Ch 9 The Map, The Cloak, And The Mirror Part 1

Three days...

For three-whole-bloody-days! Ron had to stay cooped up on the bed of the hospital wing with only Hermione and the occasional visitor to keep him company.

Until finally, the Honourable Madam Pomfrey deemed them well enough to leave her sanctuary.

With half of his soul being that of a Modern man, it was almost torture for him to waste three whole days just lying idly, without the help of any form of entertainment from things like a Mobile, PC or even a TV.

The only thing Ron could do to pass the time was to stare blankly at the ceiling, which didn't even have a fan, or eat the chocolate frogs that his friends had sent them, but even the bouncing frogs made of chocolates lost their novelty after he ate the tenth one.

He was a bloody wizard inside a bloody magical castle for fucks sake. So to confine him to just a bed in the Hospital Wing while being told that he couldn't perform any kind of magic with his wand...was inhumane and a form of mental abuse.

It was the same as placing a premium 200 hundred-year-old wine in front of a person suffering from alcohol addiction and then forbidding them from drinking it.

'Ah! Man, speaking of that, I sure could use a drink right about now... especially the magical kind,' Ron almost drooled at the thought.

While Ron himself had never tasted alcohol in his life, Sam in his past life had a very good relationship with alcohol, and a week hadn't gone by since he became old enough to drink, that he didn't drink some good alcohol. So he was quite excited at the thought of savouring the magical kind that this world possessed.

Anyway, coming back to the topic, when Ron was finally freed from his prison, he was, safe to say, quite ecstatic.

Just like when a prisoner who has finally finished his sentence, Ron had also already imagined all kinds of scenarios, of all the things that he would do the moment he got out.

He had made a long imaginary list in his mind of all the magical things that he wanted to experience as soon as possible.

Some of the things on that list include things like going to the Potions lab to create a magical potion, or taking the new broom that he had gotten from his parents just last year for becoming Prefect for a test ride or simply finding an empty classroom and then performing all the magic that he could from start to finish to see if he could perfectly cast them...

His brain was already overflowing with dopamine just at the thought of doing all those magical things...

But sadly all of that came crashing down with a simple comment from Hermione when he expressed his wish to go to the Quidditch grounds for a fly.

"What are you talking about, Ron? It's our last day at Hogwarts. The end-of-the-year feast is in just a few hours, and we will leave in the Hogwarts Expresses tomorrow morning. So we need to go and pack our stuff. Besides, even if you wanted to, the grounds should have already been closed to students by now..." Hermione continued but Ron wasn't listening to her anymore, as he was simply too stunned by the news...

To have the opportunity to explore the magical castle of Hogwarts, to wander its hallowed hallways, to take in its ancient beauty, to climb its ever-changing staircases, to use as much magic as you could inside one of its empty classrooms without anyone charging you with the Restriction of Underage Sorcery act...

And then to have that opportunity ruthlessly be snatched away at the last moment... to be delayed for two months...

It was just too much. And it could become even more appalling if that theory of pureblood children being allowed to use magic in their homes turned out to be wrong.

Because of that devastating piece of information, Ron had become quite depressed and his mind had also become numb.

His body just unconsciously followed after Hermione as they left the hospital wing.

He didn't even notice when they reached the Gryffindor tower, or when he climbed the stairs towards his dorms, or when he finished packing his stuff with the help of Harry, or when he finally came down to sit in their usual place in front of the fireplace.

He noticed nothing as his body was completely on autopilot, and the next time when he came to he was playing wizard chess with Harry, to pass the remaining time until the end of the year feast.

"It's your turn next, Ron," Harry said, finally making his move on the chess board, after five minutes of brain-storming.

"Rook, sacrifice yourself," Ron commanded without missing a single beat, with a bored expression on his face.

"What? Why would you do that?" Harry asked with a confused expression on his face, "Wouldn't you lose that way?" he asked as he tried to see why Ron chose to sacrifice his Rook for just a pawn.

"Harry... I think that's a forced checkmate in three moves," Hemione replied quietly with a somewhat impressed expression on her face. She was sitting on the sidelines on a nearby chair spectating on the chess match between her friends just like always.

She was in fact a better player than Harry but she almost never played against Ron after the few times in their first year. Her official reason was that it was a violent and barbaric game while unofficially she just couldn't stomach losing to Ron so many times in an intellectual game like chess.

"Ugh! Really? But it's only been something like ten moves," Harry groaned with a sullen expression on his face, as the pieces on board did exactly as Hermione had predicted before his King took off his crown and kneeled before Ron's Queen, "Did you somehow get even better at this Ron?"

"Maybe," Ron shrugged not denying it as he did, in fact, get a lot better at chess, mostly because of Sam's memories.

While Sam wasn't exactly a professional chess player in his past life, he was still a very determined enthusiast of the game with a lot of time on his hands. He had watched a lot of YouTube videos about all the opening theories, gambits, and all kinds of chess tactics in his free time.

And that modern knowledge along with Ron's already sharp strategic acumen almost made him thrice as good as before, meaning that even people who could somewhat challenge him before wouldn't be able to last more than a dozen moves against him.

"I think I am going to go to the library for some last-minute reading and check out a few books for the summer," Hemione sighed while getting up from the sofa as she finally got bored of watching Ron destroy Harry at chess after the fifth match, "Either of you want to come with me?" she asked casually, without any kind of expectation on her face.

"Now? I don't think—"

"Library... Hogwarts Library..." Ron muttered in a low voice as his eyes gradually lit up with excitement once again, "Yes, Let's go to the library." He exclaimed while immediately jumping up from his seat.

Ron had been so downcast about not having any time left to explore the castle and all its magical places that he had forgotten that there was still one place in this castle that he could make use of in the limited time that he had left.

"Really? You want to go the library..." Hermione asked with a weird expression on her face, "You want to read books... on the last day of our year?"

"Yes, let's go," Ron replied with an excited smile on his face and then without waiting, he immediately led the way towards the portrait hole.

"Is he alright, Hermione?"

"I don't know," Hermione answered, mirroring Harry's concerned expression, "I mean, he has been behaving kind of strangely since the battle... but I don't think anything is wrong with him as he's mostly still the same... he's just a little weird..." She had noticed over the last few days that Ron was a lot more tactful and mature than before but in its place, he had also become a lot more sarcastic and... funny.

But it wasn't like it was a bad thing, just that it was throwing Hermione off... "Maybe, he decided to change and become a good student after the battle..."

"Maybe..." Harry replied with a sceptical look on his face.

"Are you guys coming or what?" Ron asked impatiently while looking back into the common room with half his body outside the porthole.

"Coming!" They answered before immediately following after their red-haired friend as he briskly led them towards the Hogwarts Library with peppiness in his steps.

The reason Ron was so excited to go to the library was that it was the only place in Hogwarts where it was possible for him to get resources that could be mighty useful for the whole summer in just the few hours that he had left.

'Just around here right—Oh!' Ron exclaimed inwardly as he abruptly froze in his steps the moment the library came into his view.

Not because he was stunned by the sight of thousands upon thousands of bookshelves, as even though Ron had not been a frequent visitor of this place, he had still been here enough times that he wouldn't be so shocked at its sight.

No, the reason he was so shocked was because of a very familiar red shiny exclamation mark blinking at the top of the library entrance. Then, without wasting a single second Ron mentally clicked on that alert notification.

[Quest Alert!]

[Conquer the Library (1)]

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