Chapter 114: Researching the Book of Abraham
Fred and George exchanged a look, then grinned and burst into laughter.
"Just kidding~ Even if it explodes, the worst it'll do is give your hair a new style~"
"And we're researching this to make some little gadgets. The safety level is quite high, so don't worry~"
"The unsafe stuff we'll take to Hogwarts to research."
"Otherwise, Mrs. Weasley will tan our hides!"
Dylan pursed his lips and turned to Harry. "Want to go rest?"
He didn't actually want to rest, but rather to read for a while.
Since getting the Pet Space Suitcase, he hadn't even kept his various books in the system's inventory panel anymore.
Instead, he had directly bought several bookshelves and fitted them inside the space suitcase.
This way, whenever he wanted a book, he could quickly retrieve it according to its position on the shelf.
He no longer needed to open the inventory every time and rummage through it for ages to find the book he wanted.
After hearing Dylan and the twins' conversation, Harry blinked, then suddenly took a step back, leaned against Ron, and chuckled.
"Um, I'm not too sleepy. I'll go play with Ron and the others for a bit. You go rest first, Dylan."
Dylan shrugged. "Alright."
He picked up his suitcase.
The twins noticed and suddenly let go of the Nimbus 2000, their eyes filled with curiosity.
"Dylan, what's that?"
"Is that a space suitcase?"
Dylan nodded gently. "That's right, I just bought it, along with this flying broom."
The twins' eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
"Good heavens!"
"Merlin's beard!"
"That must have cost you a lot! How big is the space inside?"
"To use an Undetectable Extension Charm on a suitcase, the space must be quite large!"
Dylan shook his head slightly. "It's alright, I only put a few bookshelves in it—you know, reading is pretty much my only hobby."
The faces of George and Fred, who had been so excited, immediately fell upon hearing Dylan's words.
"Oh! Good grief."
"We thought we could ride our flying brooms inside!"
Dylan waved his hand like shooing away puppies. "Alright, you two go play quickly. Once everyone else wakes up, Mrs. Weasley might not be so willing to let you play anymore."
The twins were taken aback, then quickly grabbed the Nimbus 2000 and ran out the door.
"He's right!"
"Let's go play quickly!"
Harry and Ron followed the twins and ran off.
Dylan, carrying his suitcase, went to the door of the twins' room.
Looking at the tightly closed door, Dylan's mouth twitched.
After a moment's thought, he flipped his hand, and a crystal-clear crystal ball appeared in his palm.
Dylan gently chanted a spell, and the originally clear light inside the crystal ball began to surge, turning into a swirling cloud of mist.
Dylan opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the mist. Gradually, he saw an image within it.
When he opened the door, only a few colorful sparks suddenly floated through the air.
The explosion scene he had imagined didn't occur.
Dylan then breathed a slight sigh of relief and relaxed a little.
"Divination is quite useful sometimes."
Putting away the crystal ball, Dylan pushed the door open and entered.
As soon as he opened the door, it was as if he had triggered some mechanism. Several colorful fireworks shot out from both sides, causing no harm or power, but they were quite pretty.
"A small fireworks show as soon as you enter?"
Given Fred and George's prankster spirit, Dylan thought they really deserved to make money in the future.
Dylan enjoyed the small fireworks display for a moment.
After entering the room, he looked around, expecting to see a messy scene.
But to his surprise, the room was quite clean and tidy.
The two beds in the room were neatly arranged, the sheets smoothed out, only the blankets were spread out, looking a bit messy.
—Presumably, the twins had lain on the beds for a while in the middle of the night before sneaking Ron out to pick up Harry.
After Mrs. Weasley found out they weren't in their room, she naturally wouldn't have been in the mood to clean their room and tidy their blankets.
Apart from that, Dylan saw a clean and shiny floor with no clutter.
The lines on the magical map on the wall were clear, and several Weasley family photos hung beside it, the frames polished brightly.
Dylan didn't randomly choose a bed to lie down on. Following the scene he had just seen in the crystal ball, he went straight to the bedside on the right.
Placing the suitcase by the bed, he cast a Cleaning Charm, both to clean the bed and himself.
Then, he took off his shoes and gently leaned back.
The soft bed conformed to his body, making Dylan feel very comfortable.
—Although the Weasleys weren't very wealthy, Mrs. Weasley had clearly not neglected any of her children.
Dylan lay on the bed, unable to hear even the slightest noise from outside.
"Could this room have been specially cast with a Silencing Charm?"
The soundproofing was really quite good.
—He wondered if the Weasleys were all scared by the twins' usual pranks and the gadgets they tinkered with.
There was no sound from the outside, and the quiet environment made Dylan even more relaxed.
He leaned against the headboard and casually reached into the air in front of him.
The fragment of the Book of Abraham the Jew appeared in his hand.
—Ordinary books could be directly placed on the bookshelves in the suitcase, but for this kind of special book, Dylan still preferred to keep it directly in the system panel.
For the past half month, he had been researching this book. Although the content wasn't complete, it had still given him considerable inspiration.
He opened the fragment.
—The pages had become somewhat frayed from Dylan's constant handling.
"There are many symbols in this book that don't have clear meanings or explanations, coupled with the obscure text, even for me, reading it is a bit of a struggle."
Dylan's gaze wandered between the crooked lines.
However, fortunately, after these days of repeated study, he had gradually understood some of the deeper meanings revealed in the text.
The alchemy revealed in this book wasn't just about turning lead into gold; that was just the surface.
Its core was to achieve the transformation of matter and even the spiritual level through specific rituals and energy conversion.
—This clearly involved the secret of longevity.
Although there weren't many fragments, the deeper Dylan delved into his research, the more he could feel that the profundity of the magical world wasn't just the surface he saw.
In the following days.
Dylan and Harry stayed at the Weasleys'.
—This also meant that Dylan hadn't gone out much recently to rob other wizards and promote his name as Karthus.
However, changing the environment brought Dylan a new kind of fun.
It was worth mentioning that the entire Weasley family was very friendly.
Mrs. Weasley didn't seem annoyed at all by having two extra freeloaders in the house.
On the contrary, her care for Dylan and Harry even surpassed her care for Ron.
Ron would often come to find Harry and Dylan in the evenings to hang out and complain to them—
"How come as soon as you guys arrived, I seem to have lost all the love in this house? I feel like my mum is getting more and more impatient with me!"
To this, Dylan and Harry could only exchange a smile.
Although the Weasleys' house wasn't as good as the Malfoys' in terms of the place they lived, the food they ate, or the clothes they wore.
However, this Burrow was quite in line with Dylan's idea of wizards' living environments.
At least the entire Burrow could stand firm. From a purely structural point of view, this kind of building should have collapsed long ago.
—This clearly showed that the entire building was shrouded in some kind of magic.
And inside the house, there were traces of magic everywhere.
The Weasleys were very welcoming to Dylan and Harry.
Mrs. Weasley would often ask if they had eaten enough, slept well, and whether they had been disturbed by the twins.
Harry had just escaped from his aunt's house. Receiving such warm care from Mrs. Weasley all of a sudden changed his entire demeanor.
—He became more and more cheerful.
Except for certain moments.
For example, when his few pairs of socks were all worn out, he could only put on ankle socks with big holes in the toes.
Seeing this, Dylan directly gave Harry many new socks that he hadn't worn yet.
This poor fellow had so much money left to him by his parents, yet even his socks were in tatters.
It showed just how terrible his aunt and uncle's attitude towards him usually was.
Mr. Weasley seemed to completely misunderstand the Muggle world.
After having two more people in the house, he didn't seem annoyed. Although he didn't show the same direct enthusiasm as Mrs. Weasley, he would often pull Dylan and Harry aside to ask them all sorts of questions.
And the content of the questions was basically all about the Muggle world.
For example, Mr. Weasley would ask if humans in the Muggle world could also fly, only they also had to rely on tools.
He was very curious about how these tools were made.
How was it possible to fly with people without the help of magic?
To this, Dylan couldn't offer too much explanation.
—Although he had recently started studying alchemy, it didn't mean he knew Muggle engineering!
Besides that, Mr. Weasley would also ask them many other questions about whether various Muggle items were convenient to use and how much they cost to buy...
However, they usually hadn't chatted for more than a few sentences before Mrs. Weasley would cast a rather unfriendly gaze their way, at which point Mr. Weasley would lower his head and shut up, hiding his face behind a newspaper.
Dylan understood this quite well.
This Mr. Weasley, as a member of the Order of the Phoenix and also an employee of the Ministry of Magic.
He himself had participated in the creation of the Muggle Protection Act.
—Yet he often violated this law.
Like the flying car he had created.
—Wizards were prohibited from illegally using Muggle artifacts.
Even Mr. Weasley's department in the Ministry was the "Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
Also called the Office for the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts.
Its main responsibility was to supervise and handle matters related to the improper use of Muggle artifacts by wizards.
Therefore, on the day Dylan had just arrived at the Weasleys' house, while Harry and the twins went to play with the Nimbus 2000, and he himself was studying the Book of Abraham the Jew.
In the morning, after the Weasley family woke up.
Mrs. Weasley had argued with Mr. Weasley.
And the reason Mr. Weasley could often violate the Muggle Protection Act that he himself had helped create was precisely because he had deliberately left a loophole when drafting the section of the law concerning the use of Muggle artifacts.
This loophole allowed wizards to legally possess enchanted Muggle artifacts—as long as they didn't intend to use them.
To some extent, this did provide Mr. Weasley with the convenience of continuing to legally cast spells on Muggle artifacts in his spare time.
Like the car Ron and the others had used to pick up Harry.
The car itself was just an ordinary Ford Anglia.
Mr. Weasley had originally confiscated it from Muggles.
After Mr. Weasley modified the car with magic, it became a magical car.
Although the law didn't allow Mr. Weasley to drive this car.
It also didn't prohibit his family from driving it.
Dylan had been staying at the Weasleys' for a few days and hadn't figured out much else, but Mr. Weasley's secrets had almost all been revealed by Mrs. Weasley.
"I didn't expect that living here for a few days would feel even more interesting than being at home."
Another night, Dylan prepared to sleep.
Recalling the experiences of the past few days, Dylan closed his eyes.
Recently, every morning, the aroma of toasted bread and Ginny's laughter always lingered in his memory.
The table was filled with abundant food, and everyone sat together, sharing strange and interesting topics.
Usually, George and Fred would often pull him to try out various bizarre prank gadgets.
As for those gnomes, Dylan hadn't seen them for several days.
"I was originally thinking of secretly catching a few and stuffing them into my suitcase."
Closing his eyes, Dylan pondered.
Although gnomes were ugly, their blood was still somewhat useful.
Some dark magic could always use it.
"I'll catch a few around here before I leave."
Thinking this, Dylan slowly fell asleep.
Until night fell.
The stars twinkled in the night sky.
Everything was silent.
However...
"BOOM—!!!"
A violent explosion rang out in Dylan's ears.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Turning his head.
He saw that Harry had also been startled awake and was now sitting beside him, still in shock, staring blankly at the twins.
Dylan first glanced at the sky.
Still early morning.
Good.
Retracting his gaze, Dylan turned his head, his eyes calmly looking at the twins, a wand appearing in his hand at some point.
"If I don't get a satisfactory explanation, you know the consequences."
The twins hadn't been tinkering with any strange things late at night these past few days.
That's why Dylan had moved from Ron's room to here.
Harry had originally been staying with the twins. After Dylan came over and chatted with Harry and the twins for a while, he planned to change rooms tomorrow.
So Harry hadn't left.
—Because of this, Ron had complained for a long time before leaving to sleep.
But Dylan had only been staying here for one night.
And these two had already given him a surprise?
Being woken up by the explosion, it would be a lie to say Dylan wasn't startled.
He had almost casually cast a Killing Curse and activated the Avada Kedavra's characteristic—the Killing Intent Burning Heaven Domain.
Seeing Dylan's unfriendly expression.
And looking at the wand in Dylan's hand.
The twins, not caring about the black soot on their faces, casually wiped it with their arms and quickly rushed over. With a sliding tackle, they directly fell to the ground beside Dylan's bed.
Harry was still dazed, a bit slow to react, when he heard the twins quickly say one after the other:
"Dylan, we swear—"
"We absolutely didn't mean to!"
"It was just when we were sleeping—"
"That feeling of divine inspiration, you know?"
"The inspiration came too intensely! We couldn't stop it at all!"
"If we didn't reach out and grab it at the fastest speed—"
"It would slip away from our grasp!"
"Such brilliant ideas, once missed—"
"We'd never be able to think of them again!"
"Please forgive us, Dylan!"
"We were wrong!"
The twins swore they weren't afraid of Dylan.
They were just seeking a friend's forgiveness.
As friends, how could they be afraid of a friend?
—It absolutely had nothing to do with the ghoul causing trouble in the attic again a few days ago, waking Dylan up, and Dylan venturing into the attic alone, after which the ghoul had been as quiet as a well-behaved baby... nothing at all!
Surely Dylan, as a friend, would forgive them!
(End of chapter)