Chapter 150: Mnemosyneveil!
Dylan reflected on the past few days, during which the Basilisk hadn't attacked again.
This had made the Hogwarts students less fearful of the so-called Chamber of Secrets, which meant the Weasley twins' charms weren't selling as well.
At least, they hadn't asked him to make a new batch recently.
However, the Weasley twins had managed to sell a few before, and ultimately split half the galleons with Dylan.
To be honest, these few thousand galleons were completely insignificant to Dylan now.
He even considered not taking them, but the Weasley twins insisted he accept, saying it was his rightful share.
With no other option, he reluctantly took the few thousand galleons.
—He truly couldn't understand why so many people would buy these charms.
Dylan could only conclude that the Weasley brothers were indeed excellent at persuasion.
Even Seamus and Neville, who had seen him charm the amulets once or twice, seemed to have been brainwashed.
It was terrifying!
Just then, Professor McGonagall hurried over, accompanied by Harry and Ron.
"Children, another student has been attacked, but not from our house. It's Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw."
The atmosphere in the common room grew heavy.
Professor McGonagall was surrounded by a tight cluster of students, her face exceptionally solemn.
Upon hearing that someone else had been attacked, everyone present gasped, and an uneasy murmur instantly erupted.
Clearly, their previous suspicions were correct; the monster in the Chamber of Secrets had struck again!
Professor McGonagall stood still for a moment, her gaze earnest, scanning each young face.
"I don't know if any of you here have any information, but I urge you, any information related to the planning of these attacks, please, you must speak out!"
"Although the attacked individuals can be cured with Mandrake Restorative Draught, if we cannot capture the mastermind at large, everyone in the school could become the next victim!"
Professor McGonagall paused slightly here, her expression growing more pained.
"Even more critically, if these malicious incidents do not cease, Hogwarts will likely be forced to close! Until this matter is completely resolved!"
The surrounding Gryffindors were stunned upon hearing this, then immediately erupted into an uproar!
"What? The school will close? How can that be?" someone exclaimed, their face showing resistance.
"Can't the attacked people be saved directly with Mandrakes? Why would the school close because of the attacks?" others wondered, confused.
"Even if they can be saved, who knows if the monster will directly eat people afterward? So many attacks have already happened; who can guarantee that the next person attacked will live long enough for the Mandrakes to take effect?" This statement made the already grim atmosphere even more oppressive.
Professor McGonagall looked around, but no one came forward to offer more information.
Her gaze lingered slightly on Dylan.
But he remained silent, and finally, she shook her head: "I urge everyone present, if you know anything, tell me immediately!"
With that, Professor McGonagall turned and left.
"These recent attacks, whether in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff, even the Gryffindor ghost was attacked, yet not a single Slytherin has been affected."
Lee Jordan frowned, standing beside the Weasley twins, saying in a low voice.
"The Chamber of Secrets must have been opened by a Slytherin! They just want to attack the rest of us! Why does the professor still want us to provide clues? They should just expel all the Slytherins from Hogwarts directly!"
"That's right!"
The Weasley twins nodded repeatedly, causing the surrounding Gryffindors to immediately shift the topic to the "greasy Slytherins."
Harry and Ron also joined in, trying to gather more information.
Seeing Professor McGonagall leave, Dylan, having no time to start a rebellion with a bunch of kids, turned and walked towards his dormitory.
Neville and Seamus exchanged glances. Seeing that Harry and the others didn't seem to be returning to the dormitory, they quickly followed Dylan.
The Savior didn't seem capable of saving them right now; they'd better stick with Dylan...
Both agreed that staying with Dylan would be very safe.
Back in the dormitory, Neville and Seamus rummaged through their belongings, pulling out all their charms and wearing them on their hands and necks.
Dylan looked at their panicked expressions, his mouth twitching: "Don't be too afraid. That monster always attacks when no one is around. Isn't that obvious?"
"Obvious what?" Neville and Seamus blinked.
"...It's obvious that the monster is afraid of the professors! And doesn't want to reveal its true form!"
Dylan explained as he sat at his desk, pulled out a book, and quietly began to read.
"If that monster dared to appear in front of the professors, it would probably be beaten senseless!"
Neville paused, then suddenly asked, "What about you, Dylan?"
"Hm? Me what?" Dylan turned his head.
"What if that monster met you?" Neville looked at Dylan expectantly.
Seamus also looked over.
Dylan chuckled: "Then I'd make it realize that its birth is a mistake it must rectify for a lifetime."
"..."
Listening to Dylan's seemingly fearless remarks about the heir and the Chamber of Secrets monster, they inexplicably felt more at ease.
Was this what security felt like?
This feeling lasted until bedtime.
Harry and Ron had already returned.
Neville, however, wished he could just attach himself to Dylan.
"I'm really worried I'll get attacked by the monster in my sleep, Dylan. Could you cast some protective spells on our dorm? Make it like an iron fortress, so the monster can't get in!"
Dylan looked at Neville, who was sitting next to him in his pajamas, his mouth twitching slightly.
"You're exaggerating a bit. To get into the Gryffindor dorm, you have to go through the Fat Lady's portrait. Without the password, neither the heir nor the monster can get in."
But Neville was still hesitant: "But the heir has dared to attack Hogwarts students repeatedly. If he captures a Gryffindor... and forces them to reveal the password, couldn't they get in then?"
That actually makes sense...
Dylan felt a bit helpless.
He rubbed his forehead.
"Alright, alright, I'll cast some spells to strengthen the defenses of our dorm door and walls."
Having received Dylan's definite answer, Neville finally breathed a slight sigh of relief, then slowly shuffled back to his bed.
Watching him get into bed, constantly tucking and pressing down the edges of his blanket, finally cocooning himself like a caterpillar, Dylan shook his head.
He had thought this guy had gotten braver, but it turned out he was still so timid.
But this was normal; after all, he was just a kid. Feeling scared and worried in the face of danger was nothing to be ashamed of.
Dylan, waving his wand, mused aloud: "Should I just use a sealing charm to completely isolate our dorm? Then no one else could get in."
"Of course, until the time is up, or I dispel the magic, we wouldn't be able to get out either."
Neville immediately nodded: "That charm is great! We can—"
"No, you can't!"
Before Neville could finish his sentence, Harry, who had just lain down, suddenly sat bolt upright again.
Neville looked at him, bewildered.
Harry stammered a bit.
"I mean, what if we need to go out later... I mean, to the bathroom, yes, what if we need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and we can't get out?"
Harry quickly explained.
Ron also nodded frantically from the side, adding: "Yeah, what if we need to get up in the middle of the night? Who's going to wake Dylan up? If we wake Dylan up in the middle of the night, I think he might turn us all into toilets! That way we can just take care of it in the dorm!"
Dylan stared at them.
Seeing Dylan's death glare, Ron immediately yelled: "See, see! He's just thinking about it, and Dylan already has that look in his eyes! If we actually wake him up at night, he definitely won't let us off!"
Dylan rolled his eyes: "Isn't that a bit too exaggerated? At most, I'd turn you into a urinal, how could I turn you into a toilet?"
Ron wailed: "Isn't it all the same?"
Neville blinked, looked at Ron, then at Dylan, and then nodded slightly in agreement.
"Actually, what Ron said isn't wrong... So, let's not use that charm, Dylan. Just use some other spells. I believe you can stop that monster even without a sealing charm!"
Dylan took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to turn these kids into urinals.
He casually cast a few spells.
He lay down on his bed, pulled up his blanket, turned over, and prepared to sleep.
The next morning, nothing had happened. No one else in the entire school had been attacked.
Yet Neville insisted that this was definitely because Dylan had used spells, which made the heir and the monster afraid to approach their dorm.
Dylan explained a couple of times, but finding it useless, he just let Neville believe what he wanted.
What surprised him, however, was that this rumor spread further and further, to the point where almost half of Gryffindor came to plead with him every night, hoping he would also cast protective spells on their dorms.
The Weasley twins immediately smelled a business opportunity.
Knowing that Dylan would be unwilling to spend so much time on these things, they again proposed that he quickly make a larger batch of charms for them to sell.
To entice Dylan to help them, they even offered him an additional ten percent profit.
This meant Dylan would directly receive sixty percent of the galleons, without any cost deduction. Whatever price they sold them for, Dylan would get sixty percent of that price.
Preparing the charm stock and hawking them outside was the Weasley brothers' business; Dylan just had to quietly wait to collect his money.
Moreover, they could help Dylan get rid of the people who constantly surrounded his dorm, pleading with him to cast protective spells on their dorms.
After much thought, Dylan nodded and agreed.
—In fact, Dylan was very willing to do things that could increase the Weasley family's income.
After all, they had hosted him for half the summer.
—Using their already meager income.
However, Dylan had never thought of simply giving them a sum of money directly.
For the Weasley family, that wouldn't be a reward; instead, it would look more like he was giving them charity or handouts.
Now that there was a way to make money, Dylan was willing to help, as long as it didn't require too much effort.
And this time, the Weasley twins could help him solve a major problem.
—He had been thoroughly annoyed these past two days by the people begging him to cast spells on their dorm doors.
None of these Gryffindors felt embarrassed about asking Dylan for help.
They were all incredibly familiar.
And it did concern their safety; even if they felt embarrassed, since everyone else was asking Dylan for help, they naturally couldn't hold back.
After making another batch of charms for the Weasley twins, almost no one was blocking his door anymore.
Clearly, they had all been driven away by the Weasleys.
Or rather, they had been lured away by the Weasleys with the charms.
This brought a genuine sigh of relief to Dylan.
Finally, he didn't have to be surrounded by a crowd every time he left the dorm.
April passed.
Dylan was now quite proficient at transforming into a Norwegian Ridgeback, and even his flying had become much smoother.
Furthermore, he had made significant progress in various spell research, including the Obsidian Restorative Draught.
This was largely thanks to the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest.
When Dylan occasionally took Norbert to the Forbidden Forest to find Hagrid, he would also hunt some Acromantulas to obtain Obsidian Flowers from their bodies.
With these large creatures nurturing the Obsidian Flowers, the quality of the restorative draught immediately improved.
With the increased space in his trunk, Dylan had been investing nearly all his galleons, after essential expenses, into expanding its capacity.
Everything had been progressing smoothly.
Only his Patronus Charm showed no significant improvement, which puzzled Dylan greatly.
Consequently, his research focus had gradually shifted toward the Patronus Charm.
He had mastered the spell; how could he not learn it?
Dylan found it unacceptable.
Just as he settled down to research the charm, several pieces of bad news arrived with the summer.
First, the monster in the Chamber of Secrets attacked Hogwarts students again.
Perhaps because the previous victims, Mrs. Norris and Colin, had both been saved, the frequency of attacks suddenly increased after Colin was attacked again recently.
The second piece of bad news, which not only troubled Harry and his friends but also left Dylan feeling somewhat helpless, was that Hagrid had been taken away!
The Ministry of Magic suspected Hagrid was involved in the petrification of students.
This also tied into events from fifty years ago.
However, Dylan wasn't interested in that. He only knew that during Hagrid's absence, Norbert's meals would have to be prepared by him.
Dylan also wasn't worried that if Hagrid was captured by the Ministry of Magic, they would discover his and Norbert's existence through Hagrid's memories.
As a wizard who had mastered the Confundus Charm, he had also recently maxed out his Legilimency skills during his spell research, including Occlumency.
Even his proficiency in the Fidelius Charm was quite high.
Using these spells, Dylan had developed a new charm:
Mnemosyneveil! (The Veil of Mnemosyne)
This charm allowed Dylan to construct an invisible mental barrier in Hagrid's mind, specifically targeting memories related to him.
Mnemosyneveil would shroud those memories of Hagrid, concealing them behind this spell's barrier.
Dylan had tested it and could ensure that neither conventional magical methods like Veritaserum or Legilimency, nor coercion or inducement, would cause Hagrid to reveal any of these shielded memories, or for them to be perceived or read by others.
Only when Dylan personally dispelled the charm would the relevant memories resurface, allowing Hagrid to freely speak about them.
Dylan was actually inspired to create this charm by the magical contract he signed with the goblins.
—The power of that magical contract, binding both parties, truly intrigued Dylan.
He had to admit, buying that house wasn't a loss at all.
Not only did he get a free house, but it also gave him more ideas and inspiration for creating spells.
Besides this bad news, the third point was that Malfoy's father—Lucius Malfoy—used his influence on the Hogwarts Board of Governors to forcefully interfere with school affairs, bringing a temporary suspension order from the Board.
This forced old Dumbledore to temporarily leave Hogwarts.
And after Dumbledore's departure, the fear in the hearts of Hogwarts students almost reached its peak.
Even with the passage of time, the weather had become less cold, even gradually turning hot.
However, the warming sunlight, no matter what, could not penetrate the cold stone walls of Hogwarts.
Walking through the corridors, shadows grew freely, bringing a chill.
Without Dumbledore at the helm, almost all students in Hogwarts Castle walked in small groups of two or three, huddled tightly together, their steps hurried, their eyes filled with apprehension, constantly darting around.
They were terrified that a terrifying monster might suddenly leap out of some shadow and directly jump onto their faces.
.....
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