A Sudden Betrayal

Argeleia's skill with potions was astonishingly high. After all her showing off, Hoffa had obtained nearly ninety percent of the complete formula. If Slughorn had not interrupted, he would have gotten the whole thing.

But now that things had come to this, there was no point hating Slughorn. The proper thing to do was quickly address the weakness of his insufficient magic. If he had a stable, inexhaustible supply of magic...

Not only would he no longer need to worry about the magic-draining strange tattoo on his arm.

He could even use Ghostwalk continuously.

Eternal Ghostwalk, eternal immunity to all harm.

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

With ninety percent of the formula, plus several old recipes he had found in the library, Hoffa felt that he should be able to calculate the proportions for a magic-restoration potion.

What Hoffa needed to do now was simple. First, purchase enough potion ingredients. That would not be difficult. Of the one hundred Galleons Yinduo had given him, he still had seventy left. He could have them mailed from Diagon Alley by owl.

Many students used this method regularly.

The second task was more troublesome.

He needed a place, an undisturbed environment for brewing potions. Though this potion was not exactly forbidden, Slughorn had said that being discovered would not look good. Better to avoid trouble whenever possible.

Hoffa had originally wanted to use the abandoned bathroom with the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, like Hermione did. But upon further thought, he laughed at himself for being so forgetful.

Myrtle was not dead yet. She was still alive and well in Ravenclaw. That girls' bathroom was still perfectly normal. If he went in, he would probably be strung up and beaten for being a pervert.

After much consideration, Hoffa decided to research potions in the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor. Nowhere was safer than there.

However, something that happened over the weekend changed Hoffa's plans.

Hoffa wanted to buy a large quantity of medicinal ingredients, but he did not have an owl. Miranda had one he could borrow, but he instinctively did not want to use a classmate's owl, because those owls would deliver packages during mealtimes.

If an owl delivered a huge bag of potion ingredients to him while he was eating, it would inevitably draw someone's attention again.

He did not want to be reported again.

After thinking it over, Hoffa thought of Joey.

He had worked with Joey for a month, and they got along reasonably well. The old man kept several owls in his house, so borrowing one should not be a problem.

More importantly, he was not afraid Joey would report him. Though he was a staff member, the things that guy did were far crazier than anything Hoffa had done. He was raising a Thunderbird in the Forbidden Forest.

By mid-November, the temperature had plummeted. Every morning, the area around the Forbidden Forest was covered in white frost. Britain's winter was coming.

That weekend, when Hoffa arrived at Joey's house, the treehouse was a complete mess. The fireplace was blazing hot, and the room's temperature was frighteningly high.

At that moment, Joey was wearing a pair of red mechanical glasses and running around the room bare-chested. One moment he was adding wood to the fireplace, the next he was rushing to the table, busying himself with one thing after another.

There was a nest of hay on the table, and inside lay a round bird egg.

It was the egg laid by Talas, the Thunderbird.

"What are you doing?" Hoffa asked.

"Taking care of Maya."

Joey answered without turning around.

"Maya? This Thunderbird is female?" Hoffa asked curiously.

Joey did not answer. He merely stared at the Thunderbird egg with rapt fascination. Hoffa suspected he had not heard a word he said.

So he walked over and gave Joey two pushes.

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

Only then did Joey seem to react. He straightened up and removed his glasses.

"What did you come to see me for?"

"To borrow an owl," Hoffa said. "Can I borrow one?"

"Go take one yourself." After saying that, Joey bent back over the table to observe the bird egg.

"Oh." Hoffa headed outside.

When he reached the door, Joey suddenly called after him.

"Wait. I just remembered, I need to go to Knockturn Alley to buy some ingredients too. I can't let you use an owl for now."

"Huh?"

Hoffa was stunned. Could it really be that coincidental?

"What medicine are you buying?"

"Maya is in an incubation state. She's very weak in this condition, and Britain's climate is becoming increasingly unfriendly to her. I need some special medicine to help keep her alive."

Hoffa stood there blankly for quite a while.

"All right. Actually, I'm going to Diagon Alley to buy medicine too."

"Hm?"

Now it was Joey's turn to be surprised.

"You're buying ingredients too? Are the school's supplies not enough?"

"I want to brew a magic-restoration potion," Hoffa said.

"Quit bragging," Joey scoffed. "That stuff sells for twenty Galleons a vial at St. Mungo's. If you can brew it, I'll be damned. Besides, you're still so young. What do you need that stuff for?"

Twenty Galleons. Hoffa clicked his tongue inwardly. The ingredients for one vial cost less than a Galleon, yet it sold for twenty.

With the money he had, he could not even buy four finished vials. Hospitals really were all the same damn thing. A wand cost less than twenty Galleons.

If he could figure out the proportions for the restoration potion, he might even be able to make a fortune from it in the future.

"My magic is insufficient," Hoffa said.

"You're still young. Your magic will grow in a few years."

Hoffa thought that in a few years, if he could not get a magic potion, he might not even pass his first-year exams. Besides, Schmidt Ruterov was still wandering about out there. Faced with the many risks ahead, he had to solve his magic problem sooner or later.

Seeing Hoffa remain silent, Joey looked surprised. "You really want to brew it?"

"Yes."

"Ha, just what you'd expect from a Ravenclaw student."

After saying that, he sat down, pulled out a piece of parchment, and began scribbling away. When he finished, he handed it to Hoffa.

"If you're buying things, then go ahead. While you're at it, bring these items back for me too. Use two owls."

Clearly, Joey did not care in the slightest whether Hoffa was breaking rules. All his attention was focused on the Thunderbird egg, and he paid no heed to anything else.

So after leaving Joey's place, Hoffa abandoned the idea of going to the Room of Requirement. He decided to research the magic-restoration potion in Joey's treehouse instead.

He would have to sneak into the Room of Requirement, and with so many people at school, someone might discover him.

But Joey's place was safer instead. With an old rogue watching over him, if anything went wrong, there would be someone taller to take the blame.

Joey's owls were highly efficient. Three days later, the ingredients Hoffa needed arrived from Diagon Alley.

There were so many packages that the two owls were nearly worked to death.

Of course, Joey's medicine arrived as well. It looked black and muddy, like sludge from a pond, utterly disgusting.

Now that he had the ingredients, Hoffa had to set aside time every day to run over to Joey's treehouse.

He did not have Argeleia's proficiency, nor did he have the complete formula. He felt he would need to conduct quite a few experiments before he could work out the proportions for the magic-restoration potion.

Days passed, and it was Friday again. That afternoon, as soon as Hoffa finished his classes, he quickly left the classroom and hurried toward Joey's treehouse.

Normally, Joey would stay in the main hall of the treehouse, never leaving his bird egg for even a moment.

But that day, Hoffa saw Joey standing by the stables at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, fitting a saddle onto a white horse. A sword sheath and crossbow hung from the horse, while Joey himself carried several small glass bottles that gave off an inexplicable glow. He was armed to the teeth.

For some reason, that outfit reminded Hoffa of Geralt.

"What are you doing?" Hoffa could not help asking.

Seeing Hoffa arrive, Joey casually said, "Go do your own thing. I'm heading into the Forbidden Forest. Something seems to have happened to the centaurs. Oh, and help me look after Maya. Don't let the temperature in the room drop."

Something happened to the centaurs?

Hoffa was a little curious, but he did not think much of it. After all, Joey was the gamekeeper. Going into the Forbidden Forest was perfectly normal for him.

"Go ahead. Leave Maya to me."

Joey swung onto his horse and rode into the forest.

As he watched Joey's retreating figure, Hoffa suddenly felt someone watching him from behind.

He spun around sharply.

Under the dim yellow light of the setting sun, the early winter grass swayed in the wind, and the surface of the Black Lake glittered with rippling light.

There was no one there.

Hoffa frowned. Something felt off. This was not the first time he had felt this way in recent days.

He did not linger. Quickly climbing the rope ladder, he entered the treehouse.

The main hall of the treehouse was a mess. Herbs and scraps were scattered everywhere across the floor.

Hoffa glanced at the Thunderbird egg on the table. It was now coated in black sludge, looking like an enormous century egg.

Hoffa put on Joey's glasses and checked the egg's condition. The glasses could see through the shell and reveal the embryo inside.

Afterward, he added more wood to the fireplace before sitting down in the center of the room.

Three cauldrons stood in the middle of the treehouse, each containing gently simmering potion. Every cauldron had different ingredients, and the air was thick with an intense magical scent.

These were the ingredients for a lesser magic-restoration potion, and they were nearly complete.

If he could successfully make the restoration potion, Hoffa did not dare claim that he would truly become permanently invincible. But the predicament of his magical shortage would be greatly eased.

Little by little, he scooped the potion out of the cauldrons, extracted the most crucial components, and dripped them into three separate test tubes.

The test tubes turned red, yellow, and green. They looked quite beautiful.

But it was not finished yet.

What came next was the most crucial missing step.

The proportions.

He carefully placed the three potion tubes on the table, then took out a dropper and slowly dripped potion from one test tube into another.

Argeleia had said that almost no one in the world knew those proportions, but Hoffa had already calculated an approximate range. As long as he spent more time testing—

But just then, the hairs on the back of Hoffa's neck stood on end. He spun around.

Boom!

The treehouse door was violently shoved open!

A silver-haired little girl stood in the doorway, pointing at Hoffa in wild delight.

"I! I! I caught you!"

Her expression was like that of a woman desperate for a divorce settlement catching her husband cheating.

"Ha! Secretly brewing potions, and you even copied my formula!"

Argeleia's chest heaved violently.

Hoffa's face went pale. He had never imagined this girl had followed him. "You fucking followed me!?"

"So what?" Argeleia burst out laughing.

"Just wait until I tell Professor Gorshak!"

The situation had taken a sudden turn for the worse. In an instant, it was as though he had stepped off a cliff.

After a brief moment of panic, Hoffa calmed down. There was no point reasoning with this woman. The urgent matter was solving the problem.

What should he do?

Though a magic-restoration potion was not a forbidden potion like Polyjuice Potion, his Head of House was the stern and merciless Gorshak.

He saw the test tubes on the table. They were the vials of potion he had painstakingly obtained, the foundation for determining the restoration potion's proportions.

But now, he had to destroy them.

Having made his decision, Hoffa lunged at the potions on the table like lightning.

Argeleia reacted quickly as well. She saw through Hoffa's intentions at once. He wanted to destroy the evidence.

"Don't even think about it!"

She lunged at the potions too.

Thud! Thud!

The two of them threw themselves onto the table one after the other, making it shake violently. Maya nearly rolled off the table.

Argeleia reached out and grabbed a potion tube.

Hoffa seized her fingers.

"Let go of me!"

"Give it to me!"

"You let go!"

"You fucking let go!"

Bat-Bogey Hexes!

Bang!

In the struggle, Argeleia ambushed Hoffa. Her Bat-Bogey Hex struck him in the chest, sending him stumbling back several steps before he crashed headfirst into the pile of firewood in Joey's room. Several bats clung to his chest and face, squeaking and flapping.

"Ha ha ha!"

Argeleia stuck out her tongue and made a face at him, then clutched the potion tube and ran laughing toward the door.

Leg-Locker Curse!

Hoffa rolled over, smashing aside wood chips and bats, then pointed his wand at Argeleia.

A red flash shot out.

Argeleia's calves suddenly snapped together. Caught off guard, she fell headfirst out the door and landed on the platform. She screamed furiously, "Bach, I'm going to kill you!"

With that, she pointed her wand at Hoffa.

A brilliant, dangerous blue light shot toward him.

Without another word, Hoffa activated Ghostwalk.

With a flash, he dodged it completely.

Seeing Hoffa disappear, Argeleia did not react at first. By the time she did, Hoffa had already leaped out of the shadows. He straddled Argeleia's waist and snatched her wand away.

"You little witch, are you insane?"

"Who are you calling an old hag?"

"You!"

"Are you even human? Why do you always have to oppose me!?" Hoffa roared.

"You humiliated me and disrespected me. Do you know who I am? Do you know my family? I'm the renowned—"

Hoffa said, "Who the hell cares who you are! You're just a jealous, crazy, paranoid problem girl!"

"I'm jealous? I'm the problem!!!?"

Argeleia roared as she grabbed Hoffa's face, her fingers nearly plunging into his nostrils.

"Who was it that tricked me out of my potion recipe in Potions class? You don't understand it, yet instead of humbly asking for help, all you know is how to cheat people. You're full of schemes! You're arrogant, sinister, and deceitful."

"Shut up!"

Hoffa clamped a hand over her mouth, but she bit him.

Hoffa tried to snatch the potion, but Argeleia stretched her hand beyond the wooden platform.

Hoffa reached for it, and Argeleia edged backward, speaking as she did.

"You shameless bastard, you're finished! Just wait until I get back to school. You'll be expelled!"

Hoffa said nothing and simply kept reaching for it.

In the struggle, half of Argeleia's body had edged beyond the treehouse platform. The farther they reached, the more they leaned forward.