Chapter 100.1 Pleasant and Unpleasant Encounters

The repair of the gymnasium was quite inexpensive, especially since I had a good rest for my soul. And in general, with the solution of one of the main problems — the acquisition of a place to nest — I did not have a big rock falling from my shoulders. I breathed a sigh of relief. Some problems with the local government and the pressure of a heavy study load were nothing compared to the solved problem.

I'm not stupid enough to think that they won't try to get a tooth out of me, so I somehow handed Anthony a small envelope. I still can't trust Lupin, and I haven't had a chance to talk to the various people the werewolf works with to understand his decisions.

So, on one of my visits to the Cup Delivery Group, I discreetly handed the former Auror an envelope with a shortened set of instructions, as well as a certified power of attorney to the bank to withdraw the necessary amount of cash.

 Anthony was to find a reliable Muggle firm that sold worked stone and order parallelepipeds of a certain size, made from the strongest, most stable, crack-free granite or sandstone. After sifting through a large number of different middlemen, a large and reputable company was found and my order was placed with them.

I had to manage the process remotely, but I was assured that for the listed requirements of the first part of the order, local Welsh micaceous sandstone would be fine, but for the second part I would have to order the stone from the mainland, which would take more time and money.

 Especially considering the request for a base height of one and a half meters — such granite without cracks costs much more. Grinding is included in the price. A separate order was a granite slab, dimensions 2x1.5x0.3m.

I am building a house where no one will be able to enter, so there will be a serious system of protection from two rings — external and internal. The stones will be covered with writing and half buried in the ground. The inner part will cover the living area, the outer part will surround the living area and the most important land with gardens and one or two ponds.

The slab will be the altar of my kin, although I have now begun to read a curious Chinese treatise in which I have reached the specific part. I am in no hurry to draw conclusions until I have finished reading it, but there are already some conjectures that make me uncomfortable.

I also had to do some serious encryption because I discovered a very grim fact: the school administration is quite capable and has the right to intercept the correspondence of students if they suspect something wrong. I can't prove any interference in my affairs, but if there's a chance, I'd better be careful, especially considering the headmaster's overly pleased face.

Who knows what he's up to? Based on these suspicions and a premonition, I decided to pass special correspondence only from hand to hand, bypassing the school owls. With the help of the birds of prey, I place orders for some products, not very valuable books and letters with unclassified instructions to the manager.

Fortunately, there have been no attacks or harassment so far, and Maggie and her help will arrive tomorrow, which is Saturday. My contract states that I am free to leave Hogwarts if I wish. I'm going to exercise that right tonight, because I want to have dinner at my house, in the company of Kiriko and Gwyneth.

By the way, the demonstration of the Fire Spider's Nest defensive web took place a week ago. The results surprised and amazed everyone without exception. The thing is, the main construction of the web is turned from the material world to the upper spiritual plane, and the "core" remains here.

This and similar defenses are bound to a material object of protection, preferably a non-magical one. It can be bound to a stand or something else if an artifact is being protected. This means that when the intruder is diagnosed, it will only see its target, which is emitting a strong magical radiation.

It is clear that there is not much protection, so the thief thinks that the spells/curses are directly attached to the object. — Nest, on the other hand, lets the thief into its area of effect and then does the specified damage.

For example, for demonstration purposes, I set the level to minimum, and some of the bravest students got 1st degree burns on their hands, which healed immediately. In the greenhouse, however, I set it to a two-stage mode: first, the intruder gets 3rd degree burns, but if he tries to fight and perseveres, he gets 4th degree burns.