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Hogwarts Castle, eighth floor.
Adam left the Headmaster's office, ignoring the stone gargoyle, and headed straight for a large tapestry. The tapestry depicted a wizard named Barnabas the Barmy, who was trying to teach trolls to do ballet in tutus, only to have them pick up their moth-eaten clubs and smash him on the head. Unlike other parts of the castle, this particular corridor seemed to be devoid of portraits, as if inviting young wizards to explore.
Adam focused his mind, walking back and forth three times in front of the tapestry, thinking to himself, "I need a room to practice alchemy."
A smooth door instantly appeared on the wall. Adam studied it carefully; it didn't have any magical runes, blending in perfectly with the rest of the stone. It felt like a more advanced magical creation, similar to the staircases in the castle. Even with the design plans Professor Rowena had given him, he only understood a fraction of it. It was like understanding the basic principles of a car but having no idea how many wheels to put on it if you were to build one from scratch.
Adam pushed the door open, and a crystal chandelier flickered to life, revealing a spacious room filled with various basic alchemy equipment. There were furnaces, calcination pots, reagent beds, glass alembics...
When he saw the items, Adam's heart sank. These things were likely even older than his own *Beginner's Guide to Alchemy*, which was published in 1792. The most modern thing in the room seemed to be a self-feeding reactor in the corner, but that was an invention from a Greek alchemist four centuries ago. Adam figured if he tried to sell this reactor in Diagon Alley, merchants would probably ask him where he dug up such an ancient relic.
Silently, he backed out of the Room of Requirement, took out a ring, and held it in his hand. This was the real reason for his visit. The Room of Requirement and the ring seemed to have similar functions. Adam even suspected that one of the founders might have referenced the ring's abilities when they created the room.
He walked up and down the corridor several times, the ring twinkling faintly, guiding him towards the Room of Requirement, but the door never appeared.
"Maybe the ring's guidance is correct, but with my current abilities, I just can't open the door yet?"
After pondering for a while in the corridor, Adam reluctantly gave up and headed to the Hufflepuff common room. Along the way, many little badgers greeted him warmly. Noticing his gloomy mood, they asked if he needed help and handed him some sweets. Adam waved his hands to refuse, but the little badgers were persistent and shoved the candies into his pockets anyway.
"What!?"
"Snape is giving me detention?" When he finally entered the common room, he was met with a ridiculous piece of news.
Cedric looked equally miserable, throwing his hands up in a helpless gesture. "To be precise, it's not just you. It's me, too."
"Right after you left the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall, Snape came in with a scowl on his face and publicly announced detention for both of us."
"Why?" Adam tried to recall if he'd said a single word to Snape recently. Even in Potions class, Snape had acted as if he couldn't see Adam, never commenting on his potions. This had only made the little Slytherins more certain that Adam was a distant relative of their head of house.
"Maybe it's because of the Quidditch match," Aiden, who had just gotten out of the hospital wing, said as he sat next to them, holding up a schedule and pointing to the upcoming game. "The match after tomorrow is Hufflepuff versus Slytherin, and since Cedric is our school's Seeker, maybe that's Snape's plan."
Adam was completely baffled and asked again, "But what about me? I'm not on the team. There's no reason for Snape to include me."
"Well, there might be a reason for it..." Cedric looked away awkwardly, speaking in a low voice. "When you first-years had your flying lesson, our team was training nearby."
"Everyone saw you somehow fly a ten-year-old Comet 220 with the grace of a Nimbus 1700."
Adam's head snapped up, and he stared straight into Cedric's eyes. "So what did you do?"
Cedric buried his head even further, mumbling, "The team had a discussion and tried suggesting to Professor Straup that we add a reserve Beater."
"Professor Straup actually agreed, but only if we don't finish last in the standings again this year..."
Adam took out his little notebook and slapped it down on the round table. "You'd better give me a good explanation for why you didn't tell me a single word about this."
"Because none of us thought it would actually happen!" Cedric waved his hands frantically as he explained. "According to Quidditch regulations, you need at least three professors to agree to add a reserve player."
He suddenly remembered something, rushed back to his dormitory, and returned with an application form. Adam took it, puzzled. He skipped over the student names and looked at the professors' signatures at the bottom. The first signature was their head of house, Professor Straup, which made sense, as Hufflepuff had been in last place for the House Cup for four years straight. Rumor had it that every November, when the House Cup began, Professor Straup would find a variety of reasons to decline invitations from other professors to watch the games.
The next signature was Professor McGonagall's, and Adam couldn't quite figure out her reasoning. However, she was known to be a fervent Quidditch fan and had a good relationship with Professor Straup, so perhaps it was a gesture of support. The last signature was the most intriguing of all, because it belonged to a Professor Hogg Lanster, a name Adam had seen at least a hundred times that evening.
"When was this application approved?" Adam asked Cedric out of nowhere.
"It was just this evening! I swear I wasn't hiding it from you. We just found out and didn't even have time to prepare!" Cedric said with a bitter look and a helpless shrug.
Just then, Fawkes the phoenix appeared in a flash of fire. He dropped a letter into Adam's hand with his golden talons, gave an elegant trill, and vanished once more. Every little badger stared in stunned silence at the spot where the phoenix had disappeared, especially Cedric, who rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "I've been at this school for two years, and that's the first time I've ever seen a phoenix..."
Adam ignored him, opening the letter and reading it carefully, his brow furrowing. The handwriting was a bit messy, as if Dumbledore had hastily picked up a quill to write it after Adam had left his office.
First, it touched upon the last topic of their conversation, offering Adam a polite apology and expressing the hope that he wouldn't burn all the letters Ariana had sent him. Secondly, it mentioned the detention. Snape had reported Adam for selling counterfeit products at school, but Dumbledore had overruled Snape's request, informing Adam that he wouldn't need to go to the dungeon for detention.
Cedric was still trying to figure out how to convince Adam to join the team, so when he saw him put down the letter, he cautiously brought up the topic. "What did Professor Dumbledore say to you?"
"He told me my detention was cancelled... Oh, and you still have to go."
"Huh?"
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