Leaving aside how Harry and the others came to suspect Snape, and how they pried the name "Nicolas Flamel" out of Hagrid, the Hogwarts Quidditch season continued as scheduled. This time, it was Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw—and although the players from these two Houses committed fouls far less frequently than those from the other two, their overall style was also far less ferocious than Gryffindor's or Slytherin's. As a result, the spectacle was, regrettably, somewhat lacking.
However, something highly unusual happened this year.
The two Seekers openly fed the entire school a mouthful of sickeningly sweet romance.
When the Golden Snitch slowed and appeared over the pitch, Cedric and Cho flew side by side on their brooms, neither colliding nor interfering with the other. Guided by the Snitch, they traced a graceful arc across the sky, fluttering together like a pair of butterflies in perfect harmony. The rest of the players on both teams simply stopped what they were doing, abandoning all attempts at interception and standing there to watch the show unfold.
In the end, Cedric succeeded in catching the Golden Snitch thanks to his longer reach and an extra year of training. Bearing Hufflepuff's honor on his shoulders, he could not afford to lose.
As for how everyone else felt about the match—no one knew. Avada, however, nearly stabbed his own eyes out. After giving it some thought, he realized that even blinding himself wouldn't help; he still had Magical Perception and would end up "seeing" even more than before. In the end, he gave up in bitter resignation.
To thoroughly cleanse his eyes—and his soul—Avada decided to devote himself fully to research for a while. If nothing went wrong, his work on spatial magic was about to bear fruit…
And so, in an empty classroom somewhere in the castle—
Bang.
With a faint, muted popping sound, Avada vanished from one end of the classroom and reappeared instantly at the other. He then let out a wry smile.
He had bypassed Hogwarts' anti-Apparition wards.
The reason for his reaction was simple: the principle behind the wards was far more absurd than he had imagined. They consisted of nothing more than a spell designed solely to block the descent of mental energy.
It was well known that Apparition required a specific meditative technique, allowing the caster's mental energy to pierce space in a supra-geometric manner, descend upon the destination, and force open a passage within the spatial structure—thus enabling instantaneous bodily transfer. Therefore, as long as one layered a ward over the protected area that prevented any mental energy from passing through, Apparition could be completely blocked.
In other words, anti-Apparition wards worked by making a location impossible to lock onto with mental energy.
Reinforcing space itself?
That simply didn't exist.
Even more hilariously, this ward only blocked the mental structures of "humanoid lifeforms"—humans, giants, half-giants, goblins, centaurs, and the like. As for other magical creatures capable of Apparition?
No defenses whatsoever.
This was the fundamental reason house-elves and phoenixes could poke holes through any ward like a sieve.
Once Avada understood this, all he had to do was adjust the "frequency" of the mental energy he projected outward, and he could bypass the ward entirely. Of course, it sounded far easier than it actually was. He had spent several days figuring out how to achieve this adjustment, and in the end had to rely on an alchemical device and a highly complex meditative technique to succeed.
The alchemical apparatus itself wasn't expensive—he'd spent less than seven Galleons buying all the materials in Diagon Alley. The finished product was a lens-like device about the size of a wristwatch. By gazing into it while performing the specialized meditation, one could tune their mental energy and—like a house-elf—turn any human wizard's anti-Apparition ward into Swiss cheese.
Still, just to be safe, Avada decided not to tell anyone about this discovery for the time being. At the very least, he would wait until he had developed a ward that genuinely reinforced space itself.
"But that's only a side benefit," he murmured. "My real achievement… is this."
Suppressing his excitement, Avada took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and focus. Slowly, he raised his wand—
—and cast the Bubble-Head Charm on himself.
Then he flicked his wand downward. The bubble that had initially covered only his head expanded instantly, enveloping his entire body, making him look as though he were wearing a transparent raincoat.
"Good. Structural strength is sufficient. Next…"
He waved his wand in an unusual rhythm, brows tightly furrowed, and softly spoke the incantation.
"Near… yet far!"
In the next instant, Avada Kendavia vanished soundlessly from the classroom, as though he had never existed at all.
He now found himself in a strange and wondrous world.
Before his eyes lay absolute darkness, making him feel as though he were drifting in outer space. Yet his Magical Perception clearly outlined the magical structures of every object in the empty classroom outside, preventing him from losing all sense of reality. The Bubble-Head Charm still clung tightly to his body, leaving only a thin buffer of empty space within.
He tried to take a step forward, but the floor beneath him behaved like an intangible ghost—his legs passed straight through it, unable to find any purchase. He was suspended motionless in place, incapable of touching anything.
"Tch… it's freezing," he muttered. "Good thing I prepared thermal protection in advance…"
"No light. No vision. I can only 'see' through Magical Perception…"
Avada blinked, still struggling to adjust.
Yes—he had finally succeeded.
He had managed to cast the Undetectable Extension Charm directly onto a spatial passage formed by his own mental energy, and after confirming there were no additional dangers, he had shifted his physical body inside.
During his research, Avada realized that his earlier approach had been flawed. There was no need to cast two spells simultaneously—he only needed to fuse Apparition with the Undetectable Extension Charm. For someone who could directly perceive space and mental energy, this wasn't particularly difficult.
As long as he could allow his mental energy to pierce space without setting a destination point, while still maintaining precise control, he could cast the Undetectable Extension Charm on the spatial passage itself—or rather, a spatial cavern—creating a small pocket space nested inside normal space.
Put simply: Apparate without completing the materialization step. Let the body remain lodged within space itself, then gradually expand the available room using the Undetectable Extension Charm.
In doing so, one could step outside the bounds of the world entirely. Even if Killing Curses rained down outside, they would have no effect whatsoever.
In Avada's design, this newly created space contained no light, no heat, and no air. That was why he had to protect his body before entering—hence the full-body Bubble-Head Charm. In the hands of a powerful wizard, this charm could withstand the pressure of water thousands of meters deep. Even if Avada couldn't achieve that level, maintaining internal pressure and storing a small supply of breathable air was well within his capabilities.
Thankfully, he had anticipated all of this in advance. Otherwise, this experiment would have been no different from launching his physical body into outer space—with entirely predictable consequences.
"Once I can cast this spell instantly whenever I want," Avada thought, exhilaration coursing through him, "this will be my ultimate life-saving trump card!"
As the novelty faded, a surge of wild, hair-raising joy flooded his heart.
"With this, I effectively have a portable, mobile safehouse. As long as I hide inside, even if Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort all hunt me together, there's nothing they can do!"
"And as long as I don't run out of air or heat, I can stay here indefinitely—or instantly complete the second half of Apparition, ignoring all wards and traveling anywhere I please!"
"And if I develop a spell that allows true flight, I'll be able to move freely within this space, passing through any obstacle in the real world!"
"…Have I become invincible?"
(End of Chapter)