The room was deathly quiet. Charlie barely dared to breathe. Even the slightest exhale could throw off his hands.
His overloaded brain controlled everything—breathing, hands, eyes—working together like a flawless, intricate symphony.
Twenty minutes later, Charlie slowly set the carving knife down. His eyes stung, and his fingers felt stiff and cramped.
He slumped back in the chair and let out a long, ragged breath of pure relief.
After a full minute of rest, he pushed himself upright and turned to the painting.
He picked up the wooden ruler and gently slid it into the bottom drawer of the music box inside the frame. The ruler sank almost all the way before it hit bottom.
The space felt completely solid, like he was actually reaching into a real wooden drawer. The hard edges came from the spatial stabilization runes doing their job.
The runes had activated successfully.
He wasn't rushing. This was only the first test. Charlie drew his wand and tapped the tip lightly against the tiny drawer painted inside the frame.
"Gela—"
A short syllable, not a full incantation. Its only purpose was to release a tiny spatial ripple.
It came straight from the Undetectable Extension Charm section in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7.
He used it to test the charm.
After casting it, Charlie slid the ruler back in.
The depth hadn't changed.
Two clean tests. Charlie let out a slow breath. The job was finally finished.
Now all that remained was Lely's little cloth pouch.
At noon, Charlie ate the bread he'd brought that morning. It had gone a bit stale, but a quick Softening Charm fixed it.
In the quiet afternoon, deep in the empty castle, a small cheer suddenly rang out from the eighth floor and echoed down the deserted corridors.
Inside the studio, Charlie slammed the wooden ruler onto the workbench.
"Finished!"
In the painting, behind the counter in the shop window, Lely stood quietly watching the world outside the frame.
This wasn't the real Lely. She had no consciousness of her own. Even the most advanced magic paintings could only hold one conscious presence per person.
Finally, Charlie looked over at Lely's original painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring. He gave her a small nod.
"Let's begin."
"What do I need to do?" Lely asked, looking uncertain.
"Just step into this new painting," Charlie told her.
Lely nodded and carefully climbed out of her old frame, moving toward the new shop painting.
A moment later, the Lely inside the new painting blinked. Her posture suddenly came alive.
She raised her hands and looked around.
"Where am I?"
"How does it feel?" Charlie asked quickly.
Lely reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the little shop and tried to explain. "It's hard to put into words, sir."
"For a painting, I can always tell whether I'm in my own frame or not. When I'm in someone else's painting, there's this sense of detachment. It's like my whole body is wrapped in a thin membrane."
"Like oil and water."
"But in this painting, I don't feel that at all. I fit here perfectly."
Charlie smiled, satisfied.
"Then it's official. This painting is yours now. One of your homes."
The main subject of the painting was a window with an arched top. Above the window, on the outer wall, a wooden sign curved to match the arch. It read: "The Chocolate Factory."
The scene inside the painting was set in the morning. The dark green wooden window was pushed open outward. The windowsill served as the counter. On the left side of the counter sat a small music box.
Ivy climbed the walls around the window, and clusters of flowers bloomed below.
Lely rolled up her sleeves, beaming. "Then it's time. The Chocolate Factory is officially open for business!"
She slipped straight into character. Her big eyes looked out at Charlie with eager concern. "Sir, would you like a piece of chocolate?"
Charlie played along like a passing customer who had just spotted the painting. "Oh? What kinds do you have?"
In the next instant, Lely dashed back into her original black-background painting.
She lowered her voice and whispered to Charlie, "Mr. Wonka, what chocolates do we actually have?"
Charlie switched to a confident shopkeeper tone. "Right now we have Sunshine Chocolate, Moonlight Chocolate, and Dream Chocolate."
He quickly explained the effects of each one to her.
Lely popped back into the shop painting and repeated everything he'd just said.
Charlie tilted his head, pretending to think it over. "Hmm. I'll take one Sunshine Chocolate, please."
"Coming right up." Lely nodded and disappeared into the original painting again. This time she returned holding a tiny cloth pouch.
Charlie took out a piece of Sunshine Chocolate and dropped it into the mouth of Lely's pouch.
The chocolate rippled through the painting like it had been dropped into water, then vanished.
Charlie told her the prices next.
Lely listened, then popped back into the shop. "One chocolate is ten Sickles, but if you buy two, it's only one Galleon. And if you buy ten, we'll throw in an extra one for free."
"Just one piece, thanks." Charlie nodded, pulled out a Sickle, and dropped it into the little drawer of the music box inside the painting.
Lely opened the drawer in the painting, took the coin, and tucked it into her cloth pouch. Then she pulled a chocolate from the pouch and placed it in the drawer.
Once she was done, Charlie reached into the drawer on his side of the magic painting. His fingers closed around a piece of chocolate.
He pulled it out, unwrapped the greaseproof paper, and popped it into his mouth.
"A perfect transaction, Miss Lely."
Lely's eyes crinkled into happy little crescents.
"But just to be safe, there are a few rules I need to lay out."
"No matter who asks, you absolutely cannot tell anyone where the chocolate comes from. And if you ever run into me outside this painting, you have to pretend you don't know me. Take the money, no exceptions."
"I understand. Outside this painting, I don't know you at all," Lely said.
"Exactly."
"If any special customers show up, feel free to report it to me. Professors, for example. The odds are low, but who knows? Maybe one of them will notice us someday."
Lely nodded enthusiastically.
Charlie spent the next few minutes walking her through every possible scenario he could think of, along with the best ways to handle each one. Once he was satisfied, he mounted the new painting in a frame he'd found in the Room of Requirement's supply stash and attached the backing board.
Then he carried Lely's original painting back to the dormitory with him.
Lely could move freely between the two frames without any spatial restrictions.
As for where to put the shop painting, Charlie already had an idea.
He returned to the Room of Requirement with a handful of loose change. First he gave the coins to Lely, then he took the shop painting and left the room.
It was afternoon now. The castle was quiet and nearly empty. Charlie could hear footsteps from far away, giving him plenty of time to duck out of sight whenever someone approached.
He made it all the way to the second floor without running into anyone.
Yes. The second floor was perfect.
It was the busiest place in Hogwarts outside the Great Hall. The hospital wing, Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Transfiguration classroom, History of Magic classroom, and Muggle Studies classroom were all here. Plus the Charms professors' offices on the third floor and the library on the fifth.
Every student living in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor towers had to pass through here every single day, whether they had class or not. And Hufflepuffs and Slytherins living in the dungeons had plenty of reasons to come up to the second floor too.
Roughly eighty percent of the student body walked through this corridor daily.
Of course, with such a prime location, the actual spot needed to be tucked away a little. Somewhere students didn't usually linger, but still only a two-minute walk from the main traffic.
In the end, Charlie chose the far corner of a corridor, the one farthest from the main second-floor staircase.
He found an empty spot among the paintings on the wall.
Then a tricky question hit him. Could he just hammer a nail into the ancient castle walls?
"Oh, young wizard. Planning to hang a new neighbor for us?" a monk in one of the paintings asked.
Charlie kept his hood up so the painting couldn't see his face. "Yes."
The monk nodded. "Tell Hogwarts. The castle will know."
"How do I tell the castle?" Charlie asked, confused.
"Just place the painting against the wall."
Charlie pressed the painting flat against the stone. A second later, something pushed gently against the back of the frame from inside the wall.
He slowly let go. The painting stayed perfectly straight and secure, as if it had always belonged there.