"It might be guarding something! Alright, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled." Hermione shared her speculation before parting ways with the two, the last sentence laced with a hint of anger.
"She needs to sort out her priorities," said Ron, shrugging off Hermione's outburst.
But Harry paused, his mind racing with clues he had pieced together. He recalled reading about the break-in at Gringotts from the Daily Prophet at Hagrid's hut. The goblins had insisted that the vault that was broken into, vault seven-one-three, had been emptied earlier that very same day. Nothing had been stolen.
If nothing was taken, then the grubby little package Hagrid retrieved must have been what the thief was after. Was the three-headed dog guarding the package from vault seven-one-three? After all, Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the wizarding world.
Suddenly, Harry felt he was onto something.
The next day, Harry shared his speculations with Ron, and the two remained fixated on the night's adventure, curious about what the monstrous dog could be guarding. Hermione, however, showed no interest whatsoever.
Perhaps still stung by losing Gryffindor points, Hermione refused to acknowledge them. She did have a bit of a superiority complex.
For an academic achiever like her, not earning points in class was humiliating enough, let alone being caught out of bed and docked dozens of points by a professor.
For several days, Hermione gave them the cold shoulder.
Of course, in between classes, Harry busied himself with his own pursuits. That's right, with Oliver Wood's help, he had begun Quidditch training.
The rules of Quidditch were relatively simple. Two teams competed, each with seven players. Three were Chasers, responsible for scoring by throwing the Quaffle through the opposing team's hoops while avoiding the other team's Chasers.
Then there were two Beaters, whose job was to protect their team from the Bludgers by batting them away with their clubs, which they could also use to disrupt the opposing team.
The Gryffindor Beaters were the Weasley twins.
The final two players were the Keeper, who defended the team's hoops, and the Seeker, who aimed to catch the Golden Snitch.
Harry was Gryffindor's Seeker and the youngest player on the team.
As was typical for the protagonist, Harry carried an aura of mockery toward the antagonists. When Malfoy was about to report Harry, a first-year student, for flying a broomstick, Harry sincerely thanked him.
Of course, Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand was a gift from Professor McGonagall. If Malfoy hadn't tried to steal Neville's Remembrall, Harry's flying talents might have gone unnoticed, and he wouldn't have made the Quidditch team.
On the eve of Halloween, during a Charms class where Professor Flitwick was teaching the levitation charm, Hermione and Ron had a blazing row.
Unsurprisingly, Hermione had bluntly pointed out Ron's mistakes in pronouncing the incantation, and Ron felt she was a know-it-all who needed to mind her own business. Conflict was inevitable.
Of course, none of this concerned Eisen. After mastering the Extension Charm, Eisen set out to implement his plan to create a storage ring.
Well, a "storage ring" was essentially a custom-made ring with a hollowed-out portion that the Extension Charm could expand, creating an interior space for storage.
...
"Excuse me, sir, can you custom make rings here?" Eisen inquired of the old man with a thick beard.
Indeed, Eisen had changed out of his wizard robes and visited a Muggle jewelry workshop. For Eisen, a precisely crafted alloy ring made by Muggle means was far more aesthetically pleasing.
"Yes, what kind of ring did you have in mind?" the old man asked about Eisen's requirements.
"A ring like this, with a hollow portion inside, made of titanium alloy. Can you do that?" Eisen pulled a sketch of a ring design from his pocket.
In truth, Eisen's custom ring wasn't complicated; he just had specific material and hollow space requirements.
"No problem, a hundred pounds deposit, come back tomorrow to pick it up," the old man nodded after examining the sketch.
The next day, after obtaining the ring, Eisen stopped by a store and purchased a deck of playing cards before returning to Hogwarts castle.
Back in his staff quarters, Eisen first used a rather buggy spell—Geminio—to duplicate the ring several dozen times. Then he began crafting the storage rings.
Having experience casting the Extension Charm on a trunk, Eisen found expanding the rings' hollows quite straightforward. After creating five storage rings, he paused.
Picking up one of the rings, a prompt appeared before Eisen: "Extraordinary property detected—Excellent-grade Storage Space. Consume one Miracle Property to replicate?"
With a thought, Eisen dismissed replicating the ring's property for now, and the prompt vanished. Slipping the ring onto his right ring finger, he could sense an interior space nearly the size of a room.
Next, Eisen stored the excess duplicated rings inside one storage ring, his books and notes inside another, and then placed those two rings inside the one on his right ring finger. Of course, he also stowed his wand in that same ring.
Nesting storage rings was indeed possible, allowing Eisen to carry his belongings without issue.
Then Eisen went wild, using the Geminio spell repeatedly on the deck of playing cards until two storage rings were filled to the brim. He then slipped those card-filled rings onto the ring fingers of both hands.
Why? Eisen had an idea brewing about using playing cards for combat. Not as a sleight-of-hand magician, of course, but by transforming them into various offensive and defensive tools.
Through Transfiguration, whether turning cards into stone slabs or metal plates the size of a person, they would undoubtedly make excellent shields against curses. And for attacks, the cards could become razor-sharp blades.
If Eisen's idea panned out, he could simply toss cards from his storage rings and transfigure them mid-flight to hinder or harm foes. Every card would become a potential weapon or defense.
After completing his preparations, Eisen visited the Room of Requirement.
Cards appeared in Eisen's hands, then flew rapidly toward targets, transforming into razor-sharp blades, thick stone slabs, metal chains, and more as they went.
Practicing battle simulations with Transfiguration, Eisen even tried tactics against multiple opponents, flinging several cards simultaneously to attack from different angles.
For defense, he could instantly encase himself in powerful Shield Charms or transfigure cards into metal bucklers.
After practicing, Eisen felt confident he had mastered tactics to block most wizards' spells and potentially defeat or kill many as well.
While still unsure if he could beat Voldemort, Eisen believed his card transfiguration could at least block the Dark Lord's curses. And even against the Killing Curse, Eisen's reflexes might allow him to dodge or erect obstacles through transfiguration.
Nevertheless, he looked forward to joining the Dueling Club for real combat experience, though that would have to wait.
(End of Chapter)