Chapter 76: The Headless Hat
Chapter 76: The Headless Hat
The Gryffindor students were a fearless bunch, and every year there were students who wandered the castle late at night.
"What about you?" George asked.
"What do you think?" Albert tossed the towel he had been using to wipe his hair to George in annoyance.
"Why are you taking another shower at night?" George caught the towel and threw it back at Albert.
"Showering in the morning puts me in a good mood, and showering at night helps me sleep better," Albert said matter-of-factly.
The three boys stared at him, speechless, not wanting to argue about it. They knew that Albert could always come up with a bunch of reasonable excuses when he started talking.
"Can you really sleep better?" Lee Jordan asked coldly, then went to take a shower.
Albert sat back on his bed, listening to the twins chatting about the secret passages in the castle. He picked up his wand from the pillow and pointed it at the towel lying next to him.
The Disillusion Charm worked, and the towel seemed to disappear from the bed.
Albert picked up the invisible towel and held it in front of him to examine it. He covered his hand with it, and the covered part disappeared, but overall, there was still a strange sense of dissonance.
Albert balled up the towel, observing the effect of the Disillusion Charm. At certain angles, the dissonance became more pronounced.
"How did you do that with your hand just now?" Fred asked, staring at Albert's left hand under the towel with wide, astonished eyes.
"This?" Albert handed the towel with the Disillusion Charm on it to Fred. "I cast a Disillusion Charm on the towel."
"Impressive," George said as he leaned in to examine it. "But there are still some flaws."
"This is the best I can do for now," Albert admitted. His Disillusion Charm had reached Level 1, but the invisibility effect was still not satisfactory. More skilled wizards could easily spot the flaws. "Some wizards use this kind of magic to create inferior invisibility cloaks."
"Invisibility cloak?" Fred asked, confused. "I've heard of those, but why are they considered inferior?"
Albert explained, "The invisibility effect of the cloak fades over time."
"Look, my hand is gone," Fred said, covering his hand with the invisible towel and winking at George. "You can't tell unless you look closely."
"Wrap it around your head," Albert suggested.
Fred and George looked at each other, seeming to realize something. A mischievous smile appeared on both of their faces.
The door was closed again, and the oil lamp in the room suddenly went out.
"What are you guys up to? Why isn't the light on in the dormitory? Is everyone asleep?" Lee Jordan had just finished showering and pushed open the wooden door to the dorm room, only to find it pitch black inside. He frowned and complained.
A faint light suddenly appeared in the darkness, and Lee Jordan looked towards the source. One of the twins was standing by the table, turning to face him. The pale light from the wand tip traveled up his body and finally stopped at his shoulder.
Lee Jordan could see clearly that the person had... no head.
"This..." Lee Jordan's expression froze, and he stood there, stunned.
To be honest, it was quite a scary sight, especially in the dark.
"Ahem, cut it out, you're scaring him!" Albert stifled a laugh and reached up to pull the invisible towel off Fred's head, revealing it.
"Is he okay?" George turned the light back on, anxiously watching Lee Jordan, who was still standing there in a daze. He shot a reproachful glance at his twin brother, as if it were all Fred's fault.
"I don't know, maybe he's been scared silly," Fred said, reaching out to touch Lee Jordan, but Albert stopped him.
After an unknown amount of time, Lee Jordan still hadn't snapped out of his daze, and an uneasy atmosphere spread through the room.
"Hahaha!" Lee Jordan suddenly burst into laughter, startling the three boys in the room.
"Are you alright?" Fred asked cautiously.
"I'm fine," Lee Jordan said, making a face at the three of them. His previous reaction had clearly been an act. "But you did scare me for a moment there."
"You scared us first!" George retorted.
"Speaking of which, that was quite a scary scene," Lee Jordan said. He took the invisible towel from Albert and examined it. He seemed to think of something and asked, "Do you think we could use this to scare Filch and make him faint?"
"Probably not," Albert denied the possibility. "After all, there are ghosts in the castle. People in the wizarding world are much more accepting of unknown phenomena than ordinary people."
If he made his own head disappear and walked around on a busy street late at night, he might scare a lot of people and even make the front-page news the next day.
"But it is quite scary to see someone's head suddenly disappear," Fred said. "Why doesn't Zonko's Joke Shop sell these?"
"Zonko is getting on in years. He's past the age of having an active imagination. Although he has the ability to turn ideas into joke items, his inspiration has probably dried up by now," Albert explained casually. "If he didn't have that inspiration, he naturally wouldn't be able to make a Headless Hat."
"Headless Hat?" Fred's eyes lit up. "That's a great name."
"Write it down, make a note of it," George said, hurriedly looking for a quill and parchment. "Maybe one day, we can make our own Headless Hats."
"Before that, you'll need to study spells properly," Albert reminded them.
"Hmm, what's going on here?" Lee Jordan noticed that the invisible towel was no longer invisible.
"The Disillusion Charm is about to wear off," Albert examined the towel, knowing that it couldn't maintain invisibility permanently like Harry Potter's invisibility cloak.
Speaking of which, this was similar to optical camouflage.
"It disappeared that quickly?" Fred muttered.
Albert picked up the pocket watch from his pillow and glanced at the time. "It lasted about half an hour."
"That's a short duration," George said, a little disappointed.
"What do you expect? I haven't mastered it yet," Albert rolled his eyes. The duration of a spell was related to the skill of the casting wizard.
Albert had only reached the preliminary stage of mastering the Disillusion Charm. If it were Professor Flitwick, he would probably be able to create an invisibility cloak that lasted a long time.
Of course, a truly skilled master of charms wouldn't need an invisibility cloak at all. They could easily cast a spell to make themselves invisible, and ordinary wizards wouldn't be able to detect their presence.
(End of Chapter)
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