Chapter 76: The Headless Hat

The students of Gryffindor were a fearless bunch, and there were always students wandering around the castle late at night.

"What about you?" George asked.

"What do you think?" Albert snapped back and tossed the towel he used to dry his hair at George.

"By the way, why do you take another shower at night?" George caught the towel and threw it back at Albert.

"I feel refreshed in the morning and sleep better at night," Albert said matter-of-factly.

All three of them looked at him speechlessly. They didn't bother arguing about it because they knew that Albert could always come up with a bunch of appropriate reasons.

"Can you really sleep better?" Jordan asked in a dispirited tone and then went to take a shower himself.

Albert sat back on his bed, listening to the twin brothers chatting about secret passages in the castle. He casually picked up his wand from the pillow and tapped the towel lying nearby.

The Disillusionment Charm took effect, and the towel seemed to vanish from the bed.

Albert picked up the Invisible Towel and examined it in front of him. When he covered his hand with it, the covered part disappeared, but there was still an inexplicable sense of discord.

Albert crumpled the towel into a ball and observed the effect of the Disillusionment Charm. At certain moments, this sense of discord would become more pronounced.

"How did you do that with your hand just now?" Fred looked at Albert's left hand under the towel, eyes wide with surprise.

"You mean this?" Albert handed the towel, which he had cast the Disillusionment Charm on, to Fred. "I used a Disillusionment Charm on the towel."

"Impressive," George also leaned in to study it. "But there's still a flaw."

"I can only achieve this level for now." Albert's Disillusionment Charm had reached level 1, but the invisibility effect was still not satisfactory. Any skilled wizard could easily detect the flaw. "Some wizards use this magic to create inferior invisibility cloaks."

"An invisibility cloak?" Fred asked in confusion. "I've heard of that thing, but why is it considered inferior?"

Albert explained, "The invisibility effect on the cloak gradually fades over time."

"Look, my hand is gone," Fred covered his hand with the Invisible Towel and winked at George. "If you don't look closely, you really can't see it."

"Try wrapping it around your head," Albert suggested.

Fred and George exchanged glances, seeming to realize something, and a mischievous smile appeared on their lips.

The door to the dormitory was closed again, and the oil lamp in the room suddenly went out.

"What are you guys up to? Why is the dormitory dark? Is everyone asleep?" Lee Jordan, who had just finished showering, pushed open the wooden door of the dormitory and found it pitch black inside. He furrowed his brow slightly and complained.

A faint light suddenly illuminated the darkness. Lee Jordan looked toward the source of the light and saw one of the twins standing by the table, turning to look in his direction. The pale light from the tip of his wand traveled up his body and finally stopped on his shoulder.

Lee Jordan could see it clearly now—the person was missing a head.

"This..." Lee Jordan's expression froze on his face as he stood still in place.

Honestly, this scene was quite eerie, especially in the darkness.

"Cough, stop messing around. You've scared him!" Albert stifled his laughter and reached out to pull the Invisible Towel off Fred's head, revealing his head.

"Is he okay?" George relit the lights and anxiously looked at the still stunned Lee Jordan, casting a blaming glance at his twin brother, as if everything was Fred's fault.

"I don't know, maybe he's been scared silly?" Fred reached out to touch Lee Jordan but was stopped by Albert.

It seemed like a while before Lee Jordan recovered from his daze. An uneasy atmosphere quietly spread in the room.

"Hahaha!" Suddenly, Lee Jordan burst into laughter, clutching his stomach, startling the three people in the room.

"Are you alright?" Fred cautiously asked.

"No worries," Lee Jordan gave the three of them a mischievous look, clearly indicating that his previous reaction was intentional. "But you really startled us."

George grumbled, "We were the ones who got startled by you."

"That scene just now was quite thrilling," Lee Jordan took the Invisible Towel that Albert handed over and examined it, as if he had thought of something and asked, "Do you think if we scared Filch like that, he would faint?"

"Probably not, considering there are ghosts in the castle," Albert directly dismissed that possibility. People in the magical world, being more accepting and attuned to unknown phenomena than ordinary people, would not be easily frightened.

If their heads disappeared and they walked through a crowded street at night, they would probably scare a bunch of people and even make tomorrow's headlines.

"But still, it's quite scary to see someone's head suddenly disappear," Fred said. "Why doesn't Zonko's Joke Shop have something like this?"

"Zonko is getting older and has passed the age of active thinking. Although he has the ability to turn ideas into joke props, his inspiration has probably dried up," Albert casually explained. "If he doesn't have that inspiration, he naturally can't create a Headless Hat."

"Headless Hat?" Fred's eyes lit up. "That's a good name."

"Write it down, remember this." George quickly searched for a quill and parchment. "One day, maybe we can create our own Headless Hat."

"But before that, you guys will have to learn some spells," Albert reminded.

"Um, what's happening?" Lee Jordan noticed that the Invisible Towel was no longer invisible.

"The Disillusionment Charm on it is wearing off," Albert checked the Disillusionment Charm on the Invisible Towel. This kind of thing couldn't maintain invisibility permanently like Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak.

Speaking of which, it was somewhat similar to optical camouflage.

"It disappeared so quickly?" Fred grumbled.

Albert picked up the pocket watch on the pillow and glanced at the time. "It lasted for about half an hour."

"Such a short duration," George felt a bit disappointed.

"You can't expect it to last long when we haven't fully mastered it," Albert couldn't help but roll his eyes. The duration of magic is related to the skill of the wizard casting it.

As for the Disillusionment Charm, Albert was only at the preliminary stage of mastery. If it were Professor Flitwick, he would probably have a way to create a long-lasting Invisibility Cloak.

Of course, truly skilled masters of magic didn't even need to use an Invisibility Cloak. They could easily make themselves invisible with a spell, and ordinary wizards wouldn't be able to detect their presence.

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(End of this chapter)