Of course, this thought only crossed Ivan's mind for a moment, and if he tried to kill himself again, Snape would probably deduct a large number of Gryffindor house points.
Ivan didn't care about this, but he wasn't going to let Gryffindor House suffer for earning GPA.
So for the next few days, Ivan did not do much more than pull a few tricks in private to gather the ingredients for the potion.
The preparations didn't end until Hallowe'en, and Ivan was pleased with his work.
[Ivan Harls
Profession: Wizard
Spells: Level 2 (265/400) Levitation (97/400) Transformation (382/400) Splinter (84/400) Petrification (191/400) Shrinking (74/200)…
Knowledge Theory: Level 0 (435/500) Potion-making Level 3 (1/800) Basic Charms Level 2 (218/400)
Magical Item: Wand (Yew, unicorn hair, eleven inches and three-quarters of a length)
Magic: medium
Compatibility: 72.5%
…
GPA: 107]
After nearly half a term of hard work, Ivan had managed to raise all of his Charms to Level Two, with the exception of his newly-learned Shrinking Charms.
Among them, his knowledge of potions was the first to reach Level 3, and the only thing that remained the same was the creation of magical objects, which Ivan did not have a clue about.
Pumpkin lanterns were hung in the Great Hall of Hogwarts in preparation for Hallowe'en, and they were enchanted by Dumbledore himself to emit a faint blue light.
Peeves was also hiding treacherously in one of the lanterns, and whenever an unsuspecting wizard passed by, Peeves would pop out of the lantern, startle him, and then jump into the other lantern, laughing at the wizard's curses.
It has to be said, however, that Peeves's presence lent Hallowe'en an atmosphere of dread.
At the very least, Harry and Ron both felt the festive atmosphere that Peeves brought with him, and whenever they saw a glowing pumpkin lantern in the castle, they would avoid it.
"Ivan, why are you creating all these thorns?"
At the Gryffindor table in the Great Gallery, Harry watched Ivan transform a twig he had found somewhere into a semi-circular spike.
The half-ring of iron thorns was hideous, but the thorns were long and thin, and shone with a cold light that made Harry shiver.
"We'll have a bit of fun on Hallowe'en, of course," said Ivan with a smile.
"Fun?" Harry and Ron looked at each other with a bad feeling.
"It's a joke. I'm just practicing my charms," Ivan explained with a wave of his hand.
Ivan, however, did not stop there. He pointed his wand at the newly-formed spike and used a Shrinking Charm to shrink it dozens of times before throwing it into the bag.
There was a metallic noise from the bag, and Ivan put it away.
"Where's Hermione, anyway?" Yvonne asked, looking around for Miss Know-it-all.
"Um… this…" Ron's face turned red, and he stammered for a long time without being able to say anything.
In the end, it was Harry who couldn't stand it any longer and told her about how Ron had overheard Hermione gossiping about him.
"I wasn't wrong, she was always like that!" Ron blushed.
Yvonne frowned. She hadn't expected this to happen with him around. After a moment's thought, she stood up, picked up her wand, and headed for the exit.
"Ivan, where are you going before the feast starts?" Harry asked.
"To Hermione, of course…" Ivan replied, leaving Harry and Ron alone.
After leaving the hall, Ivan found a secret passage and headed as fast as he could to the disused girls' bathroom, intending to get Hermione out of the way so that she wouldn't interrupt his operation against the trolls.
However, after much deliberation, Ivan decided to change his plan, as he was unsure how long it would take him to get away from Hermione, and when the troll would be released. If he and Hermione happened to be trapped by the troll in the bathroom, he would not be able to escape, let alone fight!
In contrast, it was better to deal with the troll a little further away from the bathroom.
Because of his prior scouting, Ivan was able to find a suitable corridor and threw several rock cakes that Hagrid had given him into the middle of it.
These rock cakes were soaked in a powerful Sleeping Potion, enough for several adult wizards.
As for why rock cakes?
Yvonne said that since trolls were not picky eaters, they ate everything, and they carried rock cakes as a waste product.
If Hagrid, the half-giant, was so fond of eating them, maybe trolls were, too?
With ample preparation, Ivan hid in a secret passage along the corridor, where he was able to defeat the troll in the simplest way possible.
They only had one life, and when it was time to back down, they would.
Less than a minute after Ivan was ready, there was a slight vibration on the floor, and Ivan caught a whiff of something foul, and his face tightened with anxiety. The troll had arrived!
The next moment, a twelve-foot-tall behemoth appeared on the other side of the corridor.
The first thing Ivan saw was a giant troll with feet that looked like they belonged on a tree. The troll's waist was as big as a bucket made of fallen trees, and it had been painted an ugly green. The top of the troll's head was only a little bigger than Ivan's, and it looked ridiculous with its burly body.
Crucially, it was clutching a large wooden stick, which it dragged across the floor with a sharp noise.
Ivan swallowed hard as he realised why Dumbledore had chosen the troll as one of the stages in the defence of the Philosopher's Stone, as it was large enough to be treated with caution by an adult wizard.
For a young wizard who had yet to graduate from wizarding school, this was a nightmare!
Ivan couldn't help but be glad that he didn't choose to fight the troll head-on. If he had been hit by the troll's club, he might have had to transmigrate again…