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-*-*-*-*-*-
After his first day at Hogwarts, the owner of A.I.D services walked to the office with a suitcase in hand. He hummed a tune as he inserted the key into the key slot, turning it to unlock the door. The lock clicked to release the bolt that secured the door to the frame.
But the door wasn't unlocked, as there were a couple more things Quinn needed to do to unlock the door. He placed his hand on the door and funneled magic into the door. Before leaving last year, Quinn had fused the wood of the door to the wood of the frame by using transmutation, forming a weld between the woods of both structures.
Lifting his hand up to lift up the four wooden planks that barred the door from opening.
Finally, Quinn held the handle on the door and was about to push the door open when he got jolted with a stun of lightning.
"Fu-, motherfu-, shit, bloody hell, Merlin's saggy balls I forgot about that," heaved Quinn, his face all scrunched up in pain, clutching his hand and jumping up and down. There was a charm on the door handle that shocked anyone who touched it.
Quinn angrily disabled the charm on the door after recovering from the shock. He grabbed the handle and was about to push the door but stopped.
"Did I place something else in there?" After a few seconds of thinking, Quinn determined he was safe and entered the office.
White sheets covered the entire office furniture, and some dust flew in the room because of the sudden disturbance of the opened door. Quinn looked to the right and saw the big glass wall, which used to have a door slot to enter the workshop, but now didn't have a single opening. Quinn had sealed the door slot when he left for the summer break.
He walked to the glass wall and touched it to transmute a door slot into the glass wall, making a rectangular opening into the glass. He stepped into the opening, entering the workshop, which too was covered in white sheets covering the table and cabinets.
He sat down his suitcase on the floor and gathered his magic as he walked around the familiar room, smiling the entire time.
Quinn clapped his hand once, and the room came to life as white sheets in the office and workshop flew up and folded themselves into a neat stack on the floor. A wave of magic hit the entire classroom-turned-office-and-workshop and cleaned every nook and cranny of the room, eliminating the dust in the room.
Every drawer and door of every cupboard and cabinet opened and went through the same cleaning process, turning the entire room into a squeaky clean place.
The suitcase on the floor fell to the side and opened up with a dozen or more clicks of locks unlocking. It took a while before things flew out of the suitcase.
Various types of tools, vials of potions, reams of papers, other utensils, and all kinds of things that once filled the cupboards in the workshop once again took their rightful place in the workshop. Quinn again filled the file cabinets that he had emptied before leaving with documents and manilla folders.
In the office, decor adorned the walls. Furnishing the look that Quinn had decided for the office. With a snap of fingers, the chandeliers on the roof lit up the room, everlasting candles shining the room with their flames.
"Now, this feels right," said Quinn. And, at last, Quinn looked at the door leaning against the glass wall. The door lifted itself and took its place in the glass wall, covering the opening in the wall.
A.I.D was back in business
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
Gilderoy Lockhart didn't make a positive first or any impression on Quinn. The entire first class, the pompous lying piece of phony lied his butt off about everything. He had wasted an hour of Quinn's time, and even though Quirrell and Binns did that last year, they weren't annoying as Lockhart.
Quinn hated every second of his Defense Against Dark Arts class and had to hold the urge to stun the blonde bastard into oblivion. He spent an hour listening to the bragging that came out of Lockhart's mouth, and there was something about Lockhart's voice that Quinn couldn't ignore. It was like a mosquito's buzz, extremely annoying and hard to ignore.
"Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming-Smile Award, my ass," groaned Quinn, rubbing his temple, entering the Ravenclaw common room.
He made a beeline to his favorite chair in the common room and stopped when he saw a first-year sitting in his spot.
Quinn stared at the chair and the first-year sitting in it, and the first-year noticed Quinn staring at him. The first-year kid felt uncomfortable at being stared down by a senior. He looked around, wondering why Quinn was staring and concluded that Quinn wanted to sit in the chair.
He bounced up from the chair, not wanting to fight with an older student, and walked away from the spot, avoiding confrontation.
"Hey, kid," called out Quinn, causing the first-year Ravenclaw to freeze in his spot. He slowly turned to face and saw something thrown at him and instinctively caught it in his hand. The kid looked at his hands and saw chocolate sitting there. When he looked up at Quinn, he saw Quinn not looking at him and sitting down on the chair.
Quinn sat down on his chair and thought, 'Kids are weird.' Not noticing the reason behind why the kid left the chair.
Quinn slumped down in the chair and looked around the common room. When he looked to his side, he came across a pair of silvery eyes staring at him with a look of distinct dottiness. The girl was extremely close to him and almost startled him out of his chair.
"Can I have a chocolate?" asked the girl with silver eyes.
Quinn studied at the girl, and it took a second, but Quinn recognized the girl.
Stood in front of him, leaning down close to his face, was the girl with waist-length, straggly, dirty blonde hair and a feel about her that made her seem otherworldly.
Luna Lovegood wanted chocolate.
Quinn slowly took out a chocolate cube from his robes and placed it on Luna Lovegood's outstretched hand. She sat down on the chair beside him, unwrapped the sweet chocolate, and put the whole cube in her mouth.
She turned to Quinn, and he could see the small chocolate cube poking against the inside of her cheeks as she put it aside to speak, "Thank you."
Quinn nodded, observing Luna as if she was a rare creature, and extended his hand for a handshake.
"Quinn West," said Quinn, introducing himself.
Luna looked at Quinn's hand for a moment before taking it with both her hands, turning it so that Quinn's palm was facing her.
'Is she... reading my palm?' thought Quinn, but let the blonde do whatever she was doing, finding her behavior interesting.
"Your hands are amusing," spoke Luna. Her voice had a dreamy quality. If her words and voice were solid, they would fly and float away like a feather in a breeze.
"Amusing?" asked Quinn, not knowing what she meant by it. He looked at his other hand to see if anything was amusing with it but couldn't find anything particularly amusing.
She nodded while tracing the lines on his palm with her fingers, "Very amusing." She moved the chocolate cube in her mouth before continuing, "You love magic, don't you."
"... You found that from my hand?" inquired Quinn, watching her still playing with his hand.
She nodded, humming in agreement. Luna pulled on his fingers, popping knuckled while doing so, and smiling when his hand made popping sounds.
"I am sure that you would have no Wrackspurts around you. Your hands say so," said Luna, smiling in delight, but then frowned. "I forgot my pair of Spectrespecs at home, or else I would have been able to see them... maybe I should write a letter to daddy to send them to me."
She suddenly looked at Quinn's face and asked, "Can I have one more chocolate?"
Quinn took another chocolate cube from his robes and put the cube on his other hand that was still in Luna's grasp. The ever eccentric Luna requested something from Quinn, "Please unwrap it."
Quinn unwrapped the chocolate with magic, making sure that he had his fake wand out. His eyes almost bulged out when Luna leaned forward and ate the chocolate straight from Quinn's hand.
'"Thank you. It is quite delectable," said Luna licking her lips that were stained with chocolate.
"... You are welcome," said Quinn, not really sure how he should feel about the current situation.
"What is your name?" Luna stared into Quinn's eyes, silver meeting stone-grey. Usually, in these kinds of situations where he wasn't sure what to do, Quinn would take the opportunity to read the mind to get some hold of the conversation. But right now, he didn't have that in mind.
"My name is Quinn West," introduced Quinn, even though he already did it once. "And, you are Luna Lovegood."
"Yes." She finally released Quinn's hand and now was staring at Quinn's face.
"Your father is the editor of Quibbler, right? Can I buy a subscription," asked Quinn, trying to build a connection with Luna.
Her stare changed a little as if looking for something. She looked at Quinn for a good while before nodding, "I would need you to fill a form and pay the subscription fees. I will send it to daddy."
"That's it?" asked Quinn.
"That's it," replied Luna.
"Alright, thanks."
Luna got up from her seat and left, saying nothing.
Sitting in his chair, Quinn wondered what just happened. He met Luna Lovegood, gave her chocolate, had his palm read, got complimented that it was amusing, asked for a Quibbler subscription, and all this happened while he got caught up in Luna's pace.
"... Huh?" was all he could come up with in the end.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
The first thing Quinn did after getting some free time was visiting the Icy vault. The Icy vault was as miserable as ever. A hellish cold place that no same human would like to spend time in.
Quinn silently put on thick layers of clothes that he specially stitched up himself for enduring the cold in the vault region. Putting on his glasses, he stepped down the stairs. His spiked boots provided Quinn with the grip needed on the iced floors.
Immediately a freezing chill hit him, trying to sap the heat from his body, but Quinn fought back with Blood magic heating up his blood throughout the body. The blood flowed through his body, keeping the body warm, sustaining his body in the harsh cold.
Quinn walked towards the snowflake icicle, not minding the cold one bit. He had become used to it, and if Quinn ever thought about this fact, he would wonder what was wrong with him.
He glanced at the snowflake, and it began to shake, and in one fell swoop, the ice came apart and changed into water vapor. The next second, the cloud vapor turned into a lump of magnesium metal, falling onto the frozen floor with a thump.
Quinn's magic pushed on the gates with his magic, and halfway through, ice spears shot from inside with the sole intention of killing Quinn, but they stopped mid-flight and dropped to the ground as Quinn walked inside the vault.
Immediately, the temperature changed, and Quinn's Blood magic gradually adjusted his body temperature and bought it to a natural temperature, making sure that the sudden shift in condition didn't cause problems in his body.
Immediately, Quinn shed down the layers of clothes and walked around the vault, observing Absolute Zero floating in mid-air, contained by the runes and charms inside the vault.
"Alright, nothing has changed. Good, good," said Quinn as he retrieved a case from his clothes and kneeled on the floor, setting the case on the floor.
With a single click, Quinn opened the case. Inside the container were seven pieces of metal.
Quinn took out three spherical metal balls from the case and looked around the vault, focusing on the vault walls.
"Here goes nothing," said Quinn before rolling the ball on the ground. The three balls rolled their way in different directions. The movement of the three spheres was unnatural as they adjusted their path until they reached the decided spot and came to a sudden stop.
The next second, the three spherical metal balls reconstructed themselves into three pyramids of similar sizes. If seen from above, the three pyramids were in a triangular position. Each one at the vertices of an equilateral triangle, with Absolute Zero in the middle of said triangle.
Quinn took a deep breath before raising his hand in front of him. Three soft streams of continuous magic made their way to a metal pyramid each. The pyramids started to glow in a green light; the light grew stronger until Quinn cut off the magic supply.
"Okay, do your thing," whispered Quinn, hoping that his creation worked according to its purpose.
The three pyramids started to hum, and after a few seconds, thin beams of green magic shot in different directions towards the vault's wall. Small bursts of magical light shot one by one, making contact with the vault's circular wall.
Quinn inhaled a deep breath when he saw the runes etched into the wall glow in an icy blue light. Thousands of runes of various sizes illuminated the vault.
"Okay, okay, it works," Quinn spoke fast and moved faster as he took the three more metal pieces from his case. These pieces were triangular discs, and Quinn slid them on the floor. They repeated the movements of the previous pieces and arranged themselves in a smaller triangle.
The triangular metal discs received magic from Quinn, but this time the input was much more intense and longer, and the output was also much drastic. The triangular discs shot glowed and hummed just like the pyramids, and the intensity grew until the discs emitted circular waves of magic.
Quinn clutched his hand when he felt the vault faintly shake and looked around with gleaming eyes as he watched the runes on the wall switch places, rearranging themselves on the wall.
'Let this work,' thought Quinn, his heart beating hard with both excitement and a tinge of fear. He had made thorough preparation with triple-checking every calculation and decision. But, there was always a chance that thing would fail, and it would release Absolute Zero from its containment, killing him immediately.
It took maybe ten seconds before the runes stopped arranging themselves and the new arrangement glowed brighter with a burst before settling down.
Quinn moved his eyes to his six pieces and urged, 'Come on.' The moment the thought ended, all six metal pieces shot continuous beams of magic towards the Absolute Zero. His breathing hitched as there was a screeching sound from the Absolute Zero, but nothing happened as everything calmed down.
The six metal pieces, three pyramids, and three triangular disks were now connected to the rune formation of the room and Absolute Zero.
Quinn exhaled heavily as he silently watched six beams of magic light connecting Absolute Zero with his metal structure.
He made the metal structures with runic magic. He had etched runes into the metal composite, giving them the functionality to change the rune formation of the vault to add a feature of his choice.
"Phew... that was stressful," said Quinn as he stood up from his spot and walked to the place just below the floating Absolute Zero. He had the last piece of metal in his hand.
The last piece was a circular disc with an indent in which you could horizontally fit a thin cylinder. If you looked closer, you would see faint impressions of runes on the surface. The faint patterns were present on every metal piece that Quinn brought.
Quinn squatted under Absolute Zero and placed the circular disc on the ground, and immediately it moved to calibrate itself to the six metal pieces around the vault.
He went into his clothes and retrieved a small silk pouch. He loosened the string on the top and tilted the pouch for a thin gold cylinder to fall out. Quinn felt the weight of the gold cylinder in his hand for a moment before placing it in the indent of the circular disc. The metal moved around the gold cylinder and clutched it snuggly.
Getting up, Quinn moved away from the circular disc, walking towards the gate of the vault, and stood beside his cold clothes. With his finger raised, he shot a single burst of magic into the circular disc.
"Commencing the last phase," as Quinn said those words. The circular disc shot six beams of green light, one to every metal piece. The second the beam hit the six pieces, every piece shot similar beams to the others, connecting all to each other.
Above in the air, the Absolute Zero showed activity as rings of icy-blue energy appeared around it. Every ring was made up of the cold energy from the intense energy of Absolute Zero.
The temperature in the vault dropped as Quinn activated Blood magic to protect himself, his hand crossed across his chest, observing every change with an eagle eye.
The rings started to revolve and rotate faster around Absolute Zero. After a dozen seconds of acceleration and intense humming from the Absolute Zero, a laser of energy as thin as a human hair shot down at the circular disc, more specifically at the golden cylinder.
*Tink*
It produced the sound when the energy hit the gold.
*Tink* *Tink* ... *Tink* *Tink* *Tink* ... .... .... *Tink* *Tink* ... ... *Tink*
With every hit on the gold cylinder, it produced a sound. The hair-thin energy kept hitting the gold cylinder for a few minutes before it finally stopped, and the rings of energy around Absolute Zero also absorbed back into it. The temperature also rose back to normal.
Quinn waited for half a minute before uncrossing his arms and walking towards the circular disc. There was a cold fog around it, and the surrounding ground was also frozen.
"Hmm... too much energy was wasted. The concentration of the laser wasn't optimal. There was abundant leakage. I need to improve the design and rune formation for the next use," noted Quinn, as he observed the circular disc and the surrounding area.
The gold cylinder detached itself from the circular disc as Quinn moved closer. Quinn looked at the gold, and as he expected, it wasn't frozen in ice layers. But, the cold mist emanating showed that it was extremely cold.
Quinn's mouth curved into a grin, and his eyes gleamed with delight,
"It worked."
His eyes locked onto the gold cylinder floating above his hand.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn West - MC - Has his hands on something amazing.
Luna Lovegood - Eccentric Ravenclaw - "Hmmm~ Hmm~ Hnmm~ HNMm~ hnHMh~."
-*-*-*-*-*-
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The link is also in the synopsis..
-*-*-*-*-*-
The highest tower at Hogwarts was the Astronomy Tower. You could look down on the entirety of Hogwarts from the Astronomy, and while the sun was up, you could clearly see Hogsmeade at a distance. At night, while stars glimmered in the sky, you could come up there and get the best view of the celestial bodies.
Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, floated at the highest point of Hogwarts, admiring the view of the stars, looking at their bright shine, making their position known to everyone who could see. In the centuries he had been here, Friar had made visiting the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars a habit.
Tonight was one of those nights when he came here to be at peace, away from the hustle-bustle of the students and the loneliness of the castle when those same students rested in their common rooms and dorms.
"Friar."
The ghost, who was once a clergy of the mendicant religious order, turned around his spectral body to see a student standing there in casual clothing. Friar recognized the child immediately.
"Quinn West," greeted Friar, floating closer to the young Ravenclaw who had dared to explore the mystery of the cursed vaults and had, against all odds, achieved the accomplishment of being the first one to survive the first vault and successfully opening it. He found the secrets that the cursed vault hid behind the millennia-old gates.
"It is nice to see you again, Friar. You look as jolly as ever," greeted Quinn. He gazed at the sky and remarked, "Looking at the stars, eh?"
Friar studied the child in front of him before speaking, "A hobby of mine. Looking at stars calms me down." Friar looked above at the clear sky.
A quiet fell between the ghost and the living person, as both relished the sight of the vast universe that was visible to the naked eye.
Friar was the first one to break the silence as he asked, "I presume that you have come to me for the clue for the next vault."
"Aye, I had enough time to rest. The next adventure awaits for me," replied Quinn, still looking at the night sky above.
A cool breeze blew on the tower, not so chilly and just the right amount of cool that it felt comfortable as it brushed against the skin.
"Do you remember how I told you that no one went past the first vault?" asked Friar. Memories of the numerous people who attempted to challenge the vault passed through his mind; ones who failed, died, lived but gave up, and many others.
"Yes, I remember that," spoke Quinn. "I am the first one to open the first vault or, as I like to call it, the Icy vault."
The defense mechanism to prevent people from accessing Absolute Zero had kept people at bay, instilling fear into their hearts and chill into their bodies.
"Yes, you are the first one. So, you will be the first one to explore the second vault." He glanced at Quinn, his ghostly eyes peering at Quinn, "The second vault is a mystery, even to me. I don't know much about it."
Quinn pulled his gaze away from the sky and trained them on Friar, who showed a worried expression on his translucent face.
"You look worried."
Friar clenched his hands, gathering his monk robes as he balled his fist.
"The second vault is very dangerous. At least it is dangerous, possibly fatal to use ghosts."
Quinn furrowed his brows as his lines appeared between them, "Why do you say that?"
Friar nervously floated as he revealed, "Whenever we ghosts go near the second vault, we felt a danger to our being. It is like if we go near it, we will experience something that we may not like. It instills something deeply unsettling inside our very being." He paused for a moment, contemplating how to form his following words, "All ghosts know better than to go there. Even Peeves won't take the risk when it comes to the second vault."
Quinn took the information, paying attention to Friar's every word. Anything that would give him an edge against the vault, he wanted to hear about it.
'... Something that ghosts dread?'
He thought about it, but nothing came to mind. He had little expertise with ghosts.
'Need to read up on ghosts. I wonder if there is something in Room of Requirements about ghosts,' thought Quinn, as he made a mental note on ghost research.
"Has any of the Hogwarts ghosts ever entered the second vault?" asked Quinn. If there was a precedent, then it would be an excellent point to start.
Friar showed a pained expression. It was not a story he wanted to remember,
"There was a ghost in Hogwarts around five centuries ago. He was a curious one, that fellow. Didn't listen to the warnings of us old ghosts, scoffed about what do we oldies know... a month later, there was a screech that filled the castle... and we never saw him again."
"And, did anyone saw this ghost before he disappeared?" asked Quinn.
"No, we only heard a miserable screech and never saw him after that day," Friar sighed in answer. "Before his death, he had started to roam the castle alone, asked us to leave him alone. We barely saw him in the fortnight before his death."
Friar floated to face Quinn and glided towards him. "Enough of this. Receive the riddle to the second one, find it, and maybe you will be able to find the truth behind the ghost's death and bring light to the secret of the vault."
Quinn stood a little straighter, ready to listen to the riddle. The second vault was waiting for him, and this was going to be the start.
Friar watched the eyes buzzing with excitement, and the expression brightened with anticipation.
*
[
The ensuing vault cursed like the first one,
One that... terrifies the dead ones.
It dwells on the stage of completeness,
Sheltered by the oil of green revenge.
If you want to taste the reward,
accolades you need to appreciate.
But are you ready? It will be anything but easy.
The roads we walk have demons beneath,
Are you ready to face what lies underneath?
]
*
Quinn felt goosebumps on his skins. Not because he felt scared, but because of the way Friar delivered the riddle. The last time he sang the puzzle for Quinn, Friar had built it from what he had seen throughout the year, but this time... this time, it was different.
This riddle came from Friar's heart, his personal experience, thought Quinn. Something that Friar had felt and not seen others doing.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Quinn scribbled down the riddle on paper for future reference.
Looking at the written riddle, Quinn frowned slightly, "This one seems harder, I mean, more abstruse than the last one." He scratched his head in slight disappointment that he would need to think more about the riddle before he could actually get to the vault.
"I will pray that you will be successful in your search. From what I saw last year, I have great hopes of you," said Friar, smiling as he gazed at Quinn. Last year had been monumental in the ghost's life.
Every few decades, all four house ghosts would take turns to appoint a person each to go after the vaults, and Friar's stock had gone up because Quinn was able to survive the first vault, the first one to do so.
Friar had gained bragging rights among his ghost friends.
He watched as Quinn walked away with a hand scratching his head and looking down at the paper in his other hand.
He had high hopes that Quinn would solve this one as well, and he would be able to stand high amongst his ghostly friends.
"This year's Deathday part would be quite fun," smiled Friar, humming a tune as he went back to look at the stars, a jolly expression gracing his face.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
"Can you repeat that again, please? I am not sure if I heard you correctly," said Quinn, sitting behind his office desk.
"We want you to start a Hogwarts fan club for Professor Lockhart," said one of the Hufflepuff girls sitting in the client chairs of the A.I.D office. Three Hufflepuff girls had come into the A.I.D office and requested something that stunned Quinn.
While Quinn understood Gilderoy Lockhart's popularity among the general populace but knowing the truth about the phony professor and spending a few classes suffering for hours under his ridiculous brags.
So, when Quinn looked at the three older Hufflepuff girls, he could only see a trio of idiots looking at him with dumb gazes.
Quinn shook his head off the derisive thoughts about the older girls and said, "Alright, I can do that for you guys."
He took out a sheet of paper from his drawer and wrote stuff on it.
"First, we need to identify the club's objectives: Think about what kind of club you want to start and what you hope to achieve... In your case, you want to meet other people with similar interests."
One girl perked up and chimed in, "We want to discuss Professor Lockhart and share it with other people. We want more people to about the professor's greatness."
"He is so charming, so handsome, and not to mention so brave," dreamily sighed another girl. It bought dreamy expressions to the other girls' faces.
Quinn held back a gag and spoke, "Alright, the best way to spread Professor Lockhart's good deeds," he emphasized on 'good.' "is to make sure that everybody has access to his work, so it would be best if you girls could donate some of his works to the club."
"We can do that! I have all the professor's books with me," exclaimed one girl. Quinn nodded, not mirroring her excitement.
"Excellent, I would need some seed money for the start of the club to create some flyers for promotion and things like banners and decoration, you can provide me with designs so I can make them, or I can take care of it," said Quinn. He looked up and said, "If you guys want, I can arrange a room for you guys to meet for meetings, or you can get permission on your own."
"About the meetings, I would also need you guys to choose a day of the week when your potential members are likely to be available, such as a Saturday or Sunday, because there are no classes on the weekends, but I would suggest that you avoid Sunday. Once you recruit more members, you can discuss everyone's availability and a meeting schedule."
Quinn wrote something and continued, "The best place to find members is from your own social circle, so you can promote among your common room, and if you hire me, I can promote this in all four common rooms."
"After you gather members, which will not be difficult given the professor's reputation, you need to prepare for the first meeting. The first meeting is important as it needs to be interesting so that you can retain interested people. You could prepare some games or icebreakers so your members can get to know each other. Then, spend some time talking about what each member hopes to get out of the club, what they think it should focus on, and ideas for activities or events."
Quinn went on droning about what the girls needed to about the fan club, and the girls just sat in their seats, stunned, staring at Quinn with open jaws. They became a little worried about the work that needed to go into creating a fan club. This was supposed to be a fun activity, but Quinn made it seem like a tough job.
"W-Wait, this is too much," said one girl, causing Quinn to look up for his sheet of paper on which he was listing the tasks to accomplish.
He noticed the discomfort on their faces and scolded himself for causing them discomfort. The client needed to be comfortable while doing business.
'Grandfather taught me better,' thought Quinn and immediately switched gears. He put on a calming smile and eased the worries of the girls.
"I know it might seem a little too much, but you don't need to worry about it. I will take care of it. You guys just need to decide what you want to do in the club. I will take care of all the complicated stuff. Rest assured, you won't hear a single thing about all the tedious tasks, so just spread your creative wings and work on how to make the fan club fun."
Quinn didn't apologize for overwhelming them, as he wanted them to feel that Quinn was giving them a great deal of help by taking care of all the hard stuff.
And his words did bring the girls some comfort as their stiff expression softened up.
"I see, that is good to hear. Thank you for helping us. We never though it would be so difficult."
Waving his hand to dissuade their worries, "Please, I am just doing my job. I will make sure that you girls' fan club would be the best in Hogwarts."
Quinn talked to them for a while, this time making sure that they were comfortable and happy. By the time they were out of the A.I.D office, they were excited about the future of the upcoming Lockhart fan club.
When they left, Quinn leaned back in his chair and groaned loudly. He didn't want to create a fan club for the jerk, but a job was a job; he couldn't start the year with a rejected job. That was just bad business.
After groaning and whining for a minute, Quinn suddenly sat up straight, his eyes shining with euphemistic sparkle.
"Wait a minute, isn't this great?!" exclaimed Quinn. He was dreading doing this job, but right now, the gears were turning his head.
"I could use this," said Quinn, taking out a new sheet of paper and started to write the things he needed to do.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
Quinn knocked on the door but not before taking a deep breath and putting on a joyous smile on his face.
"Professor Lockhart, may I come in?"
Yes, Quinn was doing a thing he never thought he would do; talking to Gilderoy Lockhart on his own accord.
Lockhart, who had his signature smile on his face, looked up from his desk. Quinn assumed he was replying to fan mails.
"Yes, child, please come in," said the phony, with his smile widening.
Quinn walked inside and reached Lockhart's table. He was here for something that, if it went smoothly, would be profitable for Quinn.
"Good evening, professor. I have something to talk to you about," greeted Quinn, his eyes gazing across at loads of fan letters on Lockhart's desk. Yup, he was right in his presumption.
"Of course, you have come to the right place. Talk to me, I will help you out, and you will be singing my praise by the time you are out of the room," bragged Lockhart.
'No, you would be quite happy by the time I am done with you,' thought Quinn. He took a seat and smiled, "I am here because I have been charged with creating a Hogwarts-based fan club for you."
Quinn threw the bait, and the Gilderoy-fish jumped at it like a tasty treat.
"A fan club, you say. What a noble and novel idea! Tell me more about this fan club," spoke Lockhart, with enthusiasm shining in his eyes.
If there was one thing Gilderoy Lockhart loved, it was fame.
Gilderoy Lockhart was born to a non-magical father and magical mother. Out of the three children of the couple, Gilderoy was the only one with magic, and it brought a lot of joy to his mother. She treated Gilderoy as her favorite child and pampered him rotten.
When Gilderoy got his Hogwarts letter, a seed of vanity to grow like a tenacious weed. He had hoped to be greeted by whispers and stares, as in his mind, he was already a fully-fledged genius with exceptional magical prowess. The fact that he was merely ordinary, that more talented and gifted children were there, and his naturally wavy hair particularly impressed nobody, disappointed him.
He did have above-average abilities. Lockhart was cleverer than most of his classmates but had a terrible flaw in that Lockhart would not try unless he was confident he would be the best of whichever particular team, group, or class he was with at the time.
Even if he fell short of his ambitions that he would freely share with anyone who bothered listening. He bragged he would succeed in creating the Philosopher's Stone before leaving school and intended to captain England's Quidditch team to World Cup glory before knuckling down to becoming Britain's youngest Minister for Magic.
His vanity was such that he valued learning not for education but because it granted him attention; he craved attention and prizes and begged the Headmaster to start a school newspaper purely so he could see his own name in print.
When these exploits failed to grant him attention, he took to grander, more dramatic means of garnering attention.
He achieved minor notoriety by carving his signature in twenty-foot-long letters into the Quidditch pitch, earning him a weeks' worth of detentions. Created a spell that shot a hologram of his own face into the sky in imitation of the Dark Mark and sending himself eight-hundred Valentines, causing breakfast to be canceled because of the number of droppings and feathers in the porridge.
He increasingly devoted his talents to insincere shortcuts and cowardly dodges, focused on attention and neglecting genuine learning.
After he graduated from Hogwarts, he employed the same habit of cowardly methods, deceit, and fraud but took them to the next level and became an accomplished author. Traveling to exotic parts of the world and having mastered Memory charm shortly after graduation, tricking accomplished witches and wizards into revealing their grandest of deeds and then erasing their memories, promoting them as his own.
So, hearing about a fan club in his alma mater interested him greatly. He understood Hogwarts was the premier institute for all British and Irish wizards, so he knew what kind of reach and demographic he could develop if a fan club was set up here in Hogwarts.
"There has been a demand for creating a club focused on you and your work. I have been charged to create it, and I need a little help from you in your capacity as a professor."
"Oh! Do tell me, I would help you with everything you will need," offered Lockhart, showing full enthusiasm for the matter.
Quinn took out a bunch of sheets of parchment and said, "While it is possible to create a club with no need for professor's permission, but I think that if I have permission from a professor, then it would provide the club with a solid foundation."
He set down the small stack of parchment in front of Lockhart and spoke, "I need you to sign these requests for an allotted classroom as the club base, permission to promote the club without getting into trouble, and other technicalities that enable the club. Please sign these so I can get the ball rolling."
Lockhart didn't even look at the papers and used his quill to sign on every blank space that Quinn had marked.
"What about the activities in the club? I have plenty of ideas regarding that matter?"
Quinn stood up and collected the paper while saying, "Of course, your creative ideas would be a significant addition. I will make sure to send the members in charge of that part. You would be able to get your ideas across better with those students."
Quinn shook hands with Lockhart, "Thank you for the help, professor. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Please look forward to it; students are excited to talk to you about you. Good evening, professor."
Quinn didn't wait for Lockhart to respond and bolted out of the room. He didn't want to talk to Lockhart more than the needed minimum.
A smile made its way to Quinn's face as he stared at the stack of parchments.
'He didn't read the Terms and Conditions, sucker!'
While Lockhart did sign papers for club creation, he also signed some papers not related to club creation, like permission to access the restricted section of the Hogwarts library.
"Yeah, Lockhart was easy to fool~," grinned Quinn.
Quinn had refrained from asking permission to restricted sections of the Hogwarts library as it would bring him unnecessary scrutiny. But with Lockhart's permission, Quinn had now received access for his third year.
He took out another sheet of parchment, and this one also bought a smile to Quinn's face.
"Oh, this is going to make me a lot of money, isn't it? Much more money than the notes did last year."
On the signed sheet of parchment, Lockhart had given Quinn the permission to produce and sell merchandise in Hogwarts, and Lockhart had relinquished any claim on the profits.
It was a proverbial gold mine.
Quinn hummed as he walked his way to get the whole thing started.
-*-*-*-*-*-
(Extra: Shorts)
"We want you to set up a fan club for Harry Potter," asked a Hogwarts girl.
"Oh, come on!" yelled Quinn. "Not again!"
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn West - MC - Devious - Opportunist.
Fat Friar - Hufflepuff ghost - Looking forward to being the center of attention at the Deathday party.
Fan Club Girls - Creating fandoms - Can be identified in the wild by their shrill squeals.
Gilderoy Lockhart - ... - "Sucker!" ~ by Quinn.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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