98

Chapter 98: Roar

Lupin proved remarkably efficient, informing Wade the following noon that he had acquired the Vanishing Cabinet from Borgin and Burkes.

Simultaneously, Wade had secured permission from Professor McGonagall to borrow the castle's Vanishing Cabinet under the pretense of studying alchemy. He assured her of his awareness of the risks involved and promised not to misuse it.

The Vanishing Cabinet itself was a marvel—a black and gold structure adorned with ancient magical texts and intricate patterns. Ancient magic formed a mystical link between the two cabinets, allowing instantaneous travel between them, even within Hogwarts where Apparition was forbidden.

In the storyline, Death Eaters breached Hogwarts through this passage, and Dumbledore met his end that fateful night.

Using a Shrinking Charm, Wade transported the Vanishing Cabinet to the Room of Requirement and began conducting experiments in his spare moments. He communicated with Lupin via the Friends' Account, placing various items into one cabinet and retrieving them from the other.

Initially, the experiments proceeded smoothly—apples, bread, pillows, buckets, and other objects emerged intact from the cabinet.

Lupin suggested advancing to live animals—rats, rabbits, and eventually magical creatures, approaching human size.

The thirteenth experiment went awry.

Upon opening the cabinet, Wade sensed something amiss. Inside lay a dwarf-like pig creature, motionless and no longer breathing.

[Wade: It's dead.]

[Lupin: What happened?]

[Wade: No visible wounds, but it stopped breathing. Take a look.]

Wade closed the cabinet door. Lupin opened it and examined the cold body of the pig creature, noting peculiar cracks on its skin and bones as brittle as biscuits.

[Lupin: The body was ice-cold, as though it had been dead for hours. There are strange fractures on the skin, and the bones are more fragile than biscuits. It seems that upon entering the cabinet, it transported to an unknown place and perished there.]

[Lupin: Wade, the Vanishing Cabinet is more dangerous than we anticipated.]

[Wade: Understood. Experiment is halted while I attempt to repair the cabinet.]

Setting down his quill, Wade couldn't shake off a sense of disappointment.

He had previously thought the Vanishing Cabinet had been damaged by Peeves during Harry's second year, but evidently, it had been flawed even before that.

Intensely focused, he examined the cabinet, its surface adorned with countless golden magical lines flowing like water. Complex magic arrays overlapped, hundreds of ancient incantations coiled around it like chains.

There were minute flaws, incomplete runes worn by time, and magic seemingly corroded...

Piece by piece, Wade began uncovering the missing components of the Vanishing Cabinet.

...

Umbrella House.

Combat training concluded, everyone applied bruise-healing ointment to each other. Harry remarked, "Wade seems quite occupied lately. He only visits Umbrella House once every few days."

During his brief visits, he spent about an hour teaching them new spells and addressing issues they encountered in their studies before vanishing again.

"Yes," Michael sighed. "The Alchemy professor seems to have burdened Wade with a challenging assignment. He hardly returns to the common room these days, preferring to study elsewhere."

As they spoke, a cleaning crab scuttled over, gathering discarded tampon balls and mopping the floor.

Their gazes followed the crab until it returned to its shell nest and settled down. Descending to the next floor, they unexpectedly encountered someone.

"H-how are you…"

Professor Quirrell appeared taken aback by the encounter. He offered a shy smile, extending a hand in greeting to his students.

Michael, Hermione, and Ryan instinctively lowered their heads, murmuring, "Good evening, Professor."

Harry and Theo greeted him warmly, "Hello, Professor Quirrell." Neville, lagging behind, hurriedly added his own greeting.

As they prepared to part ways, Harry added, "You're really brave, Professor!"

Professor Quirrell managed a brief, nervous smile, waving his hand in acknowledgment.

"You…" Hermione regarded Harry with an expression full of unspoken words.

Theo interjected, "Harry, do you think Professor Quirrell is… brave?"

—In the entire school, there wasn't a more timid professor than Quirrell.

"You don't understand," Harry replied pensively, as though harboring deep secrets. "Professor Quirrell is fighting against evil. He's truly remarkable."

Though Theo and Neville didn't quite grasp his meaning, they nodded in confusion. The others exchanged puzzled glances.

"Let's keep an eye on him, make sure they don't get too close again," Michael murmured quietly.

Everyone nodded solemnly, feeling a weighty responsibility settling upon them.

...

Unaware of their concerns, Harry returned to the dormitory in high spirits, sharing the day's lessons with Ron, playing wizard chess for a while, then retiring to bed.

But tonight, for some inexplicable reason, his forehead scar throbbed painfully. As the others drifted off to sleep, Harry found himself unable to rest. He donned his cloak and sat by the window, gazing out at the starlit night.

Suddenly, a dark figure darted across his field of vision—a person flying on a broomstick through the night sky!

Who was that?

And what were they doing flying over the school at this hour?

Reacting swiftly, Harry retrieved his Nimbus 2000, soared through the window, and plunged from the eighth floor of the castle!

Descending rapidly, he quickly gained altitude again, hovering in the night sky until he spotted a figure by the Black Lake. Circling from above, he closed in and discovered it was Wade.

"Hey, Wade," Harry greeted, landing his broomstick. "What brings you out here?"

"Harry?" Wade turned, visibly surprised. "It's late. Why aren't you asleep?"

"I can't sleep," Harry admitted, touching his scar. "I don't know why—it's been hurting today. Maybe Snape's cursing me from beneath the Black Lake?"

Wade's gaze flickered across the lightning-shaped scar, addressing Harry's earlier question. "I was about to turn in for the night when I thought I saw someone with white hair here... But upon closer inspection, they were gone."

Uncertain if the figure he glimpsed tonight was the same as the one he saw over six months ago, Wade couldn't shake the memory.

Perhaps because they were always distant, their name never came into his view.

Scratching his head, Harry shrugged nonchalantly, suggesting, "Maybe you imagined it?"

"Maybe."

Wade didn't argue further. He noticed Hagrid carrying a lantern and accompanied by Fang, entering the Forbidden Forest under cover of night.

"It seems Hagrid hasn't turned in yet," Wade remarked.

"He must be feeding Norbert, right?" Harry ventured.

"Norbert?" Wade turned to him, surprised.

"Yes! Oh, the baby dragon. Hagrid named it Norbert," Harry explained. "As it grew larger, it couldn't stay in the wooden house anymore. Hagrid relocated it to a cave in the Forbidden Forest."

Wade was taken aback. "He didn't send it away?"

Harry sighed. "Hermione tried persuading him several times, and Ron mentioned his brother Charlie works with dragons in Romania. They suggested sending Norbert there, but Hagrid couldn't bear to part with it…"

"Roar————"

Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed from the Forbidden Forest, followed by a burst of flames shooting into the night sky!