The common room was buzzing, students quietly chatting about Lockhart's run-in with Peeves.

Harry and Ron were playing Wizard Chess, while Hermione sat beside them, engrossed in a copy of Healing Spells Explained.

Harry's Wizard Chess set—a Christmas gift from the previous year—still didn't quite listen to him and often moved against his wishes.

A few onlookers had gathered around to watch. Harry's chess pieces eyed him with clear disdain.

"E4," Harry said hesitantly.

His White King immediately clutched his head. "Here we go again! I've died eight hundred times with that move!"

The White Queen rolled her eyes. "Merlin, can't you learn from the kid opposite you?"

Ron's pieces, in contrast, stood proud and confident—the Black Knight even polished his spear, ready to charge.

"Watch this," Ron grinned. "My Knight to F6."

The Black Knight galloped forward, leaping gracefully into place and kicking Harry's pawn aside as it landed.

"Your move, Harry," Ron said triumphantly, taking a bite of sausage they'd smuggled from the Great Hall in a crystal vial.

Harry wiped his forehead. "Then... my Bishop to C5."

"What?!" his White Bishop shrieked. "Are you mad? That Black Knight will cleave me in two!"

The piece clung desperately to the board.

"Please, just listen to me this once…" Harry pleaded softly.

"Never!" the White Bishop shouted, plopping down stubbornly on the board. "Let him go—it doesn't matter if he dies!"

He pointed at a nearby pawn, who simply rolled its eyes.

Ron's pieces erupted in laughter. The Black Castle shook from laughing, its stones trembling. "Just surrender already!"

Hermione glanced up from her book. "How about I—"

"No!" Harry and Ron shouted in unison.

Just then, Harry's White Queen suddenly stood up and kicked the Bishop over to C5. "I've had enough! I'm taking over this game!"

"Wait, don't di—"

She turned to Harry. "Shut up, kid. Watch and learn."

Ron's eyebrows shot up. "Wow, your pieces really do have personality."

For the next ten minutes, Harry's pieces completely ignored his commands, loudly arguing among themselves as they hashed out tactics.

The White Knight even got into a scuffle with the Black Castle after the latter claimed his horse looked like a mule.

"Checkmate!"

The White Queen slid forward with elegance, cornering Ron's King.

"That's not fair!" Ron's Black King protested. "They're cheating!"

Harry shrugged. "My pieces are just… spirited."

The onlookers gradually dispersed, and since there was still plenty of time, Harry and Ron started another game.

"Come… over… kill… eat.. tear apart…"

The fireplace suddenly crackled, spitting out a shower of sparks. Harry jolted upright, knocking over the chessboard with his knee. The White King shrieked as it tumbled into Ron's cup.

"What?" Harry's voice was barely a whisper, his green eyes wide.

Ron and Hermione exchanged confused glances. "Are you alright?" Hermione asked, closing Healing Spells Explained. "You look terrible."

"Didn't… didn't you hear it?" Harry's fingers unconsciously brushed his scar. "That voice, it's back… saying it wants to kill…"

His voice faded as his friends' expressions shifted from confusion to alarm.

Ron's freckles stood out starkly against his pale face. "Mate, it's quiet enough in here to hear the Fat Lady snoring—apart from your chess pieces swearing…"

Harry forced himself to take a deep breath. The soaked pieces crawled out of the cocoa cup, glaring at him resentfully.

And that cold, slimy voice had vanished without a trace.

"Probably… Peeves's prank," he said with a forced smile, though his fingers were still trembling.

Ron's pieces took the opportunity to sneak back to their original positions—only to be caught under Hermione's sharp gaze.

"Are you really okay?" Hermione asked quietly. "Do you want to go see Madam Pomfrey…?"

"No!" Harry's voice came out louder than he intended, startling them both. He quickly added, somewhat awkwardly, "I might… just be too tired."

...

Time passed slowly, and Sagres's progress in deciphering the new spell was going quite smoothly.

Late at night.

Restricted Section.

Sagres's fingertips glided over the surface of a yellowed ancient tome.

The parchment contained a scrawled record: In 1432 AD, a wizard named Eamon Brad used a similar magic absorption spell during a duel, which caused his body to explode like shattered glass—fragments that still glowed faintly with blue magical light.

"Truly… a rather educational case of failure."

He murmured to himself, the glow from his wand tip casting flickering shadows across the pages.

The psychological trauma from his last experience with time travel was still etched deep in his bones. This time, he had to be absolutely certain—no room for error.

His quill moved swiftly over his notes, outlining a list of potential risks:

Magic overload leading to bodily explosion (see: Eamon Brad case)

Magic backlash from the absorbed individual (requires redesign of buffer mechanism)

Magical circuit contamination (requires carving an alchemical array)

Sagres suddenly paused. This was the trickiest issue—the spell required the alchemical array to be inscribed directly onto the caster's flesh and blood.

It was a difficult and excruciatingly painful process, but fortunately, pain was a solvable problem.

The real challenge lay in the complexity: over seventy magical rune circuits, plus more than two thousand alchemical runes. No room for error. It had to be executed perfectly in a single attempt…

He recalled an old wizard he'd seen in Uagadou, whose entire body was covered in glowing runes, like a living magical array.

Unfortunately, he didn't trust anyone else enough to help. He would have to do it himself.

"Looks like I'll have to pay Hagrid a visit. I wonder if he has these materials…"

Sagres muttered to himself, planning to find time to visit Hagrid's hut to ask if he had what he needed. If not, he'd have to make a trip to Diagon Alley.

However, the very next afternoon, just as he was about to head to Hagrid's, he ran into Draco Malfoy, who had come looking for him.

The month-long detention Sagres had assigned Malfoy had begun the day after the incident. Because it was so long, Malfoy would need to serve detention with nearly every professor over the course of three to five days.

Sagres looked at him calmly.

Malfoy shrank back slightly under his gaze, clearly intimidated, but he held his ground and didn't flee.

At last, Sagres waved his hand, and a series of books flew down from the bookshelf.

"From today onward, you won't need to report to any other professors for detention."

Malfoy quickly understood what that meant—as the stack of books was already taller than he was. If he intended to read all of them, there would be no time left to attend detentions with anyone else.

Sagres had selected Muggle books; he simply wanted to give this young wizard, whose head was full of blood purity nonsense, a serious dose of the Muggle world.

___

o(*≧▽≦)ツ💫Support & read up to 12+ chapters ahead on P@treon/DarkDevil1👉 Join to get early access and exclusive content!✨