Chapter 84: Interactive Learning, and Illusion Of Help
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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[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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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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Chapter 85: Aquatic Showdown, and Exposed!
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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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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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.
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- (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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-*-*-*-*-*-
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CREATORS' THOUGHTS
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