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Chapter 25: The Deceptive Four Man Group
On the seventh floor of Hogwarts, Charles passed beneath the troll tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. I need a place to make potions. Charles thought before walking to and from the area three times.
Suddenly, the tapestry on the opposite began to open up, revealing a small way through for Charles to happily walk through.
This was the Room of Requirement, the most magical of rooms in Hogwarts. Sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn’t. It required a person to truly require its services before they would be able to use the room. And it would always take the form in which it was needed most in. How useful. Because the original works had described the Room of Requirement in full detail, Charles had been easily able to find it on his second day.
Thus every night from then on, Charles bed in the Gryffindor dormitories was always empty.
The interior of the room was especially clean and had several of the most outstanding ingredients laying about. Charles had been especially familiar with each and every ingredient and began to measure out the amount needed for Felix Felicis.
Felix Felicis could be said to be the number one most magical potion in Harry Potter, with its capability to increase one’s luck. Although it wasn’t useful in many cases due to its limited applications, but in general, it was more than enough to have the best of luck to happen. Aside from this, it could also amplify a person’s magic, reaction time, judgement, health, and communication ability. It was unfortunate that the usage of the Felix Felicis was very limited. Not only did longterm usage result in dizziness, recklessness and conceit as a side effect, the durations of the luckiness would shorten. Most importantly, the production of it was not easy–the ingredients were rare and the work was laborious. The entire procedure would take half a year to make, and if even the smallest of deviations was made at anytime through the process, the end results would be disastrous.
For the future battles to come, things like this would be welcomed. A little improve in luck and magic could be the one thing that would save his life. Thus, Charles would begin the stewing process as soon as he could. Unfortunately, when Charles had tried it before, he had only succeeded in making Felix Felicis once, but he had kept it ever since.
Time had gone by quickly. By the time Charles had finished his preparations for the night, it was already midnight. Stretching his waist, he allowed for the cauldron and the golden potion inside begin to simmer and exude an enchanting smell.
Charles gave a content smile. Then, after concentrating his thoughts, a passageway formed right on the corridor walls for him to walk out on. With a bang, the door had opened, and in the next moment, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley had appeared right in front of him.
“Aaaaah!” The group had been in some sort of nervous state, but when they saw Charles, they immediately let out a bloodcurdling shriek!
Charles jumped in shock before quickly casting a Silencio and managed to silence them before Filch would be able to make an accurate pinpoint location of where the scream had originated from. Try as they might, Harry and the other three weren’t able to cry out loud at all. But as expected from the Golden Trio, they had quickly calmed back down while Hermione had smacked Neville on the back of his head to shut his mouth.
“What are you doing walking in the corridors in the middle of the night?” Hermione had folded her arms across her chest in the same manner as professor McGonagall while trying to pretend her embarrassing moment hadn’t happened.
“Night walking is quite exciting, aren’t you doing the same?” Charles spoke.
“We weren’t night walking.” Harry spoke.
“Then what are you doing running around in the middle of the night?”
“Blame Malfoy.” Ron Weasley spoke angrily. “We said we’d have a Wizard’s Duel at the Tropy Room at midnight, but he snitched us out to Filch and nearly got us caught.”
“Hermione and Neville then? They wouldn’t willfully cause a scene at night!” Charles asked.
“What do you mean making a scene!” Ron mumbled. But after Hermione shot a death glare at him, he shut his mouth.
Afterwards, Hermione spoke to Charles, “I wasn’t worried about Filch getting to these two at all.”
“Neville then?”
“I…” Neville’s face went red, “I’ve forgotten the passwords to get back into the dormitories.”
“Oh….”
Charles had at last realized that tonight was the night of bad luck for Harry and the three. First having almost been caught by Filch and Mrs. Norris at the trophy room, they were then frightened to death by the Cerberus. It was no wonder they had been so shocked earlier!
Coming across the main character like this, should I lament the fact that we were destined to meet, or that instead of me looking for trouble, trouble looks for me!
“Are you brewing potions?” Granger had always been the keen one.
“Correct!” Charles hadn’t wanted for the bookworm of his housemates to know that he was brewing Felix Felicis, so he had only replied with a succinct one-worded answer.
“Wow! What type of potion is it?” Neville cried out. Charles spun his head around to look at him as he realized that the person known throughout the school as the “Cauldron Killer” had suddenly gained interest in what he was making.
“Yeah, what potion is it?” Ron suddenly walked with Neville to look at the cauldron as well. His eyes stared at the golden color of the brew and took in a deep whiff of the half completed project, “Brilliant smell!”
When Charles saw the two dunces get close to the potion he had so painstakingly tried hard to make, he couldn’t help but feel his soul leave his body. “Don’t get too close.” He spoke.
“It’s only an experiment I was trying.”
“Really now?” The bookworm, Hermione Granger suddenly looked at Charles.
“Really!” Charles began to make use of his Occlumency skills to put on a show before looking hard at Hermione.
Learning nothing from Charles’ expression, Hermione turned around briskly, “Then we’ll be going first!”
“Finez!” He had finally made those little devils leave. Charles let out a sigh in relief, “Come on then! Charles said that the potion isn’t done yet.”
“Oh!” The Cauldron Killer Neville and Ron had both finally answered in what seemed to be a promise to leave. Relieved, Charles turned to prepare to leave with the rest when all of a sudden…
Crash! My fucking god! Charles had barely contained the rage in his heart. I shouldn’t have let those two potion idiots near the potion! Turning around, he took notice that when Neville had been preparing to leave, he had accidentally struck against a test tube, causing the liquid within it to sprinkle onto the table.
Phew! Charles let out a relieved sigh, It’s a good thing it didn’t land in the potion or it’d explode! I definitely can’t let those two nearby my potion.
“No worries, just go! Breaking a test tube won’t cause any trouble!” He spoke.
“Oh, sorry.” The fatty had apologized before Ron who was right next to him grabbed at the test tube in an attempt to put it back in its original spot.
“NO!” Charles couldn’t help but shout. The remaining liquids within the test tube had leaked onto Ron’s hand, causing him to cry out and toss the test tube in reflex! As a curious coincidence, Ron had somehow managed to toss it into the nearby cauldron where the potion was simmering.
“*^ [email protected] #@!*!” Charles cursed out loud, “Shite, hurry up and get out, the potion’s going to explode!”
“Explode?” Harry cried out in fear.
“Explode!” Hermione shrieked.
“EXPLODE!” Ron shouted out in astonishment.
As for Neville, he had been sent into shock. But after Ron had dragged him away, he regained himself and ran out.
The golden concoction within the cauldron had begun to turn pink in color. The bubbles began to grow more and more while growing more unstable. In that time, the group of children were running as fast as they could towards the entrance several steps away. But in this particular moment, the entrance may as well be the moon.
When the potion exploded, the liquid luck within it splashed out with a fierce spark and washed over all sorts of magical ingredients and the table nearby. Straight away, the two began to mix together for an even more fierce secondary reaction that ignited like an incendiary device….
“Protego Murus!” Charles screamed. This was a improvement of the protego spell that had undergone some modifications with Transfiguration in order to create. Straight away, a silver white wall appeared right behind them. In an instant, the explosions and sparks was blocked by it.
This optimistic sight continued on for a little longer before the silver wall shattered into pieces. But Charles had already bought enough time for everyone to make it out the door and escape.
After the sounds of explosions had dissipated with the door, the entire castle had been quiet almost as if there was nothing alive living in it. Only the sounds of the people in the corridor panting could be heard.
“Not bad, Charles.” Harry spoke.
Then, under the light of the moon, he had realized Charles’ face had been a pale white.
“You four are really a deceptive group.” Charles spoke with some difficulty. “There’s no poison on that potion, so Ron is fine.” As soon as Charles spoke, Ron let out a sigh in relief.
“One more thing!” Charles spoke. “There’s no need to take me to the hospital wing.”
“Ah!” Harry cried out in shock as he watched Charles fall to the ground, unconscious.