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The room was dead silent. Charlie kept his breathing shallow and controlled—any heavier breaths would mess with the precision of his hand movements.
His overloaded brain directed everything with perfect discipline: breath, hands, eyes. They worked together like an elegant, intricate symphony.
Twenty minutes later, Charlie slowly set down the engraving knife. His eyes burned with fatigue and his fingers felt stiff.
He let out a huge sigh of relief, slumped back in his chair, and finally allowed himself to breathe deeply.
He rested for a full minute before sitting up again and looking at the frame.
He picked up the wooden ruler beside him and gently slid it into the bottom drawer of the music box inside the painting. The ruler sank almost all the way in before hitting solid resistance at the bottom.
The space felt firm and real—exactly like he'd pushed the ruler into an actual wooden drawer and tapped the base.
The hard edge came from the stabilization runes doing their job.
In other words, the runes had taken effect.
Still, he didn't rush. This was only the first test. He drew his wand and lightly tapped the tip against the small drawer in the painting.
"Gela—"
It was a short syllable, not a full spell. Its purpose was to release a tiny spatial vibration.
This was a trick listed in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 in the Undetectable Extension Charm section.
After casting the small spell, Charlie slid the ruler back in.
Depth—unchanged!
Two successful tests in a row let Charlie breathe easy. The painting was officially finished.
Now all that was left was Lely's small cloth bag.
At noon Charlie ate the bread he'd brought that morning. It had gone a little stale, but a Softening Charm fixed that easily.
Later that afternoon, in the nearly empty castle, a soft cheer suddenly echoed from the eighth floor and rang through the quiet corridor.
Inside the studio, Charlie slapped the wooden ruler down hard on the desk.
"Done!"
At that moment, inside the painting, behind the window counter, Lely stood quietly gazing out at the world beyond the frame.
This wasn't the real Lely—she had no consciousness of her own. The highest-level magic paintings could only house one conscious being.
Charlie turned to Lely's original painting—Girl with a Pearl Earring—and nodded at her. "Go ahead."
"How do I do it?" Lely asked, looking a little lost.
"Just step into the new painting," Charlie told her.
Lely nodded and carefully crossed over her original frame into the one Charlie had created.
A moment later, the Lely inside the new painting blinked, and her entire presence suddenly came alive with movement and energy.
She raised her hands and looked around.
"This is…?"
"How does it feel?" Charlie asked eagerly.
Lely reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the little shop and explained, "It's hard to describe, sir."
"Normally I can clearly sense whether I'm inside my own frame. When I'm in another painting, I feel detached—like there's a thin membrane separating me from that world. Like oil and water."
"But here… I don't feel that at all. I feel perfectly fused with it."
Charlie nodded in satisfaction.
"That means we did it. From now on this painting belongs to you. It's one of your homes."
The main subject of the painting was a window with an arched top. Above the window, a wooden sign perfectly followed the arch's curve, with the words "Chocolate Factory" written on it.
The scene inside the painting was set in the morning. The dark-green wooden window was pushed open outward, turning the windowsill into a counter. On the left side of the counter sat a delicate little music box.
Ivy climbed all over the walls around the window, while clusters of colorful flowers bloomed below.
Lely rolled up her sleeves excitedly. "In that case—Chocolate Factory is now officially open for business!"
She slipped straight into character. Her big eyes looked at Charlie with professional warmth. "Sir, would you like some chocolate?"
Charlie played along like a random passerby who had just noticed the painting. "Oh? What kinds do you have?"
The next moment Lely darted back into her original painting with the black background.
She lowered her voice and whispered, "Mr. Wonka, what chocolates do we have?"
Charlie switched personas and answered confidently, "Right now we have Sunshine Chocolate, Moonlight Chocolate, and Dream Chocolate."
He explained the effects of each to her.
Lely immediately jumped back into the shop painting and repeated the information perfectly.
Charlie tilted his head, pretending to think. "Hmm… I'll take one Sunshine Chocolate, please."
"Coming right up," Lely nodded. She dashed back to the original painting—this time holding a small cloth bag.
Charlie took out a Sunshine Chocolate and dropped it into the mouth of the bag she held. The chocolate sank into the painting like a stone into water, creating faint ripples before disappearing completely.
Charlie then told her the prices.
Lely jumped back into the shop once more. "One chocolate is ten Sickles. But if you buy two it's only one Galleon. If you buy ten we'll give you one extra for free!"
"Just one is fine, thank you." Charlie nodded. He took out a Sickle and placed it into the small drawer of the music box in the painting.
Lely opened the drawer inside the painting, took out the coin, slipped it into her cloth bag, then took a chocolate from the bag and placed it neatly in the drawer.
Once she was done, Charlie reached into the drawer of the magic painting. His hand went inside and came out holding a real chocolate.
He unwrapped it, popped it into his mouth, and smiled. "A perfect transaction, Miss Lely."
Lely's eyes curved into adorable little crescents.
"But just to be safe, there are a few more things I need to go over."
"No matter who asks, you can never reveal where the chocolates come from. If you see me outside, you have to pretend you don't know me and strictly collect payment."
"I understand. Outside the painting, I don't know you at all," Lely said.
"Exactly."
"If any special customers show up, feel free to let me know. Like professors or something. It's unlikely, but maybe one day a professor will notice us."
Lely nodded repeatedly.
After going over every possible scenario that might come up and explaining how to handle each one, Charlie framed the new shop painting using a frame he'd found in the junk room and added a back panel.
Then he took Lely's original framed painting and headed back to the dormitory.
Lely could move freely between the two frames with no spatial restrictions.
As for where to place the shop, Charlie already had an idea.
He returned to the Room of Requirement with a handful of loose change, gave some coins to Lely, then took the Chocolate Factory painting and left.
It was afternoon. The castle was quiet and mostly empty. The moment anyone approached, Charlie would hear their footsteps echoing.
Using that to his advantage, he easily avoided everyone and made his way to the second floor.
Yes—he was putting the shop on the second floor.
The second floor was one of the busiest places in Hogwarts besides the Great Hall. It had the hospital wing, Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Transfiguration classroom, History of Magic classroom, and Muggle Studies classroom.
It was also the pathway to the Charms offices on the third floor and the library on the fifth.
That meant Ravenclaws and Gryffindors from the upper floors had to pass through here every day, even if they weren't going to class—just to get to meals.
Hufflepuffs and Slytherins from the dungeons also had plenty of reasons to come up to the second floor.
Roughly eighty percent of the students walked through the second floor daily.
Of course, since the location was so good, he needed to pick a slightly out-of-the-way spot.
Somewhere students didn't go often, but could reach in under two minutes.
He finally stopped at the farthest corner corridor from the main second-floor staircase.
There, among many other paintings, Charlie found a suitable empty space on the wall.
One tricky problem remained: could he actually hammer a nail into the wall of this ancient castle?
"Oh, young wizard, are you giving us a new neighbor?" a monk inside one of the paintings asked.
Charlie kept his hood up so the painting couldn't see his face. "Yes."
The monk nodded. "Just tell the castle. The castle will know."
"How exactly do I tell the castle?" Charlie asked, a bit confused.
"Just press the painting against the wall," the monk replied.
Not entirely sure what to expect, Charlie pressed the painting against the wall. The next moment, something seemed to appear where the back of the frame met the stone. It gave the frame a gentle push.
Charlie slowly let go. The painting was now hanging firmly and perfectly on the wall.