Ch. 381The Overlooked Inter-School Wizard's Chess Championship

Manus arranged a low-cost custom broomstick for Bellows, while Pante departed for the Inter-School Wizard's Chess Championship and encouraged Manus to compete in four years. Afterward, Manus visited Hagrid and found the oak trunks Hagrid had gathered for making magical items.

  • Manus charged Bellows only for the materials of the wand-compatible broomstick he had custom-made for him.
  • Manus and Pante discussed Hogwarts's lack of interest in the Inter-School Wizard's Chess Championship, and Pante predicted Manus would draw greater attention when he competed in four years.
  • Flitwick checked the time and set off with Pante for the championship, while Manus headed to Hagrid's Hut.
  • Manus found four stripped oak trunks in Hagrid's garden, collected with help from a Bowtruckle to ensure they were suitable for magical crafting.
  • Manus inspected Hagrid's vegetable plots and noted that Hagrid would plant pumpkins there for Halloween in early summer.

Ch. 382Hagrid's Wish

Manus visited Hagrid to discuss making a large Broomstick that Hagrid could ride. After examining Hagrid’s damaged oak wand, Manus proposed combining a wand with the Broomstick and began sketching a design.

  • Hagrid welcomed Manus and showed him the Bowtruckle Bruce eating with Fang.
  • Hagrid asked Manus to make him a Broomstick large enough to ride, and Manus agreed.
  • Hagrid chose a normal Broomstick shape instead of a whole tree and showed Manus his wand.
  • Manus recognized that Hagrid’s oak wand had been broken and repaired, and learned that Dumbledore had helped restore it.
  • Manus sketched a design that would put a wand core inside Hagrid’s large Broomstick.

Ch. 383Payment in Kind

Manus agreed to make Hagrid a Broomstick that could function as a wand, asking him to find Unicorn tail hair and collecting the oak wood and other materials Hagrid had prepared. After Manus finished processing materials for several Broomsticks, the Daily Prophet reported that prisoners had escaped before trial, revealing another Ministry of Magic failure tied to Death Eater infiltration.

  • Manus explained that Hagrid's Broomstick could handle magic like a wand and asked him to find Unicorn tail hair for its wand portion.
  • Manus told Hagrid that the four oak trees he had found were more than enough, then packed the extra wood, bark, and branches into an enchanted box.
  • Manus said Hagrid's Broomstick would be made after he completed the Broomsticks for Ravenclaw House, and promised it by the end of term.
  • After processing materials for seven standard Broomsticks and acquiring Willow Wood for Bellows, Manus read that prisoners had escaped before trial and blamed the Ministry's Death Eater infiltration.

Ch. 384Raven's Feather

After two prisoners escaped from the Ministry, Eugenia struggled to make her staff investigate while Manus tracked one of the fugitives and finished a set of custom Broomsticks. The Ravenclaw Quidditch Team received the seven Ravenfeathers and eagerly prepared to test them.

  • Eugenia scolded Ministry employees over the prisoners’ escape, but she could not identify the insider or compel the staff to investigate effectively.
  • Manus used Fake Craigus's blood to locate him, sent Huginn to observe him, and ordered Huginn to wait until the rest of the group had been found.
  • Manus completed seven Broomsticks with added enchantments for speed, stability, protection, and a more comfortable ride.
  • Manus presented the Broomsticks, named Raven's Feather (Ravenquill) or Ravenfeather, to the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team and told them to test them.

Ch. 385Plain, Unadorned Stat Crushing

Manus’s Raven’s Feather brooms proved astonishingly fast and stable when the Ravenclaw Team tested them, leaving Slytherin’s captain convinced the new equipment would make Ravenclaw overwhelming favorites. The chapter ended with Flitwick excitedly discussing the brooms with Manus while the Slytherins left, recognizing the enormous gap they created.

  • Flitwick approved Ravenclaw’s use of the training grounds and accompanied the team to test Manus’s Raven’s Feather brooms.
  • Claude Foley and the Slytherin Team noticed Ravenclaw’s unusual brooms and stayed to watch their practice.
  • George released the Golden Snitch, Quaffle, and Bludgers, and the Ravenclaw players mounted their new brooms and raced skyward.
  • The Ravenclaw players discovered that the brooms were far faster and more stable at high altitudes than they had expected, while Edmund quickly adapted enough to chase and strike a Bludger repeatedly.
  • Claude damaged his own broom while staring at Ravenclaw’s performance, then concluded that the team’s massive advantage would likely make them Quidditch champions.

Ch. 386Cultivation from His Own Head of House

Manus left Flitwick and returned to his dormitory to finish Bellows's private broomstick, while Flitwick began considering training Manus for the Magical Schools Dueling Tournament. The broomstick was complete, and Manus decided Bellows could name it himself.

  • Manus asked Flitwick about Pante's progress in the Inter-School Wizard's Chess Championship, and Flitwick said Pante had survived the first day and would bring home a trophy.
  • Manus left Flitwick after noting that the Ravenclaw Team still needed time to adjust to their new broomstick.
  • Flitwick reflected on how little he had contributed to Manus's development and considered beginning combat training for him.
  • Manus returned to his dormitory and designed Bellows's broomstick with an Iron Armor Charm and enhanced detection effects, while rejecting features that would violate competition rules.
  • Manus finished the broomstick and decided to let Bellows choose its name.

Ch. 387Be a Listener Again?

Manus worked on a stable, oversized Broomstick for Hagrid while waiting for a dying Common Welsh Green Dragon to provide materials for his research. Dumbledore invited Manus to be a listener again, and Manus considered the consequences of Dumbledore’s recent defeat and his lack of knowledge about Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

  • Manus designed Hagrid’s Broomstick to prioritize stability and withstand rough handling, and prepared most of its materials.
  • Manus arranged for Muninn to watch a dying Common Welsh Green, hoping to use its Dragon Heartstring and study the effects of its body on his vitality.
  • Manus monitored the Dragon while continuing his research and waiting for other planned developments.
  • Fawkes delivered Dumbledore’s invitation for Manus to be a listener again, along with a promise of sweet milk and nut-honey biscuits.
  • Manus reflected on Dumbledore’s losses against the Death Eaters and considered what Voldemort’s Horcruxes might reveal about his ability to return.

Ch. 388A Glass of Gin

Manus told himself not to trust Tom’s claims about the Horcruxes and planned how to inform Dumbledore that Voldemort had made several. In Dumbledore’s office, he heard how a winter attack on Voldemort had failed, and he began to suspect Voldemort had lured Dumbledore’s group into a trap.

  • Manus decided the Horcruxes’ answers would need to be checked against one another and prepared to tell Dumbledore about them.
  • Manus visited Dumbledore, who recounted how his group had attacked Voldemort during winter break after locating him.
  • Voldemort unleashed Fiendfyre, killing people on both sides, while Dumbledore and others stayed to contain it and Voldemort escaped unharmed.
  • Manus suspected Voldemort had anticipated the attack and set a trap, though he was unsure whether Dumbledore had noticed the possibility.
  • Dumbledore apologized for missing Manus’s letter about Kreigs and the others, and Manus replied that they had escaped from the Ministry of Magic.

Ch. 389Leaks Were Inevitable When the Operation Grew Too Large

Manus and Dumbledore discussed the risks of leaks and the Order of the Phoenix’s growing size, while Dumbledore secretly planned to protect Manus’s family from Kreigs and his allies. Dumbledore then asked Manus whether he needed a Pensieve, and Manus confirmed that he did.

  • Manus considered how Fake Craigus had contacted only the real Kreigs through a rare Two-Way Mirror.
  • Dumbledore blamed the Order of the Phoenix’s casualties for worsening corruption at the Ministry and allowing Fake Craigus and Kreigs to escape.
  • Dumbledore decided to have the Order secretly protect Manus’s family and intensify the search for Kreigs and his group.
  • Dumbledore and Manus discussed the Ravenclaw Quidditch team’s new Broomsticks and the difficulty of keeping the innovation secret.
  • Manus warned that rival teams would try to improve their chances, prompting Dumbledore to reconsider the Order’s vulnerability to leaks.
  • Dumbledore asked whether Manus needed a Pensieve, and Manus said that he did.

Ch. 390Pensieve

Manus borrowed Hogwarts’s Pensieve from Dumbledore and returned to his dormitory to study Lady Rowena Ravenclaw’s memories. Before viewing them, he considered how the Mental World might have affected those memories and decided that Tom could provide memories for experiments.

  • Dumbledore showed Manus Hogwarts’s Pensieve and warned him to handle memories with care.
  • Manus examined the Pensieve’s construction, borrowed its basin, and promised to return it soon.
  • After Manus left, Dumbledore reconsidered whom he could trust in the Order of the Phoenix and decided against sending anyone to protect Manus’s family.
  • Manus carried the Pensieve back to his dormitory, where the Ravenclaws assumed he was preparing another invention.
  • Manus paused before viewing Lady Rowena Ravenclaw’s memories and considered testing the Mental World’s influence with his own memories or Tom’s.

Ch. 391Echoes of Memory

Manus discovered that the Mental World could give a memory a lifelike form, creating Tiny Tom from Tom Riddle’s memories without truly resurrecting him. He transformed Tiny Tom into a Pensieve-like memory inside the Demiplane Prison and stepped into it.

  • Manus brought Tom Riddle’s memory into the complete Mental World, where it formed a living-seeming Tiny Tom.
  • Manus subdued Tiny Tom and confined him in a Demiplane Prison beneath the Mage Tower.
  • Manus examined Tiny Tom and concluded that he was an echo of a memory given form by Mental Particles, not a resurrected person.
  • Manus used Runes to transform Tiny Tom into silver substance and recreate his memory as a Pensieve-like room throughout the prison.
  • Manus entered the recreated memory and met Tiny Tom’s gaze.

Ch. 392The Core of Manifestation

Manus discovered that he could manifest a stone from another person’s memory while inside the Mental World, then investigated why it worked. His experiments led him to conclude that Mental Particles were the core of manifestation, opening a path toward understanding the Mental World and Soul Magic.

  • Manus took a sharp-edged stone from Little Tom’s pocket in a recreated memory and successfully carried it into the Material Realm.
  • Manus considered why Soul Manifestation worked on lost possessions but not used or absorbed things, and questioned whether memories could be its key.
  • Manus extracted the memory into a Pensieve and failed to manifest a quill from it while experiencing the memory in the Material World.
  • Manus reasoned that the difference between the worlds lay in their particles and suspected Mental Particles enabled manifestation.
  • Manus produced a glowing geometric pattern from his palm and concluded that Mental Particles were the core of manifestation.

Ch. 393Harvests Without Knowing Why

Manus made no progress understanding the Mental Dimension, though he developed a teleportation method and set aside his research to use a Dragon in Beast Blood Baptism. Afterward, he noticed the Common Welsh Green’s vitality enhanced traits unevenly and wondered whether the ritual’s vitality effects depended on its source.

  • Manus established long-lasting doors between the Mental World and Material World, placed one at his home in Cokeworth and eight around Hogwarts, and calculated that his Soul Capacity Limit could sustain nine.
  • Manus accepted that his research into the Mental Dimension had stalled and decided to return to his usual routine, including reviewing Rowena Ravenclaw’s memories before term ended.
  • After the aged Dragon died, Manus took its corpse, preserved its cardiac nerves, and used the remaining parts to perform Beast Blood Baptism.
  • Manus sensed that the Common Welsh Green’s vitality retained the Dragon’s traits and favored certain enhancements, prompting him to question how the ritual selected vitality effects.

Ch. 394My Name Is Godric

Manus considered how to refine the vitality from Beast Blood Baptism and questioned whether Soul Magic suited his approach to self-improvement. He watched Godric Gryffindor’s memories of Rowena Ravenclaw and planned to study the other founders’ memories before starting his research.

  • Manus concluded that Beast Blood Baptism’s vitality needed further filtering and noted that he would modify the ritual platform and update its baptism effects.
  • Manus decided that Soul Magic’s reliance on expanding an external system conflicted with his preference for improvements that belonged entirely to himself.
  • Manus used Hogwarts’s Pensieve to watch the memories Godric Gryffindor had left in Rowena Ravenclaw’s grave.
  • Manus saw memories spanning Godric and Rowena’s meeting, friendship, work founding Hogwarts, and the founders’ mourning after Rowena died.
  • Manus stored his observations in a memory crystal and planned to view the other two founders’ memories before researching the past and finishing Hagrid’s Broomstick.

Ch. 395A Method of Transferring Risk

Manus finished and named two Broomsticks, considering how mythological names might transfer the danger he associated with Odin to others. He carried Hagrid’s Oak Fortress toward Hagrid’s Hut, but Flitwick stopped him in the corridor.

  • Manus completed a durable, stable Broomstick that could function as a wand and named it Oak Fortress for Hagrid.
  • Manus named Bellows’s speed-focused Broomstick Willow-the-Wisp, while reflecting that using mythological names on friends could put them at risk.
  • Manus considered selling more named Broomsticks at Hogwarts as a way to shift the risk tied to names such as Sleipnir and Gungnir.
  • Manus headed toward Hagrid’s Hut with Oak Fortress and encountered Flitwick, who asked where he was going.

Ch. 396Get Up!

Manus delivered Oak Fortress, a custom broomstick, to Hagrid and watched him test it in the yard. Hagrid successfully rose into the air and found the broom stable enough to support him.

  • Flitwick asked Manus to visit his office before dinner after Manus explained he was taking a broomstick to Hagrid.
  • Manus reached Hagrid’s hut, greeted Fang, and presented Hagrid with Oak Fortress.
  • Manus invited Hagrid to test the broomstick and explained that he could adjust it before the final exams if needed.
  • Hagrid commanded Oak Fortress to rise, then mounted it and kicked off into the air.
  • Hagrid found Oak Fortress steady and sturdy, unlike the ordinary broomsticks he had tried before.

Ch. 397You Didn't Pluck a Unicorn Bald, Did You?

Hagrid tested Manus’s Oak Fortress, praising its flight and spellcasting while learning that it could repair itself and function as a wand. Before Manus left, Hagrid showed him a box full of Unicorn tail hair and explained that the Unicorns had naturally shed it.

  • Hagrid flew Oak Fortress around the Forbidden Forest and Great Lake, then praised its sturdy, self-repairing design.
  • Manus showed Hagrid that Oak Fortress could also cast spells, and Hagrid successfully lit the fireplace with a silent Incendio.
  • Manus told Hagrid that Professor Flitwick had thanked him for providing Oak Wood for Ravenclaw House’s Broomsticks.
  • Hagrid stopped Manus and gave him a box of Unicorn tail hair; Manus wondered if Hagrid had plucked a Unicorn bald.
  • Hagrid said the Unicorns had naturally shed their hair for summer and that he had collected it during several trips to their habitat.

Ch. 398A Gift from the Heart

Manus received Unicorn hair and a hand-carved Raven from Hagrid, then met with Flitwick to discuss the Magical Schools Dueling Tournament. Flitwick was surprised by how much Manus already knew about the competition.

  • Manus inspected the naturally shed Unicorn tail hair and happily accepted Hagrid's additional sack of unsorted Unicorn Hair.
  • Hagrid gave Manus a wooden Raven carved from leftover Oak Wood, and Manus treasured the thoughtful gift.
  • Manus used a Hogwarts portal to reach the first floor and then went to Flitwick's office on the Seventh Floor.
  • Flitwick asked Manus about the Magical Schools Dueling Tournament, and Manus explained what he knew.
  • Flitwick remarked that Manus's knowledge went beyond a general understanding.

Ch. 399Horcruxes Were Only Anchors

Manus explained that Horcruxes acted as anchors that kept their owners' souls from passing into the world of the dead, rather than resurrecting them. Flitwick then decided to prepare Manus for the Magical Schools Dueling Tournament by training his dueling experience, including the contests fought off the platform.

  • Manus recalled learning from Slytherin's books that Horcruxes kept their owners tethered to the living world but could not resurrect them on their own.
  • Manus concluded that he could ignore the remaining Horcruxes if he could destroy Voldemort's soul in his main body, and that Voldemort's soul fragments were too limited to pose much threat.
  • Manus reasoned that making a Horcrux caused a soul to split through the instability brought on by murder, leaving fragments that would struggle to recover or retain their memories.
  • Flitwick agreed that books alone could not reveal the true nature of something and explained that tournament victories depended on tactics beyond platform dueling.
  • Flitwick planned to train Manus in dueling experience, including off-platform contests, so Manus could prepare for future dueling championships.

Ch. 400Flitwick's Treasures

Flitwick agreed to train Manus in wizard dueling and gave him a large collection of tournament records to study over the holiday. Manus accepted, hoping to gain experience with this world’s wizards, while Flitwick looked forward to teaching him a broader philosophy of dueling.

  • Flitwick told Manus he wanted to train him for the Magical Schools Dueling Tournament, and Manus agreed.
  • Manus decided he would participate in the competitions and strive to win, seeing them as a chance to gain dueling experience and social authority.
  • Flitwick showed Manus his collection of duplicated books, newspapers, and notes about wizard dueling tournaments.
  • Flitwick asked Manus to read through the collection during the holiday as preparation for their lessons in the second half of the year.
  • Manus packed the records into his satchel as Flitwick anticipated teaching him the deeper philosophy of dueling.
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