Inside the suitcase world.
A spacious, sealed room filled with soft, even lighting.
The giant green snake huddled in the corner, body coiled into a tight ball, vertical pupils fixed warily on the figure across from her.
Lucien stood opposite the snake, a row of pale blue light beams forming a barrier between them.
The magically constructed shield was strong enough to stop any sudden, violent lunge from Nagini.
He had just finished another thorough check of her magic circuits.
The good news was that Magic Weaving could actually work on Nagini's circuits to some degree.
It was probably because her current snake body was far closer to a true magical creature than an ordinary snake, and much more powerful than a normal wizard's body, so the technique "fit."
The bad news was that he still couldn't treat the curse in her physical flesh yet.
He needed to keep her in snake form so he could use Magic Weaving to rebuild the circuits at the same time Liuguang's pure fire burned the curse away.
This step was going to be brutally difficult.
Strictly speaking, Lucien still hadn't pushed Magic Weaving to its full potential.
The first time, healing the little unicorn Aurora, he had only repaired a small section of damaged circuits. His goal back then had been simple "repair," not radical change.
The second time, optimizing Norbert the dragon's circuits, he had only made minor tweaks to strengthen the dragon's physique and magical abilities—while making sure Norbert stayed firmly within the Norwegian Ridgeback category to satisfy the system's loan requirements.
According to the principles of Magic Weaving, the bigger the change to the circuits, the more dramatic the resulting physical transformation.
Altering size was the easy part. Reshaping scales, feathers, fur, or even creating entirely new limbs and organs…
Lucien wasn't sure whether a creature whose circuits had been completely rewritten could still reproduce. If it could, that would basically mean creating a brand-new species.
Even if it couldn't, simply transforming a living being that thoroughly was already strange and unsettling.
This time, "treating" Nagini's circuits was nothing like the previous two attempts.
Her circuits were already completely twisted. Driving out the curse meant tearing them down and rebuilding them from the ground up.
Not patching. Not optimizing. Full reconstruction.
Like slowly dismantling a collapsed, crooked house while building an entirely new one in its place.
Now that he had a clear direction for treating the curse, Lucien still planned to keep studying curses.
The more he understood them, the better he could guard against surprises during the actual treatment.
A bloodline curse like this wouldn't go quietly when faced with expulsion. Especially when it was on the verge of being completely wiped out, it could still lash out in a final, desperate counterattack—like a cornered wild animal biting with its last ounce of strength.
Besides, right now he was only dealing with the curse on the body and circuit levels.
For the soul, Salazar had given him a suggestion, not a complete solution.
Lucien still needed to be extremely careful. He would build up a much broader knowledge base on curses first.
He put away his wand and glanced at the giant snake behind the barrier.
"Rest up for now. The treatment ahead is going to be pretty rough."
The snake didn't seem to appreciate the gentle warning. It simply stared coldly at his back as he left.
…
Magic Practice Room.
This was where Lucien usually practiced spells and tested new ideas.
It was an independent space inside the suitcase world, separated by several layers of other pocket dimensions, so no matter how much commotion he made, nothing would leak outside.
Lucien stood in the center of the room, wand gripped firmly in his hand.
He silently ran through the key points of the Patronus Charm.
To summon a Patronus, you had to pour every ounce of focus into remembering something truly happy—or filled with love and hope.
It was a power of light, representing hope, joy, and the will to live…
You needed a memory that could make your very soul tremble with genuine "happiness."
Lucien closed his eyes.
A memory rose in his mind.
He raised his wand, lips moving softly:
"Expecto Patronum."
…
Outside the suitcase, in the dormitory.
Lucien's roommate Terry had just finished washing up and returned, still humming a slightly off-key little tune.
He pushed open the door, stepped inside, and casually draped his towel over the back of a chair.
Out of the corner of his eye, Terry suddenly noticed something.
On the desk beside Lucien's bed, that perfectly ordinary-looking suitcase was trembling faintly.
It was a rhythmic vibration coming from inside.
As if something was struggling to break free—or trying to burst out.
Terry remembered Lucien's warning: if the suitcase ever started moving on its own, the smartest move was to keep your distance.
He had just lifted his foot to step back when thin strands of silvery-white mist began seeping from the cracks in the suitcase.
The mist was very faint, like morning vapor rising off a lake or delicate threads of condensed moonlight.
It slowly drifted out from the edges of the lid and spread silently through the air.
Terry blinked. Even though the mist gave him an oddly peaceful, calming feeling just by looking at it, his decision to back away only grew stronger.
Sometimes too much curiosity could get a wizard killed.
Especially when it involved another wizard's belongings.
Terry took a step back, but the moment his foot was halfway in the air—
The silvery-white mist suddenly exploded!
Like floodwaters held back too long, like birds finally freed from a cage, the mist erupted from every single gap in the suitcase and instantly filled the entire dormitory!
And it didn't stop there.
It surged out of the suitcase!
It rushed out of the dormitory!
It poured out of the Ravenclaw common room…