The Bard of Hogwarts

Chapter 198 The Shocking Change at the Shelter, Second Perspective

Unlike the veiled attacks between the two girls.

Ino stood on the snow and ice of the shelter, carrying a suitcase and looking strange.

Just minutes earlier, thinking about the fun of alchemy with dolls, he had returned to the sanctuary alone in a secluded corner outside the castle.

I thought it would just be a normal entry.

But when they actually entered the shelter, they found that everything was slightly different.

Ino realized that there was another perspective in her vision, or rather, in her senses. It was roughly like a split screen on a television, with two screens and two visual angles.

But what puzzled him was that the second split screen seemed to have a poor connection; not only was the view completely black, but the surrounding environment also seemed to have some kind of limitation.

Just as he was thinking about the limitations, he felt as if he had touched something in his second-person perspective.

"Hmm? It can move..."

Ino looked up in surprise.

It's a strange sensory experience, like vigorously slapping a sponge while wearing thick gloves. It doesn't hurt much, but you still get a tactile sensation.

This discovery piqued his interest.

Yes, enthusiasm. As for feelings of worry and fear, they simply won't exist in the shelter; there's no safer place than here.

Since he had taken a liking to it, he decided to abandon his design of the dolls and immediately sat down on the ground to begin exploring the wonders of the second perspective.

……

Time passed by, second by second.

"A rectangular space..."

Sitting on the ground, Ino rested her chin on her hand, carefully calculating the experience she had just had.

In the second-person perspective, he can move, although his movement speed is unclear.

However, assuming that the movement distance is equal each time, after exploring up, down, left, and right continuously, based on the time difference of each touch, it can be roughly calculated that the second perspective is in a rectangular enclosed space.

"Rectangular...closed..." Ino immediately turned to look at the suitcase.

He then chuckled and shook his head. While the suitcase met the requirements, the seamless extension space couldn't be completely dark, unless it was in Muggle mode...

"Muggle mode! Rectangle!"

As if suddenly remembering something, Ino decisively opened the briefcase in Muggle mode.

A few ordinary clothes, a small bag of candy, and... a single wardrobe shrunk to only one foot in size.

Although he already had a guess in his mind, he still carefully opened the wardrobe.

A sliver of light pierced the sky, illuminating the pitch-black night!

Of course, this is what is seen from a second-person perspective.

Opening the wardrobe transformed by the shrinking spell, one finds a small wisp of black smoke inside.

He was very familiar with this thing; it was the Boggart that Lupin had given him after his Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

It was initially placed in the inner bedroom, but considering Draco's feelings, they had no choice but to use a shrinking spell to make the wardrobe smaller and put it in the suitcase.

More than two months have passed, and what should have been forgotten has reappeared in another form.

Looking at the wisp of smoke in the closet, Ino felt like he was looking in a mirror, because in his second-person perspective, he saw himself—a face that resembled that of a giant.

"Not a spirit, nor a magical creature... merely a conscious emotion..."

At that moment, he knew very well that everyone had misunderstood Boggart.

The black smoke before them was merely a mass of emotions coalescing due to magic; the difference was that the one inside the box was unconscious, while the wild Boggart possessed independent consciousness.

Perhaps it was because of this that the sanctuary's mechanisms were perfectly circumvented, leaving only a lifeless mass of emotions. Boggart's consciousness was merely erased, not completely dissipated.

After all, there was the precedent of Voldemort's Horcruxes as a reference. Although it was also an intangible entity, the Horcruxes were in a soul state, which is why they were completely erased and dissipated.

While calculating in his mind, Ino also bent down to carefully examine the black mist in front of him.

"A wisp of smoke, since it has no solid form, should be able to fly..."

The moment the thought crossed his mind, the black mist in his vision slowly rose.

A quarter of an hour.

After a brief period of getting acquainted, Ino also discovered that the black, misty Boggart in front of her was like a remote-controlled car, able to move freely according to her thoughts.

Unlike remote-controlled toys with limited field of view, Borg has a 360° all-around field of view without blind spots, truly embodying the movement effect of ape vision.

After the initial novelty wears off...

Ino leaned against the snow, lost in thought.

"I wonder if the fear is still there..."

For some reason, he kept recalling his previous conversations with Lupin, or rather, the contents of Lupin's notes. They mentioned that Boggart was actually intricately connected to the Nightmare.

They are both without physical form, and both feed on fear.

Of course, the speculations in the notes are just one person's opinion, and they are based on a sufficient understanding of nightmares.

However, in reality, no one in the entire magical world has ever seen a Nightmare, let alone understood it.

Therefore, all records about nightmares have become unfounded speculation and legend.

……

While Ino was in the shelter pondering and considering things,

In the corridor on the lower level of the castle.

At this moment, the confrontation has finally reached a more intense stage.

Daphne's face turned somewhat unpleasant, especially with more and more people watching around her. Not only did she not gain any advantage in the verbal exchange, but she was also repeatedly subjected to veiled sarcasm from the other party.

"So how long are you going to block the way! Instead of wasting your time here, you should go and read more books so you don't talk nonsense."

Hermione's eyes sharpened.

She also noticed that the area around her was already packed with people, all of them Slytherin girls, and that only Harry and Ron were with her.

Ron also sensed something was amiss. He knew that unlike the boys who were just watching the spectacle, the Slytherin witches were truly capable of taking action.

Ron whispered in Harry's ear, "Buddy, if a fight breaks out, take Hermione and run! I have a lot of brothers, they won't dare to do anything."

Actually, Ron had another half-sentence in his heart that he didn't say aloud: no matter what, he would always be a Weasley.

Although he doesn't endorse the pure-blood ideology, he is still a legitimate member of the Holy Twenty-Eight Pure-Blood Families, which makes Slytherins hesitant to attack him.

Harry didn't speak, but simply nodded slightly before clenching his fist. Surrounded by dozens of girls, he hadn't forgotten the escape instinct he'd developed during his Muggle elementary school years.

"Get out of the way!" a shout rang out.

As soon as she finished speaking, Daphne decisively stepped aside, and the Slytherin girls surrounding them also made way.

Snape walked through the crowd expressionlessly, first glancing at Harry, then turning his gaze to Hermione Granger, who was surrounded in the middle, looking defiant.

On his way there, he had already heard Malfoy recount the general course of events, but the scene before him still left him somewhat dazed.

Once upon a time, there was also a Gryffindor girl.

One weekend after the start of first grade, Naïve ran to the Slytherin common room to find her friend.

(End of this chapter)