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"What...what the heck is going on?" Harry and his friends looked at the enormous head of the three-headed dog, and their legs felt weak. Why were there such fierce monsters in the school?
Harry thought about his escape route, seemed to remember something, and exclaimed, "This is the corridor on the right side of the fourth floor?!"
Wayne nodded, "Yes. What on earth did you do? Everyone's faces are bruised and swollen."
Ronald swallowed and whispered, "Wayne, can you talk outside? This dog behind you..."
"Filch is still wandering around outside. Let's talk here." Wayne reached out and rubbed the dog's head, and the three-headed dog lay down cooperatively, making it easier for Wayne. "Look, Fluffy is very obedient."
Hearing his praise, the three-headed dog purred, and the fear in Harry and his friends' hearts eased a bit. Thinking of Filch outside, Harry complained, "Forget it. Malfoy and I planned a midnight duel, and Filch showed up in the middle of it. What bad luck."
Wayne was a little surprised, "Malfoy actually showed up? No, I mean, you actually dueled with Malfoy?" This is a big change. Hermione wasn't with them, and Malfoy didn't cheat. He fought Harry for real. Considering the situation, it was probably a proper duel, not just a fight.
Wayne hadn't interfered much, but why were things developing in such strange ways? Harry didn't hide anything and told the whole story.
Neville was touched when he heard that the conflict was caused by his memory ball. "Wayne, why are you here with this dog?"
Wayne's reply was brief, "I learned a few new spells and came to Fluffy to test them. The results are quite good."
Fluffy shuddered. Not just good, but if Wayne continued, Fluffy's head would be blown to pieces. Wayne came here to test the effects and strength improvement of a spell he had just learned. At first, it seemed that Wayne had the upper hand, but it was only superficial. At most, he caused some minor injuries to the dog.
Wayne used the Traceless Stretching Spell to expand the corridor temporarily. When Fluffy saw Wayne, he charged angrily. Then Wayne beat him and he ran away. The improvement in magic power, spell level, and dynamic sense was significant. Although only two weeks had passed, Wayne was much stronger. He didn't even use dark magic. He just used the Shield of Equis to protect himself.
The power of various attack spells was also much greater. Even simple spells could harm the three-headed dog. After achieving his goal, Wayne showed he had no intention of harming the dog and fed him some Motla rat jerky. With his magical animal affinity, the three-headed dog quickly became friendly.
Harry and his friends were shocked. Did Wayne really need such a terrifying monster to test his spells? They didn't know how powerful the three-headed dog was, but just by looking at it, they knew it was dangerous.
Ronald laughed dryly, "You are really relaxed."
"What is that?" Harry asked, pointing to a trap door under the dog.
"Roar!" the dog growled. Wayne comforted him, "It's okay, we won't go in. They're just curious."
He looked at Harry again, "I don't know what's inside, but Fluffy's mission is to guard this. If you push it, he'll see you as an intruder."
Harry quickly shook his head, "Pretend I didn't ask."
Though he said this, Harry's curiosity grew, and even Ronald and Neville glanced at the trap door.
Wayne shook his head. Gryffindors were too curious.
He took out a map and saw that Filch had moved to the sixth floor. "Filch is gone. I need to leave. Where are you going?"
Harry sighed in relief, "We're going back. I hope the Fat Lady is back from her walk. Thank you for today, Wayne."
"No problem."
After thanking each other, Harry and his friends tiptoed upstairs, cursing themselves for forgetting to bring a map. Wayne also removed the Traceless Stretching Spell, said goodbye to Fluffy, and left.
On Saturday, the school auditorium was especially quiet. Some went to Hogsmeade early, while others were sleeping in. Wayne met up with Hermione and Cho at around nine o'clock to do homework in the library. Hermione and Cho did their homework, while Wayne read.
Madam Pince just glanced at them and ignored them.
Cho got bored and pulled Wayne's sleeve, "How's Fawkes lately? I haven't seen her for days."
Wayne put down "Advanced Potion Making," looking a bit strange. "She should be fine. I haven't seen her either."
Cho rolled her eyes, "That's a phoenix. If someone else had one, they'd treasure it. Why are you so careless?"
"It's not that I don't care. I made Fawkes angry that day..."
"What happened?"
Even Hermione leaned in to listen. Madam Pince could see their movements but couldn't hear them, so she opened one eye and closed the other.
Wayne hesitated, "Well, everyone was curious about the phoenix, so I decided to charge one Galleon for a photo. But Fawkes didn't agree, so she ran into the Forbidden Forest and hasn't come back."
Cho looked at him like he was a monster and finally reacted, "Wayne, you're obsessed with money. You'll think of anything."
Hermione pinched him. "This is a phoenix, not a zoo monkey!"
Wayne shrugged, "It's not easy supporting my family. She needs a lot of herbs for every meal, and I can barely afford it."
"That can't be," Cho thought. "I'll use my money to buy food for Fawkes."
Not to be outdone, Hermione added, "Mine too!"
Recently, they'd made a lot of money selling maps and had over a hundred Galleons each. But Wayne knew this wasn't enough to feed Fawkes for long. As she was growing, she needed a lot of energy. This week alone, her food had cost Wayne two hundred Galleons.
After hearing the cost, both were stunned.
After lunch, Cho took her broom to the Quidditch pitch for Ravenclaw's team practice, while Hermione and Wayne found a random classroom.
Hermione reluctantly handed her assignment to Wayne, "Copy it quickly." The little witch was very unhappy. She never thought she'd help someone cheat.
Wayne took it with a smile and pulled out a stack of parchment and a sky-blue quill.
Under Hermione's shocked gaze, the quill moved on its own and began to copy her homework.
"What kind of quill is this? Why can't I write my own homework?"
Wayne leaned back in the chair comfortably, stretched, and then explained, "My latest invention, the manuscript cleaning quill."
"Used to copy homework, even if it's a paper, the teacher won't find any problems."
"Really? I don't believe it." Hermione's face was full of doubt as she looked at the lines of words quickly written by the quill and compared them to her own homework.
She found that the pen wasn't just copying. Many sentences had been transformed. They looked different but had the same meaning.
Professor McGonagall left a foot of paper, and it took the quill five minutes to copy it all. Hermione read the entire article. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it was copied from her own paper.
"Do you want one?" Wayne took out an identical pen and waved it in front of Hermione's eyes.
"I don't need it." Hermione raised her chin proudly. "I will never copy someone else's homework."
"What about these?"
Wayne magically pulled out a handful of quills.
"This is a dictation quill. It will accurately record what you say."
"This is a grammar correction quill that can correct grammatical errors in articles."
"This is a copying quill. It can be used to copy books without missing a word."
"This is a filler quill. It can expand a hundred words to a thousand with a certain amount of water."
Gulp! Hermione swallowed.
Unlike the homework quill, these are so useful. She wanted all of them!
"Want them?" Wayne tempted her like a big bad wolf luring a little rabbit.
Hermione nodded eagerly.
Wayne's lips raised slightly, and he said casually, "Oops, my shoulders and arms are sore from practicing spells last night. If only there was someone who could..."
For the quills, Hermione bit her teeth, stood up, went behind Wayne, and began to rub his shoulders gently.
Wayne showed a comfortable expression. Although Hermione wasn't professional, the mental enjoyment was enough.
"Is it okay now?"
"A bit longer."
"My hands are sore."
"Hold on, it'll be fine soon."
Half an hour later, Wayne finally let the weak Hermione go and gave her one of the quills.
"Asshole."
After getting the quill, Hermione was so angry that she bit Wayne's shoulder.
Seeing him wince, she let her little teeth go.
"Let's see if you dare to boss me around in the future."
"Miss Granger, you are repaying kindness with vengeance," Wayne rubbed his shoulder. Hermione's bite really hurt!
"I don't understand what you're talking about."
Quickly putting the quill in her pocket, Hermione picked up her homework and skipped out of the classroom. "I'll go back and put away my books, and we'll meet at the castle gate in a moment!"
"There will come a time when you'll fall into my hands," muttered Wayne, watching her retreating back.
At two o'clock sharp, the two arrived at Hagrid's hut on time. They found out they weren't the only guests. Harry and Ronald were also there.
The injuries on their faces hadn't recovered. Ronald's eyes were mismatched in size, and Harry's eye sockets were black and blue with wounds at the corners of his mouth.
Hermione had been busy with maps and homework and had forgotten about Harry's duel with Malfoy. Seeing their bruised faces, she said angrily, "You really went to duel with Malfoy!"
"How many points will be deducted from Gryffindor if he's caught? Professor McGonagall will be furious!"
The more Hermione talked, the angrier she got. Ronald muttered, "Well, we didn't get caught. Besides, Malfoy would laugh at Gryffindor if we didn't show up."
He didn't mention what happened with Wayne yesterday.
Hermione wanted to say more, but Hagrid stepped in.
"Okay, since he wasn't discovered, let it pass. The Malfoy family has always been annoying. Ronald, you should know that."
"That's right," Ronald nodded.
They always seemed to run into the Malfoy family when they went to Diagon Alley, and his father and Malfoy Sr. often fought.
After Hagrid's interruption, Hermione couldn't argue further. She took a sip of tea.
Hagrid handed Wayne a snakeskin bag, bulging and bigger than before. "Wayne, check it. Let me know if anything is missing."
Wayne opened it and found mostly animal fur and a few bottles of condensation. The most valuable was a pint of Acromantula venom.
"That's enough, thank you Hagrid."
Hagrid scratched his head. "No need to be polite, that..."
Wayne knew what he wanted and summoned the Phoenix King. The temperature in the room rose with her appearance. Hagrid swayed excitedly and tried to touch her, but the Phoenix King landed on Hermione's shoulder, still angry with Wayne.
Harry and Ronald observed the Phoenix King.
"Is this your phoenix?" Ronald asked excitedly.
"Yes, her name is Feng Wang."
"It's really nice to watch..."
Harry nodded in agreement.
Hermione glanced proudly at Wayne and took out two basil leaves from her pocket.
Feng Wang didn't like the small space and left after being fed by Wayne.
The visit lasted less than a quarter of an hour but made Hagrid quite satisfied. He brought out cakes and candies to entertain everyone, along with his signature rock pie. They avoided the pies and focused on the candies and cakes, which were better than the tooth-breaking pies.
While chatting, Harry and Ronald agreed not to mention what happened last night. Hermione was too scary for them. If she knew about the duel and their intrusion into the restricted area, they wouldn't have any peace.
Harry watched Wayne eating rock pie with relish and felt uneasy.
"Wayne, are your teeth made of iron? How can you eat that?"
While Hagrid went to heat tea, Harry looked at Wayne in shock. Wayne was holding a piece of pie and enjoying it.
"I used a softening charm," Wayne said matter-of-factly. "Would you like to try it? It's quite delicious."
As he spoke, he touched the pie lightly, and it became much softer.
Harry felt inadequate but tried a piece.
"It's really good."
"I recently invented some new gadgets, want to buy them?" Wayne asked.
"What is it?" Harry became interested.
Under Hermione's gaze, Wayne took out his manuscript quill.