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His background story and the contents of the suitcase were, of course, a narrative Louis had prepared in advance.
In the apocalypse, a child carrying such a heavy suitcase was inherently an attention-grabbing sight.
Before learning the Undetectable Extension Charm, the invisibility cloak and wand could perhaps be kept close to his person, but those precious magic books had to be carried at all times.
Rather than being secretive and inviting suspicion, it was better to expose it proactively to the light of day.
The image of a naive orphan, immersed in the "well-intentioned lies" woven by his parents and firmly believing himself to be a Wizard, was undoubtedly the best disguise.
For an eleven-year-old child to be obsessed with these "fairy tales" and "toy wands" seemed perfectly normal to anyone.
Once he learned the Shrinking Charm or the Undetectable Extension Charm in the future and could properly safeguard these items, he could then declare to the world that he had "grown up," no longer clinging to past fantasies but moving forward with his parents' hopes... Judging from Shane's current reaction, his plan was undoubtedly a success.
Thinking this, Louis held his books and tiptoed under a large manager's desk.
This position was hidden enough to form a perfect blind spot; even if Shane woke up suddenly, he wouldn't be able to see what he was doing immediately.
He took out a flashlight he'd found in an office drawer, carefully adjusted the beam to its dimmest setting, used books to fix the flashlight's angle, and flipped open his magic book.
The first spell he prepared to learn was also the most basic and relatively useful one for the moment—
Wingardium Leviosa.
Louis took a deep breath, forcing his chaotic thoughts to calm down.
He recalled Hermione's standard posture when lecturing Ron in the movie, as well as the elegant "swish and flick" movement depicted in the book.
"Wingardium... Leviosa..."
He lowered his voice, imitating the syllables marked in the book with a barely audible whisper, his right hand tightly gripping that ebony wand, pointing it from a distance at a pen on the floor.
He concentrated all his focus, imagining the pen gently floating up.
"Wingardium... Leviosa!"
The tip of the wand flicked... the pen remained motionless on the floor.
Louis frowned but wasn't discouraged. Everything is hard at the beginning; for a "wild Wizard" who had never even attended a Charms Class, a first-time failure was only natural.
He cleared his throat, adjusted his grip on the wand, and tried again.
"Wingardium, Leviosa."
"Wingardium, Leviosa!"
...Time passed minute by minute. In the narrow space under the desk, only the boy's tireless, repeated incantations remained.
However, no matter how many times he tried, that damned pen seemed glued to the floor; forget floating, it didn't even bother to budge.
Why?
Louis's mindset began to grow a bit irritable. Was the pronunciation wrong? Or was the wand movement incorrect?
He recalled every detail, making constant micro-adjustments. He even switched targets several times, from the pen to a paperclip, then to a small pebble.
But the result remained disappointing.
"Wait, this isn't right, is it?"
Louis began to doubt his life choices. Could his previous judgment have been wrong?
Could it be that he had no talent for spellcasting at all? Or perhaps the physical rules of this world were different from the world of Harry Potter, causing magic to fail?
No, impossible!
The effect of the invisibility cloak was real, and the sense of affinity from the wand couldn't be faked.
The problem must lie with himself.
Was his voice too quiet? But he didn't dare be loud for fear of waking Shane nearby. Was his mindset wrong? The more he wanted to succeed, the more tense his spirit became, preventing him from entering the spellcasting state described in the book.
He kept trying over and over again, from late night until the early hours of the morning, until a sliver of light appeared on the horizon outside the window. Only then did he stop, exhausted.
However, in an entire night, he hadn't managed to learn even the simplest Wingardium Leviosa.
"Where's the 'Chosen One' I was promised? Shouldn't I be a magical genius? Why is learning even a Wingardium Leviosa so much effort?" Louis complained wordlessly.
Even if his magical talent couldn't punch Dumbledore and kick Voldemort, he should at least be at the level of Harry or Hermione, right?
Now it looked like he couldn't even reach Ron's level; at most, he was at a "half-step Ron" level.
Forget it, Louis thought. It might be a mindset issue. Too much had happened today, and he couldn't settle his mind while casting. He would wait until tomorrow to try again after relaxing.
In any case, it definitely has nothing to do with talent!
...As dawn broke, Shane was awakened by his biological clock. The first thing he saw was Louis crawling out from under the desk, sporting two massive dark circles under his eyes.
"...You really didn't sleep all night?" Shane sighed helplessly. "Kid, I told you, wake me up if you feel sleepy."
"Sorry, Officer." Louis rubbed his sore eyes and yawned. "I... I got too engrossed in studying magic and lost track of time."
Seeing the boy's face full of fatigue yet feigning ease, a wave of warmth rose in Shane's heart.
How could he not know? The child clearly wanted him to get more rest.
Shane shook his head and said nothing more, just handed over his bottle of water. "Drink some water, then go sleep on the sofa for a while. I'll go out to check the situation and find a way to leave this place."
After saying that, he stood up to check his gear.
"Officer," Louis took a sip of water and called out to him, "when you go out, don't block the door."
Hearing this, Shane frowned. "How can I do that? It's too dangerous."
"Listen to me," Louis's reasoning was clear. "If you block the door from the outside, and those things downstairs break in or danger appears upstairs, I won't even have a place to escape."
"Just close the door like this. If I hear the movement of Walkers, I can use things from the inside to block the door in time."
Shane looked at Louis's clear and rational eyes, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded.
If it were any other child, Shane wouldn't care so much.
But Louis was very smart. Leaving him a way out would allow him to judge whether to flee or hide based on the situation, which was indeed safer than simply locking him inside the room.
After watching Shane leave cautiously, Louis immediately locked the door. But he didn't go to sleep; instead, he made an incredibly bold decision.
He wanted to verify for himself just how powerful the effect of the invisibility cloak was!
He took the cloak that looked like liquid moonlight out of the suitcase, took a deep breath, and draped it over himself.
Body, breath, sound... it was as if he were instantly erased from this world. He looked down and could no longer see his own body at all.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he relied on his memory to tiptoe down the stairs and arrived before the blood-stained glass main door.
Outside the door, at least seven or eight Walkers were wandering aimlessly, completely unaware of Louis standing right next to them.
Louis's heart pounded. He slowly and tentatively extended his "invisible" right arm through a break in the glass.
Almost the instant he extended his arm out of the invisibility cloak, the nearest Walker snapped its head around, its hollow sockets "staring" intently in this direction, letting out a threatening snarl from its throat!
Immediately after, the surrounding Walkers also seemed to sense something and began to grow restless!
Startled, Louis immediately pulled his arm back!
Miraculously, the second he retracted his arm, those Walkers returned to their calm state, as if everything just now had been an illusion.
Then, he deliberately made some noise at the door. A Walker was attracted over, but it only wandered at the door and didn't try to do anything.
Louis tapped on the glass door again. The Walker tilted its head, looking suspiciously at the spot on the glass where the sound came from, but still made no move to bite.
Louis felt greatly reassured; it seemed the efficacy of the invisibility cloak was even more powerful than he had thought.
So, what about the scent?
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