Chapter 165: Dumbledore Under the Moonlight
Ethan had been listening to Snape's lecture with ease, but what came next made his heart leap.
Previously, the Potions knowledge Snape had been teaching him was simply the seven-year Hogwarts curriculum supplemented with extra material Snape deemed necessary.
But starting with this lesson, more than half of what Snape was teaching fell outside the standard curriculum.
Moreover, this material was specifically about flesh and bloodlines, the very subject Ethan had been researching lately. He couldn't help feeling nervous.
*Did he discover I got Salazar's and Nathaniel's legacies?* That was Ethan's first thought upon hearing Snape begin discussing the subject.
Listening to Snape lecture, Ethan's mind wandered:
*He shouldn't know about Salazar's. Did Madam Pince discover the fake Blood? Did she go to Snape?*
*Leading Snape to guess that I might have taken the genuine copy from the library and gotten something from it? Now he's dropping hints, wanting me to hand it over voluntarily?*
Just as his imagination ran wild and he started feeling that Snape's glances seemed off, he realized that wasn't the case.
Snape wasn't deliberately discussing bloodlines and flesh to drop hints; he was seriously teaching him about the subject. The content he covered was clearly structured and highly systematic, obviously not something thrown together at the last moment to pressure him, but material he had studied extensively.
His eyes hadn't changed either. They still held that gentle look from when class had started. It was just Ethan's own paranoia playing tricks on him.
Relaxing again, Ethan pricked up his ears to listen to what Snape was teaching, afraid of missing a single word. For him, missing any of it would undoubtedly be a loss.
This professor, however, spoke very cautiously. He was probably afraid that suddenly introducing so much unfamiliar material would confuse Ethan.
As a result, Snape didn't go into too much depth during class. He mostly covered general, superficial topics, with only a small portion of the material having any real depth.
Ethan was actually rather dissatisfied with this. His research in this field far exceeded Snape's imagination, but he didn't dare show it just yet.
However, Snape's research direction differed greatly from what Ethan had learned from the two manuscripts.
So even though Snape kept things shallow, Ethan still learned a lot. He drew plenty of inspiration, which gave him fresh ideas for improving the potion recipes he'd written.
After class, Ethan couldn't wait to get back to his dormitory and record his sudden burst of inspiration.
Drawing on these new ideas, he improved his previous recipes and even wrote a few entirely new ones.
Except for a few recipes he couldn't test without the right ingredients, he planned to try out the rest in the Room of Requirement that night.
He wrote down the names and quantities of ingredients required for his new recipes, compiling them into one list.
After grabbing some sandwiches and other portable food from the Great Hall, Ethan ate on his way to the Owlery.
At nine-fifty that evening, Ethan bid farewell to the Weasley twins. He walked toward the dormitory, looking back with every step.
Of course, he wasn't reluctant to say goodbye to the two Weasleys. He simply didn't want to leave the Room of Requirement so early.
"If I hadn't promised Hagrid I'd go to his place tomorrow morning, I could have brewed one more batch," he muttered, somewhat regretting the promise he'd made on Friday.
The more he thought about it, the more potion-making captivated him. So when he reached the stairwell, Ethan turned sharply and plunged back into the Room of Requirement.
"I can just go a bit later tomorrow. Besides, I didn't specify a time," he reasoned. With that in mind, Ethan worked until nearly midnight before packing up and leaving the Room of Requirement.
Early the next morning, Ethan hurried to the Great Hall before the food was cleared away, grabbed some Pumpkin Pasties for breakfast, and headed toward Hagrid's hut.
"You're here. Come in quick." Hagrid glanced behind him and shut the door.
"Just you? No Harry or Hermione?" Ethan was a bit surprised as he stepped inside. Aside from Fang lying on the floor, the other two who usually came were nowhere to be seen.
Hagrid stoked the fire and set the teapot over the flames. "Harry's team lost to you lot last semester, so they've been stepping up their preparations lately.
"Besides their regular team training on Saturdays, Wood's started running extra Snitch-catching sessions with him on Sundays, too.
"He stopped by yesterday afternoon and told me."
Hagrid pulled some tea leaves from the cabinet as he spoke. "As for Hermione, she mentioned last week that she might not make it this week.
"At this point, she probably won't show up today."
"That explains it." Ethan had a pretty good idea why Hermione hadn't come.
Hagrid hadn't shown his face in two weeks. Ron was currently in the hospital wing. Harry didn't usually visit Hagrid's hut on weekends anyway, so there was no telling if he'd show up this week.
As a result, she probably realized she'd be practicing here alone this week.
Since she and Hagrid weren't close enough for her to justify spending long periods alone in his hut, she'd simply skipped this week.
That was probably exactly what Hermione had been thinking.
*Just as well. It was about time for this Charms practice group to disband,* Ethan mused.
This small group currently had four members, though that was being generous. In truth, only he and Hermione were actually regulars.
After all, only the two of them had chosen this spot from the start because they needed a place to practice Charms.
Harry and Ron had only joined later, after the troll incident, drawn in by Ethan's skill.
However, the two of them were frequently absent, so while the training had shown some progress, it wasn't significant. They mostly just filled out the group during weekend chats with Hagrid, making the hut feel livelier.
After Halloween this year, Ron would be out for the rest of the semester. Harry would also be gone for a long stretch due to Quidditch training.
Consequently, Hermione was currently the only one in their group of four who could attend regularly.
This opened up his weekends. Whenever he needed to practice, he could just come here or head to the Room of Requirement. He wouldn't have to worry about scheduling conflicts, either. Ethan decided this was a good thing.
The reason he hadn't come to practice recently wasn't simply that he was tied up with potion experiments. It was also because he'd already mastered all the common spells available to him.
As for the spells he was still working on, most were Dark Magic, which wasn't suitable to demonstrate in front of others.
So this Charms practice group he'd started was bound to be slowly abandoned.
However, Ethan hadn't expected this to happen so quickly. He'd originally thought the group wouldn't disband until next year at the earliest.
"This should be my last time coming to Hagrid's hut on a weekend morning for Charms practice, right?"
"Of course, barring the next magic surge."
Before practice, Ethan told Hagrid his decision and lingered to chat with him, hoping to ease the half-giant's disappointment.
"I'll still come visit. The timing just won't be so fixed. It's not like I've graduated. I'm only in my second year," Ethan said, offering words of comfort.
Once Hagrid accepted the situation, Ethan left the hut and headed toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He planned to take advantage of the isolation to test some magic he rarely had the chance to cast outdoors.
After eating lunch with Hagrid, Ethan returned to the castle and told Hermione and Harry that he would no longer be participating in weekend training sessions.
They both took the news calmly. Given the practices Ethan had already missed, they had been expecting this day to come.
The days passed one by one. Before long, the weekend of the ninth week of term arrived, bringing with it a new full moon.
"The weather's good. There shouldn't be any dark clouds blocking the moonlight tonight."
At noon, Ethan stood on the lawn by the Black Lake, gazing up at the dazzling sun.
The weather heading into the ninth week hadn't been great. There had been days of gloomy rain, and Ethan had worried that the full moon would be hidden behind dark clouds as well.
He had already made arrangements with Dumbledore. If there was no moon on Sunday, Dumbledore would take him away from Hogwarts to somewhere the moonlight could reach.
But since Saturday, the sky had begun to clear. Today's weather was even better. It seemed there would be no need to go elsewhere to bathe in the moonlight.
Satisfied with the weather, Ethan headed to the Room of Requirement once more.
With tonight being so important, Ethan couldn't quite focus. After ruining several batches of potions in a row, he simply left early.
Ethan spread a bed sheet on the lawn by the lake and settled in to watch the sun set slowly.
After putting away the bedsheets and eating a simple dinner, Ethan returned to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
After greeting Hagrid, who had come out to check for any movement, he stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, staring up at the sky and waiting for the moon to appear.
Not long after, moonlight spilled across the ground. Ethan took out a prepared crystal phial, held it up to the moonlight, and added one of his own hairs and a silver teaspoonful of dew.
Then he took out a small piece of dragon horn and a few small fragments of silver-blue dragon scales he had prepared long ago, and dropped them into the bottle.
Next, he pulled a slender needle from his bag that glinted silver in the moonlight, and pricked his finger.
Watching a dark red bead of blood form, Ethan quickly held his finger over the mouth of the bottle, squeezed his fingertip hard, and let the droplets fall inside.
Once the blood had completely turned the colorless dew red, Ethan finally dropped in a Death's-head Hawk-moth chrysalis.
"Done." Sealing the mouth of the bottle, Ethan picked up the potion bottle and held it toward the moon, letting the mixture inside fully catch the moonlight as well.
The next steps required him to properly seal the potion bottle.
Ethan pulled an extremely well-protected box from his bag, the very one Salazar had used to store his legacy.
This box had been in his possession for months. When he saw this step, he thought of this box, which no ordinary person could ever open.
After all this time trying, Ethan had finally figured out other ways to open it besides dripping blood.
"I, in the name of the Heir of Salazar Slytherin, command you to open," facing the box, Ethan whispered in Parseltongue. Gaps appeared along all four sides of the box.
He had indeed tried to open the box with Parseltongue back then, only to fail because he had not spoken the correct passphrase.
At the time, he had merely spoken words like "open" or "unseal." He had failed to speak the essential keywords: Salazar Slytherin and heir.
Ethan found himself speechless after testing the incantation. Fortunately, while the process had been convoluted, the outcome was satisfactory. Since he had already secured the inheritance through other means, he felt neither anxious nor angry about the delay.
Ethan placed the potion bottle inside the box and closed the lid. Once the box had sealed itself again, he buried it in the pit he had dug long ago in front of a large tree.
The entire process went smoothly. None of the accidents he had anticipated, such as dark clouds suddenly blotting out the moon, ever came to pass.
And that was that. All that remained was to rest, wait for the storm to arrive, and practice spells. Ethan worked his jaw, trying to loosen his tongue after a month without proper use. He carved a mark into the tree trunk. Rather than returning to Hagrid's hut again, he turned and headed straight for the castle.
Once he had walked a short distance away, he discreetly turned back. Activating his special vision, he peered at the spot where he had just been standing.
*Did the old man really move that fast? Did he head to Hagrid's hut or go into the Forbidden Forest?*
It turned out Dumbledore had been there the entire time Ethan was brewing the potion for the second step of the Animagus process. The old man had simply cast a Disillusionment Charm and moved without a sound.
However, those precautions meant nothing against Ethan's ability. He had spotted that familiar soul immediately. Ethan thought smugly, *So what if you turn invisible? Your soul is still on full display right before my eyes.*
*I wonder if this ability would work on an Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows. Would I be able to see the soul of the person hiding inside?*
Just moments ago, when Ethan retrieved Salazar's box, he had kept his back turned to Dumbledore. He had also deliberately whispered in Parseltongue, fearing the old man might overhear.
Seeing Dumbledore's composed soul again just now, Ethan was reminded of that lingering mystery. *What sort of soul had cracks?*
The old man's soul had no cracks. Ethan had confirmed this when seeking his help to prevent bad weather from affecting his own Animagus transformation.
*I wonder if Grandpa's soul has cracks. After all, he was the one who killed Lupe. And it wasn't just Lupe. He had also killed many of the wanderers who participated in the siege back then.*
However, he figured he would have to wait for the holidays to find the answer to that question.
Shaking his head and casting one last glance in the direction of the Forbidden Forest, Ethan returned to the castle under the moonlight.
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