Obsession Entity

"That concludes today's lesson," the somber Potions professor said, scanning the classroom. "Tomorrow is a day off, but I don't think you deserve a day off..."

"This weekend, everyone must write an article about 'The Development Process of Warming Potion into Exorcising Potions and the Application Scenarios of the Two Potions in the Active Era,' at least fourteen inches long."

The students in the classroom all lowered their heads, their faces showing distress, except for Hermione, who excitedly waved her fist a little.

Snape glanced at Hermione expressionlessly, then turned his gaze to Sean beside him.

"The renowned Mr. Wallop, given your truancy a week ago, this paper of yours has at least two feet long to read—since you skipped class, you must be very confident in your Potions, right? Well then... the more capable you are, the more work you should do."

"Class dismissed." Snape grabbed his lesson plan, tossed his black cloak behind him, and strode out of the classroom.

Only Sean, looking distressed, and his classmates, who were watching him with pity, remained.

Two feet, that's twenty-four inches, a full ten inches longer than everyone else!

Sean slumped helplessly onto his desk. "I can't take this anymore."

Hermione, who was packing her things, said, "You should be glad that Snape didn't even fail your Potions class outright—who was skipping class at Hufflepuff last time? Snape drew a big T on his final report card on the spot. That guy even begged Professor Sprout to plead for him, and studied Potions like crazy in the second semester, but still only got a P."

T stands for Troll, and P stands for Poor.

Sean waved his hand weakly. "I'd rather he just give me a failing grade—this week has been worse than death..."

In the week following Sean's truancy, Snape went all out in Potions, and Harry even achieved the glorious feat of not losing any points in three consecutive Potions —all thanks to Sean.

Just now in that class, Sean was even mocked by Snape for a full ten minutes because he didn't hold his silver knife straight after cutting the herbs.

"The way a person arranges their utensils reveals their state of mind— Mr. Wallop, are you paying attention in this lesson?"

"This time, cutting the Deep-Sea Stone Algae requires the silver knife to be cut at a specific angle. I can tell from the position of your silver knife that your angle is slightly off—this will cause instability when the Potions is brewed, and potion splashing is almost inevitable... Of course, if you want to show off a bunch of bumps on your head when you go to the Hospital Wing, I'd be happy to see it."

"The way you extinguished the Cauldron is disgusting... You've already forgotten what I taught you in the very first lesson? Oh, right, the infamous Mr. Wallop, who skipped class, has certainly developed his own methods as Potion Master, hasn't he? —No? Then do as I say!"

"Ravenclaw loses five points."

Similar remarks kept coming up during Potions this week, and Sean couldn't refute a single one of them, even though his actions were perfectly fine, and even though everyone knew that Snape was deliberately picking on him.

Who made me miss a class?

If it weren't for the recent events that earned Sean a lot of points, he probably wouldn't have had enough points deducted by Snape...

Sean sighed and took the things Hermione had packed for him, looking at her expectantly. "Um, the esteemed and learned Miss Granger..."

Hermione turned sharply, leaving him with a head of fluffy brown hair.

"No way, don't even think about me writing that extra ten inches of paper for you, you shameful and Sloth Mr. Wallop."

"No, Hermione, help me! I always copy your papers in Potions..."

"Hmph, that was just for you to use as a reference! This time, it's extra homework that Snape assigned just for you!"

"That's what we need... Hey, don't go! Wait for me, I'll treat you to lamb chops tonight..."

As night fell, Sean lay alone on the cushions of the Room of Requirement, where, under his control, the ceiling of the Room of Requirement was transformed into a starry night sky.

"I finally have a weekend to rest, but this darn homework..."

Sean had a hay lollipop dangling from his mouth, and was casually lifting his legs up and down without any regard for his image.

Hermione has been much stricter with him lately. At dinner, Sean had to plead with her before Hermione agreed to help him write four inches, meaning he'd have to do the rest himself.

"Oh no..." Sean sighed.

He's really not good at writing papers.

"I don't even know what font size I can use... Maybe I can use a quill pen with thicker ink..." The pathetic boy had already started thinking of all sorts of crooked and unorthodox methods.

After having this crooked idea for a while, Sean sadly realized that if he actually did it, he would probably be targeted by Snape for another week.

"I'll write it tomorrow; thinking about it now is giving me a headache."

He bit off the hay lollipop in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and then swallowed it in one gulp.

Let's think about other things first.

The results of the investigation into Lockhart are in. The professors used Veritaserum and hypnotic drugs, and then asked him every question they could think of.

The results were minimal.

During this time, Professor Flitwick attempted to extract some of Lockhart's memories to assess the situation, but the latter's mastery of Memory Charm was truly astonishing.

Even when he was completely unable to resist, the memories in Lockhart's mind were like roots that could not be extracted.

In the end, we had no choice but to revert to the interrogation method of using Veritaserum.

The information they gathered was roughly in line with Sean's guess—from the perspective of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, or even from the perspective of a normal wizard, Lockhart was undoubtedly a failure. But from the perspective of an undercover agent, Lockhart had done a remarkably successful job.

He extracted and destroyed all his previous memories, and modified some important memories that could not be destroyed at key points, leaving only recent memories, which were all known information when questioned.

The only new discovery was that the professors obtained partial information about the Black Rhombus Crystal.

In Lockhart's memory, the Returners referred to the Black Rhombus Crystal as the "Obsession Entity" in the emergency contact. It was also mentioned that the so-called Obsession Entity was something that had been inherited for a long time and was very important, and that Lockhart should do everything he could to get it back.

The name "Obsession Entity" was something Sean had never heard of before, nor had the professors. Only Professor Babbling, who studied Ancient Runes, suggested that Obsession Entity might be related to Ancient Runes.

It's hard to deduce anything from the name alone, but what matches Sean's guess is that this Obsession Entity is indeed very important, at least for the Returners.

This also shows that the Returners were originally determined to succeed in their plan, but what they did not expect was that the barrier that trapped Sean and Dawson together would become the best cover for Sean to break free of his restrictions.

They probably never imagined that the exceptionally powerful Max Dawson, equipped with the controllable Silent Mouth and aided by the Dementor, couldn't even capture a fourth-year student like Sean.

Sean didn't really feel like he had thwarted the other party's plan.

It can only be said that it was a matter of timing and fate.

The Silent Mouth and Dementor, these dark creatures, were completely countered by Sean's Dark Sleeper, and his enemies even thoughtfully drew the curtains for him to use this method that couldn't be exposed to the light.

For Sean, the next thing is always more urgent, and the Returners ' plans clearly go beyond this.

This Obsession Entity might be a good direction for investigation, but Sean had never heard of the name before. He vaguely remembered Grindelwald occasionally mentioning ancient, secret magic and Magical Item, but this name was never among them.

However, some clues can be gleaned from the communications Lockhart received.

The Obsession Entity doesn't seem to require special care to handle, nor does it need any special magical activation; otherwise, Lockhart would have been informed of this during emergency communication so that he could obtain it.

After thinking for a moment, Sean opened the ring and called out. Soon, Cat-Leopard Pudding brought up the box containing the Obsession Entity.

Just to be on the safe side, Sean put on a pair of thick Dragon-hide gloves before carefully opening the box.

Nothing had changed; the Defensive Spell he had left behind remained intact.

The Obsession Entity lay quietly in a box that could bind dark Magical Item.

Sean moved closer, but even with his heightened sensitivity to dark forces, he couldn't detect anything amiss, and the High-Precision Sneakoscope produced by the system didn't issue any warnings.

"This thing itself seems harmless, but with special methods, it may have various applications..." Sean thought to himself.

After checking it again to make sure there were no problems, Sean took off his Dragon-hide gloves.

He moved closer again, examining the black crystal known as the Obsession Entity more closely.

It was about 20 centimeters long and no more than 5 centimeters at its widest point, a very standard rhombus shape. Strangely, under the torches of the Room of Requirement and the starry ceiling, the surface of the jet-black crystal did not reflect any light.

It's as if it can absorb the light that shines on its surface.

Sean tried to look inside the Obsession Entity, but still couldn't see anything; there seemed to be only a blurry, misty thing inside.

Moreover, the Obsession Entity did not exhibit the dark props in the novel that could suck a person's mind and soul in the blink of an eye.

Sean even tried touching it one last time; it was icy cold, like ordinary crystal. However, even after touching it for a while, it didn't get warm from Sean's body heat; the Obsession Entity remained unchanged.

The spell didn't work, and neither did touching it; this thing seemed to be an unaffected stone.

"That's a bit strange," Sean pondered, stroking his chin. "I can clearly sense a magical power, but it's not prominent, yet it's not one to be ignored either. And all sorts of spells that sense or activate magical power don't produce any effect..."

Just as Sean was thinking, there was a knock on the wooden door of the Room of Requirement.

"Hmm?" Sean put away his Obsession Entity and turned his head.

Hermione and Daisy could simply push the door open and come in with his permission, while others couldn't even see the door without Sean's permission. The only ones who could see and knock on the door were...

Sure enough, when Sean opened the door, the petite Silver-haired Girl was standing in the corridor, looking up at him with her head slightly tilted back.

"This guy hasn't changed at all..." This thought silently popped into Sean's mind.

"Good evening, Stephanie," Sean greeted her.

"Good evening, Sean." Stephanie nodded to him.

After letting the other person in, Sean closed the door and asked, "What's wrong? Did you need something?"

Stephanie is a girl who doesn't like to waste time talking nonsense; she's always been very direct.

She got straight to the point. "Sean, have you been having some troubles lately?"

Taken aback by the girl's question, Sean paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Obviously—to be precise, I've been troubled by it all along, but lately the problems have been particularly numerous."

Even through the gold-rimmed women's glasses, Stephanie's eyes still sparkled. Although her allure had long since lost its effect on Sean, it had to be said that she was very beautiful.

"Because I was also involved in this matter that day, the professors also revealed some information to me. I discussed it with Professor Babbling, and we finally agreed that it still involved Ancient Runes and Ancient Magic."

"Ancient Runes ..." Sean rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.

His Ancient Runes talent was hopeless; he was barely hanging on by the two points of talent he received from the Dumbledore's Starter Set he had drawn... If he still had the original zero talent points, Sean suspected he wouldn't even be able to understand the introductory course.

It wasn't that he didn't want to make amends, but rather that there was simply no good way to remedy this talent.

Of the talent points he's extracted so far, aside from those directly added to fixed talents, the number he can freely allocate is only a few.

Sean is someone who likes to specialize, so it's not in his nature to put his nine points into Transfiguration to ten, but instead put his two points into Ancient Runes to three.

Of course, his other talents are now basically maxed out, and if he gets more free talent points in the future, Sean will definitely add them to Ancient Runes.

He's currently keeping up with Professor Babbling's teaching pace thanks to Selma Murphy's tutoring and the monthly "Ancient One's Sigh" session...

"I'm really not very good at this..." Sean shrugged helplessly.

Stephanie looked up at him, her face expressionless, yet her eyes sparkled like stars.

"I can help you."

"Huh?" Sean didn't react for a moment.

"You need a vast source of information to analyze all sorts of things, and you're not very good at things Ancient Runes, but I'm very good at them," Stephanie said bluntly. "To be precise, in terms of knowledge alone, I have more than Madam Pince, the librarian."

"Because I really love reading," the girl said earnestly.