find the runner who never arrives,
hunted by those who will never learn.
Climb until numbers lose meaning at seven.
Then turn away.
Only the one who abandons certainty,
who repeats the same mistake three times,
will be noticed by what refuses to be seen.
Damian worked like a madman for the next two hours and he found the runner who never arrives. Hunted by those who will never learn. The tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy in the seventh floor. The riddle matched exactly and Damian and inspected the area around for clues many times before a door suddenly popped up out of nowhere.
With a ding sound, he is given the confirmation that it's indeed the room of requirement. Claiming the reward of knowledge about this room. As he claimed the knowledge he is quite surprised, there is almost every room he can imagine there. Even the most useless ones.
What intrigued him is there are room s divided for each subject of magic, from rituals to all. And this room is powered by the mana veins that Hogwarts is built upon. So he doesn't need to worry about mana getting cut off during the ritual. As he entered the room of requirement, he is quite amazed.
Inside is a large library, and what made him ecstatic is, there are books specially placed on pedastals. And if he needs a book, he just needs to place his hand on the empty pedastal in the middle of them and call that out. Even a rough description or mentioning subject will takethe book out.
Damian is intrigued by this design, everything here is enchanted. Damian didn't even need to search for book of rituals, it's already on one of the pedastals. As picked up the book, he froze. Because there are names on the book written in few pages.
Lily Evans.
But what shocked him is the name after that.
Evelyn Knight.
His mother. Damian stared at the book blankly before flipping the pages back to the ritual. There are rituals on almost everything. As he turned to 53rd page he saw it, the mana heart ritual. Rowea herself is quite scared to perform this. Because this will essentially rewrite the physiology itself. It creates a mana organ, like a heart in the user's body.
And the ritual itself takes almost a day to finish. The materials needed for it, are also very scarce. Afterall it isn't everyday you can get your hands on the philosopher's stone or the elixir of life from it. The materials needed for this ritual are :
Dragon Hearts (3)
Dragon blood (5 litres)
Mandrake Essence (3)
Philosopher's stone (optional)
Elixir of life
Unicorn blood (100 ml)
Phoenix tears
Tail Feather of phoenix
Mermaid scales
Radiant Fungi Mushroom
Arctic leaf blades
Infernal grass
Damian sighed. Where can he find those materials. Sure Rosier can arrange some in the list, Dumbledore will be willing to give him phoenix tears and tail Feather of phoenix if Aberforth can pursuade him. But the Philosopher's stone, only one exists in this world and it's with Nicholas Flamel.
Damian frowned but there is also another ritual that doesn't need elixir of life but this one needs the heart of hydra which is even more rare. He looked through the book and found why the system mentioned this page specifically. Because as long as you endure pain, you can survive with this mana heart ritual unlike others.
Damian took a deep breath, he will collect materials for now. There are many common materials here. He will first collect them and then see if there is any opportunity to get other materials. Philosopher's stone is something he can't get yet. So he will gather other materials. Like the heart of a hydra.
These species are dangerous and almost extinct, so their hearts are preserved with some pure blood families. For now he will need to rob few people it seems. And he needs wait until Christmas holidays to get to Diagon Alley for that. Damian sighed and put the book back on the pedastal.
He then asked for another book. A book about special spells that are of the founder's era. His eyes shined with a glint when he saw those spells. He is immersed in reading the book and learning these spells. Looks like he can stronger using room of requirement.
After a few hours he returned to Slytherin common room. But everyone can clearly see Damian is in a good mood. Though no one cared about this, in a few days Quidditch matches will start. And there is Draco who is causing a commotion at this time, he told Slytherins how he tricked Potter and his Gang to come to the trophy room and let them get caught by Filch.
Damian sighed, he hesitated before remembering Hermione's help today. ' let's help for now. She helped me find the book afterall ', as Damian left the common room covertly, it's already past dinner now, He can't sneak into the Gryffindor common room or else McGonagall will give him detention. Unlike Snape her detention won't be beneficial for him at all. he indeed found Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville after half an hour.
He appeared before them suddenly and said," Draco set up a trap for you. He didn't come to the duel, he reported you two to Filch. Go back to the Gryffindor common room. Filch will find you and take you to McGonagall for detention if you're here ", Harry and Ron seemed to realise they have been tricked by Draco.
At this time, Hermione exclaimed," oh no, the fat lady disappeared from the painting. How could we go back? ", Damian mouth twitched. ' great, now they're trapped outside. Should I just go back so I won't get caught? ', Damian shook his head,' forget it. I can just turn invisible and walk away but they can't. Let's stay and help them for now '.
But they heard a cat meowing and Damian mouth twitched. Looks like lady luck is not on their side at this moment. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville ran away immediately while Filch's yelling is heard," students out of bed. Go Mrs Norris. Let's catch them ".