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12.21% HP: A Magical Journey [Complete] / Chapter 53: Cipher, Decoding, and Descent

Chapter 53: Cipher, Decoding, and Descent

The Room of Requirements has always provided its user with what they desired. Today, too, the person who called out to the room got what they sought from the magical room.

On a very long table sat long strips of paper with symbols written on them in black ink. There were hundreds of these strips. Each long strip of paper representing a plank of symbols that Quinn copied from the Room of Rewards.

He arranged them in the order of time. The plank which held the oldest binders went first, followed by the planks which had binders that came after them.

This arrangement was the one that made the most sense to Quinn because he did not know what the symbols meant. They weren't alphabets from any traditional language that Quinn knew.

The symbols were made from figures with angles, triangles, with at most one dot per symbol.

"This is a cipher," was the conclusion that Quinn came up with. The symbols weren't random, and Quinn could see the pattern and repetition in the symbols.

"There are twenty-five (25) distinct symbols. One less than the English alphabet? Hmm... is there a missing letter in the code?" noted Quinn, his hand holding his chin in thought.

Within a blink of his eyes, twenty-five symbols in red appeared in front of Quinn, floating in mid-air. These were all the unique symbols present in the cipher.

Using illusions instead of writing the symbols down was redundant, as Quinn needed to maintain his magic while focusing on deciphering the cipher, but he did it for a reason.

Last year, Quinn had noticed that he was spending too much time in the Icy vault. He did nothing but try to get into the vault and spent a lot of time doing it. The time that could have been better managed by him to focus on other areas of magic.

So to avoid that problem this year, Quinn had decided that while he focused on the vault, he was going to make sure not to let his other magical studies fall behind. Practicing Illusion magic was just one example of Quinn making sure that he didn't spend all of his time on the vault.

Quinn stared at the twenty-five symbols for a while before deciding the next step of action.

"Alright, let's apply the usual substitution cipher techniques." He clapped his hand and rubbed them rapidly as he roamed his eyes over the multiple strips of paper and symbol.

Quinn judged the cipher as a substitution cipher. A substitution cipher was a way to encrypt data by replacing the plaintext with ciphertext. In Quinn's case, the ciphertext were symbols, but they could be anything from letters, numbers, arcane symbols, lines, and dots, or weird alien squiggles.

For example, Ceaser cipher was a way to encrypt information using substitution. The key to the Ceaser cipher was to involve a simple shift to the alphabet. The following represents a Ceaser cipher with a shift of three places,

Plaintext: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

Ciphertext: XYZABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW.

In the above example, 'A' was ciphered by shifting three places to the left and getting 'X.' So when you wanted to write 'A' in your ciphered text, you would write it as 'X.'

And, thus began long hours of rational and logical reasoning and study of ciphertext. Quinn was not experienced with ciphers and was the first time he was working on something like this. It took days over days of grind to work on the ciphered text that might give him the vault's location.

While working on the ciphertext, Quinn learned a lot about substitution ciphers and how to decode/decipher this type of cipher. There were techniques, tips, and methods that went into decoding substitution ciphers.

The first step to solving a substitution cipher was to look for single-letter words because they were almost definitely 'A' or 'I.' By having a guess on the singular-lettered words, Quinn could have a solid estimate on two letters.

Another technique was to count the frequency of the cipher symbols that appeared in the text. In the English language, or more specifically, an English text, some letters appeared more than others.

According to the statistics,

E - T - A - O - I - N - S - H - R - D - L - U,

Were the most appearing letters, with 'E' appearing the most and the frequency decreasing as we moved onto the right.

A technique that might have worked was to look for apostrophes as --T, -D, -M, -LL, or -RE typically followed them. But, there were no apostrophes in the text, so that went out of the window. This did make Quinn realize contractions like 'can't' were written in their expanded form of 'cannot.'

From here on out, things got tough as Quinn had to search for repeating letter patterns. They were common repeating letter groups such as -TH, -SH, -RE, -CH, -TR, -ING, -ION, and -ENT.

With time, he started on trying to decipher two-, three-, and four-letter words.

Two-letter words almost always had one vowel and one consonant. The five most common two-letter words, in order of frequency, were -OF, -TO, -IN, -IS, and -IT. The five most common three-letter words, in order of frequency, were -THE, -AND, -FOR, -WAS, and -HIS.

The most common four-letter word was 'THAT.' An encrypted term with the pattern { [#] _ _ [#] } was likely to be THAT. However, the pattern { [#] _ _ [#] } also represented thirty other words, so Quin had a lot of combinations to work on.

Quinn also scanned for double letters. They're most likely to be -LL, followed in frequency by -EE, -SS, -OO, and -TT.

Decrypting a cipher with hand took time, but slowly and surely, Quinn began making increasingly accurate guesses. Typical word fragments start to reveal themselves, though Quinn had to start over quite a few times because he guessed wrong.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn sat in the History of Magic class, his head resting on his palm. Professor Cuthbert Binns droned about various Goblin Rebellions and Giant wars to bored, sleeping students. The ghost's lessons were regarded as some of the most boring at Hogwarts, leading many students to not paying attention in his classes.

The reason Quinn didn't listen in Binns' lecture was that the ghost spoke in straight facts. Those facts were all stated in the books, and Quinn felt that reading the Hogwarts text was sufficient for the History of Magic classroom. Plus, Quinn knew more about the History of Magic because he had read about said history from the perspective of various communities.

He was playing with his pen, his mind lost in thought about the cipher. He had hit a bit of a snag with his decoding of the ciphertext. There were only twenty-five (25) symbols in the cipher, but Quinn's initial assumption that the plaintext was in English, and there were twenty-six (26) letters in the English alphabet.

Quinn knew the plaintext was in English because he had been getting solid results in the form of proper words and coherent sentences, but there sizeable gaps in the text where Quinn couldn't make sense of the terms.

The legible parts and paragraphs didn't help Quinn to the vault's location or its content. From what Quinn had deciphered, the text was religious sermons from a group known as the Order of Solomon's Temple.

He felt a shake from his side and snapped out of his thought to look at the side, "Yeah, what is it?" He asked, looking at Marcus, who sat to his right side.

"You should seriously join Muggle studies. Professor Potter is genuinely fun. Her class is on its way to becoming my favorite," whispered Marcus. "If you ask Professor Flitwick, he might allow you to add another subject to your schedule."

"I am not joining. I already all too much on my plate," Quinn whispered back. He had no interest in joining the Muggle studies, no matter how fun Lily Potter's classes were.

"Really?" He smiled and continued, "Let me tell you something fun that Professor Potter told us in her class today. Maybe that will motivate you to join the class."

Quinn gave him a 'go on,' chin jut, and Marcus began,

"Did you know scribes used interchangeably 'I' and 'J' to express the sound of both the vowel and the consonant? It wasn't until 1524 when Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian known as the father of the letter 'J' distinguished between the two sounds by creating the letter 'J.'"

Quinn's eye almost popped out from their sockets when he heard the juicy piece of information from Marcus's mouth.

'J didn't exist?!' he thought. 'Holy shit, this makes so much sense. There were only twenty-five before 'J.' Of course, now it all fits together.'

Quinn stilled for a second before another thought occurred to him. He looked at his hands and thought, 'Maybe I have plot armor... because this timing was definitely plot armor... heh, plot armor~.'

He turned to Marcus and hugged the dude, "Belby, you magnificent ball of sunshine. If you have any problem, come to me. I will fix it for you free of cost. Next time someone calls you something mean, holler me, and I will beat the crap out of them."

"... Okay," responded Marcus. He felt weirded out because he saw Quinn's eyes pop out before he looked at his hands and chuckled strangely. Not to mention he wasn't expecting the hug from Quinn.

He untangled himself from Quinn before beaming, "Then will you join Muggle studies?"

"Huh, no way. Why would I do that?" said Quinn, as he swung his legs under the desk. "How about you join Care of Magical Creature?"

Marcus made a face, "Eww, no way. Those creatures are gross."

"Yeah, but it is fun when you get to look at others squeak in fear or groan when touching something that you eloquently called as gross," laughed Quinn. "Yeah... that is always so much fun~."

"... You are weird," was Marcus' to-the-point reaction.

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- (Scene Break) -

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After Marcus told Quinn that 'J' didn't exist before, Quinn ran to the Room of Requirements and entered the room.

Inside, he unpacked a regular-sized version of the entire ciphertext and applied 'J' and 'I' to the text, and finally, he had the full deciphered text that Quinn thought was the correct interpretation.

"Yes! Let's do this," said Quinn, and red English lettering floated from the paper. Illusion magic did its job as the English plaintext of the ciphertext floated just above the page.

The deciphered full text was from the Order of Solomon's Temple's sermons about religion, and just as he expected, there was nothing about the vault in the text.

He pounded on the table and yelled, "What in the world is this?! Are you telling me that all of this was for nothing?!" The illusion of the deciphered text flickered away because of the bout of anger.

Quinn angrily paced in the room before stomping his way to the table with the text. "No, there must be something in here. I just have to look closer."

Taking a deep breath, Quinn focused all his attention on the deciphered cipher that reappeared as an illusion. His eyes roamed all over the English text, looking for anything that would stand out.

"Maybe, there is something hidden in here," mumbled Quinn.

He hunched over the table, and with his hands supporting his body, he concentrated, and seemingly random words turned from red to blue. The blue words would string together to form sentences before going back, and another set of words would turn blue and form another sentence.

The process repeated repeatedly, the speed of formation of blue sentences sped up, and the words flashed faster with Quinn's pupils moving over every word.

Then there was a sharp intake of air before Quinn stood straight as another set of blue words floated above the red words before the red words disappeared like sand in the wind, leaving behind a string of blue words.

"Under the seal, the antechamber of sin would be revealed."

The first words of the lines in the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...)

.

[

1 - Under,

2 - The,

3 - Seal,

5 - The,

8 - Antechamber,

13 - Of,

21 - Sin,

34 - Would,

55 - Be,

89 - Revealed.

]

.

"I know what to do," said Quinn. His stone-grey eyes glowed as he stared at those words.

Quinn immediately moved. He wanted to see the results of his work,

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn walked to the Portrait-Vindictus and looked at the man in the painting.

Vindictus Viridian stared at Quinn from his painting and noticed the smug child was here again.

"Password," he asked like he usually did.

"Insolubili Muro," came the immediate reply.

The immediate answer surprised the portrait and, finally, noticed that the child wasn't smiling his smug smirk. Today, the child was serious. A determined and focused look on his face as he stared forward.

Portrait-Vindictus opened the door to the Room of Reward, and the child marched inside, not giving him a second look.

Inside the Room of Rewards, Quinn walked straight to the center of the room.

"This is the seal, isn't it?" Quinn said as he squatted on the floor and touched the Hogwarts seal on the floor of the Room of Rewards. An 'H' in the middle with a Lion, Badger, Eagle, and Snake around it.

Quinn traced his finger on the motto of the school.

[Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus.]

"Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon," he muttered before pumping magic into the seal.

When Quinn had first checked the room, he had investigated the entire room for any extrinsic charms or wards, but nothing popped out, which meant that either there was nothing in the room, or the charms and wards were hidden beyond Quinn's capabilities.

Now, if he had deciphered the ciphertext correctly and was right about the Fibonacci sequence, then this seal should react to his magic.

Quinn could feel his magic being absorbed into the Hogwarts seal, but there was nothing triggered.

His eyes caught the Hogwarts motto and took a chance,

"Aperio."

It was Latin for open, reveal, uncover, and in this case, unseal.

There was a slight rumble as Quinn noticed that every word on the seal changed into the cipher symbols, showing that he was correct about his interpretation of the cipher.

The faint rumble stopped, and the circular seal disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a dark opening on the floor.

"Huh, no chilling cold. Always a good sign," spoke Quinn as he stared inside the pitch-black darkness.

He raised his hand over the opening as an orb of light appeared in his hand. Quinn uncurled his hand and let the orb of light fall into the opening. He craned his neck and watched as the light illuminated a long circular tunnel going deep below the room.

The orb finally contacted the ground, and Quinn judged it was around twenty feet deep.

"Alright, that is pretty doable," nodded Quinn as he stood up and looked near the entrance for a metallic disc to conjure into existence.

The metal disc moved to the top of the opening before Quinn stepped onto the disc.

"Beginning descent," Quinn spoke to himself.

The disc started to sink with Quinn standing upon it. He took a deep breath when his body sank into the opening, and he could no longer see the shelves. Slowly, the disc traveled down, Quinn making sure that there was no incident on his way down.

Finally, Quinn exited the tunnel and was inside the antechamber, or as he thought, the vault.

He didn't step down from the disc and focused his magic, and instantly twenty-something white orbs of light illuminated into life. He waved his hand, sending them in every direction.

The orbs reached the ends of the room, revealing a sizeable room, the same size as that of an average Hogwarts classroom, which could comfortably hold forty-fifty people with plenty of space for every occupant.

The problem was that the room was bare. There was nothing in the room, and the floor, ceiling, and walls were also plain with nothing to look at.

"Did someone already cleared out this one?" was Quinn's thought. Maybe someone found this vault without getting to know about it from the ghosts.

Quinn sighed as he stepped down from the disc as it disappeared behind him. He walked around the room, his fingers gliding over the smooth walls. Quinn sent his magic into the walls, but nothing happened. The walls didn't absorb his magic or show any changes.

"Man, this one is really weird. Maybe I should go ask Friar for another cl-..."

*Thud*

In the plain room, Quinn collapsed without any warning.

With him fainting, the orbs of light around the room extinguished, plunging the room into darkness. The opening tunnel was the only source of faint light.

For a moment, there was no movement in the antechamber.

Then the smooth walls of the heptagonal antechamber transformed to show seven rune circles, one on each wall.

Each one glowed in a different light; violet, green, orange, blue, yellow, pink, and red.

The centers of the seven individual runic circles brightly glowed before they shot seven sharp beams towards Quinn, covering his body in a harsh array of mixed light.

The process was swift, with the beams only appearing for less than a minute before everything in the room returned to normal.

Leaving behind the unconscious body of Quinn West.

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Quinn West - MC - I am the author's little b*tch. He can f**k me over and I can't do anything about it.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Damn right he can't do anything.

Marcus Belbly - Vessel (One time) - The Plot Armor worked through him.

-*-*-*-*-*-

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!


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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Chapter 54: Unknown, and Commentary

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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-*-*-*-*-*-

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The feeling of the side of his face squished against the cold and dusty floor was not the feeling you wanted when waking up, but it was the one that Quinn felt when he groggily opened his eyes.

He coughed, dislocating the dust and at the same time inhaling said dust into his mouth.

Quinn immediately sat up but felt a dizzy spell hit him. His ears rang with a continuous buzzing, and the world around him was unstable and out of focus.

The thought of conjuring a mouthful of water to clean his mouth was out of his mind as he struggled to properly assess his situation. The ringing in his ears and the blurry vision didn't help as Quinn tried to stand up, almost falling back to the floor in his effort.

When he stood up, Quinn wavered to his sides. Like a drunk with alcohol impairing his balance. Quinn grabbed his head because a headache assaulted him, making the ringing in his ears much more annoying.

All the volatility in his body finally caught up to Quinn, and he stumbled forward, falling to the ground, his hands and forearm supporting his body from making complete contact with the floor.

He cried out a mighty groan of pain as he turned to lay down on his back. Coincidentally, all his wobbling trying to walk caused him to fall just under the tunnel to this room, the sole source of dim light that fell from the Room of Rewards above.

Under the circled of light, Quinn's chest moved up and down as he stared at the light. Slowly, his mental faculties returned to him, the ringing in his ears subsided, and the world returned to focus. The fading headache finally allowed Quinn to think where he was.

"... The second vault," croaked Quinn, his voice cracking because of a dried-out throat.

Quinn couldn't recall anything about how he had fallen unconscious. All he could remember was walking in the room, and then he woke up with a nasty case of disorientation. The time between was just like sleep.

'I was so careful this time,' thought Quinn; he hadn't taken any hasty steps while exploring the vault. He didn't even dare to step off the metal disc before he was sure that there was no trap in the chamber.

"But, it still happened... damn it, it still happened." Quinn laughed derisively. His light chuckles amplified in the quiet room before falling back into the consuming silence.

Closing his eyes, Quinn decided to check the condition of his body. Several healing-grade diagnostic charms flowed through his body, giving back their result to Quinn. He couldn't find anything wrong with his body except a concussion. He guessed he hit his head on the floor on his fall.

"Nothing Madam Pomfrey can't fix," groaned Quinn. "What time is it?" Quinn took out his pocket watch from his robes and saw that there was only an hour before the curfew. He never stayed in the Room of Rewards after curfew because Portrait-Vindictus was an ex-headmaster, and Quinn didn't want the portrait to snitch on him being out after curfew.

Quinn sat up from his laying position and sighed, "Time to get out of here." He pulled himself up to his feet and looked behind him at the dark vault chamber before raising both his hands to shoot out cords of light of the seize-and-pull spell. A cord each shot out of Quinn's hands and attached themselves to the tunnel near its entrance.

With a sigh, the spell pulled him up the tunnel. When he got out, Quinn saw the Hogwarts seal reappear on the place, hiding the tunnel, returning the room to its usual appearance, leaving no clue that there was a tunnel underneath the floor.

Quinn vanished the dust on his clothes and walked to the exit. He pushed the door open and stepped out to nod a greeting towards Portrait-Vindictus, but said nothing and directly left.

He made his way to the Hospital Wing, walking carefully as he still didn't have complete control over his coordination and felt a little nauseous.

"Madam Pomfrey," called out Quinn, plopping his butt down on one of the chairs, rubbing his temple to alleviate the headache that had returned.

The Matron turned towards the voice to see Quinn sitting in a chair and was about to turn him away because it was already late, but then she saw the pale look on Quinn, with him showing a pained expression.

She switched to her healer mode and hurried to the patient, "What happened to you." She pulled out her wand and started to cast spells on Quinn, getting a full diagnostics.

"I think it is a concussion," responded Quinn. He said nothing else as Poppy Pomfrey was a professional, and he didn't need to tell about the spells he cast on himself. 'She just casted more spells than I casted, so she probably already knows.'

The Matron finally stated her diagnostic results, "You have a concussion, and your magic core is surprisingly drained. What were you doing?" She walked away, and when she came back, she had a potion vial in her hand.

"Down this," ordered the Matron, putting the vial in Quinn's face.

He took it without a complaint and gulped the awful-tasting potion in a single gulp.

"Yuck," said Quinn, sticking out his tongue in disgust.

"Don't be a baby," chided the medi-healer. "How are you feeling?"

Quinn exhaled a heavy sigh as he felt the potion doing its work. He already felt so much better. "It is working."

He looked up at Madam Pomfrey and saw the question in her eyes.

"I over-practiced and fainted on the floor." It surprised Quinn when Pomfrey told him about the depleted magical core. He hadn't checked on his magical core when he was in the vault chamber.

'I didn't use much magic inside the vault. What the hell inside happened while I was out?!' wondered Quinn. At least the last time he knew what happened, but this time he had no idea what took place.

Pomfrey sighed before offering, "Do you want to sleep here today?"

Quinn shook his head and rejected the kind offer, "No, it is alright. I would like to sleep in my own bed." He had no problem sleeping in the Hospital wing, but this year, Quinn felt more comfortable inside the dorm because of the Basilisk.

She stared at Quinn for a moment before saying, "Alright, but come back here if you feel off about something."

Quinn put his hands on his knees, propping himself up. The exhaustion was finally settling in. "I will, thank you, Madam Pomfrey."

Poppy Pomfrey saw of Quinn, looking at the tired back of the boy who was usually full of energy.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The first thing Quinn did when he reached his dormitory room was to take a warm shower. He stayed under the shower tiredly thinking about the events today.

Unlike the last vault, this vault was a complete mystery. There was nothing of note in the underground chamber.

'Or, there is something in that vault, but it is beyond my level.'

Something had happened to Quinn inside that vault, which meant there definitely was something inside that vault. His sudden unconsciousness and depleted magical core were solid proof of a type of magic in there.

Quinn got out of the shower, deep in thought. The next course of action was different.

"I need to visit the vault chamber once again tomorrow," decided Quinn.

As soon as Quinn decided to visit the second vault, a momentary flash of soft blue light illuminated a spot on Quinn's nape.

The moment the blue appeared on his nape, his eyes blurred for a split second before Quinn spoke.

"Maybe, I will go sometime later. I don't have to hurry about the vault. Yes, that sounds great. Slow and steady wins the race." He yawned and looked towards his bed, "I am exhausted. Oh~ the bed looks really comfortable. I should go to sleep."

He walked towards his bed and laid down on it. "Yeah, this feels great~." He curled up and made himself comfortable.

With a smile on his face, he closed his eyes and sunk into a pleasant sleep.

Another blue flash flickered on Quinn's nape before it faded away, leaving behind a sleeping Quinn.

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- (Scene Break) -

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The entire school gathered on the Quidditch pitch at eleven o'clock on a Saturday. A game was scheduled between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Quidditch in Hogwarts was a big deal, with almost all of the student population gathering in the stands to watch the game.

The games were such a big deal that the stadium had seats for outsiders to watch the game.

Plus, this game was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the most bitter rivalry in the history of Hogwarts.

Quinn sat in the commentator's seat, a smile gracing his face. Flitwick had asked him to volunteer for the commentator's job, and he had readily accepted the request without even thinking about it.

He turned to look at McGonagall and asked, "Can I start?"

McGonagall looked at her wristwatch and then looked at the stadium seats and nodded, "Yes, the majority of the seats are filled. I think it is alright to start."

Quinn grinned and turned to the microphone and turned it on.

"Ahem, mic check. Pop-pop popsicles, Ice-ice icicles, Test-test testing, one, two, three... ba dum tss."

Quinn watched as his words turned heads all over the stands, and he grinned, "Alright, I can see many heads turning, which means the microphone is working. We are live."

He turned to face McGonagall and waggled his eyebrows. The transfiguration professor just stared at Quinn, but her stern expression spoke loudly.

Quinn turned back to the microphone and started,

"GOOD MORNING, HOGWARTS!"

He grabbed the microphone and continued,

"Welcome to Hogwarts Quidditch. I am Quinn West and will be your commentator for the exciting game today. Before we start, this commentary was brought to you by the A.I.D consultation service. Are you a Hogwarts student? Are you facing a problem? Come to our office on the fifth floor, and we will sort you out. A.I.D is always happy and ready to help."

He could feel McGonagall's eyes boring into his eyes, but Quinn continued nevertheless.

Quinn looked up at the sky and commented,

"Today seems to be a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the sky, so there are chances it might rain during the game. Rainy day games aren't good because of low visibility. Let's hope that it doesn't rain." He took the chance to give a shout out, "My good friend Luna Lovegood hung Japanese Teru-Teru-bozu dolls that are believed to ward off rain."

"The game today is an exciting one, one with the long-standing rivalry between the houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin. The two houses have pitted against each other on the field of Quidditch for centuries. Vying for supremacy in the sport beloved by all of Hogwarts."

The two teams entered the pitch, and Quinn veered the attention towards the players.

"The two teams have entered the pitch. Slytherin in green and Gryffindor in red. Both teams look like they are rearing to start the game."

"This game is going to be an exciting one with the Slytherin team riding on Nimbus 2001, the fastest professional brooms on the market. The seven players each have a Nimbus 2001. Courtesy of Lucius Malfoy, but we can all say that it would have been better if he donated that money to upgrade the brooms that students use in flying classes. I am sure Madam Hooch would have been glad to work with some updated equipment, and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't have to grimace every time she looks at the brooms the students currently use. Believe me, it horrifies her that students ride on those arcane brooms."

There were a lot of 'ayes' from the stands. Old brooms didn't inspire motivation in anyone.

"Alright, Slytherin is led by their Captain Marcus Flint. This year, they have the new seeker, the second year, Draco Malfoy. I won't say that this came to me as a surprise. If you know what I mean. Of course, you all know what I mean."

Quinn stared at the Slytherin team and remarked, "Hmm... an all-male team, huh. Well, that is boring. Let's move on."

A pink light flashed on Quinn's nape as he grinned,

"Let's move on to the Gryffindor team. Now, the Gryffindor team is much more interesting. We have the three chasers, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell. Now, this... this is something we can work with."

"Mr. West!" McGonagall's shout transmitted into the stands.

"Alright, alright... can I get a heck yeah from the crowd?"

And Quinn did get a chant of heck yeah. A lot of boys yelled out their 'heck yeahs' quite freely, appreciating Quinn's effort.

"Moving on, Gryffindor captain Oliver Wood leads the team with tenacity and hard work. Sources say that he is a ferocious slave driver that lives for Quidditch. I have also heard that he has professor McGonagall's permission and approval to be rough with the teammates."

The back of Quinn's neck shone red as he proceeded, "I guess professor McGonagall's last game as a Gryffindor student against Slytherin in which she crashed and burned into the stands, still haunts her dream. I would pay serious money for that memory - Ouch! Who shot me with a pinching hex!"

Laughter boomed across the stands, with Quinn's commentary entertaining everybody.

Quinn rubbed his bum while glaring at McGonagall before returning to the microphone, "Next, we have the twins. The Weasley twins rank number one on the Hogwarts twins rankings. I personally like the Patil twins more because they are really diametrically opposite to each other. Returning to the Weasley twins, they have the best coordination as a beater duo, but at the same time, they also have the highest number of fouls of sending the bludger into the stands. So everyone, please look out for stray bludgers coming out for your heads."

"Finally, we have the Gryffindor Seeker, Harry Potter. The second, or maybe the third most famous Potter in the castle. It depends on who you ask, but all of us know that professor Potter is the number Potter in the castle," said Quinn while a pink light flashed on his nape.

"Now, Harry Potter rides a Nimbus 2000, which is the predecessor to the Slytherin houses' Nimbus 2001. The key difference between 2000 and 2001 is the top speed; 2001 out speeds 2000 by a tiny margin. But other than that, both versions have the same top acceleration, handling, turning radius, and braking capabilities. But, top speed can be a crucial factor for professional level players, but here, versions 2000 and 2001 wouldn't be distinguishable on a performance basis."

He looked at the Slytherin team and commented, "But, all seven members of the Slytherin team equipped Nimbus 2001 will give them a great advantage..."

A yellow light flashed on Quinn's nape as he continued, "Damn, I should have opened a betting tab for the game. The money I could've earned. Maybe, next time."

"Mr. West, betting has no place in the honorable sport of Quidditch," berated McGonagall from his back.

"How about if I give good odds to the professors?"

"... How much are you talkin-. I mean, no! It is not allowed!"

"Alright, you know where to find me if you want to get in on the action."

The game was about to start as Madam Hooch descended on the pitch on her broom. And the two teams lined in front of each other.

A roar of cheers overflowed the stadium. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too.

Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather harder than was necessary.

The game began when the fourteen players and one referee rose up the leaden sky.

Quinn also started his in-game commentary,

"Harry Potter has taken the high sky, higher than the rest of the other players, a standard strategy for snitch hunting."

At that very moment, a heavy black Bludger came pelting toward Harry, who avoided it with a very slim margin. The crowd sucked in their breaths at the close call.

"Oh boy, that was a close call. That Buldger was about to give Potter an intense love hug. George Weasley streaks towards the bludger, but what is this?! The bludger avoids him and once again rushes towards Potter... Oh! What a close call; that bludger almost took out Potter's head."

Seeing, this Quinn thought that Dobby was also part of this timeline as the rogue bludger that was continuously targetting Harry Potter was charmed by Dobby to do so.

But, while Quinn was in deep thought, a blue light appeared on his nape, and suddenly Quinn dropped his line of thought about Dobby. 'I will think about Dobby later. This game is much more fun than thinking about Dobby.'

"Looks like the Gryffindor team has called a time-out. Maybe it is to discuss the bludger that is particularly matey towards their seeker." Quinn continued to diligently provide commentary.

Quinn looked at the sky and spoke, "Looks like the weather is not on our side. It has started to rain. Please, make sure to cover yourself to avoid getting wet and risk catching a cold."

The Gryffindor team ended their time-out without stopping the match to check out the bludger and continued the game in the increasingly pouring rain.

And, the moment the game continued, the bludger whistled towards Harry Potter like a homing missile. Harry flew expertly, avoiding the bludger narrowly every time.

Finally, Harry had spotted the golden snitch, but while he caught it, the bludger rammed into his shoulder hard. Quinn winced, thinking about the shattered bones.

"Oh boy, that will surely hurt a lot later. Wait... Harry Potter has caught the snitch. The golden seeker has caught the golden snitch! The game is over! Gryffindor, against the clear equipment deficit, has defeated Slytherin and has clinched the victory from their mouths. Oliver Wood and his team have done it. Gryffindor is VICTORIOUS!"

Another flash of blue graced his nape, and Quinn lost all his energy. He sat down on his seat and felt a little tired from all the talking he did.

"This was more tiring than I thought," said Quinn, not knowing that something was happening to him.

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

[

Blue - ???

Pink - ???

Red - ???

Yellow - ???

]

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-*-*-*-*-*-

.

Quinn West - MC - Something is wrong with him.

McGonagall - Quidditch Junkee - Avid Gryffindor supporter.

Harry Potter - Seeker - Busted arm (Lockhart still vanishes his arm)

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

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