I Love You 15: Chapter 15: Hagrid!
I Love You The afternoon classes wrapped up at just the right time.
Golden sunlight spilled lazily across the Hogwarts lawn, making it the perfect hour to drop in on a friend for tea.
“Stress-free education really is the best—just two classes a day, and then you’re turned loose like sheep in a pasture.” Rayleigh stretched lazily as he trailed behind Harry and Ron.
Hermione walked alongside them, clutching a stack of heavy books.
“Turned loose?
Rayleigh, we are here to study the sacred art of magic, not to graze like livestock!” Hermione corrected him indignantly once again.
“Got it, got it, Miss Top Student,” Rayleigh said with a dismissive wave.
Harry led the way excitedly, holding Hagrid’s letter, while Ron showed keen interest in meeting whatever pet Hagrid was keeping.
Hagrid’s cabin sat at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Though the hut itself looked quaintly small, the colossal boots and massive crossbow stacked beside it clearly proclaimed the larger-than-life nature of its owner.
“Hagrid!” Harry called out happily, knocking on the door.
The door creaked open, and a towering half-giant filled nearly the entire frame.
A warm smile beamed across Hagrid’s giant face.
“Harry!
Come in, come in!” He stepped aside to let them through.
Harry hurried to introduce his companions: “Hagrid, this is Hermione, and this is Rayleigh, and Ron.” “Hello, hello!” Hagrid greeted them warmly.
His eyes lingered on Hermione for a moment, shifted to Rayleigh, and finally landed on Ron’s unmistakable red hair.
“Another Weasley, eh?
Hope you’re better behaved than those two brothers of yours,” Hagrid muttered.
Ron flushed slightly and mumbled in defense, “Fred and George are just…
energetic.” The cabin consisted of a single room.
Hams and pheasants hung from the ceiling, and a roaring fire blazed in the corner brazier, giving the whole place a rustic, cozy warmth.
“Sit down, all of you!” Hagrid urged, bringing over a large platter.
“Try some of me fresh-baked rock cakes.” The plate was piled with dark brown lumps that looked harder than actual stones.
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, mutual dread written across their faces.
Steeling themselves, each picked up a cake and tried to take a bite, their teeth groaning in protest.
Hermione merely held hers politely, wisely refraining from biting down.
Only Rayleigh picked one up and nonchalantly bit off a small chunk.
Savory and aromatic!
Extra crunchy.
Great teeth pay off.
“Wow!
Hagrid, your cooking is incredible!” Rayleigh shouted with exaggerated enthusiasm.
“Fragrant, crunchy, bursting with natural flavors!
This is practically a work of art!” Hagrid beamed with delight, his bushy beard twitching happily.
“Is that so?
See, I knew it!
Have as much as you like if you enjoy ’em!” “Then don’t mind if I do!” Rayleigh said, sweeping every remaining rock cake off the plate and shoveling them straight into his pockets while winking furiously at Harry and the others.
Harry and Ron shot him looks of profound gratitude, whereas Hermione eyed him with deep suspicion, as if thinking, *What on earth are you up to now?* Inside Rayleigh’s head, the mental abacus was clack-clacking away.
If he brought these into the world of Diablo, forget using them as shields—in an emergency, hurling one as a throwing weapon would concuss just about anything!
The group turned the conversation to what had happened the previous night.
“…So what is that huge three-headed dog actually guarding?” Harry finally asked the crucial question.
Hagrid’s hand trembled as he poured tea, splashing hot water over the table.
“Oh, that…
Fluffy.
He’s me dog,” he said vaguely.
“That’s top secret Hogwarts business.
Nothin’ to do with you kids.” “But it almost ate us!” Ron complained.
“You shouldn’t’ve been wanderin’ around where you weren’t supposed to be!” Hagrid snapped back.
“So what is it guarding?” Harry pressed on.
“I can’t say!” Hagrid shook his head like a rattle.
“That’s between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel!” The moment the words left his mouth, he clapped a giant hand over his face, looking utterly mortified.
“Oh, I shouldn’t’ve said that!
I shouldn’t’ve said that!” Nicolas Flamel.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged a knowing look, etching the name firmly into their memories.
Rayleigh, on the other hand, felt zero excitement about the name.
He was far more interested in practical gains.
He slid closer to Hagrid and said in a tone dripping with admiration, “Hagrid, you’re amazing!
You can even raise a three-headed dog!
You must know magical creatures inside and out, don’t you?” “Heh heh, I do alright, I do alright,” Hagrid chuckled, visibly flattered.
“I was reading a book recently about magical materials,” Rayleigh lied with a look of pure academic thirst.
“It mentioned so many things, but I couldn’t tell them apart.” “Like unicorn hair, or Acromantula fangs…
Do you happen to have any here?
Could you let me broaden my horizons?” “Those aren’t things you should be touchin’ lightly,” Hagrid warned cautiously.
“I’m just curious!
I promise I won’t touch, just a quick peek!” Rayleigh swore, raising three fingers.
“You’re the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts—your collection must be way more authentic than any drawing in a book!” After a barrage of flattering praise, Hagrid was practically floating.
He waved a huge hand.
“Alright, then!
I’ll show ya!” While Hagrid bragged to Harry and the others about how cute Fluffy had been as a puppy, Rayleigh’s hands worked like lightning.
He yanked several strands from a clump of unicorn tail hair, snagged a scrap of Demiguise pelt, and swiped a leg from an Acromantula.
A haul worthy of a master thief!
After leaving Hagrid’s hut, the trio immediately decided to head to the library to research Nicolas Flamel.
“Rayleigh, aren’t you coming with us?” Hermione asked.
“You guys go ahead.
I just remembered I have something I need to take care of.” Rayleigh waved off their offer and sprinted away.
*As if!
Go flip through library books with you?
In the time that takes, I could farm a couple of elite mobs in the Diablo world.* He jogged all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, then dashed straight into his dormitory.
Great, his roommate Seamus wasn’t around.
Without hesitation, he focused his intent.
After the familiar wave of dizziness passed, he materialized in a corner of the Rogue Encampment.
“I’m back!” He eagerly pulled out today’s entire harvest.
First was the unicorn tail hair swiped from Hagrid.
Next, he retrieved a Chipped Diamond dropped from a mob during his last trip from his stash box.
Finally, he brought out an ordinary cloth hood.
“Let’s do this, baby!” He was utterly sick of this dim, dingy world!
Especially inside the caves, where he couldn’t distinguish a monster from a person beyond five meters.
He was constantly getting sniped out of nowhere by a Fallen Shaman’s firebolts or pierced straight through by skeleton archers.
He was a squishy sorcerer!
Vision!
Vision was everything!
Rayleigh dumped all three items into the Damaged Horadric Cube at once.
A gentle flash of white light shone, and the cube opened automatically.
A brand-new helmet sat inside, stark white all over, its crown emitting a bright yet surprisingly soothing halo of light.
[Incandescent Helm] [Radius of Light +100] [Sockets +1] [Indestructible: Restores 1 durability every 33 minutes] Awesome!
Rayleigh wanted to throw his head back and roar at the sky!
Plus one hundred to Radius of Light!
What did that even mean?
He was a walking sun!
A beacon of hope in the dark!
Who could top this?!
He immediately slapped the helmet onto his head.
The very next second.
It was as though a miniature sun had risen directly inside the Rogue Encampment.
A blinding glare instant-vaporized every shadow, illuminating every single inch of the camp in agonizing, razor-sharp detail.
Everyone was utterly stunned by the sudden catastrophe, shielding their eyes in horror.
Meanwhile, standing right at the ground zero of this solar blast, Rayleigh was crying actual tears.
He couldn’t see a single damn thing except a void of pure white!
The light was so fucking bright that even with his eyes squeezed shut, the intense glare pierced right through his eyelids!
“Argh!
My eyes!
My eyes!” Rayleigh screamed, frantically clawing at his head to yank the helmet off.
After a desperate struggle, he finally pried the “sun” off his head and shoved it deep into his inventory.
World brightness returned to normal.
Before he could catch his breath, however, he realized every inhabitant of the encampment—from Charsi the blacksmith to Akara the leader—had surrounded him with deadpan faces, forming a neat, orderly line right in front of him.
Then, the first person stepped forward and delivered a crisp flick right to his forehead.
*Thwack!* The second person stepped up.
*Thwack!* The third person…
By the time the entire camp had finished giving him their “greetings,” Rayleigh crouched on the ground, clutching his bright red forehead and sulking in a corner.
He refused to accept defeat!
One failure meant nothing!
He brought out his second set of materials: the Demiguise pelt, a piece of ordinary leather armor, and one of the rock cakes he had swiped from Hagrid.
“This time it’ll definitely work!
Leather armor needs durability, and rock cakes are hard as nails!
If it gives invisibility on top of that…
hehehe!” He fantasized about a translucent armor set that granted cloak-of-invisibility powers, letting him dance back and forth through swarms of monsters, slaughtering them at will.
A flash of light.
A pair of [Transparent Leather Armor] appeared.
Yes.
The leather armor itself was completely transparent—but the person wearing it was definitely not invisible.
Rayleigh froze.
*What…
the hell is the point of this?
To let monsters admire my six-pack so they can aim their stabs more accurately?
Or is this the Emperor’s New Clothes?!* Rayleigh felt his blood pressure spiking.
“Stay calm!
Stay calm!
Third time’s the charm!” he coaxed himself, bringing out his final set of materials.
An Acromantula leg, a plain belt, and a tiny pouch expanded with an Undetectable Extension Charm.
*Surely something good will come out of it this time, right?
Gloom’s Trap?
Goldwrap?* Light flashed once more.
An absurdly bizarre belt appeared before him.
Sprouting from the main body of the belt were eight massive black spider legs extending outward, each over a meter long with razor-sharp tips.
To top it off, potion bottles could indeed be hung on them.
With trembling hands, Rayleigh buckled the belt around his waist.
In an instant, he looked like a blooming black corpse flower—a spiked one at that.
He made a slight turn, and one of the spider legs stabbed him squarely in the butt.
“Yowch!” He felt like he was going insane.
*Monsters don’t even need to touch me!
Just moving a bit will turn me into a human pincushion!* “I’m done!
I’m so done!” Rayleigh broke down, hurling all these absolute garbage items back into his stash box.
Then he remembered the three Healing Potions and three Mana Potions.
This was his last ray of hope.
Combining them according to the actual recipe couldn’t possibly go wrong, right?
Transmute!
[Rakanishu’s Little Blue Potion: Instantly restores 10% Health, but immediately consumes 50% Mana.] *Pfft!* Rayleigh nearly coughed up a lungful of blood.
*Is this a life-saving potion or a death sentence?!
In a clutch moment when you’re out of mana, chugging this restores a sliver of health while burning half your mana pool, leaving you sitting there like a helpless target!* “Aaargh!” Rayleigh clutched his hair and rolled around on the floor hysterically.
“I was wrong!
I was so wrong!
I should never have picked this Damaged Horadric Cube just to save a few points!
If I hadn’t chosen the damaged one, I’d have a complete Horadric Cube!
If I had a complete one, I’d be decked out in god-tier gear by now!
The glory of the Sorcerer!
The genius of Stark!
All ruined by this pile of junk!” He had turned the ultimate artifact of the Diablo realm into a randomized trash generator.
Thinking of those legendary Runewords—Enigma, Infinity, Fortitude—Rayleigh’s heart bled.
He just wanted to die.
With nothing left to lose, Rayleigh began tossing random stuff into the cube in sheer frustration.
Rock Cake + Rock Cake + Rock Cake = A bigger, harder Rock Cake.
Useless!
Just as he hit rock bottom despair, he suddenly froze.
Though this Damaged Horadric Cube was wildly unreliable, its silver lining was that literally *anything* could be shoved inside to be transmuted.
What about skills?
Or spells?
Wait, no—if he threw a skill in, the skill might vanish and turn into a new one.
The cost was way too high.
If his primary skills were bricked, his character build would be completely ruined.
But…
what about Harry Potter spells?
Hogwarts spells were etched directly into one’s soul and magic power, not tied to Diablo skill points!
Tentatively, he used his intent to channel the concepts of the two basic spells he had learned—Lumos and the Levitation Charm—into the Horadric Cube.
It took them!
It actually took them!
*Bwahahaha!
The Demon King Rayleigh has arrived!* *Tremble before me!* After an entire night of testing endless combinations, Rayleigh finally created a spell that would make all of Hogwarts—no, the entire wizarding world—shudder in terror!