Hogwarts: Please, Just Graduate Already!

She had also taught herself many spells in private, but none of them progressed very quickly. She could pick up some simple spells in no time, but the more difficult ones required time and research.

To avoid getting discouraged again, Hermione gazed at the Black Lake and said softly, "I read in a book that an entire merfolk tribe lives in the Black Lake. I wonder if it's true."

"It is." Wayne tossed a stone across the water, but it only skipped three times before sinking into the lake.

"You can sometimes see them through the windows of the Slytherin common room." "But those mermaids are all horribly ugly." Wayne shook his head and sighed. "They have nothing to do with the mermaids in the legends."

Hermione crossed her arms and sneered. "What could you do if they really were mermaids?" Wayne gave a sly grin. "Then I wouldn't mind keeping another pet." "Hmph!" The little witch pinched Wayne, then turned and left. "Hey, why are you pinching people for no reason again?" "Mind your own business!"

"Hey." Wayne was amused by her anger. "How unreasonable can you be?"

"What? Not happy about it?" the little witch challenged him. "I just can't stand you daydreaming in broad daylight. If you're so capable, go catch a mermaid and keep it as a pet."

"What will you do if I really catch one?" Wayne raised an eyebrow. "If you really catch one... I... I'll let you do whatever you want!"

Hermione thought it over. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them clearly stated that mermaids did not exist in the world.

It was merely a product of human imagination, so she immediately gained confidence and made the wager.

"Fine, just wait and see." Wayne accepted. "If I can't find a mermaid before graduation, I'll agree to one condition of yours." "It's a deal!"

The two of them slapped their palms together and smiled victoriously.

When they returned to the common room, Cedric and the others had also come back from Hogsmeade. When they saw Wayne, they first handed him a cup of Butterbeer, then Cedric said quietly:

"The things you asked me to buy are in the dormitory. I'll give them to you later." Wayne nodded, indicating that there was no rush.

Cedric then handed him some sweets bought from Honeydukes. "Where are you going to teach me to make the map tomorrow?"

"Just find an empty classroom. There are too many people in the common room."

After putting a milk caramel in his mouth, Wayne no longer felt like going to the Great Hall for dinner. The Hufflepuff little wizards truly lived up to their reputation as food lovers. Almost everyone had brought back snacks from Hogsmeade, and quite a few enthusiastically shared some with Wayne.

Taking advantage of the rare opportunity to have so many people around, he brought out his quills and promoted them again.

A price of two Galleons per quill was indeed expensive, but Hufflepuff had no shortage of poor students. Hannah once again took out two Galleons with tears in her eyes and bought a Plagiarism Quill. She had been at school for less than a month, but the girl had visibly gained a whole round. Most of her pocket money had already gone toward buying desserts and snacks.

Wayne felt a little sorry for her and couldn't help advising, "Hannah, don't you want to buy a Plagiarism Quill?"

"No." The girl sniffled. "It's not like anyone lends me their homework to copy anyway."

"I can lend you mine."

"Then... then I'll take another one?" Hannah took two Galleons from her pitiful little savings and reluctantly handed them to Wayne.

Cedric stared at him as if he were looking at a ghost. Doesn't your conscience hurt at all?

This round brought Wayne more than a hundred Galleons, and he left completely satisfied.

He planned to have a chat with Young Master Malfoy. How could Young Master Malfoy use such a Standard Edition? Wayne had specially prepared high-end custom versions made with unicorn feathers and Clown-faced bird feathers, and they weren't even very expensive.

Only ten Galleons.

It was Sunday.

That morning, Wayne was going to teach Cedric how to make the map. The two of them found an empty classroom on the second floor.

Wayne took out parchment and special ink and began explaining.

The most basic version was not difficult. They only needed to draw the map with special ink and mark each staircase with its corresponding code. Then it could synchronize with Hogwarts's moving staircases in real time.

Cedric only needed to learn the Marking Charm and the spell that activated the hidden functions. After ruining several maps, he finally mastered it.

The Plagiarism Quill version, however, was considerably more difficult. The main problem was displaying the real-time positions of the little wizards. That required an extremely special Tracking Charm, as well as a Magic-Linking Charm to connect the little wizard's magic to the parchment.

After a week, Cedric could only be considered to have barely mastered it. His success rate was very low.

With no other choice, Wayne transformed into a Charms professor and began explaining some spellcasting techniques.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The classroom door was suddenly knocked on. Cedric's hand trembled, and his spell failed again. "Who is it?"

Somewhat irritated, he opened the door and saw two grinning figures outside. "Why are you two here?"

"Obviously, we're here to find Wayne."

Cedric stepped aside and let the two of them in, though his face was still full of confusion.

"How did you know Wayne was here?" "No comment."

"This is the twins' greatest secret."

George and Fred walked over to Wayne shoulder to shoulder, wearing ingratiating smiles. "Young Master Lawrence, how has your weekend been?"

"If you're feeling lonely, we can introduce you to two beautiful Gryffindor girls."

Wayne shuddered and pushed them away in disgust. "Stay away from me. If you have something to say, say it. Don't make me sick."

The twins exchanged a glance and spoke in unison. "Wayne, can you teach us how to make those quills?"

Fred added, "We won't ask you to teach us for free. Name your price. Even if we have to go hungry, we'll scrape it together for you."

Cedric rolled his eyes. "The food at school is free." "Get lost!"

George smacked him and then looked at Wayne expectantly.

Yesterday, they had happened to see Harry rushing to finish an essay with a Standard Edition, and they had been stunned by its brilliance.

The twins thought making these things was incredibly interesting. It was as if they had suddenly found the meaning of life.

After asking around, they discovered that the quills were Wayne's creation. That completely convinced them. They hadn't even figured out the principles behind the map, yet he had already developed a new magical item. After wrestling with their thoughts all night, the twins finally swallowed their pride and came looking for him.

The academic barriers in the Wizarding World were not particularly severe, but once money was involved, everything became confidential.

If they hadn't been so curious, they would never have acted so rashly. They had already made up their minds that no matter what conditions Wayne set, they would agree as long as they could fulfill them.

Fred and George looked sincere and serious. Wayne had never seen them like this before.

After pondering for a moment, he said:

"Teaching you isn't impossible. I'm teaching Cedric how to make maps right now."

The two of them turned toward Cedric, who had been watching the show, as if asking why he had not called them over when something good was happening.

Cedric hurriedly said, "Why are you looking at me? I'm working for Wayne too."

"Exactly." Wayne nodded. "I provide the materials and the technology. He handles production and sales, but only gets twenty percent."

"If you can accept those conditions, I can teach you too." "Oh, right."

The two were just about to agree when Wayne interrupted them again. "I also want something else—the map you have."

Fred was startled. "How did you know?"

That map was the greatest secret the two of them had discovered that term. They still hadn't fully researched it. Why would Wayne know about it?

"You were too slow last time in the Trophy Room." Wayne smiled. He was extremely interested in the Marauder's Map.

In Harry's hands, it was merely a map, useful at most for avoiding Filch. But in Wayne's hands, it was excellent research material, and its value would be immeasurably greater.

So just hand it over!

The twins huddled together and whispered for quite some time before finally saying:

"We agree. But can you let us use it for a while longer? We haven't completely memorized all the secret passages on it."

Wayne was equally straightforward. "No problem. Just give it to me after Christmas."

Only Cedric wore a baffled expression. "What are you talking about?"

There had been a surge of flower ratings and monthly votes. Thank you all for your support.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Secret of the Marauder's Map, Room of Requirement

Since Wayne had already exposed them, the twins stopped hiding and took out a parchment map.

Fred cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Ink spread across the map in thin lines, rapidly forming a complete map where there had originally been nothing but blank parchment.

Unlike the map Wayne had made, this one covered an enormous area: the entire castle, the lawns outside, the Quidditch Pitch, and a small portion of the Forbidden Forest.

Wayne's map only covered the castle's classroom areas, making it much smaller by comparison.

Most impressive of all, the map was covered in densely packed names. Some were gathered together, while others were moving.

Cedric stared wide-eyed. "Where did this come from?"

"Wayne, did you make an even more advanced version?"

"I don't have that ability yet." Wayne took the map and, in moments, discovered contract magic, a large number of Tracking Charms, and magic related to the names.

The Marauder's Map was really made by Sirius Black and the others while they were students? Wayne sank into deep doubt.

How did those students manage to make something so incredible?

"Disappear."

Wayne drew his wand and cast the Stealth Charm on himself.

In an instant, Wayne's name vanished from the map. Only the names of the Weasley brothers and Cedric remained visible inside the room.

"It can do that?" Fred stared at the scene in shock.

George explained to Cedric, "Fred and I were assigned detention by Filch. He made us clean the room, and we took this from his drawer." "It took us an enormous amount of effort to solve the mystery."

Fred cut in, "George almost threw this piece of parchment away. Luckily, he didn't."

The two exchanged a smile.

Wayne studied the map for a while longer. He did not find Peter Pettigrew's name anywhere on it, so he returned it to the twins.

That made sense.

Leaving aside the fact that Peter Pettigrew was also one of the map's creators, given his cowardly nature, he had probably used every spell available to hide his information.

It was only normal that he couldn't be found.

Fred carefully put the map away. Since they could still use it for several months, they had to hurry and record all of Hogwarts's secret passages.

Since Wayne had agreed to teach them, he simply taught them together.

He first sent Cedric off to make maps on his own, then told the twins about selling the quills.

The two of them were social powerhouses, with friends in every house except Slytherin.

Wayne did not want to spend too much energy on sales and management, while Hermione and Cho were not particularly interested either.

The twins had arrived at exactly the right time.

In the original timeline, the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes shop had been run by them with great success, proving that the twins also had considerable talent for business.

For every quill they sold, Wayne would give the twins ten percent. If they made it themselves, he would give them twenty percent.

Fred and George had no objections.

Whenever they were interested in something, even their mischievous natures could settle down and study patiently.

The twins were brimming with enthusiasm for making prank items and interesting magical objects. They listened more attentively than they did in class.

If Professor McGonagall saw them, she would probably be furious enough to give them detention.

After explaining the spells, Wayne took out some ordinary feathers and handed them to the twins, along with some Potions that provided magical power.

Only feathers soaked in the potion would become special materials suitable for making magical quills.

By noon, the three of them still had no intention of leaving, but Wayne had to go.

"What are you going to do?" Cedric asked.

"I promised Hermione I'd teach her the Shield Charm this afternoon."

"Oh~" George let out a strange cry. "So it's Miss Know-it-all."

Cedric gave a lecherous grin. "Tsk... Wayne, you started early."

Wayne was not angry. He looked at them with a half-smile. "There are only so many students in all of Hogwarts. Your future wives will most likely be chosen from here too."

"If you don't mind, you can also wait until seventh year."

"Wait until your future wives have become the ex-girlfriends of many other people before making your move. They'll have more experience that way."

After saying that, Wayne left the room, leaving the three of them staring at one another.

"Jeez..."

Cedric sucked in a sharp breath.

"That makes a lot of sense."

That kind of situation really did exist, and it was not uncommon.

For example, the girlfriend of Woodley, the Quidditch team captain, was the ex-girlfriend of a sixth-year prefect. That sixth-year prefect's ex-girlfriend, in turn, was the ex-girlfriend of a Ravenclaw prefect.

Every year when school began, it was like the transfer window. One person changed girlfriends today, and another changed girlfriends tomorrow.

Cedric shuddered.

No, I have to follow Wayne's example and cultivate one from a young age.

Fred and George felt the same way, but their minds were currently focused entirely on making magical items. After complaining for a while, they went back to practicing the spells.