บท 31: Progress and Explosions

I was walking down a dark alley, with no natural light making its way into the alley. Looking at the entrance of the alley, I can see people walk past, however, none of them looked down the alley, as if refusing to acknowledge that the alley exists. Walking deeper into the alley, I go to knock on the door but before I could knock, I feel a slap on my face. Putting my hand on my cheek, I look around for what slapped me, only to be greeted with another slap. Recoiling from it, the street around me shatters as I slowly open my eyes. Staring at me was Luna, who was ready to slap me again despite me opening my eyes.

*Slap*

"… I'm awake, you know," I said.

"Yep, I know," She replied.

"Alright then," I said, moving to sit up straight on my bed.

Looking around the dorm room, I don't see either of my roommates in their beds, nor is the sun still down. There's no Meowser in sight either. I was half expecting Luna to be holding Meowser, but it seems Meowser has evaded her iron clutches once again.

"What's the time?" I asked.

"Around 8 o'clock," She answered.

"8 o'clock? I thought I missed breakfast. Quick, let's go," I said, kicking my bed covers off.

I look down to see that I am in my pajamas, but I don't remember changing my clothes from going to bed last night. Actually, I don't remember going to bed last night. It seems someone found me sleeping in the library and brought me to my bed.

"Was it you who brought me to bed?" I asked Luna.

"Yep, you passed out," she replied.

"Oh… thanks, it's a bad habit of mine,"

Walking to my trunk placed at the foot of my bed, I open it to grab my robes and shoes, to find that my robes have been turned pink and my shoes are missing.

"Nargles, happened to me too," Luna said.

Sure enough, looking at her outfit, I noticed that her shoes were missing also.

"It seems the Nargles are targeting us specifically," I said.

Luna nodded in agreement.

'It seems I need to deal with this sooner than I thought,'

Putting my now pink robes on, I pull out my funky wizard hat and contemplate turning it into a set of shoes with transmigration.

"You shouldn't try it, we still haven't gotten Professor McGonagall's approval," Luna said.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?" I asked

"It's written on your face,"

Deciding not to dig too deeper into that, I put my hat back into my trunk, Glorf the Devourer, and looked around for my wand and Dororthy. It didn't take long to find them, and I quickly stored Dororthy in my robes. I leave the dorm without shoes on, however, I'm not worried about getting my feet dirty, as I know a cleaning spell now. I also read the rest of the first-year spells whilst in the library yesterday, however, they didn't contain anything of real utility. The most useful spell is probably the fire-making charm. It's very versatile and can be used outside of combat as a support spell for fireplaces in the wilderness or to burn something like cobwebs or moss from blocking your way.

Realizing there are many more useful spells for me to learn, I decide to write in Dororthy a reminder to find some spells or runes to defend myself against malicious actors, or random unforeseen events, such as the… I'm sure ill think of something, it's on the tip of my tongue.

By the time I became aware of my surroundings again, we were standing outside of the kitchen tickling the pear. I noticed some Hufflepuff students staring at me and Luna, whispering amongst themselves. Ignoring it, we walk into the kitchen where Julis is waiting for us with two plates of bacon and eggs.

"Ah! I knew you were coming! Julis has made breakfast for the two regulars!" Julis shouted.

"Thank you, Julis," I said.

Julis let out a wild smile, before snapping their fingers and disappearing on the spot. However, as Julis was disappearing, we heard a voice come from around us.

"You can call for Julis at any time,"

Silently staring at where Julis was, I just nodded and sat down where the plates were resting. Both plates looked fresh, and you could see the heat coming off the perfectly cooked bacon.

"Let's dig in then," I said.

Eating breakfast was nothing interesting, we ate in silence and the other house elves tried not to make too much noise while we were eating. Some Hufflepuff students would walk into the kitchen, but quickly leave once they spotted us eating. Finishing up our breakfast, we got up and walked out of the kitchen before I started to walk towards the library.

"Where are you going?" Luna asked.

"To the Library, I wanted to read some more books on defence runes," I replied.

"We have potions class in 10 minutes,"

"… Oh, I forgot about that,"

With Luna reminding me, we went to go get our potion kit from the room we cleared out yesterday and made our way to Professor Snape's potion dungeons. We walked through the door right before the class started and made our way to the desks we used beforehand. Sitting down, we prepare our textbook for this class and wait for the Professor to show up. As if he sensed us waiting, he burst through the door and instantly killed any chatter that was happening with just his presence. He walked up to his desk and gave all of us a deep scowl, stopping on me and Luna specifically.

After giving us all a stare-down, he starts his lesson.

"Today… you are all going to be brewing the cure for boils. While this potion is easy to brew… the slightest mistake will cause your face to break out into boils. Try not to mess it up," As he says this, he is staring directly at me and Luna. After finishing all his warnings and demeaning comments about our skill, he writes up the recipe and the process onto the blackboard behind him before sitting down at his desk.

The lesson went smoothly, and Snape didn't call us for any questions, as if he was avoiding us. The potion was made easily, and we handed it to Snape and went back to our desks. We walked out of the potions class, where Luna suddenly went her own way.

Waving her off, even if she didn't see it, I make my way towards the library with a slight skip in my step. Navigating my way through the Hogwarts halls, I ignore all the looks I get for my outfit and make my way into the library doors.

The moment I walked through the library doors, the surroundings when quiet. I look around and see all the students who are pointing and laughing in my general direction, probably at my shoeless outfit. Ignoring this, I make my way towards the Runes section in search of some new knowledge to test later today. I already have a general direction for the types of runes I want to test out this afternoon, mostly defence runes.

Scouring through multiple books, I take down what types of runes I want to use, the techniques to inscribe them with a wand and various other notes. Dororthy is slowly getting fuller, and I estimate that ill run out of pages within the next two days. In some of the books I've read, they recommend magical natured materials for rune inscribing, since they are better conductors of magic.

If I want to upgrade Dororthy, I need to replace the cover with something that can handle some basic absorption runes and duplication runes, and in the future some space-shrinking runes. The theory behind shrinking space with runes - or compressing it, is easy to understand but dangerous to figure out without the proper tools. The more advanced runes require specialized tools, like a magical carving knife and conductive magical metals. You could liken it to carving out the runes then filling them with soldering material then running electricity through them, or in this case, magic.

Drawing up a basic rune design for Dororthy, I pack up the books about runes and change subjects to defensive spells. The need to protect me increases, as the Nargles are consistently affecting my surroundings. I need to figure out how to get magic to define Nargles and exclude them from my general vicinity with either runes or a spell or go the shotgun route and set up runes and charms all over my belongings to stifle the Nargles influence over my life and those around me.

Packing Dororthy into my robes, I try to find a place within the castle to experiment with Runes and spells with no luck. Most of the castle is unsuitable for experiments, and Snape has already stolen the dungeon which is ideal for such experiments. However, searching the castle let me find my two test subjects for the day. I approached my target from behind, making a conscious effort to hide my breathing and footsteps.

"Hello, Weasley Patrol," I suddenly spoke.

My targets are what id consider the literal embodiment of Nargles, and any testing I do on them should translate into being effective on the Nargles themselves, at least, that is what I'm hoping.

"Crikey!" Weasley Patrol 1 shouted.

"Far out!" Weasley Patrol 2 shouted as well.

"Why are you sneaking up on us like that!" The first one shouted.

"I need your help, follow me," I said, before walking away. Whether they follow or not is up to them, but I'm betting they will follow out of curiosity.

"Where are you going?" The second one shouted. I really need to learn their names, its going to get annoying to keep referring to them as Weasley Patrol 1 or 2.

Making my way out of the castle, I walk to the edge of the Forbidden Forrest and search for a smooth enough rock to inscribe some runes onto it. A few minutes of searching yielded some results, and I found a smooth enough rock to fit the first version of my rune diagram. Pulling out my wand and referring to Dororthy whilst drawing it, I complete the rune diagram and set it on the floor.

The rune is designed to absorb magic from its surroundings and project an immaterial shield around its wearer, or a specific range depending on its configuration. The shield is attuned to the loosest definition of Nargles I could find within the Rune Books themselves. Injecting my magic to jump-start the absorption runes, I start logging what happens with the rock.

The rock now started to glow slightly and started to slowly project a transparent shield around itself. It slowly expanded until it could no longer sustain its expenditure and stopped at around 2m. So far, so good for a random rock I found in the forbidden forest. I wait two minutes to establish a baseline of the rock's performance without external factors influencing it. Writing down the data in Dororthy, I inspect it for any damage it might have sustained during its operations. Seeing nothing special, I can use the Weasley patrols for their effectiveness at shielding against 'Nargles'.

The next part of the test can continue, and I turn towards the Weasley Patrol who had been watching me the entire time. They seemed interested in what I was doing and wanted to ask many questions.

"Can you two try to enter the shield?" I asked.

My access to the rock was unimpeded, and the shield didn't react to my presence at all. When the twins tried to enter the shield, I could feel the magic around the shield slightly react before they were allowed within the shield unimpeded as well.

"Did you feel any resistance? Anything changed?" I asked them.

"We didn't feel any resistance," Weasley 1 Spoke, or 2, I can't tell the difference anymore.

"But we do feel strange," Weasley 2? said. This piqued my interest, as the shield didn't hinder them from entering, so how did it affect them?

"Ok, get out, I have something else I want to test," I said, and they exited the shield or dome. I entered the shield again and inspected the rock again. I could feel that it is slightly heating up and will soon turn into magma. Noting down this eventual change in Dororthy, I turn my attention towards the twins again.

"Try to prank me again," I said. I draw my wand and prepare to defend myself with the 'Protego' spell, something I learned in the library today.

The twins looked as if someone had asked them a question of a lifetime, and quickly huddled together to decide their game plan. After waiting for a while, they turned around and didn't say anything.

One twin tried to distract me, as the other pulled something out of his robes and threw it in my general direction. The object looked familiar, and I soon realized it was another Dung Bomb. The twin that tried to distract me also pulled something from his robe and throw it in sync with the Dung Bomb. I let the Dung Bombs hit the shield, hoping they would stop it, and it did. The two dung bombs stopped dead in their tracks and embedded themselves into the shield. Before I could inspect what had happened closer, I felt the rock's magic below me start to become volatile. I looked down and saw a white flash before I could feel the resulting explosion in my chest and throughout my body.

----

Author Corner:

My first cliff hanger.

The chapters will get longer but slower, lately I have also been playing *a lot* of EVE Online. My job hunt is also going… alright? I got an interview so hopefully I get employed. With money I can exist in peace…

Feedback! Gimme!

There were some comments recently that seemed *abit* mad about how short the first chatpers are. I am not going to rewrite them, so sorry about that, but its better now. Ive had to go back and add an updated author's note in chapter 1 so I don't receive more of those comments. :)