Chapter 47

Allen spent the following weeks scaring the ghosts in the castle, and whenever a ghost came that didn't belong in Hogwarts, he would turn off the magic in his eyes and walk towards them, grabbing them by something, not letting them run away, then he would mess up with their magic and how it worked.

Of course, he didn't want to go overboard, fearing what Helena might say, but since these ghosts were strangers, they deserved it, or so it was his thought process.

One time, where he caught a male ghost right before he could even ask if the rumours were true, he let his magic go wild. He circulated the ghost's magic as if he still had his three dantians. If it weren't for the bubble to cancel all the noise around him, the ghost might have attracted the attention of the whole castle with his scream.

Apparently, moving their magic forcefully hurt like hell, so there was a reason for their magic to being arranged like so.

Another time, where he tried to separate the ghost's magic into the three dantians, and while he did managed to do it, the ghost fainted and fell towards the ground, Allen picked him up and waited until it regained consciousness. After a couple of minutes, the three dantians that he created inside the ghost were liberated, circulating their magic again through out all of their body, then it woke up. Of course, the ghost ran away as fast as it could after seeing Allen's face and remembering the pain.

'Why are ghosts so weird.' Were his last thoughts before walking towards the restroom.

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One time, in the library, he wrote down more of his findings in the same parchment from before.

'A ghost need its soul to give form to their spiritual body, which, in theory, is fueled by the magic they had while they were alive, but just like with any witch or wizard, they don't run out of magic, so they must be able to gather it the same way we do, otherwise, they would've stopped existing after a few years.

So it requires a container (soul) the batteries (magic) and… that's it? Wouldn't it need something else?

Ah! the consciousness, or memories from when they were alive, its said that ghosts can't learn, they stay the same way since they died, so does that mean it uses all of their memories from when they were alive to give form to their spiritual bodies?

That would mean we have the three dantians as well, the soul, in this case would be the Body, the Soul would be, of course, their magic, and the Mind would be as the name indicates, their mind, or consciousness.'

Allen tapped his dry feather on the parchment, he felt like the more conjectures he made, the more he sounded like a rambling baboon.

'Not everything has to be connected to these three.'

Suddenly, Sophia shook him from his shoulder, taking him out of his own thoughts.

"Wha- Wait, stop! What happened?" He asked in a hurry, looking her way.

"I said, that I was okay with inviting everyone over to my house for Yule." A tint of red showed on her cheeks. "But if you have something more important, then I guess you don't need to come!" She turned her head around.

"Ahh! Sorry Sophia, I was too busy thinking about all the ghosts roaming around the castle." He told her a half truth, while the ghosts were in his mind, they were there for a completely different reason.

"Hmm." She thought it over before speaking. "Alright then, I forgive you." She turned her head back to him again and explained her plans for Yule once more.

Elsie chimed in, explaining how she would be there as well with her family, since they are related.

William would have to ask his parents about it and the same thing with Armand. It wouldn't be hard for William to ask for permission, but in Armand's case it was different, since from what Sophia told them, his father was in the neutral faction, inclined more for a progressive side, rather than conservative, like the Malfoys.

So that's that, Armand might or might not be able to visit and the only one left to answer was Allen.

"I… Um… Yeah, sure, I can stay with you on Yule if you don't mind." He finished.

He thought about Helena, the Room of Requirements and all the other stuff he could've done in the empty castle, but he decided against. 'Maybe next year.' Since he already spent a lot of time by himself or in the Room of Requirements, neglecting his friends. It would be nice to spent a few days with them, just enjoying the holidays.

As he went back to his homework, he remembered something, Yule, Christmas, you give gifts to people and receive gifts, that much is obvious, but he didn't know what he could buy them, nor what they would like.

After finishing their homework they went back to their common rooms, but Allen kept thinking about what to give them as a gift, and now that he was already thinking about it, it would be better to buy their birthday gifts as well to get it out of the way.

'I need to order some catalogs…' He thought after they walked inside their common room, following right behind Armand and William.

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Allen was currently writing letters to a few stores in Diagon Alley and in Hogsmade, he could always sneak around there using the map, but didn't have enough time to spare, so choosing something over a catalog would be better. He could buy everything he needed and simply ask them to keep the items until the shipping date, whether it was Yule or his friend's birthday, that way he wouldn't forget about it.

Honestly, after finding out that wizards use catalogs to buy things via mail, Allen's first reaction was met with a bit of a shock, specially since they ask a galleon for a bundle of catalogs from all the stores, but after finding out that each one of them are enchanted to show if they still have in stock, how many, and also, they can remove and add items from a main catalog that each store have, changing the rest of the catalogs that they distribute, making them something akin to a small internet store.

The only problem was the payment. To be honest, Allen didn't trust much in the owl mail, specially if they had to carry large sums of money. 'And how would the owl even know I gave him enough money and which item I wanted anyway?'

He also thought about getting them something from the Room of Requirements, but since he didn't really have anything specific in mind, he would have to look around the Room of Missing Things for a couple of hours before finding something worth it, and then he would need to appraise it using his eyes, to make sure it doesn't contain anything dangerous or is not cursed. So, yeah, that was too much trouble, specially with Yule just around the corner, so he thought it would be better to do that next year, when he has more time, and a deeper understanding of his friends' likes and dislikes.

Of course, he knows William loves Quidditch, Armand likes to study like him, and Sophia and Elsie… Well, he actually doesn't know what they like, so that was the problem.

'Maybe I can buy them a set of sweets for Yule and see what they get, then get them something similar on their birthdays?'

After he finished writing down the letters, he put them in his bag and took out one last piece of parchment. He delayed this for so long and honestly, wanted to do it more, but he felt like it was necessary to come in contact with his… aunt? Allen still doesn't know what he should call her, so he continued to call her aunt in his mind.

'I wanted noting to do with them, but if my cousin is going to come to Hogwarts anyways, I'll end up interacting with her one way or another, so better do it with the right foot.'

He wrote down the last letter to his aunt, asking if they could meet over in Yule, maybe bring his cousin as well, of course he wouldn't stay over, but they could spent time together in Diagon Alley, then go to Gringotts, where he would need to check the three keys that he got from his aunt.

After writing down the last letter, he went to the owlery, evading droppings from a bunch of owls until he found two owls willing to take his letters to the respective people.

When he tied the letter to each of their legs, they flew off, each in the same direction, until at a certain point, they went different ways.

'Uh, I always wondered how they know where the person you are sending the letter is. Do they have some kind of omniscience power? Or they are just breed with a one of a kind tracking spell.

Another thing to research about.'

Allen evaded one last dropping as he exited the tower before heading back to the castle.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see some ghosts following behind him as he entered inside the castle. 'Two, no, three. Two from the left and one from the right.'

He wanted to use his eyes to scare them, but since they kept a moderate distance, he couldn't just start threatening anyone whenever they did something suspicious around him, so he played the waiting game.

Instead of going back to his common room, he walked up the stairs, using his magic to push forward his physical abilities, trying to see if they were really following behind him, or if it was just a mistake on his part.

He couldn't really use his mirror to look at them since they would still feel his gaze, just less powerful. 'Similar to a basilisk, uh.'

'I really need to research about that, or check if the entrance is in the same place.'

But the faster he walked, the faster the ghosts followed him, so it was pretty obvious that it was not a coincidence, but an actual act of stalking. Thinking quickly, he arrived at the seventh floor corridor, in front of the dancing trolls. The moment he did, the Room of Requirements sensed him and created the door to enter without the need to walk three times in front of the tapestry.

When he went inside, he saw an empty room, but it was decorated, as what he assumed, to be a dueling field, albeit smaller in scale. Allen scoffed when he saw it. 'So it knew I'm being followed? Ha, thank you.' He touched the wall of the room, giving it a small dose of the Wand Raising Charm.

The room shook in happiness as he walked towards the middle of the field, then he turned back and greeted the three ghost who were following him.

"Hello dear Sirs, and Madam." He looked towards the only female ghost in their little group. "What can I do for you?"

The three ghosts looked at him with indignation, and before they exploded in a fit of rage, the one in the middle spoke up in behalf of the other two. "Hello Mr Lionheart, I don't know if you remember, but we've been through a lot because of you."

"Because of me? More like I've been through a lot because of all the rude ghost showing up at my school who don't even belong here." He brandished his wand with his left hand as a sign of warning while the other two ghost were trying to enclose him in a circle.

"Then, I take that as you don't remember any of us?" A menacing tone came from the ghost's mouth.

"No, I don't, and I don't think you want to know what I can do." He pointed his wand at the ghost in front of him, while pointing his right hand to the other ghost, stopping it in its tracks.

The other two were shocked for a moment before the male ghost talked again.

The ghost let out a loud breath before speaking. "We are the ghosts you experimented with, and we've come to pay you back. After all, you don't have three hands, do you? You might be able to do something to two of us, but the last one will make sure to make you join us completely in the afterlife.

Then, the male and female ghost dashed towards him but managed to stop the male one with his gaze as it shone with a bright green light. Allen pointed his wand towards the female ghost, casting the Windy spell, creating a gust of wind that pushed her towards the wall, then, in a swift motion, he took the other male ghost with his hand and threw him towards the gust of wind as well, keeping the two of them between the wall and the wind.

All this time, he looked back and forth between their leader and what he wanted to do, but when he looked back, he wasn't there anymore. He clicked his tongue and looked around the room until he found him coming from above with both of his hands in front of him, as if trying to choke him.

He stepped to the side and put his wand in his pocket in a swift motion, then grabbed the ghost by the arms and shoot them towards the gust of wind, now keeping the three of them against the wall, unable to move.

Allen kept his eyes on them, making them shake in fear as he saw what make them up, nothing was different from the other ghosts, their soul and magic still worked properly, and apparently their mind too, better than his, since he completely forgot about them, but who could blame him, after being assaulted by ghosts for so many weeks.

Before he could do anything, Helena passed through the walls. Her face showed rage that he hasn't seen before. Not an explosive rage, but a calm and collected, the type of rage that can ruin someone's life, and Allen hoped that look wasn't directed at him.