Chapter 138
Chapter 138
That night, Suer had a bizarre and kaleidoscopic dream.
In the dream, a light bulb and its socket suddenly transformed into a bald monster holding a wand. Green light radiated from its polished scalp as it cackled wickedly and raised the wand towards Suer, sending thick emerald beams dancing across the sky.
Then an old man familiar to Suer appeared. A red beam erupted from the man’s wand and met the green light head-on. It was Professor Dumbledore.
Next, all manner of random objects began to dance as music drifted down from overhead.
In the blink of an eye, the clash of spells vanished. A haloed, long-bearded old man descended from the sky with a stocking pulled over his head, obscuring his face.
Hair and beard bristling, the old man tugged at the stocking, which had slipped down to his stomach, and shouted at Suer.
“Where are my stockings? I want Balenciaga! Balenciaga! Not stockings from some street stall!”
The furious roar reverberated endlessly, piercing Suer’s ears, before gradually turning into a cat’s cry.
“Meow…”
Suer distinctly felt a heavy weight pressing straight down on his body. He opened his eyes in confusion, the image of the haloed old man demanding Balenciaga still lingering in his mind.
Suer vigorously rubbed Crookshanks in retaliation for the rude awakening, then gave a wry laugh.
“What in the world was all that…?”
Today’s Charms lesson was shared with the Gryffindor students. Professor Filius Flitwick intended to teach them two opposing spells: the Engorgement Charm and the Shrinking Charm.
Suer had learnt both long ago. They were among the fundamental charms.
Filius Flitwick had the students practise in pairs. One student would enlarge the object before their partner, while the other practised shrinking it again.
Naturally, Suer and Morn were paired together.
Ron and Harry stood not far away, whispering to each other. Ron did most of the talking, while Harry responded rather distractedly.
In short, neither of them had the slightest intention of practising.
Bored, Suer casually waved his wand and enlarged the glass ball before Morn, then shrank it again.
Large, small, large, small. He even used Transfiguration to turn it into the shape of a tiny badger, prompting Filius Flitwick, perched high above the class, to glance repeatedly in Suer’s direction.
Ron seemed rather agitated. His low, rapid voice carried over the other students’ incantations and reached Suer’s ears.
“I’m telling you, you’d better throw that notebook away!” Ron said. “How do you know there isn’t some evil magic in it?”
“Something that mysteriously appeared on your bed might have a curse from Malfoy all over it…”
“A notebook?” Suer tilted his head in puzzlement.
“Ahem, ahem…” At some point, Filius Flitwick had approached Ron and Harry.
From the corner of his eye, Suer saw Ron hurriedly raise his wand and loudly cast at the object opposite Harry, pretending to practise in earnest. His wand did not react in the slightest.
Suer shook his head at Ron’s wand, which had been barely held together with glue, and suddenly remembered his plan to find Ron one of the discarded wands in the Room of Requirement.
“Better not…” he murmured. “There’s only half a term left. Ron should be able to buy a new wand during the holiday.”
“What?” Morn looked up from his determined attempts to cast the Shrinking Charm on the glass ball before Suer.
“What wand?”
“Nothing, Morn. Let’s carry on.” Suer dismissed the thought and reminded him, “Your wand movement is wrong. The wrist only tilts to the right for the Engorgement Charm. For Reducio, you need to draw out the ‘R’ slightly.”
“Oh, oh, oh, oh.” Morn happily accepted the advice and corrected his technique.
To Suer’s embarrassment, Filius Flitwick had been standing beside them as he spoke. The professor loudly praised Suer’s conduct and awarded Hufflepuff a point.
Just when Suer thought the rest of the lesson would pass uneventfully, an accident occurred.
Ron appeared to put too much force into his incantation. His wand flew from his hand and struck a nearby student, apparently named Seamus, squarely on the head.
By coincidence, Seamus’s partner was Neville, and something seemed wrong with the glass ball before him. Instead of being transparent, it had turned bright red and was giving off smoke.
When Ron’s airborne wand bounced off Seamus’s head, something remarkable happened. As it fell, its tip landed squarely against the glowing red glass ball in front of Neville.
By an even greater coincidence, Ron had been practising the Engorgement Charm — and it appeared that he had succeeded.
Successfully casting a spell with a wand in such a thoroughly battered state should have been cause for celebration.
Unfortunately, the glass ball it enlarged was not the one in front of Harry, but…
The glowing red ball before Neville. From the look of it, the thing was about to explode.
“A wizard’s emotions while casting can greatly amplify or diminish the power of a spell.” Suer stood diagonally across from the unfolding accident and had a clear view of the entire scene.
The sight of Neville’s glass ball expanding more than tenfold brought back those words from an earlier lesson with Filius Flitwick.
“Get down!” Suer had time for only a single shout before tackling Morn to the floor.
“Boom!” A deafening explosion erupted, blasting grey smoke and sparks in every direction.
Suer felt as though the entire castle had shaken.
Screams and sobs rose within the smoke.
It was quite some time before Suer climbed to his feet, still shaken, and rubbed his ears. Judging from the sounds around him, the explosion did not seem to have caused any serious injuries.
“Quiet! Quiet!” Filius Flitwick cried sharply. “Clear the smoke!”
The purple beam spread outwards, and the smoke rapidly vanished.
The facts matched Suer’s judgement. No one appeared badly hurt, though everyone had received a terrible fright, and ash stained the robes of many young witches and wizards.
At some point, Filius Flitwick had climbed onto a tall stack of books. From there, he called loudly for the students to calm down.
Neville, who had stood at the centre of the blast, did not appear physically injured, but the shock had plainly affected him. His eyes stared blankly, his hair stood on end and his face was blackened.
His partner Seamus looked much the same. A thin wisp of grey smoke puffed from his mouth.
“Is anyone injured? Is anyone injured?” Filius Flitwick called in his shrill voice, his gaze darting around the room.
“Thump…” As though answering the professor’s question, Neville toppled stiffly backwards, eyes still vacant.
Filius Flitwick hastily leapt down from the stack of books and ran towards him.
“No!” Ron cried at that moment, his voice filled with grief. “My wand!”
Suer looked towards the sound and saw Ron kneeling on the floor. Tears streamed down his face as he held his wand in trembling hands. The section barely stuck together with glue had broken apart completely in the accident.
What dreadful luck…
Somehow, Ron’s wand was the only true casualty.