Leon happily flipped through the practical guide. "What should I do? How do I use it?"
"It's simple," Dumbledore said. "Open it, press the tip of your wand against the cover, and think of the spell you want to learn. If the spell is within your capabilities, it will be recorded. After that, you can flip through it at any time. It will show detailed explanations of the spell, key points for casting, common mistakes, and your practice records."
He paused and added, "It has another function. You can write your insights in it, and they will be permanently saved. When you open it years later, you will see the traces of your journey."
"I can't wait for tomorrow's Charms class." Leon closed the practical guide.
"Of course, of course you will," Dumbledore said. "You should go rest. The Hufflepuff common room is next to the kitchen. I believe you've asked your classmates how to enter the dormitory, right?"
"Yes," Leon replied.
He stood up, pushed the door open, and walked out. The door closed gently behind him.
Then he began heading to the common room...
As if.
Would anyone really transmigrate to the magical world, obtain a spellbook that could grow, be personally received by Dumbledore, and have their very first course of action be going to sleep like a good boy?
Of course he was going for a night stroll!
Anyway, the Hufflepuff entrance didn't require giving a password to a portrait like Gryffindor and Slytherin, nor did it require solving a riddle from a door knocker like Ravenclaw.
He just needed to find the second barrel from the bottom in the middle of the second row among a pile of large wooden barrels in the corner of the corridor, then tap its bottom to the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff." If tapped correctly, the barrel lid would swing open, revealing the passage to the dormitory.
Wasn't that generous? This entrance was the only one in Hogwarts equipped with defensive magic—though if someone accidentally tapped the wrong barrel or got the rhythm wrong, another barrel's lid would burst open and drench the intruder in vinegar.
Even if an intruder came in, she would still give you something. True benevolence.
Leon tucked the Wizard's Practical Guide under his arm.
This thing was truly excellent. Its functions weren't as absurdly numerous as in the game, so it didn't have a collection system loaded onto it.
But it was a good thing it didn't. Back when he played the game, that damn collection system forcibly extended his playtime by nearly twenty hours. Even looking at guides while collecting still took him twenty hours. If that happened in reality, he would truly lose his mind.
Leon walked forward along the corridor, keeping his footsteps light. The portraits on the walls were no longer pretending to sleep; most of them were openly staring at him, and some were even whispering to each other.
"Hufflepuff," a chubby wizard said to the witch next to him. "The fifth-year transfer student."
"Wandering outside this late?" The witch frowned.
"Young people are all like this." The chubby wizard waved his hand. "Back in my day, I also..."
"Back in your day, you were caught by the professors seventeen times," the witch interrupted him mercilessly.
Leon suppressed a smile and walked faster. The whispering of the portraits gradually faded behind him.
He stopped at the end of the corridor and pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment from his robes. It was a simple map casually drawn for him by a Hufflepuff upperclassman during dinner. Although crude, it at least marked the general routes to the main locations.
His eyes fell on one spot: the eighth floor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls.
The Room of Requirement.
That was his target for tonight. Not because of the secrets hidden there—at least at this point in time, Dumbledore's Army hadn't been formed, and Malfoy hadn't started repairing the Vanishing Cabinet. The Room of Requirement was just a quiet room waiting to be needed.
It was because he wanted to claim the system reward obtained after completing Main Quest 1.
Leon understood things like system-rewarded body enhancements all too well. It might trigger a complete physical purification, and if he suddenly started oozing filth all over his body in the dormitory, he would be socially dead on the spot.
He stuffed the parchment back into his robes and began walking up.
The staircases were the most unreliable existence in Hogwarts. Just as Leon stepped onto a flight of stairs on the third floor, it suddenly began to move, swinging him in the completely opposite direction. He grabbed the handrail to steady himself, and when the staircase stopped, he found himself standing in a completely unfamiliar corridor.
A huge painting hung on the wall, depicting a wizard trying to push a wheel of cheese up a slope. Every time the cheese wheel rolled back down, the wizard would let out a frustrated sigh.
"Brilliant. Sisyphus."
Leon watched him for a few seconds, then turned around to look for a way to continue upward.
"To the left," the wizard in the painting suddenly spoke.
Leon turned back.
The wizard didn't look at him, still pushing that cheese wheel that could never be pushed to the top. But during the gap of his failure, he added, "The staircase on the left will appear in thirteen seconds and will only stay for five seconds. Run fast."
Leon froze for a moment, then sprinted wildly to the left.
Just as he rushed around the corner, a stone staircase descended from above, crashing down in front of him. He jumped onto it, and the staircase immediately began to rise, carrying him upward.
"Thank you!" he shouted behind him.
The wizard in the painting didn't answer. He was busy chasing after another wheel of cheese rolling down.
Fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor...
Leon stopped on the seventh floor to catch his breath. The staircase retracted to its original position behind him, turning back into an ordinary wall. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around.
The corridor was quiet. Moonlight poured in through the high windows, casting patches of silvery-white light on the floor. A faint noise came from a room in the distance—sounding like a suit of armour walking, or perhaps a ghost on patrol.
He continued upward.
The corridor on the eighth floor was even darker than the floors below. The number of torches decreased, and the shadows expanded. His footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, sounding much louder than his actual walking.
He counted the tapestries on the wall.
One, two, three...
Finally, he saw it: Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. On the tapestry, several trolls in ballet tutus were trying to teach a fool how to dance, and whenever the fool failed to learn, he would be struck on the head.
The scene was so absurd that one couldn't help but laugh.
Leon stood opposite the tapestry, facing that blank wall.
He walked back and forth three times, chanting silently in his heart: I need a place to practise spells. A quiet place where I won't be discovered, a place where I can try out this new book.
A door began to materialise on the wall.
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