A certain broken Hogwarts

While we were having dinner in the Great Hall, a light drizzle began to fall outside. The enchanted ceiling reflected the sky outside the castle, where flashes of lightning flickered in the low, heavy clouds.

The people who had swapped bodies that morning have all returned to normal. The Weasley twins are being teased by their friends, and the commotion can be heard across two long tables.

"...That's enough, I'm George! This has nothing to do with me!"

"Don't listen to him, I'm George! Just you wait, maybe you'll get to see Fred in a short skirt tonight..."

Owen gracefully and precisely cut the steak on his plate into neat little cubes, listening to the occasional snippets of conversation that reached his ears. He then learned that several more body-swap incidents had occurred that afternoon.

Some of the victims have already been admitted to the school hospital, while several same-sex friends who swapped bodies appeared in the auditorium with great interest, using various methods to prove this bizarre and novel thing to their friends, which drew gasps of surprise.

Some people found it novel and interesting, while others were uneasy, fearing it might happen to them. Although it wasn't harmful, it was still embarrassing.

"That's quite frequent, isn't it? The Wallfacer Space really seems to thrive on chaos." Owen thought blankly, "What could be the source this time? That thin red thread connecting them? Or is it some kind of spool or ball of yarn hidden somewhere?"

"Hmm, maybe I can ask the cats and raccoons to keep an eye out for them; they always like to roam around like that." He forked a piece of steak and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing as the rich, flavorful juices burst in his mouth, making him squint his eyes in satisfaction. "Hmm, and the ghosts too..."

However, he always felt that the red thread that seemed to not exist in reality was probably not so easy to find. He might have to personally experience a body swap to find the source, just like the emotional infection incident last time.

But the body swapping thing... is still a bit unpleasant.

Midway through, Ms. Pomfrey rushed over and announced some findings regarding the body swap incident.

"Without a doubt, the cause of these unexpected events is a red line," she said, frowning slightly. "It doesn't exist in reality and is easily overlooked..."

"When one person develops a strong emotion towards another, that red line can be drawn," Ms. Pomfrey said slowly. "Whether it's love, hate, anger, or admiration, as long as the emotion is intense enough, half the condition is met..."

Some of the young wizards began to fidget, stealing glances at each other, and many blushed secretly. Harry almost spat out his juice; he suddenly felt very dangerous, and Draco shifted uncomfortably as well.

"Of course, for a body swap to occur, the other person also needs to think of you at the same time," Ms. Pomfrey said gently, which relieved many people. "But this part doesn't require any strong emotions. Just thinking about it, even if it's just a fleeting thought, may meet the requirements."

As soon as he finished speaking, some people's expressions turned serious again. Blaise looked around warily, as if everyone was concerned about his health, while Daphne kept her head down, her smooth forehead flushed a faint pink.

"But there's no need to worry too much. I've found that this only seems to happen when the two people are far enough apart," Ms. Pomfrey reassured softly. "In other words, when you're face-to-face or can see each other, there's no need to worry about this happening..."

"We haven't found any way to prevent this yet, but fortunately it hasn't shown much harm. So far, the body swaps have lasted no more than twelve hours."

"If this happens to you, you can come to the school hospital to see me. I have a perfect way to protect everyone's privacy. You can even choose to get a good night's sleep at the school hospital, and when you wake up, everything will be over."

"We still don't know what triggered this series of events at Hogwarts." Madam Pomfrey glanced at everyone, her expression turning serious. "If anyone discovers anything suspicious, be sure to report it to the professors, as it could contain immeasurable danger."

Irving nodded confidently, showing no sign of guilt.

Ms. Pomfrey left quickly, and the Great Hall became noisy again, with everyone talking loudly about it. Some young wizards, who considered themselves very popular, sighed, thinking that the days ahead were going to be chaotic.

Dinner ended amidst a cacophony of noise, and Owen returned to the common room with his friends. Harry and Draco, on the other hand, ventured out into the rain and wind to attend their Quidditch practice. Draco could be heard complaining about the damn weather the whole way.

But they were willing, and the cold wind and rain couldn't stop their love for Quidditch. Owen, who couldn't understand the charm of the sport at all, only pitied them for half a second, then comfortably curled up in the warm armchair in front of the fireplace, holding Meurette and lazily taking a nap.

The common room quickly became lively, with the young wizards huddled around the bulletin board, excitedly whispering and pointing at a newly posted notice. A restless excitement spread rapidly.

"At the end of October, just before Halloween, I'm going to Hogsmeade Village for the first time for a weekend!" Blaise said excitedly. "I've wanted to go to Zonko's Joke Shop for ages, but I've never had the chance before..."

"I've been twice, with my family. Honeydukes' candies are novel, interesting, and come in a wide variety; it's the best candy store I've ever been to," Daphne said, twirling a strand of her golden hair and resting her chin on her hand. She felt much more relaxed and at ease after learning that the body-swapping event wasn't so easy to happen.

Owen squinted listlessly, nodding his head. He didn't find Hogsmeade Village particularly interesting. There were no amusement parks, no television or movies, and no novel magic tricks to inspire him. The wizards' lack of entertainment had him so bored he was practically growing weeds.

"Actually, I tried doing a divination in class yesterday." He yawned with his eyes closed, and the cat-like creature perched on his lap yawned at the same time; their expressions were perfectly synchronized. "If we go to Hogsmeade Village, something bad might happen..."

As he spoke, he raised his right hand and quickly wiped his face. When he lowered his hand, a tarot card was already between his lips. One corner of the tarot card was gently bitten by two clean, white front teeth. The top of the black tower in the card was burning with raging flames, a stark contrast to Owen's pale skin.

"Come on, I had no idea you had a talent for prophecy, Owen." Blaise shrugged. "You're the one Trelawney specifically mentioned as having no 'halo'... and someone whose life is hanging by a thread."

He rolled his eyes, clearly not believing it at all.

"Professor Trelawney's prediction seems to be quite accurate," Owen said seriously, holding the cards between his fingers. At least he and Harry had both been in mortal danger, although the shadowy figure, whether "ominous" or not, had come for him, not for Harry as Trelawney had claimed.

He quickly flipped the tarot cards in his hand, and with a slight flick of his finger, pulled a piece of black cloth from the cards. He smiled and pulled the cloth off, revealing a bouquet of brightly blooming white roses in his palm, their delicate petals trembling gently on the stems.

Owen winked playfully at Daphne, who was staring blankly at him. The little witch's cheeks inexplicably turned bright red in an instant, her eyes flickered, and she abruptly turned her head away, making one worry that her long, slender neck might break.

"Tsk, Daphne's been acting strangely all day." Blaise scoffed, casually taking the rose from Owen's hand and deftly pressing the stamen onto Melete's nose.

After dodging the cat's claws with lightning speed, he grinned smugly as he watched Melete sneeze from the pollen.

A damp, cold steam rushed in from outside the stone wall that had quietly slid open in the common room, and a group of Quidditch players returned, soaked to the bone. Harry skillfully waved his wand to clean himself off, then staggered to the fireplace and sat shivering in the armchair next to Owen, warming himself by the fire.

Draco joined them, and the two young wizards huddled together, trembling, their faces pale and bluish, looking like two pitiful quails.

"Hey! Late October, Hogsmeade Village!" Blaise said succinctly once they had caught their breath.

"Great! I want to go to Three Broomsticks and have a Butterbeer," Draco said, munching on a chocolate bar.

"I'm not going," Harry said, sounding a little downcast. Although he had been looking forward to going to Hogsmeade, he knew that leaving Hogwarts would only cause trouble for the professors and put his classmates in danger.

"Oh—" Draco drawled, looking at him as if he were sizing up a crying little brat, "Don't expect me to bring you candy."

Harry forced a smile. He glanced at the time, stood up, and said, "I have to go see Sirius; we're meeting today."

After saying that, he waved his hand and hurriedly walked out.

"Harry's been busy too, hasn't he?" Blaise raised his eyebrows and glanced at Owen.

Owen smiled without saying a word, then pulled out a large roll of parchment and began writing his Potions homework with his quill pen.

Time passed quietly, and as night deepened, Owen put away his completed homework, picked up his schoolbag, and returned to his empty dormitory. He greeted Nyx, who was resting on a branch.

Then he pulled out the time converter hanging in his collar, skillfully turned it four times, and felt himself flying backward, returning to four hours earlier. It was still dinnertime.

Irving walked out of his dorm room; the lounge was nearly empty. He crossed the stone wall and hurried toward the Room of Requirement.

The downside of using a time converter is that there are two instances of it at the same time, so you have to be careful to avoid them and stay in different places, otherwise it's easy to run into problems.

He entered the Contemplation Space within the Room of Requirement, pondering how to improve the Vengeful Shadow Curse, deciding to approach it from the perspective of the soul. After developing a soul version of the Stunning Curse, he had gained considerable experience and insights through repeated failures and dangers.

Just as Owen was writing furiously in the Wallchair, Harry knocked on Sirius's office door.

Upon entering the office, Harry looked around with a somewhat complicated expression. He had entered this office many times last year, back when he still thought Peter Pettigrew was a hero. The room was always piled high with various odds and ends, and the stuffy air was always filled with the sweet smell of cookies…

The office has been completely transformed. It's now clean and spacious, with simple and casual furnishings and paintings on the walls, making it feel more like a home. A roaring fire burns in the fireplace, the air warm and dry, far from stuffy.

Sirius Black, who was grading students' work, stood up, a bandage wrapped around his neck. He waved to Harry and pointed to a large black wardrobe standing by the door.

"There's a Boggart hiding inside." Sirius chuckled quickly, his eyes gleaming. "Ready to chase, Harry?"

Harry nervously drew his wand, swallowed hard, and nodded, saying, "Ready."

He had barely finished speaking when Sirius Black flung open the cupboard door, turned, and gave him a mischievous grin. Harry, breathing heavily, saw a gleaming, rotten, and slick hand emerge from the cupboard, followed by a hooded head. Accompanied by heavy, panting breathing, a chill that seeped into his bones enveloped him.

"Palmtophanath Shield!" Harry shouted.

The practice didn't go smoothly at first; Harry fainted twice and Sirius stuffed him with chocolate. However, things went much better once he started consciously resisting the Dementors' influence. After all, he had already mastered the Patronus Charm and would soon be able to summon white mist to stop the Dementors' advance.

By the end, Harry felt he was almost able to summon his full Patronus, but Sirius insisted on stopping there, and he finally gave up.

"Looks like it won't be long." Sirius shooed Boggart back into the closet, praising him with a smile, and handed him a chocolate frog.

Harry took small bites of the chocolate frog's leg, his mouth filled with the sweet, cloying taste. He felt he had never eaten as much chocolate in his entire life as he had tonight.

He helped Sirius with his homework for a while, and then asked him some questions about Animagus, learning a lot of important points from Sirius.

"...If I were to learn to be an Animagus, what kind of animal would I become?" Harry looked at his hands, imagining them as animal claws or feet.

"Your guardian spirit is a stag, isn't it? Just like your father." Sirius smiled gently and nostalgically, with a hint of sadness and loneliness. "Then your Animagus form should also be a stag."

"Is that so?" Harry looked on longingly, then his face fell. If it was such an obvious animal, it wouldn't be as useful as he had imagined.

"Are Animagus and the Guardian Deity necessarily the same?" he asked, somewhat unwillingly.

"Well, most of them are the same, but some are different." Sirius pondered for a moment, "But the Guardian Angel form itself is the animal form that best suits you, so changing in that direction will be much smoother and safer."

Harry's eyes lit up: "So, can a wizard influence their Animagus form with their will?"

"Normally it's uncontrollable..." Sirius frowned, "but it's hard to say."

"When your father and I were learning Animagus, we hadn't yet learned the Patronus Charm, but our transformations instinctively resembled the Patronus," he said slowly. "But during the learning process, Jaime and I always wanted to become larger animals, and in the end, the animals we became were all very large."

"Normally, a dog wouldn't be that big, right?"

"And Peter Pettigrew..." Sirius Black's face contorted with disgust at the mention of the name. "He always wanted to be a small animal, but he ended up being a mouse."

"I'm not sure if there's some kind of mutual influence between the Animagus and the Guardian Deity, but I think the wizard's will does have some influence on his Animagus form." He shook his head at this point, "But there are too few recorded Animagus, making it difficult to summarize universal rules."

He suddenly turned to Harry and asked, "Are you asking me these questions because you want to imitate the Animagus?"

"Ah... well, I think it's quite useful..." Harry felt a little guilty, but then quickly admitted it.

"I don't encourage you to learn this, Harry," Sirius said seriously, propping his elbows on the table and crossing his fingers in front of him.

"But you guys did learn it..." Harry said, unconvinced.

"But it was dangerous. I still feel a chill when I think about how reckless I was back then." Sirius stared intently at him, then sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Okay, I admit I have some experience in this area and can offer you some assurance during the final transformation. After all, Peter Pettigrew only managed to master it with our full help..."

He gave a cold laugh, then frowned. "But the danger of the Animagus doesn't end there, Harry. A large part of its danger comes from everyday life."

“You know, Animagus training usually lasts for months or even years, partly because of the weather, but more so because people easily forget the daily routines.” He looked intently into Harry’s eyes. “For example, for a period of time, you need to consistently recite spells to yourself at sunrise and sunset every day…”

"If you forget even once, or miss the deadline, you have to start all over again. But that's the best-case scenario..."

"If you overlook a certain point and fail to notice it, continuing with the same steps as before..." Sirius shrugged, his expression grave. "It's easy to imagine that the final result will inevitably be failure, or even a terrible anomaly. At that point, you won't even know how you failed."

Harry frowned, thinking about how to avoid this. But it seemed that only carefulness and caution could help.

"In that respect, I can't really help," Sirius said in a low voice. "In that respect, it's actually easier for several people to learn Animagus together. Because they can remind each other, and what one person might forget, a group of people won't all forget."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, wondering if he should call his friends to learn Animagus together?

He began to mentally review suitable candidates.

Draco? Give me a break. Remembering his countless suicidal antics in Magical Creatures class, Harry had no doubt this guy would be a complete liability.

Blaise? No way. He's not just careless, he's the kind of person who forgets to write his name on his homework time and time again.

Neville? Forget it, his memory isn't as good as mine. Besides, it's best to choose someone from the same house.

Daphne? No way. It's too inconvenient to remind each other with a girl.

Crabbe and Gore... uh, sorry to bother you.

Sure enough, Owen was still the best choice, but he had already made it clear that he wasn't interested in the Animagus. Harry sighed.

He couldn't help but wonder why Owen wasn't actually a cat? Then he could learn from Hagrid and win him over with some catnip.

The two tacitly ended the conversation about Animagus. As curfew approached, Harry said goodbye to Sirius.

……

Owen walked out of the Room of Requirement, feeling a little sleepy, and headed back down the dimly lit, long corridor, lazily thinking to himself that it would be nice if Nyx were willing to be his mode of transportation.

The dungeon was always damp and cold, the stone walls on both sides of the corridor were slippery, and gleamed with an eerie green color under the sparse candlelight. The surroundings were very quiet, even the faint crackling of the candlelight could be clearly heard, and the forks in the corridors on both sides were even darker, like entrances to the ghost realm, making one wonder if some terrible thing might jump out from inside.

Irving strolled leisurely through the corridors, showing no fear whatsoever. His footsteps echoed hollowly around him, as if several people were following him.

In this unsettling atmosphere, a faint rustling sound quietly crept into the echo of footsteps, as if someone were tiptoeing. Owen abruptly turned around, raising his wand, which had appeared in his hand seemingly out of nowhere, and pointing it behind him.

"Don't touch me! It's me!" Harry ripped off his Invisibility Cloak, revealing himself in mid-air.

"Don't do that kind of thing again, you'll get beaten up." Owen said with a half-smile, turning around and continuing to walk forward, toying with his wand in his hand.

After walking side by side for a while, Harry suddenly asked, "Owen, you really don't want to become an Animagus?"

Owen paused, turned his head, and said, "I don't want to." Even so, he felt like a cat was scratching at his heart. But the learning process in Animagus was simply unbearable, and now he needed to use the Time-Turner frequently, making it impossible for him to study.

Seeing Owen's reaction, Harry was secretly delighted. He was tempted!

"Sirius said he'd teach us if anyone wanted to learn Animagus with me," Harry tempted.

Irving rolled his eyes at him. Was he the kind of person who would care about something like that?

Seeing Harry's increasingly dejected expression, Owen said unhurriedly, "I'm in a special situation lately and can't learn the Animagus."

Harry blinked, then his eyes lit up: "Because of the Doppelganger spell?"

"Huh?" Owen tilted his head.

"Besides using clones, how can you possibly appear in two classrooms at the same time? I noticed!" Harry waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"...Oh." Owen shut his mouth.

"So, when the time is right, will you learn it?" Harry asked again.

"Maybe." Irving's expression showed a struggle.

"Then I'll wait for you," Harry said happily.

Owen remained silent, his gaze fixed intently ahead, listening to Harry's incessant chatter about tonight's Patronus Charm practice: "I think the study group could practice against the Boggarts too... Oh wait, no, they might not be afraid of Dementors..."

After talking for a while, Harry became dejected again: "Owen, Sirius said Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater, and told me to stay away from him..."

"So what do you think?" Owen glanced at him casually.

"I...I don't know..." Harry said listlessly, looking completely lost. "I don't think the Headmaster is a bad person. He's protected us several times, and Dumbledore trusts him too. But I can't tell..."

"Dumbledore or Sirius, whose judgment do you trust more?" Owen asked softly, his voice like a gentle breeze in the long corridor.

Harry opened his mouth. He trusted everyone, but on this matter, he leaned more towards Dumbledore. He felt that Sirius harbored a deep-seated prejudice and hatred towards Professor Snape, which would obviously affect his judgment… but if he did that, he would feel guilty towards Sirius.

"I don't know," he finally said, resigned to his fate.

"So, are you willing to believe Professor Snape?" Owen's voice remained light.

"I'd like to," Harry said.

"That's two to one, why are you still worried?" Irving said with a smile.

Harry was stunned for a moment before he realized what Owen meant. He sighed, feeling both annoyed and amused, but his mood lightened somewhat.

He said, half-laughing and half-crying, "You've always been on Professor Snape's side, haven't you?"

Irving gave a soft "humph".

Harry let out another heavy sigh: "Never mind all that. Professor Snape has never harmed me, and Dumbledore has always believed in him, so what am I still worrying about?"

After figuring this out, he regained his energy.

Irving glanced at this stubborn guy, shook his head slightly with amusement, and his mood inexplicably lightened considerably. (End of Chapter)