Despite the night time, I went to Madame Pomfrey's medical wing. On the way, I met Professor McGonagall. Despite the vacations and only a couple of people in the castle, the professors were still on patrol.
"Good night, Professor," I nodded.
"Mr. Knight," she looked sternly over her glasses. "Let me ask you, what are you doing in the hallways at night?"
"I have a terrible headache. So I thought I'd go to Madame Pomfrey for a potion. I can't sleep, and I don't want to break my sleep pattern."
"I understand. But I'll ask you not to break the rules in the future. Now I'll escort you to the hospital wing and back to the House common room."
"Okay."
Silently and without many words, we quickly made our way to the fiefdom of our healer, where madam Pomfrey handed me two small vials of potions without ranting and escorted me away so as not to disturb my sleep before the upcoming semester. I drank the painkillers right away, and the sleeping pills should be drunk already in bed so as not to fall asleep somewhere in the corridors of the castle.
There were two snoring bodies in the room, and judging by the fact that they were snoring on the floor and in their usual clothes... Some notes and diagrams were lying next to them as if they were making an insidious plan, just like in a detective story. As I got closer, I looked at the notes. The main message was why Max Knight was "The Death Eater's Son." Oh, young detectives, if you'd just ask the older ones who go out... Oh, yeah, they're not really friends with anyone except the rest of the Weasley family. Well, let them investigate themselves - what can I do? My origin is an open secret.
I changed my clothes, drank a sleeping pill, and passed out safely. As they say, I just blinked - it's already morning. This time the same thing happened.
I woke up and stretched, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the boys had rolled over a little to the other side of the floor. It was still early. It was not a heroic thing to get up, of course.
As always, exercise, jogging, practice, shower, breakfast. The students would not arrive until evening, but in the Great Hall, the tables were already standing, as they should be, in four rows according to the Houses. Taking a seat at the Gryffindor table, I noted again the surprising unanimity of the few students who remained in the castle - they were somewhere but not here. Okay, a couple of upperclassmen from Hufflepuff are understandable - two steps, and you'll find yourself in the kitchen. But Ravenclaws? Oh, yeah... They like to stay in their books unless there's an emergency, just like me.
After greeting the teachers with a nod, I could not help but notice Lupine. I didn't follow him much. I wasn't really watching him at all. I heard, however, that after that unfortunate full moon, Lupin had been admitted to the hospital wing with a bunch of stab wounds that wouldn't close properly. There is a chance that it was he who was that werewolf, but I will check by blood later. If I can't get rid of the lycanthropy, God forbid, I'll kill him. And if I succeed, I'll just cripple him badly. For memory prevention.
After breakfast, I went straight to the library and asked Madame Pince for a list of books on the subject of spells and rituals. I was surprised that the librarian didn't object. She didn't say much about werewolves, though. Maybe a note of permission to the Restricted Section, signed "by Dumbledore himself!" has such an effect?
When I got a list of twenty-three different books and folios, only three of which are in the Restricted Section, I went in search of them. Thanks to Madame Pince's list, where the books were lined up by degree of complexity and approach to creating and calculating spells, I didn't have to sort through the books, and I started exploring right away.
Trouble came where I didn't expect it - the diadem effect doesn't turn off. Simply put, any conscious attempt to understand, calculate, or imagine something is automatically processed according to an optimized scheme. It would seem that it would be a sin to complain, but after half an hour, I had another headache. I decided to try to use hemomancy amplification simultaneously, as it improved my brain's abilities. I was able to sit quietly for five minutes with full amplification and got rid of all the symptoms of overstressing under the effect of the diadem. But now I was a little hungry, and I had eaten only recently. It looks like I need to work in the kitchen.
I decided to start by memorizing the books without thinking - am I capable of doing that? I am. And so, after a quick run to the kitchen and a snack, I returned to the library and began to memorize the contents of the books frantically - I will think about their content later. In this state, the diadem's effect was practically uninvolved, only enhancing the already good memory. By the way, I needed to strengthen my nervous system less and less to achieve the effect of perfect memory. Does the process of body adaptation and amplification over three years have an effect?