"I guess I need to do more research then, or I won't know when I'm going to get tripped up by something I didn't see coming," Victor muttered after hearing Dumbledore's words. The power of curses was simply too bizarre, and he had to be prepared with countermeasures.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and Victor asked Dumbledore, "Professor, is it possible that this was Professor Quirrell's doing?"
Based on what was just said, under Voldemort's instructions, Quirrell might have used magic to infect Kenneth Toller with the blood curse, thus gaining an accomplice at Hogwarts.
"In his current state, he doesn't have the nerve for something like that," Dumbledore said confidently. "Besides, the blood curse on Kenneth is incomplete, and the resulting Serpent Slave has many serpentine features like scales and a forked tongue, which cannot be hidden."
"I see! Well, since the matter has been taken care of, I should head back to my dorm to sleep." Victor put down the empty snack jar and prepared to leave, but just as he was about to cast a spell, he remembered something else. "Oh, right, one more thing!" Victor turned back. "Professor, I need to remind you of something! When Professor Snape has prepared the antidote, please let me know. I need to undo the magic on that student first, otherwise, it won't do any good to give him the potion." With that, he instantly disappeared from the office, leaving Dumbledore alone with his thoughts.
Even though he had seen Victor disappear right in front of him, Dumbledore still had no idea what spell Victor had used to enter his office.
Logically, this was the central point of Hogwarts. There were no windows, and it was protected by powerful magic. A normal person would have no other way of getting in other than through the stone gargoyle outside.
He reorganized his chaotic thoughts and decided to reinforce the protective magic of the office. Not for anything else, but just to prevent a certain someone from breaking in and stealing his snacks when he wasn't there. In just half an hour, his snacks had been completely cleared out.
The next day was Saturday.
Victor slept in late, not waking up until it was almost lunchtime.
On his first weekend at Hogwarts, Victor was brushing his teeth, thinking about what he could do to occupy his time. He couldn't just stay in the common room and read books all the time; he would become a bookworm.
So, Victor was trying to think of something practical to do to pass the time. After some thought, he suddenly remembered a very special item he had seen in Dumbledore's office the night before.
The Sword of Gryffindor was in a glass case next to the Sorting Hat. This made him think of the plot of the second Harry Potter film, where Slytherin had left a Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts and the founders of the four houses had left their own heirlooms.
According to some hardcore fans, it was possible that the other three founders, in addition to Slytherin, also left some sort of legacy for their descendants at Hogwarts or elsewhere.
With this thought, Victor's mind became very active.
As a Ravenclaw, he naturally set his first goal on Rowena Ravenclaw's legacy.
The first step was to find Ravenclaw's diadem, since in the original books, it was the most likely item to contain clues about Ravenclaw's legacy. Victor distinctly remembered that the diadem, as one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, had been hidden in the Room of Requirement, a massive room filled with clutter, where old items were piled into small mountains.
But while Victor knew the location of the diadem, he didn't know the exact location of the Room of Requirement. So, he decided to find a ghost at Hogwarts. They had been in the castle for so long that they were sure to know where the Room of Requirement was, or at least be able to give him a clue.
"The Room of Requirement, you say? What is that? I've been at Hogwarts for hundreds of years, and I've never heard of such a place!" The speaker was the Hufflepuff ghost, the Fat Friar. He was short and plump, wearing wrinkled robes and tights, a monk's habit, and had the typical Hufflepuff friendliness and compassion; he was a jolly ghost.
Every year at the start of school, the Fat Friar would try to convince the other ghosts to let Peeves attend the feast, but he had never succeeded.
To be honest, Victor had originally planned to find Helena Ravenclaw, but the beautiful lady had a bit of a strange temper. Even as a fellow Ravenclaw, if he tried to talk to her for more than a few sentences, she would immediately drive him away.
So, he had to go to the Fat Friar, who was the kindest and most helpful. Hearing the Fat Friar deny its existence, Victor remembered that the Room of Requirement was a secret place with no fixed name, so he rephrased his question.
"Do you remember a place at Hogwarts where different people open the same door but end up in different rooms?"
"Oh, now that you mention it, I do remember a place like that!" the Fat Friar said, thinking. "It's on the eighth floor of the castle, across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. I once saw Filch get cleaning supplies there, and I thought it was a supply closet, but then I saw Headmaster Dumbledore go in, and it turned into a lavatory!"
"That's it, that must be it!" Victor said excitedly. "Thank you, Fat Friar. If I get the chance, I'll take a trip to Diagon Alley and buy you a gift!"
There were indeed shops in Diagon Alley that sold things for ghosts, but the store was near the entrance of Knockturn Alley, and very few people ever went there. Victor had seen a sign for "Ghostly Goods & Grub" when he passed by the entrance to Knockturn Alley once and had learned of the place's existence.
After confirming the location of the Room of Requirement, Victor flew to the eighth floor without stopping. He stood in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, facing a bare wall, and began to silently chant, "I need to go to the place where Ravenclaw's diadem is located." He chanted it several times, but for some reason, the wall didn't react for a while. This left Victor puzzled. What went wrong? Did I get the wrong place? Is the Room of Requirement not here?
As Victor was pacing and thinking, a smooth door suddenly appeared on the wall. This baffled Victor even more, as he had no idea which step had failed to make the door appear earlier.
But now was not the time to think about it!
Victor ran over and pushed open the door to the Room of Requirement, entering a massive room full of junk. Countless old items: broken-legged desks and chairs, books with missing pages, flattened copper pots, broken mirrors, torn curtains, and countless picture frames, copper statues, glass jars, and chests. These items, stacked from large to small, formed small mountains that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Wow, this must be as big as a Quidditch pitch. How am I supposed to find the diadem?!" Victor was first amazed by the sheer size of the place, then he started to get a headache trying to figure out how to find the one item he was looking for in the piles of junk.
The room contained tens of thousands of items of all shapes and sizes; it would take forever to find it by hand! So how was the diadem found in the original books? Victor thought about it and suddenly remembered that Voldemort's Horcruxes could sense each other.
A Horcrux? Isn't there a living one in this school?
————
Meanwhile, in the Hogwarts Great Hall, it was a weekend, and many students had chosen to play games to pass the time. But unlike other weekends, there was a strange atmosphere. In the Great Hall, students from the other three houses were all staring at the Ravenclaws in the distance, their heads full of questions and exclamation points.
At the Gryffindor table... Ron was sitting on a corner, looking puzzled, and asked Harry across from him, "What's wrong with the Ravenclaws today? They're usually a bit weird, but there are usually some normal ones. Why do they all look like they've gone mad today?"
"I don't know, but they look like they're practicing wandless magic?" Harry shook his head, hearing the occasional "Leviosa" from a distance. He didn't see anyone from Ravenclaw holding a wand.
"Isn't wandless magic something only older students learn? And it's not even a required class. Why would the Ravenclaws come to the Great Hall to practice like this?"
"I found out!" Just as Harry and Ron were wondering, Hermione suddenly appeared next to them, holding a massive book.
"I don't think you're much better than them!" Ron said, complaining about the book. Ron's words earned him a fierce glare from Hermione, and he immediately backed down.
"Hermione, what did you find out?" Harry asked curiously.
"It's Victor!" For some reason, Hermione's voice had a hint of resentment when she said the name. "I just found out from someone that yesterday afternoon, Victor taught everyone in the Ravenclaw common room how to fly with the Levitation Charm, and now all the Ravenclaw students are practicing the spell!"
"Victor? Victor Dreyar?! That weirdo who's always flying around the school?!" Ron's words clearly had a hint of jealousy in them.
"Victor is not a weirdo!" Hermione said, glaring at Ron.
But unlike Ron, Harry was very interested in the idea of being able to fly with a spell. He asked Hermione, "Hermione, did you find out how to do it?"
"No!" Hermione shook her head in frustration. "I asked a few people, and they all refused to tell me. They said that Victor taught it to the Ravenclaws, and it's not meant to be shared with outsiders!"
"Oh, I see..." Harry's face fell when he heard he couldn't learn how to fly.
"Then why are they all practicing magic in the Great Hall? Isn't the Ravenclaw common room big enough for them?" Ron asked.
"It seems that the Ravenclaw common room has been taken over by the older students. It's raining outside today, and since the school rules forbid using magic in the corridors, all the Ravenclaw students below third year have come to the Great Hall to practice magic," Hermione explained.
And just as the three of them were talking, the instigator of the strange events in Ravenclaw was quietly approaching them.