"Strawberry Project!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Charlie froze.
Ah—
Would he really have done something like this before? It felt embarrassingly immature.
He remembered the time Anthony and Hector had been arguing over designs for the chocolate workshop's logo. Back then he had simply watched them bicker and roughhouse with a faint smile.
By all logic, that was how he should be acting right now too.
He should be watching Anthony shout "Strawberry Project!" and just nod with a quiet smile, maybe offer a mild "Good idea."
"Hiss—"
While he was lost in thought, someone elbowed him hard in the shoulder.
"What are you spacing out for? Let's get started already," Hector urged impatiently.
Charlie snapped back to the present and nodded. "Yeah. Let's get to work."
Yeah. What was there to overthink? No matter how you looked at it, this was a good thing.
Honestly, it was a feeling he hadn't experienced in many, many years. If Weston were here right now, watching this scene, maybe he would have smiled in relief?
After all, he had always said Charlie didn't act like a kid.
He used to complain that children should laugh like children—big, silly, happy laughs.
Not the way adults did, with those calm, lake-still smiles that gave nothing away.
A lot of people admired that kind of smile. They thought it hid careful planning and flawless strategy.
But Weston had always said it was just a kind of politeness. Completely unnecessary, yet something everyone tried to wear on their face.
They used that polite smile to hide the bitterness underneath.
Charlie had never thought life was bitter. He had already died once, so every single day felt like a gift. He loved every day, even the poor ones.
But even knowing that in his head, his body still put on that polite mask.
He refused to show real emotion. Refused to let out the direct, burning, childish kind of laugh—
"Why are you zoning out again? Get to work!" Hector elbowed him once more.
Charlie grinned, teeth showing, then drew his wand with his right hand.
No—switch to the left.
He was still practicing doing two things at once. Wand in his left hand, he aimed it at the parchment Anthony had drawn on and cast a Transfiguration spell.
The parchment instantly turned into a foam board with adhesive on the back.
He stuck it to the dormitory door and gave it a firm pat.
"Project start!"
"Nice. Very spirited!" Anthony clapped his hands. "See? Having a code name really gets you motivated, right?"
Charlie nodded and walked to his desk. With a flick of his wand, flames roared to life beneath the stove.
Boil the syrup. Dilute it. Mix with chocolate. Add Moon Dew. Shape it. Use alchemy to layer on spells.
The moon rose outside, hanging quietly in the sky. Its light, like a distant gaze, passed through the window and watched everything happening inside the dormitory.
On Anthony's desk sat three glass jars.
The first contained a bright pink frog. It was made purely from strawberry syrup plus Transfiguration—meant to test how long the spell would last.
The second jar held a chocolate frog. Compared to the first, it contained far less strawberry syrup.
The third jar held a light brown frog made from apple syrup. Its Transfiguration probably wouldn't last very long at all.
After all, those apples were just ordinary winter-stored ones from the kitchens.
There was also a tray.
On the tray sat several dozen small strawberry candies the size of M&M's. Each one contained the same amount of Moon Dew.
Charlie planned to eat one per day to test how quickly the moonlight inside would dissipate.
Of course, that wasn't all. If they spent an entire afternoon working and everything they made couldn't be eaten right away, where was the fun in that?
Charlie stepped forward holding a tray. "And now, ladies and gentlemen—"
"We don't have any ladies here," Anthony said with a grin.
"Yes we do. Of course we do." Charlie pointed at Alice.
And at Fiona standing behind her.
Anthony and Hector couldn't see Fiona, of course. But Fiona, hearing that Charlie still remembered her, happily clapped her tiny hands.
"Alright then—our lady Alice," Anthony accepted with a laugh.
Charlie continued, "The tasting session begins now."
He set the tray down. On it were over a dozen pieces of candy and chocolate in different shapes and colors.
Anthony was the first to pick up a pink candy and pop it into his mouth.
A crisp, crackling sound followed.
"This middle part is still a little soft."
Charlie nodded and made a mental note to adjust the sugar-to-water ratio.
Hector also took one. After a moment he gave his verdict: "This one's starting to grain."
That meant there had been a problem during the syrup-boiling stage.
Hard candy, soft candy, and chocolate-mixed syrup. Different ratios produced different results.
Coming up with a good formula wasn't something that happened in one try. Charlie had already expected the kind of feedback Anthony and Hector were giving him.
As long as they could adjust, it was fine.
After tasting several more pieces, Anthony and Hector drank some tea with satisfied expressions. "Still plenty of small problems, but the flavor is incredible."
"The ingredients are just that good," Hector nodded. Then he looked at Charlie. "So what are you planning to do next? Keep using Sun Dew and Moon Dew to grow new plants?"
Charlie glanced at the pot of strawberries, then at Fiona, and shook his head.
"Not right now. I don't have the time or the space. There's still too much to do."
"Fair enough."
"Did that silver you ordered arrive yet?" he asked, changing the subject.
Charlie nodded. The silver was for building the automatic Moon Dew collector.
"It's here. I just haven't processed it yet. I'll probably need the alchemy workshop this coming weekend."
"I won't be using the club those days, then."
"No problem." Anthony made an OK sign with his thumb and forefinger.
"If you only need two days, that's actually good news. Hope it really only takes you two days."
Charlie thought back over his design sketches.
Anthony was right. If he could finish a working automatic collector in just two days, that would be excellent.
After resting a bit, Anthony stood up and clapped his hands. "Alright. Time to clean up."
For a while the three of them worked busily again. Thanks to the Scouring Charm, cleanup went quickly.
In less than fifteen minutes the dormitory was back to normal.
Charlie placed the three jars containing the candy frogs on his desk so he could observe them later.
The last day of the new week arrived quickly. On Friday, right after class, Charlie headed straight for the eighth floor and slipped into the alchemy workshop.
On the workbench sat a silver ingot the size of a fist, along with a wooden board that looked like a picture frame.
Charlie had already prepared everything. He laid the wooden board flat on the floor, then placed the silver ingot in the center.
"Softening Charm," he cast on the silver.
The ingot immediately went limp, spreading out like melted butter.
But that wasn't the result Charlie wanted.
Not enough.
He switched the wand to his right hand—his dominant one.
At the same time, he thought for a moment, then took a small chocolate bean from his pocket.
A very low-concentration Blood Moon chocolate.
He tossed it into his mouth. Soon a feeling of fullness and a faint anger rose inside him.
He raised his wand at the silver again. "Softening Charm."
The silver flowed outward like it was melting. Charlie lifted the wooden board and tilted it side to side, trying to spread the silver evenly across the surface.
Soon a silver sheet only three millimeters thick had formed.
It felt like playing with clay. Charlie couldn't help smiling.
He peeled the silver sheet off the board and set it on the workbench, then reached into his pocket again and pulled out another chocolate bean—this one wrapped in blue.
Winter Snow. Meant to counteract the anger from the Blood Moon.
After eating the Winter Snow and washing away the red moon's rage, he waited a moment. Once the effect faded, he ate an Overload chocolate.
The real battle was about to begin.
Night fell.
Over the next two days Charlie stayed in the workshop almost without sleep.
Even though he was extremely careful with every step, mistakes were still inevitable. The design wasn't perfect on the first try—he had to keep adjusting and modifying it whenever something went wrong.
Every adjustment meant he had to re-soften and reshape the silver sheet he had already spent half a day engraving.
Remelt. Engrave. Polish. Engrave again. Over and over.
Throughout history, people had absorbed moonlight in many different ways.
But none of them could compare to Charlie's natural harvesting ability.
Vikings carved runes to pull moonlight into their weapons. Merpeople sang together to draw it into their bodies.
They were only doing the most basic form of absorption.
Not extraction.
Of course, when it came to extraction, alchemy masters past and present each had their own methods.
Whether Charlie could adapt any of them… today would tell.
Sunday afternoon.
Cloudy. Rain was coming again. Spring was a rainy season.
Wind howled along the eighth-floor corridor at Hogwarts.
Bang. The door to the Room of Requirement was thrown open.
The troll in the pink ballet skirt on the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy jumped in surprise. Barnabas himself jumped too.
Charlie's eyelids were heavy, dark circles under his eyes. His shoulders and arms hung low with exhaustion.
But the corners of his mouth were smiling.
In his arms he carried an object. On top was a square silver panel facing upward.
In the middle underneath was attached a vertical column.
From the side, the whole thing looked like a capital T.
The draft blowing through the corridor hit him without mercy, making his robes flap loudly and jolting him more awake.
"Damn it—"
It better not rain tonight. I can't wait to set this thing up somewhere good and see if it actually works tomorrow—
Even though the weather wasn't cooperating, Charlie's steps didn't slow for a second. Holding the collector, he ran quickly down the stairs.
People he passed kept glancing at him curiously, wondering what strange object he was carrying.
He ran out of the castle. Lead-gray clouds hung low over the grounds, so close they almost seemed touchable.
Wind blew across the green grass, sending waves rippling through it like a sea.
He couldn't just stick this thing anywhere. He needed a wide open space.
Ideally somewhere inside the Forbidden Forest?
But he knew nothing about the Forbidden Forest. Merlin, he had never even been in there before. For a student like him, that was almost unbelievable.
The thought made him feel like he'd been living his life wrong.
Pushing the pointless thoughts aside, he soon reached a small standalone hut at the edge of the grounds.
Aside from the very top of Hogwarts' towers, he couldn't find a better open spot nearby.
"Hagrid!"
As he got closer, Charlie heard Fang barking and raised his voice.
"Hagrid?"
No one answered. The hut door was shut tight. A pair of enormous muddy boots sat on the wooden stump outside.
Inside, Fang kept barking.
"Hagrid!!" Charlie called again. "You in there?"
Rustling sounds came from inside the hut.
Charlie wasn't sure if "rustling" was the right word. Maybe for Hagrid it counted as quiet movement.
But from outside, what he actually saw was the entire hut shaking with small, rhythmic tremors.
While he was wondering about it, a huge face appeared at the window, glanced at Charlie, then let out a relieved breath.
A moment later the door opened. Fang immediately lunged forward.
"Hey, buddy, don't jump on me—I'm holding something," Charlie quickly stepped back twice, laughing at the dog.
Fang stopped and started circling Charlie instead.
"What are you doing in there?" Charlie asked, looking past Hagrid.
"Nothing," Hagrid said, eyes darting left and right. "Just cold, isn't it? Rain's coming. I lit a fire inside."
He shifted slightly to the side. A wave of heat rushed out through the gap and hit Charlie in the face.
Charlie looked at the sweat on Hagrid's forehead and raised an eyebrow, teasing, "Oh? Really, Hagrid?"
Hagrid glanced at Charlie guiltily. Then he couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Alright, get in here quick."
Charlie actually knew what Hagrid was up to. He hadn't at first, but as old memories surfaced, it all clicked.
If he was right, there was definitely a dragon egg inside Hagrid's hut right now.