Night Walk

In the middle of the night, Virgil's eyes snapped open. He could hear the even breathing of the others and knew they had fallen asleep.

He sat up from the bed in his pajamas and started feeling the walls of the room. Virgil felt the magic flowing through the walls and searched for any nodes or breaking points.

Maybe the dorms had not been altered much because the flow was only slightly turbulent. "Can't access it from here either."

Virgil shook his head and looked at his roommates. He held out his left hand and his book appeared in his hand. The pages flipped to the middle before growing larger.

Four identical puppets stepped out of the workshop. They had tall slender bodies and bumpy figures. Long white hair, green eyes, and pointy ears like an elf.

These puppets were nothing but larger fairies who inhabited every level of his magic temple.

Virgil snapped his fingers and sent a magical wave through the room, making sure his roommates didn't wake up.

"Collect the samples." The spellbook returned to normal size in Virgil's hand and snapped shut.

The four puppets walked to different beds and pulled back the covers. They dropped to their knees and peeled back the boys' pants.

Virgil didn't stay to watch the girls suck out the samples and left the room. The common room was still dimly lit with the crackle of the fireplace.

Virgil cast a spell and disappeared from view. He left the common room and walked through the long corridor back to the entrance of Hogwarts.

He wasn't in a hurry and walked around the ground floor and felt the flow of magic. He found Filch's office and saw that he wasn't inside. He knew the marauders' map wasn't created yet and didn't think any good things would be inside. 

He slowly searched the eleven classrooms on the ground floor before moving on.

Virgil went to the first floor and saw more classrooms before heading toward his destination on the second floor.

An abandoned bathroom with cracked mirrors and shattered sinks. The tile floor was dirty and a few pieces were missing. Virgil walked inside and could hear quiet sobbing.

Virgil knew that this bathroom had been altered when they redid the castle's pipes. If he was going to find the weakest node in the defense network this would be it.

He crouched down and placed his hand on the floor. Compared to the smooth flow of magic in other places, this place was full of choppy waves.

Some places were like dead zones where no magic flowed at all. This allowed things in the bathroom to break. "A structure is only as strong as its weakest link."

"Who's there!" A transparent ghost with pigtails and thick round glasses flew out of the stall.

Virgil raised his other hand and a magic circle formed above his palm. The circle began to rotate left and right like a combination lock. Each rotation increased the complexity of the magic circle by adding sigils and runes.

The moment Virgil started using magic he appeared before the ghost. "What are you doing here? Get out of my bathroom!"

The ghost yelled at the top of her lungs and charged toward Virgil in a superman pose.

"Do ghosts think no one can deal with them?" Virgil stretched out his hand and the magic circle flew out.

Before Myrtle could react, the magic circle hit her and blended into her body. She paused in the air as if she was frozen, unable to move an inch.

"Contracts to bind spirits are simple." Virgil shook his head and pointed towards the stall. "Hide in the stall and don't come out without my order."

Myrtle flew back to the stall against her will and still couldn't control her body

Virgil stood up and held his spellbook in his hand. The pages began to flip and projected runes through the bathroom.

"This magic network was created using a rudimentary form of rune magic and rune magic is the best way to deal with it."

With his other hand, he pulled his twisted root wand from the spine of the book and started drawing in the air. Pathways were created between the runes and a runic formation slowly took shape.

The dead nodes and turbulent magic network started connecting to his formation and blended into it.

Soon, the entire bathroom was covered in a formation and part of Hogwarts' magic network was repaired.

Virgil waved his wand and the formation disappeared. "I now have a backdoor into Hogwarts' defenses and can use this point as a nexus to attack."

His eyes seemed to pierce through the walls and look towards the defense against the dark arts office. While he was repairing the network in this area of the castle, he noticed another dead node. The only problem was the node was cursed.

"It seems like Tom found a dead zone in Hogwarts' defenses and cast the curse inside that node." Virgil glanced at the entrance to the chamber of secrets and disappeared.

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In the headmaster's office, Dumbledore who was pacing back and forth in thought suddenly stopped. A look of surprise and doubt appeared in his eyes.

As the principal, he held authority over Hogwarts. Just now he felt a fluctuation in the castle's defenses and a sudden increase in power. "Curious, rather curious."

He didn't find anything wrong but didn't think everything was okay. The defenses wouldn't change for no reason and no one would help without a purpose.

Dumbledore's eyes seemed to shimmer before he held the Elder Wand to his head and pulled out this memory. He flicked his wand and threw it into the Pensieve.

He didn't go out to find the suspect because he couldn't. Repairing the castle was magic he did not completely understand, but he wasn't worried.

He knew things had a habit of showing up. Nothing could hide forever.

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Virgil didn't explore the higher floors of the castle and came back to his room. He knew Dumbledore would sense his actions, it was impossible not to. The only thing he didn't know was how he would react.

In the room, he saw the four elf puppets sitting on his bed. When he walked in they stood up, Virgil's eyes scanned his roommates and saw the content smile on their faces.

"Is the collection finished?"

One of the puppets stepped forward and placed her hand on her stomach. She pulled her hand back and opened a hatch in her abdomen. Inside weren't organs, but a few crystal vials.

"The samples have been divided and sorted by chromosomes."

The corners of Virgil's lips curled. He had planned this for a while, he noticed a strange thing about witches and wizards. The magical gene allowed them to breed with any creature.

Giants, goblins, house elves, veela, even trolls and hags couldn't escape their grasp. While most of those targets were humanoid, that wasn't the limit.

Virgil opened his spellbook and sent them back to his workshop. Then he used the book and wand to lay another runic formation. Now that he had a backdoor in the network, he could make modifications without concern.

When he was finished he inserted his wand back into the spine of his book. He decided to make his wand an accessory to the book. This way they could share their power and benefit from each other.

"Now I have a nexus point on the ground and second floor. I can choose an empty classroom on the first floor and see the situation on the higher floors later."

Virgil shook his head and climbed into bed. He had class in the morning and even he needed sleep. Now that this room was his territory he didn't feel so vulnerable.

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The next morning one of the boys started stirring in bed and Virgil opened his eyes. He got out of bed and grabbed his toiletries and clothes out of the trunk before going to the bathroom.

When he came out fully dressed in his robes, the others had just gotten up. "You might want to get ready if you want to eat breakfast before the charms class."

"Virgil!" Rabastan was slightly surprised. "We thought you left, we were just talking about how to get to the charms class. The schedule only said the third floor."

"It says we have class with Ravenclaw, at least it's not with those mud-blood Hufflepuff. Did you see how many were sorted into that house? Over fifteen!" Henry got out of bed rubbing his eyes.

"Don't be too happy." Shane pointed down the schedule. "We have transfiguration with them later."

"Transfiguration? Maybe we can turn them into bugs and squish them." Henry seemed to come alive when talking about violence.

Virgil glanced at Henry with a disdainful look. He doubted this kid could ever reach that level of transfiguration. He seemed the type to use brute force more than his brain.

Rabastan saw Virgil leaving the room and rushed over. "Wait up."

He had already changed clothes while the others were speaking. Only Severus was listening to Henry and Shane to try and fit in.

Virgil and Rabastan walked into the common room that was already filled with Slytherin students. Some sat around chatting while others read books or the daily prophet.

"Where did they get their tea?" Rabastan was a little surprised to see that some students had tea and little cakes as well.

"Besides the long tunnel, we are close to the great hall. It may have seemed further last night because it was late, but you can get there and back in a few minutes." Virgil glanced at the senior students before leaving the common room with Rabastan.

Rabastan thought about it before nodding his head. "Narcissa's grumpy mood didn't help either."