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Objectively speaking, Hector's concern wasn't entirely unreasonable. But from Charlie's perspective, it was a little over the top.
When the two of them got back to the dorm, they found the floor spotless. The scattered parchment and books that had been lying under the desk were all neatly stacked on top of it.
Charlie stood by the window, watering the strawberries with a small spray bottle. Alice crouched beside him, chewing on strawberry leaves with her little three-lobed mouth.
If they could see Fiona, they would've noticed she was currently hopping up and down on the edge of the flowerpot.
"You've had one leaf already—why are you going for a second?"
"You should slow down. Eat too much and you'll get a stomachache."
"Hey—stop eating!"
"Charlie, make her stop!"
Charlie picked Alice up, gave her a light flick on the forehead, then turned to look at Anthony and Hector.
"What's for dinner tonight?"
"Same as usual. Nothing special," Anthony said, casually tossing the lunchbox onto Charlie's desk.
"Why's everything so clean in here?" He crouched down and reached for the locked suitcase. "Don't!" Charlie said quickly, raising a hand. "It's still in the testing phase."
Anthony's palm was already resting on the suitcase, but he didn't move it. "Testing? Feels like the thing's vibrating."
"I put a wooden block inside. It's carved with space-oscillation runes."
"The runes should last about a full day. They keep shaking the expanded space to test how stable it is."
He tossed Alice onto the bed. She bounced with a soft duang.
"Tomorrow I'll check if the space has started to collapse. If it hasn't, we can call the stability test a success."
"I thought you finished the runes today and were ready to start moving stuff in."
Charlie laughed and shook his head. "Not that simple. Right now it's just the space expansion. There's still a lot left to do—ventilation, gravity anchoring, all of it."
"What's gravity anchoring?" Hector asked, curious.
Alchemy was a complete mystery to both of them. Listening to Charlie talk about it felt like hearing people discuss magic back when they were still Muggle-raised kids—distant, abstract, impossible to picture.
"Look at it this way," Charlie said. "When I pick the suitcase up and when I set it down, the actual bottom of the box is in completely different positions. But inside the expanded space, gravity still has to point in the same direction the whole time."
"Ohhh," both boys said, nodding even though they only half understood.
"I'm hoping I can finish before the end of term."
"Yeah," Hector agreed. "And safety's important too. If you fall asleep in there and run out of air… suffocating yourself wouldn't be very funny."
Anthony shivered. "Right. Seriously, Charlie—we've got to be careful with this."
"Don't worry."
In reality, the twenty-four-hour vibration test for checking spatial stability wasn't usually used on small projects like this. It was meant for large-scale expansions.
From the very beginning, Charlie had designed everything around the idea of an extremely large interior space. Partly because he valued his own life, and partly because he planned to keep expanding the suitcase later. The initial expansion needed to be built to high standards.
"How big is it in there now?"
"A little smaller than our dorm," Charlie said with a shrug. "About the size of a single room, I'd say. No bathroom yet, obviously."
Designing a proper circulation system was a much higher-level problem. He wasn't going to solve that overnight.
"Fair enough," Anthony said, standing up and stretching. "Time to study, then."
"How long until exams again?" Charlie asked.
"Two weeks," Hector answered. "I can't believe you even have to ask."
"If I didn't have classes, I wouldn't even know what day it is," Charlie said with a grin. He opened the lunchbox and took a deep breath—lamb chops, corn, and buttered bread.
"So you're still not going to study?"
"Not yet." Charlie shook his head calmly.
He looked at the bright red strawberries on the windowsill. Strawberry season was almost over. This was probably the last batch.
He should make another batch of syrup.
He'd given Lely a fresh supply of chocolate a while ago. That should last until the end of term. No need to make more for now.
After mentally running through his food inventory, he finished eating, set the lunchbox aside, and started picking the strawberries to get to work.
The suitcase sat on the floor, vibrating with a low, steady hum. It kept going as the moon rose and set, as the boys slept and woke, left and returned.
When Charlie finally crouched beside it again, it was already evening.
Click—click. He undid the copper latches. The moment he opened the lid, a much stronger vibration rolled out.
Instead of a velvet-lined bottom, he was looking down into a deep, pitch-black hole.
He drew his wand. "Lumos."
Lumi flew out, lighting the entrance. Charlie pulled out a measuring tape. Lumi grabbed one end and flew downward.
A moment later he checked the marks. "Ten feet."
Roughly three meters. One story down.
In the light he could also see that the bottom had widened into a solid stone space. Lumi let go of the tape. Charlie reeled it in, then had her fly toward the center of the stone room.
A small wooden block sat there, buzzing nonstop.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
The Levitation Charm gave him some control, but the downside showed itself immediately. Three meters straight down meant over four meters at an angle. Even for a small block, his control felt clumsy.
Accio would've been a lot easier, he thought.
He focused, guided the block into his hand, then canceled the spell. Lumi flew back out.
Fiona drifted over curiously. "Charlie, how is it? Any problems?"
Charlie tossed the wooden block lightly in his hand. "No problems. Lumi did great."
Then he jumped straight into the suitcase.
Lumi and Fiona followed right behind him.
Mid-fall, he cast the Impediment Jinx on himself. A second later he landed on the rough stone floor as gently as if he'd stepped off the bottom step of a staircase.
He tapped his wand. "Lumos."
More light sprites appeared one after another, wings glowing as they lit up the dark little world.
The room was a perfect ten-foot cube.
When it came to space expansion, the simplest method was the messy, bag-like expansion. Proportional expansion was only a little harder and didn't require overly complicated arrays.
But a suitcase was long and flat. If Charlie had gone with proportional expansion, it would've made the initial work easier, but reaching a usable height would've meant a lot more work and risk later. So he'd chosen the slightly more annoying option: a perfect cube, every side the same length.
For now, that was the best choice.
Anything more advanced—like the formless expansion used in tents—was beyond what he could handle yet. Tents looked like ordinary cloth until the expansion arrays activated. Designing a good, reliable expandable tent from scratch would take at least ten times the work he was doing now.
Forget it. Not my problem right now.
Behind him, Fiona and Lumi were flying around, clearly having fun. The smaller light sprites circled him, providing steady light.
He opened his pouch, took out his engraving tools and the diagrams, then crouched on the floor. He had the light sprites line up in an orderly row six feet off the ground. Finally he tapped the stone and watched the rune circuit rise in neat lines across the floor.
Time for the next step.
Anthony looked at the closed suitcase and smirked. "All right. What've you got locked in there this time?"
"A mouse. I want to see if it suffocates by tomorrow."
"Poor Mickey," Hector said, wiping away nonexistent tears.
Charlie gave him a thumbs-up. "Don't worry. I put Minnie in there too. He won't be lonely."
"Ah. That makes sense," Hector said warmly.
"By the way, where'd you even get mice at Hogwarts?"
"There are plenty. Remember those rats Hagrid got for Norbert? He asked the house-elves for them. They catch plenty every day."
"Foxes and goblins might get called 'magic rats' as a joke, but that doesn't mean real rats don't exist in the wizarding world. Those things get into everywhere. They're in every corner of the world."
Time kept moving. Work on the suitcase continued steadily.
A new Saturday arrived. One week until exams.
In the Great Hall, at the Ravenclaw table, Anthony rested his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand.
The Ravenclaws around him were chatting.
"Honestly, I've always thought these benches without backrests are a complete failure," he said, leaning back dramatically. "Don't you guys ever want to finish lunch or dinner, lean back, and just pat your stomach in peace?"
"Good idea," Michael Corner agreed.
Charlie smiled and popped a piece of pudding into his mouth.
Now that June had arrived, there were a lot more pudding flavors. Spring and summer meant all the fruits were at their sweetest.
He was happily working through a milk-and-grape pudding when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Charlie!"
He turned to find Harry standing behind him, looking tense. "Do you have a minute? I need to tell you something."
"Sure," Charlie said.
Under Harry's hopeful stare, he calmly cut himself another piece of pudding and ate it. "This better be good news. At least big enough to make you walk away from something this delicious."
Harry glanced at the spread on the table but didn't look interested. Food had never been his priority.
They said goodbye to the lively Ravenclaw table and Harry led him to a small storage room off the side of the Great Hall—the same one where the ghosts had greeted them on their first night.
"All right," Charlie said once they'd checked the room was empty of ghosts or Peeves. "What's going on?"
"Quirrell gave in!" Harry said immediately.
He launched into the story. Earlier, on his way out of the library, he'd passed an empty classroom and heard someone crying inside. It was Quirrell's voice.
"No—please—no more, I can't—" the man had begged.
Harry had crept closer.
"All right… all right…"
The second voice had made Harry's blood run cold. Then he'd heard footsteps approaching the door. He'd pressed himself against the wall, holding his breath, and peeked.
Quirrell had hurried out, adjusting his turban with shaking hands. His face was deathly pale, streaked with tears.
When Harry finished, Charlie nodded slowly, thinking. "So you heard Quirrell crying. He was talking to someone."
"I'd bet twelve Philosopher's Stones that the person threatening him is Snape."
Charlie smiled but didn't argue. He had to admit Harry's conclusion was wrong for more reasons than just his bad relationship with Snape.
The truth was, no one could have guessed that Quirrell had been talking to himself—or rather, to the piece of Voldemort living on the back of his head.
How could Harry possibly know that?
So for once, Charlie didn't correct him. He just nodded. "That's… not a bad theory."
Then he asked seriously, "You're sure you heard him crying?"
"Yes. I'm positive. Quirrell was terrified."
Harry looked discouraged. "I've been trying to give him courage, but… anyone else probably would've broken too."
"Either way, I want to tell Dumbledore about this."
Charlie understood why Harry had decided Snape was the hidden third party. But when it came to Dumbledore, Harry still wasn't thinking fast enough.
Poor, straightforward little Gryffindor. He still hadn't realized that Dumbledore's silence on the matter had reasons behind it.
"Harry, I think we need solid evidence before we go to Dumbledore."
"Snape's been teaching here for years. Dumbledore must have reasons to trust him. Without proof, he's not going to do anything. We both know that by now, don't we?"
Harry's flood of words stopped. He nodded slowly. "Yeah… you're right, Charlie."
"If we don't have proof, Dumbledore might just think we're making things up."
Charlie shrugged.
"Of course, if it were me, I wouldn't be worrying about this right now. I'd be worrying about the exams that are coming up in a week."
"Oh. Right. Exams," Harry said, like he'd just remembered they existed.
He watched Charlie walk away, feeling like something was still missing.
He had figured out almost everything. But evidence? That was the one thing he still didn't have.
With a sigh, he stepped out of the storage room—
—and walked straight into someone.
"Oh—Harry, sorry!" Neville's voice came quickly.
Harry rubbed his forehead and looked up. Neville was rubbing his own head too, eyes red, holding a piece of paper in one hand.
"Sorry, I didn't see you."
"It's fine, Neville. I didn't see you either." Harry gave a tired smile. "What's wrong?"
Neville held up the paper miserably. "Detention. Tomorrow night. With Malfoy."