Chapter 17: The Midnight Duel Gone Awry

After experimenting, Eisen discovered that the suitcase, which had already been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, could not undergo further spatial expansion through repeated applications of the charm. In other words, Eisen could only cast the charm once to enlarge the suitcase's interior space, but he couldn't continually expand it by casting the charm repeatedly over time.

Of course, Newt Scamander's magical briefcase was said to have been the result of the combined efforts of all the students and professors of Hufflepuff House at Hogwarts, each contributing their own Undetectable Extension Charm.

In other words, if Eisen wanted to create a magical briefcase with such an immense interior space, he would need an extraordinary amount of magic power, which was clearly beyond his current capabilities.

After abandoning his practice of the Undetectable Extension Charm, Eisen stared at the suitcase in contemplation. He suddenly wondered if, since the suitcase had been enchanted with the charm and had become a magical item, he could replicate its magical properties.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Eisen reached out and touched the suitcase with its exceptionally large interior space.

"Extraordinary feature discovered – Superior Storage Space property. Consume one miracle property to replicate?"

Seeing this result, Eisen's heart leaped with joy. He could exploit the bug in his cheat ability to stack and fuse the Storage Space property, potentially creating a pocket dimension of his own.

However, upon further reflection, he deflated, realizing his shortage of miracle properties. Even if he didn't fuse any other properties and focused solely on the Storage Space property, creating a pocket dimension would require at least several hundred, if not thousands, of Storage Space properties fused together.

Yet he only had one miracle property per year, making this goal seem unattainable for the time being. So, Eisen had to shelve this ambition.

Nevertheless, now that he had mastered the Undetectable Extension Charm, he could create Storage Space properties whenever needed, so there was no need to dwell on it excessively.

However, while the suitcase had been enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm, allowing it to hold more items, it was still too large and cumbersome for Eisen's purposes. No matter where he went, carrying a suitcase around would be inconvenient.

Eisen then remembered Hermione's beaded bag from the original story and thought that a small bag of that style would be much more convenient to carry. Or perhaps he could have a hollow metal ring custom-made in the Muggle world, then cast the Undetectable Extension Charm on the hollow part, turning it into a storage ring?

...

It was already 11:30 PM when Eisen left the Room of Requirement.

Although night wanderings were no big deal for Eisen, he still cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself.

As Eisen passed through the Trophy Room on the fourth floor, he suddenly heard voices.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out!" It was Ron's voice, though he spoke softly enough, the silence of the Hogwarts corridors at night made it clear to Eisen.

"This is...a midnight duel?" Encountering such a scene, Eisen couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing.

However, since he had nothing better to do, he decided to follow along and observe.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." Filch's voice rang out conveniently, startling Harry and the others. It was clear that Filch was instructing his cat to use its sense of smell to locate Harry and his friends.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurriedly ran towards a door, away from Filch's direction, passing through several corridors before emerging near the Charms classroom.

After running for a while, the three were all out of breath. "I - told - you - this - would - happen!" Hermione scolded Harry and Ron.

"We must return to Gryffindor Tower," Ron said to Harry, ignoring Hermione's nagging.

"Malfoy tricked you, he never intended to meet you in the Trophy Room. He must have tipped off Filch," Hermione said, catching her breath and looking at Harry.

However, before they could sneak back, the school poltergeist Peeves emerged from a nearby classroom. Upon seeing Harry and the others, he shouted loudly.

"Ickle firsties out of bed, wandering around the Charms corridor!"

The group, who had just narrowly escaped, fled in desperation down the right-hand corridor, completely oblivious to the fact that they had entered the forbidden area on the right side of the fourth floor, which Dumbledore had explicitly warned students against entering.

At the end of the corridor, a locked door blocked their path.

"It's locked!" Harry tried the handle and pounded on the door.

"We're done for!" Ron whimpered, looking like he was about to cry.

"Move aside!" Hermione remained composed in the critical moment, pushing past Harry and Ron, and casting the Unlocking Charm, "Alohomora!" to open the locked door.

They rushed inside and closed the door behind them. Eisen, who had been observing from the shadows, shook his head. They had just stumbled into the room guarded by the three-headed dog, which was not a wise choice for the young wizards.

As Filch and Peeves moved away, unable to catch the students, sudden screams erupted from behind the door Eisen was watching. Harry and the others hurriedly escaped, attempting to shut the door behind them.

Eisen shook his head, then canceled his Disillusionment Charm, revealing himself. With a wave of his wand, the door seemed to be affected by another force, slamming shut and locking itself.

"What are you three doing out of bed at this hour?" Eisen asked sternly, though he found their rigid reactions somewhat amusing. As a Hogwarts professor, he couldn't simply ignore students wandering the corridors at night.

"Professor Eisen, Harry was supposed to have a midnight duel with Malfoy, but Malfoy didn't show up!" Harry looked at Ron's distorted expression and Hermione's trembling form, unsure of how to explain.

Finally, Hermione mustered her courage and told the "truth."

"A midnight duel? Well, young wizards are prone to recklessness, I can understand that," Eisen said, and the three seemed relieved. However, he continued, "But do you know where you are? This is the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor, the area forbidden to students by Professor Dumbledore."

At that moment, not only Hermione but also Harry and Ron turned pale, suddenly recalling Dumbledore's warning about the risk of a painful death for anyone entering that corridor.

Then, as if realizing something, they exchanged glances and displayed expressions of relief, likely connecting the three-headed dog behind the door. If not for their luck, they might have indeed met a gruesome fate.

"Professor Eisen, will we be expelled?" Ron asked with a distorted expression, looking as if he was about to cry.

"Oh, that's not necessary," Eisen shook his head. After all, they were the Golden Trio, the heroes of the story. Expelling them would throw the entire plot into chaos.

"However, considering that you were not only out of bed wandering the corridors at night but also entered a forbidden area, I will deduct 30 points from Gryffindor." Eisen still punished the young wizards, but a mere 30 points was insignificant. Hermione, the resident genius, could probably earn them back by answering a few questions in class.

Upon hearing the punishment, Hermione's expression fell, while Ron and Harry looked relieved. Of course, a studious overachiever like Hermione would view point deductions differently than others.

"Alright, hurry back to your dorms and get some sleep! You have classes tomorrow!" Eisen considered assigning them detention but decided it would be too much trouble.

The trio scurried off like unbridled horses towards Gryffindor Tower on the eighth floor, while Eisen returned to the staff quarters on the first floor.

As they approached the Fat Lady's portrait guarding the Gryffindor common room, they finally stopped running.

"Pig snout!" Harry uttered the password, and the portrait swung forward, granting them entrance. They stumbled into the common room and collapsed onto the sofa.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron grumble

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione looked at Harry and Ron as if questioning their eyesight. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"I was too busy looking at its heads!" Ron retorted.

Of course, for Harry and Ron, encountering such an extreme situation, they had only focused on the three massive heads staring at them.

"It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something," Hermione concluded astutely. 

As they headed towards their dormitory, Harry couldn't resist asking, "Do you think we should have told Professor Eisen about the dog?"

"Are you mad?" Ron exclaimed. "And get us in more trouble? Let's just be thankful he didn't give us detention or take away more points."

(End of Chapter)