Chapter 285: The Veritiserum Rod
Chapter 285: The Veritiserum Rod
"Stop poking around, you're going to poke someone's eye out."
In a dormitory, Lee Jordan was waving a golden rod he had just purchased from Zonko's Joke Shop.
The golden rod, known as a Veritiserum Rod, was a primitive form of Dark Magic detector, capable of sensing hidden curses and magical objects.
While an ordinary dormitory wouldn't typically have many hidden curses or magical objects, their dormitory was home to Albert, a genius in his own right. Sure enough, Lee Jordan discovered quite a few hidden curses, as the rod reacted to the cabinet, books, and even the mirror.
Excitedly, Lee Jordan continued to wave the Veritiserum Rod around.
"Watch out, or Albert will beat you up when he gets back," Fred warned, unable to focus on the card game they were playing.
Popping a chicken-flavored Bean in his mouth, Lee Jordan retorted, "As long as you guys don't tell him, he won't know. I know Albert keeps a lot of his magical creations in there." He poked the rod at Albert's cabinet and added, "Go on, I dare you."
"Don't bother, it's warded with an Alohomora-proof charm," Fred replied.
"What about picking the lock?" George asked, clearly frustrated as he had just lost another hand. It seemed he could never beat Fred at cards. Albert had suggested that he change his deck, but George was stubbornly resistant to the idea.
"Why do you think Albert bought that silver broomstick anyway?" Fred gathered up the Wizarding Cards and pulled out the silver broomstick from under Albert's bed. He examined it carefully; though it was an antique, its craftsmanship was exquisite, a stark contrast to the usual coarse nature of such brooms.
"I don't know," George replied uncertainly. "Maybe he wants to collect antique broomsticks?"
"Look, there's hidden magic on the broomstick too!" Lee Jordan exclaimed, poking the broomstick excitedly with the golden rod.
Fred rolled his eyes. "Stop fiddling with that thing. I'm more inclined to believe that Albert wants to study the structure of the broomstick and make himself a new one."
In truth, crafting a flying broomstick wasn't terribly difficult; the real challenge lay in perfecting the art.
"Help me pick the lock," Lee Jordan pleaded, prodding George with the rod. "The Gryffindor treasure map you found last time is in there too."
"Speaking of which, where is he?" George brushed away the rod and asked impatiently.
Fred shook his head. "No idea."
Albert had disappeared shortly after their return from Hogsmeade.
"While he's away..." Lee Jordan started to say.
"Oh, shut up," Fred interrupted. "If you have time to mess around, go and sort out the Wizarding Cards competition."
George walked over to the counter and pulled out a stack of cards from a box. These were the cards that he and Fred had been trying to create, but they still fell short of Albert's standard.
Seizing the opportunity, Lee Jordan inched the golden rod downward and poked George, who was rummaging through the ingredients. Fred watched this unfold with a bemused expression, clearly anticipating what was about to happen.
...
...
At that moment, in the Room of Requirement, Albert was practicing the Undetectable Extension Charm.
After practicing for over ten minutes, the charm still hadn't taken effect, and it didn't even appear on his skill panel.
"It truly is an advanced spell," Albert muttered to himself.
"Capacious Extremis!"
He focused his mind and waved his wand, casting the spell on the box once more.
However, the Undetectable Extension Charm still failed to work, leaving him a little frustrated and feeling cheated by the task panel's reward.
Why didn't it just give me the skill directly? he thought.
"Where could I be going wrong?" Albert wondered, trying to recall Professor Smith's demonstration of the spell.
His magical power should have been sufficient, and he was confident that he had recited the incantation and performed the wand movements correctly.
While it was possible that Professor Smith had intentionally misled him, Albert felt that this was unlikely.
"But where did I go wrong?" he asked himself.
Albert took a deep breath to calm the frustration that was building within him. He decided to put the charm aside for the moment and browsed through the books he had borrowed from the Restricted Section. Indeed, they contained information about learning the Undetectable Extension Charm.
Albert spent a considerable amount of time carefully reading through the relevant sections. As he closed the book, he realized his mistake, and his face darkened.
The Undetectable Extension Charm was considered a difficult and advanced spell for a reason. When casting the spell, one had to repeatedly confirm the amount of expansion desired, much like how one had to accurately know the destination for the Disillusionment Charm or a happy memory for the Patronus Charm.
However, Professor Smith had never mentioned this crucial aspect, which explained why the spell hadn't worked.
"What a lousy task reward!" Albert grumbled.
He wasn't sure why Professor Smith had only taught him the incantation and movements without explaining the key points of the spell. Was it because he didn't want Albert to learn it, or was there another reason? Albert decided to put that question aside for now; he would find out when he next met with Professor Smith.
"Capacious Extremis!"
Albert picked up his wand and tried again. This time, the spell took effect, and he reached into the box, feeling the space inside expand slightly.
Albert flipped through his skill panel again and indeed found the Undetectable Extension Charm.
The difficulty of the Undetectable Extension Charm was related to the area being expanded.
Albert didn't rush to upgrade it but instead started thinking about how to use the Swampus's hide to make a pair of protective gloves for himself. The amount of hide that Montague had helped him procure was substantial, so he could first make the gloves and then a container for the Mandrake.
He didn't have any tailoring skills on his panel, and a Level 1 tailor probably wouldn't be able to make decent gloves. It would be best to find someone to help; Albert remembered a tailor's shop in Diagon Alley and could write a letter to that plump witch. If she was willing to lend a hand, that would be ideal.
If she refused, he'd have to figure something out on his own. Relying on a Level 1 tailoring skill seemed unreliable.
...
At lunchtime, Albert appeared in the Great Hall on time, and his three roommates were already there, waving at him.
"What happened to your eye?"
As Albert approached, he noticed that Lee Jordan's eye socket was a bit swollen, as if he had been punched. Fred, sitting next to him, was trying hard not to laugh.
"He was waving that Veritiserum Rod around, and then..." George shrugged helplessly.
"I was just joking. You didn't have to hit me that hard," Lee Jordan complained.
"I didn't do it on purpose; it was a reflex," Fred said, still grinning.
"Why don't you go see Madam Pomfrey to get it treated?" Albert sat down, taking a slice of bread to make himself a sandwich.
However, Lee Jordan's face was naturally dark, and the bruise wasn't very noticeable.
"I did," Fred replied. "Where did you go just now?"
"Practicing charms on the eighth floor!" Albert replied casually.
"You don't mean... you've already learned it!" George exclaimed, staring at Albert in astonishment.
"How is that possible? I've only just started to figure it out, and I still need a lot of practice," Albert said, taking a bite of his ham sandwich. He reached out and tapped Lee Jordan's Veritiserum Rod on the protective bracelet on his wrist and noticed that it reacted slightly.
"This thing is called a Veritiserum Rod," Lee Jordan explained. "It can detect hidden curses and concealed magical items."
"It's not very effective. This is probably a cheap knock-off," Albert said, moving the rod away from the bracelet, causing the reaction to immediately disappear.
To be honest, the magical items in the wizarding world didn't impress Albert much; most witches and wizards still relied primarily on their wands.
"Well, what do you expect for two Galleons?" Lee Jordan mumbled. He took back the rod and poked Albert with it, and then... a fist appeared to be magnified in front of his face.
"That's enough!" Albert glanced at Lee Jordan.
"You didn't have to punch me for that!" Lee Jordan covered his eye and protested.
"You asked for it!" Fred and George struggled to hold back their laughter. If it weren't for Lee Jordan's naturally dark complexion, the two black eyes would have been quite a sight.
"By the way, we should make a prank item that gives people black eyes in the future. Write it down, write it down," George said, pulling out a piece of parchment and quickly jotting down the idea.
"Wow, when did you start carrying this thing around?" Lee Jordan looked at George in disbelief, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
"Heh, I learned it from Albert," George said proudly, waving the parchment. "This contains some interesting ideas, and we'll be realizing each of them one by one in the future."
"With your ability, success will be quite challenging. If it were Albert, it would probably be easier," Lee Jordan taunted George, expressing his dissatisfaction.
"We're still accumulating useful knowledge. In a couple of years, we'll definitely be able to start experimenting with these ideas," Fred and George weren't bothered by Lee Jordan's taunts. They knew they didn't have the capability yet, but in a few years, they would surely succeed. For now, they were recording these ideas to gather inspiration for the future, and even if they never used them, there was no loss.
"You won't make much money selling those things," Albert said after finishing his sandwich.
"Then what do you think is valuable?" Fred asked.
"This."
Albert shook the wooden bracelet on his wrist and explained quietly, "Professor Smith once complained to me that most witches and wizards nowadays are quite poor at defending against Dark Magic, and many can't even cast a decent Protego Charm."
"You mean protective gear?" George guessed.
"Aside from witches and wizards in dangerous professions, I don't think many people would buy them," Fred frowned.
"Recently, I got some very useful information. In a few years, these will definitely sell like hotcakes!" Albert grinned. "The real money is in the field of Dark Magic defense."
"What information?"
"It's quite shocking," Albert said mysteriously. "You probably wouldn't want to know, and you wouldn't believe it anyway."
(End of Chapter)
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