Chapter 210: The Planning Map
The effect of the Finite spell exhilarated the young wizards.
For the next few days, everyone spent their time practicing the counter-spell.
Hermione, Justin, and Neville were in the Room of Hope almost every day. Although Ron was occasionally distracted by Weird Wizard's Chess or Quidditch, he was also a frequent presence.
Only Harry was absent, burdened by five training sessions a week. After hearing the latest news about the Quidditch match, Wood had silently intensified the entire training regimen.
The twins, Harry, and the rest of the team were miserable.
Occasionally, Roger Davies would taunt them at the changing room door: "Ravenclaw is about to make history!"
This made Wood furious, wishing he could send the team onto the pitch to settle the score with Ravenclaw right then and there.
During this time, Ron seemed more like a member of the Room of Hope than Harry. Due to the intense training, Harry's only source of news about his friends was Ron's descriptions.
For example, what strange and dangerous plants they encountered in the greenhouse, or what desserts Professor Sprout gave them as rewards.
Meanwhile, Harry was deeply worried about something else—something that weighed on his heart almost as heavily as Professor Quirrell.
He was about to face Sean as an opponent on the Quidditch pitch.
Ron practiced Finite enthusiastically with everyone in the Room of Hope, returning to the dormitory exhausted every night.
Harry tried to voice his concerns, but Ron would just mumble, "Oh, Harry, let's talk tomorrow. Whatever it is, surely it can wait until tomorrow?"
But when tomorrow came, his response remained the same. He seemed too tired to think straight.
So Harry was left alone with his gloom, exhausted by training.
It was a sunny but cold morning.
Sean solemnly warned Justin not to get too close to Professor Quirrell.
Recently, emboldened by their mastery of Finite, the group had grown daring, even secretly tailing Professor Quirrell.
Everyone in the room probably shared a similar thought: If they encountered danger, they could use the counter-spell to neutralize it. But if they caught Professor Quirrell in the act, they could report it to Headmaster Dumbledore—the result being they would personally expel Voldemort's minion from the castle.
It was a naive thought, and a dangerous one.
Headmaster Dumbledore could ensure the safety of Hogwarts during the first year, but he couldn't guarantee that a few students actively seeking danger wouldn't get hit with an Obliviate charm, or even the Imperius Curse.
They were really being... too reckless.
But on second thought, in their first year, Harry, Hermione, and Ron dared to charge straight through dangerous obstacles to secure the Philosopher's Stone first.
Surveilling Professor Quirrell seemed considerably safer by comparison.
Indeed, reckless wizards were only reckless by comparison; there was no "most reckless" wizard, only a "more reckless" one.
Forbidden Forest.
Sean created a map of magical creature distribution. With some simple alchemy added, it functioned like his assignment planner, displaying the tasks to be completed for the day.
Originally, Hagrid had said, "What I keep in me head is way more than this!"
Later, it became, "What did I forget? Sean, oh, just tell me one more time..."
So Sean gave Hagrid a copy. Hagrid was happy all day and insisted Sean try some of his treacle fudge.
It wasn't until Sean placed the dessert on the sofa that the others in the Room of Hope realized it was supposed to be fudge.
It was so soft that it needed to be softened by the fire before it could be eaten.
Hagrid told Sean he would make this dessert for the Hogwarts professors at Christmas, and would "carefully" create various flavours.
He swore the professors loved his creations.
However, the truth was likely that the professors didn't enjoy eating it. It was just that no one had the heart to tell him the truth.
Even the usually "blunt" Professor Snape hadn't told him.
Just how bad was this treacle fudge? Well, its hardness rivaled that of rock cakes.
And the taste was enough to make Justin grimace.
"I think I broke a tooth..." Ron said with a panicked and sorrowful look after taking a bite of unsoftened fudge.
"My teeth... mmmph..." Next was Neville. He had heated it too long; the sugar became too soft and glued his teeth together.
Justin resignedly escorted the pair to the Hospital Wing.
Sean watched the noisy young wizards, shook his head gently, then tapped the table, prompting the bookcase to spit out a notebook recording his studies in the Forbidden Forest.
In the forest, every feeding or touch increased the affinity with the magical creatures, but not quickly.
Especially the Thestrals. They were gentle but didn't easily bond with a specific wizard.
Fortunately, the affinity changed every day. Sean wasn't in a hurry; he had plenty of time to earn the Thestrals' trust.
Compared to Advanced Alchemical Creations, which required long preparation, Sean focused his recent efforts on Intermediate Alchemical Creations.
[Intermediate · Weird Wizard's Chess: Adept (120/3000)]
[Intermediate · Wizard's Chess: Adept (119/3000)]
[Intermediate · Leisure Broomstick: Adept (200/3000)]
Sean needed six Expert-level Intermediate Alchemical Creations. He planned to grind these three to Expert first.
Recently, he added another one:
[Intermediate · Planning Map: Apprentice (20/300)]
The Planning Map, once it gathered information about the surroundings, could provide daily updated tasks, much like the map in certain shady web games. If incomplete, a red exclamation mark would appear in that area of the map.
Sean's design philosophy was simple: Who can refuse a red exclamation mark?
Next, Sean planned to add tracking of wizard locations.
He had conceived the idea early on: the Summoning Charm could summon an object with specific attributes.
If Sean used a minimal amount of magic to summon Justin's scarf, he wouldn't actually summon it, but based on the distance, he would receive a subtle magical fluctuation. This fluctuation could help Sean confirm Justin's approximate location.
But the prerequisite was that Justin couldn't resist; otherwise, the magic would fail.
The resulting Planning Map would be something like a weakened version of the Marauder's Map.
Once Sean mastered it, he would distribute a copy to each student in the Room of Hope.
Naturally, the Planning Map and Weird Wizard's Chess became Sean's recent grinding targets.
(End of Chapter)
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