Disillusionment Charm

Disillusionment Charm

The Gryffindor Common Room was packed with students that afternoon, all of them sitting on the sofas and chatting.

There were only so many seats on the sofas in the Common Room, and with so many people crammed in, it was crowded and noisy. Albert had no intention of lingering there. After pinning the First Years' timetable to the noticeboard and returning his camera and photographs to the dormitory, he headed straight for the library on the fifth floor of the castle.

There were no other students in the library. Then again, even among Ravenclaw students, few would set foot in the library before the official start of term.

The only person in the library was the librarian, Mrs. Irma Pince. She sat quietly behind the counter, reading alone. Only when Albert approached did Mrs. Pince look up, seemingly surprised that someone had come to the library at this hour.

"Ma'am, sorry to bother you. I'm looking for some books on spells. Do you know which shelf they're on?" Albert asked softly.

Albert could have looked himself, but there were plenty of books here. It would take time and effort, and there was no need to make things difficult for himself. Asking the librarian directly was the quickest way.

Mrs. Pince glanced at Albert and pointed toward a row of wooden bookshelves. "Area C, the fifth shelf."

Albert followed the direction of her finger, thanked her, and headed toward the shelves in Area C. His gaze paused briefly on the rope leading to the Restricted Section before he continued inside. The fifth shelf held quite a few books about spells.

As Albert ran his fingers over the spines, they suddenly stopped. His panel had actually given him two quests.

Reading Maniac.

As someone who loved reading, how could you miss the largest magical library in all of Britain?

Read a total of 100 books one inch thick.

Reward: Randomly master 3 types of magic and raise them to Level 3.

Current: 0/100

Magical Forbidden Area.

The Restricted Section at Hogwarts hid many secrets. As someone who loved magic, how could you miss it? If you could borrow a few books from there for careful study, it would help improve your magical ability.

Successfully persuade five professors to allow you to borrow five books from the Restricted Section.

Reward: Skill level +1.

Current: 0/5

Seriously, both quests were bottomless pits!

Reading one hundred books was no easy task, and they had to be an inch thick. Was he supposed to finish a hundred brick-sized books? They could kill someone if they fell on them.

This was not something he could complete anytime soon. If he could finish within three years, he would have Merlin to thank for it.

The second quest was even worse. Getting permission slips from professors to borrow books from the Restricted Section was no easy matter.

And he had to obtain slips signed by five different professors. That was even harder.

From what Albert remembered, Gilderoy Lockhart would probably be the easiest one.

Still, the higher the difficulty, the richer the reward. A skill level increase was far more powerful than Skill Points.

Now was not the time to think about those quests. Albert pushed the distractions aside and casually pulled out a spellbook called "Eighteenth Century Spell Selection."

He opened the table of contents and counted thirty-three spells recorded within. Each one detailed the spell's inventor, how to use it correctly, and the significance of its invention...

After reading the contents, Albert lost interest in the book. He had not found the Disillusionment Charm in the list.

The other spells were not bad, but they were of no use to Albert for the time being. Learning them would require a great deal of time and energy, or he would have to dip into his stored experience pool.

There was still plenty of experience in the pool, but Albert did not want to use it.

After shoving "Eighteenth Century Spell Selection" back onto the shelf, Albert pulled out another book, "Spell Achievements." It was a book introducing various spells, and Albert found the Disillusionment Charm inside.

Unfortunately, the book did not explain how to cast the Disillusionment Charm. It merely described some attempts at the spell.

However, based on the information it provided, Albert found records related to the Disillusionment Charm in "Nineteenth Century Spell Selection."

That was undoubtedly good news.

Albert took "Nineteenth Century Spell Selection," sat down at one of the library tables, opened it, and read it carefully.

The Disillusionment Charm had been inspired by chameleons. It allowed a person to blend into their surroundings, producing an invisibility effect.

A skilled wizard using the Disillusionment Charm would not be easily noticed, but a clumsy one would find it difficult to fool anyone. If their body failed to blend into the surroundings, it would give people an inexplicable sense of incongruity.

As Albert focused on reading about the Disillusionment Charm, someone pulled out the chair beside him. He looked up and discovered it was the Ravenclaw girl he had met in the Great Hall that morning.

Seemingly noticing Albert's gaze, she looked up as well, gave him a slight nod, and returned her attention to her book.

"Just what you'd expect from a Ravenclaw," Albert muttered quietly. He continued reading the precautions for the Disillusionment Charm, preparing to find somewhere to practice.

Next, he needed to find the counterspell for the Disillusionment Charm.

Although the Disillusionment Charm would not last very long, if he did not master the counterspell, he might have to wait for its effect to wear off before becoming visible again. That was not a good idea.

There was no relevant record at the end of the spell's entry, but Albert found the Revealing Charm in "Spell Achievements."

Albert took "Nineteenth Century Spell Selection" to Mrs. Pince to check it out, then picked up a stone outside the castle to use as a practice target. Naturally, he was not foolish enough to cast an unfamiliar spell on himself.

Just as Albert was considering where to practice the spell, the Weasley Twins and Lee Jordan appeared in the Entrance Hall, panting heavily.

"Where did you go at noon?" Albert asked, looking at the three of them.

"Fifth floor... mirror..." George was so out of breath that he could barely speak clearly.

"Where does that passage lead?" Albert asked.

"Outside the castle. We went to Hogsmeade." Fred's face was lit with excitement. On their first day at Hogwarts, they had actually discovered a secret passage leading off campus.

Albert raised an eyebrow. "So... you spent several hours in Hogsmeade before coming back?"

"No, that secret passage is really long. We walked for nearly an hour."

"You guys... are really something." Albert forced those words out. Walking for an hour would have been torture for him.

After all, as a couch potato, if he could sit on a sofa and read, why would he put himself through the trouble of crawling into a secret passage? And it would take two hours for the round trip.

What was the point? "This is what I found." Albert raised the book in his hand. "I borrowed it from the library."

"You found that spell." Fred immediately realized what Albert meant.

"Uh, I found it." Albert was a little impressed by Fred's quick wit. "But it's not easy to master. If you want to learn it, you should prepare yourselves first."