Unexpected Circumstances

Unexpected Circumstances

Charles went to the library in the afternoon, since he had no classes.

He found two Plant Identification Books on the shelves, then took down a book about Fire Spells from another shelf.

Then he saw Hermione watching him from nearby.

"Want to read it?" Charles waved the spellbook in his hand.

Hermione nodded.

Charles handed her the book and said, "You can read it first. I'll finish marking the map, then I'll read it."

The herbs outside the greenhouse had basically all been marked. There was just one kind of grass he wasn't sure about. Although it looked like a weed, and the chickens Hagrid secretly raised had shown no strange reaction after eating it, he still couldn't be completely certain. He had to look it up.

Fortunately, these books were organized according to the plants' appearances, so he quickly finished searching and confirmed that it was indeed a weed.

Charles saw that Hermione was still engrossed in the spellbook. Not wanting to disturb her, he began searching the shelves for books about the Patronus Charm.

He remembered that Professor McGonagall's and Harry's father's Patronuses were the same as their Animagus forms. There should be some connection between the two, which he could use as a reference.

If his own Patronus was something fierce, or an animal he could take to the zoo to scam food and drink from the visitors, he would try learning to become an Animagus.

But if it was a fly, bedbug, earthworm, or some aquatic animal, he could forget about it.

Of course, he was somewhat special. If his Patronus turned out to be five pairs of load-bearing wheels, a mobile suit, or something similar, that would still be acceptable.

Charles soon returned with a thick book and began reading it carefully.

After a while, Hermione found the magic she had been looking for. Seeing him absorbed in his book, she did not disturb him and quietly placed her book beside him.

The Patronus Charm was an extremely powerful and profound spell. It was not some great secret—the book explained it clearly—but not everyone could successfully learn it.

It was just like at school. With the same textbooks and teachers, Hermione's and Ron's grades were worlds apart.

Charles had bought a Self-Inking Quill in Diagon Alley. It could automatically dip itself in ink and write whatever he wanted to record on parchment, allowing him to quickly write down the method for using the Patronus Charm.

Finding the spell did not mean he would learn it immediately. The Patronus Charm looked difficult enough just to copy down. He planned to write Old Man a letter over the weekend and ask if there was anything he needed to pay attention to.

At dinner, Harry asked Charles, "Are you free tomorrow afternoon? Hagrid invited me to his hut for tea. Why don't you come too?"

Before Charles could answer, Fred, sitting on Harry's other side, immediately said to him, "I'm sorry, Mr. Smith already made plans with us to do some research tomorrow afternoon."

As Fred spoke, he nudged Charles with his leg.

George leaned over and said to Harry, "That's right. We arranged it ages ago."

Seeing the way the two of them were acting, Charles knew something was up. He waved his left hand at Harry and said, "I'm sorry, but we really did arrange to study my Bag of Holding together tomorrow afternoon."

Harry said somewhat disappointedly, "All right. I wanted to introduce you to Hagrid."

Charles replied casually, "There'll be time later."

By then, he had already guessed what the twins were planning.

Hagrid was still the Forbidden Forest's keeper, and one of his duties was preventing students from entering the forest on their own.

He had invited Harry to his hut for tea tomorrow afternoon, which meant he would not be going into the Forbidden Forest at that time. If they entered the forest then, he would not catch them.

That evening, while the twins were taking Charles to the kitchen for a midnight snack, the two brothers "got lost."

In an empty corridor, Fred said to Charles, just as expected, "We're going to the Forbidden Forest tomorrow afternoon. There are plenty of good things in there. We checked already—making a Bag of Holding requires some very expensive materials, and you can find quite a few of them in the forest."

George said, "The Forbidden Forest is a little dangerous, but we won't go anywhere too dangerous. As long as you stick with us, there won't be a problem."

Charles agreed without a second thought.

He had seen the Forbidden Forest in Old Man's memories. There were many precious herbs and other materials inside, and wizards would pay quite a lot of money for them.

Among ordinary people, after seeing Charles's memories, Old Man had used underhanded means to get a sum of pounds, then obtained an identity and settled down on Privet Drive. Charles had made quite a lot of money from two World Cups, and Old Man also had a substantial income as a county councilor. However, in Old Man's eyes, only the heavy, glittering Galleons counted as money. Light, thin layers of pounds did not. So he spent money extravagantly—even Song Jiang, "Timely Rain," could not spend as freely as he did. Charles had to find a way to earn some money himself and ease the financial pressure, or they would never make it to the 1994 World Cup.

The twins wanted to make money too. Their family had many children and was not well-off. Their inventions required money to buy materials, and their family naturally would not provide it. They could only rely on themselves.

"Stop!"

Fred, who was holding the Marauder's Map, suddenly called out in a low voice.

"It's Professor Quirrell!" he said in surprise. "Quick, quick, get out of here!"

He turned around and sprinted away with George and Charles. Before long, they hid in an empty, abandoned classroom.

George frowned and asked, "What's going on?"

Fred stared intently at the Marauder's Map in the light shining from the tip of his wand. He said doubtfully, "Professor Quirrell just entered that Secret Passage ahead. What's he going there for?"

"That Secret Passage?" George asked suspiciously. "It collapsed already. It can't be used anymore. Could it lead somewhere?"

Charles frowned too. Quirrell definitely would not crawl into a tunnel for no reason. Voldemort must have ordered him to do it.

But all the tunnels in Hogwarts seemed to lead outside. There was only one that led to the Chamber of Secrets where the Basilisk was kept. Could there be other unknown places similar to the Chamber of Secrets?

Who knew what Hogwarts's founders and successive headmasters, professors, and others had left behind in the castle? After accumulating for so many years, perhaps any random classroom could trigger some hidden treasure chamber or secret room.

The more Charles thought about it, the more possible it seemed. After all, his so-called "memories" were certainly different from "reality." For example, his "memories" contained nothing about Hermione attending primary school, yet he had been her classmate for six years.

And considering that Voldemort was currently nothing more than a patch of skin on the back of a head, like a Double Socket on a wall, the most urgent thing for him now was to obtain a body. From that, it could be inferred that his target was something with energy equal to or greater than the Philosopher's Stone.

That made things much more complicated. Charles was certain that Dumbledore was not only guarding against Voldemort obtaining the Philosopher's Stone while giving Harry experience, but he was unsure whether Dumbledore was also guarding against Voldemort searching for another way to restore his body.

If Voldemort really found a way to restore his body without using the Philosopher's Stone and succeeded, things would become very entertaining.

As for this matter... Charles decided to wait and see. What if Dumbledore already knew about it and had made preparations?

In any case, Voldemort was not impossible to kill. At worst, Charles could "divine" the existence of the Horcruxes, then capture the Basilisk and soak them in its venom. The only troublesome part would be the fragment of soul inside Harry's head.