Chapter 212: Easter
Everything seemed to have slowed down. A few days before Easter, the Wizard's Chess and the Squirrel Biscuit reached the [Expert] level. Sean began to plan how to reasonably deliver the biscuit into Professor Quirrell's hands.
For an ordinary wizard, an [Apprentice] level biscuit would suffice for transformation. However, Professor Quirrell's state was far from ordinary. Thus, Sean had taken no action until reaching [Expert] proficiency.
He could not risk exposing himself to Voldemort's gaze, and by the same token, the Squirrel Biscuit had to be handled with extreme care. Voldemort was prone to rage and loss of reason, but that did not mean he lacked intelligence. On the contrary, he was incredibly cunning.
One chance. That was all he had.
Sean needed to make an attempt without alerting Voldemort and at a moment when the Dark Lord was completely unaware of Professor Quirrell's Animagus form.
Amidst these ruminations, Easter arrived.
The professors had hidden many Easter eggs around Hogwarts, and lucky young wizards could find interesting little trinkets. The castle was once again decorated in vibrant colors, and the tables in the Great Hall were piled high with all sorts of eggs.
Ron and Harry had begun preparing for an egg exchange early on, but Hermione was troubled by something else. She had already started creating a revision schedule, marking all her notes with different colors.
Justin and Neville helped her. With the two of them organizing Herbology and History of Magic, Hermione's progress accelerated significantly. Harry and Ron didn't care much at first; one spent most of his day training, while the other, having been praised for a week after making the banners, was busy studying Transfiguration.
But the atmosphere in the Room of Hope eventually infected them—especially Hermione, who had practically scheduled their time down to when they could eat or use the bathroom.
"Hermione, the exams are hundreds of years away," Ron pleaded, not wanting to have his bathroom breaks timed.
"Ten weeks," Hermione countered. "Not hundreds of years. To someone like Nicolas Flamel, that's just a blink of an eye."
"But we aren't six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "And anyway, why are you revising? You already know everything."
"Why am I revising? Are you mad? Don't you know we have to pass these exams to get into the second year? They are very important. I should have started a month ago; I don't know what came over me..."
Hermione was furious; she simply couldn't make Harry or Ron understand. She walked toward the center of the room and glanced, seemingly by accident, at Sean's Planning Map—he had recently been using a map-like object to organize his schedule. Seeing it, Hermione nodded in satisfaction. This is what normal looks like.
"Hermione, you can't compare us to Sean," Ron muttered.
"Then what about Justin or Neville?" Hermione raised her chin, pointing to Justin's packed schedule and Neville's plan that made it look like he practically lived in the Room of Hope.
"Oh, Merlin's beard, are they even first-years..." Ron murmured helplessly before beginning his revision.
As the holidays arrived, the Room of Hope remained steeped in the atmosphere of study.
On Sean's partitioned desk sat a broomstick. He had ground three Intermediate Alchemical Creations to Expert level: Wizard's Chess, Weird Wizard's Chess, and the Leisure Broomstick. Now, he was grinding the proficiency of the Planning Map.
He handed a small button to Justin to serve as the object for a Summoning Charm, then added Justin's name to the Planning Map. Based on the subtle magical fluctuations, the name would move on the map.
At the same time, he added a reverse Summoning Charm to the button. When Justin squeezed the button, it would cause his name on Sean's map to glow.
It looks like an NPC issuing a quest... Sean thought silently as he watched the glowing name.
"Sean! Can it track multiple people?"
Justin quickly leaned in, his eyes widening slightly as he watched his name move.
"Yes," Sean nodded.
"Merlin—" Justin seemed to realize the possibilities.
His exclamation brought the other young wizards over, but the Hogwarts bells began to toll, and everyone had to head to the Great Hall, filled with curiosity.
The Great Hall was a riot of color, filled with Easter eggs of all sizes. Some students had already begun swapping them. Sean received many and gave out quite a few as well. Since the start of the term, his holiday gifts had reached the entire staff table.
The professors had given him immense help; he had even exchanged gifts with Professor Quirrell. Sean sent the professor some books; as for what the professor sent in return, Sean didn't know. To be safe, he hadn't even touched the package. The last person to touch something untrusted was Headmaster Dumbledore, which resulted in the dark magic curse hidden in a ring.
At the staff table, Dumbledore curiously examined his Easter egg. Inside was a note: Bee Biscuits. It was easy to guess the sender. He twinkled his eyes and looked toward Minerva McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall had received an egg painted with cats; she set it aside, clearly not intending to open it just yet. Professor Snape waved his wand, extracted the Doe Biscuit from his egg, gave a heavy snort, and tucked it into his robes.
The most inconspicuous person at the table was Professor Quirrell. Since few people sent him gifts, Sean's solitary egg stood out prominently. He stared at the egg for a long time before slowly placing it into his bag along with the note: [Happy Easter].
The holidays began.
Unluckily for the students, the teachers seemed to share Hermione's mindset. They assigned a mountain of homework, making the Easter break far less fun than Christmas. With Hermione nearby reciting the twelve uses of dragon blood or practicing wand movements, it was hard to rest.
Most of the time, the members of the Room of Hope were studying. Despite the sighs and constant yawning, the results were significant.
One day, the sky outside was clear and bright, a blue as vivid as forget-me-nots. There was a scent in the air that whispered of the coming summer. For the first time in months, they were blessed with such fine weather.
Having finished their homework, the group had enough time to rest for a day. Ron was wrestling with a patch of lingering snow, trying to transfigure it into a snowman. Justin and Hermione were chasing Neville, who had transformed into an animal. Unknowingly, they drifted near the Forbidden Forest.
Inside the forest, Sean was talking to Hagrid.
"Dragon breeding? I've seen Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland, From Egg to Inferno, and A Dragon Breeder's Guide in the library..."
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