"You've got some serious nerve, Charlie," Anthony said.
"My legs literally turned to jelly when you were talking back to him. I honestly thought he was going to hit you with a hex," Hector quickly chimed in.
"Was it really that big of a deal?" Charlie looked at the boys crowded around him and offered a helpless shrug.
"What else was I supposed to do? I've never had any authority figures in my life, so I've never had any reason to fear them."
"Fair point, bloody hell," Hector muttered. "Say, Charlie, you never actually went to primary school, did you?"
"Spot on. Exactly for the reason you're thinking." Charlie pointed at Hector approvingly.
"Having zero formal education means I fundamentally lack the instinct to be terrified of teachers," Charlie said proudly.
"You absolute madman." Hector laughed. "Whatever, let's drop it. Let's just head back to the common room."
With plenty of time left before dinner, Charlie hurried back to the common room, eager to resume the experiments he hadn't finished the night before.
There were simply too many potential avenues to explore with the pure lightning essence.
At five o'clock, Charlie popped a piece of moon-lightning chocolate into his mouth.
To be precise, it was his newly revised prototype: the moon-lightning essence was blended directly into the chocolate shell, while pure moon-dew served as the liquid center.
Hector and Anthony had wandered off somewhere. After eating the chocolate, Charlie began strolling aimlessly around the common room.
He watched the people around him, observing their every smile and subtle shift in expression. His gaze drifted to the window, watching the setting sun, then to the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, before finally landing on the clock.
The common room wasn't particularly crowded at the moment. As his mind slipped into the Overload state, he felt a profound sense of tranquility wash over him.
It was an incredibly bizarre yet absolute peace. He felt as though if he chose to focus on a single problem right now, he would instantly enter a state of flawless, uninterrupted flow.
Over by the window, an older girl was painting. Charlie walked over and stood quietly behind her.
While Hogwarts didn't offer any extracurricular elective clubs for hobbies, the young wizards naturally pursued their own personal interests in their free time.
Clearly, the girl in front of him had a passion for art.
She was painting a portrait—or rather, a reproduction. Against a pitch-black background, a girl in a yellow-brown jacket stood with a massive blue turban wrapped around her head. She was turned slightly sideways, her gaze fixed entirely on the viewer outside the canvas.
Girl with a Pearl Earring. An incredibly famous oil painting.
Charlie watched her work in silence. Her delicate brushstrokes flowed across the canvas like a meandering river.
The piece was nearly finished. Charlie figured he might as well stick around to witness the final product.
Suddenly, the girl's brush stopped dead, like a river abruptly dammed.
She lowered her brush, staring silently at the girl on the canvas.
"What's missing?" she muttered under her breath. She stared at it for a long time, completely stumped.
Five minutes later, Charlie couldn't hold back anymore.
"The light."
The artist jumped in surprise. She whipped her head around to look at Charlie, momentarily caught off guard.
"The light source is coming from the upper left, slightly behind her. If you restructure your shading and highlights based on that specific angle, it might look better. Right now, you're just blindly copying the original colors without mapping the lighting."
"You're right. You're absolutely right. I can't just mimic the hues..."
She completely forgot to ask when Charlie had even walked up behind her. She immediately turned back to the canvas, snatching up her brush.
Twenty minutes later, as she gently tapped the final fleck of white highlight onto the pearl earring, the girl dropped her brush into the water bucket.
In that exact moment, a voice rang out. It was light and crystal clear.
"Thank you."
"Me? Don't mention it. I just threw out a random suggestion. Honestly, the fact that you didn't yell at me for interrupting is generous enough," Charlie smiled.
At the same time, the artist turned around. "What did you say?"
Meeting the older girl's completely bewildered gaze, Charlie froze. Slowly, he turned to look at the girl on the canvas.
"Was that... you talking?"
"Yes," the voice rang out again.
Then, the girl in the painting raised her hand—despite the fact that she hadn't actually been painted with hands.
Magic itself had filled in the gaps, granting her a slender, elegant arm as pale as jade.
She gently tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her ear and asked again, "So, what is my name?"
"Er..." The artist was entirely at a loss for words.
"Right, well, I haven't actually thought of one yet. Do you know?" She turned to look at Charlie helplessly.
"I only know that the artist who painted the original was named Vermeer."
"Perhaps you should give me a name, then," the Girl with a Pearl Earring said.
The artist looked absolutely panic-stricken. She waved her hands frantically. "I- I don't know! This is my first time ever attempting a magical portrait!"
She had absolutely no idea that painting a magical portrait required this level of interaction. Naming her creation? Having full-blown conversations with it?
It felt exactly like suddenly becoming a mother to a daughter who looked older than she did.
And worse, this "daughter's" entire appearance had been conceived by someone else centuries ago.
"I see." The Girl with the Pearl Earring lowered her eyes, looking visibly disappointed. "I apologize," she said softly.
"How about Villie? Villie Vermeer," Charlie offered.
"Is that acceptable?" The girl in the painting looked at the artist.
"Is that acceptable?" The artist repeated, looking desperately at Charlie.
"?"
"Why are you looking at me? Aren't you her creator?"
Hearing that, the artist quickly grabbed Charlie by the shoulders and dragged him off to the side.
"I have no idea what I'm doing! Today was my very first attempt. I saved up for ages just to afford these magical paints, so I figured I had to reproduce a masterpiece for my first piece so I wouldn't waste them."
"I never expected that the second I finished, she would be so..."
"Vibrant and intelligent? Like an actual living person?" Charlie finished for her.
"Exactly!" The artist nodded frantically. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with her now."
"Just treat her like a normal painting," Charlie said, stating the obvious.
"How am I supposed to do that? I treat every piece I paint like my own child. But this 'child'..."
"...can't actually call you 'mum' or truly come to life, because if she did, you'd have an absolute mental breakdown, right?"
"You're bloody brilliant, you know that? What year are you? First year?"
"That's entirely beside the point. The point is, you should probably go check on your kid."
The artist snapped her head back around, only to find Villie leaning slightly out of frame, watching them.
The original subject of Girl with a Pearl Earring already possessed a captivating, magnetic gaze; that single glance over the shoulder was enough to inspire endless imagination.
But now, with the girl in the painting practically breathing, she looked confused and deeply unsettled as she stared at them.
The raw emotion in those beautiful eyes was magnified a hundredfold.
Charlie felt the older girl beside him physically shudder.
"Why don't you just take her? Think of it as a gift from an older student."
"Me?" Charlie was genuinely taken aback. "Aren't magical portraits insanely expensive to make?"
"I couldn't have finished her without your help. Technically, she belongs to you too."
Charlie stared at her in dead silence.
"Alright, alright, just look at it as doing me a massive favor, please? I swear I'm never painting a magical portrait ever again."
"Fine, whatever. I'm just going to hang it up somewhere anyway," Charlie nodded, giving in.