In the quiet library, a bunch of parchments was arranged neatly on a table. These parchments had Sol’s neat handwriting on them. And the man himself was twirling a quill in his hands as he read a book. His other hand supported his head.

“A boggart is the most associated with ‘fear’, huh?” The book was about magical creatures. He already knew what was in the Vault of Ice. Now, he was trying to guess what was going to be inside the Vault of Fear.

“It’s going to transform into my worst fear the moment I enter the room,” Sol pondered out loud. “…my worst fear. What is my worst fear? Is it the fear of getting revealed as a reincarnator? How the fuck would you even transform into that?”

He peered into the book again. A line made his brows jump slightly. It read- “Boggarts can also transform into intangible fears. Usually transforming into an acquaintance of the victim, they perform actions that the victim fears. A person who fears getting abandoned might get the boggart to transform into a close friend, lover, or family member and say that they don’t need the victim anymore.”

“…doesn’t that make it not scary at all?” Sol scratched his head. If suddenly he saw his friends in the Vault of Fear who then said that they knew his secret, he’d just laugh at the situation or sigh in contempt.

The situation would be absurd beyond belief. At that point, the only way you’re going to get fooled is if you’re extremely dumb or have a crippling fear of whatever the boggart shows you.

“Now, that the boggart is done, just what the hell is an Ice Knight?” Sol flipped the pages of the book in his hand back to the index part. This book had records of almost all the Magical Creatures found in nature. That’s excluding creatures made artificially or by crossbreeding. Newt Scamander’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a godsend to anyone interested in Care of Magical Creatures in school.

He had read this book many times beforehand but never had he found anything called ‘Ice Knight’. This fact was unchanged even in this read-through.

Does that mean that it’s an artificial creature? Honestly, he knew what the Ice Knight was; the parchments he received from the Headmaster told him what it was. It was nothing but a frozen set of armor. It can fire ice spells from its hands and can freeze anything in contact.

But that was it. He hoped to find anything more about the Ice Knight in the books but that ended up being fruitless.

“Ugh, knowing the attack patterns would’ve been nice…” he mumbled to himself and closed the book.

“Sol, what are you doing?” Hermione’s voice rang from behind.

“Nothing,” with a steady quickness, he took out his wand and waved it at the pile of parchments on the table. They started floating above the table and neatly arranged in a clean pile. “Just studying for the tests.”

“Studying for the tests? In November?” Hermione looked at him with a strange gaze.

“Are you questioning me on this?” he shot her a funny look. Hermione averted her gaze as she realized that she really wasn’t someone to be criticizing him for this.

Unwilling to give up, she retorted, “I meant, why are you studying for the tests?”

“Hermione, if you hadn’t understood from my tone but I really wasn’t studying for the test but actually, politely responding back in a way that doesn’t reveal my true actions.”

Hermione looked at him with a dumbstruck gaze. He could almost see the buffer symbol circling over her head. Registering his words for a while, she narrowed her eyes and looked at him, “Are you about to do something crazy again?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Why?” Sol rubbed his temples, “Do I look like someone with a death wish?”

“You don’t. You act like someone with a death wish.”

“Touché” Sol snorted. “Okay, tell me, what do you want?”

“Right,” she took a seat next to him and pulled out some heavy books and parchment from her bag. She put one of those books in front of him. He looked at the cover. “Numerology and Gramatica”- it read. It was the Arithmancy book for third-year students.

“You took Arithmancy in your third year, didn’t you?” Hermione spoke up as he looked at the numbers on the book cover. He looked up at her and saw that she had a firm look.

“Teach me,” she requested.

Sol looked at her for a few seconds. He nodded, “Yeah, sure.”

He opened the book and waited for her to ready her quill. He asked, “Which chapter do you need help on?”

“Chapter 13.”

“Well, that was to be expected. People from my class complained about it as well. The learning curve was a bit steep.”

“Did you have problems with it then?”

“No.”

The two stopped the idle chatter and Sol began teaching her in earnest. After an hour and a half, he stopped and said, “Well, you should try to digest what I said right now. Any more might be bad for you.”

Hermione nodded, “Fine, but answer my question.”

“Yeah, go ahead.” He stood up and placed the books he took back in their respective places. Hermione followed him.

“Why did you decide to take another subject this year? I thought you would keep studying Arithmancy.”

“Because it no longer had any use for me. I thought I would learn something new but I didn’t. It only affirmed what I already knew.”

“Already knew?” she looked at him with a strange gaze. “You studied Arithmancy beforehand?”

Sol smiled but didn’t answer. Instead, he asked, “You know, Ron’s been complaining that you’ve been popping out of nowhere recently. He swore he didn’t see you in yesterday’s Divination class at the beginning but you were somehow sitting with them?”

“He must’ve seen wrong.”

Sol didn’t question her any further and simply said, “Don’t overuse the Time-Turner too much. From my experience, people who meddle with time don’t usually have a good ending.”

“H-How did you know!?” she exclaimed with widened eyes.

Sol quickly put his index finger to his lips and gestured for her to quieten down, “Shh!”

She realized her mistake and clamped her mouth shut with her hand. “How do you know that?” she whisper-yelled.

“Of course, I’d know. Professor McGonagall asked me to use it first.”

“You refused?”

“Of course. Are you dumb? Why would I use it especially since I don’t need it?”

“Why wouldn’t you need it? There are not enough hours in the day to study everything.” Hermione couldn’t understand his motives.

“That’s a very you-like statement,” Sol sighed. “And to answer your question, I don’t need to go back in time to understand everything. Books already answer most of your questions.”

“But I want to learn everything the Wizarding World has to offer, don’t you?”

Ah, there’s the difference. Sol shook his head. “People usually fear the unknown. But once that unknown has been revealed to be safe, they would aim to learn more about it. But for me, these things were never unknown. I encourage your willingness to learn everything that you don’t and every new thing but that’s not the case for me.”

“Why not?”

“Usually, people other than Slytherins, dislike discrimination against Muggle-born wizards. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are some differences between Muggle-born wizards and the other types of wizards.”

She looked puzzled, “Why are you talking about-”

“Unlike you who have never been exposed to magic after your birth and suddenly got a Hogwarts letter at 11, I’ve grown up with magic. I’ve had more time to learn which I did. So, I don’t need to anymore.”

“…that’s an unfair advantage.”

“Are you going to give up just because of that? Why not show Wizards like me that Muggle-born can do great things?”

“That was never my goal.”

“Sure, make that your second goal then.”

“Then are you going to stop me from using the Time-Turner?”

“No, why would I?” he shook his head. “You’re already old and smart enough to know what’s good for you. I can only advise you but not stop you.”

She fell into deep thought. Sol quietly slipped away after packing his things from the tables. He had already guessed what might happen in the Vault of Ice and the Vault of Fear. He needed to know what might lie inside the Forest Vault.

“Should I ask Hagrid?” he thought aloud. Since the Forest Vault was inside the Forbidden Forest, a creature living inside the forest might be guarding it. Then asking Hagrid might be the best bet.

“The Centaurs could be the one guarding it…” he knew that the Centaurs inside the Forbidden Forest didn’t look too kindly upon the wizards. Well, that’s except for Firenze. Maybe the Centaur Colony reached a consensus with the one who made the vaults.

But until he sees for himself, that’s all up in the air.