After leaving Dumbledore, Roy never returned to the secret base in the Forbidden Forest, aside from going back once to retrieve some important books and items.
He also told Bill about Dumbledore's request, asking him to keep Fred and George in line and stop those two troublemakers from wandering around the school all day.
The plan to lure out the murderer had failed, and Dumbledore had issued a ban as well. The more Roy thought about it, the more cheated he felt: he had given away a bottle of Felix Felicis for nothing, yet not only had they failed to catch the murderer, he could no longer use the secret base either.
The only upside was that Hufflepuff had gained forty points, surging far ahead of Slytherin in the race for the House Cup. Every student in Hufflepuff was thrilled by it.
A consolation prize was still better than nothing. Besides, he and Aisling had made up. Considering how rich her family was, maybe she would casually reward Roy with something more valuable than Felix Felicis someday. Thinking of it that way, Roy felt much more at ease.
Living off a woman? Nothing embarrassing about that. He had eaten plenty of leftovers at the space base in his previous life. Most of the time, as long as he did not get kicked to death, having something to eat was good enough.
After he stopped going to the secret base, Roy had far less to do. He stopped brewing Potions, stopped growing plants, and spent every day holed up in his dormitory studying the Exoskeleton Armor.
Before long, fully immersed in his research, Roy completed the first prototype. But when he put on the armor and tested it by the Black Lake, the results could only be described as explosive.
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