บท 79: Chapter 76

The conversation then changed back to Harry's parent's school days by an unspoken agreement between the giant and the boy, and with an invitation to come by whenever he felt like it, Hagrid sent him off just before the sun went down.

Harry had a pretty solid idea about what the three headed dog was guarding in the third floor corridor.

A quick perusal of the library had revealed Nicholas Flamel to be the creator of the Philosopher's Stone, fabled to give immortality and unlimited wealth to its bearer. Harry now had a target, a suspect and a motive for a possible crime. All he needed was a time, and he would be able to catch the thief red-handed.

The next few weeks were extremely unpleasant for Harry. He had an incredibly hard time sitting still in Quirrell's class, letting the stuttering man ask him questions and answering them as if everything was normal.

He'd resolved that he'd work hard on getting more information on Quirrell, but apparently, the man had the entire school fooled. Even the infamous Weasley twins didn't prank the man too much out of pity, and going to any other teachers wasn't even in question since he couldn't let anybody know about his powers. It was a miracle that Snape hadn't suspected anything nor taken points for him being out of bed so late.

Harry had foregone grinding on the Sundays and scoured the library for any form of spying magic, but every spell he found turned out to have some weakness or the other. And almost none of them lasted long enough for what Harry needed.

It wasn't until the second weekend of October, that Harry hit something actually concrete enough to help him.

It was midnight, and Harry found himself on his bed in the Ravenclaw dorms with his curtains drawn. The book Enchanted Encounters lay beside him as he tinkered with the little piece of muggle technology in front of him.

"Observe"

Spy bug

A "bug" is a secret listening device that is used to listen in on conversations while not being in the same room. It is a recording and transmitting device often hidden in places not easily detected.

Harry used a quill's nib to pry it open. Sighing at the sparking electronics, he cursed the fact that high amounts of magic seemed to destroy any electronic technology. He frowned as he remembered something.

'Isn't the British Ministry of Magic located right under London? How does that work out without blowing up most of London's electrical systems?'

Shaking his head, he got back to working on making it work as a magical contraption. He threw away the electronic components and layered a listening charm onto the tiny beetle shaped contraption and connected the receiver earpiece to it.

Then, carefully doing as the book said, he carved a single tiny rune of permanency on top of the bug. Turning back to the book, he read the next part.

"Pour the willingly given essence of a magical creature on the rune carefully," Harry read before turning to his avian friend, "Hedwig, could you?"

Hedwig fluttered down from the bed's headboard, brought her head close to the tiny bug and dropped a single tear onto the rune he'd just carved. The rune flashed once and then started glowing a very dim blue. A gentle, almost inaudible hum started emanating from the bug, showing that the charm was active.

"That should do it."

Harry put the earpiece into his ear, and Hedwig hopped over to the bug and chirped at it. Sure enough, the chirp came through to Harry through the earpiece. He shot Hedwig a grinning thumbs up.

"Observe."

Enchanted Spy bug

This 'bug' is a secret listening device that is used to listen in on conversations while not being in the same room. It has a listening charm connected to a receiver and can stick to surfaces easily.

Harry smiled. At least he hadn't had to tape a mechanical tape recorder to the roof of the third-floor corridor. That probably wouldn't have lasted long.

Ping!

You have unlocked a new skill

Enchanting Lv-1(65%)

You can use this skill to imbue magical properties to a nonmagical object by layering spells and runes together. The process can make the spells last much longer than normal. High enough level in this can even make the spells permanent.

10% chance of success

And now he had this! Enchanting was a seventh-year subject and Harry was learning the basics in his first year itself! That was great!

Harry grabbed Hedwig's tail feather and they quickly teleported right into the third-floor corridor, where Harry levitated the bug towards the ceiling and stuck it there. Then, they promptly flamed out of there.