Chapter 37: Incongruity
Time flowed forward like the sand spilling in an hourglass. The daily life of Hogwarts was as peaceful as ever. If Pro hadn't known better, he would have believed that the entire year would just be as peaceful. He can only hope that his little trinkets will help him survive.
Hermione's birthday on September 19 arrived quickly. Fortunately, Pro had already prepared birthday cake and ordered a little feast from the kitchen elves of Hogwarts. Then, Pro celebrated Hermione's birthday with Harry and Ron.
Afterwards, Pro celebrated Hermione's birthday again, but this time privately inside the Room of Requirements with Hermione. Well, Pro wasn't going to explain what special gift he had prepared, but when they came out, the cute Hermione had a faint blush on her face.
Harry and Ron's detention also went by in a flash. Harry also managed to have his first encounter with the voice. Pro could already guess what that was, but there was nothing he could do about it at this time.
"Wait ... how come I keep feeling something is wrong whenever I think of that monster?" Pro mumbled as his brows furrowed due to the sense of incongruity.
Pro had been having this feeling for a while now, but he couldn't figure out what is wrong. His instincts seemed to be nagging him that there was something wrong, but he can't think of it.
"Eh, let's stop thinking about it. For now, I should focus on the grind. After this year, it may be difficult to have a free access into the restricted section like I am doing now. Even though there are still some books that I am prevented from borrowing, I can still grind the rest of the books before time runs out."
Besides the books for XP grind, Pro had also gotten his hands on an important occlumency book, 'Protection Charm Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Counter Legilimensy'. Even though Pro believed that this should be a book placed out in the open library, this book was hidden in the restricted section for some reason. It seems a certain wizard wants to keep his trouble-making students open-minded for easier manipulation.
"Well, I got to learn this sooner or later. I'll have Hermione practice with me inside the Room of Requirement. We will both need it, and it can also help me discover what exact parts of my memory are hidden."
Nodding to himself, Pro borrowed the book and began to practice with Hermione. Of course, the first thing to be learned is leglimency, the spell used to peer into others' mind. Unfortunately, Pro's learning capabilities was far beneath Hermione.
Checking his system magic page, Pro noticed that leglimency was a magic spell that requires a very high level of magic to unlock. Basically, he had no chances for cheating at the moment. After weeks of practice, Hermione got the first shot to help Pro build his defenses.
Fortunately, even Hermione couldn't master such a difficult spell at such an early age. So, her leglimency was fairly weak and gave a chance for Pro to have a good learning experience in building his mind barrier.
Through a month of practice, Pro had also discovered the intricacies of his memories. With Hermione's help in checking his memories, Pro knew that his memories of this world was completely unprotected, including his childhood memories that he didn't experience.
On the other hand, his memories of his previous world were completely protected by what Pro deemed to be the system barrier. Pro wasn't too sure how strong this barrier was, but Pro knew that Hermione wasn't able to even find it. Even Pro wouldn't be able to discover it had he not practiced occlumency.
Another important thing to note is that all of his memories in this world that had anything to do with his system were not blocked; however, the existence of his system was completely hidden to outsiders that delved into his memories. This matched Pro's initial guess when he first put on the sorting hat.
Basically, most of his important memories are protected by the system. So, Pro had no worries, but his current memories could be in danger. After a lot of exploring with Hermione, Pro also managed to discover a blank area in Pro'shis memory!
Unfortunately, their low level of skills couldn't tell what that memory implies. After a bit of discussion, Hermione made the guess that someone had used the memory charm on Pro, but both had no guesses on who would do so. They didn't even know when that part of the memory occurred nor did they have any clues regarding the contents of that memory. There was also no way to recover it with their skills, so they could only helplessly give up.
With this discovery, Pro finally realized what was causing his sense of incongruity, but he still wasn't able to pinpoint the cause at the moment. So, he could only diligently practice his occlumency while grinding XP by reading. Of course, he also occasionally sold some wares to bolster his funds, but this was only a side job now since he had other things to grind, such as agility XP.
Going through the agility obstacle course at the Quidditch stadium was a must for Pro, and the only times he could do so is when the Gryffindor team books the stadium for training.
Although Pro missed the tryouts previously, he eventually still made it to a normal tryout for the Quidditch team. It was then that Wood happily added him in as a substitute chaser. Henceforth, with the constant grinding of the obstacle course, Pro's agility level gradually rose to level 12, bring a fancy new trick to Pro's arsenal.
[Sloth Grip Roll] Roll over and hang upside down on the broom to dodge an attack. Will automatically roll back upwards immediately after dodging or after 3 seconds of hanging upside down. Legs will be fixated to broom and player won't fall off during the duration of the skill. CD: 1m
With another handy skill that also costs 10% run energy to activate, Pro did have some hope to join the team directly, but his skills were a far cry from the senior chasers of Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson.
With his extra system Quidditch skills, Pro could barely be compared to Alicia Spinnet. Perhaps, his flying skills can be considered to be above hers by a clear margin, but his scoring skills definitely needs more practice. As a chaser, no matter how well you fly, you still need to be able to score to be useful.
"It seems I will need to start practicing my ranged skill in the Room of Requirements. That is a skill that scoring heavily depends on in Quidditch. This was even more clear when I discovered that trying to score points against a goalkeeper actually gave me some ranged XP, albeit only a little and only when the goalkeeper fully focuses on stopping my shot."
Just another skill that needs to be put on the grinding list. Honestly, Pro is starting to feel that he didn't have enough time. There was simply too much skills to grind!
"Well, I need to work hard on my studies then. Hopefully, I will be able to get a time turner next year. Even if it will cost a couple years of my lifespan, I definitely need it for grinding."
The time-turner is the ultimate hack for grinders. It may also be one of the reasons that Hermione turned from a genius to a hard core team carry. Well, she's already a carry right now, but it would only be more insane later on. Although one year of time-turning may now seem to be a lot, for a genius like Hermione, it was like adding wings to a tiger.
With Pro's busy schedule, the damp chill of October arrived before he realized it. Students began to catch colds all over. Even Pro was unlucky and caught it. This was most likely due to Wood's Quidditch training sessions in the harsh weather.
Honestly, Pro already began to have thoughts of quitting the Quidditch team. If there was anyone that kept him in the team, it was actually Harry. That friend of his told him that he shouldn't ditch him, and that they should suffer together. What a good friend he is.
Well, maybe the real reason that Pro stayed in was due to his cute little girlfriend. Rain or shine, the cute Hermione would come to support him during practice. Even when he told her she should stay indoor to keep warm, she still insisted on coming.
Pro was helpless, but he finally became angry when she got sick. It was then that the cute Hermione finally learned to be obedient and listened to Pro. Of course, Pro still persuaded her by saying that he would need her to take care of him when he falls sick, so she should wait for him without getting sick.
Well, with Madam Pomfrey's Pepperup potion, the cold wasn't too much of an issue, but any excuse to keep his dear Hermione warm and safe was a good thing. The bad thing was that he, along with Hermione and Ron, was invited to Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party by Harry. Pro agreed with Ron about one thing for once, that party would be dead depressing.
So, while the rest of the students enjoyed the amazing Halloween feast, the four of them headed off to the gloomy dungeons. Recalling the following plot, Pro sighed. Well, at least he knew that staying besides Harry's side is safe until the final boss battle.
As the four approached the party room, Pro felt a gloomy chill brush against his skin as he observed the candles that lined the passageway like funeral decorations. Well done, Harry, the savior boy who likes to drag his friends along to suffer with him.
Well, Pro wasn't going to complain though. The creepy, gloomy atmosphere also brought a benefit to Pro. Feeling the faint warmth of the body that was pressing up against him, Pro smiled and looked over to seeing Hermione almost gluing herself to him as she examined the surroundings.
Of course, there was not much fear in her eyes. She was simply cold. Well, the two innocent boys in front believed her excuse and didn't find it weird that the other two were much too close to be considered normal.
Entering the party, Pro was greeted by the ghostly atmosphere of the party. It was so ghostly that the four of them were the only living beings there. The rest were ghosts, and Pro could only observe them with interest from afar, but avoided contact with them. Although he couldn't physically touch them, passing through them is also a chilling experience.
Well, the party wasn't too fitting for the living. Even the food was charred and rotten, but at least Pro saw some interesting characters such as Moaning Myrtle. Hermione, who was speaking ill of her behind her back, tried to lie her way out of it like usual, but Peeves the bully didn't let poor Myrtle off.
After 'enjoying' the party for a bit, Harry obviously picked the perfect time to leave. Suddenly, Harry stumbled to a halt. Seeing this, Pro peeked at his mini-map and noticed two yellow dots nearby that were not part of their party, and one of those dots was traveling through the wall!
"As expected, that should be the basilisk isn't it?" Pro thought as his pupils shrunk a bit.
The unknown may be scary, but sometimes knowing too much can also be frightful. After all, Pro knew his strength can't compare to the basilisk. He wasn't the protagonist that could fight that thing head on.
Then, the idiotic Harry decided to chase the voice. Seeing him run off, Pro could only helplessly follow. He didn't want to be left behind and accidentally be chosen as food. Against Ginny, Harry is always the get-out-of-jail free card.
Of course, it didn't take long for the group to see the blood-stained words painted on a wall. Poor Mrs. Norris was also found petrified and was hanging from a torch bracket like a decoration.
"This still happened in the end huh? If only I had prevented it from the start ..." Pro mumbled to himself, but suddenly, his body stiffened as a jolt of pain struck his head.
"Ugg."
"What's wrong, Pro?" Hermione asked in a worried voice when she saw him clutch his forehead.
The two boys glanced at Pro before Ron suggested, "Let's get out of here."
"Shouldn't we try and help-" Harry began to delay time.
"Trust me. We don't want to be found here," Ron replied, being smart for once.
Of course, they couldn't escape. Pro also didn't have any time to care about them now. His head was hurting as a fragment of memory appeared in his mind. As the pain subsided, Pro finally recalled something.
"The diary ... what did I do with it?"
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