The owls dropped letters and packages from midair with remarkable accuracy, landing them neatly into the outstretched hands of the young witches and wizards.
Neville received a Remembrall.
Hermione exclaimed in surprise, “I read about this in a book. If the smoke inside the Remembrall turns red, it means you’ve forgotten something.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the Remembrall in Neville’s hand turned red.
“The only problem is, I can’t remember what I’ve forgotten!” Neville said helplessly.
Harry was reading Ron’s copy of the Daily Prophet with a serious expression.
“An unknown Dark Wizard broke into Gringotts, but the goblins insist that nothing was stolen. Whatever they were after in Vault 713 had already been taken away by its owner earlier.”
Harry looked puzzled.
“That’s the vault Hagrid and I went to.”
While writing his letter, Fel said, “Doesn’t matter. Whatever it was has already been taken.”
…
Over the next day and two nights, aside from one Herbology class, they had no other lessons.
Other than taking notes during class, Fel didn’t pay much attention.
Professor Sprout, who taught Herbology, was the Head of Hufflepuff House.
She was kind and optimistic, but Fel still felt he owed her an apology.
That was because he spent nearly all of his time reading Charms books and familiarizing himself with Hogwarts Castle.
The results were excellent.
Aside from Hogwarts’ hidden locations, he had become familiar with almost the entire castle.
Tonight, he was about to experience one of Hogwarts’ most beloved traditions…
Sneaking out at night.
Just as a university without skipping classes is an incomplete university experience, a Gryffindor who has never snuck out at night can hardly be called a true Gryffindor.
Of course, Fel wasn’t sneaking out for fun or adventure.
He was looking for the Room of Requirement.
The Room of Requirement was one of Hogwarts’ hidden secrets.
Its interior wasn’t fixed.
Instead, it transformed itself according to whatever its user needed.
It would only appear when someone truly needed it.
Fel needed a place where he could focus on practicing spells, especially offensive ones.
He searched through the memories in his mind.
The films never clearly explained where the Room of Requirement was located.
However, he remembered that it was opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being beaten by trolls on the eighth floor of the castle.
At eleven o’clock that night, everyone had already fallen fast asleep.
Fel quietly got up and gently pushed open the dormitory door.
The common room was completely empty, but he knew he definitely wasn’t the only one sneaking out tonight.
They simply hadn’t crossed paths yet.
At the very least, the Weasley twins, George and Fred, would certainly be wandering around.
The candles along the main corridors were still burning brightly, but most other areas had already gone dark.
Fel carefully made his way toward the castle’s main building.
If Filch caught him, he’d lose House points and be given detention, earning nothing but dirty looks from his classmates.
More importantly, he’d earn Hermione’s disapproving glare, and it would waste a great deal of valuable time.
Still, giving up on sneaking out was impossible.
The rules only stated that getting caught sneaking out would result in punishment.
In other words, as long as you weren’t caught, you hadn’t broken the rules.
More than anything, Fel wished he already knew the Disillusionment Charm.
That spell allowed someone to blend into their surroundings like a chameleon, making them appear almost invisible.
While the spell couldn’t fool highly skilled wizards, deceiving Filch, a Squib born into a wizarding family, would be more than easy enough.
Unfortunately, it was an advanced spell normally taught in the seventh year.
No matter how confident Fel was, he didn’t believe he could master it anytime soon.
Ideally, he wanted to learn the Disillusionment Charm before his third year.
Based on everything he’d observed before enrolling, his talent for Charms was even slightly better than Hermione’s.
That basically meant he possessed top-tier magical talent, especially since he intended to devote most of his time and effort to practicing Charms.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
After a tense but uneventful journey, Fel finally reached the eighth floor and, just as expected, found the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being beaten by trolls.
Standing before the blank wall opposite the tapestry, Fel concentrated with all his heart.
‘I need a place to practice Charms.
I need a place to practice Charms…’
After walking back and forth three times, a door suddenly appeared in the wall.
Its material was impossible to identify.
Overjoyed, Fel immediately pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Outside, the door vanished once again, as though it had never existed.
The room inside looked exactly like the training room the future Dumbledore’s Army would use.
It was spacious and open.
Dueling lanes had been marked across the floor, and numerous practice dummies stood throughout the room.
Fel immediately cleared the area, chose one dueling lane, left a single dummy standing, and drew his wand.
The first spells he intended to test were the Severing Charm and the Fire-Making Charm, spells he had never dared to practice before.
He already knew their incantations, pronunciations, and every important detail by heart.
Without any hesitation, he pointed his wand at the dummy several yards away and performed the standard wand movement.
“Diffindo!”
The feeling was completely different from casting harmless spells.
Fel could feel the wand trembling excitedly in his hand.
Crack!
Crack!
Several unpleasant cracking sounds echoed through the room as inch-deep cuts appeared across the dummy’s chest and arms.
One of its hands broke cleanly off at the joint.
Although he had thoroughly mastered the theory, this was still his first time casting the Severing Charm, yet the result had been exceptionally good.
He looked down at the wand in his hand.
A blackthorn wand with a dragon heartstring core.
He remembered Ollivander’s words.
Blackthorn was an extremely unusual wand wood, famous for being the perfect wand for a warrior.
A blackthorn wand was usually found either in the hands of an Auror… or in the possession of an inmate of Azkaban.
As for dragon heartstring, it was the most powerful and the most brilliant of wand cores.
No wonder Ollivander had called it a terrifying combination.
This is… absolutely awesome!
Fel began practicing the Severing Charm over and over again.
After every cast, he stopped for several minutes to reflect on what he could improve.
Offensive spells felt perfectly suited to the blackthorn wand.
Its casting speed, power, and accuracy steadily improved with every attempt.
After practicing for over half an hour, Fel finally began to feel exhausted.
A wizard’s magic wasn’t like the mana bar in a game with a fixed limit.
In theory, magic itself was limitless, but a wizard’s physical and mental stamina certainly wasn’t.
Fel was still only a first-year student.
Even after casting the spell only around a dozen times during that half hour, he was already completely drained and unable to concentrate.
He casually found a chair and sat down to rest.
That was enough Severing Charm practice for today.
He also needed time to digest everything he had learned.
Next came the Fire-Making Charm.
After resting for ten minutes, Fel felt he had recovered enough.
He stood up, picked up his wand once more, and selected a fresh practice dummy.
“Incendio!”
The sensation this time was completely different from casting the Severing Charm.
The instant the incantation left his lips, Fel felt it.
The magic inside his body roared and surged with excitement, making his entire body feel hot.
Boom!
A fireball the size of a basketball erupted from the tip of his wand and shot toward the dummy before him.
This was absolutely impossible for an ordinary first-year student.
According to the books, beginners could only conjure a tiny flame, just enough to ignite scraps of paper or a matchstick.
Fel breathed heavily.
Not from exhaustion…
But from excitement!