Louis emerged from the passage and immediately saw a moving portrait—it depicted a knight.
"Thank you for opening the door for us," Fred said as he offered a half-baked knightly salute. The knight in the painting returned the gesture with equal formality.
"That guy's a fake knight who's obsessed with knight tales," Fred explained. "But you have to treat him like he's real, or sometimes he won't open the door for you."
"That's actually kind of fun," Louis replied.
"There are secret passages behind lots of portraits in the castle," Fred continued, "but you shouldn't use them unless you really know your way around—especially if you're sneaking around at night. I'd bet even Filch knows the passages better than you. And if you don't know how to open the exits properly, he could trap you inside."
"Sounds like the voice of experience," Louis grinned. "You guys got stuck before you figured it out, didn't you?"
"Yep. But not anymore—we know these passages better than Filch now. And we can use Disillusionment Charms. Filch is a Squib, so he can't see through it."
Fred enthusiastically shared his tips for nighttime mischief. "If you can cast a Disillusionment Charm too, just be wary of the patrolling professors."
"Thanks for the tip," Louis replied casually.
He had the Snake Talisman, which was way more advanced than a Disillusionment Charm—immune to magical interference and nearly undetectable. Different magical systems rarely counter each other effectively.
Forget patrolling professors—even Dumbledore probably couldn't see through his invisibility.
"Hurry up—we're here." Fred extinguished his wand and pointed to a classroom ahead. "George is still waiting."
There were a lot of unused classrooms in Hogwarts. It wasn't that they were abandoned—it's just that they weren't needed.
Each year only had about forty students total, four houses combined. Across seven years, that's just 280 students. Even if you spread them all out, they wouldn't fill half the castle's classrooms. So, many remained dusty and forgotten.
These unused rooms were often in the far corners of upper floors—the kind of place where you could die and no one would know for days.
Inside one such room, George Weasley was tinkering with Louis's magic powder. He seemed to have learned from Fred's mistake and wasn't aggressively rubbing it around.
There were no desks or chairs, but the twins had thoughtfully prepared cushions—one for each of them, and one for Louis.
Magic materials were scattered all around George for easy access, but it made the room look even messier than a landfill.
"You're here," George looked up. "Let's begin. Fred, keep working on the portable swamp upgrade."
Fred nodded and rushed over to join him. Louis dragged a cushion over, carefully avoiding the materials, and sat beside them to watch.
This had been the plan from the start—Louis could observe the twins' process as long as he promised not to spread their secrets. If he had questions, he could ask.
That was all Louis needed. Honestly, he was relieved they hadn't tried to teach him how to do magic. That would've raised a very awkward problem: if he couldn't learn… would they silence him?
He watched as Fred and George divided up tasks, combining magical power with the reactions of various ingredients on a dismantled, fist-sized projectile. Something clicked in Louis's mind—he felt inspired.
After all, Qi magic and wizarding magic were both still magic, and Qi magic also had its own potion- and alchemy-like branches. He could potentially use Qi magic to craft magical tools too.
The only problem was, he lacked the corresponding production techniques for Qi-based magical items. Those weren't part of the basic knowledge.
Adapting alchemical principles to Qi magic would require a brilliant mentor with a wide-reaching vision.
But that mentor hadn't been carved yet. Hagrid had only just left for Diagon Alley today—hopefully, he'd return with the carving tools Louis needed by tonight. Louis had already checked Hogsmeade, and found nothing useful there.
"Done!"
After some meticulous tweaking and modifying, the twins finally reassembled the projectile. Fred was now running around the empty classroom, holding the device aloft.
"Quick, time to test it!" George shouted. "Throw it!"
"Dun-dun-dun-dunnn~" Fred sang some bizarre tune and hurled the projectile into the center of the room after giving it a firm squeeze.
The device bounced on the floor, then burst into a thick, muddy sludge. The twins watched excitedly as it began to spread, corroding the floor with the potential to turn that whole patch into a swamp.
But the transformation didn't last.
The area began to dry up and yellow rapidly, until what was left was nothing more than cracked, brittle mud.
The twins, who had been ready to cheer, instantly deflated.
"Another failure…" Fred sat on the floor, too disappointed to care about the dust.
"Yeah, back to square one." George sighed.
Louis blinked, then asked, "Wait, so every time you make just one and test it immediately?"
"Of course," Fred replied. "That way we know right away if it works or not."
"But doesn't that make it hard to compare results?" Louis asked. "Maybe your memory's good enough to avoid the same mistake next time… but what about the time after that? I think you should make multiple versions at once. That way you can test different methods, compare results, and document everything properly."
"That… actually makes a lot of sense," George and Fred said in unison.
"You're pretty smart, Louis," George added.
"That's not my brilliance—it's just the scientific method," Louis said. "A Muggle approach to experimentation: control all variables, study cause and effect."
"Science, huh? Using Muggle methods to study magic… that alone would piss off any pure-blood wizard who hates Muggles," Fred laughed.
"Science is more of a mindset. Organized research always yields better results than chaotic trial-and-error. It lets your brains focus on creation instead of damage control."
Louis stepped over to their pile of materials. "Don't underestimate Muggles. Soon…"
"Soon what?" Fred and George asked together.
"Nothing." Louis shook his head, lowering his gaze to the crude ingredients.
Soon, the Muggle world will enter the information age… and when that happens, tension between wizards and non-magical humans will only increase.
Even with spells to repel Muggles, in a world where land grows scarce, even blank spots on satellite images will draw attention.
But it seemed like wizards hadn't realized how close that future was—not even the most brilliant and wise of them all, Albus Dumbledore, who was still preoccupied with a half-dead Dark Lord.
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