.

Quinn closed his eyes as he held the bridge of his nose. He was really feeling embarrassed and was trying to hide it. "You know, I wondered whether you would do anything to embarrass me if we met my friends. I really thought you wouldn't do it, but it turned out I was wrong."

"Why did you have to do that?" Quinn deadpanned towards his sister.

A smile bloomed on Lia's face as she gave her explanation, "Because it's so much fun!"

Quinn was about to say something, but his eyes caught sight of something. He spoke to the three girls: "I will be back in a minute. You guys talk to each other..." He turned to Lia and warned her, "... and you... behave."

Quinn ran off somewhere, leaving Tracy, Daphne and Lia behind.

"So how did you two meet my baby brother?" asked Lia with a friendly smile on her face.

"We met Quinn in our first year. In fact, we met today, two years ago in the Hogwarts Express," answered Tracy. She giggled and recalled, "Oh, that day was fun."

"What is Quinn like at home?" It was Tracy's turn to ask a question. And she really wanted to know if Quinn was the same as he was outside. "He is annoyingly put together all the time." She pointed at Daphne behind her. "Along with this girl; the two dress so perfectly that it makes me feel quite annoyed. I mean, not a single hair out of place."

Lia turned her eyes to the one called Daphne Greengrass and observed the blonde. And she could see what Tracy Davis was talking about.

"Well, Quinn was raised by Ms. Rosey, and she is very particular about caring for one's appearance at every time, so being well put together is ingrained into Quinn's bones." Lia chuckled as she remembered the times Ms. Rosey yelled at Quinn for having an untucked shirt or messy hair. "Given that it is Quinn, I am sure that he uses magic to fix his appearance every hour or so."

Tracy's eyes widened, and a smile appeared on her face. She grabbed Daphne's arm and laughed. "She does it too. Every hour, she waves her wand and fixes her appearance. Like clockwork!"

Lia began to like Tracy. The brunette seemed to be a fun girl. Additionally, Lia was interested in Daphne even though she hadn't said a single word since their meeting.

What interested Lia was that when she asked Quinn the question, she saw Daphne's eyes blur as if she remembered something, and then the girl had looked at Quinn with a blush on her face.

She wanted to know if Daphne liked her brother. "Daphne Greengrass, was it? Do you li-"

But before she could complete her sentence, a joyous shout cut her off.

"Lia!"

The three girls turned to see Quinn walking towards them, a grin on his face. They saw Quinn pulling a girl with him.

Quinn stopped near them, brought the girl in front of him, and then slipped his hands under the girl's shoulder and lifted her up as if showing her off.

The girl that Quinn brought and lifted had waist-length, straggly, dirty blond hair. Interestingly or weirdly, the girl was wearing dirigible plum-shaped earrings on her ears.

Lia found herself looking at the girl as the girl stared back at her with her silvery eyes.

"Meet Luna Lovegood," Quinn introduced the young girl with a bright smile on his face. "She's my junior in Ravenclaw. Absolutely adorable, isn't she?"

Quinn put the now named Luna Lovegood down and spoke to the young Ravenclaw, "Luna, this is my sister, Lia."

Luna's eyes shined as she moved towards Lia and observed her by orbiting around her. Then she sized Lia up, sweeping her eyes up and down before saying, "You look like Quinn."

"... That I do," replied Lia. Sure, Lia found Luna Lovegood cute to look at, but she wasn't sure who she was looking at. "I'm his sister, after all."

Luna nodded before turning her back to Lia. She walked back to Quinn's side, who gave her chocolate, patted her head, and told her: "Good work."

"So what did you three talk about?" Quinn asked after giving Luna chocolate.

"Oh, Tracy was telling me about the first time you guys met," replied Lia.

"Ah, it was today, wasn't it? You two weren't able to find a compartment, so you guys came into my compartment." Quinn chuckled as he recalled that day and said, "That was a fun day. Did you know I guessed the houses of almost all first-years being sorted that year? Yeah~ that was fun."

Quinn looked at the clock that was hanging on a pillar and said, "Okay, we should get moving if we want to get a compartment." He turned to Tracy and Daphne and asked, "Do you want to join Luna and I? We're sharing a compartment."

Tracy looked at Daphne, who nodded. "Sure, we will join you," replied Tracy.

"Can we bring another person?" asked Daphne, staring at Quinn.

Quinn looked at Luna to see if she was alright with another person, but his eccentric junior seemed really interested in the wrapper of the chocolate he gave her.

"I don't see why not. The more, the merrier," replied Quinn.

"Alright, we'll say goodbye to our parents and then meet you on the train," said Tracy. Daphne also needed to find the person she wanted to bring along, so she nodded.

"Excellent, I'm going to choose a compartment somewhere along the middle of the train, so start somewhere there," said Quinn before he turned his face to Luna and shook her to get her attention. "Luna, go ahead and say goodbye to your father. We will get going then."

The three girls went back to their respective families, leaving Lia and Quinn alone.

"Do you have any male friends, or are all your friends girls," smirked Lia. She put a hand on her cheek, "My baby brother sure is popular. Are you planning to become a ladies' man?"

"There is nothing wrong with being a little bit of a ladies' man," snorted Quinn at her comment, which was another attempt to make him feel embarrassed. "And, I do have male friends." He looked around the platform. "But I just can't seem to find Eddie and Marcus at the platform or on the train. It will be the fourth straight year if I don't see them today."

When Quinn returned his eyes to Lia, he found her looking at him with slight worry in her eyes.

"What is it?" sighed Quinn. He knew that look. It was the same George had given him as they were leaving home before in the morning.

"Promise me you won't do something reckless and dangerous." She held Quinn's face and forced him to look at her.

"... I'll try," said Quinn. He couldn't claim he wouldn't get into trouble. He would surely try not to get into trouble as he didn't want to seek trouble. "I will try my best to stay safe. Despite my track record, I don't enjoy getting into trouble."

Lia scrutinized Quinn for a while before she sighed. "Why couldn't you just say that you won't get into trouble." She squished Quinn's face and blamed him. "You like to cause me worry, don't you?"

"Oh, nothing like that," replied Quinn, smiling as he looked at his sister. She was always the one who got worried about him the most. "I just do it so you won't forget me."

Lia's hands left Quinn's face and wrapped around him to pull him into a hug. "Why do you have to say such silly things? I will never forget you. You are my precious baby brother."

"Will I ever be elevated from baby brother to little brother?" smiled Quinn, hugging Lia back. "I have been working hard. I deserve a promotion. Maybe a pay-raise to accompany it, and if you are feeling generous, some benefits."

"I'm sorry to inform you you have reached the peak of your career in this field." Lia giggled and joked back, "You would still be my baby brother even if we were oldies full of white hair."

"Heh, you might get old and wrinkly, but I'll never grow old," declared Quinn, scoffing.

The West siblings separated, and Lia sighed. "Send me plenty of MagiFax. You remember my WMF-id, right?"

"I decided on all our families' WMF-ids. Of course I remember them," answered Quinn, and with a final sigh, he added, "Take care of yourself and don't overwork. Remember to have fun and keep sending me souvenirs."

"You bet," promised Lia and stroked Quinn's cheek one last time. "Now, leave. I don't want to see you cry."

"Of course," smiled Quinn. He picked up his suitcase, turned back towards the Hogwarts Express, and walked away. He waved to Lia as he walked away.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Quinn threaded his way through the narrow corridors of the train. Weaving through the students standing in the corridors. He made his way to the middle of the train, looking for an empty compartment.

After a minute or two, Quinn found an empty compartment and immediately laid his claim on it.

"Conquest... completed," declared victory Quinn as he sent his suitcase to the top rack and shot multiple cleaning and scouring charms to make everything spotless.

After half a minute, Luna entered the compartment, and Quinn helped transfer all her stuff to the racks above.

"Looking forward to this year, Luna?" asked Quinn as he took a seat next to the window.

Luna sat down beside Quinn and nodded, "I'm hoping to see a lot of magical creatures this year. Maybe even find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but daddy said it can only be found in the Netherlands. So maybe I won't find it at Hogwarts?"

"Who knows, maybe you will, or maybe you won't. The only way to find out is to look for it," answered Quinn.

He didn't know if the Crumple-Horned Snorkack was a real creature or a figment of Xenophilius Lovegood's imagination. But he wasn't outright going to deny the existence of the said creature. He lived in a magical world. Maybe the mysterious creature was real.

"I heard that Rubeus Hagrid is going to teach Care of Magical Creatures subject this year," informed Quinn. "He spends a lot of time in the Forbidden Forest, and I have heard he knows a lot about magical creatures. So we may learn about a lot of new creatures. That'll be fun, don't you think?"

Luna's eyes shined, and she looked up at Quinn. "Really? Hagrid is nice. Hmm, I'm looking forward to learning from him. He's very tall, though. My neck hurts when I look up at him."

Quinn grinned at the last part. Luna was a small girl, and the half-giant was very tall.

"Ah, found them."

Quinn and Luna turned their heads towards the door of the compartment and saw Tracy. She was looking to her right and called out: "They are here, come on."

Quinn stood up and helped Tracy with her luggage but stayed away from her cat because he thought the feline was glaring at him. That was the cat whose hair went into Hermione's polyjuice potion.

After Quinn set up Tracy's luggage, he turned to the door and blinked when he saw two girls standing there. One taller than the other. One had blonde hair, and the other one had black hair. Both girls had blue eyes.

Quinn could immediately see the similarities between the two girls.

Daphne Greengrass, the taller of the two girls, spoke up and introduced the black-haired girl to Quinn.

"This is Astoria. My sister."

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Fourth-year Ravenclaw. Back to school.

Lia West - Elder Sister - Fulfilling the duty of older siblings by embarrassing younger siblings.

Luna Lovegood - Second-year Ravenclaw - Quite easy to lift her up the ground.

Tracy Davis - Third-year Slytherin- Admiring the changes in Quinn.

Daphne Greengrass - Third-year Slytherin - Memories.

Astoria Greengrass - First-year - Daphne's sister.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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The link is also in the synopsis...

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

The black-haired, round-faced with baby fat mini-version of Daphne Greengrass stepped forward and introduced herself.

"My name is Astoria Greengrass. Nice to meet you."

The little Greengrass raised her hand, presenting it to Quinn.

Quinn took it because of his etiquette education, kissed her knuckles, and introduced himself.

"Quinn West. Pleased to meet you, too."

Tracy, who was on the side, chimed in with a bright tone,

"My name is Tracy Davis."

Luna thought that everyone was introducing themselves and took part in joining the foray.

"I'm Luna Lovegood."

Tracy giggled and looked at Daphne. The blonde Greengrass looked back at her best friend and looked in confusion.

"You are the only one who hasn't said your name," explained Tracy with a beaming grin on her face.

Daphne rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to participate in the childishness. But then she noted that everyone in the compartment was staring at her.

"Fine," she sighed exasperatedly and returned, "My name is Daphne Greengrass. Happy?"

Everybody repeatedly nodded in unison.

After everyone was introduced to each other and their luggage was in place, they took a seat. Quinn sat near the window, Luna sat beside him. On the other side, Astoria sat across Quinn, Daphne sat beside her sister, and Tracy sat next to Daphne.

"So you are that Quinn West. I've heard about you," said Astoria as soon as everyone got settled. "I have heard a lot about you."

"You have?" Quinn inquired. "From whom?" He gave a quick glance to the side.

"From my sister, of course. And some from Tracy. But mostly from Daphne," disclosed Astoria.

"Tori!" Daphne hissed at her sister.

Quinn moved his eyes on Astoria while moving his head towards Tracy before looking at her. He commented: "This one, this one talks."

"She does. It can get quite fun," admitted Tracy. "Yeah~, really fun."

Quinn gave an excited grin as he turned back to Astoria and met Daphne's as he did.

"So, Astoria, tell me, which house do you want to join? Are you going to follow in your sister's footsteps? And what does Daphne say about me?"

Astoria hummed in thought and responded, "Well, I want to be in Slytherin, but not because Daphne is in there. I want to join Slytherin because daddy was in Slytherin. And Daphne told me that you are smart, intelligent, and funny, but she says that you joke a little too much. She also said that she felt hurt- oomph!"

Daphne clamped her sister's mouth with her hand to stop her from talking. Astoria was starting to talk about things she didn't want anyone to know, especially not Quinn.

"- mah! So, I was saying- ouch!" Astoria freed herself from Daphne's grasp and tried to continue, but she was again interrupted when Daphne pinched and twisted her waist.

"Not a single word," Daphne Greengrass glared at her sister.

Quinn pulled out an A.I.D card from his robes and presented it to Astoria. "Please, visit me when you have free time. I believe we'll get along splendidly."

Daphne tried to take the card, but Astoria got to it first and examined it with interest, "I've heard of this, too. Mum really liked the idea when Daphne told us about it."

Quinn shifted in his seat and asked, "Really, Mrs. Greengrass said that? Tell me more." He earned a glare from Daphne and a giggle from Tracy.

The Hogwarts Express moved steadily to the North, and the scenery outside the window became wilder and darker while the clouds overhead thickened. People were running backward and forward past the door of their compartment.

Time passed as the group continued to talk. Quinn was having a lot of fun talking to the younger Greengrass and her stories about the usually unflappable Daphne.

The rain thickened as the train sped yet farther north; the windows were now a solid, shimmering gray, which gradually darkened until lanterns flickered into life all along the corridors and over the luggage racks. The train rattled, the rain hammered, and the wind roared.

"We must be nearly there," said Tracy, leaning forward to look past

Daphne and Astoria at the now completely black window.

"We can't be there yet," said Daphne, checking her watch.

The words had hardly left her when the train started to slow down.

"Why are we stopping?"

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons died away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows.

Quinn looked at the dark outside, and his pupils shrunk and his eyes narrowed. He remembered what was about to happen and knew the reason behind the train's unusual stop.

The train came to a stop with a jolt, and distant thuds and bangs told them that some other people's luggage had fallen out of the racks. Then, without warning, all the lamps went out, which plunged the train into total darkness.

"What's going on?" asked Luna's from beside Quinn. She tugged on his clothes to ascertain his position in the dark.

Quinn turned his face towards Luna's position and assured her, "Don't worry. It'll be fine."

"Do you think we've broken down?" said Astoria as she tried to peer out what was going on from the compartment door, but there was barely any light for anything to be visible.

"I don't know," whispered Tracy, pulling her cat into her lap.

There was a squeaking sound, and Quinn saw the dim black outline of Astoria, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.

There's something moving out there," Astoria said. "I think people are coming aboard... does this happen every year?"

"No, it doesn't. The train doesn't stop at all during the journey," answered Daphne's voice.

Quinn knew who was coming aboard and silently pulled out his fake wand. There was a soft hum before three orbs manifested on the compartment's ceiling, lighting the room in soft yet illuminating light.

All four girls looked up at the three orbs of light at the ceiling before looking at each other.

"Stay where you are," instructed Quinn as he sat in attention. He slightly cracked the window so his hand could go outside. He got up and moved towards the door.

And just as he was expecting, the door to the compartment opened up.

Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the light orbs on the ceiling, was a cloaked figure that reached up to the roof. Its face was completely hidden beneath its hood. Quinn's eyes darted downward, and what he saw made his stomach contract slightly. There was a hand protruding from the cloak, and it was glistening, grayish, slimy-looking, and scabbed, like something dead that had decayed in water.

But it was visible only for a split second. As though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Quinn's gaze, it suddenly withdrew the hand into the folds of its black shroud. And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

An intense cold swept over them all, causing all to shiver. Quinn also felt the cold. He found it as equally bone-chilling as in the Icy vault. The current cold had a soul-numbing chill.

Quinn opened his mouth and spoke up in a clear voice, "Back off at once. Leave, or you will regret it."

The hooded figure looked down at the room's occupants and sensed deep fear and the promise of positive feelings that it could feed off of. The hooded figure gave into temptation and moved forward.

"Bad move," whispered Quinn in the cold.

A blinding silver light blasted the hooded figure at a point-blank range.

There was no noise, no shrieking from the hooded figure of darkness. The figure just suddenly retreated from the light and crashed into the opposing compartment's door, before flying away in what seemed fear and loathing.

The blinding silver light didn't stop and immediately darted across the train.

Quinn, too, didn't stop and immediately turned back and cracked the window of his compartment open, letting in a chilly breeze. He looked around the train's roof and saw more of those hooded figures floating above the train. Quinn pointed out his fake wand holding hand and shot out another burst of silver light that had the shape of an avian animal.

The silvery avian zoomed forward, letting out waves of silver energy. The swarm of hooded figures felt the silver energy hit them and immediately scattered away from the train as the silvery guardian cruised around the train, dutifully providing protection against the creatures of darkness.

An avian guardian stood above the train, emitting massive waves of positive silver energy, and repelling every foul creature in the vicinity.

And as the hooded figures escaped and moved away from the train, a spot opened up between the clouds in the dark sky, allowing light to fall over the silver guardian.

It was as if the vast sky itself was supporting the spirit guardian.

The caster of the silver entity ducked his head back inside the train. From his robes, he took out chocolate spheres, magically unwrapping the silver wrapping, and made them hover in front of his companions, who were all shivering and shaking.

"Eat the chocolates," he spoke in a calming voice, smiling as they looked at him. "It will help."

The girls grabbed the floating chocolates that were in front of them and popped them into their mouths, and actually felt the shivering decrease as the chocolate's taste covered their palates.

"Good. Do you guys feel better?" asked Quinn, shooting diagnostic looks at each of the four girls and getting affirmative nods in return.

"Excellent, sit tight. I'll be back," answered Quinn and, as he was turning back, he felt a tug on his clothes. When he looked back, Tracy was holding his robe.

"Where are you going?" questioned Tracy, her voice filled with worry.

Quinn grinned in reply.

"I've always wondered, what is the reason for my birth? And today, after this happened, I finally know it."

The girls watched as Quinn took his hands out of his pockets. Between all his fingers, Quinn held the same type of chocolate spheres they had just eaten.

"I'm going on a chocolate route. I was born for this," Quinn was grinning so hard that his face was almost split in half. "I'll see you four in a while."

He exited the compartment and moved towards the front of the train. He then opened every single door with magic and shot out chocolate spheres inside the compartments, and made them hover in front of the passengers while shouting.

"Eat chocolate! It will make you feel better. I'm raining chocolate today."

Pumping his fists into the air, Quinn declared.

"Chocolate West is back!"

Quinn's cavalier attitude didn't match the dark vibe in the train. But something about his shouting and shooting chocolate while making pew-pew noises brought people out of dark thoughts. The floating chocolate — and Quinn, who celebrated his return, almost made people forget the dread-inducing hooded figures of grim and bleakness.

Some Chocolate West skidded in front of another compartment, and this one's door was already open.

"Indulge in the sweet-," but Quinn stopped talking after he found that the compartment he was standing in was occupied by the golden squad.

Inside the compartment, Harry Potter, the golden boy, or better known as the boy-who-lived, was unconscious in his seat while the other three of the group were around him.

Ivy Potter, the Potter twin, was shaking her brother, trying to get him to wake up.

Quinn sighed and entered the compartment and spoke, "Get away from him. You are overwhelming him. Let the bloke breathe."

The second Quinn stepped inside the compartment, the lanterns came back to life, and the Hogwarts Express resumed its way with a jolt.

Ivy, who was worried about her brother, followed the instructions on instinct, but when she looked at the person who gave the instructions, her eyes contracted.

"You, what are you doing here?"

Quinn internally groaned but decided to ignore Ivy and Hermione's suspicious looks and asked, "Did he come into contact with a Dementor?"

"Dementor? Do you mean that foul, hooded creature?" asked Ron. He didn't notice the suspicious and cautious looks his two friends were giving the black-haired boy.

"Oh, so you guys had a chance to get acquainted with the Dementors," Quinn conversed as he checked on Harry Potter. "Bad luck, I guess."

'Alright, he is breathing, so a Dementor's kiss is out of the question,' diagnosed Quinn. He moved Harry's face around to check him out and silently funneled some magic to check the status of the boy-who-lived. 'He doesn't seem that pale, and I'm not getting any serious hits.'

Quinn stood straight and announced, "He is alright. This sudden close contact with the Dementor knocked him out."

"How do you know that?" questioned Ivy, she was still giving a cautious look, but Quinn could see her gaze shifting to Harry, worry flashing in her eyes every time she did so.

Quinn sighed, turned to the unconscious Harry Potter, and gave him a tight slap.

Ppah!*

The sound of slap reverberated in the compartment as Harry Potter woke up with an abrupt and deep inhale of breath and looked around wildly.

"W-what?!"

Harry opened his eyes to see West, or whatever was his name, standing over him. The lanterns above him were back on, the floor was shaking — the Hogwarts Express was moving again. Harry felt very sick; when he put up his hand to push his glasses back on, he felt cold sweat on his face.

And his left cheek was stinging.

"Dip or pour?" asked West. He still couldn't recall the guy's first name.

"P-Pour," he answered on instinct. Harry could feel his heart racing.

Quinn clicked his tongue, looked at Ivy, and shrugged with his arms up. "I take it back. There is something definitely wrong with him. I mean, who pours instead of dipping."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Quinn's eccentricity. Even Ivy wasn't sure what to do, so she just stared at Quinn.

Quinn, on the other hand, was unwrapping a chocolate sphere. He leaned down towards Harry. "Here, eat the chocolate. It will make you feel better."

"What was that thing?" asked Hermione.

"A Dementor," answered Quinn, who was now giving chocolate to the other three. "One of the Dementors from Azkaban, I presume."

"What is a Dementor?" Hermione asked, bewildered. The hooded creature was something out of a horror story.

"Dementors are one nasty piece of work. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair; they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the surrounding air. Get too near a Dementor, and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and corrupt. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life."

Quinn looked at the golden squad, who didn't look too well. He also noticed that none of them had eaten the chocolate.

"Eat the damn chocolates. It'll help."

He turned to Hermione and offered her something that would satisfy her. "Chocolate is one of the remedies to Dementor exposure. You can read it in one of the Dark Against Dark Arts remedy books. Just go to the Dark creatures section of the library and pick the book on Dementors."

Hermoine looked back and forth between the chocolate and Quinn before taking the risk and popping the chocolate into her mouth. Immediately, to her great surprise, she felt a warmth spread suddenly to the tips of his fingers and toes.

Quinn caught the look on Hermione's face and knew that his work was done here, so he just turned and walked out of their compartment.

"I need to cover more area, so I'll excuse myself."

With that, he was gone, leaving the golden squad alone.

"Are you sure you're okay, Harry?" said Ivy, looking at Harry anxiously.

"I don't understand... What happened?" groaned Harry. He was sweating, and his left cheek was still hurting.

"Well, that thing - the Dementor, stood there and looked around," said Ivy. She then mumbled, "I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face," she shook her head and said clearly this time, "and you, you -"

"I thought you went into shock or something," said Ron, who still looked scared. "You became sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching -"

"Then suddenly a bright silver light appeared and slammed into the Dementor," continued Hermione. She could recall the feeling of relief she felt when the Dementor ran away from the silver light. "I couldn't see it clearly, but it was some sort of bird. I definitely saw wings."

"It was horrible," said Ron, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird," commented Hermione, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably. "Like I would never be happy again..."

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

They were already near Hogwarts when Quinn returned, and the girls had already changed into their uniforms. They stepped out to give Quinn room to change.

They didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey. And Quinn didn't force them to speak up and talk. The Dementor was a dreadful creature; even Quinn felt some despair when it came near. He had been reminded of the days when he had lost his magic and didn't know what to do.

It was after Quinn conjured his Patronus that the effects disappeared. He actively concentrated on his happy thoughts. Quinn dispelled his Patronus when they were within sight of Hogsmeade.

At long last the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; some owls hooted, some other cats meowed. It was freezing on the tiny platform; rain was falling down as an icy sheet.

"I swear it rains every time," grumbled Quinn as he walked on the slippery platform. However, the ice beneath his steps melted away, leaving not a single trace of unsafe ice or water.

Quinn got on the moldy carriages with Luna, Tracy, and Daphne after wishing good luck and saying goodbye to Astoria, who went to the boats with her would-be classmates.

After entering the castle, Quinn and Luna got separated from Tracy and Daphne and joined the crowd that was swarming up the steps. They then went through the giant oak front doors and set their feet into the cavernous entrance hall that was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.

The door into the Great Hall stood open at the right; Quinn followed the crowd toward it and had barely glimpsed the enchanted ceiling, which was black and cloudy tonight, when a voice called, "Mr. West, I want to see you in my office!"

Quinn turned his head to see Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher, head of Gryffindor House and Deputy Headmistress, calling out to him. She was a stern-looking witch who wore her hair in a tight bun; her sharp eyes were framed with square spectacles.

Quinn sighed and shouted back, "Professor, can't we do this after the feast? I don't want to miss dinner."

"It won't take much time. I just want a brief word in my office," assured the Scottish witch. "You shall have plenty of time to eat at the feast."

Quinn sighed once more before following his professor to her office.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Chocolate West... At your service.

Astoria Greengrass - Talkative Greengrass sister - Has heard of Quinn.

Harry Potter - Boy-who-fainted - Damn it! My cheek still hurts!

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

]

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The link is in the synopsis

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If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

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The link is also in the synopsis.

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn sat in the deputy headmistress' office, waiting for McGonagall to return. The transfiguration professor had told him to stay inside her office while she was out.

He took out his pocket watch, watched the time, and grumbled, "One more minute and I'm leaving." Quinn snapped shut his pocket watch and got up from his chair.

The office hadn't changed since the last time he had been here. It was still the same small study with a big fireplace and a window that overlooked the quidditch field.

Walking up to McGonagall's desk, Quinn raised his head to look at what was above her desk. This was the same place where McGonagall had conjured the giant chunk of ice and showed him sublimation, which had been a paradigm-shifting moment for his exploration of the Icy vault.

Quinn blinked at the place above McGonagall's desk, and a knob of ice manifested. The tiny ice knob started to rotate as more and more ice appeared around the initial knob, increasing the size of the ice above the desk.

Within seconds, Quinn had created a hunk of ice comparable to the one McGonagall did two years ago.

'She was definitely showing off at that time,' thought Quinn as he swept his eyes over the ice.

The sound of the door opening alerted Quinn as he brought his hands in front of him, and his fake wand was shot out of the holster into his right hand. His robes hid his wand coming out of its holster, and the ice was eye-catching enough that no one noticed Quinn moving his hand to his front.

"Mr. West, what are you doing?" McGonagall announced herself in her office. She eyed the ice floating above her desk.

Quinn turned towards McGonagall, "I was remembering the good old days, professor." He smiled and waved his wand at the ice. Instantly, the ice poofed into vapor. He also contained it so it wouldn't leak around the room.

Recognition flashed in McGonagall's eyes, "Oh, the self-recovering ice that we discussed in your second year. Yes, I remember that." A ghost of a smile appeared on her face as she noted the ice. "You have grasped the concept quite well, Mr. West."

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, who stood behind McGonagall, stared at the contained mist of vapor hanging in the air. Their head of the house had pulled them away from the crowd, and now they were standing in her office watching Quinn West and McGonagall talking about something.

"Why did you call me, professor?" asked Quinn as he dispelled the vapor and returned to his chair. He glanced at Harry and Granger and guessed, "This is about what happened on the train, isn't it?"

Professor McGonagall motioned Harry and Hermione to sit down. She settled herself behind her desk and abruptly said, "The train driver sent an owl ahead to say that you were feeling a bit under the weather on the train, Mr. Potter."

Before Harry could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, bustled in.

Harry felt a blush coming to his face. It was bad enough that he had passed out, or whatever he had done, without everyone making all this fuss.

"I'm fine," he said, "I don't need anything -"

"Oh, it's you, isn't it?" scoffed Madam Pomfrey, ignoring this and bending down to stare closely at him. "I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again?"

"It was a dementor, Poppy," said Professor McGonagall.

They exchanged a dark look, and Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly.

"Setting dementors around a school," she muttered, pushing back Harry's hair to touch his forehead. "He won't be the last one who collapses. Yes, he is all clammy. Terrible things, dementors, and the effect they have on people who are already delicate -"

"I'm not delicate!" sputtered Harry crossly.

"Of course, of course," said Madam Pomfrey absentmindedly, now taking his pulse.

"What does he need?" asked Professor McGonagall crisply. "Bedrest? Should he perhaps spend tonight in the hospital wing?"

"I'm fine!" ranted Harry, jumping up. The thought of what Draco Malfoy would say if he had to go to the hospital wing was torture.

"Well, he should have some chocolate, at the very least," said Madam Pomfrey, who was now examining Harry's eyes.

"I've already had some," said Harry. He pointed at Quinn and said. "He- I mean, West, gave me some. He gave chocolate to everyone on the train."

Pomfrey turned her head towards Quinn, who waved at her with a beaming smile. "Hello, Madam Pomfrey. May I say you look absolutely glowing today?"

"Good work, West," praised Madam Pomfrey approvingly. "Excellent response by distributing chocolate."

Quinn smiled before looking at McGonagall and notified, "I'll be sending you a bill for reimbursement, as I went through a couple of months' worth of chocolate."

McGonagall sighed and nodded before looking at Harry and asked, "Are you sure you feel all right, Mr. Potter?"

"Yes," Harry insisted, stubbornly.

"Very well," she accepted and turned to Quinn. "Now, Mr. West, was the Patronus in the train your doing? The driver said that he saw some kind of bird-shaped Patronus."

"Yes, professor," Quinn raised his wand and whispered for show. "Expecto Patronum." Intense waves of silver energy filled with positivity escaped his wand tip and hovered like mist before him.

Harry, Hermione, and Pomfrey stared at the silver waves coming out of Quinn's wand with wide eyes.

Quinn didn't expel a corporeal Patronus because he wasn't feeling like showing his Patronus form. Anyone who could properly witness his Patronus knew it was some kind of bird, and he decided to keep it like that.

"I see," McGonagall nodded and smiled in gratitude. "Between the Patronus and the chocolate, you did a great service to our school, Mr. West. I sincerely thank you on behalf of Hogwarts."

"It was the least I could do, professor," said Quinn humbly before campaigning. "That's part of the full service commitment you can expect if you do business with me, so if you want a problem solved, A.I.D will-"

"Thank you, Mr. West," McGonagall cut off Quinn's attempt at self-advertisement and said, "Please wait outside while I have a quick word with Ms. Granger about her course schedule, we shall go down to the feast together then."

Quinn raised a finger before veering it down and nodding.

Harry and Quinn went back to the corridor with Madam Pomfrey, who left for the hospital wing, muttering some indecipherable words to herself.

Just as Quinn and Harry came out of McGonagall's office they saw Lily Potter running towards them and the second she reached Harry, the worried mother hugged her son.

"Oh, Harry! Are you alright?! Oh, my dear boy."

She had come running to see if her son making sure that her daughter was not injured by the vile Dementors. And while Ivy had assured that Harry was fine, she needed to see it on her own. Only after seeing that both her children were okay would a mother's heart would calm down.

Quinn, on the other hand, stepped away from the mother-son pair and stood as still as possible to reduce his physical presence to the point he was invisible. He didn't want to disturb them and give them some space.

'Let's just hope that I can leave here as soon as possible,' he thought eyeing McGonagall's office door, hoping the transfiguration professor would come out with Hermione Granger and he could goto the feast.

He had to wait only a few minutes, and it seemed like Lily didn't notice him and Harry had seemingly forgotten that he was here. Then, followed by Professor McGonagall, Hermione emerged looking thrilled about something and the three of them made their way back down the marble staircase to the Great Hall.

There was a sea of pointy black hats; each of the long House tables was lined with students, their faces glimmering by the light of thousands of candles which hovered above the tables in the air. Professor Flitwick was carrying an ancient-looking hat and a four-legged stool out of the hall.

"Oh," said Hermione softly, "We've missed the Sorting!"

"That we did," remarked Quinn, looking at the Slytherin table. There he saw Astoria sitting in her new green trims with Daphne and Tracy. "The hat sorted her in Slytherin, huh."

Professor McGonagall and Lily Potter strode off towards her empty seat at the staff table, and Harry and Hermione set off in the other direction, as quietly as possible, toward the Gryffindor table.

Quinn cast a surveying glance to Hermione and thought, 'She got the permission to use the Time-Turner, didn't she? Hmm...'

He walked to the empty spot between Marcus and Luna, and took his place between his two friends.

"So where were you?" asked Marcus, who was sitting across from them.

Quinn started to explain what happened in a whisper. But at that moment, the Headmaster stood up to speak, so he was cut off.

Dumbledore, despite being well over a century old, always gave an impression of great energy. He had long white hair and a beard that was at least two feet long; he wore half-moon glasses and had a slightly crooked nose.

Quinn looked around and saw the eyes of all the students focused on the headmaster. He had to admit that Dumbledore had cemented his position in the hearts of the general student populace. The kind of reputation that was on the verge of being unshakable.

"Welcome!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say. And as one of them is quite serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before we become befuddled by our excellent feast..."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "As you may be aware, our school is presently hosting some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here under the order of the Ministry of Magic."

Quinn noticed a barely visible look of displeasure passing in Dumbledore's eyes. Hogwarts was Dumbledore's territory; he didn't like the Ministry intruding on it, much less with Dementors.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave the school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises — or even Invisibility Cloaks," he added blandly. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I, therefore, warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors," he said.

"On a happier note," he continued, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year."

"First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the vacancy there was in Defense Against the Dark Arts." There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. No one was expecting this fellow to last more than a year, and the recent record of the teachers didn't inspire confidence that he would be any better than the previous two professors.

Quinn observed Remus John Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts, the Marauder afflicted with Lycanthropy and cursed to turn into a werewolf at every full moon. He noticed that this version of Lupin was dressed appropriately and not shabby at all. In the books, Lupin was always in financial trouble. The werewolf wasn't able to get a stable job because of his condition.

'Must be because of his friends,' hypothesized Quinn. 'This Lupin didn't lose all of his friends in a single night. They must have helped him get a stable job or something.'

Quinn caught another thing at the staff table that made him chuckle.

Severus Snape, the Potions master, was staring along the staff table at Lupin. It was common knowledge that Snape wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. It didn't help his mood that the job he coveted went to a 'Marauder,' one of his school bullies. The expression on Snape's face was beyond anger; there was pure and unfiltered loathing.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs -."

Quinn made an 'ooh~!' expression and vocalized, "Burn~!"

"- However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching post in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

The student body clapped for the promoted gamekeeper. The Gryffindor table's applause was tumultuous in particular.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!"

The golden plates and goblets before them were filled suddenly with food and drink. Quinn, who was already ravenous, helped himself to some food and began eating. It was a delicious feast, and the hall echoed with talk, laughter, and the clatter of knives and forks.

"I didn't see you on the train," said Quinn, taking a bite from his bowl of Cranachan. "And I traveled through the train distributing chocolate. Where the hell were you two?"

"You did pass by our compartment," answered Eddie from Quinn's side. "Our compartment door snapped open, and chocolate flew in as you walked away while shouting at everybody to eat chocolate."

"... Damn it," cursed Quinn. Once again, he wasn't able to find his two roommates on the Hogwarts Express. "This makes it four years in a row. Next year, we will board the train together."

"What do you think about the new professor?" asked Marcus, turning his head to look at Lupin. "Do you think he will be any good?"

"I don't think so. I think this one will also be a bust," guessed Eddie, showing little confidence in Remus Lupin.

Quinn put his chin on his palm and hummed, "I don't know. He might be bad or unexpectedly good. Let's hope for something more reasonable and say that he will be decent. How about that?"

Luna decided to chime in, "Daddy says the middle is boring. I say that he will be good."

"I see. That makes it three people and three different opinions," Marcus compiled the results and chuckled, "It seems professor Lupin is already doing fairly well on the opinion poll."

"Meh, we will know when he actually teaches," Quinn said and continued with an example. "Lockhart had an overwhelmingly positive reception. Look how he turned out."

'He ended up in the hospital without memories,' he added in his head as some things were better unspoken.

Quinn looked around the Great Hall and noticed Friar floating above the Hufflepuff table, chatting with the new Hufflepuff inductees.

'Yeah,' thought Quinn.

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- (Scene Break) -

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It was the night after Quinn had come back to Hogwarts, and now he was making his way to the Astronomy tower. As he climbed the stairs to the tower, Quinn thought about the upcoming conversation with the ghost he had most contact with.

He didn't blame Friar for the things that had happened to him in the last few months. Oh, no, the Hufflepuff ghost couldn't be blamed at all. Friar had warned him about the vaults and the danger that was within them.

Sure, Quinn had cursed Friar a lot while he was suffering from his ailment, but after thinking about it a lot and accepting the situation, he realized that Friar had given him plenty of warnings.

Quinn sighed as he finally reached the top of the Astronomy Tower, and there stood the ghost of the religious monk, looking at the stars like he did every so often.

After taking a deep breath, Quinn alerted the ghost of his presence.

"Friar."

The translucent ghost turned around mid-hover and greeted Quinn on seeing his favorite Ravenclaw.

"Quinn, it's nice to you after this time." Friar hovered near Quinn and smiled. "How have you been?"

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking, Friar," Quinn walked towards the edge of the tower and looked at the waning moon shining in the sky. "I'm better now than I was a few months ago."

"A few months ago?" Friar asked as he floated close to Quinn. "Did something happen?"

"Yes. Something happened, Friar," Quinn clenched his fists behind his back. "I underestimated the second vault and lost my magic."

"Y-You lost your magic?!" Friar wasn't expecting to hear this piece of information.

"I'm fine, Friar." Deep patterns suddenly etched on the floor of the tower, glowing with a fiery light. Showing Friar that his magic was fine, Quinn calmed the ghost down. "My magic is fine now. I have it under control."

"What did the vault do to you? What was in there?" Friar asked with curiosity.

"I can't be sure, Friar," replied Quinn truthfully.

He turned to face the ghost and continued, "I asked someone who knows about all this better than me." Quinn was talking about Alan. The two had discussed the true nature of the vault. The conclusion that we came up with was that the vault was an experiment to see if it was possible to artificially increase the magic of a human by tapping into the emotional connection and strengthening it to gain more magic."

"B-But, why would something like that be Hogwarts?" asked Friar, confused in disbelief.

"That is the thing, Friar," Quinn looked at the ghost and spread his hand to point at Hogwarts. "What better place to set up an experiment like this than a school full of adolescent children."

"Do you know why Hogwarts has become such a mystical place?" Quinn asked Friar a question about the nature of Hogwarts.

The ghost shook his head. He always assumed that Hogwarts was great because the founders built it, but he felt that wasn't the answer Quinn was looking for.

"The magic grows at an accelerated rate between the ages eleven to eighteen; the seven years of magical development that comes once in a lifetime. Children go through this change and development of magic, and it might not be the correct way to explain it, but the magic during this age is unstable."

Quinn held his chin and thought for a second.

"If I were to give a better word, then it would be in flux. And that state of flux is in children who experience extreme emotions, both positive and negative. Magic behaves abnormally when mixed with extreme emotion."

He looked at the Hogwarts castle and continued.

"The magic influx combined with extreme emotions is the reason Hogwarts is so mystical and magical. A millennium of hundreds of adolescent children staying in the castle for most of the year would change even the most normal places into a magical place. Hogwarts, even when it was newly built, was anything but normal."

Friar listened to Quinn, who continued to speak.

"Children with 'unstable' magic were the best test subjects for an experiment that targeted emotion. Maybe it was one of the Headmasters that dabbled in the art of emotions and didn't mind using the children as test subjects."

Quinn pointed at Friar and revealed.

"The reason that ghost disappeared was maybe that the magic inside the vault has a soul aspect. The magic in the vault wasn't meant for ghosts, and it caused the ghost to cease to exist. Ghosts have strong emotional ties to the place they haunt. So when you go near the vault, your emotions are affected. Your ghostly instincts tell you that if you go near the vault, you will cease to exist."

A twisted smile of self-derision appeared on Friars as he completed what Quinn was speaking. "... And ghosts don't want to pass on. Even though we know it is wrong to remain in the mortal world, we continue to exist. The vault is a threat to our existence, and thus we feel dread and fear from it."

"Yes, that is the conclusion I have come up with. It is up to you if you want to accept it," Quinn told his understanding of the second vault.

There were a few minutes of silence in the Astronomy Tower before Friar spoke up, "Will you go inside the second vault?"

"No," came Quinn's response. It was so quick and firm that Friar was taken aback. "I'm not going back there. The only way I go in there is if my life depends on it."

It was unusual to see such a serious expression in Quinn's eyes and voice. Even though Quinn had regained his magic and had a better understanding of what emotions were, this didn't mean he wasn't afraid of the second vault. The second vault exploration had become a frightful experience for him, and nothing about it would change that opinion. One visit and he was under the influence of magic for months.

There was once again a period of silence before Friar broke it, "Do you want to continue exploring the third vault?" Friar wasn't sure if Quinn would want to continue after what had happened to him.

Quinn focused on the ghost, "I had a lot of time to think in the absence of magic, Friar. At that time, I thought about the possibility of what would happen if I didn't get my magic. I thought of what would I do if I didn't regain the control of my magic and somehow could lock it away to live a magic-less life. What would be my future? What route would my life go?"

Friar stared Quinn with slightly wide eyes as a twisted and contorted smile marred Quinn's face.

"Do you know what I found? I realized I didn't want a life without magic. I had devoted years of this life and being to this one thing, and if you took it away, I would be left with nothing, nothing at all... Quinn West is nothing without magic."

Quinn broke into laughter for a stretch before proclaiming.

"Oh, Friar. I don't love magic. Oh, no, love isn't the correct emotion that I feel for magic. No, the correct emotion would be..."

The twisted smile split Quinn's face as he revealed,

"... Obsession."

Quinn's glimmered at the stars as he went on.

"The cursed vaults are a way for me to learn about magic. I only have a few more years in this castle, and after that, I will be gone. Before that happens, I want to go into all the vaults and find the secrets. So my answer is yes, Friar, I want to continue."

Quinn turned his eyes back to Friar and said,

"There is just one teeny-tiny problem that I need to take care of before I continue on the quest of the cursed vaults and my life in general."

Quinn slowly walked backward while facing Friar.

"The thing is, I have this small irrational fear that has taken root inside of me. I lost control of my magic, and I fear that it would happen again." Quinn no longer had that contorted smile on his face, but instead, a sad smile took its place. "Gosh, it is an irrational fear. I can feel my magic under my firm control, but you see, I can't just get rid of the thought that one day it will once again rampage."

Friar frowned when he saw that Quinn was inching towards the edge of the tower roof. "Quinn, what are you doing?"

"I thought about it, and the only way for me to get rid of this fear is if I can completely trust my magic once more."

Quinn finally reached the edge of the Astronomy Tower and held onto the railing with his back to the tower's railings.

"My magic must not betray me at the one moment I need it," Quinn smiled and stated. "And that moment is when my life is in danger. I need to confirm the bottom line. I need to make sure my magic won't leave me when I am about to die."

He turned his head to see the distance between him and the ground below before turning back to Friar, who was staring at Quinn with a worried gaze.

"My meeting with you here at the Astronomy Tower started all this, and if things are going to end, then I want it to end here and with you present." Quinn chuckled and added, "It is fitting in a way."

"Q-Quinn, what are you doing," Friar hovered closer and quavered. "Please step away from the railing and walk my way."

"Your words won't have the effect you are hoping, Friar," Quinn sighed as he looked at the ghost. "And you, a ghost, can't interact with material things, so you can't stop me."

He looked at the bright half-moon and smiled, "It is a clear night today. Suitable if I am to die."

He turned to face Friar and spoke, "See you in a bit, Friar."

Friar's ghostly eyes widened in horror as he saw Quinn shifting his weight over the railings and falling off Hogwarts' tallest tower.

Quinn, who was off the roof's floor and in this air, shifted himself while falling to face the ground below.

There were no unnecessary thoughts in Quinn's mind as he fell. No revolving lantern, showing him his life flashing by. No thoughts about his family or friends.

Quinn's mind was focusing on his magic. Every fiber of his being was calling on his magic as he rushed closer to the ground.

In this life-threatening moment, Quinn felt the wind flapping against his face and body, his beating heart, the pulsating magic inside his body, and the Friar's faint shouts from above him.

He locked his eyes on the approaching ground, and even though he never did it, Quinn felt that the moment was appropriate, and so he closed his eyes and whispered.

"Arresto Momentum."

A bright blue flashed just moments before Quinn was about to hit the ground and turned into a bloody mess.

There was no collision with the ground, no breaking of bones, no splatter of blood, no exploding skulls, or gore of any kind.

Quinn opened his and saw that he was floating above the ground.

He grinned and released the magic and fell to the ground with his elbows and knees supporting his body on the ground.

The boy pushed himself off the ground so that he was on his knees. He looked up at the sky and roared in laughter.

"Hahahahahaha!"

His magic hadn't betrayed him. It was there with him at the moment he was about to die.

The irrational fear in Quinn's heart vanished as magic amplified his laughter, carrying it all over the castle.

Every single resident of Hogwarts heard a roaring, joyful laughter that night.

No one ever found where the laughter came from or who was laughing, but in the years to come, it would be talked about it.

Only one person knew the meaning of the laughter.

And it was...

Quinn West was finally and truly back.

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Quinn West - MC - Reboot Complete

Friar - Hufflepuff Ghost - Scared out of his ghostly existence.

FictionOnlyReader - No Author's note - I will answer comments.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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Quinn started the first weekend of his fourth year at Hogwarts by visiting the Room of Requirements to begin the first motive of the year.

"Oh boy, it's been a while," Quinn rubbed his hands together as he looked around the Room of Requirement with delight in his eyes. "Haa~, now, let's start immediately."

He took out a small glass pane from his robes and gently set it down on the floor before walking a few strides away from it. As soon as Quinn was at an appropriate distance away from the glass, the glass expanded till it was back to full size.

The glass pane lying on the floor was the glass wall from the A.I.D office. He had brought it to the Room of Requirements to make some changes to it.

One of the main objectives for his fourth year was to fortify the A.I.D workshop, and the first step to achieving that was to strengthen the glass wall that separated the office from the workshop.

"Okay, let's create tempered glass," Quinn said as he squatted at the edge of the glass pane and looked at the surface and the thickness of the glass. "First, I have to thicken the glass. This one is a bit thin, I think."

Quinn took out a cloth pouch bag from his robes. He opened the string binding the bag and scattered shards of glass all over the glass pane, expanding the glass shards back to their original size.

Wisps of wavy magic flowed from Quinn to the glass, and the glass turned into a state of transformation and then a liquid. All the liquid glass mixed with each other to form a giant blob of liquid glass. Quinn applied transmutation magic to reform the glass into one uniform pane of glass and molded it to appropriate shapes and dimensions.

Tempered or toughened glass was a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with traditional glass. Tempering sets the outer surfaces into compression and the interior into tension. Tempered glass was about four times stronger than conventional glass. The higher contraction of the inner layer during manufacturing induced compressive stresses in the glass's surface balanced by tensile stresses in the glass's body.

The result of tempering the glass was that it had four times the strength and durability of the previous one.

"I have to make cuts and mold the glass into shape," Quinn said as a tape measure came out of his robes and started to measure the glass. A felt-tip pen also came out from his robes and made markings and shapes to help the cutting that would be done afterwards.

The tempered glass had to be cut to the appropriate size or pressed to shape prior to tempering. Besides, it couldn't be re-worked once tempered. Polishing the edges or drilling holes in the glass had to be carried out before the tempering process started. Due to the balanced stresses in the tempered glass, damage to any portion would eventually result in the glass shattering into thumbnail-sized pieces.

Of course, magic could overcome that problem, but Quinn wanted to do it the traditional way and prepare the shape and layout of the glass wall before tempering the glass. He hadn't done this before, so Quinn wanted to do the tried and tested way.

"Okay, let's do this," Quinn put on his trusty leather gloves and levitated the glass that had been cut, polished, frosted, and molded in a uniform shape.

"First step of tempering a glass. Heat it to a temperature of six hundred and eighty-three degrees Celsius," read Quinn from the small notepad in his hand.

Quinn's approach for tempering the glass was the thermal approach. He would heat the glass to compress it and form an interlayer of tension between two compressions.

The only good thing that had come out of the sin curse was the time Quinn had spent in the library. He spent hours every day voraciously reading books, and a topic of study that he had covered during his readings was fire, or more specifically, the concept of heat.

Taking a deep breath, Quinn channeled his magic into the glass and flooded the entire thick pane of glass. Closing his eyes, Quinn triggered a change in his magic and heated up the glass. Quinn needed a fast, uniform thermal temperature throughout the glass.

After the temperature reached six hundred and eighty-three degrees Celsius, Quinn opened his eyes and immediately changed the magic from hot to cold.

The glass immediately went from molten to frozen... but it promptly shattered.

Quinn didn't look discouraged and walked to the shattered glass, which was still levitating in the air, and observed what had happened. After a minute of studying the failed result, Quinn judged,

"I need to heat it faster. Again!"

The shattered glass returned to its unbroken state through transmutation, and the process repeated over again.

This time, Quinn raised the temperature of the glass faster. He channeled magic and used a different heating spell design to increase the heat more quickly and with higher efficiency for heating glass.

"Shifting to cold," Quinn murmured. The heat switched off, and cold reigned supreme in the glass, quenching the glass uniformly.

Crunch!!*

The glass cracked into rough shards, and countless glass pieces floated in the air.

"I can try to keep the same heat and cool it slower," speculated Quinn and hypothesized, before saying, "Again!"

There was a smile on Quinn's face the entire time as he heated the glass and cooled it down. The smile even remained when the glass deformed, shattered, or didn't come out tempered.

'Ah, this feels nice,' that thought encompassed Quinn's state of mind.

Doing magic that he found compelling felt nice to Quinn. It didn't have the exhilarating feeling of blasting objects with destructive magic that he felt last year.

This was different.

Watching how the wisps of flame danced on the glass's surface or when the ice relaxed down the glass and sizzled brought joy to Quinn. Changing the temperatures, heat, cold, the timing of heating and cooling, small changes that just made sense.

All of it was mesmerizing to Quinn.

It was fun, it was calm... It was magic.

After an hour and a half of shattering glass, making changes to the process, and trying dozens of times, Quinn finally produced a perfect pane of tempered glass.

"Done," Quinn raised his hands and admired his new glass wall that would be in his office.

He shrunk the glass wall down to a pocket-sized version, put it inside his robes, and exited the Room of Requirements to have lunch before going to the A.I.D classroom and set up the wall.

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- (Scene Break) -

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A well-fed Quinn entered the empty A.I.D classroom with his suitcase in hand. He turned the key twice in the keyhole and opened the door.

The classroom was bare and empty. Not a sign of the room being ever occupied.

After last year, he had taken every single thing inside the office and the workshop. After losing control of his magic, Quinn wasn't in any shape to fortify his workshop, so he just packed up everything home with him.

Tables, workstations, desks, cupboards, cabinets, raw material, tools, and everything there was in the classroom went home with Quinn.

Quinn set down the suitcase on the floor, and opened it with a couple of clicks. The owner descended into the expanded suitcase and entered the room with all the stuff from the A.I.D classroom.

A powerful wave of magic slammed into every single object in the room, and the entire inventory shrunk down for Quinn to levitate and bring out of the suitcase. After thoroughly cleaning the room, Quinn set up everything where it belonged and got back to setting up the wall.

First, Quinn widened the wall to wall indent in the roof and floor to accommodate the increased thickness of the glass wall. He then pulled out the shrunken glass wall and expanded it slowly so he could line it into the indents that were on the top and at the bottom.

The wall fitted snugly into the indents at its regular size. A moment later, the wall and the floor were transmuted to grip the surface of the glass wall, and the building material Quinn had taken out to increase the size of the indents also went to the roof and floor to create more support for the glass wall.

Quinn stepped back and admired the glass wall and double-checked if it was firmly in its place before making a beckoning gesture and pulling a barstool for him to sit on.

He touched the wall with his right hand, resting his palm and fingers snug against the cool glass. After eyeing the wall for a moment, Quinn injected magic into the glass wall.

Purple waves of magic went through the glass every few seconds, reaching every corner of the wall. The purple waves of magic were the unbreakable charms being imbibed into the glass.

Unbreakable charm wasn't the correct name for the spell because it didn't make an object unbreakable. No, it only strengthened objects so that they would become more resilient to external forces.

Quinn was increasing the resilience of the glass so that it would become difficult to break.

Why not do this to a regular pane of glass instead of a tempered pane of glass? Well, the stronger the base material, the stronger result after placing the unbreakable charm. Tempered glass was naturally tougher than regular glass. So if you put unbreakable charms on it, the result would be much better.

Quinn sat there for five minutes channeling magic into the glass before the charm saturated the glass and could no longer make it any stronger.

The next step of fortifying the glass wall was to make it resistant to transfiguration and transmutation. The strengthened glass would be useless if you could just create a hole in it through transfiguration and pass through it.

There wasn't a way to fully disable transfiguration and transmutation as it was not feasible to isolate every single spell type and individually disable them one by one. So the next best thing Quinn could do was to make it resistant to magical changes.

The concept behind achieving something like that was easy.

'Using transfiguration and transmutation to defend against transfiguration and transmutation,' smiled Quinn, in thought.

Pushing more magic into the wall, Quinn commanded his magic to transfigure the glass that made up the wall to stay the same. Quinn was forcing glass matter to stay as glass. He was making his magic to freeze/jam the state of matter so that when someone tried magic against the glass, it would be difficult to budge as Quinn's magic was forcing the glass to stay the way it was currently.

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- (Scene Break) -

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After the wall was done came the turn for the door.

The thing about doors in walls was that people went for the door when trying to break in. No one tried to break the actual wall when you had a door in it.

The doors were thinner than the walls they were fitted in and were made from a relatively weaker material. Quinn's wooden door was no different, and it clearly showed when Ivy Potter kicked the door down to enter the workshop.

So to make sure his door wouldn't be the hole in his defense, Quinn decided to make sure it would be a hassle to break.

Quinn started with the door's wood. He used the hardest wood available to him and bought a few logs of Australian Buloke wood. This wood had a very strength-toughness level on a pound-force scale.

"I have to stain it in a hardening solution," uttered Quinn as he took out a bucket of a red potion solution that he had finished brewing yesterday. He looked at the viscous red liquid and chuckled, "This baby took three days to brew. Oh, this is going to be good~."

The red solution would strengthen the wood fibers when absorbed into the material.

"Plus, it will give the wood a nice red sheen."

Quinn looked at the Australian Buloke wood logs and levitated them over the center island. Slowly, he turned the wood into sawdust by breaking down the wooden logs into a coarse powder. He made sure that the wood powder didn't fly over the room.

He separated the sawdust into multiple trays and poured the red hardening solution into the trays. As he poured the liquid over the sawdust, the sawdust started to move and mix with the red potion liquid.

Quinn had converted the wood into sawdust so that every fiber would get exposed to the potion, strengthening the wood at a deeper level.

"Okay, done." Quinn finished pouring the liquid over the multiple trays. Now, he just needed to give it time for the solution to get mixed and get completely absorbed into the wood. Quinn continued mixing the wood using magic and moved along.

"Now, where is that high-carbon steel plate," Quinn looked around the workshop and found a sheet of high-carbon steel. "Alright, this will do. This will do very well."

Quinn laid the metal sheet on the floor and punched ten holes in the sheet; two rows of four holes and one row of two holes. The metal sheet was going inside the door, and the holes were there so the wood could go through them and really bind the metal with the wood.

The next part of the door was the lock. Quinn used the same high-carbon steel to craft a lock system with a regular lock opened with a key.

The other part of the lock was a system of thirteen steel cylinders that would enter the door from the frame around the door. And these cylinders couldn't be released from the door with the key. They had to be released by magic, and if no one knew about the cylinders, no one would figure out how to disable the cylinder system.

Ten minutes of unbreakable charms into the metal finally saturated the metal with magic. It couldn't be made any stronger by the use of the unbreakable charm.

By the time Quinn was done, the wood was prepared. It was ready to be turned into a wooden door with a metal plate inside.

The punched high-carbon steel sheet along with the lock system floated in the air as Quinn directed it with his left hand. He pointed his right hand towards sawdust trays, and around three-quarters of treated sawdust flew towards the metal sheet.

The wood fibers gathered around the metal and formed a red door made from treated Australian Buloke wood and a high-carbon steel core and locks. The completed door also went through the same treatment of transfiguration and transmutation resistance.

The remaining quarter of the treated sawdust flew towards the rectangular opening in the glass wall and formed a wooden frame for the door to fit in. The rectangular opening in the glass wall had notches around it for the wooden frame to fit on the glass wall.

Quinn fitted the door in the frame and entered the thirteen cylinders into the wooden frame, five on both lengths of the door and three on the top breath of the door.

"Done," celebrated Quinn as he opened the door and went back and forth. When he closed the door, the steel cylinders were inserted into the door in such a way that the cylinders were door and frame at the same time, jamming the door with the frame.

"Now, let's put some charms to punish anyone who touches the door." Quinn shot spells at the door that would shock and burn anyone who would touch the door and an anti-unlocking charm on the regular lock.

"Yeah, try to break this door, Ivy Potter," smirked Quinn.

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Quinn West - MC - Fortifying the A.I.D classroom.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Don't know why I wrote this chapter, but I did. So... thanks for reading.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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Now that the A.I.D office and workshop were fortified, Quinn sat at his office desk and read the sheet of paper on the desk.

[

You can swallow it.

.

Deep in the Bane of Neptune's home,

Find the forgotten dome.

.

It can devour you.

Beware the force or it will crush you,

.

Life is something you cherish.

If not careful, you will perish

.

Yet, it is the source.

]

The riddle to the third vault was written in the paper. Friar had given him the riddle after his stunt at the Astronomy tower.

The Hufflepuff ghost had lectured him a lot before handing over the starting clue. And Friar's worries were reflected in the riddle.

"Life is something you cherish," Quinn sighed and shook his head at the religious ghost's attempt to make sure he didn't repeat things like jumping off the Astronomy tower. "He should know better than anyone that the cursed vaults are more dangerous than a bungee jump without a rope."

Quinn tapped his finger on the paper and read through the riddle over and over again.

"Bane of Neptune, now that is definitely some mythological stuff," Quinn murmured, studying the riddle. "That will need some research."

He took out a small notepad out of his robes; uncapped his pen, wrote Neptune's Bane, circled it a couple of times, made an arrow extending outside, and finished it with the word research.

"... Next, beware of some kind of force," Quinn felt that this was the dangerous part of the third vault because it was followed by, "If not careful, I will perish. Now, that just screams danger."

Quinn nodded appreciatively and praised Friar, "Props to Friar for making it clear. This... this is what I like. Danger clearly specified."

The word force went on the notepad, another set of circles, and an arrow pointing to danger.

Quinn frowned and sighed, "life is something you cherish. This is useless."

Quinn copied the phrase on the notepad, put a line through it and a small cross next to the sentence. "Friar's drabble," wrote Quinn with an arrow coming out of the crossed sentence.

"Come on, Friar. Show some professionalism," Quinn complained to the ghost who wasn't there. "Has he learned anything in his long ghostly life? Well, Myrtle hasn't grown up from her Hogwarts days, so maybe ghosts are incapable of growth."

In the end, Quinn reached the three individual phrases of the riddle and felt some connection existed between the separate lines.

"You can swallow it."

"It can devour you."

"Yet, it is the source."

The three lines were the remaining lines from the riddle, and all of them had something in common between them.

"What is the 'it' mentioned here," Quinn asked himself, hoping to get some random epiphany. "It, it, it... What is it?"

Writing the sentences on a fresh notepad page, Quinn put a circle on all three 'it'-s and connected them with lines.

"Hmm... I think I will target this from the Bane of Neptune's angle to get the things rolling," Quinn closed his notepad with a snap and put it back into his robes along with his pen.

Hogwarts taught the subject History of Magic, and such the Hogwarts Library was equipped with books about history. Not that Binns taught the subject properly, but Hogwarts Library would definitely hold texts on different parts of the history of the magical world.

And the myths of the non-magical world tended to be magical anomalies of the magical world.

It was a start.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn was pleased to get out of the castle after lunch. Yesterday's rain had cleared; the sky was a clear, pale gray, and the grass was springy and damp underfoot as he set off to his first Care of Magical Creatures class.

Eddie and Marcus walked by his side, talking about the new terrorist group Novellus Accionites.

"This time, they targeted three muggles. Aren't they scared of the Aurors?" Marcus spoke about the latest news that had been circulating across the country. "They have been really aggressive in their approach."

"At least, they are targeting people at night," Eddie commented about the actions of Novellus Accionites. "The only reason the aurors knew about the muggle attacks is because of the clear traces of magic there are on the muggles."

"What do you think, Quinn?" Marcus asked for his other friend's opinion.

"Hmm, if they continue to attack, I think the aurors will set up a task force against them," affirmed Quinn on the new and upcoming terrorist group. "As Eddie said, they only strike at night, so the Muggle authorities are still treating their few attacks as Muggle matters."

"If they increase their attacks and act in daylight, the ministry will start a task force of Aurors and Hit-Wizards. The ministry will only move when the pressure from the non-magical world grows," Quinn sighed and finished his opinion on the new terrorist group.

"But why?" Eddie frowned in question. He couldn't understand why the ministry had only issued a lookout notice for such a clear threat. "I mean, what was it called? -"

"-Manifest," Marcus offered the word Eddie was looking for.

"Yes, the manifest. The manifest clearly stated that the Novellus Accionites were the supporters of You-Know-Who," Eddie shuddered in the thought of the Dark Lord. He frowned in disbelief, "Why isn't the ministry being more vigilant against these terrorists?"

Quinn patted Eddie's shoulder and explained to his friend the world of politics.

The war had brought influence on The Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Former Head Bartemius Crouch Senior utilized his powers to permit the usage of the Unforgivable Curses against enemies, among other law changes that seemed atrocious under times of peace.

Crouch Senior was so incredibly popular that he was slated to become the next Minister for Magic. If not for his son, Crouch Junior, being a Death Eater, Bartemius Crouch Senior would be sitting in the minister's office instead of Cornelius Fudge.

"A few years back, at a Wizengamot vote, it was decided to reduce the budget of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement from their war era funding. It was an attempt from the minister's faction to limit the growing popularity of the Auror's Office. The vote was passed with a vast majority because none of the factions wanted the increasing influence of the militant Auror's office."

The Dark-Faction had obvious reasons. As supporters of Voldemort, they didn't want future troubles. A lot of them had bribed their way out of a lengthy stay at Azkaban. But they weren't sure if it would work in the future because the Auror's office was becoming more and more popular.

Light-Faction, led by Albus Dumbledore, also lobbied to decrease the funding in The Department of Magical Law Enforcement, or specifically, the Auror's office. Even though James Potter, Sirius Black, the comatose Longbottom Couple and many other Light-Faction members were Aurors, and many didn't like the decision, they still followed the decision because the majority of the Light-Faction was in favor.

Albus Dumbledore actively participated and supported the motion because he wasn't happy with the wartime decision of using the Unforgivable Curses. Dumbledore's forget-and-forgive philosophy didn't support the direction the Auror's office was going.

The Grey-Faction went along with the flow and voted in favor for the motion because they, too, didn't want over-vigilant policing from the Auror's office. Grey-Faction liked freedom so that they could conduct their business in peace.

"Now, let's talk about the present. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement took a short-term hit from the reduced funding, but it was, as I speak, a short-term hit. Even though they had to struggle for a year or two, excellent leadership brought The Department of Magical Law Enforcement back to stability and glory."

Quinn smiled in admiration as he went on.

"Under the direction of DMLE head Amelia Bones, the department recovered and regained their influence. Amelia Bones is so popular among the public that she is believed she will be the winner of the next ministerial election. Even at this moment, Amelia Bones is already far ahead of Cornelius Fudge in popularity."

The world of politics was a complicated and treacherous one.

"So to limit her rising popularity, the minister's faction is trying to downplay the activities of Novellus Accionites. They don't want to add fuel to Amelia Bone's popularity by handing the operational authority to the Auror's office and let them take another victory. So they have been downplaying Novellus Accionites so that Amelia Bones won't start a campaign that might boost her popularity at the next election."

Marcus and Eddie didn't like what they were hearing. A terrorist group was hardly being given any coverage because the ministry wanted to play politics.

"That doesn't sound good. Why isn't anyone doing something?" Marcus frowned in disgust. The two fourteen-year-old boys didn't understand politics. It was their first discussion on politics, and well, they didn't like it.

"It's not like they are doing nothing. Aurors are on the lookout. Aurors won't stop their basic duties because of politics; they will still protect people," Quinn comforted them with some positivity of the situation. "And there is another reason why the Aurors and ministry aren't moving more aggressively."

"What is it?" inquired Eddie curiously.

"Novellus Accionites are public supporters of Vol- I mean, Rid- I mean, You-Know-Who," Quinn stopped himself from speaking the wrong term twice.

In his mind, he addressed the Dark Lord as Voldemort or Tom Riddle. Quinn never addressed the Dark Lord as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But to keep appearances, Quinn had to call him with the hyphenated pseudonyms.

Plus, he wasn't sure if the Taboo on the name Voldemort would return, so he made sure to keep a habit of using hyphenated pseudonyms to not accidentally get into trouble.

Quinn coughed before continuing, "So, as I was saying, Novellus Accionites claim themselves to be supporters of the Dark Lord. Due to that, the ministry doesn't want to spread panic in which 'somehow the Dark Lord is back', because, then, there would be rumors that would spread the idea that Novellus Accionites are actually Death Eaters."

"The ministry is trying to portray a message in which Novellus Accionites aren't a big deal, just some stupid dafts who aren't a huge threat. They are keeping this under the wraps. It is all about maintaining order by avoiding chaos," Quinn shrugged at the end. "They want to leave the Dark Lord's reign behind them."

Eddie and Marcus didn't give any response. Quinn turned to regard his friends and saw contemplative expressions on their faces.

Quinn didn't disturb them and walked beside them in silence as they went down the sloping lawns to Rubeus Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest for Care of Magical Creatures.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Marcus were thinking about the situation and forming their own views. He kept silent so that they could think about the situation. Things were never black or white; there were always shades of grey present in everything.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Rubeus Hagrid was waiting for his class at the door of his hut. He stood in his moleskin overcoat with Fang the boarhound at his heels. He seemed impatient to start.

"C'mon, now, move on!" he called as the class approached. "Got a real treat for you today! Great lesson coming up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

The class followed as Hagrid strolled off around the edge of the trees, and five minutes later, they found themselves outside a kind of paddock. There was nothing in there.

"Everyone gather around the fence here!" Hagrid called. "That's it —make sure you can see— now, the first thing you'll want to do is to open your books."

The students were confused as they had no idea how to open the book.

The Ravenclaw students frowned darkly; lots of them even looked frustrated as they hadn't got the chance to open their textbooks before the class.

Eddie also squinted at his Care of Magical Creatures' book before he caught Quinn in his peripheral vision. He snapped towards Quinn and blurted.

"How did you open the book?!"

Quinn, who was in the middle of reading, shook his head slightly, turned to Eddie and said with an accusatory tone, "What is wrong with you! Don't surprise a man when he's reading!"

Eddie's and Quinn's louder than regular argument brought the attention of the rest of the class to them. Everyone saw that Quinn's Care of Magical Creature book was open. And now, everyone wanted to know how Quinn opened the damned book, which tried to bite anyone who tried to open it.

Quinn sighed and looked for Hagrid, but the giant had stepped into the woods and wasn't nearby.

'I guess I have to show them,' Quinn thought as he raised his hand towards Eddie and made a gesture to make him hand over his book.

Eddie handed over his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters, which he had bound shut with a length of rope.

After watching that some others also took out their books: some, like Eddie, had used ropes to bound their books shut; others, had crammed them inside tight bags or clamped them together with binder clips.

"Stroke the spine," Quinn announced to anyone who was paying attention. "Look here, like this."

He removed the length of rope from Eddie's book, dodged the book's bite and gently used three fingers to gently stroke the spine. The book shivered and then fell open and lay quietly in his hand.

"How did you know how to do that?" Marcus asked, as he stroked the spine of his copy and opened the book after it calmed down.

Quinn shrugged in reply, "I asked the bookstore manager and he told me." His tone was like he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.

And he wasn't lying. Quinn had to buy The Monster Book of Monsters for this year. He hadn't purchased this book for his British book collection. So when he went to the bookstore, Quinn did ask the book shop manager to demonstrate how to open the biting book.

"I'm back. Look who is here to meet you!"

Trotting towards them were a dozen of the most bizarre creatures Quinn had ever seen. They had the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings, and heads of what seemed to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, sparkling orange eyes. The sharp talons on their front legs were half a foot long and deadly-looking. Each of the beasts had a thick leather collar around its neck attached to a long chain. Hagrid, who came out jogging, held the chains that were attached to the collars.

"Gee up, there!" he roared, shaking the chains and urging the creatures to move toward the fence where the class stood. Everyone drew back slightly as Hagrid reached them and tethered the creatures to the fence.

"Hippogriffs!" shouted Hagrid happily, waving a hand at them. "Beautiful, aren't they?"

Quinn tilted his head and tried to see the beauty in the creatures. Once he got over the first shock of seeing something that was half horse, half-bird, Quinn observed the hippogriffs' gleaming coats: changing smoothly from feather to hair, each of them of a different color; stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut, and inky black.

"So," said Hagrid, rubbing his hands together and beaming around, "if you want to come a bit nearer -"

No one seemed to want to. But Quinn, with a mischievous grin on his face, grabbed Eddie's and Marcus's robes above their shoulders and dragged them closer to the fence.

"W-What are you doing?!" Marcus whimpered as he stammered in his words.

"Have you gone mad?!" Eddie croaked back as he tried to stand his ground, but Quinn was stronger than him.

"I still remember how you pushed me forward during last year's dueling club," Quinn cackled as he brought them to the fence. "Come now, don't be scared, but do remember that if the hippogriffs attack, I will use you as meat shields."

"Now, the first thing you gotta know about hippogriffs is, they're proud," warned Hagrid. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Never insult one because it might be the last thing you do."

"Always wait for the hippogriff to make the first move. Give the proud bird the initiative," Hagrid continued. "It is polite, see? You walk towards them; then you bow, and finally, you wait. If they bow back, you are allowed to touch them. If they don't bow, then walk away, but keep an eye on their talons."

"Now, who wants to go first?"

Most of the class backed farther away in answer. The hippogriffs were tossing their fierce heads and flexing their mighty wings; they didn't seem to like being tethered like this.

"No one?" said Hagrid, with a pleading look.

"I'll do it," volunteered Quinn, raising his hand high as Eddie and Marcus slowly inched back away.

Don't get Quinn wrong, while he volunteered for a one-on-one with a hippogriff, he did feel fear. Quinn guessed he could defend against hippogriffs. No problem on that front; he could instantly injure the half-horse, half-bird, and get away, but that didn't mean that Quinn wasn't afraid.

He still feared that he could get injured. But in Quinn's mind, it was a waste of an opportunity to not try out new things. If he avoided risks, then he would miss out on a lot of fun stuff in his life.

"Good man!" roared the half-giant, his voice booming with joy. "Right then, let's see you get on Hothoof."

Quinn jumped over the fence as Hagrid untied one of the chains, pulled the bronze hippogriff away from its fellows, and slipped off its leather collar. The class on the other side of the paddock seemed to be holding its breath.

"Easy, now," whispered Hagrid quietly. "You have to make eye contact, but don't blink too much. They don't trust you if you blink too much."

Quinn immediately moistened his eyes with magic he learned from Alan when he was learning Occlumency.

Hothoof turned his great, sharp head and stared at Quinn with one fierce red eye.

"That's it," Hagrid guided from the side, "Now, bow, bow..."

Quinn followed the instructions, even though he wasn't a fan of exposing his nape to the hippogriff. He gave a short bow and then looked up.

The hippogriff was still staring haughtily at him. It didn't move.

Quinn was about to give the hippogriff the same haughty look, but then the hippogriff suddenly bent its scaly front knees and sank into what was an unmistakable bow.

"Alright," Quinn beamed as he swiftly walked his way to Hothoof and patted the hippogriff's beak. He patted the beak several times, and the hippogriff closed its eyes lazily, as though it was enjoying it.

The class broke into applause.

"Who is a good boy?" Quinn cooed as he used his other hand to stroke the feathers, but then he turned his head to Hagrid and asked. "Hothoof is a boy, right?"

"Nay, Hothoof is a lady," Hagrid shook his head in correction.

"Oh, my," Quinn turned back to the female hippogriff and cooed once more. "Who is a good girl? You are, aren't you?"

Hothoof titled her neck to better guide Quinn's hands to the spot that felt better.

"Right then," clapped Hagrid. "I reckon she might let you ride her!"

"Hmm..." Quinn voiced as he looked into Hothoofs red eyes and gave it a thought. "Uh, why not? I could always jump off if things get wild. Ooh~, maybe that would feel the same as skydiving."

"You climb up there, just behind the wing joint," said Hagrid, "And mind you, don't pull any of her feathers out, she won't like that..."

Quinn put his foot on the top of Hothoof wing and hoisted himself onto its back. He used sticking charms to stick himself to the hippogriff's back.

"Let's go, big lady," Quinn gently patted Hothoof's nape, and Hothoof stood up.

"Go on, then!" roared Hagrid, slapping the hippogriff's hindquarters.

Hothoof's wings flapped open on either side of Quinn, and before he knew it, he was soaring into the sky. The hippogriff's wings beat uncomfortably, catching him under his legs and making him feel he was about to be thrown off.

'Maybe this is like life bull riding,' Quinn thought as he looked below at the trees that made up the forest.

"Oh, yeah. I should do that," Quinn put his hand over his head, and conjured a cowboy hat over his head. He also made it stick to his head so it wouldn't fly away.

"Yee-haw!" Quinn's voice was drowned by the wind, but his grin was still present on his face.

Hothoof flew him once around the paddock and then headed back to the ground. With a thud, Hothoof's four ill-assorted feet hit the ground.

Quinn looked at the rest of his classmates, pushed up his cowboy hat, and jutted his chin towards them, "Howdy, people."

"Good work, Quinn!" roared Hagrid as everyone cheered. "Okay, who else wants a go?"

Emboldened by Quinn's success, the rest of the class climbed cautiously into the paddock. Hagrid untied the hippogriffs one by one, and soon there were people bowing nervously all over the paddock.

Eddie and Marcus practiced on the inky black hippogriff named Stormswift, but they had to run backward repeatedly because Stormswift didn't seem to want to bend its knees.

Quinn stayed back and watched his classmates; his conjured cowboy hat still on his head.

"What a good day."

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Quinn West - MC - We ride, never worry about the fall. Guess that is just the cowboy in us all. *Click-Click*

Hothoof - Hippogriff - Big Lady of the sky.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

It turned out that the Roman gods weren't ancient magicals. They were mythology in both the magical and non-magical worlds.

"But Jupiter's thunderbolt, Neptune's trident, and Pluto's pitchfork are real magical artifacts," said Quinn while reading from an ancient tome he had found in Hogwarts library. Then he scoffed at the next piece of information. "Of course, all of them are either lost, missing, or possibly destroyed."

"Maybe they were real and became so powerful that no one believed their existence," considered Quinn about the identity of the Roman gods. "If that is true, then those guys were total legends."

Quinn sighed as he read through Neptune's status in the magical Roman dynasty.

"Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon. As Neptune, he becomes more disciplined, militant and warlike than his Greek counterpart. For the Greeks, Poseidon was a major civic god and was highly respected for being the god of the sea and earthquakes. However, the Romans, who were not seafaring people, associated Neptune more with fresh water and horses and treated him with fearful respect."

Quinn stopped reading for a second before thinking about a tangent. "Why am I assuming that the riddle is about the Roman god Neptune and not about the planet Neptune." Quinn groaned and took out his notepad, and added a note.

'Do research on Neptune (Planet).'

"Maybe the divination section will help me out in this one." Quinn wondered before returning to the ancient tome and sighed, "Oh well, let's worry about that later. Let's continue on with this."

"The Romans believed in a series of gods associated with the world around them. They designated Neptune as the god of water and the sea, a close parallel to the Greek god Poseidon. As the god of freshwater, Romans prayed to Neptune to provide water for their crops. In ancient Italy, farmers would honor Neptune with a festival in July, when frequent droughts would destroy their fields. He was also a horses' patron and had temples built near racetracks."

Quinn frowned at this paragraph.

'So you are saying that in Greek society, he was a big badass with storms and earthquakes. But in Roman society he was demoted to the god of freshwater.'

Quinn understood that Neptune was still the god of seas, but the Romans didn't know how to build sturdy ships to sail in the violent sea, so the sea was nothing but something foreboding to them. That meant that they didn't pray to the sea god Neptune and associated the god more with fresh water and horses.

'Alright, now this is becoming more and more of a situation where there will be a presence of something like a Bane,' Quinn felt happy about the progress he had made and wrote everything down. 'Now, I just need to find what is the bane in this situation. Is it another god?'

There was only one way to find out, and that was to read more books. And Quinn was really good at that.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

"Hey, what do you think about the hippogriff that attacked Malfoy?" gossiped Eddie over the table. "Some are saying that the hippogriff tried to kill Malfoy."

Quinn wagged his finger and corrected the gossip that had been going around. "That is something Malfoy and his goonies have been spreading around. According to my sources, Malfoy called the hippogriff an 'ugly brute' while he was sitting on it."

Marcus almost spat out his food after hearing that, "He was on the top of the hippogriff?! Now, that is not the poppycock behavior I'm expecting from a Slytherin."

Quinn laughed at Marcus' statement till his sides were hurting, "We're in our fourth year. You should have learned by now that to be in Slytherin isn't synonymous with being cunning nowadays."

He glanced over his shoulder to peek at the Slytherin table and scoffed, "We have been witnessing Malfoy's antics for two years now. Can you expect anything else? Plus, at-present, he's doing something really foolish."

"Foolish?" Eddie turned in his seat to peep at Draco Malfoy, who was sitting at Slytherin's table. Draco's right arm was covered in bandages and bound up in a sling; acting, in Eddie's opinion, as though he were the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.

"What do you mean by foolish?" Eddie solicited an explanation as he turned back.

"Look at his sling," Quinn brought their attention to Draco's broken arm. Eddie and Marcus, however, didn't see anything weird about the situation.

"The sling in his arm doesn't make any sense. Madam Pomfrey can regrow all bones in an arm in a single day," Quinn pointed his thumb back in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Malfoy's arm is just broken. She could fix him up and then announce that Malfoy's fit to continue his life as normal under an hour. That sling in his arm is just a hoax."

Realization dawned over Eddie and Marcus as they finally noticed the anomaly that was the sling in Dracos' arm.

"Even if Malfoy's arm was weak because his muscles were torn from the hippogriff's talon and needed to recuperate, then it would take maybe two days at most to get it back to full functionality."

Draco had been parading the arm in his sling for just under a week. So there was no reason for his arm to be in a sling.

Heck, Quinn had taken just ten days in the hospital wing, and he had been injured quite severely. There were lots of injuries in his organs, and that kind of thing had taken just ten days to get fixed. Draco's arm was a piece of cake for any decent medic.

"But maybe Malfoy is cunning," Quinn added another outlook to this situation.

"Huh, how?" Marcus looked confused at the sudden counter addition. "You just pointed out that he is doing something foolish by keeping his arm in a sling."

"That is exactly it. I mean, look at you two," Quinn pointed at his two friends with his fork before continuing. "No offense to you guys, but you guys didn't notice anything wrong with Malfoy's arm in a sling. Think how many people will believe the same thing. A sling in his arm creates an image of injury, and with the story propagated by the Malfoy's group, this image will be upgraded to a serious injury. So maybe with this arm sling drama, Malfoy is trying to make the situation seem more serious and portray that he survived a deadly accident. So he's showing traces of cunningness with this ploy."

Quinn thought about the upcoming Buckbeak execution plotline that happened this year. Malfoy Senior lobbied for the execution of the hippogriff who 'almost killed' his son.

If the sling in his arm was a ploy to elevate the situation, Quinn had to admit that this was an excellent tactic, as his two friends didn't see anything wrong with it, and both had come from magical families. Students from non-magical families who were used to the idea of using a sling to heal arms after getting broken would eat this up without a second thought.

"A good manipulation of the public," Quinn nodded in appreciation. "The final question is whether this came from Malfoy or his father, Lucius Malfoy. If it came from Malfoy, then props to him, but if it came from his father, yeah, this guy's still a fool."

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

Lupin wasn't there when they arrived at their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. They sat down, took their books out, quills, parchment, and talked to one another when he finally entered the room. Lupin gave a faint smile and placed his briefcase on the teacher's desk.

"Good afternoon," he said. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today will be a practical lesson. Only your wands will be needed."

The students and, at some level, even Quinn, were surprised, as the class put away their books. Lots of curious glances were exchanged as they had never had a practical class in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The current third-year students had one memorable class last year when their old teacher had brought a cageful of pixies to lesson and set them loose. But, they, fourth years, hadn't had a practical Defense Against Dark Arts lesson. Not even in their first year, when they had a decent enough teacher, as she never gave them a practical class.

"Right then," said Lupin when everyone was ready. "If you'd follow me."

Puzzled but interested, the class got to its feet and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom. He led them along the deserted corridor and around a corner into another classroom.

The room was empty, with no chairs or tables.

"Now, then," said Professor Lupin, beckoning the class toward the end of the room, where there was nothing but an old wardrobe. As Professor Lupin went to stand next to it, the wardrobe gave a sudden wobble, banging off the wall.

"Nothing to worry about," said Professor Lupin calmly because a few people had jumped backward in alarm. "There's a boggart in there."

Quinn knew this was coming. And Quinn would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to this.

After getting in touch with his emotions during the summer break, Quinn understood the importance of negative emotions and their place in his magic. He learned to accept that he had emotions that made him vulnerable, emotions like fear which a creature like Boggart exploited.

With that realization, Quinn felt he needed to really know all his negative emotions, what caused them and, then, accept them rather than outright rejecting them.

A Boggart would be an excellent way to start on understanding his fears.

Most people seemed to feel that the thing inside the wardrobe was something to worry about. Marcus at Quinn's side was eyeing the rattling doorknob apprehensively.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," informed Professor Lupin. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I once met one that had lodged itself in an old man's clock. This one was moved in here two afternoons ago, so I asked the headmaster if I could use it as a practical lesson for all years."

Everyone knew that permission was granted.

"So the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?" Professor Lupin threw out a question to the class.

Quinn followed his usual routine and looked left and then to the right to see if anyone had raised their hand. Seeing that no one was going to volunteer to answer the question, Quinn raised his hand.

When Lupin pointed at Quinn, he promptly answered.

"A Boggart is an amortal shape-shifting non-being that takes on the form of its observer's worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone, as it changes shape instantly upon encountering someone."

The words amortal and non-being were the words to focus on here.

A Non-Human Spirituous Apparition, also known as a non-being, was a magical spirit created of human emotions. They were notable because they had no equivalent in the non-magical world and their similarity to ghosts, despite never being truly alive. While non-beings were not truly alive and could not be truly destroyed, magic users had invented over the centuries various spells that could drive off these spirits using positive emotions. Their numbers could also be limited by reducing the conditions that would generate them.

Amortality was the condition of never having died and being unable to die, as an amortal entity was never "alive" to begin with. As amortality referred to entities that were never alive at any point in their lives. It was different from "immortality," which described living beings who were unable to die or had an infinite lifespan.

Dementors, Boggarts, and Poltergeist were examples of non-being and amoral entities, as they weren't ever alive and couldn't be killed.

In the distant future, someone with black hair and stone-grey eyes would discover a way to kill various amoral beings, putting the concept of Amortality in need of revision.

"That is actually better than I was expecting," Lupin blinked in surprise as he regarded Quinn with interest. "Well, Quinn," Lupin was pleased with the answer, so he rewarded the answer. "Take twenty points to Ravenclaw for an excellent answer."

Quinn gave a slight nod, and Lupin continued with his lesson.

"So a Boggart that resides in the darkness doesn't assume a form. It doesn't know yet what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but if I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us fear the most."

Lupin raised both his hands and gestured to the students who had become restless. "Please, calm down. The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires mental prowess. You see, the thing that really ends a boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape you find amusing."

The professor lowered his hands as he continued, "We'll practice the charm without wands first. After me, please... Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" chanted the class together.

"Good," smiled Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, only saying the word isn't enough. And this is where you come in, Jessica."

Jessica Tring, a fourth-year Hufflepuff stepped forward, while shaking slightly.

"Right, Jessica," said Professor Lupin. "First things first. What would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?"

"... Snakes," Jessica answered with a tremble in her voice.

"Right, have you seen one of these rubber balloon animals," Lupin asked Jessica, who nodded.

"Excellent, when the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe and sees you, Jessica, it will assume the form of a snake," Lupin explained at a slower pace so that Jessica would catch every word. "You'll have to raise your wand —like this— and say 'Riddikulus'. Concentrate hard on the image of the snake turning into a balloon version which then deflates while creating a fun noise."

"If Jessica is successful, the boggart will likely shift its attention to another one of us in turn," said Professor Lupin. "I'd like all of you to take a moment now to think of the thing that scares you most and imagine how you might force it to look comical..."

The room went quiet as everyone began thinking about their greatest fear and how to make it comical.

"Everyone ready?" asked Professor Lupin. He looked at Jessica and instructed, "Jessica, we're going to back away. Let's get you a better field of vision, all right? I'll call the next person forward. Everyone, back. Now Jessica has a clear shot."

They all retreated and backed against the walls, leaving Jessica alone along the wardrobe. She looked slightly pale and frightened, but had pushed up the sleeves from her robes and was holding her wand, ready.

"On the count of three, Jessica," said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe. "One, two, three - Now!"

A jet of sparks shot from the end of Professor Lupin's wand and hit the doorknob. The wardrobe burst open. A long forest green snake with shiny scales slithered out while making loud hissing sounds.

Jessica backed away, her wand up, and cried, "Riddikulus!"

There was a squeaky noise of a blown balloon being touched, and the green snake turned into a balloon art, and immediately after, it started deflating while making a noise that sounded like a fart.

There was a roar of laughter and as the Boggart kept on leaking air and making fart noises, Lupin shouted, "Carmicheal, next!"

Then the entire class went through the same thing as they faced something they feared and then turned it into something funny.

There were many animals and creatures, a few renditions of Snape, one of Filch, some parents, mummies, zombies, one big eye... but everything was turned into comic relief after a cry of 'Riddikulus'.

Eddie was scared of his mom, who looked furious and had a ladle in her hand. Marcus, on the other hand, feared screaming banshees.

Finally, it was Quinn's turn, who stepped forward after everyone was done and were talking among themselves.

Lupin thought everyone was done, but stopped when he saw Quinn step forward towards a disco-ball-shaped Boggart. He was interested to see what would be the Boggart of the Quinn West. Flitwick had said that Quinn was the brightest student he had ever taught. And the half-goblin had said it when Lily Potter was sitting with them.

His eyes widened when the Boggart turned into a replica of Quinn. But Boggart-Quinn had a wide smirk on his face and a wand in his hand.

'What in the world?' Lupin didn't know what to think. He wasn't sure what it meant when a Boggart turned into the person itself. Lupin turned his face to the real Quinn and thought, 'He fears himself?'

...

Quinn, who was looking at his Boggart, immediately knew what his greatest fear was.

'That smirk and the wand in his hand,' Quinn thought as he observed his Boggart, and he knew that this was his greatest fear, as his heart was starting to beat slightly faster.

Quinn's current biggest fear was him never escaping the sin's curse and giving in to the temptation of his wand. He feared how he would have turned out had the curse continued to have a hold on him. Quinn had even erased Lockhart's memories and was going to cause pain and suffering to Luna's bullies. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if the curse had continued to change him.

He feared that if the curse continued, then he would've been replaced by someone who looked like him but wasn't him. The fear that the base of his existence, his identity would've been erased without anyone knowing.

'Just like I replaced the original Quinn,' thought Quinn as he stared at the Boggart-Quinn and tightly balled his hands in a fist.

Quinn also dreaded the possibility that one day he would give in to the temptation that posed his wand, abandoning all the hard work he had done to develop his wandless magic. Quinn knew better than anybody else that if he started to use his wand, he would never be able to put it down. The temptation of power would be too much for him, a fatal flaw that would ruin him.

Those two things were Quinn's greatest fears.

He took a deep breath and raised his fake wand, and softly chanted, "Riddikulus."

Immediately, the Boggart-Quinn turned into green slime that tried to stay upright but then collapsed into a puddle.

He turned back and informed a bemused Lupin, "Professor, everybody is done."

Quinn's voice brought Lupin out of his thoughts, as he waited for a second and replied in a delayed manner, "... Ah, yes, Quinn. Please, join your classmates. I'll lock the Boggart back into the wardrobe."

Quinn didn't notice the oddness in Lupin as he was occupied with thinking about his fear.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC - A lot of introspection.

Draco Malfoy - Slytherin - Cunning genius or Daddy's boy

Remus Lupin - Werewolf - [Boggart = Full moon.]

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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"So you're looking for a job at A.I.D."

Quinn was sitting behind his desk in the A.I.D office looking at a sheet of parchment in his hands.

"No. I don't. You called me here," answered Luna, sitting in front of the desk, her legs swinging in the air while she sat in her chair.

"Then what about this resumé?" asked Quinn as he raised the sheet of parchment to show it to Luna.

"You asked me to write this and bring it to you," Luna replied, picking up a transparent golf-ball-sized glass spheroid from the desk. The second she picked it up, the glass spheroid gained colors, which took on the appearance of the earth globe.

"Of course, of course," Quinn nodded as he pretended to interview Luna. He set down Luna's resumé and asked, "Tell me, Ms. Lovegood, why are you suitable for this job?"

"Tell me, Mr. West, why does this job deserve me?" Luna counter-questioned Quinn as she tossed the glass globe up and down. "And what is the job exactly?"

"Oh, well, we offer excellent benefits; state-of-the-art tools, raw materials of all kinds, personal tutoring from me if I am free..." Quinn clapped with a proud smile and added, "We also have a library with guides written by me, Quinn West. Finally, we also provide a batch of cookies a day, courtesy of the kitchen house-elves. They are quite good."

Quinn's guides contained his understanding of some magic branches he had obtained from different magical cultures. The books that would be available to Luna would be about the Hogwarts subjects because he didn't want to share the other things he had been cooking.

"As for the job, you'll have to sit in the office for some time to take in the requests from anyone who comes in. Plus, you will be my assistant."

Quinn's motive for taking Luna to A.I.D was to improve her communication skills. If she talked to the students who came in for requests and asked them for their requirements, it would help her develop her communication skills. With time, Luna would get better at talking to people and she would become more confident in herself.

Luna's ears twitched, and she took her eyes off the glass globe.

"Cookies? You have cookies?"

Quinn leaned down in his chair, opened a drawer in his desk, and took out a glass jar full of cookies.

"Please, take one," Quinn offered the cookies, removing the lid from the jar.

Luna picked one from the jar, looked at the cookies, then the cookie jar, and finally raised her head to peek at Quinn, "Can I take another one?"

"Hmm," Quinn pretended to think before negotiating with his interviewee. "Only if you take the job."

Luna, without hesitation, dipped her hand into the cookie jar and took out another cookie. "When do I start?"

"You start tomorrow," Quinn smiled, shook hands with Luna, and said, "Welcome to A.I.D."

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- (Scene Break) -

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"I really thought you would ask some girl out," Eddie asked as he settled an arm over Quinn's shoulders as he, Quinn, and Marcus walked to Hogsmeade.

"Now, now, why would you think that?" Quinn asked as he and his two friends entered Hogsmeade on the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Which was the following day after Halloween.

"You know more girls than both, Marcus and I, combined," replied Eddie as he tightened his hold over Quinn. "And you talk to them regularly. I really thought you would have asked one of them out."

"You're thinking small, Eddie," Marcus chirped in as he eyed Quinn. "This guy could have asked out almost any girl, and they most probably would have said yes to a date."

Eddie clicked his tongue and grumbled, "Yeah, this guy is annoyingly popular." He removed his arm from Quinn's shoulder, grabbed his cheeks, and turned his face left to right. "I mean, yeah, he's a good-looking bloke. He can be funny sometimes. No one is smarter than him if a girl wants that. Polite? Sure." Eddie sighed and released Quinn's face from his grasp, "Yeah, I get it."

Quinn smiled with an exhale, bumped his shoulders into Eddie's and Marcus's shoulder, and claimed, "I didn't ask a girl out because, then, I thought you two would end up lonely. I'm honoring our friendship. Be grateful."

A picture of him pulling Daphne close flashed through Quinn's mind. He shook his head to shake that image. He had been pretending that incident never happened because he had no idea how to approach that situation.

"If you want us to be grateful, then get a girlfriend and then set us up with her friends," Eddie suggested. Quinn realized both his friends looked sincere enough to know they weren't joking.

"Good man!" Marcus looked particularly enthusiastic about Eddie's suggestion. "Let's make a pact. If one of us ever has a girlfriend, then the person who gets it first will have to ask his girlfriend to introduce her friends to us."

"How about you guys first try to ask out a girl? Then we'll talk about this pact," Quinn spoke while shaking his head, not believing that they were making a girlfriend pact when they hadn't even asked out a girl on their own.

"Sure, sure, we'll do that, but let's make the pact just in case," Marcus stopped, and so did Eddie. Both put out one hand forward and brought them together.

They looked towards Quinn and saw him walking away while looking at them. He was shaking his head.

"So you're saying that we are not good enough for your girlfriend's friends?!" Eddie shouted at Quinn. He pointed his finger at him and yelled, "You have changed ever since you got a girlfriend, man! You were a decent bloke who honored our friendship before!"

"I don't have a girlfriend!"

"Whatever, you suck!"

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- (Scene Break) -

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A group of individuals dressed in thick robes covering their entire bodies stood in a circle in a room with stone-covered walls. Ominous dark maroon candles on the stone walls cast a dim light on the room's occupants.

"Today is a Hogsmeade weekend at Hogwarts," One of the robed figures spoke to the rest of the group. "A lot of people will be present in Hogsmeade, there will be plenty of activity."

He swept his eyes around and went on, "Parents dropping by to meet their children. Shops full of Hogwarts students, stalls set specially for the Hogsmeade weekend." The person who was speaking smirked and continued, "A lot of filthy mudbloods walking around in the open."

A wave of malicious chuckles and savage smiles streaked across the room.

"Those filthy mudblood children must be eradicated before they enter our prestigious society. So today we will descend on Hogsmeade and purge our community from the mudbloods," the speaker, who seemed like the leader of the group, announced their objective.

"How will we distinguish the mudblood from the others," asked one of the other robed individuals.

"The clothes they wear will be their undoing. Target anyone who wears muggle attire."

Another person asked, "What if someone that is not a mudblood wears muggle clothing."

"Then they are blood traitors," the leader's words came without hesitation. "This is a crusade. In the pursuit of what is right and pure, there will have to be some sacrifices. We are doing good for our society, so don't hesitate and raise your wands against all that is evil."

He raised his wand and voiced.

"Novellus Accionites!"

All the others raised their wands and chanted in unison.

" "Novellus Accionites!!!" "

The leader immediately disapparated from the stone chamber. The others followed behind, disapparating one by one, leaving behind an empty room.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn came out of the Three Broomsticks with a big mug made of glass of cherry syrup and soda with ice and a paper parasol. He had conjured a big glass in order to take his drink out so he didn't have to drink it inside the pub.

He drank the beverage from a conjured straw and roamed around Hogsmeade. Quinn was alone because Eddie and Marcus were getting their haircut at the barber.

He had offered to cut their hair, but they hadn't accepted the generous offer. He had been cutting his own hair at Hogwarts. It was easy when you had magic and knew exactly what needed to be trimmed.

"Their loss," Quinn said as he put his mouth on the straw. He was walking around to see if something caught his eyes, and something did catch his eyes when a group of robed individuals apparated ten feet right in front of him. All of the robed individuals were wearing masks with a symbol that was clearly a derivative from Voldemort's Dark Mark.

'Novellus Accionites,' Quinn recognized immediately the symbol from the newspapers and turned around without wasting a second.

"Need to get away from them. ASAP," Quinn muttered with the straw in his mouth, his hands raising the glass mug, the cherry beverage still being sucked through the straw.

The leader of Accionites noticed Quinn and saw that he was wearing muggle clothing. Plus, the way he turned on the spot showed that he recognized them.

"Get that kid." the leader ordered the two other members, pointing at the retreating Quinn. "We'll use him as an example."

Quinn, who was walking quickly, didn't know that the only reason the terrorist group was targeting him was that he was wearing a comfortable jumper.

The two Accionites smirked under their masks when they saw Quinn turn into an alley. He just made their jobs easier by separating from the crowd. The duo of Accionites entered the dark alleyway and saw that Quinn was walking to the end of a closed alleyway, probably thinking that if he hid, they wouldn't be able to find him.

One of the Accionites raised his wand and shot a spell on Quinn's back, smirking at the easy target, but the spell just passed through Quinn and hit the wall in front of him.

Both Accionites looked at each other with bewilderment on their faces. When they returned their eyes to Quinn, he stopped. The other Accionite had just pulled his wand out to cast another spell at Quinn when they heard a thumping noise at their back.

When they turned back, they witnessed Quinn standing behind them, and before they even had the chance to widen their eyes in surprise, their wands were expelled from their hands.

The next moment, four chains with cuffs came out of the ground beneath them and clamped on their wrists, pulling them to the ground.

"Wha-!"

"Oof!"

The Accionite duo couldn't accept the sudden turn of events and were wide-eyed as Quinn removed their masks.

"You guys are lucky that I finished my drink. You were this close to getting to me before I emptied out the mug," Quinn brought his fingers closer to emphasize how close they were.

"Release us, you filth -." one of the unmasked individuals growled at Quinn, but Quinn slapped him hard before he could complete his sentence.

"Shut up," Quinn promptly explained his actions after slapping the guy.

"You! Do you know who -." the other one spoke to get the same slap from Quinn.

"I won't repeat myself, shut up."

Quinn sighed and decided to get them over. He stepped forward and placed one palm on both of their heads and immediately used Legilimency on the Accionites. After under half a minute, Quinn had a general sense on why Novellus Accionites were there at Hogsmeade.

"Rid Britain of muggleborns, blah, blah, blah... Targeting students. Yup, checks out."

He stepped back, and then ice spikes pierced one shoulder and one thigh of both the Accionites.

"AAAAAAHH!!!!"

Bloodcurdling screams filled the alleyway but didn't get out because Quinn had warded the area so that noise didn't get out.

"You both have killed others, and even though I'm not comfortable with murder, I am not above inflicting pain," said Quinn with almost no expression on his face.

Quinn ignored the screams and went on, "I'm leaving those spikes in there but don't worry, you won't bleed to death because I have frozen the entry points. You will still feel pain and cold on your shoulders and thighs..."

He looked at the two and saw that both of them were kneeling.

"... and your calves. I wasn't aiming for those. I apologize. Or not."

Quinn once again placed his palms on their foreheads, ignoring their begging and whimpers.

"Time to forget about me," whispered Quinn and wiped their memory of him from their minds.

The two Accionites were near the opening of the alleyway and clearly visible, so it was easy for them to be found.

If anyone was paying attention, they would have noticed three people going inside the alleyway and none coming out.

After he was done, Quinn stepped behind them, shot ropes from the seize-and-pull spells towards the rooftops, and pulled himself towards the roof of the buildings. Just as he reached the top, two bricks protruded out from the sides of the building to act as foot support and Quinn used them to climb onto the roof. He turned himself invisible and then climbed some more till he was near the very top of the building's chimney.

"Let's see. Where are the other ones?"

Quinn was high enough so he could see a decent part of Hogsmeade that wasn't obstructed by other buildings. He judged from the frightened, running people that a sizable group of Accionites had headed towards the south.

"Let's slow them down till the Aurors get here," Quinn decided and jumped off the rooftop. He cast Arresto Momentum to kill his falling speed just before landing on the ground.

A map of Hogsmeade appeared in Quinn's mind as he moved south, running through alleyways and taking shortcuts to get there faster.

The frightened screams alerted Quinn that the group of terrorists were nearby, so he once again climbed up a nearby rooftop and got a clear view of a trio of Accionites with their wands out. From what he could see, the Accionites were trying to spot muggleborns students, but since the majority of the students were wearing Hogwarts robes over their casual clothes, it was difficult for the assailant to get a clear look.

"Lucky for me, you're wearing masks."

While saying that, three ice spikes manifested in the air - cold air emitting from the surface of the spikes. The spikes were long and had pointed edges on both sides.

Quinn locked his eyes on the three terrorists, and with a flick of his wrist, the three long ice spikes whistled towards their targets. All three were pierced in their thighs or calves, which forced them to drop to their knees.

" " "Aaaaaaaaaaah!" " "

The three Accionites screamed, causing the panicked public to scream more since they thought the shrieks of pain were from someone attacked by the terrorists.

Quinn winced at the raised commotion.

'Maybe I should have simply stunned them.'

He sighed and cast Depulso towards their upper backs, forcing their bodies to slam against the ground and stunned them the next second.

Jumping from the roof, Quinn ran towards the unconscious terrorists, removed their masks, stuck the removed masks to their backs, took their wands, and similarly stuck them to their backs. He didn't snap their wands because wands were a crucial piece of evidence.

After he was done, chains with cuffs shot out from the ground and firmly clamped their wrists and ankles around, snugly contacting every part of the skin. With the Accionites being chained to the ground, they wouldn't be able to apparate without tugging on the chains and getting splinched in the process.

Finally, to make sure they wouldn't be going anywhere, Quinn transmuted the ground to engulf them and trapped them into the ground.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"Oh ho, Harry Potter..."

The golden squad, who had just become aware of the conflict and the commotion, were about to return to the castle when they heard someone call out to Harry with a chuckle in their voice. It wasn't the voice of someone in panic or hurry.

On reflex, the golden squad turned toward the voice's source. When they turned around, they saw a robed individual with a mask on their face. He stood facing them and had his wand out in his hand.

"To think I would come across the boy-who-lived," the masked person slowly stepped towards them as he talked. "I wasn't expecting to meet the one who vanquished our lord."

All four Gryffindors stumbled to get their wands out and readied them, pointing them at the masked terrorist. But the Accionite didn't react. He didn't seem scared of the four wands that pointed at him.

"So courageous. Gryffindors, heh." The masked individual laughed at the four third-year kids. "Children shouldn't play with wands. You could get hurt."

He regarded the four with disgust. "Two Potter half-bloods, one mudblood, and one blood traitor; a good mix of filth that needs to be taken out from this society."

Harry growled while raising his wand threateningly, "Who are you?"

The Accionite spread his arms in grandeur and introduced himself.

"We are the new generation of the pure. The sacred revived order that fought for pure supremacy."

There was a faint devotion in the person's voice as he went on.

"We are the knights that protect the world from the foul mud. We denounce the evils of impure blood. We eradicate those who act superior and hide they are inferior."

The golden squad could hear the smile in the voice that chanted something like a motto while leering at them like they were bugs.

"The Dark Lord was the bright light that was going to lead us, wizards, to a greater height and show the unworthy muggles that they were nothing but bugs in front of us." He glared at Harry and spat. "But, you somehow defeated him, so today I am going to kill you and protect the legacy of our great lord."

He took a deep breath before announcing.

"In the name of the Dark Lord, we of Novellus Ac-"

The Accionite didn't get to complete his sentence as he sensed something to his left and barely had the time to conjure a shield against the curse that bolted towards him. The curse tore through the shield and still had enough magic to force the Accionite to take a few steps back.

His sudden predicament wasn't over when another curse followed after the first one and made full contact. The curse blew up in a contained but forceful explosion, throwing the Accionite against the wall of the building to his right.

"Oooof-!"

The Accionite spurted some blood as he crashed into the building. His ears rang and his vision blurred. His impaired vision noticed two more curses speeding towards him. The two curses made contact, and two more contained, powerful explosions contacted his body. Rendering him unconscious and badly hurt.

Harry, Ivy, Hermoine, and Ron stood there stunned. They gawked at the broken, bloodied, and bruised body of the masked individual. There they were listening to the bloke telling his agenda, about how he was going to avenge Voldemort, etc., and the next second, the man was blasted into the building wall, followed by two more explosions that battered the man's body.

If things didn't happen so quickly, their first reaction would have been sickening revulsion from seeing the bloodied appearance of the masked man, but impulsively they looked in the direction from which the curses came... but there was no one there.

The assailant, who had just beaten a man to a pulp, wasn't even aware that his victim was targeting the golden squad.

No, Quinn was just too busy jumping around rooftops, attacking any masked individual he could see. Parkour wasn't his specialty; he was stumbling to get around Hogsmeade before the Accionites spread too much and were out of Quinn's reach.

He wanted to get more of them while they were still together in big groups and before they moved in different directions in small duos trying to kill more and more muggleborns.

"There, two more spotted," Quinn caught sight of two more masked individuals, so he immediately jumped off the rooftop, ran across the street from one alleyway towards another, and cast Dark-Diffindos towards their legs, making them drop to the ground with horrid screams.

"Who is there?!"

Quinn, who was running across the street, still invisible, turned his head towards the shout and saw two wanded people running in his direction. He noticed the coat of arms on their clothes, and his eye twitched.

'Shit! Aurors. Time to bounce!'

He knew the disadvantages of turning invisible. When running at full speed, the invisibility spell would not effectively hide the person and show a transparent silhouette.

Quinn sprinted and ducked into an alleyway.

"You check out those two. I'll follow the assailant," one Auror spoke to her partner and sprinted towards the alleyway.

When the Auror arrived at the opening in the alleyway, she saw a transparent silhouette rushing out from the other opening of the alleyway. She gritted her teeth and sprinted to follow.

"Auror, freeze!"

In the empty alleyway, Quinn looked down from the building wall he was sticking to and thought.

'Alright, she is gone.'

The transparent silhouette that the Auror saw exiting an alleyway was an illusion that he cast to get her away from the alleyway, so he could escape.

He shot ropes from the seize-and-pull spell towards the rooftop and pulled himself up. Quinn walked across the sloped rooftop, dropped in the next alleyway, and walked out looking scared and clutching his clothes, so he would mix in with the current situation.

As Quinn walked near the Hogwarts entry of the Hogsmeade, he came across Auror guards guiding the students towards Hogwarts. The person who attacked numerous members of Novellus Accionites, some to the point that they needed to be rushed to the hospital immediately, exited Hogsmeade, the site of the attacks, with Aurors guiding him to safety.

...

The Novellus Accionites' attack at Hogsmeade concluded with two muggleborn deaths. None of the casualties were Hogwarts students; the two fatal victims were adults who came to Hogsmeade for work.

After the attack eight members of Novellus Accionites were found incapacitated; the authorities had to rush three of the injured Accionite to St. Mungo's hospital because of the critical nature of their injuries.

According to witness statements collected by the Aurors, no one saw the person who attacked the Novellus Accionites members. The two Aurors who did notice a transparent silhouette running out from the scene weren't able to catch the prime suspect.

At the end of the investigation, the Aurors ended up having no identification of the mystery assailant that put eight people in the hospital.

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Quinn West - MC - Invisible / Mystery Assailant - Because I can...

Luna Lovegood - A.I.D Employee - Takes cookies for her salary.

Eddie Carmichael - Bro #1 - "Quinn sucks!"

Marcus Belby - Bro #2 - "He broke the sacred bond!"

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn entered the Great Hall, where the students were being directed by the prefects, Head Boy and Girl, and the professors. The Great Hall emptied out its four long house tables, and the entire student population gathered inside it.

Looking at the hordes of students, Quinn made his way towards the students clad in blue. Towards the gathering of the Ravenclaw house. Quinn walked at a slow pace; all the sprinting, climbing, and jumping he did at Hogsmeade had left him physically exhausted.

Just a second before Quinn reached the Ravenclaw gathering, a blonde blur slammed into him and wrapped its slim arms around his waist.

"Oof!"

Quinn stumbled to his back feet, and when he looked down, he saw his dainty little employee, junior, and friend: Luna Lovegood.

"Don't worry, I'm one hundred percent fine," Quinn smiled and gently patted Luna's hair in an effort to comfort her. "I actually had a fun time. Had a delicious beverage. I even bought one for you, you know."

Luna stayed like that for a moment before separating from Quinn. She wasn't done as she eyed his body to audit if there were any injuries. Her eyes caught a torn patch on his right arm, and she immediately shifted to Quinn's right and carefully used her hands to look under Quinn's torn sleeve at his skin and saw a shallow cut.

Quinn sighed when Luna examined him.

"Okay, I'm ninety-nine percent fine. This was caused by random rubble from a building struck by an explosion spell."

He took out his fake wand and cast a healing spell to heal the cut on his arm. He fixed his clothes after his healing results satisfied Luna.

Quinn looked up from Luna and saw Eddie and Marcus standing a few steps away from him.

"Nice haircuts. You guys look good," Quinn gave them a lop-sided smile. He was happy to see both of them safe. He didn't go and check them because, first, they were in the opposite direction to Novellus Accionites' travel direction; and second, both of his roommates were inside a building, safe from stray spells.

Eddie and Marcus wordlessly hugged Quinn, happy to see their friend safe. They were terribly worried and stressed when the two didn't see him in the castle when they arrived. The anxiety crept every minute they waited in the Great Hall, peeking at the entrance to see if Quinn was there or not.

Quinn closed his eyes as he hugged his roommates. The tiredness was setting in; the adrenaline previously coursing in Quinn's body during his sneak attacks at the Accionites was now taking its toll, making him feel exhausted.

"Let's make that girlfriend pact, alright?" chuckled Quinn as he said the words while hugging them, eliciting laughs from the two boys.

After separating from the hug, Quinn made walked around the Great Hall, checking on his friends, regular customers, friendly acquaintances, and A.I.D-related acquaintances.

Starting with Ravenclaw, Quinn greeted everybody he knew in his own house. He checked on some of his juniors and peers who had come to him when they had a doubt.

He went to see Katie Bell at the Gryffindor table and checked on her. Quinn greeted the Weasley twins and swept a lazy eye over the golden squad.

At the Hufflepuff gathering, Quinn said hello to Cedric Diggory, who he sometimes chatted. He also talked to his frequent Hufflepuff customers. He made small talk before finally moving to the Slytherin table.

At Slytherin, he directly went to Daphne and Tracy and saw the two girls standing with Astoria.

"Are you two alright?"

The three Slytherin girls turned to come across Quinn, who was standing there with them.

"Y-Yeah, we are fine," Tracy spoke, still shocked at what happened at Hogsmeade.

"Where were you guys during the attack?" Quinn asked as he observed the girls, looking if there were any signs of injury.

"We were inside the Three Broomsticks," answered Daphne, who was, similarly, observing Quinn.

Quinn sighed in relief and nodded, "Then you were in one of the safest places in Hogsmeade."

Astoria tilted her head and questioned Quinn, "A pub is the safest place at Hogsmeade? What makes you say that?"

Quinn chuckled and tossed a chocolate cube towards Astoria, who caught it and wondered how did Quinn suddenly make chocolate appear in his hand.

"The pub is usually filled with adults, so there surely were plenty of wands to protect students," Quinn explained, smiling as he saw Astoria observing the chocolate in her hand and glancing at Quinn's hand.

"Apart from Madam Rosmerta's Three Broomsticks, Abeforth Dumbledore's Hog's Head Inn would be the safest place in Hogsmeade. Nay, Hog's Head beats out the more busy Three Broomsticks. The clientele of the Hog's Head is much more interesting than the one of the Three Broomsticks."

The people who visited Hog's Head liked to keep their faces covered, and the inn was famous for being shady. If someone hostile entered the place, then they would faced a barrage of spells from the clientele who liked to spend their time quietly and without disturbance.

"Where were you? Were you near those men?" Daphne inquired in worry.

Quinn laughed and waved his hand to dissuade their worries, "Fortunately… and weirdly, I didn't come across a single of those rowdy characters that use to visit Hogsmeade today." Quinn raised one finger and added. "I did come near an exploding building wall, so maybe that counts."

Daphne's and Tracey's eyes widened as they immediately looked to see if Quinn was injured.

"Did you get hit?" Tracy asked with worry heavy in her voice.

"Nope. Not a single scratch," Quinn rotated on the spot to show them that he had no injuries on his bodies. "I bounced the second the wall exploded. Right into the opposite direction." He extended his hand forward.

Quinn's chill attitude made the girls feel relieved. They put their worries aside and calmed down.

"How did you toss me this chocolate? Did you have it already in your hand?" Astoria was weirdly interested in how Quinn gave her chocolate without taking anything out of his clothes.

Quinn chuckled and showed the younger Greengrass his empty hands. Then, he extended her hand behind her ear, and when he pulled his hand back, there was a chocolate cube in hand.

"Like this," he smiled, wiggling his eyebrows.

Astoria took the chocolate from Quinn's hand with a surprised expression and blurted in amazement, "Now, how did you do that?!"

"My apologies, little lady. But a magician never reveals his secrets."

"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Astoria in confusion. She didn't recognize the famous phrase.

Quinn just laughed and didn't reply, which confused Astoria even more.

...

That day, the students were allowed to return to their regular lives after professors did a roll call and made sure that no student was missing.

Everybody was relieved to know that no student was missing after the terrorist attack. They learned the full details of the incident the following day when the morning owl raid brought the newspapers to the students and professors.

Two people dead, eleven Novellus Accionites caught by the Aurors, and eight of them were found incapacitated when the Aurors found them, littered across Hogsmeade. Then there was a section on the mysterious invisible vigilante, who aided in stopping the terrorist group before the Aurors arrived.

The newspapers portrayed a positive image of the invisible vigilante, a hero who helped the public and then vanished without claiming any credit.

The Aurors put a message in the newspaper asking for any information about the invisible vigilante. They were after this invisible vigilante for having used harmful magic in public.

Quinn, who read the newspaper, faintly smiled when he saw that the Aurors had no clue regarding his identity. He didn't care about his image in the newspaper. The invisible vigilante wouldn't be making an appearance anytime soon.

But he did keep clippings from the Quibbler magazine, which did a whole article on the invisible vigilante's identity. It was an entertaining read with a whole lot of wild theories.

Heck, even Luna asked Quinn for his opinion on the future articles on the invisible vigilante since she was a co-writer on the future articles on the invisible vigilante. Quinn enthusiastically helped her by suggesting more theories far away from the truth.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"Good people of Hogwarts, welcome to yet another entertaining game of Hogwarts Quidditch. We are here to watch an exciting game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff."

Quinn sat behind the microphone in the commentators' seat, smiling at the crowded stands with a beaming smile. A smile that didn't match the weather. The noise of storms thundered above in the dark sky. The grey clouds darkened the usually bright sky that appeared in the morning time.

"By popular demand, I, Quinn West, have returned as the commentator. First of all, I would like to thank you all for the support you people showed to me. Your push to have me as the commentator made me wonder if I should do this for a living."

Quinn heard a few chuckles at his back. He turned to see Lily Potter, Filius Flitwick, and Aurora Sinistra laughing at Quinn's words.

"Now, I know the weather today is not optimal for you viewers. The visibility might degrade, and it might hinder the viewing experience. But do not worry! I am here with a solution to this very problem."

Quinn rubbed his hands as he could feel the scent of money tickle his nose. Even though no one could see his face from a distance, he still put on his best sales smile and announced.

"Brought to you by A.I.D productions… Rain-o-scopes! Eyewear, vision-aides that will help you enjoy the game as clearly as in a well lit, cloudless day. The revolutionary goggles are fitted with the latest perception-enhancing magic, allowing you to adjust the brightness of your vision. They elevate the experience by increasing visibility no matter what the situation; they are impervious to rain or even hail, and over that, the rain-o-scopes include zoom capabilities that will allow you to look up super close, like if you were right there in the sky with the players!"

"Mr. West, you aren't allowed to sell products without permission," McGonagall's stern voice traveled throughout the stadium.

Everybody heard Quinn chuckle, and then him talking to McGonagall, "Here you go, professor. This one's for you, free of cost. Please, wear it and decide whether this is a gift to the sport of Quidditch or not."

There was a brief moment of silence as everybody in the stands carefully listened, waiting for McGonagall's response.

"Oh, things have gotten clearer… oh, so this is how you zoom. Oh my, t-this is impressive. What a handy tool."

Quinn immediately turned his face to the microphones and said with enthusiasm.

"People of Hogwarts, you've heard it. The premier Quidditch nut, Madam McGonagall, the Scottish dame, has approved the rain-o-scope! You know it when you hear the praise in her words. The rain-o-scope is revolutionary, and unlike the traditional omnioculars, you don't have to keep holding them in your hands; just put them on your eyes and forget they are even there. The light goggles won't be a hindrance in any way, so you'll be able to enjoy your snacks! Even hold hands, or hold banners and flags for your teams."

Now it was time to open the stores and start selling those babies. Quinn looked over the stands and saw that his salespeople had entered the stands just as he had instructed them to.

"You can buy the rain-o-scopes in the stands since, as I speak, the hard-working volunteers are roaming the stands for your benefit."

'And for my benefit,' Quinn's thoughts went unheard as he smiled, golden galleons shining in his eyes.

"Buy the rain-o-scopes as soon as possible because we only have limited stock. Remember, these kinds of opportunities only come once in a lifetime -"

'And every Quidditch game going forth,' Quinn laughed devilishly in his mind.

"- so buy the handy goggles and stand out from your fellow students with a fashionable Quidditch accessory."

Quinn stood up from his seat as he swept his eyes throughout the stands. He was pleased to see that students were buying his merchandise.

"Mr. West, please get back to Quidditch," said McGonagall with a sigh, a little embarrassed for losing herself moments ago.

Quinn beamed at the deputy Headmistress and grinned, "Of course, professor."

Turning back to the field, Quinn noted that the players were entering the Quidditch field. At the same time, he looked up at the sky and observed that the storm was getting stronger.

'Is it possible to even hear me?' wondered Quinn. He decided to spruce up magic on the microphone so everyone could hear his voice.

Quinn's fingers wrapped around the microphone and pumped magic into the magical microphone; he could feel a faint thrum of magic in it, which brought a smile to his face.

"The players have entered the field. The game is about to start, so grab onto your rain covers and get ready to see some dangerous flying, especially with all this rain. Oh, boy! Let's hope people crash! -"

Quinn's voice reached every corner of the stadium and even the players themselves, who couldn't even hear the crowd's cheer.

"Mr. West!" warned McGonagall at his back.

"- So, as I was saying, ahem, ladies and gentlemen, Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory... and Harry Potter, have entered the field, so grab the rain-o-scopes and zoom on them. -"

"Mr. West!"

"- Anyway, I don't have to tell you what to do. Go crazy," said Quinn very quickly. He finally took a deep breath and roared, "Let the game begin!"

As Quinn announced the start of the game, the players took off into the air.

Quinn himself turned back and gave a thumbs-up to Lily Potter with a goofy smirk since she had yelled to her son.

Lily Potter sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Appearance-wise, her son, Harry, was a copy of her husband, but on the inside, Harry had plenty of things that reminded her of his godfather, Sirius Black. James had spent his entire school career chasing after her, but Sirius had been famous for being a flirt with any girl that caught his attention. She didn't want her son to copy his godfather's behavior while he was in school.

The game continued as the sky got darker and darker. The rain started to pour heavily. It was growing harder for the broom-riders to maintain a grip on their brooms. The players felt very cold and numb; the rain was leeching any enthusiasm to remain on the field. The visibility got so low that players bumped into each other, without knowing if it was a teammate or an opponent.

After half an hour under the pouring water, anyone who had rain-o-scopes saw that Harry Potter had abruptly gone up; his broom climbing up the sky. He rose above the other players, gaining altitude against the pouring rain.

Quinn's eyes widened when he recalled the events of this game. Quinn killed the magic in the microphone, turned back towards the teachers, and said.

"You might want to release your Patronuses towards the sky. Potter is gaining altitude, I'm pretty sure that all the Dementors are just above the stadium… you know with the stands filled with happy people."

At once, the teacher's eyes widened. They bolted up from their chairs, looked at each other, whipped out their wands, and shouted at once.

" " " "Expecto Patronum!!!" " " "

Multiple corporeal Patronus shot out from their wands. Silvery guardians climbed up towards the sky.

Quinn was about to return his attention back to the sky, but then he heard the groaning of a chair and felt some magic. He turned his face to the other side and saw Albus Dumbledore dressed in dark blue robes, standing up from his chair. In the current weather, his robes looked closer to black than blue.

'Oh, he is mad,' Quinn thought, seeing the darkened face of Albus Dumbledore.

The Headmaster looked madder than Quinn had ever seen him. There was pure fury etched on his face as he raised the death stick towards and shot his Patronus towards the sky, brighter than every other professor's Patronus.

The silver Phoenix rose, spread its wings, and flew up towards the hundreds of Dementors closing on Harry Potter.

Quinn raised his head and saw the Patronuses dancing around Harry Potter, protecting him from the large horde of Dementors while Dumbledore's Phoenix Patronus went after the Dementors with a vengeance, chasing them away from the stands and Hogwarts in general.

But, it seemed that Harry was flying in the rain, and the remote contact from the hundred Dementors before the Patronus got to his aide was enough to make him lose consciousness.

The seeker let go of his broom and started to fall towards the ground.

"Harry's falling off his broom; he's coming down!" Quinn warned the professors so they could slow Harry down and stop his fall.

"I shall take care of Harry," alerted Dumbledore the other professors.

A blue light was cast from the Elder wand. The spell darted towards the falling body of Harry Potter and slowed him down, decreasing his speed. Harry came to a complete stop on the ground of the Quidditch field.

Quinn stared at the unconscious boy before catching with his eyes the smiling figure of Cedric Diggory and the golden snitch in his hands.

"Oh, Hufflepuff won the game."

Of course, no one heard it because Quinn had cut the magic of the microphone.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC - Money, money, money!!!

Eddie and Marcus - Roommates - Nay, they are more than roommates; they are BROS!

Minerva McGonagall - Quidditch nut - Quite easy to persuade when it comes to Quidditch.

Albus Dumbledore - Headmaster - Rage, motherf*ers!

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn sat in the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. Everything from the seat height, width, depth, tilt, backrest lumbar support and recline was perfect as far as Quinn was concerned. The materials used in the chair, armrest, and headrest were the best he had ever experienced. For the person who rarely sat in chairs with backrests, this was heaven in a room because Quinn's body was feeling comfort all over.

Pulling back a little, Quinn, in his chair, was in a simple room with a fireplace and a small library. There was a small table beside Quinn's chair with a candle lamp on it providing light. The room screamed of being Quinn's comfort zone.

The chair was facing the fireplace and Quin closed his eyes. His eyes were darting underneath his closed eyelids.

Diving into his mind, he saw himself, standing in his mindscape; his eyes looking around the mindscape, watching something only visible to him.

Many magical cultures used to talk about four classical elements. Classical elements were typically referred to as water, earth, fire, and air, which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient magical cultures in Greece, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India had all similar lists, sometimes referring in local languages to the air as wind.

These different cultures and even individual magical scholars had widely varying explanations concerning their attributes and how these theories related to observable phenomena like magical cosmology. Sometimes these theories overlapped with mythology and were personified in deities. Some of these interpretations included atomism (the idea of tiny, indivisible portions of matter). Other interpretations considered the elements to be divisible into infinitely small pieces without changing their basic nature.

The trials of time and advancement had tested these beliefs in magic, and many magical cultures still believed that these four elements made up the entire material world.

Quinn didn't believe in classical element theory because he knew about modern atomic theory. However, he didn't consider the non-magical theory of matter to be the complete and correct interpretation to be the base of all matter because atomic theory didn't take magic into consideration.

He had also given the four classical elemental theories a thought, and he wondered if air, water, earth, and fire were magical equivalents to gas, liquid, solid, and plasma. But Quinn's interpretation was shot down after reading about the classical elemental theories from all the cultures.

While states of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma shared many attributes with the classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire respectively, these states were as such due to the similar behavior of different types of atoms at comparable energy levels. Not because they contained a type of atom or building block or a type of substance.

But in the classical elemental theory, Quinn had found something interesting. Something that he personally believed to be true.

Many cultures that subscribed to some form of the classical elemental theory believed in the existence of another element.

The non-magical scientists disregarded the fifth element through experimentation.

The fifth classical element, known as aether: also spelled ?ther, aither, or ether or the other name, quintessence: the material that filled the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.

Quinn believed the fifth element to be magic itself. The fifth element, that was present everywhere; something that the non-magical weren't able to find because they weren't capable of finding it. It wasn't in their heritage to find magic.

The prevailing axiom regarding magic was that it was present in living beings. It was present in magical humans, other magical species, magical flora, and fauna. Magic was present inside those who were capable of possessing it.

The modern magic scholars didn't believe that magic was omnipresent in the environment around them and that magical-enabled species were magic generators. Magic was a supernatural force present inside select beings that allowed them to change aspects of the world at a fundamental level.

But Quinn thought differently; he believed that magic was omnipresent and that the fifth element that was apparently disproved even by the magical communities was indeed genuine and was magic.

While Quinn didn't have conclusive proof about this theory of the fifth element being the magic force, he did have abstract evidence and reasons to believe in the fifth element.

The reason he believed in the fifth element being magic and that it was omnipresent was the existence of poltergeists.

A poltergeist was an indestructible spirit of chaos. They were like ghosts and haunted one specific place at a time. But unlike ghosts, they weren't alive before they died.

A poltergeist didn't have a living part in their existence.

They were amortal, beings that never had died and never would, as an amortal entity was never 'alive' to begin with.

Thus, poltergeists weren't born from anything and just manifested into existence.

Humans, animals, plants, and a lot of other species reproduced through procreation. Even the Dementors divided to create another one of themselves.

But poltergeists didn't come from their own species. They weren't born through reproduction but formed out of nothingness. Quinn believed they were from magic, and when certain conditions were met, it would trigger the magic in that place to give birth to a poltergeist.

The sole existence of poltergeists made the base of Quinn's belief in the presence of an omnipresent element which he considered being magic. Because if magic wasn't omnipresent, then poltergeists wouldn't be able to manifest into this world.

Whether Quinn was right or wrong was far in the future. But right now, Quinn was using the idea of an omnipresent element that existed everywhere in the universe to improve his occlumency.

According to Alan, Quinn's defense-aspect occlumency was useless if someone could get past his primary and secondary shields without him noticing it. If a stealth infiltration was successful, then Quinn was screwed because beyond that point.

The solution to that problem was to add extra features to his occlumency defenses.

To detect any foreign mental attack that got past Quinn's shields, Quinn came up with an idea and decided to fill his entire mindscape with an omnipresent substance. Something like the fifth element from the classical elemental theory, but its base properties were to combat foreign mental magic.

Quinn had drafted a timeline to set up the invisible yet omnipresent mental element that would elevate his occlumency defense to another level.

The first part of the process was to fill his entire mindscape with an invisible matter.

The challenges of this stage were that Quinn's mindscape didn't have definite dimensions. It was an infinite space that stretched in all directions, so Quinn needed to figure out how to fill an infinite space with an omnipresent matter. The second challenge was to make the matter invisible in nature, that wouldn't be visible to anyone or anything that tried to enter his mind.

He had given a thought to turn his entire mind invisible to anyone looking for it, but Quinn wasn't even sure how to do that. He had tried to make his shields work like an invisibility cloak, but that didn't work because Quinn couldn't figure out how to hide something that was so clearly supposed to be present inside of him.

Plus, a mindscape was too complex and heterogeneous in nature for Quinn to hide. But in the case of the omnipresent matter, it was homogeneous in nature and relatively uncomplicated enough for Quinn to make things work.

Back to the challenge to add the invisible matter to his mindscape, which stretched infinitely in all directions.

Instead of taking the approach of filling a glass with water, Quinn decided to add the invisible matter into the very essence of his mindscape. To add the presence of the invisible matter into the very genetic/source code of his mindscape.

In the months he had been in Hogwarts, Quinn was able to complete this process. He was able to add a naturally existing matter to his mindscape. His mindscape now had an omnipresent matter, encompassing everything from his both replicas to the empty that extended infinitely.

"Oh yeah, I can feel it," sighed Quinn. He could see and feel the addition to his mindscape. "Yeah, this will work, won't it."

"The first challenge is over, but this is just the start," Quinn moved his eyes around, moving his body to see in every direction. "Now I need to make it completely invisible to any mental probe."

The second challenge to Quinn's plan of developing his defense was to make the matter invisible to any mental probe. He needed the attackers to be unaware that there was something that was watching them. The motive to do this was to make them drop their guard. Quinn wanted to make them believe that their job was done, and now they didn't need to be sneaky and careful.

One of the things Quinn had learned from the second vault was that you couldn't defend against something you didn't know about. So if his attackers didn't know about the invisible matter, then they wouldn't be cautious against it, making the job of the omnipresent matter easier.

"This is going to be so difficult," whined Quinn in a sing-song voice.

Making the matter invisible to the attacker meant that he needed to be better than them. He needed to out-skill them and cover all bases so the invisible matter wouldn't show up on any legilimency detection probes.

"This is going to be another repeat of my detection layer training," Quinn licked his lip and exhaled a deep breath. "This will be a huge part of my next few months."

Quinn had developed his detection layer by testing it against various legilimency attacks: actively trying to detect masked legilimency attacks until his detection layer was strengthened enough to do it passively.

"This time around, it will be the opposite," mumbled Quinn to himself as he waved a hand through the air of his mindscape, "I have to develop the matter to the point that an attacker won't be able to detect it. Last time around, it was seeking from hide-and-seek; this time, it would be hiding from hide-and-seek."

When this part of the upgrade was completed, the next part would be the actual defense, where Quinn would change the nature of the invisible matter to hinder foreign mental magic. That would turn the very environment of Quinn's mindscape into a defensive asset.

And Quinn had already started on the preparation for the development of a lethal environment.

The mental representation of Quinn closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, the sight had changed. Now he stood in the emotional core of his mind.

It was an extensive network of small point lights connected to each other. A network that spanned many kilometers if taken in scale to the small mental representation of Quinn. Every tiny point light was some emotion related to an event in Quinn's life. And because of the continuity in a person's life, every event was connected to other events, creating an extensive network.

This place differed from the emotional representation that Alan had visited to check on Quinn's emotional status. This was the full expanse. If someone gained access to this part of Quinn's mind, they would have complete control over Quinn's emotions.

"Phew, I forgot how time-consuming constructing this was," sighed Quinn with a sense of achievement, his hands resting on his waist as he admired his work.

There was a cover over the expansive network of emotion that Quinn had spent his entire life feeling. It was the same graphene-inspired defensive layer that Quinn used for his normal defensive layer, which covered his mindscape. Ten layers of interconnected hexagons made a solid cover, proven to work against legilimency attacks.

Quinn's primary and secondary defensive shields were over a hundred layers and fifty layers thick respectively, so this shield looked very thin in comparison. But this defensive shield had an additional feature that the original defensive shields didn't have.

Faint radiation in the shape of circular waves radiated from every vertex of the expansive hexagon matrix; thousands upon thousands of vertices radiated a mild radiation, which created a protective layer of radiation that covered the shield layers. All ten protective layers had the same feature, so that resulted in ten layers of radiation.

"This is working splendidly," whispered Quinn, his work brightly reflected in his eyes. "This proves that I can replicate this with the invisible matter."

The radiation was a legilimency inhibiting application of occlumency. Its sole purpose was to degrade the mental probes, such that the probe got weaker as it made its way through the layers of shields. Plus, the strength of the radiation got stronger as the probe made its way deeper into the shield because the layers of radiation piled on.

"Even if I stop now, I can add this to my main shields, and this would push them to another level, a qualitative change." A smile made its way onto Quinn's face as he thought about the future of his defensive shields.

"Now, I need to figure out how to add this to the invisible matter. I have to think of a name for the invisible material; I can't keep calling it 'invisible matter'."

The radiation-shields were a proof of concept, but to add this effect to the invisible matter was another challenge that Quinn needed to study up on and figure out how to do.

"Just thinking about it gives me a mental boner. A whole mindscape turned into an active radiation zone, yeah, yeah-" Quinn repeatedly nodded his head with an excited smile on his face. "- This is going to be my greatest work. Ooh~, I can imagine it, the legilimens entering my mindscape and immediately getting hit with radiation, and from a source that they can't see. Yeah~, I knew this would be good when I figured it out. Slowly the mental attack would crumble and snuff out like a candle flame in a windy night."

Quinn made a fist and closed it with a snap, squeezing it tight as if crushing something in his grasp.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

At the snowy lakeside of the Great lake, Quinn stood staring at the lake's surface, wondering about the third vault and Neptune.

"It is definitely Neptune, the god, and I am sure the clue is definitely related to the Great lake. Would I have to venture out of Hogwarts via the waterway?"

While building upon the third vault being in water theory, Quinn found out that the Great Lake was connected to the ocean through underground waterways. When he thought more about this information, it made sense because next year when the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts, the Durmstrang ship had emerged from inside the lake, and with this piece of information, it made sense.

"The 'it' is also most definitely referring to water," muttered Quinn, his hands behind his back as he looked at the snow near his feet. "'I can swallow it, and I can drown in it' which is most probably the meaning of 'devour' in the riddle."

But there was still something that was missing, and it stopped Quinn from finalizing his reasoning.

"What the hell is Neptune's Bane? This is tied to the forgotten dome. I need to know if I am going in the same direction," grumbled Quinn, kicking the snow near his feet.

「Deep in the Bane of Neptune's home」

The riddle pointed to Neptune's Bane, not Neptune himself, but Quinn still hadn't been able to pinpoint the identity of Neptune's Bane.

The home of Neptune's Bane, it could be possible that the Bane's home wasn't in the Great lake or in water at all. Neptune's enemy might not live in water; it could be somewhere entirely else, and Quinn was thinking about this all wrong.

"Who or what is the Bane?"'

The sound of splashing water gained Quinn's and brought him out his thoughts. He looked up and saw a large tentacle coming out of the water.

"The giant squid," mumbled Quinn, looking at the tentacle of one of the Great lake's residents.

Giant squids could reach tremendous sizes and are one of the largest living organisms on earth. It was strongly suspected that Giant squids had magical powers, but there was no evidence because the gigantic cephalopod never showed any signs of performing magic.

It was difficult to study the creatures because they were very hard to find and rarely made appearances. The ones that did make the rare appearances attacked those who witnessed them.

This particular giant squid was inhabiting the Great Lake on the grounds of Hogwarts Castle: A castle full of children, and it was only allowed to do so because it was a semi-domesticated giant squid.

It was very docile and helpful to the Hogwarts' students, such as when students fell into the lake during the first year boat ride, it immediately pushed them safely back into the boat. The squid was also known to have played with students, such as when Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Lee Jordan tickled its tentacles as it was lying partway out of the lake. And to have accepted food from students, such as when it received toast from Harry Potter.

Quinn smiled when he remembered that despite the generalized fear of the giant species, a Chocolate Frog Card for Hogwarts' beloved giant squid.

"The... b-bane... of ancient m-mariners and students at Hogwarts should the latter decide to go for a dip in the lake."

Quinn stilled and stuttered as he recalled the Chocolate Frog Card description. Partly because he just found the word 'Bane,' but partly because of an absurd yet heartbeat fastening thought that struck Quinn.

"Neptune, mariners, giant squid," throaty whispers escaped Quinn as he stared at the giant tentacle.

Quinn recalled a description of a legendary monster. A highly popular mythological animal, a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance, dwelling off the coasts of dangerous waters and terrorizing nearby sailors.

The beast that made water travel difficult, scaring the people from setting sail in the vast water.

'Indirectly reducing Neptune's role in Roman religion because they feared the water.'

Things started to click inside Quinn's mind. He couldn't believe that the creature in front of him was Neptune's Bane.

It fit, but at the same time, it seemed absurd.

"Bloody hell... bloody hell... BLOODY HELL!" Quinn yelled with an astonished expression as he set a palm over his forehead and used his other hand, all fingers pointing at the lone giant tentacle.

A large quantity of water splashed everywhere as the 'giant squid' whipped its tentacle against the lake's surface.

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"This is not a GIANT SQUID... THIS IS A BLOODY KRAKEN!"

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Quinn West - MC - !!BLOODY HELL!!

Hogwarts' giant squid - Peace-loving - Kraken.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - RELEASE! THE! KRAKEN!

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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"I need to rethink my life choices," sighed Quinn as he walked towards the Great Lake.

It was the start of January, and Quinn had just returned to Hogwarts after the Christmas break. The weather was the coldest of the year. Snow was falling almost constantly, and it covered the entire landscape around Hogwarts in white.

In that heavy snow, Quinn was out of the warmth of the castle. He was about to start his expedition to the landlocked, freshwater lake that served as a natural reserve for magical marine creatures.

"Why am I going swimming in January," muttered Quinn to himself as he stomped his foot on the ground. Half a dome of the earth arose from underneath the white snow. "Why couldn't it be April or later, or anytime that is warmer. Then, the water would feel nice."

Quinn removed the many layers of clothes he was wearing and stuffed them into a small string bag with a minor expansion charm cast on it, leaving behind a pair of swimming trunks on his body. He tightened the string to squeeze shut the opening and stuck it to the inside surface of the dome.

With a tap, the half-dome closed itself to form a full-dome. Surrounding snow climbed the earth dome, covering it with white to camouflage it into the snowy surroundings.

"Haah~, this is cold," Quinn breathed the chilly wind and exhaled icy mist. His skin was covered with goose pimples. However, Quinn wasn't shivering, nor were his teeth chattering due to the cold.

Despite not having cast heating charms on his body, Quinn was used to this level of cold because he had suffered worse in the Icy vault. Even though he used Blood magic in the vault, he could still feel an amount of chill, so this wasn't that big of a deal to Quinn.

"Let's do this!"

Quinn rubbed his hands to generate heat as he waded into the water.

"Oh yeah, now this cold," he felt the cold water against his skin, searing as though it was fire and not icy water.

Quinn sucked in a sharp breath when he felt the chill from the water before his condition returned to normal as heating charms worked their charm to warm up his body.

The icy water wasn't cold enough to warrant the use of Blood magic. Blood magic was to deal with cold that could literally kill you within minutes.

As Quinn walked into the lake, water rose and the depth of the lake increased. Just when the water was at his chest level, a bubble appeared on the lower half of his face, forming a mask covering his nose, mouth, cheeks, jaw, and extended down to his neck.

For his first deepwater expedition, Quinn had cast a bubble-head charm that produced a bubble around the caster's face, giving them a continuous supply of oxygen and allowing them to breathe where they could not otherwise.

Submerging himself into the water, Quinn pushed himself off the stone floor and dove into the lake. The bubble-head charm did its work and Quinn was able to breathe normally.

Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him so, as he swam through the water, new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness; rippling forests, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud, littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper; out toward the middle of the lake. His eyes widened, and he stared through the eerily gray-lit water around him and the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.

Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when Quinn got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log or a dense clump of weed. Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass.

Quinn was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the darkness... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

He twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small pale-green skinned, horned water demon, poking out of the weed; its long fingers clutching tightly around Quinn's leg, its pointed fangs bared. Quinn sighed under his protective bubble, and a burst of magic from Quinn's foot blasted the tiny water demon away.

A small group of grindylows emerged from the weeds and tried to latch onto Quinn, but they crashed into an invisible shield before getting blasted off like the first one.

The tiny water demons didn't seem to understand the situation from watching their brethren getting blasted off, as more and more jumped out of the weeds, trying to latch onto Quinn. Their target stood still in his spot and continued to eject them far away from him, pelting them with magic as their green skins grew angry red patches.

Quinn didn't run away from the waves of grindylows and just kept shooting at them like it was some fun game, and the tiny suckers kept coming out of the weeds, trying to get their tiny claws on Quinn.

"Haha, this is fun! It's like a first-person shooter," chuckled Quinn under his protection.

He continued to shoot at them for a couple of minutes before the grindylows understood what was happening and stopped attacking Quinn. They retreated back into the weeds and froze, peeking at him with their leafy green eyes.

Quinn swam away, and after swimming for a while, he turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. Quinn knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.

'I am lost,' thought Quinn and decided to swim to the surface to gain a sense of his location.

Swimming up to the surface, Quinn saw he had swum further to the south and away from the castle. He had moved towards the Hogsmeade train station and the dock from where the first-year students boarded their boats to get to the castle.

"I need to swim westwards," said Quinn, moving his hair out of his face. Quinn had observed the Kraken's tentacles, and he was able to deduce that the Kraken's main body hung out somewhere to the castle's west.

Quinn had given the giant squid being a Kraken theory a thought while he was home.

True giant squids (genus Architeuthis [1]) were deep-sea-dwelling creatures and can not live in freshwater, such as inland lochs in Scotland. It would not be able to stand the sunlight, pressure, salinity (or lack thereof) of the water, the space, or the lack of food. At one point during the books, it was fed bread, which it could not digest. Giant squids also had very tender skin that would break if touched, but the cephalopod giant living in the Great lake could push out children who fell into the lake.

This meant that the Hogwarts giant squid was of a magical species, and the Kraken was exactly the creature that would match the magical counterpart of the non-magical giant squid.

'Lucky that this one isn't a violent ship sinking monster but a semi-domesticated, peace-loving school pet that loves to chill,' thought Quinn as he dove back into the water and headed west.

This time around, Quinn swam a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there. He swam on for what felt like at least thirty minutes. He passed over vast expanses of black mud now, which murkily swirled as he disturbed the water.

'Ugh, this is getting tiring,' thought Quinn. He started to feel tired. He had already been swimming for over fifty minutes.

'I need to learn magic that makes swimming easier, or at least I need to make some diving fins,' thought Quinn. Then, he stopped swimming for a second and looked at his feet; the next second, he conjured a pair of swimming fins on his feet. 'Alrighty, that was easy. Good job...'

Another ten minutes and Quinn finally caught a glimpse of the Kraken's tentacle. The giant and long tentacle laid on the lake's bottom floor and covered a large surface area.

He swam up to create some distance between him and the tentacle and slowly swam forward, watching as the tentacle got thicker and thicker.

'Merlin's beard... what I saw outside of the water was just the tip of the iceberg, wasn't it?'

As Quinn felt amazed by the side of the Kraken's tentacle. The end of said tentacle slowly rose and crept in the water, moving towards the tiny human who had gotten deep into its territory. And just when it got near Quinn, the tentacle sped up and moved in for the grab.

"WHAT! THE HE-!!"

Quinn, who was busy being amazed at the Kraken, suddenly was in the tip of the tentacle in his peripheral vision. The Kraken was trying to wrap its tentacle around him: it was trying to trap him.

On instinct, Quinn released a magic force field shield which covered him three hundred sixty (360) degrees.

At first, the tentacle wrapped gently around the shield, but the next second, Quinn felt a tremendous force exerted from the tentacle as it tried to tighten its wrap around Quinn's safeguard.

"...s-h-I-T!"

The force field shield strained as Quinn pushed more magic into the force field shield, trying desperately to maintain the structural integrity.

The Kraken, who had spotted a tiny human in its territory, wanted to grab him, but it was confused because something was stopping his tentacles from reaching him. It took the Kraken a few seconds to realize that the tiny human had magic around, so it stopped trying to reach the human.

What felt like an eternity of struggle to Quinn was just three measly seconds before the squeezing force vanished.

Quinn opened his tightly shut eyes with heavy breathing and he felt himself move. Afterwards, he saw that the tentacle wrapped around his shield was lifting him up.

'What is it doing? Where is it taking me?'

The tentacle took Quinn out of the water. The force field, which was still active, trapped the lake water inside the force field. From outside, it looked like the tentacle was holding a sphere of water with Quinn inside.

'I need to get away,' thought Quinn.

He immediately deactivated the force field, and immediately Quinn dropped down towards the water: the tentacle was holding on to the force field, so when Quinn released the magic, the water inside with Quinn slipped away from the tentacle's grasp.

Unfortunately for Quinn, the Kraken was one step ahead of him: another tentacle was waiting for him in the water.

The second tentacle rose from the lake's surface and captured Quinn in one of its suction cups. Because of the sheer size of the Kraken, the suction cups lining its tentacles were huge. Quinn was swallowed inside the suction cup; he was trapped to his neck inside the suction cup.

"Fu-! Argh!"

Quinn struggled against the Kraken's bounds.

He wanted to get out of here and was really tempted to use magic to tear through the Kraken's flesh. The only thing holding him back was because even though the Kraken had trapped him, it was only trapping him and not choking him out. Plus, the Kraken's reputation for decades was one of a friendly and peaceful creature.

The Kraken's tentacle moved in the air and stopped right over the lakeside. The suction cup holding Quinn released its hold and unceremoniously dropped him onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Quinn immediately stood up and vigilantly stared at the retreating tentacle. He was sure that the tentacle gave him a wave as it returned inside the water.

"... What in the world just happened?"

He wasn't sure what happened; Quinn had swum for close to an hour, and just when he finally reached the Kraken, Neptune's Bane, he was caught and ejected back to the land.

Looking around, Quinn found he was on the lakeside, which was near the herbology greenhouses.

"... My clothes bag is in the opposite direction," grumbled Quinn as he peered at the opposite bank of the Great lake. "I don't want to walk. I am so tired."

With slumped shoulders, Quinn dried himself off the lake water. He conjured clothes over his body and started the long walk towards the other side of the lake to get his clothes back.

'Damn it, that was humiliating,' thought Quinn as he walked. He was thinking about what to do next.

From today Quinn had understood that if he got too close to the Kraken's body, it would eject him out of the lake. If he wanted to get to the vault, then he would have to get past the Kraken.

"I need to be faster," he thought based on today's events.

"First, I can't spend half an hour just to get near the Kraken; I need to find a way to get there faster than before. Second, I have to gain control while I am inside the water. The Kraken has too many tentacles, but I have the size advantage. I'm shorter, so I can evade him. To do that, though, I need to gain speed and nimbleness in my swimming."

The gears in Quinn's mind turned as he pondered what magic would help him out in this situation.

"Water magic is definitely a plus; nothing better than water magic inside water. I could probably use it as jets to increase my speed so I can move much faster. It will also improve the things I can do while I'm under the water. As long as the Kraken doesn't have water magic capabilities, then I will be able to outmaneuver past him."

He brushed a hand through his hair and prayed.

"Let's hope that whatever the vault is, it's inside some kind of building or room because I don't want to work on the vault while continuously evading the Kraken trying to get me out of water."

The next part of the problem was Quinn's surviving under the water. A human being like himself wasn't meant to stay in the water for extended amounts of time. Sure, he was athletic enough to swim for a long time, but if he was going to stay deep beneath the surface, then it would become dangerous.

"The bubble-head charm is not durable enough; it might break if I'm not careful. I can't take that kind of risk," speculated Quinn and cracked his neck as he continued to walk. "I need to find another source of oxygen; this one will need to be more durable and needs to last as long as I need."

Quinn had some ideas on achieving the solution to the oxygen problem, but it would need some study and research because his method required some finesse and delicate magic work.

"This is going to be a fun year."

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- (Scene Break) -

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It was late at night inside Quinn, Eddie, and Marcus's dorm room, and all three residents were ready to go to bed.

"Quinn, do you have any idea about the ministry notice?" asked Marcus from his bed. "I heard someone talking about a notice. Do you have any idea what it is about?"

Quinn, who was reading a book on transfiguration from the Caribbean region, closed his book and turned his face towards Marcus.

"It's about Hogsmeade. The attack by the Novellus Accionites triggered the ministry, so they are taking some precautions," answered Quinn. Then, he got up from his bed.

He walked to his study table in his dorm room and opened a drawer. He took out a sheet of paper.

"This is a copy of the notice," informed Quinn as he walked towards Marcus' bed to hand him the paper.

Elliot had sent him the copy of the notice by the MagiFax installed at the West manor. The ministry notice was accompanied by a letter. The letter advised that if Quinn wanted things from Hogsmeade, then he should preferably get them by mail-order, and if he absolutely needed to visit Hogsmeade, he was to keep his visits short as possible.

Marcus received the paper and read the ministry notice.

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「

——— BY ORDER OF ———

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

We have the duty to inform you that, until further notice, Dementors from Azkaban will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown.

This measure has been put in place for the safety of the Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted when the Ministry brings the terrorist group going by the name of Novellus Accionites.

It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.

Happy and Prosperous New Year.

」

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Eddie also got curious, so he got up from his bed and walked over to Marcus's bed. He took the notice paper after Marcus was done reading it and read it.

"Are they serious?" Eddie asked as he dropped the notice on Marcus' bed. "They are putting Dementors in Hogsmeade? Isn't that a little too much? What is wrong with appointing some Aurors in the village?"

"I guess they were thinking that if Dementors patrolled Hogwarts, then why not Hogsmeade," speculated Quinn, shrugging as he spoke. "It will not be good for business, though."

Marcus, who heard Quinn's answer, asked a question in response.

"Do you think the ministry is still restricting the DMLE? By placing Dementors at Hogsmeade, are they trying to keep the Auror's away from the case?"

Marcus recalled the talk he and Eddie had with Quinn regarding the friction between the ministry and the DMLE. This situation, to Marcus, that is, allowing Dementors to patrol Hogsmeade, seemed like the minister's faction was still trying to restrict Auror's office's movements.

Quinn plopped himself down on Marcus' bed and said, "I'm not sure if this is because of politics or because of the Dementors themselves."

"Dementors? What do they have to do with this?" asked Eddie, confused. The situation was because of the minister's faction and the DMLE; he couldn't see how the Dementors fit into this situation.

"The Dementors feed off from the positive feelings. I don't know their level of sapience, but it is clear that they are sentient enough to taste and sense fear, as they are drawn to it and the promise of positive memories," continued Quinn.

"They obeyed the Ministry of Magic for years because, in guarding Azkaban, they were provided with the sustenance of any remaining hope or happiness from the prisoners. But now a lot of them are away from their food table; Azkaban. And Dumbledore doesn't allow them inside the castle, so they must have been growing restless for some time... furious at his refusal to let them inside the grounds. So I suppose the ministry is trying to appease the Dementors by allowing them to patrol Hogsmeade at night."

Marcus rubbed his temple and sighed, "This is all so confusing."

Some of the conversations that Marcus, Eddie, and Quinn had this year were politics-related, and those conversations made both Marcus and Eddie increasingly involved in politics. Both of Quinn's roommates had started to think about the ministry and what was happening around them.

Quinn personally had seen both of his friends exchange thoughts on articles they had read in the newspaper and talk about things they hadn't addressed before. And the divide in the ministry due to the Novellus Accionites was at the forefront in many of their conversations.

"Why don't you write letters to your parents? Write to them asking what they think about the current situation," suggested Quinn, while trying to provide them a way to gain more insight on the topic. "Of course, I'm not saying to follow whatever they say. Just hear whatever they have to say and think about how you feel about it. Look up for more facts and get a complete picture. Maybe, then, you will be able to get a clear picture that would erase any confusion."

Quinn was trying to make his friends people with critical thinking; people who weren't like the sheep that abounded the British magical society. He wanted them to be freethinkers, and, given the situation, having them form their own political views was a good start.

People like Albus Dumbledore had an image in the public's mind that bordered worship; it made people trust him without giving it a second thought.

And one thing George had taught Quinn was that blind trust was just like nails; the longer you have them, the more dangerous they get.

Quinn didn't want his friends to become like the sheep that was everybody. He didn't need 'yes-men' around him who just followed whatever he said. While that sounded good in a way, Quinn wanted the people with whom he interacted to be winners and not losers who couldn't think for themselves.

Eddie and Marcus nodded at Quinn's suggestion of writing to their parents, and that brought a smile to Quinn's friends.

It was a start.

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Quinn West - MC - Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.

Eddie Carmichael - A thinking Ravenclaw - On a path that will set him apart.

Marcus Belby - A Ravenclaw, seeking answers - Sheep, he will never be.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https//fictiononlyreader ]??

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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Humming a pleasant tune, Quinn walked towards his office, ready to start another shift of quality consultation.

'I wonder how many will come today?' wondered Quinn, thinking about what kind of problems he would get to see today.

On an average day, Quinn would get maybe two to three customers. They would bring their problems to him, expecting a solution.

'Let's hope that some of them are non-homework-related problems,' sighed Quinn, hoping that something interesting would come along.

Homework-related requests consisted of Quinn giving homework-related resources to the clients and charging a few knuts for the information. The problem with this kind of problem was that there was no margin for getting students under his debt.

He couldn't do their homework for them as that would attract unwanted attention from professors, and second, he didn't want to do people's homework.

Quinn reached the office door and twisted the doorknob to open the door; he already knew that his assistant was already in there, so he didn't bother reaching for the key.

When he opened the door, Quinn saw Luna sitting on his office barstool behind his table with a client sitting in front of the table.

The chime above the door rang, alerting the occupants of Quinn's entrance, causing both of them to look at him. He greeted them.

"Good evening."

Luna, who had her wand tucked behind her ear, waved a hand to Quinn and greeted him back.

"Good evening."

The client simply nodded when he saw Quinn but didn't verbally greet him.

Quinn nodded back in response before silently walking to the workshop door and entering the workshop after unlocking the door. He didn't take over the conversation from Luna and let her deal with the client as talking with people was what he had hired her for.

He set his book bag down and removed his robe. Luna knocked on the door before entering the workshop.

"He has brought an interesting request," informed Luna, twirling a few strands of her hair with her fingers. Quinn had told her to call him if the request was interesting.

It had taken some time before Quinn successfully taught Luna what he meant by interesting, but eventually, Quinn and Luna came to the same page on what interesting meant.

"Alright, I'll be there," replied Quinn and asked a question. "Are you done with your homework?"

"Uh-huh, I'm done," responded Luna in a sing-song voice. "I just need to bottle the potion in a vial for the class."

"Excellent," praised Quinn before asking. "What about my assignments? How is the progress on that?"

Ever since Quinn had 'hired' Luna, he had been giving her topics to study every week. Sometimes it would be theory; other times, it would be practical. He had given her easy study topics, asked her to practice spells until she got used to them, or long-term projects like growing herbs and keeping track of their progress.

He had been giving her fun stuff like treasure map hunts and riddles, just like Friar gave him: but in place of deadly vaults, he had been placing mystery objects around the castle that Luna needed to find and figure out how to solve-slash-open them to get the treasure inside. Every mystery object would require some kind of transfiguration, charms, herbology, or potion brewing to open, making learning more fun for the quirky and eccentric Luna.

Quinn wanted Luna to learn and utilize more magic because teenage years were the age where magic grew more rapidly, and he wanted Luna to take advantage of it. He understood that people wouldn't go to the extremes like him by exhausting his magic core every day, but he could make sure that Luna would use more magic while making it fun.

All the assignments and projects that Quinn gave Luna were interconnected with each other. Quinn had planned out things so when she completed her fifth year, Luna would be done with her N.E.W.T level education in all subjects other than Care of Magical Creatures practical portion — as bringing creatures into Hogwarts was a hassle. But if canon Luna was anything of reference, then he was sure that his Luna would somehow cover that portion on her own.

On top of that, he intended to closely monitor her progress to see if Luna was progressing faster because if she showed more interest in learning, he would put in extra things that he thought she would learn and things that Luna would find interesting.

He didn't burden her with complicated things beyond her level or dump lengthy assignments which would eat away all her time. But he wanted to make sure that Luna would complete her N.E.W.T education by the end of her fifth year because, by that time, Quinn would be at the end of his seventh year, and that meant graduation, a.k.a, he would be leaving Hogwarts.

N.E.W.T level education by the end of the fifth year wasn't much of a challenge because a fifth-year student with a wand did have enough focus ability to perform all the seventh-year magic there was in the curriculum. And with Quinn making study plans fitting to Luna's needs and aptitude, he was sure that not only would Luna understand N.E.W.T level topics, but she would also have better magic capacity and control than her peers.

Luna twirled on the spot and smiled in a fun way, "I'm still working on the blank parchment and riddle that you gave me."

Quinn smiled as he thought of the riddle and blank parchment. The blank parchment was a secret treasure map, and the riddle was the clue to a potion that would make the treasure map visible and another indication that would give her a clue on how to open the mystery object that he had hid.

"I see. Well, keep working on it," said Quinn, ruffling her hair. Now that he had caught up with her, Quinn asked, "So what is he here for?"

Luna's answer put a smile on his face.

"Now that is an interesting request, alright," smiled Quinn. He knew exactly how to solve the client's problem, but he wasn't expecting this particular request to come through his doors.

He walked to the office and looked at the client as he sat down on his barstool behind his desk.

"Mr. Longbottom, you have brought one interesting request. Tell me, what made you request something like this from us."

On the client stool sat Neville Longbottom; round-faced, short, chubby but not overly fat, brown hair. The Longbottom child was clumsy, forgetful, shy, and many considered him ill-suited for Gryffindor house because he seemed timid.

He was the other child who qualified to be the prophecy child in Sybill Trelawney's prophecy as he was the child of the Longbottom couple, who had defied Voldemort thrice. Fortunately, Voldemort had decided to target the Potters first and had set in Harry Potter's fate to be the chosen one.

"Uhm, I keep forgetting the password to the common room. So I write the passwords on a piece of parchment in case I forget it, but one of the p-prefects caught me as I was looking at my note," Neville's timid voice narrated his story. He was looking down at his lap as he spoke, not making eye contact with Quinn. "He dragged me to professor McGonagall, and she scolded me for writing the password. Then when I returned to the common room, everybody was laughing at me."

Neville looked like he was about to cry. Quinn could literally see tears pooling at the edges of his eyes.

"So you have come to me —a Ravenclaw— to help you with the Gryffindor common room pass-"

Neville's ears reddened as he heard Quinn's words and cut him by standing from his barstool and sputtered, "I'm sorry, this was stupid. Please, excuse me. I will leave."

Quinn raised his hand with a smile on his face and stopped Neville, "Not at all, Mr. Longbottom. You have a problem, and you came to us to get a solution. We strive to solve any problem, so no, this isn't stupid." He gestured for Neville to return to his seat. "Please take a seat. I believe I can solve your problem."

Neville blinked a couple of times at Quinn before sitting down. This time he made proper eye contact with Quinn, his eyes flashing with hope.

"As you said, you always forget the common room password; there is nothing wrong with that," Quinn reassured Neville that this was something very commonplace. "I'm sure a lot of your housemates also forget the password and have it written down somewhere. The prefect who caught you might have been having a bad day, and if not that, then we both can agree that he is a jerk."

Badmouthing a third person behind their back, especially if that person wasn't well-liked, was a proven way to improve relations between two people. Quinn was using it to make Neville feel comfortable and assert that he wasn't at fault.

"From what I know, Gryffindor common room password changes once every three weeks, correct?"

Neville nodded in response to Quinn's question.

Of course, Quinn already knew that. He knew that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common room passwords changed every three weeks, while the Slytherin common room password changed every other week. He had Recon long enough to figure out the change schedules.

"And you sometimes forget it, so you need a way to remember it. That is what you are asking me, correct?"

Quinn didn't even go in the direction where Neville didn't forget the password, as that would be a lengthy process that Quinn didn't want to overtake.

When Neville nodded, Quinn continued, "Excellent, I have just the solution for you. It will allow you to keep a secret copy of the passwords with no one ever finding out. There will be no parchment trail; you just need to make sure that you are alone when you look at it."

Quinn stood up from his seat and spoke, "Please wait a moment, and I will be back with the solution."

He left Neville behind in the office and walked into the workshop.

Inside the workshop, Luna was lying on the floor intently staring at the riddle parchment. The parchment was levitating above her, with Luna's wand in her hand.

As Quinn walked to a potion cupboard, he stared at Luna. It looked like she didn't notice Quinn walking as she kept staring at the parchment.

'She's weird,' thought Quinn with a smile on his face.

Quinn opened a cupboard and searched for a potion vial. It was one of the potions that he had learned to brew before Hogwarts. He brewed it because it sounded fun, and he had all the ingredients lying around.

"Ah, found it."

Taking a vial of inky black potion out of the cupboard, Quinn walked to another part of the room, stepped over Luna's body, and opened a drawer to get a thick calligraphy brush.

Once again, Quinn stepped over Luna's body and walked outside to the office, and instead of sitting on his barstool behind the table, Quinn sat beside Neville in the other client's stool.

"We're ready," said Quinn as he set down the potion vial and calligraphy brush on the table.

He turned to face Neville and started,

"Alright, before we start, I would like to explain what is this about in case you don't want to go through this." Quinn needed consent before he did anything; he didn't want complaints after he was done.

"So this potion is a type of ink that is used on the skin. It is generally used by healers to mark parts on a patient's bodies if ever needed," explained Quinn, picking up the vial off the table. "But this is a little different recipe. I changed the recipe so that the ink sinks into the patient's body. That way, if the healer has drawn too many lines, they could hide some lines to avoid clutter. You know, small improvements to increase ease-of-use."

Quinn lifted the sleeve of his left hand and placed a finger on his forearm. "I'm going to stain a patch of your forearm in this ink and then change it so that it will read the Gryffindor common room password. When you need the password, you can make it appear, and when you're done, you can hide it."

Quinn looked up at Neville and asked, "Any questions?"

"W-Will it hurt?" asked Neville with a wince in his voice.

"Not at all," assured Quinn as he picked up the calligraphy brush from the table and showed it to Neville. "I'm going to use this brush to paint some ink on your arm. It might tickle, but after that, you won't feel anything. It won't hurt even when you make the ink appear or when you hide it."

Neville looked relieved to hear that it wouldn't hurt. Neville thought that Quinn was a cool person, and he didn't want to cry in front of him. Plus, there was that other girl inside, and if he cried she might come out and see him cry.

"We need a code word to make the ink appear," said Quinn. He wanted a code word that would reveal the password. "Tell me, Neville, what is your favorite tree, herb, plant, or any flora?"

Neville tilted his head confused, wondering why Quinn was asking like this but answered nevertheless.

"Chamomile."

"Excellent, then that will be your code word," clapped Quinn, smiling at Neville.

He knew Neville was a herbology lover, so assigning the code word as Neville's favorite plant would make sure that Neville would never forget it.

'Or I could've just used his name as the code word, but that is so boring,' thought Quinn before speaking. "Now, let's get started and ink your forearm. Lift your sleeve and hold it in place."

Quinn uncorked the vial and dipped the calligraphy brush into the vial. He waited as Neville clumsily pulled up his sleeve and awkwardly held it in place.

"Alright, let's begin."

Quinn removed the brush from the vial and gently painted a stroke back and forth, drawing nothing in particular and just trying to put more and more ink on Neville's hand. After half a minute, Quinn felt that the ink was enough for any phrase that would be chosen as the Gryffindor common room password.

"I think this is enough," said Quinn as he placed the brush on the table and pulled out his fake wand. Placing the wand tip on the inked area, Quinn fake-chanted.

"Immutatio."

The ink moved on Neville's skin and took the form of the words,

「Facta, nonverba.」

As Quinn removed the wand tip to observe the result, Neville asked with his jaw open in shock, "H-How did you know the password."

"That isn't something you should waste your time thinking about, Mr. Longbottom; some things aren't meant to be known, and this is one of them. Sometimes not knowing is better; knowledge can turn into a curse if you're not careful."

Quinn's voice was smooth and had a slower than usual flow to it, which made his words sound silky.

It stopped Neville from trying to continue the questioning. The Gryffindor gulped while nodding, deciding to forget he had asked that question.

"Please take out your wand and place it on the inked words," instructed Quinn.

Neville used the hand holding his sleeve to take out his father's wand, giving Quinn the chance to magically fold Neville's sleeve properly, unlike the awkward crumpled way Neville had done.

"Say 'chamomile' to set it as the code word," said Quinn as he once again placed his fake-wand tip on the inked words.

Neville nervously placed his wand beside Quinn's and spoke, "Chamomile."

The ink flashed, affirming that the code word was set, and immediately the ink disappeared as they sunk into Neville's skin leaving behind no signs.

"Try saying the code word to see if it is working," instructed Quinn.

Neville spoke "Chamomile" with his wand tip pressed against his skin, and the words 'Facta, nonverba' appeared on his skin.

Neville's eyes flashed with happiness as he repeatedly spoke "Chamomile," making the words appear and vanish on his skin.

"T-Thank you," said Neville, a smile on his face. He was relieved that now he wouldn't have to keep a parchment with the password written on it. He could just whip out his wand and would have the password on his hand.

"No worries. But you will have to come back every time the password changes so I can modify the words. Plus, this ink will slowly dissipate from your body, so you need to come back here to refill the ink."

Neville nodded without any discomfort or reluctance. He was ready to come here as long as he was able to keep the password in his hand.

"What do I have to pay?" asked Neville. He was so happy that he was ready to empty his pocket money into Quinn's hands.

"Oh about that, no need to pay me anything," smiled Quinn as he stood up with Neville following him. Quinn extended his hand for a handshake with Neville and spoke. "I scratch your back; you'll scratch mine. This was just me helping you out, so when in the future I need your help, help me out... You'll help me out, right, Neville."

Neville repeatedly nodded as he spoke, "Of course, I will help you. I will help you with anything. This is great, thank you. Thank you so much."

"No worries. Come back anytime you want," said Quinn with a kind and helpful smile.

After Neville left, Quinn cleaned up things and sat behind his table, thinking about Neville Longbottom's request.

While it seemed that Quinn had helped Neville with his request, the truth was that Neville was no better than before he entered the A.I.D offices. Quinn hadn't helped out Neville one bit. What he had provided was just an illusion of help.

Neville was now looking at his arm instead of paper. He could still very well get caught if he was careless and someone saw him revealing the password on his arm.

Plus, now, Neville was under the assumption that he would have to return to A.I.D offices to reset the password and refill the ink in his arm.

Neville had gone from simply writing the password on parchment, which he did on his own, to writing the password on his arm, which required Quinn's assistance.

Quinn, of course, knew all this, and despite that, had chosen to use such a 'solution.' No... to better phrase it, Quinn had given Neville the 'solution' knowing that it wouldn't help out Neville. Quinn wanted Neville to retain the problem and repeatedly return to his office to avail his services, as that would enable Quinn to increase the amount of 'help' he handed out to Neville.

A day would come in the future when Neville would feel that he had gotten so much help from Quinn that he wouldn't be able to refuse anything that Quinn asked from him.

Quinn sat on his barstool, looking at where Neville had sat as he tapped his fingers on the table.

Eventually, a soft closed-mouth smile made its way to Quinn's face.

Like a spider watching a butterfly flying towards its web.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC- Provided 'help', and is ready to 'help' more.

Neville Longbottom - Gryffindor - Entered the cycle of problem and help.

Luna Lovegood - Weird - Put on an accelerated learning path without her knowing.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Sitting by a bank in the Great Lake, soaking his feet in the cold water, Quinn readied himself for another deep dive into the it's depths.

It had been a few weeks since Quinn had tried to get close to the Kraken; he had been practicing his swimming near the surface, away from the Kraken's main body. He had been practicing his magic so that when he did approach the Kraken once more, he wouldn't be helpless.

"Well, I'm not exactly helpless. I could injure it and take my chance... Yeah, but that would probably not go my or the Kraken's way," grumbled Quinn, while swinging his soaking feet in the lake water.

Quinn was sure that he could reasonably injure the Kraken; last year, while under the sin curse, Quinn had learned a lot of destructive magic and had practiced it even more. The Room of Requirement had dealt with a lot of abuse from Quinn, who had a penchant for destruction.

So Quinn was sure that if he turned his magic against the Kraken, he would make the legendary monster feel a lot of pain and rip and detach at least one of its tentacles from its body.

But at the same time, Quinn wasn't sure what he would do when it came to defending. The water was the Kraken's territory, his home ground, and Quinn was an outsider, playing an away game, which meant that Kraken had the field advantage. Quinn had done some mental 'simulations'— that is, he had imagined how things would go if he fought the Kraken. In lots of them, he ended up crushed by a Kraken's tentacle or eaten by the Kraken or being repeatedly smacked into the lakebed till he was broken and dead.

"I wanted to say that our battle would be legendary," smirked Quinn but sighed while shaking his head. "Alas, it won't happen... but, maybe! — Naw, it won't happen..."

Quinn stood up and walked into the lake, water climbing up his body as he wadded forward. When his feet no longer touched the ground and had swum a distance from the shore, he stopped himself from floating and let himself sink into the water, disappearing from the surface.

In the deep blue and somewhat murky green, he closed his eyes and held his breath. Afterward, Quinn brought his hands to the sides of his neck and sunk deeper into the water. Magic flowed in his body and thrummed as it showed its charm.

Quinn opened his mouth and let water flow in, and a few seconds later, bubbles emerged from beneath Quinn's hand.

He opened his eyes and put away his hands from his neck, which revealed three large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air.

Gills were a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracted dissolved oxygen from water and expelled carbon dioxide. Gills were tissues that were like short threads, protein structures called filaments. Each filament contained a blood capillary network that provided a large surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Human Transfiguration was a sub-branch of Transfiguration and a kind of transformation where one transfigures human body parts or an entire human being into another form. Human Transfiguration on oneself was an arduous process because you added organic parts to the human body that weren't part of the original human physiology. If not performed correctly and carefully, then the caster would be in a world of complications.

Adding gills to himself for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange under the water was a simple enough idea that Quinn borrowed from Harry Potter and Viktor Krum's performance in the second task of the Triwizard tournament.

Harry had used Gillyweed, a magical plant, to achieve underwater breathing. When eaten, it gave the consumer gills, allowing them to breathe underwater and webbing between the fingers and toes, allowing them to swim underwater with ease.

Viktor Krum chose to attempt human transfigure on himself and tried to transform himself into a shark but managed only to transfigure his head. Still, it worked well enough for him to reach the merpeople village because the shark head had gills that allowed him to breathe underwater.

So Quinn combined both of those examples and gave him a pair of gills without turning into another species. He studied the anatomy of the gills from multiple aquatic species before he was able to clearly understand how the gills worked.

From there on, Quinn had to transfigure gill structures with filaments that had a blood capillary network. He connected those capillaries to his own natural blood vessel network. Finally, he blocked his windpipe so that the water wouldn't go in his lungs and diverted to the gills, completing an artificial aquatic respiratory system in his body.

The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. He took another swallow of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. The oxygen circulation was established, and Quinn's body got a healthy dose of oxygen from the water.

'Alright, everything seems to be working fine,' thought Quinn, intaking more water to suck the oxygen out of the liquid. The gill flaps closed when Quinn took in water, and his mouth shut when the gill flaps opened to let out the water.

'Good, let's go.'

Quinn's magic leaked into the surrounding water, causing it to react with a short wave of vibration before it settled down to normalcy, but Quinn knew that it wasn't back to normal.

With a single thought, the water reacted and pushed Quinn forward. He left behind a jet of water as Quinn's speed in water increased, and he zoomed across the lake towards the largest resident of the area.

If you looked closely, it'd be possible to see Quinn covered in a teardrop-shaped envelope of calm water, as the turbulent water around that stable envelope made Quinn move inside the lake.

After practicing for a few weeks, Quinn had learned a lot about using water magic to practice underwater swimming. Quinn had found that he needed to maintain calm water around him, as steady and stable water was ideal for proper oxygen circulation.

The turbulent water hindered Quinn's ability to take in water, so to solve that, he tried many options, like covering his face with stable water, but that failed the integrity test and would turn turbulent after a certain speed.

After many tests and configurations, Quinn had found that covering his entire body with a teardrop-shaped stable water cover was better, as not only did it pass the integrity test. It also spared Quinn's body from the water-resistance he experienced while learning how to use water magic for swimming.

'Hydrodynamics for the win,' smiled Quinn as he exerted more magic, pushing his speed up as he moved towards the Kraken.

What previously took tens of minutes of physical swimming, now with the help of water magic, it took under five minutes for Quinn to start from his usual starting point to where the Kraken usually resided.

'There it is,' thought Quinn as a tentacle entered his sight.

Quinn stopped at a distance away from the tentacle and took a moment to form his plan. This would be his second encounter with the Kraken, although this time his goal was to at least make sure that the Kraken didn't touch him. That was all he wanted to accomplish today.

'Let's start.' Quinn cracked his knuckles underwater, and the water once again formed a teardrop around Quinn. Quinn, then, contracted his body before extending it straight and shot himself towards the Kraken.

Immediately, the Kraken's tentacle twitched as it felt a tiny human moving towards him at a faster speed than before. The next second, two tentacles rose from the lake floor and shot towards the smaller figure in the water.

Quinn, who registered the twin tentacle pincer attack immediately shot upward to avoid a tentacle. The next second, though, the other tentacle went upon Quinn, ready to grab him.

'Oh, no, I'm not going to the surface soon,' thought Quinn. The water magic showed its maneuverability advantages as the teardrop cover narrowed.

Water forces from different directions came into play, and Quinn moved towards the incoming tentacle, intending to escape it's grasp with an aggressive approach. Quinn and the tentacle close on to each other, and at the last second, Quinn spun around the cylindrical body of the tentacle, leaving behind coils of water propulsions around the tentacle's body as he zoomed forward.

'YES!' celebrated Quinn as he put in more magic into speed and zoomed towards the Kraken's main body while intending to see its face.

But the thing about tentacles is that they don't work like hands; they weren't single jointed limbs and could fold and turn at any point of their length.

And the Kraken knew it better than anyone else. So when Quinn escaped its first attempt, both tentacles immediately moved, turning towards Quinn and darting with speed to catch up with Quinn like homing missiles.

Quinn, who was zooming forward, felt something behind him and saw that the tentacles he dodged were once again on his tail, and they were much faster than Quinn, so the distance was shortening as he watched them.

He knew running away wasn't going to work for long, so he decided to use another branch of magic, a magic that had a massive advantage in his current situation.

Turning his body towards the tentacles while still moving away from them, Quinn took a deep breath of water and called upon his magic. The magic from his magical core shot out into the water and waited for Quinn to give the command.

Quinn waited — he waited for the tentacles to get closer and closer to each other as they moved nearer to Quinn, patiently watching for the right moment. When they were just about the distance Quinn wanted them to be, he dwelled deep into his memories.

'... Ice.'

That single word brought him the memories of the chilling freeze of the Icy vault, all the time he had spent in the area, feeling the cold seep into his bones. Just for the moment, Quinn felt that he was back in the Icy vault, working on the snowflake icicle, trying to get inside the vault.

'Ice.'

With that thought, the magic got the command it was waiting for, and it made the wish come true in reality.

Ice bloomed in the Great lake, two giant bands of ice formed around the two tentacles, working as cuffs when the ice from the band shot towards each other, meeting to lock the tentacles with each other, causing them to slow down and snatch against each other.

In an environment where water was everywhere, where the base material for making ice was in so much abundance, Quinn's ice magic worked with greater ease. He was able to push it to greater heights than he had ever reached.

More and more ice bands formed around the surface of the tentacles, weighing them down as they locked them to each other.

With a smirk on his face, Quinn raised an arm up, and a gigantic upward curving ice barrier formed just as a third tentacle tried to capture Quinn from above.

'Ha! I was expecting that!' reveled Quinn as he made a fist with his raised hand.

The third tentacle, which collided with the barrier, started to freeze as ice formed on its surface, climbing up at an alarming rate.

But the next things Quinn saw wiped the smirk off Quinn's face.

The initial two tentacles, sinking down because of the ice, moved and tugged to opposite sides. Immediately, there were cracks and crevices appeared in the ice constraints.

Quinn's eyes widened as he saw the cracks in the ice. In response, he concentrated his magic to fill those cracks with more ice.

But as he did that, he felt something on his side, and when Quinn moved his eyes to the side, he saw a fourth tentacle darting towards him.

'Motherfuc-!' Quinn tried to curse as he formed an ice sphere around him, and just as the ice sphere was about to complete, the collision with the fourth tentacle happened, sending the ice sphere with Quinn inside rushing to the opposite direction.

"SHiT!" he shouted, but underwater all that did was to create a gurgle.

The whirling ice sphere stole Quinn's balance, and he tumbled inside for a good couple of seconds before he exerted magic and dissolved the ice sphere, leaving Quinn's body flailing.

It took another few seconds before Quinn could regain balance, but he was still moving uncontrollably. Turning back to the direction he was drifting in an attempt to stop himself, Quinn came into another shock.

'Crap!'

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- (Scene Break) -

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The Slytherin common room was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. This dungeon extended part way under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge.

The room had lots of low-backed, black and dark green, button-tufted, leather sofas, skulls, and dark wood cupboards. One of the wooden tables had a Wizard's Chess set on it.

The common room was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous Medieval Slytherins. It had quite a dignified atmosphere, albeit quite a cold one.

Daphne Greengrass, her sister, Astoria Greengrass, and Tracey Davis were sitting in there. Tracey and Astoria were playing a game of Wizard's Chess while Daphne was reading a book.

There was no one else in the spacious area. So except for the occasional cross-talk between Tracy and Astoria, the only sounds in the room were the ticking of a clock, moving of chess pieces, and turning pages.

The three occupants were comfortable in the room's tranquility until a heavy thump broke it.

All three girls jumped in their chairs and looked at each other before hastily looking towards the source of the shattering thump.

The three girls saw a person pressed up flat against the glass panels that showed the underwater view of the Great lake.

Tracy blinked a couple of times, squinted her eyes to thoroughly look at the person, and her eyes opened when she recognized the person.

"Quinn!"

The Greengrass sister's jaw dropped when it clicked in their minds, and now they could see that the man dressed only in shorts was the Ravenclaw, and their friend, Quinn West.

"What in Slytherin's name is he doing there?" asked Astoria as she moved towards the glass panels.

"Are those slits on his neck?" pointed out Daphne when she noticed his gills.

Tracy and Astoria turned to Daphne and looked at her with a face that said, 'That is the first thing you notice?'

Quinn, who was on the other side of the glass, opened his eyes to see his three Slytherin friends.

The three girls watched as Quinn's eyes widened when he noticed them. They saw his jaw drop in shock and then the banging of his head against the glass.

Quinn slapped his hand against the glass, and they saw the reddish-yellow glowing words form on the glass.

「NOT A WORD TO ANYONE.」

After a moment, another line formed below the first line.

「NOT A WORD.」

The words stayed there for a few seconds before they disappeared, and the girls saw Quinn push against the glass and swim away.

"... He didn't say goodbye," commented Astoria as Quinn disappeared away from their sights.

This time the older girls looked at Astoria and made faces that said, 'That is what you say first?'

Quinn's sudden 'visit' surprised the three girls enough for them not to notice that he didn't have a wand in his hand.

At least then, that is.

.

- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn didn't encounter the Kraken during his journey back to the shore. Just before he got out of the water, Quinn's transfigured gills disappeared, and so did other modifications.

He brought his face out of the water and took a couple of deep breaths through his mouth till his lungs were once again filled with oxygen-rich air and performing as normal.

Walking out of the lake, Quinn laid down on the ground and groaned for a good minute before opening his eyes and sighing.

"I just wanted a peaceful year, and now this happens."

While he was sure that Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria wouldn't speak about it to anyone else, he didn't want them to know.

A secret was strongest when only one person knew about it.

Quinn had no plan of telling them anything about the vault or what he was actually doing there, but he was sure that he was going to have a talk with them.

'I need to think about what I am going to tell them.'

Quinn sighed, and then his mind went back to today's encounter with the Kraken.

"Damn it, that Kraken is a toughie. The number of tentacles is just not fair. I need to get more practice," sighed Quinn before some other things. "I need to change some things. Yeah, definitely change some things."

The second encounter with the Kraken ended up a failure.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC - Fought the tentacles.

Hogwarts' giant squid - Kraken - Tricky tiny human, hmph!

Daphne Greengrass - Slytherin #1 - Slits? But why..?

Tracy Davis - Slytherin #2 - It is too cold for a swim, isn't it?

Astoria Greengrass - Slytherin #3 - Didn't speak goodbye, how rude.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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

The link is in the synopsis!

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

The thing about the ambiance of the A.I.D office was that the room was designed to make the people who came in feel comfortable. The entire room was set up to create a comforting and inviting environment.

It had a lot of elbow room to make the clients feel that the room was spacious and not stuffy. At the same time, the number of knick-knacks, decor, and paintings gave the illusion of being in a small space that made the room feel cozy and safe.

The walls were painted in a light blue to make the clients more agreeable and relaxed. The plants placed in the room were carefully chosen to provide a fresh aspect to the ambiance, making the room feel more organic.

The room's entire purpose was to make the person who came in feel comfortable enough to open up about their troubles. To provide a safe space that put them at ease. And the things that tied it everything in the room were the main focus in the room; the host, the person who owned and operated the place.

And currently, that host was totally focused on maximizing the comfort level of the people sitting in front of him.

"Please make yourselves comfortable," stated Quinn with a calm smile on his face. "Do you girls want something to drink? I have butterbeer, gillywater, soda, or milkshakes. I have lots of fruits that you can choose from."

The eyes of two of the three girls sitting in front of Quinn shined. They spoke up.

"I want a butterbeer," asked Tracy with a shine in her eyes and joy in her voice. She had some butterbeer for the first time at Hogsmeade and enjoyed it very much. So when Quinn offered, she jumped at it.

"Gillywater, please," replied Astoria from her chair, looking at the various knick-knacks and paintings.

The third girl sighed at her two companions before replying.

"Nothing, thank you."

Quinn stood up from behind his desk and walked to his workshop. When he came out with a bottle each of butterbeer and gillywater.

"Daphne, are you sure you don't want anything," asked Quinn as he put down the chilled bottles on the coasters on the table in front of Tracy and Astoria. "I can brew a pot of tea if you don't want something cold. I have a variety of tea leaves that you can pick from."

"I would like to know what were you doing in the Great Lake" asked Daphne, making clear eye contact with Quinn.

"... Straight to business. I can respect that," said Quinn sitting back down on his barstool.

"Ahem, what I was doing in the Great Lake? Well, I was swimming," replied Quinn after clearing his throat, hoping that this would clear every doubt. But Quinn knew that he was kidding himself.

"In late January?" persisted the blonde Greengrass, with a tone laced with skepticism. She didn't believe Quinn would go for a simple swim in the icy waters.

Quinn matched eyes with Daphne and answered with a straight face. "... Yes, one warming charm, and I was all set for a nice swim."

"What about the gills beneath your ears? Why were you using magic that isn't taught until the sixth year?" asked Daphne, pushing for more information when she heard the short answer from Quinn.

Quinn snorted and scoffed at those words. He bragged with self-confidence laced in his tone, "I'm the smartest student at Hogwarts. Year restrictions have never stopped me and never will. I wanted to go deep diving, so I gave myself a pair of gills, nothing complex."

He took out his fake wand with his right hand and waved it to perform magic on his left hand. The digits of his left hand twitched, lengthened a bit, and gained another joint.

Flexing his fingers, Quinn showed the girls his fingers with three interphalangeal joints and a thumb with two joints.

"I have enough mastery over magic to perform partial human transfiguration over limited parts of my body," boasted Quinn.

Even if he was boasting, Quinn was still holding back what he was capable of. He was more advanced than what he was letting on.

'Now that I think about that. I need to improve on that thing,' thought Quinn. He needed to make certain changes before he went back for another confrontation with the Kraken.

The younger Greengrass was holding the bottle of gillywater with both her hands and was looking at the bottle's label when she asked.

"Then why did you crash into the glass?"

All three girls remembered the shocked expression on his face when he was pressed against the glass. Quinn was clearly not expecting to be there nor wanted them to see him, so something had happened when he was swimming, and with Astoria's question, all three stared at Quinn, expecting an answer.

'The little one knows how to talk. Of course, that would turn in the other direction,' thought Quinn with a straight face before speaking.

"I kind of got flicked by the giant squid when I was running away from a flurry of grindylows. The giant squid took me by surprise, so I ended up casting a spell at it, and then it flung me away with its tentacle because of that spell..."

To keep his story believable, Quinn decided to stick to the facts that he had experienced. He regularly met grindylows while he practiced his water magic and ran away from them to practice his speed, and the Kraken did push him away because of the ice magic.

By spinning his actual experiences into fake explanations, Quinn was making sure to establish a believable story, plus it allowed him to present it believably and confidently.

"... And since this could be seen as dangerous, I asked you three not to tell anyone," finished Quinn, rolling his eyes as he air-quoted the word dangerous.

Quinn was handing the girls the initiative, but anything that followed was under control. He waited for any question because that allowed him to answer questions they bothered to ask and not anything extra that he might speak about if he took the lead.

"Can we also go swimming? That would be fun," suggested Tracy, thinking about playing in the water, having fun.

Quinn grabbed the opportunity when he saw it and steered the conversation in the presented direction.

"Sure, I can teach you a simple bubble-head charm that would allow you to breathe underwater, but whether you're able to learn it, it is up to you. And if you guys do learn it, let's do this when the weather gets warmer; I don't want you guys to get sick."

"Eh~, but you went for a swim in the cold, why not us?" whined Tracy, slightly frowning towards Quinn.

"It will take you a lot of time to learn the bubble-head charm if you are able to learn it; the spell is a sixth-year charm," reasoned Quinn ignoring the glare from Daphne.

He knew the glare was because he had just said that year restrictions didn't hinder him, and now he was saying that they wouldn't learn it because it was a higher-year spell.

"If you want to go for a swim at the surface, that doesn't warrant the bubble-head charm. The water is freezing, you know, even with the warming charm, you still feel the cold against the skin. Believe me, most people don't like it; I didn't mind it, but I'm not sure if you'd like it."

Quinn wasn't lying about the cold against the skin. He felt the bitter chill against his skin the entire time he was inside the lake. Quinn didn't heat the water envelope around him to make himself comfortable because he just didn't mind the cold and was used to it, but not all could stay in that cold.

While saying that, the workshop's door pushed open, and Luna came skipping out with a large sheet of old parchment in her hands.

"I did it!" she exclaimed, looking at Quinn, unrolling the parchment and showing a detailed map drawn on the parchment. "It was mud rue-based ink! It reacted with pidecory and efameg tarring potion."

Luna giggled as she pushed the parchment near Quinn, showing it to Quinn. The blonde Ravenclaw wasn't even looking at the three Slytherin girls.

Quinn took the map parchment from her and gave it a look over. From Luna's excited reaction, Quinn knew that she had gotten the correct potions and herbs. He still observed the parchment to judge the quality of her brew, as he wanted to determine her progress in potion brewing, and he was pleased to see that she had done a more than decent brew for her first time brewing the potion.

"Good job, Luna," praised Quinn, smiling at the parchment before smiling at his friend/junior/assistant. "And you are right, it was pidecory and efameg tarring potion."

"It was in the riddle. It was so clear when I finally noticed. You hid it so cleverly," beamed Luna, swinging with joy in her spot. She was so happy that she couldn't contain herself.

Quinn handed the map parchment back to Luna and spoke, "How about you go and explore with the map. Revealing the map was only step one; you still have to find the treasure."

"Really!" exclaimed Luna, but then she looked back at the workshop and spoke. Her voice didn't have as much excitement as before, "But I still have to clean up the equipment I used."

Quinn chuckled and responded, "I will clean it. You go and have fun."

Luna squeed and gave Quinn a tight hug before turning to the office entrance. She was about to rush out when she saw that Quinn had company.

"Hi!" greeted Luna when she saw the three girls, immediately following the greeting with: "Bye!"

And with that, she rushed to the door.

"Don't run in the hallways!" shouted Quinn just before she exited.

"Okay!" was all Luna said before she was gone.

Daphne, who had turned her head to look at Luna, who had rushed out, turned it back towards Quinn and inquired, "She was in there the entire time?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, she's been spending a lot of time in there, brewing potions," answered Quinn as he walked back to his barstool after closing the workshop door.

"And why does she brew potions in there and not in the potion wing?" asked Daphne, looking between the workshop door and Quinn.

The potion wing in Hogwarts were multiple classrooms with potion workstations where students could practice potion brewing.

"Oh right, not many people know it, but Luna is my employee. I hired her as my assistant," answered Quinn. He was still smiling because of Luna's progress with the learning quest he made for her. "She gets to use the space behind the wall."

"What is behind the wall?" Astoria chirped in, curiosity evident in her eyes as she looked at the workshop's red door.

"That's a secret," smiled Quinn in response.

Many people had asked Quinn about the area behind the wall. And all of them had different ideas about what was behind there. Some thought it was a storage room because Quinn brought out their orders from inside; others assumed it was empty because they never saw Quinn go back there.

Now some people like Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria knew that there was at least a potion workstation inside.

But no one except Quinn, Luna, Ivy Potter, and whoever she told knew what was actually knew what was inside.

"Oh, come on, tell us!" inquired Tracy. Now that Quinn refused to tell them, it stirred her curiosity.

"Maybe another day. I'll give you a tour of what is behind the wall. I will say this, though; behind the wall, you'll find something enjoyable and of your liking," grinned Quinn, enjoying himself as he increased the allure of the unknown place behind the glass wall and watching how a three girls' became even more curious.

Tracy and Astoria shifted in their seats, while Daphne narrowed her eyes at the red door. The three wondered what there was inside and had a mental image of what was behind the wall.

'Phew, at least now they aren't thinking about what I was doing in the lake,' sighed Quinn, feeling relieved that he was successfully able to divert the whole situation. 'I somehow need to thank Luna and her timing. What does she like... Ah, she likes to paint! Okay, then I need to find out what kind of paints and brushes she uses and get a new assortment for her.'

To make sure that they don't return to yesterday's incident, Quinn shifted the topic of conversation.

"So Astoria, tell me what Daphne is like at home..."

The younger sister's eyes shined as she opened her mouth, and things flew out. The older sister was quick on the outtake and tried to stop her sister.

Tracy and Quinn sat back and laughed at the sisters.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

In a cursed building that looked like no one had occupied for years, as there were broken windows, stripped paints, exposed bricks and cracks creeping across the outside, making the building unpleasant to the eye.

If the building's facade was in bad shape, then the inside was worse; there were broken tiles, paint falling from every wall, exposed pipes, broken and left behind furniture, mold, and spider webs in every corner. The insides were so dusty and covered with fallen building material that no patch of the floor was empty.

It was a building that even the most impoverished squatters would avoid.

In that same building lied a man; a dangerously skinny and skeletal-looking man. The man looked sickly and pale like he hadn't eaten properly in months.

The man was exceedingly short, no taller than the average thirteen-year-old child with pale grubby waxy skin, small watery eyes, a pointed nose, sunken cheeks and eyes, yellow teeth, and a balding head of reddish hair.

If someone looked at the man at the very moment, they would think that the man was a corpse that had died in the building.

But the man was no corpse; This man was the greatest betrayer in recent history.

Peter Pettigrew.

Peter Pettigrew was called by some of his former friends as 'Wormtail'. He began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1971 and was sorted into Gryffindor House after the Sorting Hat pondered over which house he belonged in for over five minutes, a true Hatstall.

During his years at Hogwarts, he became one of the Marauders; he was best friends with Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin, and together they created the Marauder's Map.

During the First Wizarding War, Peter was a member of the Order of the Phoenix but became a spy when he got forced into joining Lord Voldemort. He was made the Secret Keeper for the Potters when they went into hiding with the Fidelius Charm. But he betrayed James, his wife Lily, and their children Harry and Ivy to Lord Voldemort. Leading this to the death of Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, the parents of James Potter.

After Voldemort's fall, he tried to fake his own death and frame Sirius for betraying Fleamont and Euphemia, as well as for his own murder and those of the twelve Muggles he killed during his escape. But Sirius Black was sharper and more magically capable than Peter and saw through the deception and caught the 'rat.'

Peter was arrested by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and sentenced by Barty Crouch Senior to life imprisonment in Azkaban. He was charged of twelve crimes of murder with the killing curse and for giving the information about the Potters' whereabouts, which lead to their death by the hands of Lord Voldemort.

Peter was placed in solitary confinement at the mercy of the Azkaban guards, the Dementors. But the 'rat' was persistent and had cockroach-like tenacity; that tenacity to live could not be detected by the Dementors but still allowed him to maintain a sense of self and regain enough strength to transform into his Animagus form in his cell. Since Dementors have difficulty sensing the less complex emotions of animals, he could remain relatively unaffected as a rat. It was not trouble at all to the amortal guards, though, since they thought it meant he was losing his mind like every other convict in their custody, including Bellatrix and some of her fellow Death Eaters.

Peter spent twelve years living in his Animagus form in Azkaban. Just a few months ago, he seized an opportunity and became the only known person to escape the prison unassisted. He did it by transforming into his Animagus form of a rat.

The decision to escape after twelve years of imprisonment was the news he had heard from the guards. A new terrorist group had been causing chaos outside in the real world. The group had caused stress on the Auror's office to deploy Aurors to patrol muggle areas to guard the unaware muggle population from any surprise attacks.

For the first time in a long time, Wormtail mustered whatever courage he had and decided to escape the hell of the place he was living.

The motivation of that escape wasn't to better his own life but to make someone else's life miserable.

In his twelve-year incarceration, his former 'friend' Sirius Black had regularly visited him to gloat and give him regular news about how great his and his other friend's lives were.

Peter couldn't help but hear what Black would tell him about the fame, prestige, and happiness they had gotten after the war. He bragged about how everyone knew about them while he was dumped there in filth, forgotten by everyone.

In twelve years, Peter developed an obsession and hateful loathing towards his former 'friends.' He hated Sirius because of his regular visits and hated James and Lupin because they didn't even bother to visit him. He thought that the latter two couldn't even be bothered to visit him because of their glamorous lives.

Obsession wasn't something that Dementors could detect and that was why he kept his sanity even when the Dementors sucked everything worth living for out of him.

So for the first time, Peter took action without knowing what laid in his future. He escaped Azkaban to get back his former master to the top so that Voldemort would burn down his former 'friends' to the ground and he could be there as Voldemort did it.

He didn't know if Voldemort was even alive, but spending a lot of time in Azkaban with nothing but his thoughts made him convinced that Voldemort was still alive.

The sole aim of his life became to see the Black, Potter, Lupin, and therefore,the Order of Phoenix to be destroyed. He wanted anyone who opposed Voldemort to suffer because it was their fault that Voldemort had fallen and robbed him of a glorious future.

In the broken-down building, Peter Pettigrew opened his gaunt eyes and in them was a strong fire of hatred.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC - Master conversationalist.

Luna Lovegood - Assistant - On an adventure of her own.

Daphne Greengrass - Witness #1 - Surprised to see Quinn working closely with someone.

Tracy Greengrass - Witness #2 - Curious like a cat about what is behind the wall.

Astoria Greengrass - Witness #3 - "So Daphne has this small blanket that she hug-" *Mumph* Muffle* *...*

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

After spending a few hours every day underwater for months inside the Great Lake, Quinn had gotten used to the water so much he felt it was just another part of his life. Everything, from moving his body underwater to how to breathe with gills, had become natural to Quinn. He no longer felt that water was outside of his comfort zone.

Just two weeks ago, he had been smacked by the Kraken and had ended up revealing himself to Daphne, Tracy, and Astoria. But with some work and luck, he had been able to put that incident behind him.

Now Quinn was ready to get another dig against the Kraken. Within two weeks, Quinn had done more practice with water magic and human transfiguration, and he had become better at both fields.

His progress with human transfiguration was clearly visible in his body. Previously Quinn had had three pairs of gills that allowed him to breathe underwater on his neck and underneath his ears.

But now he had a more complex underwater respiratory system. Instead of the three-neck pair of gills, Quinn had made himself a more extensive system, with another six pairs of gills on his chest placed between the opening of the bones in the rib cage, connecting them to his lungs.

Inside his body, Quinn had opened up his windpipe to let water in and had layered his lungs to prevent them from getting irritated and protected both the bronchus, bronchioles network and alveoli branches from getting in contact with water. He had transformed his lungs into a water chamber where water could enter from his windpipe, reach the lungs, and exit through the gills, leaving behind oxygen in his blood.

What prompted this change was that Quinn's body was large and needed more oxygen. Quinn had noticed that when he tussled with the Kraken he was getting out of breath, as he moved rigorously in the water and used a lot of magic.

Even though Quinn was using water magic to move around, there was still a physical aspect to his underwater swimming. During his skirmish with the Kraken, Quinn had to make lots of movements quickly in a short amount of time, which left him feeling out of breath. That induced him to gulp down a lot of water to gain the sufficient amount of oxygen.

It took some practice and reading, but Quinn managed to get it done, and even after performing crazy moves underwater, he didn't feel the lack of oxygen in his body.

And now that he was ready, Quinn cruised towards the Kraken's primary location, while speeding at a velocity faster than the last time he had tried to get past the Kraken.

'This time, I need to find a sign of the area where the third vault is kept,' thought Quinn as he pumped more magic to increase his speed. 'It's going to be different this time.'

And things turned out to be different.

Just as Quinn was about to reach the point where he could usually see the Kraken's tentacle, instead of seeing a tentacle laying on the lake bed, Quinn saw two tentacles moving directly towards him.

'Oh, shit!' screamed Quinn in his head as he saw the Kraken taking the initiative in their third meeting.

Punching the proverbial brakes, Quinn commanded the water to come to a stop and immediately swam upwards to avoid the two tentacles.

'That was clos -," his thoughts of relief shattered when Quinn saw five more tentacles appear in his zone visibility and zoom towards him, "Oh! You've got to be kidding me!'

Quinn's magic thrummed into life as more and more of it was released into the water, bringing the water under his control. With the water at his service, Quinn swam at faster and faster speeds, making tight brakes in water and maneuvering sharp direction changes on the dime, all in the attempts to stay away from the grasp of the Kraken.

'Damn, I wasn't expecting-' thought Quinn dodging another tentacle jab. '- such aggression and momentum from the Kraken.'

As seven tentacles wriggled and moved in the water, trying to catch something much smaller and weaker than them, Quinn was getting more confident in his ability because he wasn't feeling the pressure like the last time.

'Let's drop some ~freeze~ in here,' thought Quinn as ice magic made another appearance, and walls of ice manifested from the freezing of the lake water, held in place by Quinn to deflect and block the tentacles that were getting a little too close for comfort.

But because of the speedy casting of magic while evading the continuous and tenacious attack of the tentacles, Quinn could only create ice walls that could stop a tentacle once, and a second hit would cause them to crack and break.

'I need to find an opening to dive in closer,' planned Quinn as he shifted to his left, avoiding an incoming tentacle, simultaneously creating two ice walls to block two tentacles. One ice blockade for the tentacle coming from the left and the second wall for the tentacle that he had just dodged, which was coming back from his back.

Quinn swam up before the ice walls broke and alertly looked for an opening while still keeping an eye on the tentacles because while he was successfully evading the Kraken's grasp, Quinn didn't know when the tables could turn.

'There it is!' yelled Quinn as he saw an opening straight ahead; all the tentacles were far enough for Quinn to sprint full speed and without getting caught by them. Just to be sure, he barraged a near hundred ice spheres in all directions in an attempt to stall the tentacles.

'Go!' with a mental yell, Quinn zapped forwards, but not even three seconds in his full speed swim-sprint, two new tentacles appeared in front of Quinn.

'Hell no!'

Quinn had enough and clapped his hand in front of himself, and immediately the surrounding water with Quinn in the center turned black. Waves and waves of black erupted, covering everything in inky black. He had released so much magic in a low costing color change spell that it was slightly visible on the Great lake's surface if someone was paying attention.

To make sure that he didn't get in contact with tentacles by accident, Quinn dropped down to the lake bed and started to swim close to the surface.

'The damn Kraken took me by surprise!'

Quinn wasn't a great fan of his current situation. He had been avoiding both of the actions he had just taken because of the disadvantage that they put him in.

Turning the water into a color that reduced visibility did provide Quinn cover from the Kraken, but it also heavily reduced away his own ability to see in the water.

Plus, Quinn wasn't sure if the Kraken had some form of water perception. If it did, then his effort was a waste.

Second, Quinn avoided swimming close to the lake bed because it took away his ability to move downwards. He had been staying a good distance above the lake bed because that allowed him to move in any direction, a three-sixty degree movement possibility.

But now, with him swimming so close to the lake bed, Quinn had lost a variety of evading options.

'Don't let it find me. Don't let it find me. Don't let it find me,' repeatedly chanted Quinn in his mind as he carefully and silently swam forward.

Three tentacles suddenly came from above and stabbed the ground behind Quinn.

'Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Did it find me?! Shiiiit!'

He didn't know if Kraken had locked onto his position, so Quinn did what he felt right in the moment and kicked up the speed and darted forward, throwing zig-zags every few meters.

Quinn could hear the sounds of the stabbing of the ground by the tentacles; this told Quinn that Kraken had a vague idea of his location, but that piece of information wasn't favorable to Quinn, so he kept going, and finally Kraken's body.

This was the first time in his months of starting his dives that Quinn had seen the Kraken's main body.

It remarkably looked like a squid with an elongated tube-shaped body, large yellow eyes, skin that certainly didn't match a typical squid's skin; it had that hard and rough texture, unlike the squid's soft outer layer.

There were so many tentacles coming out of the Kraken's body that Quinn couldn't tell how many did it have. One thing that Quinn did notice was,

'It wasn't going serious against me...'

Even though Quinn couldn't count or even see the number of tentacle bases, he knew that there were far more than the Kraken had used on him.

Kraken's eyes met with Quinn's, and at that moment, he studied Kraken's eyes. In those eyes, Quinn saw no hostility or anger of any kind. All he could discern in the wholly yellow eyes was curiosity and interest towards Quinn.

The Kraken saw in Quinn's eyes fascination, interest, and slight concern.

The Kraken clearly had an idea of what the tiny human wanted. The tiny human child clearly wanted to get to the place that it was hiding. It knew that this human child knew of the place that it hid beneath its body.

The Kraken knew of the 'vault' because it knew everything about its home. The Kraken was the oldest of all living inside the Great lake.

The Kraken could be the apex predator if it wanted to be and wipe every being in the lake, but it didn't. All it wanted to do was to live its life peacefully. Even the colony of militant merpeople avoided the Kraken because of fear and respect.

Decades ago, it had come through the waterway connecting the Great Lake to the ocean and ever since lived inside the lake. During its time here, it found about the place that he now guarded. The 'vault' wasn't much to someone as great as itself. But to the little human children that came to the castle every year, it was dangerous.

It had taken upon himself from getting humans inside there. It wanted to protect human children.

So when this little child was clearly trying to get inside the dangerous place, it stopped the child twice, but here he was coming for the third time, and he had almost slipped away this time.

The beast and the human stared at each other for a moment of peace and stillness before the game of cat and mouse started again as tentacles rose to catch Quinn and Quinn took off with water magic.

Quinn, who had gotten so close to the Kraken, looked for a gate or entrance of some kind. He had gotten so close and wasn't going to let this opportunity pass away.

'It doesn't matter if the Kraken likes it or not, but I am going in there,' thought Quinn as he dodged tentacles that seemed to increase in number and increasing the difficulty by another level.

'Where is it? Where is it?'

Quinn swam at top speeds around the Kraken, trying to find the vault and avoiding the tentacles at the same time when he came across a clearly carved design into the lake bed. Upon a closer look, Quinn was that it was some kind of tunnel partially blocked by the Kraken's tentacle.

'That is it! That must be it,' smiled Quinn and immediately shot towards it in an attempt to get inside. 'Yes!' celebrated Quinn when he saw within touching distance of the tunnel.

But then his body snapped to stop, and Quinn clearly felt something wrap around his leg and pull him back.

The Kraken had got Quinn's legs with one of its tentacles.

"NO!" yelled Quinn into the water, but no voice came out.

All he could do was see the tunnel getting distant from him as the Kraken's tentacle pulled him away.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

On the lakeside, Quinn laid on the ground watching the sky the afternoon sky. The Kraken had dropped him on the shore immediately after his capture.

Quinn had been caught inches away from the tunnel and dragged away from the prize he was seeking. For the third time, Quinn had been bested by the Kraken.

Both parties didn't want the other to get hurt and had taken the lethality out of their moves. And in that playing field, Quinn had been defeated thrice.

Currently, Quinn was feeling a deep sense of failure. The goal line was in front of him, and he was about to reach it, but then he literally was thrown out of the race.

The reason for that unusual sense of deep failure was because of the last year's events. Last year, Quinn had been taken over by the sin curse and taken for a ride that he clearly didn't sign up for.

Even though Quinn had come out stronger on the other side, but the truth was that the second vault had utterly defeated him without even giving Quinn a fighting chance. He was defeated before he even knew the fight had started.

So to make up for that humiliating defeat, Quinn wanted to cruise through the third vault and show that the results of the last vault were not his top ability and that the Icy vault wasn't a fluke.

He wanted to crush the third vault without breaking a sweat.

But even before entering the vault, Quinn had been thwarted thrice.

"No."

A barely audible whisper escaped Quinn.

Quinn got up from the ground and stood up straight, looking at the lake with a straight expression, but there was a fire in his eyes.

"Failure isn't the opposite of success," spat out Quinn with heat in his voice. He turned away from the lake and walked some steps away before turning back to face the lake and cracked his neck. "It's a part of success."

He ran towards the lake, and as he ran, gills appeared on his neck and sides of his chest.

Quinn jumped into the lake, and the second his body was fully inside the water, he opened his eyes, and the water surrounding him heard the command of magic; A calm envelope of water formed around Quinn, but outside of that water envelope, the water roared with energy.

With a single thought from Quinn, he shot forward with full speed towards the Kraken.

'Not towards the Kraken,' thought Quinn. He wasn't going towards the Kraken. 'The Kraken is a stepping stone. I am going towards that tunnel. I am going towards success.'

Within a few minutes, Quinn reached the Kraken's tentacles, and instead of going straight for the tunnel, Quinn landed on the lake bed, closed his eyes, and raised his hands.

Failure* he was feeling.

Determination* to get past the Kraken.

Anger* of failing to get past the Kraken thrice.

Serenity* he felt in the current moment as he focused on his magic.

Resentment* towards the Kraken, who blocked his path.

Excitement* of having his goal so close.

Every emotion Quinn felt mixed together and touched his magic.

The failure of the second vault wasn't a worthless experience. It was one of the most important events of Quinn's life.

And right now, Quinn was going to use what he had learned in that failure.

All sound vanished for Quinn as he opened his eyes and casted the magic.

...

The Kraken, who had just sent the human child away, 'frowned' when he felt the child return and was about to once again throw him out of his house when it felt a tingle through the water.

It felt magic. A lot of magic coursing through the water.

The Kraken could tell that the magic was from the human child, and the second that thought flashed through its mind, the Kraken saw.

The mighty beast of water watched as the water around its skin turned to ice, covering his body in ice. Within a blink of an eye, the front side of the Kraken was covered in thick ice.

The Kraken was confused because it felt no pain or discomfort from the ice. All the ice did was cover his body.

But then the Kraken understood the reason for the ice as the blanket of ice suddenly pushed against its body and dislodged its body from the lake floor, pushing him up to make him tumble.

The tiny human child was pushing with ice so that he could get inside the dangerous place.

It wasn't going to let him go in so easily.

The Kraken tried to break the ice, but another layer of ice would replace the cracked layer.

No matter what the Kraken tried, the ice reappeared thicker than before, and eventually, he was pushed and tumbled over to his side, leaving the tunnel to the dangerous wide open.

...

Quinn lowered his hands with a deep exhale of water before jumping with water magic his movements, and in one leap, he was beside the tunnel with the carvings around the edges of the entrance of the tunnel.

He gave the fallen Kraken one final look and saw that one of the tentacles had risen and was making its way towards Quinn.

A smirk appeared on Quinn as he waved the tentacle goodbye while jumping down the tunnel, leaving behind the fallen Kraken.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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Quinn West - MC - Channeling his inner young Magneto and finding that balance.

Kraken - Mighty Beast of Water - Had a big fall.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

The tunnel leading to the third vault was a long one. While falling through the tunnel, Quinn estimated that the depth was at least thirty meters. He could see light at the end of the tunnel, but the passage to that light was dark, making it hard for Quinn to see anything other than the end he was swimming towards.

Thus, the second Quinn entered the tunnel, he lit up his surroundings to observe, not because he wanted to have some light as he was half falling-half swimming to increase his falling speed, but in case there was something of interest and importance on the tunnel's walls. The result he was able to glean at, as he passed the stone walls, was that the tunnel walls were smooth and clean. There were no signs of any markings or etchings that gave any information about what was to come.

Quinn felt relieved and worried while swimming through the tunnel. He was relieved because there was no extra information that needed to be memorized on the fly before exiting the tunnel, and he was worried because he was once again stepping into the unknown with no idea of what would come.

He was sure that whatever came was related to water because it was what he had interpreted from Friar's riddle. So he ramped up the water magic around him and got himself ready as he closed in towards the light at the end.

The thing at the end of the tunnel wasn't what he was expecting. Quinn was expecting there to be water when he exited the tunnel, but the reality was one-eighty degrees different.

The moment his head exited the tunnel, his breathing hitched because there was no water outside the tunnel. He couldn't get any more water inside his body through his mouth. The second he came out of the tunnel, Quinn's pupils narrowed because of the sudden cut from an oxygen source. His respiratory system was magically transformed to work inside water, but that also meant that his natural respiratory system was reshaped and, thus, he couldn't exchange gases from the air.

Quinn gasped for a solid two to three seconds before his mind caught up to what was happening, prompting him to reverse all the transfigurations in his body and went back to his human respiratory system.

The water from his lung cavity was immediately gathered up and vanished so that there wasn't any fluid buildup, and when everything was cleared, Quinn took deep breaths through his mouth to get the airflow going. The erratic gasping subsided, and Quinn went back to breathing through his nose.

Recovering from the sudden surprise, Quinn noticed something unnatural in his current position. His eyes widened when he saw that his arms were resting on the rim of the tunnel.

"... I was swimming down, right?" asked Quinn to himself.

Quinn had swum into the tunnel down from the lake bed and expected to emerge from the other end; like falling 'down' from a ceiling vent. But instead, he climbed 'up' from a manhole in a road.

He stretched his hand to push himself back and looked 'below' to see that he could still see the lake end of the tunnel.

"Okay, this is freaky and really interesting," commented Quinn. He then decided to get out of the tunnel. He placed his hands on the rim of the tunnel and pushed himself up out of the water.

Standing on the edge of the tunnel, Quinn looked down, and even now, he could see the other side of the tunnel that opened up in the Great Lake. Quinn just needed to jump in the tunnel and sink or swim down to come out of the lake bed of the Great Lake.

"How did they do this?" remarked Quinn, looking at the dull stone cave, briefly looking for signs. "This cave is upside down. So cool~."

"Did gravity somehow switch without me knowing? Water does mess up with gravity perception," holding his chin with his hand, Quinn speculated, "Or is the tunnel some kind of portal, and I am in a separate dimension? Hoho, I will need to see what this is all about."

Quinn wasn't planning to research further this topic before completing the vault, because if the tunnel was indeed a portal, then messing with it could end up damaging the portal, and in turn, destroying the only known way to the third vault.

After admiring the magical phenomenon, Quinn roamed his eyes all over the cave.

Starting from the tunnel, Quinn noticed that not a single drop of water from the tunnel made its way into the stone cave itself. The tunnel was filled with water to the brim, but not a single drop had splashed into the cave after Quinn had pulled himself into the stone cave.

"There is some kind of anti-water ward in here," observed Quinn as he looked at the dry cave floor and then looked down at his body.

Not a single drop of water could be seen on Quinn's body. Combing a hand through his hair told him that even his hair was dry as if he had never swum his way into the cave.

"Yup, a version of anti-water ward," confirmed Quinn as he examined the credibility of his speculation by dunking his hand into the tunnel and pulling it back to see that not a single drop of water had made its way into the cave on his hand. "Does it mean I can't sweat in here, or do the hydrophobic properties only extend to the lake water?"

Scanning the other parts of the cave, Quinn looked up and examined the light source that illuminated the entire stone cave. It was a load of crystal sticking out of the roof, scattering soft water blue light all around the stone cave.

"A natural luminescent mineral crystal and a blue one at that. Blue ones are so rare!" slightly gasped Quinn. He had seen luminescent mineral crystals in his travels but had never seen the particular shade of blue like the one he was looking at right now.

The luminescent mineral crystal could be replicated with alchemy, but because the alchemists were rare, artificial crystals weren't widely available. The people who hired alchemists didn't ask for glowing crystals when they could have an alchemist produce other, more significant things.

"Maybe I could make some of them for the living hall," murmured Quinn, thinking about how the living hall would look like in the light of a luminescent mineral crystal. "Nah, I should make runic lights for the entire manor. At least that way, they could be turned off when not needed."

Strolling away from the tunnel, Quinn wandered towards the part of the cave that had a room-wide, three-step short staircase.

The stone steps on the floor acted as a divider inside the cave. The cave before the steps was like any stone cave you could find in the wild, but the area after the steps was definitely man-made.

Instead of the rough walls and ceiling of the first part of the cave, the second part of the cave had no partition between the walls and ceiling. All the surface part floors were melded together to form a dome.

And at the furthest end of the dome, there was a triangular opening in the dome wall. Similar to the tunnel, it, too, was filled entirely with water. And just like the tunnel, there wasn't a drop of water spilled out of the triangular opening, despite the triangular opening standing vertically to the floor.

Slowly descending the short steps, Quinn came across some movement because of the triangular entrance. The second Quinn stepped down for the last time, the stone sunk at some places to form engraved words in the wall.

Large engraved words formed above the entrance to form the words,

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「-~ POSEIDON'S WRATH ~-」

.

Words appeared on the left side of the entrance.

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「Beware, challenger! Enter the entrance and you shall feel the wrath of god! 'This is not for the soft-hearted and weak! Think before entering because god's fury doesn't have eyes.」

.

Another set of words appeared on the right side of the wall that said.

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「The trials are long and arduous! To understand the Law, you, brave challenger, will need some aid. Wish it upon the water, and you will return to the safety, away from peril!」

.

Fluidly an orb of water came out of the water inside the triangular entrance and gently floated towards Quinn. It stopped a short distance away from him.

The orb of water emitted faint magic. Quinn noticed that the words were on the right side of the wall. In addition, he could tell that this orb of water was the aid he was told that he'd have in the words engraved on the right side of the wall.

He walked around the water orb, observing it and carefully casting some magic to see what kind of magic was used inside the water. After some deliberation and internal debate, Quinn confirmed that the water orb wasn't harmful to him.

"No harm in giving it some help," shrugged Quinn as he stepped closer to the orb and gracefully lifted his right hand towards the water orb and gently touched the water orb with his index finger.

The water orb shone faint blue before the water rippled and went inside Quinn through his finger.

"Woah! Hey! Woah! Flippin' hell," exclaimed Quinn as he watched the water get sucked into his body, followed by a brief spike of light on his inner forearm.

In a surprise, Quinn withdrew his hand and turned it over to see that his previously unmarked forearm now had a navy blue symbol on it. Quinn could feel that if he channeled magic into the emblem on his skin, it would trigger whatever magic present in the water that went inside Quinn's body.

"Not cool! I hope this isn't permanent," sighed Quinn as he rubbed his marked skin. "This design isn't what I want my first tattoo to be. Hell, I don't even want a tattoo!" exclaimed Quinn while shaking his head.

Quinn closed his eyes while heavily exhaling, but when he opened them, Quinn had changed to a focused expression as he stared at the triangular entrance filled with water.

"Let's do this."

He walked to the triangular opening, held his breath, closed his eyes, and dived into the water without hesitation. Feeling the lukewarm water against his skin, which was much warmer than the cold Great Lake, Quinn primed his magic to change his body through transfiguration. After submerging his entire body, Quinn opened his eyes and noticed that the water was cleaner than the lake water, and, because of that, he could see better in that water.

Quinn was about to transfigure his body to add the underwater respiratory system with transfiguration, when he felt the familiar feeling that he had felt many times in his life, especially during this past summer break.

There was a tug on his entire body and the momentary lack of sensory input. He had felt the similar tug at least twice every day while he went back and forth between the West manor and Kaewpadung Gym.

'I'm being teleported!' thought Quinn, and just then, he re-emerged into a completely different place. He didn't appear in the water anymore, but somewhere he was least expecting to be.

A wide-eyed Quinn stared down from a height of five meters down a humongous raging whirlpool. Watching the gigantic sinkhole sucking and spitting out water, something that was formed because of opposing forces meeting each other to create a chaotic maelstrom, a fierce force of nature.

"Oh, shit!" yelled Quinn as he fell.

The five-meter fall went very quickly. Between the shock of being teleported and the stunning surprise at seeing that monstrous water vortex, Quinn didn't have time or the initiative to make any magic work.

Splashing heavily, Quinn entered the turbulent water and was immediately swept into the stormy waves. The strong waves blasted against Quinn's entire body as he quickly was pulled deeper into the brutal maelstrom.

For a full ten seconds, that became the longest ten seconds of Quinn's life, as his entire body was being pulled apart from all directions by the might from the revolving water waves.

It took him ten seconds, an amount of time that was a critical time inside these conditions to get his mind back on track to difficulty pulling his body into a fetal position.

Every ounce of water magic he knew was used to barely being able to pull himself together and attain a position with minimal surface area for the whirlpool water to work on. He had gone from using water magic to swimming in calm water, to using it to decrease his injury chances.

With his eyes closed, Quinn concentrated his magic to transfigure himself a gill system. He already had water inside his body because of the suddenness of his fall, which caused Quinn to swallow a lot of water that went straight to his lungs.

Transfiguring with water continuously slamming into his body was difficult, and he even failed once before he was able to get the aquatic respiratory system working.

But the situation gave him another twist when water entered his body through the gill flaps, and the second Quinn felt it, he pulled the plug. The turbulent water could critically damage his insides if he didn't leave now.

He channeled magic into the insignia on his arm, and it glowed for a split second before Quinn disappeared from the whirlpool.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

The water inside the triangle entrance rippled for a second before Quinn came out with a calm water sphere surrounding him. The water sphere floated a distance from the entrance before gently setting Quinn on the ground before vanishing like it was never there.

For a few seconds, Quinn laid on the floor, showing no movements except for the furrowed before his chest throbbed, and he coughed out some water inside his body that was promptly vanished by the cave ward the second it came outside Quinn's body.

Quinn rolled over and his elbow to lift his chest up and used his other hand to pound his chest while coughing. He had just vanished the backlog of water that was not expelled from the previous cough.

He collapsed back on the floor, rolled over to his back, and took deep breaths through his mouth as his chest heaved up and down.

There was no cursing externally or internally as Quinn regained his mental facilities and showed it by lifting his right arm to observe it.

'The mark is gone,' noticed Quinn, entering full analysis mode.

'One-time usage,' thought Quinn and then raised his head to see in the entrance's direction and saw another water orb floating there as if waiting for Quinn to touch it and take its place in his arm.

'A portkey type of magic? At least something similar with additional magic,' theorized Quinn, thinking back to his experience. 'I went from turbulent water to the calm water at the entrance. I was definitely teleported and then brought out here.'

He sat up and stared past the water orb at the triangular entrance. Quinn couldn't see anything inside, but the words [Poseidon's Wrath] were staring him in the eye, telling him that the entrance was the gate to the chaotic waters.

Quinn got up and started pacing back and forth under the dome-shaped part of the cave.

"A big-ass maelstrom. That wasn't natural. Not at all," dismissed Quinn with a shake of his head. "Natural water whirlpools aren't that powerful. That was definitely maintained deliberately to perform with that level of rotational force."

"I barely have any information. Was it a real place on Earth, or was it an expanded dimension? I couldn't see the 'sky' or else I would have known."

Quinn clicked his tongue because of the extremity of the conditions and the short time he had spent inside.

"If it was an expanded dimension -." Quinn's guess between a place on Earth or a magically created dimension was the latter. "- then how big was the place. Is there a limit to the depth? Would I have reached depth if I had stayed in there?"

There were a lot of questions related to the properties of the magical maelstrom in his mind. But the biggest question in his mind was,

"What do I have to accomplish in there? What's the goal? The end line?"

Quinn sighed as he stretched his body and felt the dull ache erupting in his limbs and joints.

"Argh, I took some beating in there," groaned Quinn. His chest, back, and limbs hurt from being pulled apart inside the whirlpool. "I need to fix that before tomorrow."

The injuries weren't serious, and he could fix them in a jiffy, but he wasn't looking forward to getting this beat up every day.

"Just need to get better at water magic to make myself comfortable there. Oh gosh, look at me~. My first thought is to get comfortable instead of avoiding that. How far I have come," smiled Quinn, completely oblivious that he was on the M-path.

"Baby steps~" sighed Quinn and looked at the words etched in the stone walls.

Even though the first attempt was a total failure, Quinn had a smile on his face because it was a start.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Whirlpool~ Whirlpool~~ - (Does any get this reference. It is a TV jingle.)

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

After healing himself off the dull ache in his body, Quinn decided to leave the vault for the day. He felt saturated from the day's work; between dodging the Kraken to get inside, the vault, and swirling inside the maelstrom, Quinn felt that he had his fill of adventure and action for today.

Quinn walked to the tunnel and peered down into the water, and saw the lake end opening. He made a face between annoyance and fatigue and sighed, "I don't want to fight the Kraken. Not right now."

He looked back around at the stone cave and wondered, "Should I take a short nap in here before I go back?"

"Nah, let's just get this over with. The Kraken will just throw me out, which is what I want now," grumbled Quinn. He squatted down, and slipped down into the tunnel, head first.

While swimming inside the tunnel, Quinn tried to feel the magic behind the tunnel, but it escaped his natural senses. He had no idea how the switch from up and down was done.

'I would need to actively try to cast magic to see what is behind the cover,' thought Quinn as he came 'up' from the tunnel.

The first thing that he saw when he exited the tunnel were big solid yellow eyes staring down at him intently.

'Woah!' exclaimed Quinn, and even though no sound came out, Quinn gulped in a fresh batch of lake water.

The Kraken's tentacles immediately surrounded him. Unlike their previous encounters, the tentacles didn't coil around Quinn, but instead, one of the tentacles came near Quinn and poked him with its tip. The tentacle's tip was so large that it pushed against almost half of his entire body, pushing him to the ground.

Quinn, who fell to the lake bed, looked up at the Kraken, who kept staring at him with big yellow eyes. Then, at that moment, he finally realized how enormous the Kraken really was. In the past, the biggest thing Quinn had seen was a mountain troll, but the Kraken was on another level.

'What? What? What does it want?' thought Quinn as he stared back at the Kraken. 'Does it want to eat me? I'm tired, but bring it on!'

He revved up his magic and readied for another bout. Quinn hoped for the Kraken to give him a ride to the shore. But if it wanted to fight, Quinn was going to give it one.

It turned out that Kraken didn't want to fight because it withdrew its enormous body and assumed a comfortable position. One tentacle wrapped around the tunnel entrance, forming a coiled wall around the tunnel entrance, but didn't block it from above.

'Huh? What?' wondered Quinn bewilderedly. He had no idea why the Kraken backed off after some staring and a poke.

Quinn didn't know that the reason the Kraken had stared him down was because it was checking if Quinn was alright. It wanted to check if Quinn happened to be fine after going inside the dangerous place. After it confirmed that Quinn was uninjured, it backed off and went back to his chill lake life.

The Kraken didn't block the entrance as a show of his intentions; it was going to continue to guard the dangerous place in case another tiny human came looking, but if Quinn wanted to go in, he could go in because as far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn had made it back alive after going in, so he probably would be fine if Quinn went in again.

Plus, the Kraken was prideful and considered Quinn to be capable. Quinn had successfully made the Kraken move, and that in the Kraken's eyes was a sign of strength. As far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn was strong and could handle himself.

Quinn stared at the Kraken for a while before swimming away, still not knowing the reason behind the Kraken's actions.

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- (Scene Break) -

.

"Why are you here again?" asked Quinn, stretching his body for his morning run and workout.

Quinn looked to Eddie as both stood at the starting point of Quinn's daily run route. Yesterday after dinner, Eddie had informed Quinn that he would like to join him for his morning exercises. Quinn, who had been lost in thought, thinking about the third vault, had heard Eddie's words and had absentmindedly nodded and hadn't asked for the reason.

"About that... The Quidditch tryouts are in two months, and I was thinking about joining the team," spoke Eddie as he awkwardly tried to copy Quinn's stretching movements. "I want to pass the tryouts so that I can make the bench this year and then play on the field next year."

Eddie knew that Quinn went for a run every morning and decided to follow him to get fit for the coming tryouts so that he could have an extra edge.

"I see. Quidditch, huh. I know you followed the sport but never knew that you wanted to play for the team," asked Quinn. He was happy that Eddie decided to do exercise to get fit.

"I wasn't planning on joining the team before, but I decided to give it a try this year. It would be fun to play Quidditch for the house. Everybody would be looking while I play," replied Eddie, a bright smile on his face.

"... So what you mean to say is that you want to play so that you can get popular and get a girlfriend," said Quinn, reading between the lines and finding out the real reason behind his friend's sudden interest in playing Quidditch.

Eddie unabashedly put a hand over Quinn's shoulder and gave him a lopsided grin, "You know me so well. No wonder we are so close."

Quinn shook his head with a small smile before asking, "But are you sure you want to join the team? We have the O.W.L.s next year, you know? Will you be able to balance Quidditch and studies?"

"I'll be fine. If I see my grades slipping, I'll have you tutor me. With you helping me out, I'll probably do better than I do now," responded Eddie and gave Quinn a thumbs up as if saying thank you in advance.

"I'll help you out if you need it, but I'm going to only help you out with the practical side. I'm not good at explaining the theory," said Quinn, agreeing to help his friend.

Eddie gave Quinn a silent stare before speaking, "... So what you are implying is that you get frustrated when we don't understand things after you explain them once. In times like those, you probably think of us as monkeys, don't you?"

This time Quinn put his hand on Eddie's shoulder, beamed, and unabashedly spoke, "You're right! We're close! Come on, give me a hug."

But Eddie pushed Quinn away with a 'f*k you, stay away' face.

"Alright, let's get started," said Quinn with a clap. "I usually run before doing push-ups, squats, and crunches. I finish by skipping rope."

He pointed at Eddie and advised, "You should run a kilometer today and increase the length as you progress. Aim for a comfortable three kilometers before the tryouts. I would suggest that you focus more on your upper body because there are a lot of upper body movements while being on a broom. So I'd advise sit-ups, pushups, and pullups. Later on, we can add planks and leg raises."

"Also, what position are you planning to play?" asked Quinn after he was done suggesting an exercise plan.

"... Chaser," replied Eddie.

"Great, now, I would suggest that you run at your pace. Don't try a full-on sprint. If you sprint, you'll build up fatigue quicker, and that won't do you any good," warned Quinn. Afterward, he told Eddie how much he needed to run to complete a kilometer. He then slapped Eddie on his back and ran away.

Quinn still ran a five-kilometer route every day. He hadn't tried to increase the distance because he did more things now, so he just tried to reduce his time and had been slowly getting faster with time.

He usually ran a route that would be exactly five kilometers when he returned to the starting line. But today, Quinn decided to run a route that would have him pass nearby where Eddie was running so that Quinn could see how he was doing.

When Quinn came around the first time, he saw Eddie standing with his hands on his knees, so he raised his voice and called out to Eddie, "Eddie! Don't stop. If you can't run, walk! Just don't stop!"

Eddie looked up and saw Quinn waving at him as he ran a distance away from him. He groaned and started running because he was embarrassed that Quinn had seen him stop.

When Quinn returned from completing his run, he saw Eddie sitting on the ground, pulling away at the grass.

"Are you done?" asked Quinn.

He hadn't chosen to run Eddie's route five times because he was sure that Eddie would try to keep up with him despite his warning. And as much as fun it would've been to say 'on your left,' as he passed him by, Quinn wanted Eddie to relax and have a positive first day: he would return the next day and keep up till the tryouts and after.

Eddie looked up and nodded as he stood up, "Yeah, what's next?"

"You will start with pushups," instructed Quinn before asking, "Can you do a couple of pushups, or are you a complete beginner?"

"I can do five," replied Eddie, looking offended that Quinn would even think that he was a complete beginner who couldn't do one pushup.

"Don't give me that face. I was just asking a question," grinned Quinn before continuing. "Do three sets of five. Keep your back straight and properly go down. I don't want to see sloppy push-ups."

Eddie nodded and asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'll be doing burpees. They are basically the combination of a squat, kick back feet to get into a pushup stance(high-plank positions), a pushup, return to a squatting position, stand, and end with a jump."

Quinn showed Eddie how to execute a burpee before both of them started to do their stuff. Eddie did his three sets of five, while Quinn did his three sets of twelve.

At first, Quinn hated burpees because they were tough, but as time went on, they got easier to execute and complete, but that wasn't why he stopped hating them. The results of the burpees made him like doing burpees.

After he was half a month in, doing burpees every day, Quinn noticed that his running had improved. He started running faster without consciously ramping up my speed. His lungs felt clear, and he found him coasting through the miles. A month after adding burpees into his routine, Quinn felt that his strides felt stronger and felt that his breathing was more composed than at the start of the month. To Quinn, who ran every day, seeing noticeable improvement was enough for him to keep doing burpees.

Quinn was done with two sets of twelve when Eddie called to him, "Hey, I'm done. What do I've to do next?"

Quinn laid down on the ground, completely flat on his back with his legs bent at knees with feet planted firmly on the ground, about shoulder-width apart.

"I want you to raise your head and shoulders from the floor and feel your abdominal muscles contract. You don't have to fully sit up; just lift enough till you feel your abdominal muscles contract," instructed Quinn as he showed Eddie how to do a crunch. "Try to avoid pulling your head forward, as it may strain your neck. Lower your head and shoulders back towards your starting position. Remember to exhale as you raise your head and shoulders, then inhale as you lower them."

Getting up from the ground, Quinn explained, "That is called a crunch. It will target your abs, and if you maybe work really hard and eat right, run a lot, you might show some abs later."

"Do you have abs?" asked Eddie, looking down at Quinn's stomach area.

Quinn raised his shirt and showed Eddie his stomach. He had a four-pack, but they were faint and not toned enough to see sharp squares and lacked definition. But Quinn did have visible oblique abs on his side and a faint v-cut near on his lower waist from practicing Muay Thai every day in the evening.

"Holy shit! When did you get those?!" exclaimed Eddie as he stared at Quinn's abs before looking up and suggesting. "How about we find a way for you to walk around shirtless. That way, you can showcase the goods, and I can take advantage of the pact when you get a girlfriend."

Quinn stared at his friend and thought about how much Eddie had been thinking about getting a girlfriend. He could see gears turning inside Eddie's head, probably thinking about how to use him to get a girlfriend.

"What if I don't get a girlfriend," asked Quinn, a bit interested in the answer that Eddie would give him.

"Even if you don't get a girlfriend, there is an excellent, near hundred percent chance that a lot of girls would flirt with you," said Eddie as he crossed his hands and smiled. "Like a moth to a flame, they will gather around you, and I will be standing there with my net of charisma to trap them under my spell."

Quinn blinked a couple of times before speaking, "Cool, cool, cool, but I'd really suggest you change the terminology... no, how about we don't talk about this ever again. Yeah, that would be good for both of us."

"Huh? Sure, whatever, let me think more about this plan," said Eddie distractedly, thinking about how to exploit Quinn for his future dating life.

Ever since Quinn had known Eddie, his friend took action when he got motivated to accomplish something.

...

Last year, Eddie had gotten the news that his family cat, which had been with his family before Eddie was born, had died because of old age. The cat had been very close to Eddie, and he hadn't taken the news well; Eddie had gone into a mourning state for a while after he had gotten the news.

During that time, there had been an older Ravenclaw student who was a dickhead and major a-hole. When he found out that Eddie's cat had died, he decided to grace Eddie with his awful presence.

Every time the bully had a chance, he would sit near Eddie and loudly talk about how funny it was that Eddie's cat had died.

The older bully would regularly corner Eddie when he was alone and urged him to cry.

"Are you going to cry? Are you going to cry about it? Like a big baby? Big baby cry over your stupid cat? Everyone's going to see you cry. You're about to cry, aren't you..." And more similar things.

At that time, Quinn, who was under the influence of the sin curse, had wanted to rip the bully apart so much that it would haunt him for a lifetime.

Eddie had stopped Quinn from brutalizing the dipshit and had shaken his head with a resolute face while clutching Quinn's arm. Eddie's refusal had been firm enough for then Quinn to back off.

But after a month, Eddie had approached Quinn and had asked for his help to teach the older Ravenclaw shitstain a lesson.

"I was grieving for my cat. Now I'm done, and I'm feeling angry. Plus, I didn't want you to do something without me," was what Eddie had replied when Quinn had asked about the sudden change in heart.

The piece-of-shit had tried to make Eddie cry, so Eddie decided to turn it the other way.

"I've found this potion recipe that will make a person cry," has spoken Eddie as he dropped a heavy tome in front of Quinn. "I can't brew this, but I think you can, so brew this for me. That guy wants to see me crying, but I will be the one who's going to see him crying."

Quinn still recalled how he had given a smirk that had promised humiliation. He had spent many hours on that project; he had improved the recipe to make it more potent and last longer. After Quinn finished, the recipe he had devised would induce someone to cry like a baby, snot with a constantly runny nose, and make them sweat heavily.

Eddie had taken the new potion and had slipped it to the target, sat back, and saw the show unfold. The shithead took the potion and it took maybe an hour before the crying started.

Eddie had slipped in the potion during breakfast, so the crying started during a class. McGonagall had to send the crying boy with a runny nose so bad that his handkerchief and sleeves were dripping wet to the hospital wing to get him fixed.

Madam Pomfrey had tried to give the snot baby a counter potion that she had concocted. But Quinn's potion was a modified recipe that had taken the counter potion for the original recipe into account. The counter potion failed, and the 'bully' was told to stay in the hospital wing until she could brew a flushing potion that would flush out every potion inside the body.

When Eddie got the news that the potion had worked, he went with Quinn to the hospital wing. Quinn made sure that Madam Pomfrey was away and gave Eddie the nod. Eddie had taken one of his potion gloves with him, so when they reached the hospital wing, Eddie was wearing the glove. He then walked to the boy who had made the grieving process so much harder.

"Hey, dipshit. You wanted to see me crying, satisfied now?" said Eddie as he stood by the bedside.

The still crying Ravenclaw's eyes widened when he realized that Eddie was the one who had caused what he was going through right now.

"You-!"

He tried to speak up, but Eddie tightly clutched his face with his gloved hand, cutting him off.

"Everybody saw you, bawling like a baby, and I'm going to spread that you're a 'crybaby' and make sure it sticks, so even when you graduate from Hogwarts, people will still remember your new nickname," threatened Eddie with a scathing tone. "If you don't want things to get worse, stay away from me, don't talk to me. Don't even look at me. If I'm walking towards you, turn the other way round. I don't want to see your ugly mug ever again."

Eddie jerked his hand from his face and wiped it off on the stunned bully's hair before adding.

"It seems Madam Pomfrey doesn't have the counter potion. It takes three days to brew a flushing potion, so get ready to face the snot fest for three days because you aren't going anywhere else," he smirked and added one last bit. "When someone drinks a flushing potion, the person goes through hours of vomiting and violent diarrhea. I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience. Good luck."

Eddie turned back and walked out of the hospital wing without turning around.

Quinn, who was still standing inside the hospital wing, waited until Eddie was out to take a picture of the boy in the bed from a borrowed camera the second the subject looked his way.

After clicking the photo, Quinn spoke with gestures, 'Talk, and this goes out to everyone.'

He gave a wide smile with a wave before exiting the hospital wing.

...

Eddie, who was coming back to the real world after thinking about exploiting Quinn to get himself a girlfriend, noticed a smile on Quinn's face.

"Why are you smiling?"

Quinn looked at Eddie with the smile still on his face and replied, "I was remembering the crybaby incident. That day at the hospital wing was fun~."

Eddie's eyes shined in remembrance. He nodded with a small smile, "Yeah, that was a fun day. I was so cool that day."

Quinn nodded before jutting his chin towards the ground and said, "Enough chit-chat. Drop and give me three sets of ten. I'm worried about you. I'll make you work hard and sweat away all that pent-up horny energy you have inside you."

"You don't have to say it like that!" complained Eddie, causing Quinn to laugh.

The two buddies continued to have fun first thing in the morning.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Mad Scientist (School version)

Eddie Carmichael - Horny Adolescent - Don't make fun of my cat.

Kraken - Self-appointed guard - Tiny human will be fine.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

]

.

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

The link is in the synopsis!

Report chapter Comments

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https//fictiononlyreader ]??

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn sighed as he rubbed the insignia from the third vault safety mechanism. He really wanted to know how this tattoo could teleport the bearer. Assuming that no person was casting a portkey or a similar spell, then there was an enchantment that could produce teleportation magic without human or any magical species' help.

"Both the first and this vault had complex runic and warding magic," noted Quinn as he looked into the triangular entrance to the whirlpool. "Just how much planning and execution went into creating the vaults. The people who created them must have given all of it a lot of thought when creating them."

Quinn still usually went inside the first vault to do research and learn more about the mechanism. He would collect the energy from Absolute Zero for his engraver and make observations for an upcoming project that he was working on.

But all the time, including last year, when Quinn had become greedy towards a lot of things, and one of them was Absolute Zero. He had tried hard to figure out a way to get the Absolute Zero out of the vault. But Quinn still didn't know a way to create a portable containment system that would allow him to carry the Absolute Zero without dead-freezing everything around and causing a long-term climate change that would plunge Hogwarts into an ice age for decades to come.

Whoever built the first vault knew what they were doing. The builder had used the energy from the Absolute Zero to trap itself. A self-sustained system that wouldn't degrade as long as the prisoner itself stayed strong.

It was clear that the builder who had made the rune cluster knew how Absolute Zero worked because without an understanding of the alchemic material that was being contained, without the proper knowledge of the power source and runes, the containment arrangement would've collapsed a long time ago because of the corrosive, cold energy from Absolute Zero.

Standing inside the third vault, Quinn went into thinking about the first vault, the Icy vault, for several minutes, before taking a sharp breath and shaking his head.

"Not the right time or place, Quinn," berated Quinn himself, looked at the ceiling of the cave, and said, "Sorry about that." Quinn talked to the third vault as if it was a girl, apologizing because he was thinking about another girl while on a date.

"Let's effin' go," said Quinn to hype himself as he looked at the triangular entrance.

Quinn loosened his body, wriggled his arms and legs, and made sure he was ready before running towards the triangular water-filled entrance where was Poseidon's Wrath. He felt the water cover his body, immediately followed by a tug on his body, and with a ripple in the water, Quinn was gone.

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After a momentary loss of his sensation, Quinn's senses returned: his eyes showed him the raging water, his ears made him hear the loud and continuous splashes of water; he could feel the moisture in the air against his skin, his sense of smell detected the heavy scent of water. Finally, even his tongue sent a signal of a nearby presence of water.

This time, though, Quinn wasn't surprised and was ready for the sudden teleportation. He turned upside down, away from the water, faced upwards, and immediately used one of the spells he had come to look forward to.

The second the magic triggered, Quinn stopped dead in the air; the charm slowed his body's velocity to zero, to the point he was no longer falling and stayed in a spot in the air.

Arresto Momentum was a fascinating spell that was capable of slowing the velocity of the target. If used properly, it could also stop the target completely.

Of course, there were limitations to the Arresto Momentum spell.

First, the difficulty of slowing down objects was directly proportional to the initial velocity of the object. The faster the speed of the target, the more magic and skill from the user it would take to slow down the target. Factors like mass, surface area, and acceleration of the target all added to the spell's difficulty.

For example, an object dropping at its terminal speed would be much tougher to slow down than an object thrown from the top of a short building.

Second, if an object was brought to a complete stop, it would get harder to keep it stationary if the object 'moves' while it's held stationary with magic. Any external force that wasn't in work before the complete stop would be against the nature of the magic and would break the spell after certain limits.

If Quinn wriggled his body in the situation he was currently in, he would break the spell and he would continue to fall. A turn of the head, curl of his wrist, or anything minor wouldn't threaten to break the spell. Anything greater than some minor movements would exponentially increase the difficulty of keeping himself stationary in the air.

So Quinn had to make sure he didn't make any excessive movements. As such, he first turned his backside to the vortex so that his front body would be facing upwards.

Quinn could've used the levitation spell, Wingardium Leviosa, on his clothes to anchor himself in the air, just like the creator, Jarleth Hobart, had done in the first public use of the charm, even though at that time Hobart himself didn't understand what he had created. Nonetheless, that wasn't possible because Quinn only had a pair of trunks on him and those weren't enough to anchor himself in the air.

"Well, I could've transfigured clothes to provide more support," considered Quinn before lightly shrugging. "Whatever, I like this spell better."

Quinn looked up above and smiled because his conjecture was correct.

"I knew I was right; this is an expanded dimension," chuckled Quinn, watching the pure white ceiling and walls of the place he was currently in. The white walls were telltale signs that this was a created dimension like the one in his suitcase.

"Okay, you can do it. No pressure," reassured Quinn as he took in several deep breaths before taking an extra deep breath and stored it inside his lungs and eked out without breathing out. "Here I come."

The magic stopping his fall disappeared, and Quinn began falling. In the short few seconds of his fall, Quinn crossed his hands over his chest and made sure that he would enter the whirlpool feet first.

Quinn entered the water vortex with a loud splash and immediately sank inside the raging water.

Inside the water, Quinn held his breath as he allowed the turbulent flow to pull him. He kept his body flat as a board and seized his body straight in order to not get hurt from the water.

He hadn't transfigured the gill respiratory system that allowed him to breathe underwater because it didn't work inside chaotic water. Even while in the Great lake, Quinn maintained a calm water envelope to allow a stable water flow because he used water magic to push himself to speeds greater than any aquatic species he knew.

Plus, the bubble-head charm was also completely out of the race because it was too fragile and would pop the second Quinn entered the raging water.

So why was Quinn diving inside the most dangerous waters he had experienced without proper breathing measures? Well, the motive of this dive was to observe the conditions inside the water so he could gather some data.

Last time, the sudden teleportation had taken Quinn by surprise, so he didn't get a clear read on the conditions. But this time, he was ready and was getting a feel of the current with his body.

Quinn had made a plan to get his transfigured gill respiratory system work in his current conditions, but he needed physical data to verify if his method would work.

The flow of the water inside the maelstrom was rough, and the last time, Quinn had experienced water entering his body through the gill side. This wasn't suitable because the water was supposed to enter through his mouth and gently flow over the gill leaves before exiting through the gill flaps.

Water entering through his gills with speed could injure his lungs and cause complications that Quinn didn't want to deal with. So before implementing the changes that would allow him to breathe in his current conditions, Quinn needed the physical data that would roughly show that his idea would work.

Hence, for three minutes, which was his limit for holding his breath, Quinn, with his eyes closed, focused all his attention on his body, feeling the water current, carefully and consciously perceiving the water velocity.

When Quinn felt he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he sent magic to the insignia, and at a certain point, he felt the tug of teleportation. Right after, Quinn disappeared from inside the water.

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With a ripple in the water inside the triangular entrance, Quinn came out with water surrounding him as it laid him on the floor before disappearing without a trace.

Quinn opened his eyes and immediately took long breaths of air. He laid on the floor for half a minute before sitting up and saying, "Okay, that was good."

He got up and started to pace around the room, a look of deep thought evident on his face.

Quinn had got the physical data he was looking for, and the results he observed looked positive. Now he just needed to do some calculations and make some decisions before he could get started.

"Alright, I need to increase the thickness. The flow was on the higher end of my safe zone," muttered Quinn and did more calculations in his head. "Do I need to have them inside or outside? Nope, not inside, the gills have nerves, and I'll definitely feel pain. Yup, yup, yup. Definitely on the outside."

"Hmm, I will need to eject water as usual, but it will take more effort this time around," groaned Quinn with a sigh. "If only the Gillyweed potion didn't have side effects on repeated consumption."

Gillyweed was a magical plant that, when eaten, allowed a human to breathe underwater. It was said to resemble a bundle of slimy, grey-green rat tails. When eaten, it gave the consumer gills, allowing them to breathe underwater and webbing between the fingers and toes, allowing them to swim underwater with ease.

Then, there was the Gillyweed potion, which would enhance the effects of the original plant. The Gillyweed when brewed into a potion would increase the efficiency of the plant by multiple times and would allow the consumer to breathe underwater for a few hours — in the same amount of Gillyweed that would only allow one hour of underwater breathing.

The advantage of consuming Gillyweed was that the respiratory system given by the plant was automatic. Quinn had taken the potion while traveling around the world, and at that time, he only had needed to gulp in water, and his work was done.

The muscles given by the magical plant took care of everything. Quinn's system was entirely manual, and he needed to direct the water into his lungs and then eject it through the gill openings using water magic.

If Quinn wanted the automatic system, then he would either have to research aquatic creatures in more depth than he had done, or he would need to transfigure his body into an aquatic species as Victor Krum did. Quinn didn't think that doing more research was worth the returns, and changing himself into another animal wasn't something Quinn was thrilled about.

But there were the side effects of consuming raw Gillyweed or the Gillyweed potion when taken regularly. The side effects included developing fishlike features, pale and oily skin, webbing between fingers and toes, and the worst: fishy breath and, similarly, fishy body odor.

From the second Quinn confirmed that the third vault was going underwater, he knew Gillyweed wouldn't be in his plan. Quinn knew he was going to spend a lot of time in the water. There was no way he was going to keep consuming Gillyweed every time he went into the water.

"Okay, I'm done," declared Quinn, raised both his hands above his head and closed his for a few seconds before opening them. "Come on, you can do it."

Quinn channeled his magic through his body, and the muscles under the skin of his neck and chest wriggled violently before his skin split apart and grew into gill flaps. From the outside, there was nothing different from before, but Quinn could feel the changes inside.

He immediately walked towards the triangular entrance and touched the safety water orb. The orb got sucked in, and once again, Quinn had the royal blue teleportation insignia on his arm.

As Quinn's upper body immersed in the water, he felt the breath of life return to him. He gulped in more water.

'Alright, it's working in calm water,' affirmed Quinn as he flexed his gill muscles and felt the new addition working on his commands. 'Let's hope it will work in the vortex.'

Quinn teleported with a ripple in the water and a tug on his body. The second the water teleported him into the air, Quinn conjured a pair of swimming goggles over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

Quinn said out loud his last words before plunging into the water: "Let's go!"

The water swept him away, and with a prayer to the water gods, Quinn took a couple of big gulps of water into his body.

He felt the water travel through his body. Some water diverged to his neck gills while the majority went to his lungs. Quinn patiently waited for the water to cover the gills and spread over the blood vessels inside the gill leaves. The oxygen moved from the oxygen-rich water to the oxygen-deficient blood inside the blood vessels.

Now came the main event, the climax of Quinn's motive today.

The problem with his respiratory system was that the turbulent water would rush into his restructured lungs through the gill openings.

Thus, in order to fix that problem, Quinn turned to biology to find a solution. And Quinn didn't have to travel far because the answer was inside the human body all along.

The human heart consisted of four chambers: two upper chambers and two lower chambers. There was a valve through which blood passed before leaving each heart chamber. These valves prevented blood from flowing backwards.

These valves were actual flaps located on each end of the two lower heart chambers. They acted as one-way inlets of blood on one side of a ventricle and one-way outlets of blood on the other side of a ventricle. As the heart muscle contracted and relaxed, the valves opened and shut, letting blood flow into the lower chamber and upper chamber at alternate times.

Quinn realized that his water problem was somehow similar to how the water rushed from the wrong direction. He needed to stop that backflow, so he decided to copy the heart valve system.

Quinn increased, first of all, the size of the valves and made them more sturdy than the heart valves because the pressure of water from the undertow was much higher than the pressure created by a human heart.

He devised a layer in these valves that would sit under the gill flaps and above the actual gill leaves that held the blood vessels, so after the water was done with the gas exchange, Quinn would guide it towards the valve layer. When the gill flaps would open to let the water out, the valve layer would stop the water from rushing in.

And then Quinn would loosen the valve muscles and push out the water with water magic. He would have the initiative as the valve openings were small enough to give Quinn the advantage and eject the water like jet streams, opposing the back-flowing water at the same time.

This was all theory, and now came the time to see if the system would work in real-life conditions.

The batch of water went through the gills, and, as it moved on for ejection, Quinn opened the gill flap. Immediately, he felt the water from outside trying to rush in, but in times of need, Quinn's new valve cover held strong against the water.

That observation and success brought a smile to Quinn's face as he confidently moved onto the next stage, which was loosening the valves for ejection.

Quinn readied his water magic and covered the water inside with his magic while simultaneously slowly loosening the new gill valves. When the valves opened up, Quinn commanded the water to shoot out, and it obeyed and went out, flowing against the water flow outside.

Inside Quinn's body, the water had formed a blob with Quinn's water magic in control of every droplet. As the water went out, it acted as a seal that didn't let water inside, emptying out Quinn's reconstructed lung cavity for the next batch of freshwater.

The process was successful, and the blood had fresh oxygen circulating around Quinn's body.

Quinn, who felt the success, raised both his hands on instinct above and kicked his legs. Immediately, he lost his balance, which made him tumble and rotate inside the vortex.

'Shiiiit!' screamed Quinn as he triggered the safety insignia for the second time and disappeared away.

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- (Scene Break) -

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In the stone chamber, Quinn had a big smile on his face. He was happy even though he had to deploy his safety measure.

"I definitely need more practice on the valve system to make sure that I can do it more easily," smiled Quinn and laughed as he joked. "I'm coming for you, Aquaman. One day, I will rule Atlantis... Wait, is Atlantis a city here? Oh, another thing I have to check out. Goody!"

Quinn West had found a way to safely breathe in turbulent water, which was a first step in his exploration of the third vault.

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Quinn West - MC - Aquaman (Cool rebooted version) in making.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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"Healing magic is used to restore any biological beings to their optimal health, as it cures damaged or withered organisms, wounds, broken bones, low vitality, and diseases or poisoning. Though a healer may potentially heal any form of body damage, the patient must be alive, even if hanging by a thin thread, to be healed."

Poppy Pomfrey picked up her cup of tea after giving a concise description of the magic she had spent most of her professional life practicing.

She was crisply dressed in her medi-healer's uniform; she was clad very similarly to the uniforms worn by Victorian and Edwardian nurses. She wore the typical nurse's uniform, which consisted of a maroon dress, white pinafore apron, and a white nurse's cap. On her apron was a brooch that showed her status as a trained medi-healer.

Currently, the matron was sitting in her office with Quinn. Both healer and student were enjoying a cup of afternoon tea. Of course, Quinn was the one who had approached the Hogwarts matron. He had invited her to have a conversation over a cup of tea.

Poppy had realized a long time ago that when Quinn entered the hospital wing, it would be because he wanted to talk to her and not because of some injury or disease as every other student did.

She knew that if she tried to ignore Quinn, the Ravenclaw would just hang in the hospital wing and keep on talking to her. It didn't matter if she was tending to another patient, brewing potions, cleaning, or preparing an inventory, as Quinn would keep up a one-sided conversation, and somehow every time, he would be successful in making her talk. Every single time, she would be roped into a conversation, and before Poppy knew it, she would have talked to Quinn for nearly an hour.

After months of that, Poppy had realized that if Quinn entered the hospital wing when she wasn't terribly busy and could afford to talk as she worked, then she would've to talk to Quinn. So at times like now, when there were no patients in the hospital wing, she would've tea with Quinn.

She had come to console herself that at least Quinn didn't visit her injured; things could always be worse.

"We have been doing this for a while, and I have yet to see you drink tea. Why is that?" asked Poppy after sipping her tea, looking at the beverage in front of Quinn.

"I don't like tea," replied Quinn as he picked up his non-alcoholic Ginger beer glass mug. "I don't like the taste, even with milk added to it."

Poppy looked at Quinn with mock apprehension and commented, "And you call yourself an English man?! How can you not like tea?"

Quinn rolled his eyes at the quip before asking, "When you heal an injury such as a lesion or broken bone, is the healing process the same as the natural healing process?"

In his second year at Hogwarts, Friar had introduced the cursed vaults to Quinn, and Quinn had spent a majority of that school year solving the first Icy vault. But after he was done, Quinn realized that he had spent most of his time with the vault. The exploration had disrupted his magic learning and researching plan that Quinn had set up before knowing about the existence of the vaults.

So Quinn had made a resolution that he would give ample enough time to learn magic that he had planned to learn before he knew the existence of the vaults.

Last year, Quinn had started strong and started upon illusion magic while researching the second vaults. But after that, Quinn had been inflicted by the sin curse. Because of the influence of the sin curse, Quinn had not given the second vault a second glance and had spent a lot of time in the library.

That had pushed Quinn to gain a lot of knowledge, which was great for Quinn as he had learned more than he had estimated at the start of the year.

But this year, Quinn was working on the third vault, which resulted in the vault taking a chunk of his time.

So in order to fulfill his resolution, Quinn started strong and looked for a branch of magic that wasn't directly related to the vault and that would be advantageous to learn.

The branch he chose to research in earnest was Healing magic, and no better place to start than his favorite faculty, Matron Poppy Pomfrey.

"I presume you are talking about the traditional wound healing without magic?" inquired Poppy and got a nod from Quinn.

"The healing process of a wound consists in replacing destroyed or damaged tissue with newly produced tissue. When someone is injured, a regulated sequence of biochemical events is set into motion to repair the damage."

"This process is divided into predictable phases: blood clotting, inflammation, tissue growth, and tissue remodeling. The wound healing process is not only complex but also fragile, and it is susceptible to interruption or failure leading to the formation of non-healing chronic wounds," a serious expression crossed the matron's face as she warned. "Therefore, under inexperienced hands, Healing magic can do more harm than good. That is why healers have harsher N.E.W.T grade requirements than any other mainstream field."

"Healing magic replaces the four steps and semi-replaces them to the point that you can see the regenerative process progressing with the naked eye."

Poppy cut a forkful of cake and ate it before explaining how healing of wounds worked.

"For example, if a patient comes with a cut in their arm, I would first replace the natural blood-clotting stage by magically slowing down the flow of blood and making sure that it doesn't ooze outside the body to avoid death by blood loss. Next, magic would similarly replace the inflammation process, ensuring no infection in the wound and damage and it clears out dead and damaged cells to make space for the new cells. The final step of that process is to trigger cell division and then accelerate the healing process till the wound is completely healed."

She smiled and asked Quinn a question about the thing that she explained. "What is the thing you will never see in magical healing that is always seen during natural healing?"

"Hmm... Is it the presence of scabbing?" replied Quinn in a questioning tone before explaining, "Scab is formed to separate the wound from the outside environment. Because it takes time for wounds to heal, scabbing is necessary to prevent infections from outside."

Poppy nodded with a smile, "Correct. The presence of a scab is not needed with Healing magic. So healing spells make sure that scabs aren't formed by the body."

"But what about wounds that are more critical than small cuts? The wounds that can't be healed in one go, do they also don't need scabbing?" asked Quinn as he thought about wounds that could potentially kill a person within a minute.

"No, they don't need scabbing. A wound, no matter how severe, and as long as it isn't cursed, can be healed within a day or two. Even if a person's entire body was heavily injured -"

Poppy stared intently at Quinn as she continued.

"- like someone who doused themselves into a high-grade freezing potion and caused damage to their internal organs, could be stabilized until we heal their injuries to the point that they aren't life-threatening."

Quinn cleared his throat and picked up his mug of ginger beer to drink from it.

The injury from entering the Icy vault without blood magic had caused too much damage to Quinn. At that time, Poppy had to work hard and move quickly to stabilize Quinn's situation from deteriorating.

She was lucky that Quinn's magic had taken care of the critical part, and she just needed to make sure that he didn't relapse. If Quinn's magic hadn't helped out, Poppy would've transferred Quinn to St. Mungo to be handled by healers who had experience with that level of critical injuries.

"Then it means that magical healing is an accelerated version of natural healing," concluded Quinn from the information given to him by Poppy.

Poppy hummed in response before speaking, "We in the healing community like to call it Regenerative medicine."

When Quinn tilted his head in confusion, Poppy explained,

"Regenerative medicine deals with the 'process of replacing, engineering or regenerating cells, tissues, or organs, to restore or establish their normal function.' Normally, our bodies aren't naturally able to heal organs that are badly injured or are under the risk of failing. But with Healing magic, we can make those previously impossible things possible. You know that as long as your limbs aren't cursed off by dark magic, we can even regrow them. Such is the power of magic."

Quinn nodded deeply in agreement that Healing magic transcended normal healing and wasn't just accelerated natural healing.

"Plus, that is just healing wounds. Healing magic also cures diseases of both magical and muggle kinds. The possibilities are endless. As long as it isn't too late, Healing magic has the power to heal any illness, diseases, and mutations. Dragon Pox, Black Death, Spattergroit, Scrofungulus, and other diseases were once incurable. But with advancement in Healing magic, they now don't pose a threat to wizardkind if taken care of properly."

"How did you start on your training with Healing magic?" asked Quinn, wondering how to get some practice. "I'm sure that you didn't directly start on humans, right? That would be just inviting trouble."

Poppy nodded in agreement with a smile and recalled the time she was doing her apprenticeship at St. Mungos. There were less experienced trainee healers who messed up healing humans, even after they were trained off humans.

"You start with small animals like rats, mice, and fish. After you have a good handle on them, we move you onto bigger animals like pigs, goats, and cows. I personally also trained on birds and rabbits, as recommended by my mentor. After some time training on animals, the trainee, then, is moved onto humans."

Of course, people who weren't training to be healers and just wanted to learn some Healing spells didn't go through this gradual stage of progress. They simply learned spells and hoped they would work when coming across some minor injuries.

An example that came to mind was Gilderoy Lockhart using a healing spell that mended bones, but instead, Lockhart ended up vanishing all bones in the arm.

That is why trainee healers had to go through a gradual off-human process before they were allowed to operate on humans. So when they finally operated on humans, they would have confidence and experience backing them.

Poppy looked at Quinn and asked, "Why do you ask? Wait, let me guess, are you thinking about learning Healing magic?"

"Actually, yes, I am thinking about learning Healing magic," admitted Quinn before asking, "Will you teach me? I think having a guide will help me out."

Quinn had books on Healing magic: spells, charms, herbology, and potions. He had it all. And Quinn didn't necessarily need guidance. But Quinn felt that having a guide or someone who would specify a learning plan would help him immensely.

Poppy was Quinn's favorite faculty member, and that's the reason why Quinn decided to ask Poppy if she would teach him. If there hadn't been any relation between the two, Quinn would've learned Healing magic on his own, even if that meant it would take him more time.

The Hogwarts healer studied Quinn for a while and contemplated what he had said. Healing magic was an extensive subject and required a considerable amount of skill and knowledge.

Poppy knew Quinn was knowledgeable and smart from their conversations. She also knew that Quinn scored high grades from the passing talks she had with the professors. Finally, she knew Quinn's skill in potion brewing from the potions he regularly dropped off.

She was just worried if it was too soon to teach Quinn Healing magic because if she was to teach him like she was taught, then it would take a lot of time, and it might affect his performance in classes.

"If I were to teach you. Do you promise you won't let your grades fall?" asked Poppy in seriousness.

"Grades? Yeah, why would they fall?" asked Quinn in confusion. "My grades never fall."

"If I'm going to teach you, I want you to be serious about it, meaning that you will have to devote time to Healing magic. If that affects your class performance, then we'll stop immediately," warned Poppy as she looked into Quinn's eyes. "One dip, and we stop. If you want to learn Healing magic after that, wait until after Hogwarts to study."

"I'm fine with that. If my grades dip, we stop," acknowledged Quinn. It was a no-brainer for him because his grades wouldn't dip even if he slept through every class all year long.

"Okay, then. We'll start next week. Two lessons every week, when you have free periods."

Quinn thought about his class schedule and his other commitments before coming up with a reply, "Thursday and Saturday mornings."

"Then it's decided. You'll come here on Thursdays and Saturdays," said Poppy with a smile, before demanding, "You aren't to tell anyone about these lessons. I don't want other students coming to me and asking for lessons. This is just between you and me, understood?"

Quinn gave a thumbs up with a beaming smile, happy to have gotten a Healing mentor.

The two fell into a comfortable silence before Quinn decided to change the topic of the conversation.

"So, do you think we'll cure Lycanthropy in the future?" asked Quinn, nonchalantly, not giving any indication that he knew something.

Poppy twitched at the naming of Lycanthropy. The mere mention of the illness made her remember that there was a Lycanthrope in the castle right now.

Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against Dark Arts professor, was an unwilling victim of the illness that had been with him through most of his life.

A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, was a human being, who, upon the complete rising of the full moon, became an uncontrollable, fearsome and deadly humanoid wolf. This condition was caused by infection with Lycanthropy, also known as werewolfry. Werewolves appeared in the form of wolves, but there were distinctions between them and regular wolves.

A mixture of powdered silver and dittany applied to a fresh bite would seal the wound and allow the victim to live on as a werewolf. Although tragic tales were told of knowing victims begging for death rather than becoming werewolves.

"Why do you ask about Lycanthropy?" asked Poppy. She wanted to probe Quinn in case he knew about Remus Lupin's condition.

Two students in Hogwarts knew about Lupin's Lycanthropy condition; Harry Potter and Ivy Potter were aware of Lupin's condition before Lupin took the job, so they knew not to spread the news about Lupin being a Werewolf/Lycanthrope.

If Quinn knew, then she would instruct him not to spread the news. Things spread fast in Hogwarts through the infamous rumor mill, and if Lupin's condition was to become known, it would incite panic in the student body.

"Oh, I happen to know someone connected to Lycanthropy and werewolves," smiled Quinn as he looked at Poppy. "And they are in the school at this moment."

The matron's heart skipped a beat when she heard Quinn's words.

'Oh, no! He knows!' thought Poppy worriedly.

There was only one person who was connected to Lycanthropy, and that was Remus Lupin.

"My friend, Marcus Belby," grinned Quinn, leaving Poppy stunned and confused.

"... What?"

"Yeah, it turns out that his uncle, Damocles Belby, is the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion," revealed Quinn, a fact that was closely related to Lycanthropy.

The Wolfsbane Potion was an innovative and complex potion that relieved but did not cure the symptoms of Lycanthropy. But even though it wasn't a cure, it was the only medicine that provided some relief to Lycanthropes.

The way one had to imbibe it was unique among potions, in that a goblet full of wolfsbane potion must have to be taken each day for a week preceding the full moon.

Quinn had the recipe for the wolfsbane potion, and, after reading about it in-depth, he had to admit that Damocles Belby must have put in immense effort on his part to create the potion.

'Haha, her expression is so much fun!' thought Quinn as he looked at Poppy's slightly open mouth as she stared at Quinn.

Poppy was right in suspecting that Quinn knew about Remus Lupin's conditions. He knew about the Dark Against Defense Arts professor's furry little problem, but in no way was he going to tell anyone that he knew. It would bring the faculty's eyes upon him, and that was something he didn't want, even if it might not be that much of a problem.

But that didn't mean that Quinn couldn't have some fun without anyone knowing. When Poppy brought out the topic of illness and disease, Quinn recognized the opportunity to spook Poppy a little and see her startled/confused expression.

Even if Quinn didn't have the knowledge from the books, he still would've figured out the truth because of the person who substituted for Lupin when he retreated into isolation during the full moon.

Severus Snape, as the substitute professor of Defense Against Dark Arts, had tried to teach students about werewolves.

The spiteful man, who wanted the position but had been denied it time after time, and over that had to brew the Wolfsbane Potion for the man who was in the position Snape wanted.

From what Quinn had gathered through his debt network of students, Snape had brought up werewolves in his substitute classes as a revision topic every year from fourth to seventh so that they could get anyone to recognize that Lupin was a Lycanthrope.

Quinn still recalled the Defense Against Dark Arts lesson he had had with Snape and how in that lesson Snape had been repeatedly looking at Quinn.

'Man, that day was so awkward. I had to keep an oblivious face for the entire lesson,' recalled Quinn, remembering the day he had to spend an hour ignoring Snape's looks.

"A-Ah is that so. That is an interesting fact. I didn't know that," stuttered Poppy and kept the conversation going.

She felt relieved that Quinn didn't know about Lupin and the secret was still with the least amount of people and with the same amount of people at the start of the year.

Poppy looked at Quinn, who was applying jam and cream on his scone with gleaming eyes, silently took out her wand.

When Quinn was done bringing it near his mouth, the scone floated out of his hands and drifted towards Poppy. The matron picked the scone out of the air and ate it in front of Quinn.

"Wha-!?" exclaimed Quinn at the sight of food being snatched from his hands just before he was about to eat it. "Why?" he asked in astonishment.

"Sometimes you can be too much of a hassle," came Poppy's reply as she enjoyed the scone that Quinn had prepared for himself.

"What did I do?!" asked Quinn, confused.

"Be a lamb and make another scone and put more jam this time," ordered Poppy, not answering Quinn's question.

"... Okay?" responded Quinn in confusion before shrugging and complying with the order. "One scone with cream and extra jam coming up."

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Quinn West - MC - Gotta get that White Mage class.

Poppy Pomfrey - Healer - Got herself a semi-apprentice.

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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It was a clear, sunny day. White fluffy clouds drifted across the clear blue sky. The sun shone brightly.

Feeling the grass tickle his feet, Quinn tilted his back to behold a field of blue that stretched far beyond what his eyes could track and where small birds cut across the air as they swooped, spinned, spiraled, and dived.

Quinn was lying on a corner on the ground of the Quidditch field, relaxing as he read a book.

He once again turned to his side and looked towards one of the goalposts and saw his two friends on brooms, flying alone in the field, playing a game of quaffle-hoop as practice for Eddie.

Quaffle-hoop consisted simply of one player trying to get a quaffle through the hoops while the second player played as keeper, that is, trying to defend against the quaffle going through the goal hoops.

Eddie was the one trying to score, while Marcus tried to defend against him. Quinn, on the other hand, was not playing with them. He was simply lying on the green ground, showing his silent support through his presence.

Eddie was training to get into the Ravenclaw Quidditch team as a chaser.

Chaser was a position in Quidditch. There were three chasers per team. The chasers controlled the quaffle and attempted to put it through the goal hoops and make it past the keeper. Each goal was worth ten points. This made the chaser position similar to the forward in football. The game generally started when the referee released the quaffle into the air and the chasers claimed possession of the quaffle.

Chasers were generally considered the most exhilarating players to watch by spectators during a Quidditch game, at least until the Golden Snitch had been spotted.

While the seeker attracted short bursts of attention from the spectators, chasers were always the center of attention. Competing against the other team, trying to score as many points as possible so that even if the opposite team's seeker caught the golden snitch it wouldn't matter, as they would've outscored the other team by a wide margin.

'Man, he is really putting in the effort,' thought Quinn as he stared at Eddie, who was trying to hurl the quaffle in a curve shot. 'If I didn't know what his real motivation was, I probably would have thought that he was interested in Quidditch.'

Eddie's motive to get on the team was to get popular and hope that would increase his chances to get a girlfriend, but the amount of effort he was putting in was like he was trying to be the best chaser in Hogwarts.

Quinn shrugged and turned to the opposite side to go back to reading on medical potions. The healing magic system in this world was half spells and half potions. Every healer needed to know his potions to be effective and be prepared for the job.

An unknown amount of time passed as Quinn continued to read. However, something broke his concentration. He heard some people talking in the distance.

Listening to the chatter, Quinn identified it to be coming from his back, so he turned to look and found that Eddie and Marcus were talking to some people.

'Isn't that the Gryffindor team?' noticed Quinn after giving the group a closer look.

Deciding to see why there was a commotion, Quinn stood up from the ground and started to walk towards his friends.

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- (Scene Break) -

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"Look, I don't see what the problem is," said Eddie as he pointed at the other side of the field with his arm. "I don't see why you people can't practice on one half of the field. You aren't playing a game, so why do you need the entire field?"

Eddie was talking to the Gryffindor team captain, seventh-year student, Oliver Wood.

"You ain't a lion, so we can't let you witness our practice. We are at the top this year, and Ravenclaw is trailing in second place," replied Oliver as he eyed the two Ravenclaws. "As such, we can't risk our tactics getting exposed to you two, who are from Ravenclaw. I'll have to ask you to leave."

Eddie didn't like the reason Oliver was giving one bit and crossed his arms over his chest, "Not my problem, you can't make me leave. I was here first."

"Look, why don't we make some sort of arrangement. I'm sure we can come up with some sort of deal," offered Oliver, trying not to sound confrontational and aggressive. This year was his last year at Hogwarts, and he didn't want any mishaps that would somehow debar him or his team from playing Quidditch.

But it turned out that luck wasn't at his side, and his wish for a peaceful confrontation was crushed when his seeker started to speak.

"Let's just ignore them and play," voiced Harry, intervening in the conversation. He looked at the two Ravenclaws and shrugged, "Don't blame us if you get hit by a bludger. It won't be our problem if you spend a night in the hospital wing."

Marcus gulped in slight fear of getting hit by a bludger, but the statement did not scare Eddie; he took a deep breath and thought to himself, 'Calm down, Eddie. Don't get riled up. Remember what mum said: Count to nine, and everything will be fine.'

'One… two… three… four… five… what the hell is with that smile!'

Eddie saw Harry smirking and his attempts to calm himself down went down the gutter. He scoffed and retorted, "Of course you would know about hospital wings, don't you, Potter? Seeing that you practically live there."

The Weasley twins in the background laughed as they put their hands on their faces.

Harry frowned and gave Eddie the stink eye.

"What? Are you going to complain to your mum? Go on, mama's boy, I don't mind," smirked Eddie, delighted to see that his words did damage as he punched in another taunt.

Harry growled and stepped forward towards Eddie but was held back by Oliver, who could already feel a headache coming up.

"Let's not fight. Harry, back off," Oliver warned Harry and pulled him back with a jerk. He turned back to Eddie and said, "Listen, mate, we really want to practice. We need the field."

He made a hand gesture regarding the brooms and quaffle in the duo's hands and commented, "You can play your little game elsewhere. There are other free spaces, I'm sure you'll be able to find one where you can play, but we are a team and need to practice on the field."

"Hey! I'm not playing a game," grunted Eddie. He didn't like the tone in which Oliver just spoke. "I have to practice to get on the team. You don't want to get on my bad side because if I make the team, I'll go extra hard against you, guys."

"Yeah, right," scoffed Harry in response and smirked at Eddie.

"Did you say something, 'Crash-and-burns-every-game' Potter?" mocked Eddie and put a hand next to his ear.

Harry wanted to say something but stopped when Oliver raised his hand.

"Look-" started Oliver but was cut off.

"Uh-oh." "Uh-oh, indeed."

The voices of the Weasley twins gathered everyone's attention and everyone looked at them.

"What?" asked Alicia Spinnet, one of the three Gryffindor Chasers.

The twins pointed in a direction behind them and spoke in unison,

" "Little lord West is coming." "

Fred and George had come to call Quinn 'little lord West' because of his mannerisms and their interactions with Quinn inside the A.I.D office.

Both the twins felt that inside the A.I.D room, everything was in Quinn's control. Despite Quinn's effort to make the office welcoming and comforting for the visitors, to the twins, the office was Quinn's territory, and he was its lord, who ruled every single thing that happened.

Everybody looked in the direction the twins were pointing and saw Quinn walking towards them. And it seemed that Quinn had seen them looking at him because he waved with a small smile on his face.

"Good afternoon, people. What a great day we are having today," greeted Quinn as he walked to Eddie's side. "What seems to be the problem here?"

"They want us to get out of here," replied Eddie, looking bored as he couldn't see why he was wasting his time here.

"I see," began Quinn before turning to Oliver. He asked, "Do you have a written permission that states you can use the field exclusively?"

"... Umm, no," replied Oliver, looking uncomfortable. He wasn't expecting Quinn to get straight to the point to ask whether they had permission.

This training session was a spur-of-the-moment thing and was set this morning after Oliver had seen that the weather was clear and no other team had booked it. So he jumped at the chance and gathered his team for practice. He didn't get permission that would grant him exclusive possession of the field.

"Then, Wood, you can't kick us out," shrugged Quinn. Wood had no authoritative power to kick Eddie and Marcus out of the field. "Also, why do you need the entire field? Just give us this scoring area, and you can take the rest of the field," suggested Quinn.

"No, they need the entire field," responded Eddie with a roll of his eyes. "They're scared we'll leak their tactics to the Ravenclaw team."

Quinn gave the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team a look and started.

He pointed at the Weasley twins and spoke, "Dopple-beater Defense and Bludger Backbeat for the Beaters."

"Checking and Power Play for the Chasers," continued Quinn as he pointed at the three chasers: Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet.

He turned to the captain and gave him a thumbs-up, "Double Eight Loop, and Starfish and Stick for the keeper. Those two are tough to pull off."

Finally, Quinn addressed Harry, "No hands and less than decent attempts at Wronski Feint for the seeker."

The Gryffindor team stood still, their jaws on the floor as Quinn rapidly fired the tactics they had been preparing for the second stretch of this year's Quidditch season. Those things were a secret, and no one except the team was supposed to know.

Even if someone knew a partial part of the tactics — they wouldn't be happy, but it wasn't impossible for that to happen. But here they stood, watching a guy with an innocent smile on his face revealing their entire bag of tricks and tactics.

"... H-How?" stuttered Katie in shock. She asked a question that everyone on the Gryffindor team wanted to ask. "How do you know all that?!"

Quinn raised his arm and flicked his wrist for an A.I.D card to appear in his previously empty hand.

Everybody there recognized the card as they had seen it at least a couple of times in their school years.

"Information is my bread and butter; I know what is going on inside Hogwarts, and that includes Quidditch knowledge," informed Quinn and then proudly smiled. "I was also hired permanently as the commentator for the Quidditch games, so I had to know what all four teams were planning to do for better commentary experience."

"You aren't going to reveal this knowledge to anyone, will you?" asked Oliver, sounding apprehensive.

The card in Quinn's hand burned to ashes, and all of them suddenly became aware that Quinn had his wand in hand.

None of them had seen when Quinn had taken out his wand. One moment both his hands were empty; the next second, he had a card in one and a wand in the other. And while this was happening, he kept a friendly smile on his face.

"Of course not. I'm not mad," snorted Quinn derisively. He humphed and pointed at the castle, "If it became known that I leaked information to a team, the entire student body would pelt me with spells. There wouldn't be any safe space for me inside Hogwarts. Plus, that would be bad for business, and I don't want that."

Harry looked at Quinn, a scowl prominent on his face.

Harry and Ivy Potter, the Potter twins, had spent a lot of time together since birth, as the majority of twins did. Both were their automatic best friends, study buddies, competitors, and confidants. There was never any worry about being alone.

Both had spent way too much time together and knew way too much about each other. When Ivy hid something, Harry knew that Ivy wasn't saying something and vice versa.

So whenever Ivy showed signs of unusual behavior, Harry noticed and knew that something had happened with Ivy that he didn't know about.

As time passed, Harry observed her sister and came to realize that those unusual signs only showed up when Quinn West was nearby.

At first, Harry thought her sister liked Quinn, but after further observation, he noticed Ivy didn't show signs of liking Quinn but instead showed slight discomfort when Quinn was nearby.

Ivy had a problem with Quinn, was what Harry concluded.

He decided to confront Ivy about the subject, but Ivy denied having any problems with Quinn. She didn't fess up even after he pestered for an entire day.

After seeing she didn't want to reveal anything, Harry decided to wait for the day she would tell him about the matter, and till that day, Harry would always have his sister's back.

When Harry saw Quinn, he decided not to talk to him because he didn't know what happened between Quinn and his sister. But after Quinn rapid-fired his team's tactics, some of the 'dislike' he had developed for Quinn slipped out.

"Yeah, you better not," harrumphed Harry, slightly scowling at Quinn.

Quinn tilted his head as he turned towards Harry, straightened his back, smiled, and was about to speak, but Eddie spoke up before him.

"Huh?! What did you say? Speak up louder, 'Mr. Coming-to-school-in-a-flying-car-and-once-again-crashing-and-burning' Potter," thundered Eddie, a mocking smirk plastered on his face.

'He is so annoying!' thought Harry as he gritted his teeth and glared at Eddie. He was starting to dislike Eddie more than Quinn.

Quinn looked at Eddie with a surprised expression. He wanted to know what had happened between Harry and Eddie. Eddie was in full-on aggressive mode and Harry was somehow on the back foot.

He took out his pocket watch and glanced at the time. Turning to Eddie, he said, "You have been here for a while. Why don't we go back to the castle? Don't you have a Charms assignment to complete?"

Eddie looked at Quinn's pocket watch and saw that they indeed had been practicing for a while, more than he had planned to practice.

Glancing at the Gryffindor team, Eddie clicked his tongue before speaking to Quinn, "Yeah, let's go back."

As they walked past the Gryffindor team, Eddie pulled on his best delinquent punk face towards Harry.

Marcus politely nodded in their direction, while trying to end the conversation in a calm way.

Quinn, on the other hand, smiled and waved towards Katie as he walked away. Katie waved back with an apologetic smile.

After they were at a distance, Marcus spoke up, "Didn't you want to just get popular? Why would you pick a fight with them?" Marcus was a member of the trio that didn't like confrontation and fights.

Eddie stomped on the ground and hollered, "Screw that, I have decided it; I'm going to join the team as soon as possible. And when I'm on the team, I am going to play against that arrogant prick and score so many points that a snitch will not help."

He was feeling pissed because of the Gryffindor team.

Quinn wrapped his arm around Eddie's shoulders and added, "I'm surprised that you didn't back off and give them the field."

"Huh?! Why in the world would I do that?!" spat out Eddie. "I won't lay down and let them walk over me!"

Quinn nodded and then explained his statement.

"What I meant was that I was surprised that you didn't take the chance to leave a good impression on Katie. I remember you asked me to introduce her to you, so I thought you were interested, and wouldn't this be a perfect chance to establish an impression. Instead, you clashed against her team, so I was just wondering..."

Eddie's entire motivation was to get a girlfriend, so it surprised Quinn that he didn't jump on a good opportunity.

Eddie blinked a couple of times and suddenly squatted on the floor.

"Danggumit!" groaned Eddie with his hands clutching his hair. "How could I let the opportunity get past my grasp?! How?"

"That damn four-eyed Potter screwed me over," he looked up at Quinn and Marcus and hissed, "Why did I have to get all riled up?!"

"NO!" howled Eddie towards the sky.

Marcus shook his head with a hand on his temple. While Quinn cackled.

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[

A/N: So when I was preparing for this chapter, thinking how this interaction should go. In my mind, I went through events like; Quinn dunking on Harry; Quinn having a polite talk with Harry. I even thought of a duel between the two.

None of those fit the situation and feel I was going for. I thought that if I made Harry and Quinn 'fight,' then Harry's image would dip too low. I wasn't confident in keeping Harry's image afloat to the level of an arrogant kid (James Potter level) and thought that his image would plummet to a level below Draco's (at least his image in the earlier books where he was an outright bully.).

But then a thought struck me: Even though Quinn is the MC, he doesn't have to do everything. So, I decided to pit someone else against Harry. The character I could think of in such a role was Eddie Carmichael.

Now, I had mixed reviews for Eddie's behavior. Some said they liked him and others said they didn't like it. To me, Eddie here is a normal teenager who doesn't want to lose and back off. He tried to negotiate at first, compromise, but then things went as you saw.

Do tell me what did you guys think about Eddie and this chapter in general.

This was fun for me to write. Yeah~, This was fun~.

]

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Quinn West - MC - Little Lord West.

Eddie Carmichael - Chaser in the making - No! My chance to get a girlfriend!!

Marcus Belby - Practice Keeper - Let's talk it out peacefully.

Oliver Wood - Gryffindor Quidditch Captain - Sought-after young Keeper prospect.

Harry Potter - Seeker - Defeated in the battle of words.

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[

Webnovel has been 'shadowbanning' comments recently. This means that any comment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted.

So, if you are commenting with curses and profanities, censor a single letter or get creative.

]

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

The link is in the synopsis!

Report chapter Comments

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ https//fictiononlyreader ]??

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Sound worked differently when you were inside water. It wasn't possible to tell from what direction it was coming or how far away it was. You probably would hear high-pitched sounds miss on land. And suddenly turn deaf to low rumbles that one would typically hear.

When on dry land, sound traveled in waves through the air. When those waves reached the ear, they vibrated the tiny audio bones in the inner ear. But while underwater, the sound waves didn't move through the air: they moved through the water.

Underwater, those sound waves didn't vibrate the audio bones in the inner ear. They went straight to the skull bones and vibrated that heavy bone that was behind the ear. Because of that, one would hear higher frequencies underwater but lose lower ones — and would get a disrupted sense of direction and depth.

And that entire experience turned chaotic when swimming inside turbulent, moving waters. The water sounds were so loud that nothing else was audible.

At that moment, Quinn was experiencing all that, as he was frowning through his swimming goggles. He was looking towards the center of the vortex and in spite of the moving water that reduced visibility, Quinn knew that the center of the vortex was the place he had to go.

But getting there was what Quinn was working towards. And it was the one thing he had been working on for close to two weeks.

After getting 'comfortable' —and Quinn used the word in the loosest way possible— in the vortex, Quinn realized that the water whirlpool wasn't the typical whirlpool formed in sea and oceans.

Typical maelstroms would suck a person or objects down and towards the center, where the pulling force was maximum. But this vortex wasn't like that. After going there every day, Quinn realized that the vortex was a thick water ring and not a swirl that sucked water.

Quinn realized this when he tried to stay in the vortex for a long continuous stretch. In that long stretch, Quinn realized he was going around in circles. Not moving inside or outside from where he was dropped into the water.

In the following few days after that revelation, Quinn tried to move towards the center of the ring, but soon found that to move laterally in the vortex was the true challenge.

The resistance inside the water due to the high speeds was so harsh that Quinn couldn't move side-to-side, and for a few days, all he could do was an experiment with water magic to move to the other side.

But today, Quinn had come prepared with an approach that would help him move laterally inside the water.

'Okay, let's start the test,' thought Quinn as he looked to his front and all he could see was water just like he did every time. The shades of blue were all Quinn saw when he was inside the water maelstrom.

Train tracks were the source of Quinn's inspiration; train track shifters, to be exact. A train track switch was a mechanical installation that enabled railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off.

Quinn was treating the circular ring he was swimming in as a closed circular train track. Quinn wanted to create a temporary switch that would forcibly shift him to another 'track' closer to the vortex's center.

The flow of water was pushing Quinn forward, and he wanted to create an external force that would shortly alter the flow of the water, so he could create a relay from his 'track' to another 'track' to his side.

'Come on~, water magic!'

Calling upon his magic from the depth of his magic core, he gathered more and more magic. The magic within him rolled in waves as it got stronger and stronger. When Quinn thought it was enough, he released it in a single burst in front of him in the water.

An arctic blue burst of magic came out of Quinn and shot forward. The magic was supposed to push the water flow to the side so that Quinn could simply flow into that altered flow and inch closer to the center.

Quinn widened his eyes when he saw that instead of signs of water flowing sideways, the water in front of him blew up.

'Oooh, shiiit!' screamed Quinn, immediately curled his body into a ball and braced for impact.

Quinn knew what was about to come. He knew that he wasn't going to be blasted back. Oh, no; the circular flow of the water ring mixed with the disturbance he caused had created a random flow of water.

He entered the disturbed zone and was immediately spinned in random directions. It was like a ball spinning on multiple axes. Quinn lost control over his body as the water current spun him at high speed.

'I-I'm getting dizzy~!' stuttered Quinn after trying to regain balance, but the pressure around his body was too much for him to open up.

He injected magic into the safety insignia and teleported away from the whirlpool.

In the main room, Quinn stumbled as he tried to stand up.

"Oh, my, heavens, come on, world, stop moving," said Quinn as he closed his eyes, laying on the floor. He put a hand on his mouth and croaked, "Don't vomit. Don't vomit... just don't."

After calming down, Quinn stood up. Staying still for a second before taking a deep breath.

"I'm going to pee in there," muttered Quinn as he entered the water entrance.

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- (Scene Break) -

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For an entire week, Quinn struggled to form an altered flow that would allow him to create a shift and move closer to the center.

Every day, Quinn would go inside the water vortex at least two dozen times and repeatedly fail time and time again. Hundreds of bursts of water magic, each different from the last, were tested inside the harsh conditions of the vortex.

A lot of them blew up in his face. Many of the attempts caused him to slam into walls of water resulting from the magic reacting with the water. Some didn't phase the water, even a single bit. Others caused him to spin around so much that he was on the urge to vomit out his stomach's contents.

But after those hundreds of tests, Quinn slowly collected data and experience using water magic to control the turbulent water maintained by magic.

"In a way, this is similar to the first vault," thought Quinn. He recalled the snowflake icicle that had blocked his way for months. "The ice was resisting my magic, and now, this water's strong flow is resisting my magic."

Breakthroughs came naturally after many attempts. It was just a matter of time before Quinn could figure out how to alter the flow that would move him closer to the center.

'Come on, make way for me, magic,' said Quinn as he collected magic and changed its nature into water magic.

The arctic blue magic emerged in front of Quinn and grew brighter as it expanded in size before contracting into a tiny sphere. It shot forward and, after a bright flash, the water that was following its intended path suddenly shifted at an angle.

'Let's go!' exclaimed Quinn, and with a high swimming speed, he flowed into the altered flow and moved closer to the center.

'Yes!' celebrated his success Quinn. 'That was a solid three-meter shift!'

Quinn always dropped at sixty meters from the center, so he needed to create around twenty shifts to get to the center.

Gulping in a bottle full of water, Quinn felt the breath return to him and closed his eyes to focus, 'This is going to take time. Let's see if I can get to the center today.'

He wasn't able to get it done that day. Quinn spent around two to three hours every day inside the vault. Any more than that would take time out of his daily schedule.

He had to attend classes, spend time in the A.I.D office and complete requests, his two daily workout sessions, study magic in the library, practice using magic inside the Room of Requirements, and spend time eating and socializing.

If he spent more time in the vault, he would be reverting back to his second year, where he was spending too much time on other things.

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- (Scene Break) -

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It took another two days until Quinn was fast enough to cover the sixty meters in three-meter shifts before time ran out.

'One more shift and I'll be inside the center,' noted Quinn as he looked to the side. He could faintly see the boundary where the water ended.

The circular water whirlpool had a five-meter waterless wide center. Quinn saw it every time he fell into the water.

In fact, in the beginning, which was a few days ago, Quinn would try to get into the center without entering the water.

He would try to use the seize-and-pull spell to fasten himself to a wall or the ceiling, but they were too far away for Quinn to get any use out of them.

Transfiguring an object underneath while riding it using levitation also didn't work. The transfigured material would glow red and immediately vanish, and Quinn would drop into the water.

He had even tried to get a broom inside, but it wouldn't take flight no matter what, and once again, Quinn would drop inside the water. Because of that, he had lost the broom he had used since he was eight years old. The wood brutally snapped because of the turbulent flow, and the pieces flew away before Quinn could get to them.

The ward administration inside the expanded place was so extensive that Quinn didn't have a choice but to get to the center via the water. [1]

'One last time,' thought Quinn, gathering his magic and shooting it for the final time.

The water flow changed and was now aimed towards the center. Quinn naturally swam with the flow, and in a moment, his head emerged from the water.

"I did it!" exclaimed Quinn, but his eyes widened when he realized that with his exit speed, his body was going to enter the water from the opposite side.

"Oh, hell! No!" yelled Quinn and immediately killed his fall with Arresto Momentum. He stopped right in the middle of the center of the vortex.

He looked down and saw another triangular entrance on the floor, although this one also was filled with water. As he dropped, Quinn saw words appear above an edge of a triangle.

「-~ TEHOM'S DELIGHT ~-」

Quinn stopped just above the entrance and stared at the words etched on the floor.

"There's another place after this?"

But then the words at the first gate flashed in his mind,

「The trials are long and arduous...」

"Ah, it was 'trials,' plural. Alright, that checks it out," nodded Quinn.

Then his eyes went to the name of the next trial.

"Tehom's delight?" Quinn tilted his head in cluelessness. "Who the hell is Tehom? Damn, another god or someone?"

But that wasn't the thing that Quinn was mainly concerned about. The other word was more concerning to him.

"Delight? Yeah, no way this is anything good or delightful." Quinn didn't for a second believe that the positive-sounding words in the title were anything but negative. "That just screams trouble," scoffed Quinn and shook his head.

He went silent and stared at the water inside the entrance.

"Should I go in?" contemplated Quinn. He had just spent a lot of time slowly shifting sixty meters, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to drop down into another trial. "Should I research 'Tehom' before going in? Or should I just go and see what's inside?"

He felt the insignia on his arm and was reminded of its existence.

"I have the teleportation insignia. I can always pull out at any moment," mused Quinn. It was the safety mechanism that would pull him out immediately the moment he activated it. "Yeah, I should check it out."

With a sharp exhale, Quinn released the magic holding him in place and sunk into the water. He felt the same tug as the last entrance and the momentary loss of sensation.

But this time, his sense of sight didn't return.

He could feel the water against his skin, his ears picked up sounds, he could smell some scent of water and taste the water as he gulped it down. But he couldn't see anything through his eyes. Darkness dominated his vision as he turned in the water, trying to see anything.

Quinn felt fear grip his heart as he looked around. Suddenly losing your sight wasn't a pleasant feeling. Quinn could feel his heart racing as, no matter what direction he turned, he didn't manage to see anything.

'Okay, this is freaking me out. I need to get out. I need to get out, right now!' thundered Quinn and activated the safety insignia.

The next second, he was back in the stone cave, and to Quinn's relief, his sight was back along with all his other senses.

"Oh! Colors, pretty colors, and light!" smiled Quinn as he stared at the crystal light sticking out of the ceiling. "Oh, I love sight."

Quinn placed his hand on his beating heart and took deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Yeah, what could go wrong, indeed!"

Even though Quinn hadn't gotten injured, he would have ended up extremely scared if his vision didn't return after he was teleported. At that moment, Quinn didn't think it would be another trial; he was just worried about his eyes.

"Delight, my ass," spat out Quinn in displeasure.

He looked back to check something and saw that the triangular entrance in the dome's wall still had the words Poseidon's Wrath etched into the stone above it.

"Aww! Don't tell me I have to go through the Poseidon's Wrath before I reach the Tohem's Delight?!" complained Quinn. He had completed the first trial, so he was expecting the door to change, but it didn't. "Will I have to go through every trial to get to the one at the end of the line? That sucks!"

Quinn only had completed the first of many trials.

Nonetheless, Poseidon's Wrath had been overcome.

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Quinn West - MC - I love to see.

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"Tehom, literally 'the Deep' or 'Abyss'," read Quinn from another old tome in the Hogwarts library.

After having a scare of a lifetime inside the second trial, Tehom's Delight, Quinn's first course of action was to see who or what Tehom in the title was?

"Refers to the Great Deep of the primordial waters of creation in the Bible," hummed Quinn as he summarized the information he had been able to get on Tehom. "An entity from the Christian pantheon mentioned in the Old Testament Bible, Book of Genesis, Genesis 1:2"

Tapping his finger on the table, Quinn thought about his experience of no sight in the second trial room. The complete darkness had taken him by surprise. Being robbed of the sense that he used the most was something deeply unsettling.

"The entire vault is revolving around water, and then there was the word 'law' in the text. The trials are definitely based on something that can be found in water."

Quinn glanced down at the word 'Tehom' on the parchment of the tome.

"There is no light in the depth of an ocean, and Tehom symbolizes deep or abyss. Having no light must be the reason I wasn't able to see anything but darkness," theorized Quinn. "That meant that my sense of sight was okay, but there was no light. Thus, I couldn't see. Ah, that is just plain annoying~. I respect that."

Another thing that Quinn focused on was the ambiance of the second trial room.

"I was inside a water-filled region with no surface beneath my feet," remembered Quinn, while closing his eyes to relive that moment. "Calm water with no violent, turbulent flow like the first room. The temperature; slightly cold."

Even though he had been only inside the second trial room for less than thirty seconds, Quinn ended up having some questions.

"What's the aim of the second trial? Do I need to find another entrance? How do I navigate there? Is there something in there other than me? What danger there is?"

But spending mere seconds inside the second trial room wasn't enough to answer any of the questions. If Quinn wanted to get answers, then he would need to dive in there and get the lay of the land.

Then his thoughts went further beyond the second trial room.

"How many trials are in the third vault?"

The third vault was still covered in mystery because Quinn couldn't see the end, and that unknown element slightly excited Quinn.

Mystery creates wonder, and wonder was the basis of man's desire to understand the world. And Quinn wanted to understand everything. It was in his nature.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Alchemy was a branch of magic; an ancient discipline that involved studying the secrets of composition, structure, and magical properties of the four classical elements, as well as the transmutation and transfiguration of substances and, thus, it was connected intimately with potion-brewing, charms and transfiguration.

Of course, Quinn didn't believe in the four classical elements because of the atomic theory. But he did believe in the fifth element, which he considered to be magic itself.

Back to alchemy. The branch of magic was a beautiful conjugation of various magics: transfiguration, transmutation, potions, herbology, metallurgy, charms, and other magics used to supplement it according to its needs.

Alchemy was said to be the ultimate transformation magic. Alchemic counterparts were many times more potent than their potion counterparts. Properties could be permanently added to objects: something that was extremely difficult with charms. It could convert materials into completely different states from their initial forms; something that could only be a work of transfiguration but permanent.

Today, inside the Room of Requirement, Quinn was in the middle of performing alchemy. The young alchemist was in the midst of one of his long-term projects. The project was still in its initial stages, but Quinn was making some progress.

"Project sub-zero. Series one (1), formula number twenty-seven (27)," announced Quinn, reading from a sheet of paper that had 'S-1 F#19' written on it.

「Project Sub-Zero.」

Absolute Zero was the alchemic material that Quinn had found inside the first vault, the Icy vault. It was an alchemic material that was at a perpetual temperature of zero Kelvin (0 K). The paradoxical material contained cold energy capable of dropping the temperature of anything it came in direct contact with to zero Kelvin (0 K).

It was the physical incarnation of infinite cold.

And while Quinn couldn't get it out yet, he wasn't going to miss the chance to research it. So twice or thrice a month, Quinn would go down into the vault and collect samples of the cold energy for research.

There was no information on Absolute Zero except the description. Quinn had scoured the Room of Requirement library to find any information on Absolute Zero but couldn't find a creation methodology or a clue to get started.

It was a magic lost to the world.

Project Sub-Zero was Quinn's attempt to study Absolute Zero. So that one day, he could create the alchemic marvel himself. It was an experimental approach where Quinn began at two hundred and seventy-three Kelvin (273 K) and made his way down to zero Kelvin (0 K).

He had divided the project into six stages.

[

Stage One (S-1) - 273 K - 224 K

Stage Two (S-2) - 223.99 K - 175 K

Stage Three (S-3) - 174.99 K - 126 K

Stage Four (S-4) - 125.99 K - 77 K

Stage Five (S-5) - 76.99 K - 28K

Stage Six (S-6) - 27.99 K - 0 K

]

The first five stages had a forty-nine Kelvin (49 K) range, the square of the most magical number; seven.

But in the last stage, S-6 had the remaining twenty-two Kelvin (28 K), which was in a seven times four (7 x 4) range. It had the power of seven and a stable foundation of four. The sixth stage signified that, after six stages, Quinn would reach the perfect seventh stage and obtain the paradoxical yet stable Absolute Zero.

Quinn chose the above stages as each would be a milestone in his quest to create Absolute Zero.

Seeing that Quinn was operating on [S-1 F#19] meant that he was still in the initial leg of the project.

"F#18 showed the temperature of 209 K / -63.15C. Five degrees lower than F#17," recited Quinn as he took notes under [S-1 F#19] paper. "But, F#18 was unstable and broke down in under ten minutes (10 mins). F#19 is the attempt to solve the instability of F#18 and create a stable formula with the temperature of 209 K / -63.15C or below."

Quinn lit up a fire and placed a potion cauldron on it. Alchemy, or at least the alchemy Quinn knew, closely resembled potion brewing as it required a cauldron.

Slowly Quinn added the ingredients into the cauldrons according to the formula. There were a lot of processed ingredients, like liquid essence extracted from plants, magically treated plant roots, frozen animal organs, transfigured filings of metal, and other ingredients that Quinn had chosen for [S-1 F#19].

After adjusting the heat and stirring at predefined times to activate the ingredients, came some steps that set apart alchemy from potion brewing.

When the mixture inside the cauldron was at the optimal state for the next step, Quinn took a deep breath and raised his hands over the cauldron, and magic flowed.

Potion brewing didn't have a place for spells because they could incite instability in the in-flux mixtures brewing inside the cauldron. But alchemy did precisely that and introduced external magic into the mix.

Quinn, with the utmost caution, injected his magic through alchemic transformation spells. His eyes observed the mixture for any signs of deviation. Any signs of trouble could cause the mixture to deteriorate into instability. The worst outcome would result in the cauldron exploding, which would heavily harm Quinn in the process.

This was the reason such a small number of people pursued alchemy. There was a risk in every alchemic brew; a mistimed decision due to a lapse in concentration could cause injuries.

That is why, even among those who did pursue alchemy, many didn't proceed further because their spell work wasn't good enough to safely perform alchemy.

Of course, not all failed attempts exploded and caused drastic injuries. If one didn't make any major mistakes, the outcome would be a failed cauldron full of sludge. But why tempt fate and attempt a magic that had such high standards?

With an observant gaze and a tight hold on his magic, Quinn injected property-adding charms, state-changing transmutations, and stabilizing flashes of transfiguration.

The initially yellow mixture turned brown, which indicated it was time for the next step. He immediately picked up a bronze metal disc from the ground and carefully covered the cauldron. He used the disc as a lid cover. The second the disc covered the cauldron, Quinn dimmed the heat to a simmer.

Quinn relaxed his body as he exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding. He walked to the desk at a distance from the cauldron and took the inactive downtime to note his observation. Quinn picked up a pen and started writing.

"[S-1 F#19] has passed both the ingredient activation stage and active magic injection stage. There were no noted anomalies, though the magically treated cold-resistant aluminum gave the initial mixture a yellow color. The cured brown color shows that there was a resonance between the elements, showing signs of binding and stability."

Quinn raised his head and looked at the cauldron before looking back at the table and continuing, "Estimated binding time is fifteen minutes with an error margin of three minutes. The required temperature is 300 C."

After writing down the notes, Quinn didn't sit down and relax for the next fifteen minutes but got up and moved to another table with a white cloth covering the tabletop. On the tabletop, there was a cloth-covered cage and a small potion vial.

Quinn removed the cloth from the cage and, immediately, three rats squeaked from the sudden exposure to light. Quinn looked at the rats and magically held two rats down as the third rat floated outside the now opened gate.

The three rats were provided to him by Poppy for healing practice. The one he took out was a perfectly healthy rat in which Quinn would perform wound healing.

The other two rats were sick rats with diseases that Quinn practiced cure healing magic on. He had no idea what the diseases were, and needed to first identify the illness from their symptoms and, then, cure them with healing spells or healing potions.

"You two will come later," said Quin to the two sick-looking rats. "So sit tight because the doctor will see you in a bit."

Quinn again covered the cage with a cloth and floated off the table to the floor.

He looked at the squealing rat pinned to the white table. With a twitch of his magic, all the hair from the rat disappeared and turned into an ugly hairless rat.

Quinn picked up the potion vial and, after uncapping the lid, a drop of potion flew out of the vial and entered the rat's mouth. The squealing rat slowly turned quiet and fell unconscious. The potion was a magic anesthetic with a sleeping component attached to it.

"Don't worry, buddy, this won't hurt at all," muttered Quinn as he looked at the unconscious rat. A small cut appeared on the rat's hairless skin with trace amounts of blood leaking from the wound.

Quinn stared at the cut wound as he funneled magic onto the cut wound. Like magic, the blood stopped leaking, the cut knitted back, joining the two sides of the cut together, healing the rat's body like the cut never existed.

"Success," smiled Quinn and shot a diagnostic charm at the rat to see the overall condition. The results came back positive as the rat was at full health, albeit with a slight blood loss. Nothing dangerous.

"Let's try the bones," said Quinn to himself and broke the rat's leg bone with magic. By now, Quinn was used to harming unconscious rats, and breaking bones or detaching limbs elicited nothing out of Quinn.

Once again, Quinn molded his magic as he knitted back the broken bones and healed the muscles, blood vessels, nerves back to normal. The heal was performed phenomenally, and when the rat eventually woke up, he won't notice a difference.

"Snip-snip," clicked Quinn with his tongue as the rat's tail came off from its body. "Operation tail reattachment. Beginning now."

Without moving his hand or arms, Quinn's magic held the detached tail of the rat's body and used healing magic to reattach it. The muscle and skin from both wriggled as they knitted back together. When the outer layer was reattached, the thin bones set themselves together and clicked back together with magic.

After that, Quinn continued to perform the list of activities on the unconscious rats given to him by Poppy.

When ten minutes passed, Quinn stopped harming and healing the rat and moved back to the cauldron before the time was up. He used a spell to check the internal temperature, and the result showed that it was about to get to the desired level. Quinn wore his protective gloves and safety goggles and removed the bronze metal lid from the top after the temperature reached the optimal level.

"Excellent!" grinned Quinn when he saw the change in the downtime.

The brown boiling mixture had turned into transparent bubbling viscous liquid. The brown had a heavy sour smell, but the transparent liquid was scent-free.

"Time to remove it from heat," said Quinn as he cut the heat at the bottom of the cauldron, and then Quinn's eyes shined with focus because it was now time for the last stretch of the process.

Quinn's magic flowed out of his body and assaulted every drop of the transparent liquid with chilling cold. Ice magic came in contact and bled inside the potion, and reached everywhere inside the thick viscous liquid.

The ice magic thrummed with activity as an icy blue light started to taint the transparent liquid. Quinn kept on dropping the internal temperature and the icy blue color deepened. After a minute of channeling magic, the liquid lit up with a brilliant light.

The ethereal light reflected inside Quinn's eyes as he cut the supply of ice magic and stepped back a couple of steps. A smile lengthened on his lips as he saw the condensation appear on the cauldron's outside and froze into a white cover of ice.

Quinn waited till the blue light dimmed to a level that it was faintly present before raising his hand and, with his rising hand, the contents inside the cauldron were levitated outside.

The faintly shining liquid floated in the air as Quinn did a temperature and pumped his hands up and celebrated, "207 K, two Kelvin less than expected!"

Quinn danced around the floating [S-1 F#19] in celebration.

But after celebrating the initial celebration, Quinn conjured an iron rod in his hand.

"Flame on," grinned Quinn and bombarded the conjured rod with powerful heat magic. Focusing his magic so that it would be concentrated on the other end. "Come on, get nice and hot, so papa can hear some sizzling goodness."

The moment the quarter of the rod was red hot, Quinn gestured with his fingers, and half of the liquid broke from the floating blob and flew towards Quinn.

Quinn brought it so that it was floating at his knee level. He held the iron rod in a reverse grip before stabbing it inside the viscous liquid.

Immediately, there was intense sizzling as the iron rod cooled down rapidly, and within seconds, the iron rod had lost all the heat. Quinn removed the rod and threw it away; the rod vanished mid-flight.

Wasting no time, Quinn checked the temperature of the cold liquid in front of him, and the spell showed him the temperature 210 K. The temperature had risen three Kelvin.

"Wait, wait, wait," Quinn raised his hand as if quieting a crowd around him.

He watched as, within seconds, the temperature went back to 207 K.

Quinn threw his arms up and announced, "We've done it, people! It has enough energy to recover. It is stable, it is beautiful, and finally, it is cold. It is Quinn-made!"

Not really thinking that the only ones who could hear his celebration announcements were two rats with hair and one hairless rat who had woken up from the potion's effects.

The two halves merged back together, and they floated to a container that Quinn had prepared for it. The containers were also a progressive project because these containers also got stronger as Quinn continued to improve on project Sub-Zero. Plus, as Quinn had been working on containment longer than Project Sub-Zero, he was way ahead in containment technology.

Quinn hummed in pleasure and joy to the table to make notes, and after that, his day continued to get better because that day, none of his three rats died. This only happened maybe thrice a week because Quinn usually ended up killing the healthy rat after failing to heal a critical injury quick enough.

.

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Quinn West - MC - Alchemist in making

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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"I need to get faster. I'm not going to make any progress otherwise," sighed Quinn, as he stopped himself above the triangular entrance to the second trail area. "If I keep going at this rate, I'm going to use most of my time just to get past the vortex."

The third vault —or as Quinn had come to call it, the Aquatic Vault— was set up such that if Quinn wanted to progress and make it to the next trial area, he would need to successively get past the previous trials.

The vortex in Poseidon's Wrath was very turbulent. Every time he plunged into the violent water, it would take at least half an hour to get to the center of the vortex. To Quinn, that half an hour was time wasted; time in which he could be making progress in the second trial — Tehom's Delight.

"Well, practice makes perfect, so I have to keep coming here every day. I'll eventually get faster," sighed Quinn before releasing the Arresto Momentum, which was holding him in his place.

The water engulfed Quinn as he was pulled into the waters leading to the second trial. Tehom's Delight.

...

Like before, Quinn opened his eyes to see nothing. Complete darkness, with only a sensation of slightly cold water covering him from all sides.

He felt that visually and aurally. Quinn wasn't able to see his hand pass in front of his face. The only way Quinn could tell that his eyes were open was through blinking consciously.

The only sounds Quinn could hear came from himself, like when he wildly moved his limbs to create some sound — but even then the noise died immediately, and every sound that Quinn made from floating inside water sounded strange.

Tehom's Delight was hauntingly still and silent.

After the first minute or so, he shifted slightly and experienced a sudden revelation: 'Oh, my shoulder makes a sound when I move it, apparently.' A couple of minutes in, Quinn was able to experience a nothingness he had never felt before, with his mind startlingly clear.

And just like that, within minutes, Quinn's calm mind slipped into nothingness, and he lost himself inside Tehom's Delight. With a clear, yet blank mind, Quinn closed his eyes in the dark. And sunk into a state of emptiness.

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- (Scene Break) -

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After an unidentified amount of time, Quinn's empty mind suddenly sparked with activity. He wasn't seeing anything and had to consciously blink his eyes to assure him that his eyes were open.

'Damn it! I did it again!' yelled Quinn in his mind, berating himself.

He channeled the magic in the teleportation insignia that was on his hand, and soundlessly, he disappeared from Tehom's Delight.

Quinn came out of the water from the triangular entrance and entered the front stone cave. Not a drop of water could be seen on his body because of the wards. The second he stepped on the floor, Quinn furiously looked towards the waterproof proof bag he had been bringing with him for a week, and it snapped open. A pocket watch flew out.

The pocket watch stopped in front of Quinn, and the lid opened to show the watch's face to him. He saw it had already been one and a half-hour since he had arrived in the vault.

"This is great! Just f$#king great!" cursed Quinn, his face twisted by anger. He got angry with himself, though. "#$%@, I only have two hours today!"

"Argh!" with a throaty roar, Quinn stomped on the ground. A wave of magic traveled through his legs down into the ground. The ground beneath Quinn got transfigured and suddenly sunk down in a dent.

And because he wasn't careful, Quinn stumbled and fell down on his butt.

As he sat on the ground, Quinn thought about why he disliked Tehom's Delight. The reason was simple; he liked it a bit too much.

If he didn't move and just stayed still, he felt the perfect stillness and serenity of the second trial room. Quinn heard nothing, saw nothing; he began to feel as though he was stretching in all directions, that his being was filling the void. Of course, it was all in his head, but he loved every instant of it.

The feeling was absolutely Transcendent. It was addicting.

After the events of last year, Quinn had developed a strong desire to be in control. He craved it and rigorously sought it after. The feeling of being in control hadn't drastically changed his life; even before the events of the Sin vault, Quinn still had some tendencies in which he liked to be in control. Presently, these tendencies were considerably stronger than before, but nothing life-altering.

Usually, that desire became fulfilled when he was in complete control of his magic, with day-to-day activities, and when he controlled his speech and behavior. He exercised Muay Thai every day without fail because it gave him a sense of control over his body. The interior design of the A.I.D office was specifically designed to put Quinn in control. Quinn had also decided the place of everything inside the workshop. Luna, the other user of the workshop, wasn't allowed to change anything.

But then there was Tehom's Delight. It cleared Quinn's mind to an unnatural level and made him feel that losing control was fine, that he could relax; that he didn't have to worry about anything. He had purposely alloted two to three hours every day to the Aquatic Vault, although in his initial few visits Quinn had exceeded that time by at least an hour because he would lose himself inside the vault.

Lately, he had gotten it under control and didn't lose himself as much, but there were times like this when he slipped up and let the ambiance of the second trial lull him into total blankness.

The time he spent inside Tehom's Delight felt great to Quinn, but when he exited Tehom's Delight, the realization that he had lost self-control struck him, and that didn't feel well to Quinn.

The 'delight' in Tehom's Delight truly made sense, but as Quinn had thought when he learned the trial's name for the first time... it was pure trouble.

"#$@, [email protected](*), *{%$}, ~!, -$%#$," cursed Quinn. He usually didn't curse, but when he rarely did, he didn't stop in the middle. It was quite clear how pissed Tehom's Delight made him.

Quinn got up, packed up his bag, threw it to the side, and turned back to the triangular entrance of Poseidon's Wrath. Even though he only had half an hour remaining, Quinn wouldn't let that time go to waste.

"#$%*!"

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn was sitting behind his office desk while reading a book on Magical Pathologies. It introduced the effects of magical diseases on the human body.

To properly learn Healing Magic, one needed to read up on loads and loads of books. The amounts of subjects that needed to be covered were vast and extensive.

These days, Quinn had been studying anatomy, physiology, and pathology. He was balancing Healing Magic, his own studies, and the vaults.

"It will take some time to make them accessible memory books," muttered Quinn, turning the pages. He read every word while trying to understand the anomalies that were written in the tome. "Should I try a different method to connect concepts? The Josh Kaufman method seems interesting."

Storing knowledge inside his mindscape that he gained from books (or tomes) was more complicated than storing daily events.

Recalling every word in a book only from his memory was simple enough; the problem came when he needed to comprehend the concepts and information.

Truly retaining information took more time, and it also took more time to create the memory book immersion that increased the time and complexity of the process. Quinn connected concepts to other concepts and then compiled the concept net into a memory book. After that, numerous concept memory books needed to be linked to fasten his recall speed.

Quinn wasn't new to concept retention, as he had been doing it before he came to Hogwarts. It was one of the things that enabled Quinn to go through information quickly and keep uniform progress in multiple disciplines of magic without leaving anyone behind.

And because he was taking on more magic as he grew up, Quinn actively researched efficiency-aspect occlumency, as he was interested in that field. Efficiency-aspect occlumency was Quinn's most advanced magic. It was more advanced than any other magic he had learned since coming to this world.

Take the present example, Healing Magic was an extensive subject, and even though at start Poppy had set a pace that she thought wouldn't interfere with his general school studies, Quinn had thrown that pace away the moment he received it.

He studied at his own pace, and that pace was much faster than what Poppy had imagined. Quinn's learning pace made Poppy think that he was just studying Healing Magic, as he was learning very fast.

She thought that Quinn was slacking in his general school studies, but Quinn had squashed that line of thought by performing all the magic a fourth year student needed to know to Poppy, which showed her that she didn't need to worry about anything.

As he continued to read, Quinn heard a knock followed by the ring of the door chime.

Quinn looked up from his book to see who was visiting, and his eyes slightly widened when he saw the person who had entered the office.

With shoulder-length red hair, almond-shaped green eyes clad with a forest green robe, the professor of muggle studies entered the A.I.D office with a slight smile on her face.

"Professor Potter, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting your visit," greeted Quinn. He then stood up from his barstool while closing his book.

"Good evening, Mr. West," replied Lily as she admired the interior of the room, which had changed since her last visit. She looked at the paintings on the walls and asked while looking at the paintings, "Mr. West, I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have magical paintings?"

Magical paintings, unlike their non-magical counterparts, moved. The painting's subject, background and foreground were all animated to move in a lifelike manner.

"I'm not a fan of magical paintings, professor. I like my paintings when they don't move. I think they are more beautiful that way. It leaves more to the imagination," replied Quinn, observing the professor as she appraised the art.

Lily turned towards Quinn, and the host gestured to the visitor to take a seat.

"What can I do for you today, professor?" asked Quinn as both of them took their seats.

He couldn't think of any reason why Lily Potter had come to the office.

'From her expression, it doesn't seem like she knows about my interactions with her daughter,' speculated Quinn.

Quinn didn't launch a Legilimency probe because, first, he wanted to try the spoken means of communication before snooping inside Lily's mind.

"I have been thinking of new ways to introduce the muggle culture to my students, but I haven't been able to think of a way that would engage the students and not leave them confused and feeling detached," sighed Lily as she introduced her reason for her visit.

She looked up at Quinn and suggested, "I came here to see if you would be able to help me find a solution." And as she said that, Lily pulled out an A.I.D card and showed it to Quinn.

"Hmm... now that is a unique problem that you have brought me, professor," hummed Quinn thinking about the problem. "Something that would engage us, the students?"

"Yes, I'm thinking something they could use in their daily lives," added Lily, watching Quinn, who now had a thoughtful solution on his face.

After half a minute of thinking, Quinn broke the silence, "From the top of my head, I can think of one thing that would engage your students."

"What is it?" asked Lily, excited for the idea.

Quinn smiled as he replied, "Isn't it obvious, professor? All of your students are teenagers, and teenagers or children in general, love games."

"Games?" asked Lily in confusion. She wasn't sure if games would help her students who came from wizarding households.

"I understand your skepticism," chuckled Quinn as he noticed the expression on the redhead's face. "Games might not be the thing you were looking for, but I assure you that it is the thing you need. "

"But, how? How would a game help?" Lily wasn't feeling positive about the idea because she had already tried it. "I tried to introduce football and cricket to the students, but they didn't seem interested in either of the two. None of the students from wizarding households asked me if they could play the sports."

"Ah, now I understand your reluctance," nodded Quinn at the failed attempt to introduce non-magical sports. "I think the reason why your attempts failed is that the students from magical households weren't able to connect to both of the sports. With a thrilling game as Quidditch being part of their lives, games like football and cricket might not seem that interesting."

"But professor, I'm not talking about sports," grinned Quinn. Oh no, he wasn't thinking about sports, nope. He was thinking about something else.

'Something that would be mighty fun to create,' thought Quinn as he told Lily of his plan.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The first thing the students heard as they entered the muggle studies classroom was professor Lily's jubilant voice.

"Good afternoon, students. Please step in and gather around the table in the center!"

When they looked around the classroom, they saw that the desks and tables had been removed. Instead, there were six square tables around the classroom, with a seventh square table in the center of the room.

They noticed something on every table, but they couldn't recognize the object on the table because a sheet covered it.

The third-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students slowly arrived at the classroom in batches, and Lily waited near the door with an excited smile on her face while greeting them pleasantly. She was looking forward to today's lesson.

Hermione bumped Ivy's shoulder and whispered while looking at the covered center table, "Hey, do you have any idea what's all this?"

Ivy looked at all seven tables before glancing at her mother.

"No, I have no clue about what is all of this. Mu- I mean, professor Potter didn't tell me about this," replied Ivy with a whisper back to Hermione. Lily had instructed both Potter twins to call her professor Potter when they were in public at the school.

"I wonder what the professor has planned for today," whispered Hermione as he narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what was below the cloth.

All the students had arrived and were chatting to each other, discussing what would happen today.

"Now that everyone is here, let's get started," announced Lily as he made her way across the crowd of students to the center table. "Today, we are going to do something fun."

She looked at her students with a smile and continued, "We are going to play a muggle game today. A game that I played when I was a child, and I am sure that the muggleborn students would recognize the game."

The students from the wizarding household looked uninterested. Some half-blood students who were familiar with the non-magical side seemed moderately interested. While the muggleborn students looked at the center table, trying to figure out the game's identity.

"Today, we are going to play-" announced Lily as she pulled the cloth off the table and revealed the game, "- Monopoly!"

All muggleborns recognized the game at once because of its popularity. Some half-blood students recognized the game, and the pureblood students studied the board game.

Hermione recognized the game instantly. The game wasn't played in the Potter household, but Ivy recognized the game from the times she had gone to the house of some of her non-magical friends.

"Monopoly is a board game. In this game, players have to roll two six-sided dice and move around this game board with their tokens, buy and trade properties, and develop them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents. The goal is to drive them to the point that they have no money or properties..." explained Lily with nostalgia and an ever-present smile on her face.

By the time she was finished explaining the rules, the class's opinion was divided into two. Half of the class seemed interested, while the other half didn't look particularly excited about the game.

But then Lily introduced something that changed the entire class's opinion to positive.

"But we aren't going to play this one because a lot of students here don't feel attached to the properties on the board."

She took out her wand, and with a wave, the Monopoly board folded and packed itself in the game box. The box flew away to the teacher's table.

"We are going to play-," beamed Lily as she waved her wand, and another box flew from beneath the table and set itself on the table. "- Monopoly, Hogwarts version!"

All the students suddenly became fully interested in the game as they stared at the box with an animated image of Hogwarts castle as the night and the day alternated in the background. Murmurs and chatter broke out in the classroom as everyone spoke to everyone.

"... Hogwarts version?" blinked Hermione as she watched as the box opened itself and a board slid out to show why it was called the Hogwarts version.

A moving Hogwarts coat of arms in the middle of the board with a miniature Albus Dumbledore sticking its torso out of the letter 'O' of Hogwarts.

All the properties were changed to suit the theme: Hagrid's hut, all four house common rooms, the Great Hall, Owlery, Kitchen, Quidditch stadium, Greenhouses, Hospital Wing, Whooping Willow, Headmaster's Office, the Great Lake, and many other Hogwarts hotspots.

The game started at Platform nine-and-three-quarters. Instead of jail, there was Azkaban and Detention.

The Community cards and Chance cards were renamed 'Potions' and 'Spells'.

The tokens were in the form of brooms, the sorting hat, a wand, a golden snitch, a quaffle, a bludger, quills, cauldrons, and others. Houses were turned into huts, and the hotels were turned into castles.

The money was still in the paper currency form to teach the students about muggle currency.

Other than that, everything on the board was animated and truly looked like a part of the wizarding community.

"To make sure that even those who aren't familiar with muggle places, I've made this special version so that you all can enjoy the game," smiled Lily as she looked around the classroom, happy to see activity among her students.

Quinn had told her that if she could make the children like the game, she would be able to improve their view of the muggle world. Quinn reasoned that if she could connect the muggle world to something fun, the students would keep their minds open when introduced to other muggle things.

'If you can make them interested in trying new things, then you have already passed the most difficult part of the problem,' Quinn had said when pitching the idea for using a board game as a way to get students interested. 'You want to make them think that if something fun like this is from the non-magical world, then what other fun things are out there? You have to work up curiosity within them. A curiosity that they would try to fulfill on their own.'

After listening to Quinn, she realized that something as simple as a board game could help the students get interested in the muggle world.

She waved her wand, and the covers from the rest of the table flew away, revealing six more game sets.

"Please take seats around the tables and start playing. There will be no studying today. Today we're going to play the game and have fun," announced Lily with a bright smile on her face.

Other than making her students interested in the muggle worlds, Lily also agreed to this idea for personal reasons.

Monopoly reminded Lily of the times before Hogwarts. It reminded her of the time when Lily and her sister, Petunia, were still on good terms and played the game together with their parents as a family. Those were simpler and happy times, and she wanted her students to experience that.

'Maybe with this, I can reduce house rivalry a little bit,' thought Lily as she saw Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students mingling together.

...

Ivy Potter marveled at the Hogwarts-themed Monopoly game when she felt a tug on her arm and distractedly looked towards her side.

"Yeah? What is it?" Ivy asked Hermione, who was staring at the game board.

"Look in the bottom right corner of the board," whispered Hermione and pointed at the game board with her eyes.

Ivy's eyes returned to the game board and went to the bottom right corner of the board. Her eyes widened when she saw the small logo that silently sat there.

"... A.I.D!"

The small logo of A.I.D productions on the board meant that her mother had gone to that person. And that the new game was his work.

"...Quinn West made this," uttered Ivy as she continued to stare at the board.

It made her wonder about Quinn. He had neither approached her nor Hermione to claim the 'debt' they owed him. Forget approaching them, Quinn didn't even look at them when they passed each other in the hallways.

Sometimes she felt relieved that he ignored her because if he looked at her regularly, she would automatically think that he wanted something and that was stressful for her.

On the other hand, whenever she thought about Quinn, it made her nervous because she wanted to be free of the debt, and him not acting on it just made her wonder when the day would come when he would ask them to do something and free them of their debt.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The creator's question was amid drafting instruction documentation and building models to send home.

The reason Quinn had thought Lily's request was going to be fun was because he saw a business opportunity in it. And not just an A.I.D business opportunity, but a West business opportunity.

He had made a simple Hogwarts version of Monopoly, and that was just something that Lily Potter could use in her class.

On another note, Quinn had created a better Hogwarts version with more charms and features. The version that he had built had tokens and pieces that moved on their own, like wizarding chess. Three-dimensional animations were applied on the boards for a more immersive feel.

Quinn knew that not all people wanted to play the Hogwarts version of Monopoly, so he also designed another version, a Magical Britain version. This version featured properties from all across magical Britain and was much more expensive than the Hogwarts one.

He was especially proud of how the miniature goblins handled the banking for the players so that they could enjoy the game without the additional responsibility of the banker. The money was in the standard wizarding currency with an additional platinum coin.

"This is going to make money," chuckled Quinn as he transmuted and charmed a piece of quartz to take the shape of the player. "Once this hits the market, children are going to pester their parents to dish out money."

"This time, I'm going to fill a bathtub with galleons instead of sickles."

Quinn laughed alone in his workshop as he continued to build a model that he was going to send home for demonstration purposes.

"Money~. Oh, sweet money~."

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Quinn West - MC - Copyright can't touch me.

Lily Potter - Professor - Enjoying the nostalgia.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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A small, lonely single-story wood cabin built with logs notched at the ends laid one upon another with the spaces filled with mortar, stood in a small clearing inside a dense forest. The log cabin was traditional in its design; a sloping, single-gabled timbered roof and small windows.

Inside the forest trees surrounding the log cabin stood men and women in various attires, although all of their clothes had one thing in common; all wore some kind of overcoat.

"Are you sure the intel is solid?" asked a tall, well-built, fair-skinned, handsome man who had lustrous black hair. The man had an air of casual elegance with a tinge of mischievousness.

"It's legit information; Conebush and Clocks saw them gathering inside the cabin," answered a tall, thin man with hazel-colored eyes and untidy black hair that stuck up at the back. The man was well-groomed and had an indefinable air of confidence.

"Potter, Black, come on, the Hit Wizards are ready," called out Captain Auror Gawain Robards. "It's time to infiltrate the site."

Senior Aurors, James Potter, and Sirius Black turned to face their captain and nodded in response.

An Auror was a magic-user who acted as a highly trained law enforcement official for magical governments. Auror training was immensely difficult and intensive, so there were few qualified applicants. Aurors of different countries dealt with different high-risk situations that were most prominent to them. Their training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared for and the magical education they had received beforehand.

The hierarchy within the British Auror's office went as follows.

Trainee Auror, - Junior Auror, - Senior Auror, - Captain Auror, - Head Auror.

James Potter and Sirius Black were Senior Aurors with a considerable amount of experience. On the other hand, Gawain Robards was a Captain Auror with excellent leadership skills. In charge of his own squad of two Senior Aurors and five Junior Aurors.

Gawain Robards was one of the few Captain Auror in the Auror Office and reported to the Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour, who was in charge of the entire Auror Office.

The Department of Magical Law Enforcement had squads of trained Hit Wizards and Witches, whose job was to move out in dire and dangerous situations at a moment's notice, either to disperse a crowd during riots or to apprehend dangerous wizarding criminals once they had been located.

While Hit Wizards were trained to fight Dark Wizards, just like the Aurors, Aurors were more of an elite force whose abilities went far beyond simply arresting suspects, such as investigation, concealment, disguise, stealth, tracking, poisons and antidotes. Hit Wizards seemed to be primarily a fighting and controlling force and did high-risk arrests, riot controls, and hostage situations and weren't trained to investigate crime.

In non-magical terms, the distinction would be roughly comparable to that of the Homicide and Major Crimes Command and the specialist firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police. In the United States, the equivalent of this would be the differing roles of elite paramilitary units (example, S.W.A.T.) compared to national criminal investigative bodies (example, F.B.I).

In the current situation where Aurors were going to a potentially dangerous situation, they would call upon Hit Wizards, who had superior offensive training and capabilities.

Many Aurors and Hit Wizards gathered for the final briefing before they started the operation.

"According to the information we have, the log cabin you see there is the meeting place of the Novellus Accionites. Currently, multiple members are in the cabin. We're going to apprehend them," stated Gawain as he addressed the gathered team. "We all know this is an important mission. Some issues between the higher-ups have delayed this mission; we should've been deployed to deal with this situation a long time ago."

The conflict between the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Head, Madam Amelia Bones, and the Cornelius Fudge's Minister faction had finally been put aside because of the looming threat from the Novellus Accionites.

"This operation is going to be the first of many. As such, we need to obtain success so that the higher-ups get off our backs and let us do our work. Failure isn't an option, so don't mess up."

"Black and Buttonwood are going to be at the front. Check for charms and wards, make sure we aren't detected. I want the element of surprise with us," ordered Gawain, looking at Sirius and Junior Auror Shelly Buttonwood.

Both Aurors and Hit Wizards were trained in stealth and detection. Sirius Black and Shelly Buttonwood were his two best ward charms experts, so he chose them to make sure they went inside undetected.

He turned to the four Hit Wizards that had been assigned to him for this operation and commanded, "I want two of you to be behind Black and Buttonwood. We will provide cover for you two, so do crowd control and put them into the backfoot. The other two will be at the back in case of an ambush and will provide further cover."

"James, you take your two and apprehend as many as you see. Act as a three-man team and handle the hostiles," Gawain instructed James and the two Junior Aurors under him. He then turned to the remaining two Junior Aurors and ordered, "You two will be with me. We'll be in the center and we will act according to the situation."

Looking at the entire team, Gawain finished with, "Take care of yourselves, cover for your teammates, don't be hasty, trust your partners and work as a squad. Now, let's get in. Black, cast the group disillusionment spell. Let's move in formation."

The team moved in formation as Sirius raised his wand and cast an enchantment that turned a group of people invisible, while the people disillusioned could still see each other. It was a spell used by the more talented Aurors and Hit Wizards that were talented in the field of charms.

Dull, silvery light was emitted from Sirius's wand tip in a circular wave, and as it passed through the Aurors and Hit Wizards, they turned invisible to the world.

"Let's go," commanded Gawain, and the team silently moved towards the log cabin.

With Sirius Black and Shelly Buttonwood in the lead, the group moved forward as the two in front continuously cast to check the presence of wards. The two didn't find any ward until they reached the threshold of the cabin, where they found a detection ward.

Shelly Buttonwood raised her hand in a fist, which caused everybody to stop. She looked at Sirius, and the Senior Auror nodded before holding his wand vertically. He waved it in a pattern and, slowly, a red tint appeared in front of them and expanded.

Buttonwood opened her fisted hand and moved her wrist forward to motion the team that it was time to move again.

Everybody walked ahead and passed through the red tint. The red coloration corresponded to the region whose function had been disabled. As long as everyone passed through the red layer, the detection ward wouldn't pick anyone up.

The invisible squad entered the log cabin with a simple unlocking charm, as the door had nothing on it.

Dust, cobwebs, sheets on furniture, broken tables, chairs, windows, lamps, gaps in the floorboards, holes in the walls, chandelier with broken strings of crystals, broken glass on the floor, rust, mildew, ripped curtains, and shadows around the room greeted the team.

It looked like no one had lived or even visited this place for ages. But the scouts had clearly reported that they had seen people going inside the abandoned log cabin.

All sets of eyes looked around the cabin to see the entry point, and one of the Hit Wizards gained everybody's attention by pointing at the corner of the log cabin. The rest of the team followed the lead and saw crates lined on the floor against the wall.

The Hit Wizard carefully stepped out of formation, stood in front of the second box from the left, and pointed at the wooden crate.

It took the rest of the team a couple of seconds to understand what they were looking at before it clicked. The dust pattern on the crate was different from the rest of the boxes. Meaning, it had been moved. And in the abandoned place, this was the only indication of disturbance.

Gawain nodded, giving authorization to the hit wizard, who then used his wand to lift the crate and rotate before setting it down. And immediately, a piece of floorboard disappeared to reveal a flight of stairs going underground.

The team had found one of the meeting places of the Novellus Accionites.

Gawain pointed at one of the Hit Wizards and James told them to take the lead down the stairs and rearrange the formation to fit the narrow stairs. He also asked two of the junior Aurors to stay in the cabin for safety and lookout.

The group, part two members, moved down the stone stairs. The stair tunnel was lit with fire torches which had a design of a hand holding a torch.

The stair tunnel finally opened up in a corridor, and the invisible infiltrators could hear voices from the end of that corridor.

James alone walked forward with the leading Hit Wizard trailing closely, and the rest of the team followed. As he reached the end of the corridor, James raised his wand and stepped out of the corridor.

There he discovered the source of the voices. James saw a group of people standing around in small groups talking to each other in an enormous hall. A gathering of men and women who wore the same outfits, talking to each other over wine and confectionaries.

The same outfits had the Novellus Accionites symbol on them, which clearly provided that this was a gathering full of terrorists and the people who supported them.

He had counted that there were around thirty to thirty-five people in the hall. The mission group had twelve members, and with two people above in the log cabin, the current body count was ten people: one Captain Auror, two Senior Aurors, three Junior Aurors, and four Hit Wizards.

James noticed that all the people present looked young, but that didn't give him an idea about their age. Magical kind had slower aging than their non-magical counterparts. Because their lifespan was twice to thrice as long as the non-magical humans, magical humans' aging had become different.

First, magical humans usually reached physical maturity earlier than their non-magical counterparts. Most of them reached their physical maturity at eighteen or nineteen years old (18-19 yrs.). After that, aging slowed down drastically.

James, who was thirty-three years old (33 yrs. old) this year, didn't look one day over that of the early twenties. He had this same physical appearance for closer than a decade. And people who were gathered here also looked the same age as him. Despite that, James didn't know the actual ages of the people.

After getting a clear picture of the gathering, James gestured for everyone to walk into the hall and take positions. The Aurors and Hit Wizards entered the hall while in formation. They moved very slowly, so their disillusionment didn't show any distortions.

Gawain had his arm raised and, when everyone was in their position, he brought his arm down. And that was the signal for everyone to open fire.

Suddenly, the jolly vibe of the hall changed as spells rained down on the Novellus Accionites members. Every single member of the squad rained down Stunning spells on unarmed people.

Screams filled the hall as the people closest to the squad were hit with stunning spells and, because of the element of surprise and chaos, ten people immediately hit the ground unconscious.

One of the Accionites in the back of the hall didn't lose calm in the chaos. She threw a Revealing charm toward the group that revealed them to the rest of the party.

"Aurors!" yelled someone in the hall, and people who were still conscious got their wands out. The hall turned into a battlefield.

Immediately the squad switched their tactics as some of them switched to defense against the incoming spells. Stunning spells were reduced and turned into Disarming spells to get rid of their wands.

James Potter glanced at the chandeliers on the ceiling. And while being covered by a Shield charm, he raised his wand towards the ceiling and cast a transfiguration spell.

The spell targeted the glass around the candles and turned them into glass birds with sharp beaks, wings, and talons. The vicious birds descended on a group of Accionites and started to cut them. The transfigured glass birds were meant to be a distraction as, when Accionites tried to get rid of the birds, one of the squad members stunned or disarmed them.

Auror's training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared and the magical education they received beforehand. Transfiguration became easy to James Potter, so he was the type of duelist that heavily utilized transfiguration. Lots of his spell repertoire were material spells: the silver-shield spell or Arrowhead spells, and other similar spells.

That is why when one of the Accionites shot a killing curse, James immediately used a silver shield spell to block out the green light from reaching his team.

The state of the battle changed as half the remaining Accionites were getting used to the situation. But the mission squad couldn't let that happen.

One of the Hit Witches stepped forward and showed how they were different from Aurors. She swung her wand in a grand gesture and shot a huge Explosion charm towards one of the tables, annihilating it into pieces. She didn't stop and continued her aggressive attack and used powerful Banishing charms to violently slam Accionites into walls, and brutally knock them out.

Some of the Accionites who noticed their dwindling numbers decided to get out of there. Two Accionites used apparition to get out. But the thing about apparition was that most people didn't use apparition because of the danger of splinching and discomfort, and even those who did use it regularly used it when they were calm.

Out of the two who apparated, one of them ended up splinching himself because of panic; he left an entire leg behind.

Within three minutes, thirty-four Accionites were disarmed, stunned, and bound by ten Aurors and Hit Wizards. It showed how trained professionals pitted against people who didn't have the same training.

"Two escaped," spat Sirius said as he walked towards the splinched leg. He kicked it hard and smirked, "At least they will be feeling like hell."

"We should've set up an anti-apparition ward around the place," one of the Hit Wizards chimed in as he collected the wand off from the floor.

The ten squad members walked around the room, bounding people and collecting wands for safety reasons.

"This is good enough," replied Gawain as he looked at the thirty-something unconscious/injured bodies. "This will get us a task force up and running."

...

The next day, the news about the first successful raid against Novellus Accionites hit the Daily Prophet and other news outlets. The papers, who had been badmouthing the lack of action from Auror's part, were suddenly raining praises on them.

That same week, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement interrogated all the captured members and put them on trial by the end of the week. Unlike the end of the First Wizarding War, the Light faction was strong this time. So in Wizengamot, the trials didn't go in favor of the pureblood Novellus Accionties.

Out of the thirty-four people, ten of them were sent to low Dementor-exposure sections for a few years. Three people were sent to medium Dementor-exposure.

And the rest of those who weren't guilty of the murder of muggleborns and muggles had their wands taken for a year. To people who heavily depended on wands to perform magic, this was like taking their magic away from them.

The first raid and trials were the start of a fight against Novellus Accionites.

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James Potter - Senior Auror - Prefers using Transfiguration.

Sirius Black - Senior Auror - Prefers using Charms.

Gawain Robards - Captain Auror - Specializes in criminal investigations.

Hit Wizards - Lucrative career - Starting salary of 700 Galleons per month.

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