Vanishing Cabinet

It took Wade a full day to recall and organize his memories. By the time he left the Room of Requirement, it was already completely dark outside.

Although the Room of Requirement and the Ravenclaw common room were both on higher floors, one was in the main tower and the other on the top floor of the Ravenclaw tower, making the distance between them quite significant. Normally, Wade would have summoned his broom with an Accio and flown there, but today, he walked slowly along the corridor, sorting through his thoughts and figuring out what he needed to do next.

His footsteps echoed "thump-thump" in the long corridor. Suddenly, a voice broke the silence—

"Ha-ha… Surprise!"

Peeves suddenly appeared, throwing several inky black water balloons at Wade. Wade quickly drew his wand and pointed it, and the ink reversed, splashing all over Peeves' face.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

Peeves spat out the ink in his mouth while grumbling and flying away. The corridor was covered in black ink.

Wade was already very proficient with the Scouring Charm. He waved his wand a few times, and all the ink disappeared, leaving the corridor as clean as before.

Someone applauded, saying, "Beautiful non-verbal spell!"

Wade turned his head and saw, "Griffiths?"

The red-haired Wizard had once again scampered into someone else's portrait, following him with his hands behind his back and a smile.

Wade thought about Peeves's sudden appearance and asked, "Peeves wasn't egged on by you, was he?"

"Hmm, yes!" Griffiths admitted quite candidly, adding, "You looked as if you were caught by some time monster, with such a deep and terrifying expression. So I had Peeves say hello to you—how about it? Feeling much better now?"

Wade wasn't sure what his expression had been earlier. He rubbed his face and said helplessly, "Well, thank you very much then!"

"You're welcome, you're welcome. Helping students is what I do," Griffiths said, beaming, and then asked, "What were you thinking about earlier?"

Wade didn't want to discuss the topic. He asked, "Have you improved your relationship with the portraits in the entrance hall recently? They haven't complained to me in a long time."

"Uh... this... uh... of course, it's improved..." Griffiths stammered.

Wade stopped, frowned, and asked, "You wouldn't happen to be..."

"Haha, just now there were two Hufflepuff students who wanted to hear my old stories! I'm leaving now, let's chat next time!" Griffiths said in a noticeably louder voice, as if feeling guilty, then hurried out of the portrait and disappeared.

Wade shook his head.

During this time, the talkative Griffiths' name had gradually become known to more students because he always liked to chat with people. Sometimes he would suddenly pop out of a portrait and shout, watching startled students fall into the staircase traps, then laugh uncontrollably, practically a Peeves among portraits.

However, students disliked Peeves but not Griffiths. Besides the occasional harmless prank, he would also tell stories, some true, some not. Sometimes, when he saw a student feeling down, he would go and comfort them, trying every trick to make them laugh.

Wade often saw four or five students gathered around Griffiths' portrait, chatting with him. Griffiths, busy with students occupying most of his free time every day, even harassed other portraits much less—

Wade had thought that was the case.

But seeing how guilty he looked just now, it seemed there was another story.

Back in his dormitory, Wade took out the Book of Friends. After talking with his father for a while, he swapped to another Book of Friends.

Wade: Remus?

Soon, Lupin's reply appeared on the paper:

Lupin: I'm here.

Wade: I have a favor to ask you—tomorrow morning, please go with my father to Gringotts to withdraw some money, then go to Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley and buy the Vanishing Cabinet in their shop.

Lupin: Okay.

Lupin readily agreed. After a moment, he wrote new words:

Lupin: But as far as I know, Borgin and Burkes only has one Vanishing Cabinet; the other is missing. If the other Vanishing Cabinet is damaged, or in a place where humans cannot normally enter or exit—like at the bottom of the sea or buried deep underground—then such a Vanishing Cabinet would be useless, and even extremely dangerous to the user.

Wade: I know—but there's also a Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts Castle.

Wade: Worth a try, right?

Lupin: I understand. But promise me, don't try it yourself. We can experiment with rabbits or something first.

Wade: Of course, I won't be that reckless.

Putting away the Book of Friends, Wade felt a sense of anticipation.

The thought of enemies being able to appear in a secure fortress at any time left him feeling completely unsecured. However, if he could leave the castle at any time, that would be wonderful, and he would be able to do much more.

Many thoughts swirled in Wade's mind, along with various changes in the plot—the Chamber of Secrets Basilisk, Peter Pettigrew hiding in Gryffindor, the Quidditch World Cup and Triwizard Cup, the escaped Barty Crouch, Voldemort's resurrection, the incompetent Ministry of Magic…

And Voldemort's Horcruxes hidden in various places… and the few ways to destroy Horcruxes—

The Sword of Gryffindor.

Basilisk Fang.

And Fiendfyre.

He still needed to learn the Fiendfyre spell… He thought of Grindelwald's roaring flames that burned half of Paris, and Dumbledore conjuring a sea of fire with a flick of his wand, like a fire god descending…

If he had the same power, would he still need to be so cautious?

Wade wrote down his various thoughts on paper. After reading them for a while, he crumpled the paper into a ball and held it close to the candlelight, watching it gradually burn to ashes.

The flickering firelight reflected in his pupils, and deep within his eyes, there seemed to be another scene—Hogwarts overwhelmed by a dark mass of Death Eaters, Trolls and Acromantulas rampaging, and corpses lying haphazardly on the cold ground.

In the midst of war, life was so fragile.

And then there were the things not depicted in the story—after Dumbledore's death, Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic were almost entirely taken over by the Dark Lord's followers, forcing the main trio to flee... During that brief yet seemingly endless year, how many non-Pure-blood Wizards were persecuted?

What about Muggles? And Squibs, whom no one ever paid attention to? Were they spared because they were weak, or were they so insignificant that even their deaths would only become cold statistics in a newspaper?

Ferdinand and Fiona's smiling faces suddenly flashed before Wade's eyes, followed by two other faces, already blurred in his memory, trying to smile through their sadness.

He covered his eyes with his palm and sighed wearily.

He revised the chapter content again.

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