Chapter – 15.1: The girl in the letter and Malfoy approaches Alex

Chapter - 15.1

By the time Alex came back to his room, he was already in thought. What happened today made him realise that there was still something he had to learn. Coming to Hogwarts might not be a total waste after all.

It was not a new idea. Neither in the wizarding world nor to Alex. Alex had seen Professor Snape use magic without a wand umpteen number of times. Even children, when they first show their affinity to magic, they do not have a wand with them. But it is very chaotic and out of control. A wand is a means to concentrate the magic.

That is the case with Alex as well. He tried using magic without a wand earlier during his training with Professor Snape. But he was far from able to control it. That is when Professor Snape got him a wand. And from what Alex could tell, it was not through legitimate means. After that, Alex put this thought in the back of his head.

As they say, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. Alex has always taken this idiom to his heart, not letting his mind wander off to the wrong territory. Now, he had something else to look forward to.

'Still, spending seven years at Hogwarts for this is still a waste of time,' Alex could not help but shake his head.

While Alex was thinking about his future course of action, something came crashing into his window. While the Slytherins lived in a dungeon, in a spectacular show of creativity from the founder of Slytherin, they could still see the sun and the moon. Alex had no idea how, but he did not care about it for the time being.

Alex walked up to his window and slid it open. And as soon as he did, a large black owl jumped on top of the window frame holding a black envelope in its beak.

Looking at the owl and the letter in its beak, Alex did not immediately take the envelope. He had some idea who sent it to him, and that is what exactly made him hesitant.

'How did she know?' Alex thought. Looking at the owl, Alex was vigilant to even let the poor thing inside.

'Should I just burn it along with the letter?' Alex started to have some not-so-good thoughts about the situation. He looked at the owl with a meaningful gaze. When the owl saw Alex looking at him, he could feel its scalp tingle, and it took a step back, ready to flee.

"Aahh... It will be even more troublesome," Alex sighed and stretched his hand to pull out the envelope from the owl's beak. The owl was vigilant, and when he saw Alex make a move, it was ready to fly away. But Alex was quick. By the time the owl could think about leaving, Alex was already gripping the envelope, trying to pull it.

"C'mon, give it to me," Alex frowned when he saw the resistance from the owl, "Or I will fry you and feed you to him. That guy does not discriminate when it comes to food," Alex said, raising his eyebrows.

The owl then looked in the direction Alex was pointing and found a little black cat sleeping on the bed. Just when the owl felt that the kitten was no threat, Erebus opened his eyes and licked his whiskers. Since his master said so, he was trying to intimidate the owl, nice and clear.

Now the owl was clearly at a disadvantage. It had only one option left. Take a step back and wait for its opportunity.

The owl let go of the envelope and, without a breath to waste, jumped out of the window, flying away.

Alex looked at the envelope in his hand, the owl in the distance and then towards Erebus, "Maybe next time." Hearing Alex, Erebus just closed his eyes and slept again.

Now that the things had settled, Alex turned his attention back to the envelope in his hand. From the moment he had taken the envelope from that owl, Alex could feel that it was growing hotter every second Alex delayed opening it.

"So she sent a howler," Alex murmured. Once Alex deduced it, he pulled out the wand from his robes.

"Locus Silencio," Alex whispered. If anyone else had been in the room, they would have noticed that nothing changed. But the caster, in this case, Alex, saw a bluish-grey dome around him. It was not huge. The radius was no more than a meter around him. But no one outside this area could hear anything spoken within. Even Erebus was outside the circle.

Howlers were nothing like regular letters. For one, they could speak. They were enchanted and read the written message into the writer's voice. And if, for some reason, the letter was not opened by the recipient, the Howler would continue to grow hotter and hotter, and after a certain time had passed, it would end up exploding.

Alex had never personally used it, but he knew the characteristics. That was the reason he made used that spell to isolate himself.

Now that everything was set, Alex did not waste more time dilly-dallying. In one swift moment, he pulled off the ribbon around the Howler.

As soon as he did that, the Howler jumped off Alex's hand and floated in front of him.

There was pin-drop silence that followed.

'Is this some prank?' Alex thought but quickly shook his head. From what Alex knew about her, it shouldn't be the case.

"Hello, my dear darling..." The Howler finally spoke.

"I know a simple letter is more of your thing, but what can I do? It has been a year now, and I was afraid you might forget my voice," Alex heard the familiar voice. It was pleasant to the ears, but Alex knew that it was nothing but a sham.

"I heard you got into Hogwarts. It was a surprise, but what can I say? Weren't you always full of mysteries? I even prepared a present for you. But again... Augh... It's so hard to even do something for you..." The Lady sighed in frustration, and it was followed by silence again.

"Well, I wrote this letter just to let you know that I can understand the long gap since the last time we saw each other. But I hope you will visit me in your holidays. I will keep the present with me till then..." The girl said with a bit of excitement in her voice.

"... And I hope you won't mind me sending you letters from time to time," suddenly, the tone in the girl's voice changed. It was a bit cautious, "I just want to know how you are doing..."

"Well..." the girl quickly steadied her emotions, "I won't drag this long... I hope that I get to see you soon..."

"Yours..."

And with that, the Howler exploded. But instead of anything nasty, it burst into fragrant flower petals. And now that he was done reading the letter, Alex undid the spell. Soon the fragrance spread in the room, making it much more pleasant for Alex.

'Wouldn't I be the bad guy if I did not reply?' Alex thought. The girl was kind of blackmailing him. But on second thought, 'Who would even know?'

Alex has to think about it for now.

The petals floated around the room for a while before they vanished into thin air. And this also made Alex realise something. He sniffed hard a couple of times and frowned.

"But before that... I need to do something about the smell," Alex murmured and turned to look at Erebus.

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