Defense Against the Dark Arts

Ron asked, "Cool! What kind of alchemy is it?"

Oren curled his lip. "Don't worry. Once I can make alchemical spiders, I'll be the first to sprinkle a bagful on your bed."

Ron imagined the scene: he pulled back his covers, only to find them filled with metal spiders. His face instantly went pale with fright.

Hagrid crept sneakily over to Oren's side, though his enormous frame made the attempt at stealth rather ineffective. He handed over a bag and said,

"Take a look. It's all brand-new, top-quality stuff without any wear."

Oren simply tucked the bag into his pocket.

Hagrid said, "Aren't you going to check it?"

"It's fine, Hagrid. I trust you to get things done."

Touched, Hagrid patted Oren on the shoulder. Oren did not budge, but his chair let out a protesting creak.

"Harry, you've put on quite a bit of weight." After chatting with Harry for a while, Hagrid left.

Hermione leaned close to Oren's ear and whispered, "What Hagrid gave you isn't contraband, is it?"

The little witch immediately began reciting the prohibited items listed in the school rules.

"Stop, stop, stop. What contraband? Hagrid just helped me withdraw a little money. A thousand Galleons, that's all."

"How much?!" Ron's voice cracked in shock.

Harry sucked in a breath. A thousand Galleons was indeed no small sum.

Hermione asked, "What do you need that much money for? You can't use it at school, can you?"

Oren rolled his eyes. "For alchemy, obviously. That stuff costs a fortune. What else, am I paying a bride price to Mr. Granger?"

Harry and Ron exchanged looks. Oren really was the sharpest-tongued person they had ever met. (They had not had Potions yet.)

The furious little witch gave Oren several light punches.

"Hmph." Hermione angrily gnawed on her bread like a beaver chewing through a tree stump.

Fred said, "Hey, Oren, we finished your homework."

George said, "Guaranteed Os across the board."

After flipping through several sheets of parchment, Oren nodded. "Good work."

Then he pulled out a handful of Galleons. "This term's homework is all yours."

Fred accepted the Galleons and gave an odd, exaggerated bow.

George said, "Young Master Black, leave it to us."

Hermione???

Alchemy? Bride price? So he had hired someone to do his homework! So furious that she lost all reason, the little witch leaped from her chair and prepared to rush to the teachers' table to report him. She was determined to take Oren down with her.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's not that serious." Oren quickly grabbed Hermione. "Don't report me. This could cost Gryffindor a lot of points. Hermione, you wouldn't want the points you worked so hard to earn deducted because of someone else's mistake, would you?"

Seeing Oren in trouble, Harry and Ron wanted to help but had no idea how to soothe the enraged beaver. They could only fret like two baboons picking at fleas.

Seeing their benefactor in trouble, George and Fred decisively... remained as still as mountains while their allies suffered.

Oren nearly wore out his tongue before finally smoothing down the enraged beaver's fur. Along the way, he signed countless agreements: no causing trouble, no losing points, answering questions diligently, and making Gryffindor great again.

Oren silently complained, Damn it, why did I spit venom at her? It must be Snape's fault. I've spent too much time around him and caught his poisonous-tongued habit.

That's right! It was all Snape's fault. Next time they dueled, he would definitely punch him a few times.

"Achoo!" A wizard sneezed from the teachers' table.

"Ugh..." With a sigh, Oren looked at Harry and Ron.

Harry said, "Oren, Hagrid probably told you about me. I'm really terrible at comforting people."

Ron chimed in, "Oren, you probably know about me too. There are a lot of kids in my family..."

"Enough." Oren interrupted Ron. "I know you two live like house-elves."

Ron!!!

Harry???

Seeing Harry's confused expression, Ron quietly explained what a house-elf was.

After hearing it, Harry became sad. It was similar, so similar. At the Dursleys', he really had lived like a house-elf.

Oren grabbed a few biscuits. "Let's go. We've got Defense Against the Dark Arts today."

On the way, Ron and Harry kept discussing the powerful spells they might learn in this class. Their nonstop chatter made Oren's head ache.

When they entered the classroom, Oren gave Professor Quirrell a puzzled look, then walked over to Hermione and hauled her deskmate Neville to his feet.

He tossed the boy over beside Seamus and thought, Doesn't this guy know Hermione and I have an open-book duel every class?

Neville hunched his neck, afraid Oren, the big brother figure, would ask whether he was feeling energetic today.

Oren took out his textbook and gave Hermione a provocative look.

Oren Black has sent you a duel request.

Hermione returned a challenging glare.

Hermione Granger has accepted the duel request.

Harry sensed a familiar atmosphere and dragged Ron to a corner of the classroom.

They were just about to give each other a taste of top-student intimidation when class began, and they realized something was off. Professor Quirrell could barely speak, and a powerful garlic smell clung to him from head to toe. Helplessly, the two of them called a truce and opened their textbooks.

Oren was miserable. If he tried to sleep, the garlic smell kept him awake. If he listened, Quirrell stammered through every sentence. He could not help cursing inwardly, What kind of garbage general-store system is this? Why couldn't it give me a few gas masks?

The moment class ended, all the young wizards sprinted out of the classroom.

"Phew, phew, phew." Ron gasped. "I feel like I was about to suffocate."

Harry said, "That class was such a disappointment. I'd been looking forward to it for so long."

Oren handed them both a few biscuits.

Harry took a bite. "These biscuits are pretty good."

"Yeah." Ron stuffed biscuits into his mouth with both hands. "Garlic-flavored. I've never had that before."

"Garlic-flavored?" Oren said in confusion. "These are just ordinary biscuits from the Great Hall... Then maybe they're Quirrell-flavored. He probably infused them with the smell."

"Bleurgh!" ×2

"Harry, Ron, do you know where I can buy all kinds of materials?"

Harry wiped his mouth. "Maybe you could ask Fred and George. They can get their hands on almost anything."

Ron nodded. "They often sneak into the Forbidden Forest to look for materials."

Oren headed for the Forbidden Forest. He had just remembered that the Nifflers around its edge were rather well-off.

After quietly circling around Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest, Oren pulled a Luoyang shovel from his system space.

Before long, Oren had a small sack on his back, filled with all kinds of ores: pitch-black silver ore, crystals, gemstones of every color no bigger than grains of sand, and even several nuggets of native gold.

"You..." Oren pointed at a Niffler and began berating it. "I looted—no, borrowed from—the entire edge of the Forbidden Forest."

"You're the poorest one. The other Nifflers had ores and gemstones, or at worst natural crystals, Silver Sickles, Copper Knuts, and things like that."

"Look at you. A pile of glass marbles and heaps of buttons."

After finishing his tirade, Oren picked up his sack and prepared to leave. Then he paused, turned around, and collected the pile of buttons. They were copper and iron, after all. With another sweep, he used Fiendfyre to burn the glass marbles to ashes.

"Work hard. Next time, make sure you've accumulated more wealth."

After patting the utterly furious Niffler, Oren carried his sack out of the Forbidden Forest.

All the way back, he hummed a little tune from his hometown before he crossed over, while sighing that farming the wild really was the fastest way to make money.

Gryffindor Tower.

Fred asked, "What have you been up to?"

George rubbed his hands together. "What goodies are in that bundle?"

"I borrowed some materials from the Nifflers in the Forbidden Forest."

The twins!!!

"Nifflers have that many materials?!"

"Of course. Everything I got this trip was metal material: gold, silver, copper, iron, all of it. It was a massive haul."

The twins regretted it so much they pounded their thighs.

"Fred, how didn't I think of that?!"

"It's fine, George. Let's go now!"

"Don't bother." Oren explained, "I borrowed their ninety-odd years of savings. The Nifflers are all paupers now. There's nothing left to squeeze out of them."

Ignoring the two brothers beating their chests in regret, Oren returned to the dormitory and tossed the bundle in his hands into a corner.

Harry rolled his eyes and handed Oren a pie.

"Here. I knew you'd miss dinner."

Oren took the pie, ate several bites, and patted Harry on the shoulder.

"Come on, Oren."

"Where to?"

Ron said in surprise, "Class, of course! Astronomy!"

Oren!!!

"So we have to go out in the middle of the night, freeze in the wind, and stare stupidly at stars?"

Harry, Ron, and Neville dragged the thoroughly unwilling Oren to the Astronomy Tower.

"Achoo!" ×3

A cold wind swept past, and Harry, Ron, and Neville shuddered.

Oren, the human-shaped little fire dragon, complained, "Are you guys really this weak? The temperature's only a little low, and the wind's only a little strong. Is it really that bad?"

The young wizards around them stared at Oren speechlessly.

"Move, move." Oren chased off Hermione, who was using the telescope. "It's my turn."

"Hmph." The little witch glared at him.

Oren jumped in surprise. The first thing he saw was Ron's enormous face.

"Ron, stop grinning into the telescope." Oren pulled Ron aside. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Is there something wrong with the moon? Why is it so round? The date doesn't seem right."

"The constellations!" Hermione said. "Stop looking all over the place. Look at the constellations! The professor didn't tell you to look at the moon."

After watching for a while, Oren put down the telescope. "Boring."

Back in the dormitory.

Harry was wrapped in his blanket, while Ron and Neville sniffled.

Oren said, "One bottle of wheat juice each. Warm yourselves up."

"You three stay in the dormitory and sleep properly. I'm going to see Headmaster Dumbledore."

The three of them...

"Headmaster, stop sleeping. Wake up and have some fun."

Dumbledore, who had been shaken awake, forced himself to stay alert and said to Oren, "Child, what experiment are you doing today?"

"It's not really an experiment. I'm just doing some ordinary alchemy."

"Oh, then do it yourself, child. I'm going back to sleep."

"Fine."

"Bang!" Oren set down the bundle and began his alchemical experiments in the headmaster's office.

Lying in bed, Dumbledore's eyelids twitched wildly as he listened to sounds like a demolition site coming from the room. He felt a migraine beginning to form.

Wiping black soot from his face, Oren revealed a small sunflower in his hand. It was forged entirely from gold, with silver wire outlining the veins on its petals and sepals. Tiny gemstones of various colors were set into the flower's center, making it exquisitely delicate.

"That is a very beautiful sunflower, child," Dumbledore said, rubbing his head.

"Of course. But it's more than beautiful. It has Lumos on it, so it'll shine even brighter."

"All right, Headmaster, hurry up and conjure a bed. It's almost morning."

Dumbledore's face darkened. You know it's almost morning? Why did making a simple brooch sound like a bull charging into a china shop?!

The moment Oren saw the bed, he flopped down and fell asleep.

Dumbledore...