Chapter 120
"Honestly, sending him to Azkaban was letting him off easy," Ethan spat after slogging through the terrifying section.
The book detailed several experiments with the blood extraction charm. The author had captured multiple wizards for this exact purpose. The first few subjects, whether by accident or design, had died before reaching this final stage.
Only the account of the last captured young wizard detailed the complete human experimentation process using the blood extraction charm.
It was madness incarnate. The book described in graphic detail how the author had selected and kidnapped his victim, subjecting the unfortunate young wizard to countless trials.
Finally, once the boy had served his purpose, the author described forcing the child to swallow a prepared potion. Amidst cries and pleas for mercy, the boy dissolved into a pool of bright red blood.
After reading this horrifying account, Ethan had to pause and collect himself before he could continue.
Two and a half hours flew by. Ethan closed the book, retied the cord, and stared at the alarm clock, waiting to see what would happen once the blood had been dripping for three full hours.
His guess was right. Right around the three-hour mark, the giant snake that had vanished reappeared on the cover.
It poked its head out, flicked its scarlet, forked tongue, and vanished back into the lake.
*I wonder how an author who died in Azkaban managed to pull this off.*
Ethan mused over this as he sorted through his notes.
Not counting the time he spent collecting himself, he had read less than a sixth of the book in those two and a half hours. It would likely take another six or seven sessions to finish it.
*I still have plenty of energy. It's just that the two-week borrowing period is a bit tight, so I need to make every moment count.*
By the time he finished organizing his notes, it was already past eleven. His roommates were sound asleep. Ethan stifled a yawn, slipped out quietly to wash up, changed into his pajamas, and climbed into bed.
Early the next morning, Ethan and Hermione were the only ones heading to Hagrid's to practice charms.
"Harry and Ron's roommates told me at breakfast they got detention last night. They hadn't been back by eleven, so I assume they won't be coming for charms practice," Hermione replied from inside the hut, answering Hagrid's question.
"Detention?" Ethan's heart skipped a beat, though nothing had actually happened last night.
"They really ought to be punished. Flying a car like that is simply outrageous!" Hagrid glanced at the pink umbrella behind the door, looking a little guilty as he spoke.
After finishing their tea, Hagrid led them out to the vegetable patch behind his hut.
"Take a look at my pumpkins." Hagrid pointed proudly to the twelve pumpkins in the field, each already half as tall as a person.
"For Halloween? The pumpkins you grew last year were only this big at harvest time, weren't they?"
Ethan saw right through Hagrid's little game. As the supplier for the Halloween feast, Hagrid obviously hadn't been satisfied with last year's pumpkins. There were still nearly two months until Halloween. How big would they be by then? It was unimaginable.
"Heh, they're coming along nicely, aren't they? They're certainly getting ready for the Halloween feast. I reckon they'll be big enough by then," Hagrid beamed.
"The Engorgement Charm? Simple fertilizer could never make pumpkins grow this large." Hermione had missed the Halloween feast the previous year, so she had never seen Hagrid's specialty pumpkins. Seeing them now, she immediately concluded that magic had to be involved.
"Spot on, but you mustn't tell anyone. It's a little secret." Hagrid winked at the two of them.
After showing off the pumpkins, Hagrid went back to bustling around his hut. Midway through their visit, he talked about his trip to Romania over the summer break.
"Over the summer, while you were all away, I took a week off with Dumbledore and went to Romania. We had to take several different forms of transportation before finally reaching the dragon reserve where Charlie works."
At that moment, Hagrid's face fell. "Norbert's doing well. He's grown to ten times his size since hatching, but he doesn't recognize me anymore.
"When I approached him, he breathed fire and singed part of my beard."
Tears welled in his eyes.
Only then did Ethan notice that Hagrid's beard was singed in places, though it was still very long. He tried to comfort him. "All dragons are like that. Don't be sad, Hagrid.
"Over the summer, I watched a Welsh Green hatch at my family's dragon reserve and spoke with the staff there.
"They said that unless raised constantly by their side, hatchlings quickly revert to wild instincts."
Hagrid wasn't listening. He remained grief-stricken, muttering Norbert's name, his eyes red-rimmed.
Hermione and Ethan exchanged glances and decided to let Hagrid work through his emotions. Inside the hut, only Hagrid's muttering and the clink of teacups broke the silence.
After a while, Hagrid pulled himself together and took in what Ethan had said.
He brightened instantly. "Your family's dragon reserve? What breeds do they keep? On this trip to Romania, Charlie and the others were mostly studying the Romanian Longhorn."
"There were actually several other types of dragons there, though they were relatively rare. I didn't see them.
"Welsh Greens and Swedish Short-Snouts."
Ethan soon found himself pressed for every detail he could remember about them.
Once Hagrid's curiosity was satisfied, he looked even more disappointed. "It's a real shame I can't see them with my own eyes. Charlie said they have those two types there as well, but only in small numbers. I didn't get to see them."
Realizing his practice time was running out, Ethan quickly promised. "If the chance comes up, I'll take you to the dragon reserve so you can see those dragons up close."
"Wonderful! It's a promise!" Hagrid was so happy he was blowing snot bubbles.
"Of course, as long as there's an opportunity, we can go to the French dragon reserve." These were minor details that Ethan could figure out later.
In the afternoon, right after finishing lunch, Snape called Ethan away from the table.
"This many?" Looking at the breeding area that had expanded to three times its original size, Ethan felt his workload for the day was going to be pretty heavy.
Three hundred fire lizards were delivered in total. They should be enough for a while. Even Snape, who rarely showed emotion, managed a smile.
"Hurry up and feed them. Once you're finished, continue yesterday's lesson." To distinguish this batch from the previous one, Snape had moved the others elsewhere for breeding.
After finally feeding all three hundred lizards and leaving them to start mutating, Ethan was mentally exhausted.
Snape, however, paid it no mind. He reached under the operating table and retrieved a box containing the experimental subjects he had recently purchased in Hogsmeade.
Loath to part with his robust fire lizards, he had tracked down a black market dealer at the Hog's Head to purchase cheap, defective lizards for the lesson.
Ethan stared at the crippled fire lizards in the box, barely clinging to life, before glancing up at Snape.
"What are you looking at? Get to work. Kill one and use a charm to extract its blood!"
Under Snape's glare, Ethan reached into the box and grabbed a lizard missing a front leg. He drew his wand, then froze.
He couldn't think of a single charm that would kill the fire lizard while leaving the body intact.
*Diffindo? Bombarda? Reducto?* Diffindo was the only viable option, but one slip would decapitate the creature. *No good.*
"Take out two more and kill them. Collect the blood after letting them sit for different periods to compare how time since death affects the sample."
Ethan did as he was told. After killing two fire lizards, one missing its front legs and the other its back legs, he immediately extracted blood from the remaining one.
Finally, after two hours, he had collected three vials of dead fire lizard blood taken at one-hour intervals.
Then, retrieving a vial of ordinary living blood and one of ordinary dead blood, Ethan began casting charms.
"After two hours, there's very, very little spiritual essence and life force remaining. The residual magic is slightly higher," Ethan said, analyzing the results as he examined the dim glow.
"The one-hour sample is somewhat better than the two-hour one. The one extracted immediately is the best, but compared to living blood, aside from having more spiritual essence, the others are about the same."
Ethan ranked the five vials of blood. The worst was, of course, the ordinary blood taken after the fire lizard died, containing only a tiny bit of magic and nothing else.
As he left Snape's office, he carried six small bottles. In addition to the five mentioned earlier, there was a sixth containing fresh blood from an ordinary fire lizard, which he had extracted just before leaving.
Snape had assigned him to use these samples to compare the four types of blood extracted through different methods and write a report on his findings. The two remaining bottles could also be used for that book, ensuring nothing went to waste.
He had plenty of time tonight and didn't need to visit the library to finish his homework, so he spent three hours reading in the dormitory.
He had also managed to discover the anonymous author's identity.
Nathaniel Ravenclaw was a descendant of one of the Hogwarts Founders, Rowena Ravenclaw, and the last scion of that ancient line.
With his death, the Ravenclaw family had effectively vanished from the British magical community.
He was finally caught because his last victim had been a Hogwarts student.
In truth, the disappearance of a young wizard wasn't considered a major event in the wizarding world, as there were simply too many dangers that could claim a wizard's life.
However, when a student who was expected back at school vanished during the Christmas holidays, his parents reported the disappearance to both the school and the Ministry. The Headmaster and the Minister of Magic at the time viewed the incident as a challenge to the British magical order and launched a desperate search.
Finally, after a year in hiding, Nathaniel was captured.
By the time he stood trial, his mind was already unhinged. Standing before the Wizengamot, he laughed maniacally and confessed to everything he had done.
This book, seized from his residence when he was captured, detailed the kidnapping and brutal murders of several young wizards. Consequently, it was taken as evidence and preserved within the Ministry of Magic.
After the trial ended, the book eventually found its way out of the Ministry through unknown channels, having long since outlived its usefulness as evidence.
The book circulated among the public for a time, but because it was dangerous, its last owner donated it to Hogwarts, where it eventually became part of the Restricted Section.
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Chapters on Patreon progress: Currently at;
1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 274
2.Marvel: Cosmic Forger of Infinity = CHAPTER 191
3.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 276
4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 118
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