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That night, in the Restricted Section.
A tiny light sprite danced between the shelves, darting left and right with open curiosity. She was careful not to touch any of the books.
Behind her, Charlie moved slowly beneath the Invisibility Cloak.
"Lumi, stay closer," he murmured.
The little sprite immediately turned and pressed herself nearer to the shelves.
"That's better." Charlie kept his voice low and fixed his eyes on the spines in front of him.
The darkness in the Restricted Section was thicker than anywhere else in the castle. If Lumi drifted more than a meter or so away, the letters on the books became impossible to read. Charlie still didn't know why. Was it the lingering magic of some single volume, or a collective effect created by so many dark texts gathered in one place?
He had visited the Restricted Section more than once and had never found the source of that heavy gloom. Whatever caused it, the darkness made the entire area feel permanently cold and watchful.
Charlie preferred silence when he wandered at night. In that quiet he could hear every small sound: the soft drip of water, strange scraping noises, the breathing of something alive, and low, indistinct murmurs that never quite formed words. Together they turned the already dark space into something quietly oppressive.
This was no longer his first visit, so the atmosphere no longer unsettled him the way it once had. The first time, though, it had set every nerve on edge.
If he remembered correctly, one of the spines here definitely carried the word "Fire."
Even after multiple trips he still refused to open certain books at random. Until now he had stuck to advanced charms and alchemy theory—material that had landed in the Restricted Section only because it was too difficult and dangerous for careless young wizards to experiment with. The books themselves were not inherently dark.
Actual dark-magic texts he still had no intention of touching.
There.
A deep crimson volume. On its spine, faded gilt letters spelled out Of Flames.
He didn't pull it free at once. Instead he rested a finger against the spine and flicked it lightly. The hard cover gave a solid knock. Three books to the left of it shivered and rustled like a startled centipede racing along the shelf.
No overly aggressive protective charms, then.
He slid the book free and opened it to the preface.
Luck was with him. This was exactly the volume he had been looking for—a systematic treatment of magical fire in all its forms.
The table of contents divided the work into four major sections: Flames in Alchemy, Flames in Potions, Magical Creatures and Their Flames, and finally—most important of all—Fire Charms and Their Applications.
The moment he finished reading the contents page, the first thought that rose in his mind was simple and greedy: I love this book. I want to take it with me.
The next second he discarded the idea.
No. Dumbledore was not an idiot. There were lines that could not be crossed. Walking out of the Restricted Section with a book under his arm was well past the point of being ignored.
Better plan: study what he needed right now, then return later to carefully copy the entire section on alchemical flames. That material alone would give him more than enough to dig into during the summer holidays. Young wizards were not allowed to use wands outside school, which made the break the perfect time for alchemy research.
Decision made, he crouched where he stood and began turning pages according to the table of contents.
He could no longer remember the exact color or nature of the magical fire Snape had used in the original story. The broad outline, however, remained clear: Harry had drunk the last bottle of potion, walked straight through the flames, and collided with Quirrell. That meant Quirrell had never solved Snape's logic puzzle. He had forced his way through by some other means, emerging completely unharmed.
High-level, extremely dangerous fire such as Fiendfyre could therefore be ruled out immediately.
The first charm listed under Fire Charms was an old acquaintance—Hermione's favorite, the Bluebell Flames.
> Bluebell Flames. The most famous member of the gentle family. Simple to learn, a vivid blue in color. Though warm and cheerful in appearance, I still do not recommend it as purely decorative fire. Given even a modest amount of fuel it will bloom into ordinary flame and summon the full beast of fire—
Time slipped by. Charlie worked steadily through every charm capable of producing fire and every specialized flame described in the volume. By the time he finished, he had a working theory about the particular fire Snape had chosen for the puzzle.
> The Slavrit Pain-Flame is not, strictly speaking, a physical fire charm. The flames it produces appear as a drifting, weightless black. In essence they are only a projection. They will not burn any non-living material. They possess no temperature and will never carbonize an object. The instant they touch living skin, however, an endless agony seems to sear the very soul.
>
> It is, without question, an interesting form of dark magic. Regarding the casting—
The reason Charlie believed this was the flame Snape had used was simple: it felt exactly like something Snape would enjoy. A magical fire that burned the soul rather than the flesh suited the man's aesthetic perfectly.
Fortunately the book treated the Pain-Flame as an ordinary charm-based fire, which meant the counters were relatively straightforward:
1. A strong Finite Incantatem
2. A high-level Confundus Charm
3. A Fire-Protection Shield—fighting fire with fire
4. A dedicated fire-repelling potion
Those four methods covered the great majority of magical flames, not only the Slavrit variety.
There was also a specialized Flame-Freezing Charm. Historical records mentioned one wizard who particularly enjoyed pretending to be captured by Muggles. They would strap him to a stake, at which point he would cast the Flame-Freezing Charm and then put on a magnificent performance of being burned alive, thoroughly entertaining himself at the Muggles' expense.
Against the more violent and exotic magical fires, however, the Flame-Freezing Charm was only marginally effective. Those wilder flames refused to be cooled so easily.
"Confundus…" Charlie's finger traced slowly across the page. "Confund the flames themselves? Make them forget what they're supposed to burn?"
Applying Confundus at that level would require extremely refined casting technique.
His attention shifted to the fourth option.
Fire-repelling potion.
Two approaches, then.
He returned to the table of contents and opened the section on Flames in Potions, locating the relevant recipes and notes.
Without him noticing, the time slipped past three in the morning. Reluctantly he closed the book, slid it back into its place on the shelf, and left the Restricted Section at a swift, quiet pace.
Back in the dormitory, four hours remained before their usual seven-o'clock wake-up. Enough.
He swallowed a Dream Chocolate and was asleep within minutes, sinking into the deepest, dreamless rest he had managed in days.