Chapter 108: Quietening Charm
Outside the classroom, the stone walls illuminated by candlelight gave a hoot. Mr Owl lifted one claw and, like a circus performer, adjusted his spectacles.
His other foot gripped a roll of parchment tightly. His big eyes gleamed as brightly as they had the day Professor McGonagall appeared in the fireplace.
Beside the soft cushion, to the left of the gold‑edged letter, lay a jumper that looked dignified and comfortable. A note rested on its blue‑and‑white collar:
My mother sent lots of jumpers. You are not the only one.
Your friend, Hermione Granger
As if to prove the point, two more jumpers sat to the left of this one, clearly labelled: For Justin, For Neville.
Shawn's smiles were always faint. The corner of his mouth curved into a small arc, but it was enough to draw the attention of the figures peeking through the crack in the door.
Mr Owl flapped his wings and squawked loudly, "Young wizards! Silly young wizards!"
"Please keep it down…" Justin pressed his palms together until Mr Owl stopped squawking and turned his head a hundred and eighty degrees.
Then he slyly opened one eye, as if he could see through the sky‑blue door to the scene inside.
Shawn tucked the jumpers away in the wardrobe. Just when he thought there were only two, he noticed a third beneath Justin's parcel, noticeably larger than the others.
A crumpled note lay on top:
Shawn, I… don't have anything else…
Shawn's smile grew a little more visible. His Quick‑Quotes Quill scratched a few notes on the back of the slip.
Thank you. It is enough.
In one morning, Shawn had received three jumpers. Along with the dilemma of which to wear came another question: what should he give in return?
One‑sided friendships never lasted. Like all affections, friendship was a long stretch of tending that blurred with time.
As the fire blazed fiercer, Shawn glanced casually at the door. Perhaps they should have cast a Quietening Charm on Mr Owl. That way his squawking would not have reached him.
Shawn quietly put away the wand he had planned to use for grinding the Quietening Charm proficiency. Instead, he gathered the three jumpers and walked slowly toward the door.
That terrified the three students pressed against the crack. They scrambled toward the spiral staircase.
"Haha – silly young wizards!" Mr Owl crowed, then quickly lifted a claw to cover his beak.
"A Ravenclaw… owl should not laugh like that…"
Once Shawn was sure they had all left, he pushed open the door.
He carried the three jumpers and his broom, and before long he walked into Ravenclaw Tower.
The cold wind no longer bothered him. After all, he had a new jumper to wear. His first… three new jumpers.
But later, Shawn discovered there were more than three.
…
"Just round the corner ahead," a wizard with lively red hair said, emerging from behind a painting. It was Fred Weasley.
"Strange. How does even Ron know where Green goes?" an identical face said, lifting the portrait frame. George blinked.
"Unless he is a clock, to be that precise!"
"Well, he would have to be a clock that gets paid… Sss—" Fred started to reply, then turned white as a sheet.
"Are you imitating a snake? A rattlesnake? Hiss… Professor Snape," George said, having just put the painting back. He stood at attention.
Professor Snape stared at them ominously, his billowing robes like rolling storm clouds. After waving his wand at the secret passage, he swept away.
"Rare. Truly rare…" Fred muttered, rooted to the spot.
"We survived?" George patted Fred up and down, then nodded slightly. His twin was indeed unharmed.
"This is not right…" Fred swatted away George's hand, which had strayed toward his mouth.
"Of course it is not right…" George danced forward a step, and the two advanced in their usual bickering fashion.
Neither of them noticed that the items in their hands had gained an extra piece.
…
At the end of the corridor,
Shawn spotted the flame‑orange hair at once. Fred and George's steps always looked like leaps.
"Two Galleons, good sir!" Fred's hand swept through the air in several arcs, then he bowed.
"Though we nearly died just now…" George said, holding up a full set of clothes and shaking his head with a smile.
"But we took the job. Risk is on us!" Fred pulled the boots from the bag and shoved them into Shawn's hands along with everything else, filling his arms to bursting.
"Wait…" This time George noticed the three jumpers Shawn was already holding. He squinted one eye.
"Jumper collector?"
Before Shawn could speak, Fred cut in, "Still no discount!"
As they chattered on, Shawn had no idea if he would ever escape. So he placed two Galleons into Fred's hand from his Undetectable Extension Charm pouch, said thanks, and turned to leave.
"He has an Undetectable Extension Charm bag! Did you see that, George?"
"Unless a rattlesnake bit my eyes… I mean, we need to do more business with him!"
When Shawn returned to the dormitory, he realised he did not need to choose a jumper after all. Right in the centre of the pile of clothes was a pure black jumper with a green collar.
Shawn thought, unbidden, of the dark, brooding eyes at the dungeon entrance. Sure enough, he found a note tucked inside:
Wear it.
As terse as ever.
Once he left Ravenclaw Tower, the cold wind no longer fazed him. His mind was filled with a tightly packed schedule of Charms practice.
His Quietening Charm was already at Entry. It would not take much more proficiency to grind it to Proficient.
The only real challenge was the Disillusionment Charm. It was the most complex spell Shawn had learned so far, as Professor Flitwick's notes made abundantly clear.
Quietening Charm took up three paragraphs. The Disillusionment Charm took ten full pages, covering everything from history to detail.
Looking at [Disillusionment Charm: Not Unlocked (0/30)], Shawn's resolve only hardened.
Though his ordinary green talent would not let him master the difficult charm easily, that did not mean he could not succeed once.
With one successful attempt, Shawn could use the panel to turn it into thirty.
And once a spell reached Apprentice level, he would gain new insight.
Stacking strength like this did not believe in talent.
The October wind howled not just through the corridors but even into the classroom, where it made the fireplace flicker briefly. A single hoot from Mr Owl, however, and the fire roared back fiercer than before.
Justin and Hermione pretended to be busy, but they had been stealing glances at Shawn, who was focused on practising Quietening Charm, for quite some time now.
Only Neville was genuinely absorbed, carefully tending to his Fanged Geranium.