Chapter 31

It was a dark and rainy night. As the raindrops pounded against the windowpanes, the clock struck nine. The castle was empty, as most people had sought warmth under their bedcovers. The only sound was the relentless sound of rain and a pen scratching a paper. As Albert sat by his desk, listening to the rain while writing a letter to his family, He couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort and peace. It was as if the rain were washing away his worries while he listened to it. A red head boy who just come out of the shower room interrupted the sound of the rain. .

"Do you want to come on a night tour with us, Albert?" Fred asked.

"I've got a lamp and some cloaks ready for you if you want to go," George said as he pointed to his collection of cloaks and his singular lamp on his bedside table.

Albert was feeling torn. He had a mission to complete that required him to go on a night tour, but he was worried about the consequence if Finch caught him. On the one hand, Albert wanted to complete his mission and claim his reward. He heard that Finch knew a lot of the secret passageways around school, so their chances of evading him were slim. As he sat by his desk, he wrote the pros and cons on a piece of paper that he was going to throw away.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but the chances of Finch catching you are astronomically high. He knows virtually all the useful secret passageways," Albert said. "So no, I will not be going on the night tour with you today."

"I said the same thing. If we get caught, I'm pretty sure McGonagall would give us a really harsh punishment, and do you remember what happened earlier?" Lee Jorden said.

"If you go on a night tour, you'll have to be prepared," Albert said as he looked at the twins' equipment. "Don't mix up Gryffindor courage with recklessness. You could increase the chance of not getting caught by learning the Wand Lighting Charm and reducing dead weights."

Lee's eyes just sparkled. He jumped up from his bed and excitedly said, "Oh, oh, I know. If we learn the Wand Lighting Charm, we can get rid of the lamps and we can ditch the cloaks when we learn the Disillusionment Charm."

"So you two aren't going on the night tour with us, are you?" Fred said as he looked upset.

"That's not cool. I thought we were friends," George said.

"That's not what I said," Albert said, and they took a deep breath. "I'm not going with you two today. The chances were get caught and punishment to too high to risk it. I'll go with you when you can do the Wand Lighting Charm and the Disillusionment Charm."

"Promise us you will," George said with his puppy dog eyes.

Albert looked at Lee Jorden, who nodded at him and said, "I promise."

"You promised, no take backs," Fred said as he grabbed his brother and did a strange dance in the middle of the room. And paused.

"We decided that us three are going to Hogsmeade again tomorrow. So, do you want to come with us?" Fred asked.

"If you didn't know, Hogsmeade is one of two magical settlements in the whole of Britain. Only third-years and above can go on the weekend. However, we can sneak along with them." George said.

"We want to visit Zonko's Joke Shop to get some prank materials to use in school," Fred said.

"I have no interest in those items." The three boys looked at Albert in shock. He would not go with them. "But I want to tour Hogsmeade, so I'll go with you."

Out of nowhere, he heard a familiar chime ring in his head. He turned around to face his desk and pretend he was writing. After the others noticed he wasn't responding, they went back to do their own thing. The mission brief read:

{The Journey to the centre of 'Friendship':

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. An active volcano spewed the three explorers back to the surface of Stromboli in southern Italy. Similar to what Verne thought, friendships have tubes where you step over the boundary, you could enter perilous waters. Your mission is to venture to Hogsmeade without getting caught.

Reward: 100 Experience point; Favorability tab activates; + 5 favorability with George Weasley; + 5 favorability with Fred Weasley; + 5 favorability with Lee Jorden }

Favorability? Why is that activating now? Why is the system now acting like an RPG game system? But doesn't that mean if he gets someone's favorability to 100, they'll be willing to die for me? Albert whiffles off the dark thoughts forming in his mind.

"Are we going straight after breakfast?" Albert asked.

"Yeah, we want to spend as much time there as possible," Lee said, and the twins nodded in agreement.

After the time was sorted, Albert went back to writing his letter. He also described all the photos he was ending. He numbered the photo and which paragraph it linked to. Neither Fred nor George bothered him while he was writing as they were busy read 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade one'. Almost half an hour passed when Albert smelled smoke. He turned to face the twins, who had set the newspaper on fire. The twins placed blankets over it to put it out, but it didn't work. The fire got worse and was about to spread onto their bed.

"What the actual hell is going on here?" Albert said as he rushed to open the window to leave the smokes diffuse out of the room. He then picked up George's bed cover and threw it to the other side of the room so it wouldn't catch on fire.

"George tried to use the Fire Making Charm," Fred said as he looked through the book to find a counter charm. "But it hit the paper and we couldn't put it out."

"| Aguamenti |," Albert cast the Water Making Charm to put the fire out. "You almost burned the carpet and started a house fire. If you wanted to start a fire, go to the common room fireplace and try there." He stopped and took a deep breath to prevent himself from raising his voice at them. "If you want to go to Hogsmeade tomorrow, you will learn the Wand Lighting Charm before you go asleep. Do you understand?"

"Yes, but we don't know what to do," George said.

"Get your wand out and start practicing. You too, Lee. I'll correct any mistake you make," Albert said as he went to finish his letter. After finishing his letter and putting it away, he went over to the three.

"George, it's pronounced 'Loo-mos' not 'Lu-mos'. Make the 'Lu' longer. Fred, stop waving your wand. It needs to be short, concise arm movements. Lee, you need to visualise it. Imagine you're in a room and there is a light switch in front of you. To turn it on, you need to say 'Lumos' and once you say it, a bright harsh light turns on. Close your eyes and imagine it. Now say it with me, | Lumos |." As if by magic, all three of them manage to cast it, but Lee's was a tad bit lighter than the twins. He saw Lee looking a little sad and said, "As you practice it more, the spell becomes easier to cast and you can take redundant movement and incantation out of it. So don't worry if it isn't bright, it will get brighter after you practice it more."

Just like Albert said, Lee's | Lumos | got brighter as he practiced and he stopped making it brighter when he was happy with it.

"Have you ever thought of becoming a professor at Hogwarts after graduating? I reckon you'll be a wonderful teacher," Lee said as he sat on his bed with sweat forming on his head.

"Never!" Albert said as he went to sit on his bed.

"Why?" Fred and George said in unison.

"Because I don't want to teach a group of annoying children with their hormones raging. It would be too tiring," Albert said as he got his Rubik Cube out of his bag.

"What is that?" Fred asked.

"A Rubik Cube. It's a popular muggle toy. Get the same colour on each of the faces. Do you want to have a go?" George's hand jumped up and Albert passed the toy to him.

"Thank you."