Chapter 66: Chilo Charges Forward

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"DeLisle, didn't anyone tell you when you were in school that Hogwarts is a magical castle, and many times, a Repairing Charm can't solve the problem?" Professor McGonagall covered her forehead, casually hiding the smile at the corners of her mouth.

DeLisle: ...

How was he supposed to know? He was an absolute top student during his school days. How could he be involved in such things as damaging the castle? Since he never broke anything, he naturally never repaired anything. So, he had no idea that some damages in Hogwarts Castle couldn't be fixed with an ordinary Repairing Charm.

"Reparo," this charm was quite interesting. It was a spell that seamlessly repaired most damaged objects. However, for objects with powerful or complex magic—like wands, the Repairing Charm couldn't achieve the desired effect. Sometimes it could only fix the physical form of the object, but magical damage couldn't be repaired. Unless you used an old wand, a powerful wand that could repair other wands.

Also, the Repairing Charm could only repair objects. Using it on a person or animal would cause severe scarring. Besides the limitations of the object itself, some rare, powerful curses caused damage that couldn't be fixed with this spell.

Moreover, the Repairing Charm meant "back to the original state." How was the "original" defined for an item? If there was a signet ring that had a corner broken from being dropped and was later repaired with gold, and then, after some time, accidentally—snap!—broken into two pieces again, would a wizard using the Repairing Charm bring back the signet ring with the missing gold corner?

Yes! If the gold was made to disappear, it wouldn't be the Repairing Charm. Because making gold disappear and turning the jade stone, once again shattered, back into place involved manipulating the magical nature of gold, which wasn't something an ordinary wizard could do. So, the Repairing Charm recognized the original state of the signet ring as the state with the gold inlay.

What was the initial state of the corridor in Hogwarts? Was it freshly repaired a thousand years ago? Or... there were too many possibilities. Ordinary wizards couldn't possibly repair it.

DeLisle felt embarrassed, and Fudge felt embarrassed on a larger scale.

Both of them fell into an awkward situation. Finally, Fudge cleared his throat a couple of times, indicating that the Ministry would definitely allocate funds to repair the corridor. Then he asked McGonagall about the budget, steering the conversation in a different direction.

This wasn't Dumbledore trying to extort money but rather considering that repairing a magical castle would be very expensive if done by external contractors. The individuals hired would need expertise in alchemy—though Dumbledore didn't tell Fudge that he could do it himself, being a master of alchemy.

Just when Fudge was thinking of ending this awkward inspection trip, Umbridge opened her mouth again, "I heard that on Halloween, a giant creature entered Hogwarts, injuring a student. Why don't we go ask that student?"

Fudge initially wanted to scold her a bit, but deep down, he felt a bit unwilling: after going through all the trouble, he ended up embarrassing himself here?

In the end, he thought: "I've come all this way." Since he'd already lost face, a few more minutes wouldn't make a difference!

So, he turned to Dumbledore and said, "I assure you, we'll just ask a few questions and then leave!" Dumbledore, still calm, didn't say much and walked towards Ravenclaw Common Room.

They found Tom, who had just finished breakfast and was heading to the common room.

As soon as he saw Tom, Fudge showed a very affable smile. Fudge, while not particularly clever or capable, had a redeeming quality—he was very amiable and kind. Whenever he interacted with young wizards, he always seemed as friendly as the fat uncle next door.

This was something that even with colored glasses, one couldn't deny.

Fudge chatted amiably with Tom for a few moments. Then, changing the topic, he talked about the events of Halloween, especially how the giant creature was driven away.

Tom blushed, hesitated, and didn't want to speak.

Fudge patted his shoulder, showing an encouraging smile, "Kid, don't worry. Come, tell Uncle what happened that day..."

Tom seemed extremely embarrassed. He took a few deep breaths and finally spoke, "Well, the giant creature knocked me out with a single blow... When I woke up, Professor Dumbledore and the others were already cleaning up the creature's blood."

The faces of Fudge's group changed suddenly.

Umbridge couldn't help herself and spoke rapidly, "Didn't you say that a three-headed dog saved you?"

Tom lowered his head, unwilling to look at them. "I made it up... I don't know much about magical creatures. I just heard myths about three-headed dogs in the Muggle world, so I used that. I thought it would be cool."

Fudge's breath stopped, and he initially thought the kid had colluded with Dumbledore's group to lie. But then he thought: What does a first-year wizard know? How could he have such convincing acting skills?

So...

It really might

  be that he was fooled!

Fudge felt like the world was spinning. His first reaction was to block the news. If the Daily Prophet found out about this, he would become a laughingstock!

Dumbledore then stroked his beard and said to Fudge, "Recently, someone has been poaching unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid discovered it yesterday, but the poacher managed to escape. It might be a diversion set up by him to distract our attention..."

Fudge, going with the flow, immediately put on an indignant expression, "Even unicorns dare to poach. This is no ordinary wizard. We need to take strong action! Any suspects? I'll go back to the Ministry and issue a wanted order. We must send him to Azkaban!"

Professor McGonagall, with a thoughtful look, added, "Professor Quirrell hasn't been seen since last night..."

Fudge suddenly became alert. He wanted to go back to the Ministry and issue a wanted order, but Dumbledore stopped him. Chilo was currently a major suspect, but there was no evidence. They needed to find him to verify.

Meanwhile, Chilo was striding forward in the fourth-floor corridor. The guard dog had been moved elsewhere. Although Chilo couldn't understand why the dog seemed to appear anywhere—castle, Forbidden Forest, fourth-floor corridor—he was now gone. He wouldn't appear again.

So, Chilo began his move, determined to seize the Philosopher's Stone. However, what lay beyond the door surprised him: it was a dilapidated classroom. He wandered around, discovering a secret. Taking out his wand, he tapped on a raised floorboard. A trapdoor appeared out of thin air as he lifted it and jumped in.

The challenge began.

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(End of this chapter)