This sudden stroke of luck shoved the progress bar on Voldemort's analysis sharply forward. If his progress had only been around fifteen to twenty percent before today, then this dynamic sample alone pushed it past sixty percent.
Without a doubt, this saved Avada an enormous amount of effort and freed up more time for him to do other things he actually wanted to do.
So, on this pleasant Sunday, he decided to temporarily forget about Voldemort, forget about Horcruxes, forget about the original plot altogether, and give himself a proper break to change his mood—by researching the Vanishing Cabinet.
After spending the last two weeks desperately recording Voldemort's mental power and dismantling seals, returning to the study of spatial magic at last was the perfect way to reset his mind.
And so, Avada finally returned to the long-unvisited Room of Requirement. Because of its special status, the interior of the Room of Requirement was not affected by Hogwarts' Anti-Apparition Enchantment, meaning Apparition could be freely performed inside—but only within the room itself. Attempting to Apparate out of the room, or Apparate into it from elsewhere, was completely impossible.
Which only made the Vanishing Cabinet all the more valuable.
It was also worth mentioning that, to prevent Voldemort from suddenly getting nostalgic and revisiting the school after his return, Avada had already placed Ravenclaw's Diadem back where it originally belonged. All the arrangements he had previously made in the "Room of Hidden Things" to ambush the fake Baker had likewise been meticulously restored.
After all, in the original timeline, the Diadem remained untouched in the Room of Hidden Things until Harry's seventh year. Clearly, no one went near it during that time, so Avada had no reason to worry.
At the moment, he was standing inside a room that belonged exclusively to him. Aside from the damaged Vanishing Cabinet he had moved in earlier, he had added several tables, chairs, and storage cabinets, layered the space with protective magic, and expanded its area from something barely larger than a restroom to nearly the size of the Great Hall.
"Vanishing Cabinets, Floo Powder, the theory behind the Undetectable Extension Charm and Apparition… and Hogwarts' Anti-Apparition Enchantment…"
Because the logical symbols used to express magical power were still completely beyond him, magical research couldn't be done with neat calculations on parchment the way mental power could. Instead, he had to rely entirely on Magical Perception and brute-force computation in his own mind.
That said, it also meant he could pull out his wand and test things directly. Though it put greater strain on his brain, it was still far more relaxing than endlessly scribbling diagrams on paper.
Avada stood quietly in the center of the room, his Magical Perception tightly locked onto the magical structures of the Vanishing Cabinet and Floo Powder. At the same time, he recalled everything he knew about spatial magic while uncorking a small vial of Wit-Sharpening Potion and drinking it down in one go.
Excessive or frequent use of Wit-Sharpening Potion could damage mental power, but under Avada's constant monitoring, he knew exactly where the limit lay.
"This time, my goal is to gain a preliminary grasp of Apparition and the Undetectable Extension Charm using insights from the Vanishing Cabinet. The Extension Charm is the priority—after all, I'll learn Apparition sooner or later, and for the next five years I'll mostly be living at school, where knowing Apparition isn't very useful anyway…"
"But Apparition is easier, so I'll start there."
"Every book that explains Apparition only talks about how to better achieve 'Destination,' 'Determination,' and 'Deliberation,' yet never explains what actually happens to space itself…"
"Damn it, mental power again."
"Before understanding this, I never would've imagined that books teaching spatial magic would record an entire meditation method. You have to follow it precisely to let your mental power pierce space and point toward your destination—and the method of spatial transfer itself is nothing more than turning your body while maintaining the meditation."
Avada closed his eyes and adjusted his mental state strictly according to the book, visualizing the empty space beside the storage cabinet. Just as he prepared to turn—
"No."
As soon as he entered the meditative process, he was shocked to discover that his mental power had deeply synchronized with the surrounding space. Through some indescribable, non-geometric transformation, it directly aligned with the destination he had imagined.
But the moment he tried to turn, he sensed space around him warping, forming something that could barely be described as a "passage," ready to transport him. Yet through Magical Perception, he could clearly see that his arm was stuck outside that passage.
"So this is probably the root cause of splinching."
"Again."
Avada continued guiding his mental power through meditation, quickly constructing another similar passage.
"This time my eyebrow's stuck… again."
"Hair…"
"Hem of my robe…"
"Got it!"
Avada spun sharply. With a loud crack, he felt as if he'd been stuffed into a narrow pipe—no, not just felt it. He had genuinely been forced into a cramped spatial passage, only to be shot out the next instant at his predetermined destination.
The sensation of Apparition was better than he'd expected—just a bit dizzy. Last term, he'd heard that some sixth-years vomited on the spot after their first successful Apparition lesson.
"It's just not very comfortable. If that passage were wider, it'd be much better… wait!"
"What if I use the Undetectable Extension Charm on that narrow passage?"
"And if I succeed, what happens if I enter the expanded passage and don't come out? Do I get stuck in space, or forcibly ejected somewhere?"
"But the Undetectable Extension Charm is hard to learn. Unless someone casts it in front of me so I can observe its magical structure, learning it alone would take at least several days…"
"Wait—doesn't the Room of Requirement expand on its own? Isn't that the same principle?"
Under the effects of the Wit-Sharpening Potion, Avada's thoughts raced. He immediately found a way forward and focused his mind, sending his intent to the Room of Requirement.
'I need this room to be a bit bigger… I need this room to be a bit bigger…'
Almost instantly, the Room of Requirement responded. The surrounding walls retreated, the edges of the floor expanded, and the entire space grew noticeably larger in moments.
"The change in space… I can see it!"
"It should operate on the same principle as the Undetectable Extension Charm!"
After repeating the expansion several times and fully confirming his hypothesis, Avada removed his wizarding robes. He aimed his wand at a pocket and extended his mental power according to the method of the Undetectable Extension Charm, carefully adjusting the internal spatial structure.
In the next instant, the pocket's interior space abruptly expanded, growing to nearly the capacity of a backpack, while its exterior showed no change at all.
"Next, I'll put my idea into practice—applying the Undetectable Extension Charm to the spatial passage created by Apparition…"
Almost immediately after completing the charm, he began the attempt. His meditation-focused mental power effortlessly pierced space and landed at the far end of the room, propping open a narrow spatial passage between the two points. He raised his wand at once, preparing to cast the Extension Charm on that passage—
And then, because the spell required it, his mental power withdrew from the space. Without support, the passage collapsed on its own.
Avada: …
"Looks like I'll need someone who can Apparate to cooperate for this experiment. But Apparition is forbidden at school, and Baron—the only one who knows about the Room of Requirement—can't Apparate. If only I could cast two spells at the same time…"
"Wait. Why does that sound so familiar?"
(End of Chapter)