Charlie hung the shop painting and hurried away.
The Great Hall, dinner time.
Harry and Ron showed up and plopped themselves right at the Ravenclaw table.
The long tables were almost empty, so friends could sit wherever they wanted. Well—except the Slytherin table.
"Charlie, where have you been lately?" Harry asked. He'd tried to find him a few days ago but kept missing him, like Charlie had vanished.
Harry had even asked a Ravenclaw classmate at dinner, but the guy just shrugged and said he hadn't seen Charlie in the common room either.
"How could we keep missing each other?" Charlie thought back and spread his hands helplessly. "Guess our timing's just bad. I'm here for meals, though."
"Really?" Ron sounded skeptical.
"More accurately, breakfast. Lunch and dinner depend on the day."
Yeah—Charlie only showed up reliably for breakfast. After that he'd grab some food to go and head straight to the Room of Requirement.
"Merlin's pants," Ron groaned, slapping his forehead. "Charlie, do you not sleep in? Who even eats breakfast during the holidays?"
Charlie gave a small smile. True—the breakfast crowd was nothing like the dinner crowd.
During break, only about seven or eight students showed up for breakfast besides the professors. Dinner right now had twenty, maybe thirty.
"Anyway, what's up? You guys looking for me?"
"We don't need a reason," Ron said. "If we have to have one, it's just to hang out."
Harry nodded and made the offer. "Want to come to our common room later? We can play wizard chess or Gobstones."
"You know how to play chess now?" Charlie looked at Harry in surprise. Last time Ron and Hector had their big match in the Great Hall, Harry had looked completely lost.
"Ron taught me over the break," Harry explained.
Charlie thought for a second, then nodded. "Sure, I'm in. You guys allowed to bring outsiders in?"
"Of course—should be fine," Ron said.
"No one will mind, little Ronnie," a big hand suddenly clapped Ron on the back of the head, and another hand ruffled his hair.
It was Fred and George, Ron's twin older brothers.
"Wow, you two are even rarer guests," Ron grumbled, twisting around to glare at them. "Where have you two been the last few days?"
"Out living it up, obviously," Fred said.
"Living the high life!" George added.
The answer made zero sense. They were still inside the school—how much "living it up" could they possibly be doing?
Fred wagged a finger in the air. "You wouldn't understand, little Ronnie. But it's fine—you can just stay in the common room and play."
George turned to Harry. "Of course, if Harry and Charlie want to come with us, we'd be happy to have two more."
"What about me?" Ron growled. "You're just gonna leave me out? If you don't take me I'm telling Mum."
Harry waved his hands quickly. "We're good—we'll just hang in the common room."
"Fine by us," Fred and George said, waving at the three of them before heading out of the Great Hall.
Ron turned back and rolled his eyes. "I don't believe they're actually doing anything that exciting in school."
"Who knows?" Charlie pulled a dish of blueberry pudding toward himself and scooped up a bite. "Maybe they sneak out through some secret passage, buy a bunch of butterbeer and fancy food from the kitchens, round up some friends, and throw a party at night!"
Ron and Harry's eyes went wide. "You can do that?"
"Wouldn't surprise me," Charlie said with a grin. "Just a guess. Maybe they even get drunk and start singing at the top of their lungs."
The more Charlie talked, the more interested Ron looked. He licked his dry lips. "Whatever. Forget them. Let's eat fast and head to the common room."
Charlie nodded and went back to his pudding.
After dinner the three of them headed toward the Gryffindor Tower.
The Gryffindor common room entrance was guarded by a painting: a portrait of a very friendly-looking, plump woman.
"Password," she said.
"Red-capped old man," Harry answered.
The Fat Lady smiled, replied "Merry Christmas," and her frame swung open like a door, revealing a stone corridor.
Walking down the dimly lit passage, Charlie said, "That password sounds like it was changed for Christmas."
Red-capped old man was obviously Santa.
Ron nodded. "Yeah, the Fat Lady changes the password every week or two. I swear she spends her free time thinking up the next one."
That reminded Charlie of all the times Neville got locked out because he couldn't remember the password.
"Still beats Ravenclaw," Charlie said.
At the exact same moment, Harry and Ron both turned and gave him the same weird look.
"You have to answer a riddle every single time and you think that's better?" Harry asked.
Ron added, "I'm pretty sure people get locked out all night because they can't answer the question, right?"
"Yeah," Charlie nodded. "But answering a riddle only takes ten or fifteen seconds at the door. Having to memorize a brand-new password every couple of weeks wastes way more brainpower, doesn't it?"
"Not even close," Harry and Ron said together, shaking their heads. "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw."
"Fair enough," Charlie shrugged. "Mainly I just think solving the little brain-teaser riddles is actually fun. Memorizing a password just to get through a door feels like a total waste of mental energy."
His explanation still didn't convince them. They both looked at him like he was crazy.
The Gryffindor common room was warm and cozy. A fire crackled in the hearth, and some unknown magic spread the heat evenly into every corner.
Harry grabbed a chess set—Seamus's—while Charlie used Ron's older, well-worn pieces.
They started playing. Ron watched from the side. After only four or five moves Ron was already itching to butt in, hovering and making frantic little noises every time Harry moved.
Charlie stayed calm. Harry really was a total beginner; his chess skills were still pretty rough.
While he waited for Harry to think, a line of text suddenly popped up in front of Charlie's eyes.
[From Eric Tucker: Wish Dust +0.3]
[From Angela Burton: Wish Dust +0.4]
?!
Charlie froze for a second, then his eyes widened in disbelief and the corners of his mouth curled up on their own.
Lely! How the heck did you pull this off? We've been open less than half a day and the shop's already making sales?!
He quickly opened the system panel.
[Wish Dust: 18.1]
[Specializable Targets: Levitation Charm, Repair Charm, Fire-Making Charm, Scouring Charm, Petrification Curse, Dancing Feet Spell, Unlocking Charm…]
[Current Traits: Natural Harvest (You can collect free-floating energy from the natural world.)
Softening Charm (You can cast the Softening Charm on yourself silently and wandlessly.)]
Eighteen points!
Ever since he'd specialized the Softening Charm, his Wish Dust had been sitting at a measly 7.3. The new points—aside from the little bit he'd just earned—mostly came from Harry's big Halloween order.
The rest were tiny bits from the chocolate he'd given Dumbledore after the Quidditch match, plus whatever Anthony and Hector had eaten here and there.
Thank Merlin.
The old saying was right: if you want to get rich, you have to learn how to open new revenue streams while cutting costs.
Lately Charlie had been so focused on cutting costs that he hadn't dared specialize a single new spell. Why? Because he had no reliable way to earn more Wish Dust. That was exactly why he'd gone through all the trouble of setting up the magic-painting shop—to open a new source.
Now that he finally had a steady channel for Wish Dust, he could relax and start specializing the spells he'd learned.
At the same time—
The moment his attention left the system panel, he noticed something subtly different about the world around him.
For example, the chess pieces right in front of him…
They seemed to have a faint highlight around them now?
[Specializable Item]
Excited, Charlie quickly pulled out his own wand.
No highlight.
He sighed. Just like how the specializable spells didn't include Transfiguration or the Undetectable Extension Charm, his wand still wasn't in the specializable category for real-world objects.