Maurise successfully collected samples of Hermione's feline fur and blood.
It was just a pity that she would rather die than let him touch her tail. Truly, his own pet, Tin, was infinitely superior in this regard. The compliant creature never refused a single one of his requests.
Upon returning to his dormitory, Maurise began preparing for the bone dragon's advancement ritual.
While he had all the necessary materials ready, finding an appropriate location presented a massive headache. The Room of Requirement had its spatial limits, and trying to cram a dragon's evolution ritual in there was asking for trouble. The Forbidden Forest was not exactly an ideal choice either, as he would likely be harassed by territorial centaurs or Merlin knew what else.
It seemed his only viable option was to find a desolate, uninhabited spot somewhere near Hogsmeade village.
Maurise immediately sought out the Weasley twins to inquire about secret passages.
"Oh, you are definitely asking the right experts."
After Maurise explained his intentions, Fred flashed a wicked grin. "Heading to Hogsmeade, are we? Perfect timing. George and I were just planning a little supply run to Zonko's Joke Shop. We can go together."
Wasting no time, the twins led Maurise to a corridor on the third floor and halted in front of the statue of the humpbacked, one-eyed witch.
"Right here." Fred scanned the area to ensure the coast was clear before tapping the statue with his wand. "Dissendium."
The stone statue slid aside with a grinding scrape, revealing a hidden chute sloping downward into the darkness.
"This path leads straight to the cellar of Honeydukes," George added helpfully. "It can be a bit of a long trek."
With that, he slid down the chute first, quickly followed by Fred and Maurise.
Casting a Lumos charm, Maurise found himself in a narrow, earthy tunnel. The twins were marching just ahead of him.
"Who exactly dug this passage?" he asked curiously.
"Who knows?" Fred shrugged. "Probably some ancient student with a massive sweet tooth. Hogwarts is absolutely riddled with secret tunnels like this."
After trudging through the dirt passage for nearly half an hour, a steep, seemingly endless stone staircase appeared before them.
The trio climbed the grueling steps. Upon reaching the top, they pushed open a wooden trapdoor and emerged into the dusty cellar of Honeydukes. A few more wooden doors later, and they were standing in the main shop.
"Right then," Fred clapped his hands together. "George and I are going to head off. If you want to get back to the castle, just return the exact same way. No need to wait around for us."
"Thanks."
Maurise slipped out of Honeydukes and stepped onto the frosty streets of Hogsmeade.
Thanks to the heavy snowfall, the village was practically deserted. Only a handful of witches and wizards heavily bundled in thick cloaks hurried past, leaving a chaotic trail of footprints in their wake.
He cast a warming charm over his robes, walked past the Hog's Head Inn, and summoned his skeletal unicorn. Mounting the undead beast, he rode down a snow-buried path heading toward the base of the mountains.
Over half an hour later, he finally discovered a relatively flat clearing on the edge of a dense forest.
The terrain here was slightly sunken and completely surrounded by towering pine trees, making it nearly impossible to spot from the outside.
Maurise dismounted, recalled his skeletal unicorn, and raised his hand toward the sky in a silent signal.
A dozen seconds later, a dark silhouette plummeted from the clouds.
Cinder fluttered its wings gracefully and deposited a large suitcase directly into his waiting hands.
"Thanks for the hard work." Maurise patted Fireworks on the head. "Keep watch over the perimeter for me. If you spot anything unusual, let me know immediately."
Although it was highly unlikely that anyone would wander into this frozen wilderness, a healthy dose of paranoia never hurt anybody.
Cinder let out a soft cry, summoned three shadowy duplicates, and took to the sky once more, vanishing into the falling snow. Its true body settled onto a high tree branch a short distance away.
Maurise turned his full attention back to the ritual.
He flipped open the suitcase and gave his wand a sharp flick. Crimson liquid flew out from the luggage in a continuous stream, twisting and spreading across the snow-covered ground.
By now, his control was immaculate. He could dictate the exact flow of every single drop.
In a mere five minutes, a massive, glowing magic circle designed for necromantic evolution was complete. It pulsed with a faint, eerie light against the pristine snow.
Because of the bone dragon's sheer size, this particular array was twice as large as his usual ones.
With a dramatic sweep of his robes, Maurise summoned the bone dragon. The towering undead beast materialized, lumbered into the exact center of the array, and obediently lay flat, awaiting the start of the ritual.
Everything was ready.
Maurise activated the array. He scooped up handfuls of Gap Energy Crystals from his suitcase and tossed them straight into the glowing circle. The crystals instantly vaporized into a dense white mist that gradually darkened into a stormy grey.
When almost all the crystals had been fed into the array... BOOM!
A massive shockwave of displaced air exploded outward, sweeping across the clearing with hurricane force.
The sheer violence of this advancement completely dwarfed any of his previous rituals.
The surrounding trees groaned under the punishing gale. The thick blanket of snow on the ground was obliterated in an instant, exposing the frozen black earth beneath. Even Cinder was blown backward, tumbling comically through the air before regaining its balance.
Standing at the very edge of the magic circle, Maurise struggled to keep his footing. To his magical senses, the energy fluctuations here were unprecedentedly violent and highly unstable.
Simultaneously, a tempest of dark grey mist churned violently within the array, beginning to bleed out into the surrounding environment.
The magic circle was being pushed to its absolute limit, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Thankfully, the bone dragon began to greedily inhale the overflowing mist.
Through the chaotic haze, Maurise could see intricate black runes etching themselves across the creature's massive frame. Its skeletal structure began hardening at a visible rate, taking on a cold, metallic sheen.
The soul fire burning in its empty eye sockets stabilized, shifting into a much denser, more concentrated state.
Everything was progressing perfectly.
When the ritual was roughly two-thirds complete, the turbulent winds finally began to die down. Suddenly, Cinder dive-bombed from the sky, landing heavily on Maurise's shoulder and letting out an urgent, frantic cry.
"Someone is approaching?"
Without missing a beat, Maurise cast his Bone Summoning spell, instantly conjuring a skeletal helmet and full-body armor to conceal his identity. He peered through the trees in the direction Fireworks had indicated.
Two figures clad in standard Ministry of Magic robes were trudging heavily through the snow-choked forest path.
Both appeared quite young, one tall and one short. They had their wands drawn, though their posture remained relatively relaxed.
Maurise took a deliberate step forward, maintaining a safe distance. Using magic to heavily distort and deepen his voice, he called out. "Who are you?"
The two wizards startled visibly at the sight of Maurise in his bizarre, skeletal armor, not to mention the massive, swirling magic circle glowing ominously behind him.
The taller wizard instinctively tightened his grip on his wand, though his tone remained professional. "Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. We detected a severe and highly anomalous magical fluctuation in this sector, so we came to investigate."
"Anomalous?" Maurise asked coldly. "And what exactly do you intend to do?"
"Standard protocol. We are required to conduct an on-site inspection of the source to determine if this constitutes a magical disaster requiring intervention, or... if there are any illegal or highly dangerous magical experiments taking place. You know how it is. Certain Dark Arts rituals can cause quite a racket."
After delivering his textbook explanation, the tall wizard craned his neck, trying to get a better look at the ritual site behind Maurise.
However, the heavy snowfall and the churning black mist effectively shielded the undead dragon from view.