After leaving the headmaster's office, Edward realized that he did not have classes for the rest of the day. So, he went to the Room of Requirement. Midway through his journey, he met Helena and he invited her to accompany him.
"Helena, do you remember your mother mentioning something about a magic referred to as Limiter?"
"Limiter? Yes, I remember that she did mention it briefly. From what I remember, my mother and uncle Salazar were the best at this kind of magic. However, she only briefly mentioned and told me she would explain everything in detail when the time was right….Unfortunately, the time was never right."
"It's alright now," said Edward after seeing the sadness in her face. Then, the two of them entered the Room of Requirement. After choosing the research room that he designed personally, he entered.
After Edward entered the room, Edward started to reminisce.
He remembered all the amazing time he had in this room during his time in school, he remembered all the knowledge that he learned, and he also remembered all the time he spent studying the enchantments of this room.
When he started to study dark magic, he tried to sneak into the Restricted Area. However, Dumbledore always stopped him; the headmaster even placed powerful enchantments on the library that specifically detected his presence. And all the teachers were not allowed to give him a pass.
Edward spent a lot of time studying that enchantment. Unfortunately for him, every time he came close to crack it, Dumbledore would either improve it or change it to a different one.
Angered, he tried to use the Room of Requirement to give a room full of all the books of the Restricted Area, however, this plan failed too. It was then that he discovered that as the headmaster, Dumbledore had some level of control over the Room of Requirement.
So, Edward could not get access to the books in the Restricted Area. Of course, he did not give up trying. Although he knew that he could not bypass the enchantment, he used the opportunity to challenge himself and learn from the experience.
By the time he graduated, he still did not reach the level of passing Dumbledore's enchantment. This was one of the main reasons that Edward decided to become an international thief and steal all those knowledge after graduation.
He realized that no matter how talented he was, no matter how much revolutionary research that he had succeeded in, it did not change the fact that Dumbledore had more than 100 years of knowledge and skill ahead of him.
And if he wants to catch up and surpass him, he will either need a lot of time or vast quantities of knowledge. So, he chose the latter without hesitation.
Edward at the beginning of the year was more knowledgeable than Dumbledore, not to mention him now who also has all the knowledge of Voldemort. The only thing holding him back is his lack of magic power in his magic core.
After entering the Room of Requirement, Edward had two goals or purposes: one was to use all his current understanding of Alchemy to finally understand how the Room was made.
The second and main objective was to study Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. As a matter of fact, according to Helena, both of these things were created by the same person: her mother.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
From what Edward learned from her, Rowena was truly an unimaginably powerful witch--both according to ancient and modern times. Like Edward, she believed in pursuing the essence of magic and had little to no taboo when it comes to doing research.
Helena often mentioned how similar the two of them were, and Edward wished that he had met her.
He has always been interested in the diadem that can make someone smarter, so he studied it greatly.
Due to being turned into a Horcrux, a lot of the enchantments of the diadem were broken. So, Edward had to seal the soul of Voldemort's inside of it before he could study it, however, it was no use--until now.
With the knowledge of the Dark Lord, he can perfectly remove the soul from the diadem without damaging it. Then, he can study this magnificent piece of Alchemy artifact to the fullest.
---Scene Break--
Inside the Hufflepuff Common Room.
All the Hufflepuff students were surrounding two people while cheering; one person was a young man, while the other was a little girl.
The young man had a blue-eyed white dragon next to him, and two cards that were facing down. As for the girl, she had three monsters standing next to her. Despite being mere holograms made through magic, all these monsters looked so real that it was almost impossible to tell apart,
As for these two people, they were Cedric Digory and Susan Bones, and they both were playing Duel Monster Cards. As soon as he left class, he rushed to challenge Susan to acquire the reward that Professor Bones offered.
Susan looked at Cedric with a smile before saying: "I have to say, Cedric, you are probably one of the very few good duelists in the wizarding world. Unfortunately for you, besides my cousin, no one can beat me at this game."
"Susan, there is no need to brag, I have not lost the game yet. Not even close," replied Cedric with a somber look on his face. He had spent the whole vacation going over countless combinations of the cards in his deck; he read the Yu-Gi-Oh comics over and over to learn different strategies. So, he did not believe that he would lose.
"By now, you should know the meaning of the Heart of the Cards?" suddenly asked Susan.
"Yes, so what?" asked Cedric with a frown.
"Do you know that this is an actual thing in Dueling?"
"What? That's impossible," replied Cedric, and he was not the only one who reacted that way. All the other Hufflepuff students did too. Although they were all fans of Duel Monster and Yugi Mutou, they knew that the concept of the Hearts of the Cards was nothing more than something from a comic.
"That's where you are wrong!" answered little Susan with a smile. "When my cousin developed the latest generation of Dueling Disk, he used a particular magic enchantment that allowed a duelist to draw the cards that they wanted--as long as their will and beliefs were enough.
"I remember he was very proud about it and bragged to me in a ten-page letter about his accomplishment. After learning about this, I spent many months training under his consultation to achieve that level."
After saying that, Susan smiled and drew a card. After seeing it, her smile increased even more.
"I sacrifice the three monsters in the field to summon my Egyptian God Card: Obelisk the Tormentor."
The three monsters that were around her dispersed into specks of light, then a giant blue monster with wings appeared in the common room. All the students were first shocked that she drew the card she wanted. According to dueling rules, all decks have to be shuffled properly before any game.
More importantly, all the students suddenly felt a spiritual pressure that enveloped them after Obelisk showed up; it was like a mighty God that was watching them.
They all felt fear and reverence at the same time; they wanted to bow down and worship this mighty being.
Edward used some kind of spiritual magic to emulate the presence of a God, hence the reason that all the students felt the way they did. He wanted to use his understanding of the Sorting Hat to make all three Egyptian Cards have some sort of sentience, but he gave up that idea after a prototype he made attacked him to determine if he was worthy to have it.
Although the spiritual magic that the Winged Dragon of Ra used to attack him back then was nothing to him, this could not be the same for other ordinary wizards--especially children.
Back to the Hufflepuff Common Room, after Susan summoned such a powerful card, Cedric did not stand a chance in this match. His blue-eye white dragon along with all his remaining cards in the field was instantly destroyed, and he lost the game.
As for Susan, from that day on, she became the rising star of Hufflepuff. And soon, the entire school.