25: Fate Points

"Louis, Neville's toad is missing. Let's help him look for it," Hermione poked her head into the compartment and said. "It vanished in the blink of an eye, and we don't know which direction it went. It might've even slipped into someone else's compartment."

"Do you want to help too?"

Neville stood beside Hermione, his face full of gratitude, looking at Louis with hopeful eyes.

Louis was thinking with great interest.

He wasn't pondering whether to help or not — he was considering whether he should interfere at all.

Helping or not wouldn't affect him in any meaningful way, but from an entertainment perspective, the outcome was vastly different.

Without Hermione Granger, the brains of the group, who knows how Harry Potter's adventures would turn out?

That would certainly be far more interesting than watching the same Harry Potter story play out again.

Though it seemed like a long train of thought, it all flashed through Louis' mind in an instant before he made his decision.

"No need to trouble yourselves," Louis said with a smile. "Leave it to me. With magic, it's easy to find Neville's toad."

"Magic? What kind of magic?" Hermione tried to recall the spells she'd read in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. "I don't think any of them would help in this situation."

"This spell is called the Summoning Charm — like this," Louis waved his wand. "Accio Trevor."

The wand movement and incantation were just for show. A faint image of the Chicken Talisman glimmered in Louis' eyes, and under the guidance of his mental power, an invisible force swept through the entire train car, passing through walls like an extension of his own body.

Then he found Trevor hiding in a dark, damp corner of the train's lavatory and fetched him back.

Neville, who had been nervously sitting with Hermione's reassurance, soon saw Trevor flailing his limbs in the air as if grabbed by an invisible hand, flying back into his arms.

"Trevor!" Neville exclaimed in delight, hugging the toad tightly. "Thank you so much, Louis!"

Neville looked at Louis gratefully, then turned to Hermione. "Thank you too, Hermione."

"I didn't do anything," Hermione waved it off and then turned to Louis. "What kind of magic was that? Why wasn't it in any of the textbooks I read?"

Louis tucked away his wand and said, "That's because The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 doesn't include everything. The Summoning Charm is taught in third year. I saw it while browsing through some other volumes when I was buying books and just happened to remember it."

That part was true — he had indeed looked through the other volumes of The Standard Book of Spells, memorizing the incantations and wand movements thanks to his replication ability's rapid learning function.

Of course, a Muggle is still a Muggle. Even if he memorized them, he couldn't actually cast the spells, so he had to rely on his own powers to simulate the effects.

Fortunately, he no longer needed to rely on illusions to mimic fake effects — now he could create real effects with tangible results. No one would ever be able to see through it.

After all, wizards didn't even have any effective way to detect fraud.

But this was already the third time he'd used trickery in front of Neville and Hermione in such a short period. Hopefully the rewards wouldn't be reduced again?

While smiling in response to Neville's gratitude and Hermione's questions, Louis kept an eye on the system notification.

Then, a particularly interesting line caught his attention.

The system message came in two parts. The first was the reward for this deception: because it was a third consecutive deception aimed at the same targets in a short time, the reward was reduced to a third of its original value. He gained 60 Trick Points, bringing the total to 2,720 points.

But the important part was the next notification, highlighted in a special color:

[Fate disturbance detected. Host's actions have caused a deviation in the flow of predetermined destiny.]

[Current disturbance level: Very Weak (a ripple in fate that may be corrected at any moment)]

[Reward obtained: 1 Fate Point]

[Fate Points: A reward gained from fooling fate, opposing fate, or altering 'inevitable outcomes.']

[Fate Points can be used to exchange for "Miraculous Items" or participate in "Fate Lotteries."]

[Fate Lottery is now unlocked. Each draw costs 10 Fate Points.]

[Miraculous Item Exchange is unlocked. Currently available item: Fate Grafting.]

- [Fate Grafting: Temporarily transfers one's fate onto another object, which will then bear the consequences of that fate instead.]

(Fate Grafting is a one-time-use item, with unlimited exchange quantity. Each exchange costs 100 Fate Points.)

Fate Points… Fate Lottery… Miraculous Items…

Louis felt like this system had been born purely to stir up chaos. That sense of manipulating the direction of fate definitely wasn't an illusion.

Why even call it the Trickster System anymore? Might as well just call it the Chaos-Maker System.

"Preventing Hermione from meeting Harry Potter and Ron Weasley on the train is a minor matter in the grand scheme of fate. At Hogwarts, they still have plenty of chances to meet and become friends. That's why the disturbance level was marked as 'very weak.'"

Louis turned his head to glance at Hermione, who was reading a book. The midday sunlight poured over her focused little face, as if she were bathed in the light of knowledge.

What a waste it would be to let such a promising talent end up in Gryffindor!

"Hermione, have you thought about which House you want to join?" Louis asked with a smile.

"House?"

Hermione looked up, hesitation in her eyes. "Is that something we can choose?"

"I think so," Louis replied. "Hogwarts is probably very considerate toward young wizards. Unless someone is clearly a bad fit, they should respect a student's personal wishes."

...