Ba the Slytherin on room, Alex ighe gres from some pure-blood students and headed straight to his dorm. Over the few days, he fell into a routitending csses, practig charms, studying runes with Professor Bones, helping Charles train, crafting alchemy tools, and diving into the memory magic book.

  Meanwhile, Travers and Wilkes assigudents to spy orag his every move. But each attempt ended in humiliation—some spies were left hanging by their robes in the halls, others found themselves dumped into the girls' bathroom. Strangely, none of them could recall what had happened. After a few weeks, no one dared to follow him anymore, though Travers and Wilkes were furious.

  Unbothered, Alex carried on with his life. Hogwarts had grown livelier sihe Dark Lord’s disappearance. Pranks were more frequent, and Peeves, the mischievous ghost, was busier than ever, causing chaos wherever he went.

  Notig Peeves ag strangely, Alex decided to ask Professor Flitwick for some insight. The professor expihat Peeves wasn’t an ordinary ghost; he was born with the very stones of Hogwarts and shared a deep e with the school. Peeves’ energy and mood reflected the atmosphere of Hogwarts itself. During dark times, like the ret wave of fear and sadness in the wizarding world, the ck of ughter and mischief had drained Peeves. He had grown quiet, even disappearing for days at a time. But now, with pranks and ughter filling the school again, Peeves was more active than ever—much to the frustration of the caretaker, Filch.

  Filch took the surge in pranks personally. He spent day and night patrolling the halls, determio catch the troublemakers. He was so preoccupied with his patrols that he barely had time for his regur duties, like ing the bathrooms.

  One evening, as Filch made his rounds in the library, he heard a faint noise ing from the Restricted Se. Gripping his kerosene mp tightly, he hurried toward the sound, its light throwing long, flickering shadows across the walls. But when he arrived, there was nothing—no students, no movement, not even a mouse. Muttering curses under his breath, Filch gave the area o suspicious gnce before stomping away.

  In a dark er where Filch had just looked, a figure shimmered into view. It was Alex, exhaling a quiet sigh of relief. “That was too close,” he thought, his heart still rag. He hadn’t expected some of the restricted books to be warded with arm spells, and he had almost triggered one by act.

  This semester, Alex had finally mastered the Disillusio Charm after tless hours of practice. His magical and physical abilities had reached a point where he could handle advanced spells, so he had focused on mastering both the Disillusio and Shield Charms. With these spells, he could now move around the castle ued, even sneaking into pces like the Restricted Se at night.

  But the Restricted Se was no ordinary part of the library. Many of its books were cursed or heavily ented. A single careless touch could set off an arm, alerting nearby professors—or worse, Filch. Alex reminded himself to be extra cautious, usiion spells on each book before daring to open it.

  After nearly two hours of meticulous searg, Alex finally found the book he had been looking for. It tained valuable information about magical runes—specifically those used to trol and store magical energy. However, the runes in the book were shown as ft, two-dimensional shapes, while Alex o uand them in three dimensions to use them effectively.

  At the Charm Club, Alex had started experimenting with temperature trol spells, which required precise ma of magical energy. The runes he was studying could potentially help him refihis process. He envisioned a rune capable of abs magi its surroundings—something that could revolutiohe wizarding world.

  Most magical items, like his ented monocle and phase shoes, relied on their users' magic to fun. Alex wao create items that could store magidepely, essentially being self-sustaining. By bining magic-abs runes with ste runes, he imagined creating something akin to a magical sor panel—a device that could recharge itself over time.

  The challenge, as Professor Bones had once expined, was that existing magic ste runes were basid depended heavily oerials they were made from. Few truly innovative designs had been developed. That was why Alex had ventured into the Restricted Se—to see if he could find something new.

  Carefully pag away his notes, Alex made a mental pn. “I’ll start with the magic flow runes first. If I colleough data on magic absorption, it might even help with the temperature trol spells,” he thought as he slipped bato the shadows.

  Throughout the semester, Alex kept a strict schedule, fog intensely on his studies and avoiding unnecessary distras. Meanwhile, outside Hogwarts, the wizarding world was in turmoil as the Ministry, led by Minister Millit Bagnold, ramped up its hunt for Death Eaters. Many pure-blood families loyal to Voldemort were under iigation, but they often escaped justice by g they had been uhe Imperius Curse or using Polyjuice Potion to create false alibis.

  One evening, Alex shared his frustrations with Professor Bones. “’t they just use Veritaserum or check memories to get the truth?” he asked.

  Professor Bones sighed. “It’s not that simple. Magic, as powerful as it is, be maniputed. Memories be tampered with, Veritaserum be resisted, and some families have perfected the art of deception.”

  Alex wasn’t surprised by the response; he had already e up with a few ideas to irritate those families iurn. Although the iigations hadn’t signifitly affected the pure-bloods, they had mao tone down their arrogance a bit—even among some of the Slytherin students.

  Unfortunately, this also meant Alex had lost some ve practice targets for his Legilimend Memory Charm skills. He had improved quickly when he could practi real people, but now, with Professor Bones keeping a closer wat him, Alex couldn’t risk targeting a school. Besides, he sometimes felt faint traagical energy around him, as if the professor had pced a monit spell nearby. Alex figured he might be on some sort of watch list.

  “Well, I’ll deal with it all semester,” he thought. The students were small potatoes anyway—his real targets were the Death Eaters outside Hogwarts.

  By the time the semester ended, Professor Bones had resigned. He cited the infamous curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position as his reason for leaving. Despite Voldemort’s appare, he didn’t want to take any ces. Meanwhile, Alex aced all his exams, earning straight A’s. Vivian, however, barely scraped by in most of her csses, with History of Magic being her worst subject.

  At the end-of-term feast, Headmaster Dumbledore announced Hufflepuff as the winner of the House Cup. Their hard work had paid off. Ravencw had struggled in Quidditch this year, costing them valuable points, while Gryffindor and Slytherin had deducted more points than they earned due to stant fights.