Chapter 26: Review

The stall door was yanked open violently, and Allen let out a earth-shattering scream of terror.

He struggled to his feet and looked at the person outside the stall.

"How is it you?" the two of them said in unison.

It turned out to be Hermione; her eyes were wide with shock as she stared at Allen: "What are you doing in the girls' bathroom?"

Allen's face flushed red, his eyes darting away as he dared not look at Hermione: "Um... I'm here to think about life..." Allen offered a reason he didn't even believe himself.

"Hmph! Do you think that reason can fool me?" Hermione's face was full of disbelief.

"Then what are you doing here?" Seeing he couldn't bluff his way out, Allen quickly changed the subject.

"Isn't it perfectly normal for me to be here? What are you doing sneaking into the girls' toilet?" Hermione was not fooled by Allen at all.

Allen was now speechless; standing in a moral low ground, there was no way he could answer correctly.

Hermione noticed Allen's predicament and decided to generously let him off the hook this once.

She held up the parchment in her hand and said in a light tone: "Why did you come here all by yourself to study Ancient Runes?"

Ancient Runes? Allen's eyes widened in surprise, then he eagerly grabbed a sheet of parchment, pointing at the characters on it to ask Hermione: "Is this thing Ancient Runes?"

Hermione looked at Allen, whose state was clearly off, with confusion and said: "Yes, this is Ancient Runes! We only start this course in our third year; I've only seen it in a book. Look, the meaning of this character is 'light'..."

Allen stared blankly at Hermione as she spoke eloquently, and Hermione soon felt embarrassed under his gaze.

"Don't look at me like that!" Hermione was a bit shy.

"Oh, oh, oh, then do you know the meanings of these Ancient Runes?" Allen came to his senses and asked eagerly, holding a stack of parchment.

"I recognize one of the characters, this one, it means 'diameter'." Hermione patiently finished reading all the characters on the parchment and pointed to one of them, stating it confidently.

"I don't know much about Ancient Runes either; I just memorized a few after seeing them." Hermione added.

At that moment, she looked up at Allen, only to find him staring at her with sparkling eyes, which made her feel somewhat at a loss.

Allen finally snapped out of it and said sincerely to Hermione: "Gran..." He noticed Hermione's eyebrows beginning to furrow, instantly realized his mistake, and quickly corrected himself, "Hermione, may I invite you to study Ancient Runes together?"

After dinner, Allen quickly returned to the dormitory bathroom to take a quick shower. Facing Harry and Ron, who were eager to come up and share their Nimbus 2000 flying experience, he could only apologetically refuse their request to share and stated he had important matters to attend to, asking them not to disturb him today as much as possible.

Then, with a heart full of apology, Allen pulled his dark red flannel curtain tight and began a new round of recording work.

Harry and Ron looked at the tightly closed curtain with full faces of confusion, but in the end, they chose to believe their friend.

Allen cast spells following the rhythm from the afternoon, constantly entering the time-slowing state and recording Ancient Runes one by one. Soon his notebook was used up, so he had to find his textbook and draw Ancient Runes upon it, one after another...

No one knew how much time had passed, but finally, thanks to Allen's efforts, he completed the copying work for the Cleaning Charm Ancient Runes.

After copying the last rune, Allen suddenly fell into a heavy sleep...

When Allen woke up, he found it was already noon the next day; his stomach was growling loudly from hunger, and he was the only one left in the dormitory.

Allen rushed to the Great Hall and ate a huge meal; only after finishing did he feel truly alive again.

At that moment, he felt as if he had had a long dream yesterday, feeling so unreal and dazed.

He pulled his notebook out from his robes and looked at the Ancient Runes recorded on it; only then did he confirm that everything that happened yesterday was real.

Having gotten sufficient rest, he was in high spirits and began to calmly review yesterday's events.

First was the appearance condition of the Thunderbird Eye; Allen always felt its condition for appearing wasn't that simple, so he had to try hard to recall everything that happened that day...

Then he found a blank space in his notebook and began to record his own thought.

Sleeping naked???

This was the first thing Allen thought of; he wrote this down on a line in his notebook, then heavily wrote three question marks.

He studied the words on the notebook, his mind racing to think whether this behavior had a sufficient connection to his ability to transform the Thunderbird Eye.

Birds flying in the sky has always been a symbol of freedom, and his sleeping naked was precisely a behavior of breaking free from constraints and yearning for freedom; perhaps it matched the will of birds yearning for freedom perfectly!

But he didn't expect Hermione to come over and greet him at that moment, accidentally seeing the words on his notebook. Before Allen could snap out of it, she spat "Pah!", blushed, and ran away.

Allen watched her retreating figure with a bitter smile on his face; his image in her heart was probably getting worse and worse.

Soon Allen cast this small matter aside and continued the review.

Professor Snape's potion—this point seems very relevant; highlight it.

Wand talent transformation—this is certain.

Being woken up in the middle of the night and having a bunch of things said. Allen thought about it for a long time and still decided to cross out this condition.

So now only three conditions remain; to gather these three conditions, he would have to wait until next month when collecting the potion. Allen frowned at the potion item and drew a circle around it.

It seems he must find a way to get hold of the potion's formula; this potion is likely a necessary condition. Waiting passively for once a month is too passive; he must take the initiative. Allen secretly made up his mind, then immediately let out a bitter smile; his good relationship with Harry was known to many, and Professor Snape's dislike for Harry was also laid bare on the surface; this path seemed destined to be tortuous.

Then Allen thought again about the process of him copying the Ancient Runes from the light curtain.

This process was really too headache-inducing! Allen thought about this problem with a headache; his head was still throbbing intermittently due to frequently entering the time-slowing state yesterday.

Is there any way to replace this method? Thinking of this, his head hurt even more.

Suddenly, he thought of the short videos he had watched before; Professor Dumbledore seemed to have a large basin that could hold his own and others' memories to be watched repeatedly; most importantly, this viewing process seemed to have no burden on the body.

If he could master the ability to extract his own memories and also borrow that large basin, then he could record the runes he saw very freely! Allen thought happily.

Although it looked quite difficult, not doing it made success impossible; he should treat this as a long-term plan. Allen made up his mind.

Thinking of this, Allen began to think again about how to handle the Thunderbird Eye; the content seen by the Thunderbird Eye must definitely be kept secret; otherwise, if people found out he could see the Ancient Runes contained within spells, he would probably lose his freedom in the future, so he must never say a word even under threat of death.

Finally, there was the issue of the carrier for the Ancient Runes.

There are two directions to solve the problem: first, find materials capable of carrying a large amount of Ancient Runes; second, find other methods to record Ancient Runes so they do not erode the parchment.

He couldn't afford to buy too much parchment! Allen thought with a bitter smile, and once again shed tears of poverty...