Chapter 429 "The Crystal"

"This is the end of today's class." On the podium, he glanced at everyone in the classroom, "While tomorrow is the weekend, you may not be as relaxed as you would think you'd be."

"This weekend, everyone has to write an essay about "The process of the warming a potion that was being Modified into the Exorcism Potion and the application of the potions in the modern age", at least fourteen inches long."

All the students in the classroom lowered their heads with bitter expressions on their faces. Only Hermione waved her fist excitedly. Snape glanced at Hermione expressionlessly and turned to Sean next to her.

"Mr. Wallup, regarding your skipping class a week ago, your essay is at least two feet long. Now that you have skipped class, you must be very confident in your potions, right?"

"Class is over." Snape grabbed his book, flung back his cloak, and strode out of the classroom.

Only Sean and the other classmates looked at it. Two feet means twenty-four inches, ten inches more than the others.

Sean lay on the desk, "I can't live through this day."

Hermione packed her things and said, "You should be glad that Snape didn't give you bad grades. Do you remember the one who skipped class in Hufflepuff last time? Snape even put a T grade on him. The student asked Professor Sprout to intervene, studied potions like crazy in the second half of the semester, and finally got only a decent grade."

Sean waved his hand, "I'd rather he give me a failing grade. This week is the worst."

Within a week after Sean skipped class, Snape went all out in Potions class, and even Harry made a glorious history of not being penalized for three consecutive Potions classes thanks to Sean. Just now, Sean was even ridiculed by Snape for ten minutes because the knife he used to cut was not properly positioned.

"A man's state can be seen in how he arranges his utensils, Mr. Wallup. Have you paid attention to the class?"

"The algae cut this time requires the silver knife to be cut at a specific angle. From the position, your angle is a little off. This will cause the potion to be unstable when brewing. Because of that, the splash of medicine will be weird. Of course, if you want to go to the infirmary because of it, I would be happy to see it."

"The way you extinguished the cauldron disgusted me. What I taught you in the first class was forgotten so quickly? Yes, Mr. Wallup, famous for skipping his classes, has developed a skill that is equally good as that of a potion master. Is that how you see yourselves? Do it correctly."

"Five points from Ravenclaw will be deducted."

Similar words kept appearing in the class this week, but Sean couldn't refute any of them, even if his operation were fine. Everyone knew that Snape was deliberately picking on him.

Sean sighed, took the things Hermione helped him pack up, and looked at her helplessly, "Anyways, could you like…"

Hermione turned sharply, "No way, don't think I'll write that extra ten inches of paper for you."

"No, Hermione. Help me please, Just let me copy your paper."

"You have to do it yourself. It's your own fault that Snape assigned you an extra homework."

"Hey, don't go, wait for me. I'll treat you something later!"

At night, Sean lay alone in the Room of Requirement. Under his control, the ceiling of the Room was turned into a starry night sky.

"It's hard to get a relaxing weekend with this kind of homework." Sean held a lollipop in his mouth.

Hermione has been a lot stricter with him recently. During dinner, Sean talked about everything, and Hermione agreed to write four inches for him, which meant that he had to rely on himself for the remaining twenty inches.

"Damn it..." Sean sighed.

He is not good at writing essays.

"I don't know what font size I can use. Maybe I can use a quill with thicker writing?" He has already begun to think of all kinds to cheat.

After thinking about it for a while, Sean sadly realized that if he did this, he might have to be targeted by Snape again for another week.

"I'll write it tomorrow. It hurts to think about it now." He bit off the lollipop in his mouth, chewed hard a few times, and swallowed it.

The investigation results into Lockhart were that the professors administered Veritaserum and sleeping potions and asked every imaginable question.

But there was not much gain. During this period, Professor Flitwick tried to extract some of Lockhart's memories to see the situation, but his memory spell skills were amazing. Even when he completely lost the ability to resist, the memory in Lockhart's head seemed to have taken root, and he couldn't extract it no matter what.

In the end, they could only return to the interrogation method of using veritaserum.

The information obtained was similar to Sean's guess. From the perspective of a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, or even a normal wizard's perspective, Lockhart failed. But from an undercover perspective, Lockhart was successful.

He extracted and destroyed all his previous relevant memories, and some important memories that could not be destroyed were modified. All that was left were recent partial memories.

The only new discovery that the professors got was the news about the Crystal.

In Lockhart's memory, the Returners called the Crystal the "Compulsion Crystal ". It also mentioned that the so-called Crystal is something that has been inherited for a long time, and it is very important to get it back at all costs.

Sean has never heard of the name before. Not only him, but even the professors have never heard of it. Only Professor Babbling from the ancient runes said that the Crystal may be related to ancient runes.

He really can't analyze anything from the name alone, but what can match his guess is that this Crystal is very important, at least for the Returners. It can also be seen from this that the Returners were after them, but what they did not expect was that the barrier that trapped Sean and Dawson backfired.

They probably never imagined that Dawson, coupled with the Mouth and the help of the Dementors, could not even defeat a fourth-grade student like Sean.

Sean didn't really feel that he had thwarted their plan. It can only be said that time is just lucky. Sean's Dark Sleeper completely restrained creatures like the Mouth and the Dementor.

For Sean, the more urgent thing is always the next thing that would happen later. The Returners obviously won't stop here.

This Crystal may be a good thing to be investigated, but Sean has never heard of this name. In his mind, Grindelwald mentioned to himself some ancient and hidden magic, magic items, etc. from time to time in the past, but there was no such name in it.

However, some clues can be seen in the information Lockhart possesses. It seems that the Crystal does not need to be handled with special care or any special magic.

After thinking about it, Sean opened his ring and called out. Soon, Pudding brought up the box containing the Crystal. To be on the safe side, Sean put on a pair of thick dragon leather gloves and opened the box carefully.

There is no change, and the defensive spells left by him are still intact. The Crystal is lying quietly in a box that can bind dark magic items.

Sean got closer, and with his sensitivity to dark forces, he didn't notice anything wrong.

"This thing seems harmless, but it may have various uses with special methods." Sean thought silently.

After checking again to ensure there was no problem, Sean removed the gloves. He moved closer again and carefully looked at the Crystal.

It is about 20 centimeters long and no more than 5 centimeters wide. Strangely, under the reflection of the Room's torches and the starry sky's ceiling, there is no reflection on the Crystal's surface. It seems to absorb the light that hits the surface.

Sean tried to look inside the Crystal but still couldn't see anything. There seemed to be only a vague mist inside. Moreover, the Crystal does not have the feeling it would corrupt people with its dark magic.

Sean finally tried to touch it; it was cold, like an ordinary crystal. However, even after touching it for a long time, the top will not become warm due to Sean's body temperature, and the Crystal will remain the same.

A spell doesn't work; his touch doesn't work, and the thing seems like a normal crystal that nothing won't affect.

"It's strange," Sean touched his chin and thought, "I can feel a magic power, but this magic power is not big. This seems like a random lowly magic item ignored by people."

Just as Sean was thinking, there was a knock on the door of the Room of Requirement.

"Huh?" Sean put away the Crystal and turned his head away.

Hermione and Daisy can open the door and come in, while others can't even see the door without Sean's permission. When Sean opened the door, a girl was standing in the corridor, looking up at him slightly.

"Good evening, Stephanie." Sean greeted.

"Good evening, Sean." Stephanie nodded at him.

After letting her in, Sean closed the door and asked, "What's the matter? Do you need anything?"

She doesn't like to talk nonsense, and Stephanie has always been direct. She said straight to the point, "Sean, do you have a problem lately?"

Sean was caught off guard by her question, and he spread his hands. "Obviously, yes. To be precise, I have always been troubled, but recently, there have been more problems."

Stephanie's eyes are still shining. Although her ability has long been useless to Sean, it has to be said she looks beautiful.

"Because I was also involved in this matter that day, the professors revealed some news. I discussed it with Professor Babbling and agreed that this still involves ancient runes and magic."

"Ancient runes..." Sean pressed his temple with some headaches.

His talent for ancient runes is hopeless. Up to now, he has been relying on the two points of talent given by the lottery item that he got. Originally, he had only zero and would not even understand anything. It's not that he doesn't want to study, but that there is really no good way for him to study it.

The talent points he has drawn that can be freely allocated are only a few points.

Sean is a person who likes to master one thing, decided to increase their talent for Transfiguration to the max. Of course, his other talents are basically okay now, and if he can still draw free distribution talent points in the future, Sean will add them to the ancient runes.

He now relies on Selma Murphy's lessons and the ability that he got from the lottery to keep up with Professor Babbling's teaching.

"I'm really not good at it..." Sean spread his hands helplessly.

Stephanie looked up at him, her face expressionless, "I can help you."

"Huh?" Sean didn't respond for a moment.

"You need a huge source of information to analyze various things, and you are not good at ancient runes. But I am very good at it," Stephanie said bluntly, "To be precise, in terms of knowledge reserve, I am better than the library in here."

"It is because I really like reading." She said seriously.