However, it was clearly too late to leave now; George and Fred had already charged towards Evan the moment they saw him.
To Evan's surprise, the Weasley twins didn't seem intent on picking a fight. Instead, George excitedly gestured in front of him with his enlarged tongue.
"Whoo whoo... wum wum woo..."
"I'm sorry, giving you the Ton-Tongue Toffees was just a little joke; do you need me to lift the curse?" Evan shrugged, indicating he couldn't understand George's muffled attempts at speech, but he still drew his wand.
"No need, the gift was brilliant!" Fred hurriedly shook his head, his condition a bit better than George's, his words muddled but still intelligible to Evan.
[We knew how to use it when we received it.]
Unable to speak, George resorted to waving his wand to conjure words in the air.
"Then why eat it?" Evan asked, puzzled.
"Such a fun thing, we had to try it, plus it got us out of History of Magic class," Fred said with a mischievous grin.
Having an enlarged tongue seemed to pose no hindrance to the Weasley twins; in fact, they seemed to find it quite amusing.
[It's called Ton-Tongue Toffee? That's a great name. We plan to make it one of the flagship products in our joke shop. Having you as our special consultant was the best decision!]
George was getting quite skilled at writing with magic in the air, effortlessly displaying a long message.
"By the way, Evan, did you get our gift?" Fred inquired.
"Is it this?" Evan produced two irregular round items from his wizard's robe, which he had shrunk to the size of a thumb for easy carrying.
"I haven't figured out how to use them yet; what did you put inside?" Evan asked them.
"Those are Feces Bombs, our new invention. They're simple to use—just throw them at someone you dislike. Upon impact, they'll burst and spray the victim, and the smell will last at least a day," Fred explained with a wicked smile, his enlarged tongue making his voice sound odd.
"This isn't actually... that stuff, is it?" Evan suddenly felt as if the Feces Bombs were burning his hands and nearly dropped them, repulsed by the thought.
The image of the Weasley twins collecting materials in the lavatory was all too vivid in his mind...
"How could that be! That's disgusting!" Before Evan could further contemplate, Fred quickly interrupted his thoughts with his swollen tongue.
"The smell is a mixture of several foul-smelling herbs we concocted. It just smells similar."
Relieved to learn about the Feces Bombs' harmless ingredients, Evan then saw George clarify with his wand.
[And using the real stuff would be too much trouble. Fred and I thought about filling them with animal droppings, but after several days of collecting, we had too little. It wouldn't be enough for mass production, so we switched to foul-smelling herbs. After all, we can't spend every day collecting messes from penned animals.]
Fred was left speechless and glared at George. Could his brother refrain from exposing their less-than-glamorous research history?
"Anyway, you're our first customer, and we're waiting to hear how it works. Come back and tell us if there's anything that needs improvement," Fred patted Evan's shoulder.
Evan nodded noncommittally, but upon reflection, he couldn't think of any situation where he might need to use a Feces Bomb.
He would just have to wait and see who was unlucky enough to cross him...
...
In the following days, Evan visited Hagrid's hut almost daily to check on the dragon egg, spent time in the library, occasionally checked the progress of his potion in the Room of Requirement, or got roped into developing new joke products with the Weasley twins.
With Hermione as his study accelerator, Evan's learning efficiency had significantly improved, which was why he could afford to redeem the Scholar Experience Card mode right after meeting Dumbledore.
During these days, Evan roughly understood the level system provided by the magical interface.
Level one was roughly that of a beginner, capable of casting spells—most first and second-year Hogwarts students were at this level.
As for the older students, Evan had seen George and Fred cast spells, most of which were around level two.
Despite their preoccupation with pranks and making headlines, the Weasley twins' spellcasting abilities were above average among their peers.
After all, they had snuck into the Restricted Section to read forbidden books; their last venture with the concealment charm was learned from there.
Evan's sole level three Transfiguration spell, used during one of their magical gadget development sessions, left George and Fred so astonished they claimed he could already take the N.E.W.T. exams for Transfiguration.
Evan understood that level three spells were the standard for graduates.
Level four spells were not classified by Evan due to a lack of samples for comparison.
The one disappointment for Evan over these days was that his nightly trips to the Restricted Section had to be suspended because Harry often snuck out late at night wearing his Invisibility Cloak.
Evan guessed without much thought that Harry was searching for the Mirror of Erised.
Dumbledore had mentioned in his office that he would move the mirror elsewhere, and Harry, desperate to see his parents again, wouldn't give up the search.
This meant that Evan could only lie in bed at night and sleep, unable to go anywhere, waiting for Dumbledore to provide Harry with some much-needed counseling.
After three days of this routine, Hagrid sent word that the dragon was about to hatch.
So, right after class, Evan eagerly bypassed the crowd, accompanied by Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had been dragged along.
After all, who wouldn't be interested in witnessing a baby dragon hatch up close?
Yet, around a secluded corridor corner, Evan unexpectedly witnessed a pitiful and shivering Quirrell being cornered by Snape, who demanded,
"You'd better come clean. What were you trying to do sneaking into my potion storeroom? Who sent you? White hellebore... monkshood... you're hurt? Or is it him that's hurt?! Or perhaps you're trying to brew a complex potion to learn how the other professors set their challenges..."
"I'm not... I didn't... It wasn't me..." Quirrell's eyes widened as he shook his head like a rattle, aware of the theft from Snape's potion storeroom!
But Snape's stolen potion had nothing to do with Quirrell, did it?
Tips:
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