42

Sherlock had Pyros help deliver several wrapped Christmas presents to a few good friends he had met at Hogwarts. Pyros complained bitterly about having to make several long trips in succession, but he still faithfully carried out his master's orders. After all, that was his duty as the eagle by his master's side.

Thinking of the weary look Pyros had shown before taking flight, Sherlock wondered whether he should develop a spell like a duplicate spell. Something like that would surely come in handy soon enough.

On Christmas night, Mephisto Manor was once again decorated in magnificent splendor. Magic had created a snowy kingdom scene, and a massive Christmas tree stood in the great hall of Mephisto Manor's castle.

"Damn it... More than half the presents here are for Sherlock. I clearly gave away plenty this year too, but I'm obviously spending more than I'm getting back."

Fumengde complained in the hall. He had received the fewest Christmas presents in the family; even his daughter and wife had received more than he had.

"Here, Axinsha. Merry Christmas." Sherlock smiled as he gently stroked his sister's forehead, then handed her the present he had wrapped. For his parents, he had prepared a colorful scarf for each of them.

His gift for his sister was a specially made quill.

Sherlock had added the 'Responsive Writing Charm' to this quill. It was a spell Sherlock had developed on his own, similar to the social networking software in the Muggle world.

Sherlock had noticed that in the Muggle world, Microsoft's MSN had become exceptionally popular among Europeans, receiving an enthusiastic response because it offered countless conveniences and benefits, whether for socializing or work.

The Responsive Writing Charm drew inspiration from MSN's instant messaging system in Muggle society. For example, with a quill and a notebook, as long as the Responsive Writing Charm was cast on both objects, no matter how far away the quill was, whatever was written with it would appear in the notebook.

Likewise, a single quill could be linked to many notebooks through the Responsive Writing Charm, while many quills could send responses to a single notebook through the same charm.

Sherlock thought that, if the circle were large enough, the Responsive Writing Charm could easily create a group chat for multiple wizards.

With this quill, Axinsha could communicate with her brother Sherlock anytime and anywhere, without having to rely on the troublesome method of letters anymore. Sherlock himself also had a fountain pen enchanted with the Responsive Writing Charm. He was not particularly fond of the quills commonly used by wizards; even in class, he used a Muggle fountain pen to take notes. This fountain pen could send messages to his sister Axinsha's diary, as well as to one of Pyros's feathers and one of Camilla's scales.

That way, if Camilla and Pyros were far away from Sherlock, he could use that fountain pen to send them orders at any time. Sherlock had also cast two original spells on Pyros and Camilla respectively.

'Script Listening Charm.'

The power of this spell lay in the fact that even if a book was written in Russian, as long as Sherlock used the Script Listening Charm, he would be able to understand the meaning of every Russian word in it. Even though, afterward, he still would not understand a single Russian word, while under the effects of the Script Listening Charm, all unreadable text would become text he could understand, as though someone beside him were reading it aloud.

Sherlock had spent an entire month specifically studying whether the written languages of different countries contained some kind of underlying principle. It truly was not easy to find even the faintest trace of magic that could be used within purely textual content.

As long as Camilla and Pyros used the Script Listening Charm, they would naturally understand that the tiny words appearing on the feather and scale conveyed their master's meaning.

Moreover, Sherlock had never made public either the Responsive Writing Charm or the Script Listening Charm, because he felt there was no longer any need to build a reputation for himself in the wizarding world.

At this point, what wizard in the wizarding world did not know the name of the renowned Prince of Charms?

So even when outsiders speculated that Sherlock had created some secret, immensely powerful spells, Sherlock gave no response whatsoever. And among the spells he had released before, he had deliberately chosen ones of little use.

Like the Blood Sacrifice Bat Plague spell he had used against the werewolf who attacked him during that gathering of dark wizards—the terror of that spell was certainly no less than Avada Kedavra, since it drained every drop of blood from a living creature.

In that case, no matter who it was, death was inevitable. The Blood Sacrifice Bat Plague was also known as the vicious vampire curse among spells.

Even amid widespread condemnation from the outside world, Sherlock had never revealed a single detail about that spell. During that period, he had also become the wizarding world's only controllable Obscurial. The power of his Obscurus was even greater than that of the Obscurial who had wreaked havoc in New York decades ago.

That Obscurial had overwhelmed the entire Magical Congress of the United States, and even Grindelwald had been at a disadvantage against it. Thus, many people outside believed that Sherlock's current strength was no weaker than Grindelwald's had been.

And with an even more powerful Obscurus at his command, perhaps the only person who could stop Sherlock even now was Dumbledore of Hogwarts.

Under such circumstances, even though the Ministry of Magic knew full well that Sherlock possessed—and might have developed—many evil dark spells, there was nothing they could do. They could only hope that Dumbledore at Hogwarts would offer more guidance while Sherlock was still studying there.

The Ministry of Magic was afraid—deeply worried—that too much pressure and too many coercive measures would force Sherlock into becoming someone like Grindelwald or Voldemort.

Grindelwald had been dissatisfied with wizards hiding in the shadows. What he advocated was merely that wizards should make themselves known to Muggles. The several large-scale attacks and vicious incidents he caused had mostly targeted Muggles. Even the descendants of Mudblood Muggles, so long as they became wizards, would not face hostility or prejudice from Grindelwald.

Voldemort, however, was different. He was a complete madman, someone who even dared to slaughter wizards.

After Christmas had passed, Sherlock turned another year older.

More than ten days later, it was time to prepare for his return to school.

During this time, he carefully searched through the things he had once used in the manor's castle, and among them he found many study notes he had used while researching spells.

He had not realized it before, but once he started looking, he found a full twenty or thirty notebooks.

Sherlock felt that leaving these old notes sitting idle at Mephisto Manor would be a waste. It was not that he was unwilling to leave a fortune for the descendants of the Mephisto family.

Rather, the descendants of the Mephisto family did not have these spell notes, nor did they possess the ability to quickly devise a spell each month.

So Sherlock simply packed up these study notes and brought them back to Hogwarts. Once he arrived at school, he had separate plans and arrangements for every one of them.