Chapter 245: Coincidence and Necessity

In the last week of the semester, the sky suddenly cleared up. The snow and wind that had persisted for several days seemed to have been wiped away by invisible hands. The winter sunlight streamed through the frosty windows and spilled onto the round table by the bed.

Albert gazed at the clear sky, feeling even better. Covering a yawn, he sat back in his armchair, basking in the sunlight from outside as he flipped through the last recorded eagle loop riddles. Albert planned to take advantage of the free time while everyone went to Hogsmade Village to complete the "Greedy Marauder" quest on the task board and attempt to solve over a hundred eagle loop riddles. For the current Albert, this was not a difficult task.

Especially after consuming some Babayl Awake Potion and completing the "Broaden Your Mind" quest, gaining the new skill of active thinking.

Active thinking was a unique skill, unlike other skills, it couldn't be leveled up.

Yes, active thinking couldn't be leveled up. To some extent, it might be considered a bit of a letdown, but it couldn't be denied that after acquiring active thinking, Albert's mind had indeed become more agile, his instant memory became supercharged, and he became more perceptive to certain things, much like after consuming a small amount of Babayl Awake Potion.

Perhaps, this is what they call being a genius!

Albert always felt that one day, even he, this fake genius, might become a real genius through the accumulation of skills.

"Aren't you coming with us to Hogsmade Village?" Fred asked again. He felt that the quartet was missing a person, which meant missing a lot of fun.

"I'm not going. I have some other things to do today, and I need to write two letters." Albert thought for a moment and added, "Bring me a bottle of butterbeer and the candies on the list when you come back."

"Alright, then see you in the afternoon. We'll bring you a bunch of candies!" After bidding Albert farewell, Lee Jordan started counting the coins in his pouch.

"And some dung bombs!" George suddenly exclaimed.

"Thanks, but I don't need that stuff." Albert replied, slightly annoyed.

"But we know who does need them!" Fred playfully winked at Albert.

"Who? You guys?" Albert retorted.

"No, Peeves the Poltergeist. He doesn't get along well with Filch, so we don't mind giving Peeves a few dung bombs to make trouble for Filch!" George mischievously said. "We've already made a deal with Peeves."

"How did you guys end up with Filch again?" Albert furrowed his brows. While he didn't like Filch, he also didn't actively seek trouble with him.

"It was a few days ago. After practicing Quidditch, Filch caught us and dragged us to his office, accusing us of defiling the castle." Fred's face was filled with unconcealed disgust. Unfortunately, enduring the snow and wind during practice was one thing, but getting into trouble afterwards was a whole different matter. How could one possibly feel good about that?

"That's a common accusation." Albert nodded. Mainly because Filch couldn't use magic, cleaning up footprints was troublesome. If Filch were a wizard, he could handle it in just three seconds.

But unfortunately, he wasn't.

"Peeves agreed to give Filch a few dung bomb surprises on Christmas." Fred said cheerfully. "Well, goodbye."

The three of them hurriedly made their way to the secret passage behind the fifth-floor mirror, and Albert also set off for the Room of Requirement.

Skillfully entering the Ravenclaw Knowledge Vault within the Room of Requirement, Albert pulled a chair over to the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker and lightly tapped twice on the wooden board.

In the next moment, the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker opened its mouth and asked:

"Two pairs of fathers and sons went fishing together. Each caught a fish, and they caught a total of three fish. Why?"

"Grandfather, father, and son—two pairs of fathers and sons, three fish in total." Albert hardly thought much and easily answered the riddle.

"Correct."

In fact, Albert had heard many of the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker's riddles before. The difficulty wasn't great, and the "Greedy Marauder" quest wasn't continuous. Now he only needed to answer another 96 riddles to complete the task.

"The difficulty is simpler than I imagined." Albert murmured to himself. He raised his hand to continue knocking on the door to answer the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker's riddles. He easily answered one after another, and in about half an hour, he had already correctly answered over fifty of them. These riddles didn't really trouble him much.

Last time, he had firmly memorized Katrine's one hundred riddles and answers. He had a lot to thank Katrine for. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to answer so easily now. She was truly a good person!

Albert mentally sent Katrine a virtual thank-you card.

Just as Albert was about to continue answering riddles, the door of the Room of Requirement suddenly swung open. Startled by the unexpected intrusion, Albert was taken aback and instinctively pulled out his wand, pointing it at the intruder.

"Oh, it's you. You scared me." Albert put away his wand and grumbled.

"What are you doing here?" Isabelle glanced at Albert's wand with a fleeting look of curiosity, seemingly more interested in why Albert was here.

While Isabelle knew that Albert was aware of the Ravenclaw common room's entrance, encountering him here was still quite strange.

"What am I doing? Guessing riddles!" Albert raised his hand and pointed to the eagle-shaped bronze door knocker. "I'm challenging my limits, trying to see if I can answer a hundred riddles in one go."

Isabelle's eyes took on a peculiar look upon hearing this, as if she was observing some rare creature.

"Is it interesting?" she asked in a musing tone.

"It is." Albert nodded. This was related to a task on the panel, how could it not be interesting?

"By the way, what are you doing here?" Albert changed the subject.

"Studying the Ravenclaw common room, looking for a way to open it." Isabelle's answer was not far from Albert's guess. Undoubtedly, she was here for the Knowledge Vault.

"Any recent breakthroughs?" Albert asked curiously.

"Yes." Isabelle's response was a bit unexpected for Albert, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He just casually asked, "What is it?"

"Let's talk about it inside." Isabelle didn't reveal the details to Albert directly.

"You go in first. I still plan to continue challenging these riddles!" Albert gestured for Isabelle to enter the room.

"You're not curious at all," Isabelle looked at Albert with astonishment. She somewhat regretted teaching him the Occlumency, as now she couldn't quite figure out this person before her.

"I am curious. But there's no rush. You're not going anywhere. I can ask you later. I do have some patience," Albert replied calmly. He wasn't really in a hurry. He wanted to collect the rewards for the "Greedy Marauder" quest first.

As for Isabelle's new discovery, he wasn't too concerned. After all, he had his own discoveries to consider. And speaking of which, there was Professor Smith's matter. Perhaps he could gather some information from Isabelle.

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(End of this chapter)