George and Fred were a big help when they gave him the Marauder's Map.
With it, sneaking around Hogwarts at night was actually pretty safe.
Ted even kept an eye on Scabbers. On the map, right there in just beside Ron, the name "Peter Pettigrew" glowed faintly.
The old rat was really committed to the act—just curled up in the Gryffindor common room day in and day out like he had no plans to ever turn human again.
Maybe he figured a life of free food and warm blankets wasn't so bad after all.
...
A silent Alohomora unlocked the door to the Restricted Section.
Ted slipped in, eyes narrowing as he scanned the short rows of shelves ahead.
Compared to the towering bookshelves outside, these were modest—just over two meters high—but what they held was far from ordinary.
Books wrapped in chains, sealed with ancient runes, or glowing faintly under magical wards.
Dangerous stuff.
Ted activated his identification magic.
Blue light flickered across his irises.
Almost every single book pulsed with magic.
That was the thing about truly powerful spellbooks.
You couldn't just copy them with a quill. Some spells could slip into your mind just from a glance.
He went for the goal first: Moste Potente Potions.
A relatively common restricted book, kept here because it contained dangerous brews.
Not cursed or alive like the others, just risky to make or drink.
He grabbed it.
Next, he scanned for anything else useful or interesting.
The Lost Kabbalah? A deeper dive into biological alchemy. Snagged it.
A light alchemical reaction would remove the seal. No big deal.
Ted avoided books like Mysteries of Death, Curses Most Foul, and Cruel Transfiguration.
Anything that looked like it might bite back, he left alone.
Besides Moste Potente Potions and The Lost Kabbalah, he also picked up Universal Elixirs, which focused on alchemical potions.
That was the distinction—normal potions were brewed for people, but alchemical potions had all sorts of uses.
Think magical super glue or enchanted ink.
These were old arts, mostly forgotten as potion-making became more popular.
But Ted had a knack for both.
Once he handed off Moste Potente Potions to his friends, he let them handle their secret mission.
Hermione could handle the brewing.
Harley could handle the sneaking.
Even if Snape caught them, well... what could he really do? Take some points?
Ted had bigger things to worry about.
...
Universal Elixirs turned out to be a treasure trove.
With it, Ted made serious breakthroughs in his own alchemy research.
The next few days were quiet—well, mostly.
Ted was deep into studying Druidic shapeshifting magic.
He pushed his transfiguration skills to level 4 and stunned the class by turning an oak goblet into a raven.
Professor McGonagall was so impressed, she gave him a rare compliment in front of the whole class—and invited him to her Transfiguration Club.
That never happened.
Other students started coming to him with questions. Ted, grinning, recommended titles like From Transnoob to Transgenius, Transfiguration: Beginner to Master, and Three Years of Transfiguration, Five Years of Practice.
...
"Secrets of Cutting-Edge Dark Arts" and "Man-made Monsters"—these were the last two titles on his list.
Once he finished them, he'd complete the quest to read ten banned books.
That night, invisible and silent, Ted returned to the Restricted Section.
He activated Dark Vision and Accelerated Reading charms and went to work.
He couldn't afford to take these books back—he'd nearly triggered an alarm the day before.
He'd learned his lesson.
One book, Wraithcraft, had literal spirits bound inside.
He'd opened it and they had screeched, clawing to escape.
Good thing he'd sealed the abandoned classroom with a soundproof charm.
Otherwise, half the castle would've come running.
Even worse, some books had alarm spells that would trigger if they were removed from the section.
Thank Merlin he caught the enchantment with an identification skill before it went off.
Because let's be honest: Ted wasn't the Boy Who Lived. If he got caught snooping around in here, it wouldn't be a slap on the wrist.
Hogwarts already had one brilliant student go dark.
If they caught an orphan boy digging into dark magic too?
Well, "expelled and magically disarmed" would be a lucky outcome.
So, better to read it all on the spot and memorize what he could.
-----------------------------
Ding! Quest Complete: [Forbidden Books Are the Essence of the Library (Red)]
Reward: 800 XP, +1 Black Magic Level, Random Spell Card.
-----------------------------
Done!
Ted carefully returned the books to their shelves, turned on his heel, and ghosted out of the Restricted Section.
Honestly, the place was a goldmine.
Just ten books had earned him over 1,200 XP.
Way more than any average textbook.
But it also taught him something else: he was punching way above his weight class.
The deeper topics, the fringe experiments, the high-level enchantments… this was the kind of stuff even Ministry researchers wouldn't touch.
It was like a sixth-year Muggle trying to study nuclear physics by building a dirty bomb.
I am much faster on the path of magic than ordinary little wizards, and the average fourth grader may not be able to compare with me.
But these books in the Restricted Section—only the most gifted young witches and wizards get the chance to read them before they graduate.
The knowledge inside them is powerful, strange, and often dangerous.
It's the kind of stuff that makes your head spin and your worldview crack.
Take Man-Made Monsters, for example.
That book describes the twisted experiments of dark wizards who spent centuries crafting magical creatures designed purely for chaos.
Dementors?
One of them. According to the book, a deranged dark wizard created them on a forgotten island.
He ambushed passing ships, using the unfortunate sailors and passengers for experiments.
Over time, he twisted sorrow and shadows into living nightmares.
After he died, the island's enchantments faded—and that's when people discovered what he'd left behind.
Now, that place is called Azkaban.
Compared to that, Professor Quirrell's blood magic experiments seem like nothing more than a hobby to pass the time after supper.
After completing the latest assignment, Ted's mastery in Dark Magic increased—Level 6 now! It's currently his highest skill.
Even his core magic, constantly improving with wand enhancements and the help of the Philosopher's Stone, only reaches Level 7!
In an abandoned classroom, Ted fired a spell at a training dummy.
The lightning-like strike tore it apart in an instant.
He stared at his wand in awe.
He could feel it—the precision, the control. If he focused, he could cut that dummy into any pattern he liked.
"Reparo!" The shredded dummy reassembled, good as new.
Ted tried again.
This time the spell was like a scalpel, slicing cleanly.
"Sectumsempra!" A sharp invisible blade flew from his wand, curving like a crescent moon through the air.
It struck the dummy from behind and sliced it cleanly in two.
Then the spells from Secrets of Cutting-Edge Dark Arts danced in his mind. S
o many ideas, so many dark possibilities.
He exhaled. "This... might be too much."
The strength of Dark Magic surged within him—but instead of feeling triumphant, Ted was uneasy.
Magic responds to will, after all.
And if one side of your power grows too dominant, it can shape you in return.
Like they say—when all you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.
He made a mental note to do some extra self-assessments.
Just to be sure his mind stayed on the right track.
Dark Magic could wait.
Kids swinging sledgehammers are more likely to hurt themselves than their targets.
He wasn't a kid mentally.
It was time to walk the right path—with clarity and intention.
The road we choose to walk matters.
...
After finishing the forbidden books, Ted decided to take a break from Dark Magic.
He didn't touch anything related for weeks, putting all his focus into potion-making instead.
In a forgotten classroom, Ted was gently shampooing the head of a long-tailed monkey who had clearly resigned itself to fate.
Yes. Shampooing.
The monkey sat still, utterly defeated, clearly thinking, 'Do what you want, just make it quick.'
Ted had discovered that purple thistle sap worked wonders for detangling hair—and with some alchemical tweaking, he'd created his own potion.
"Wow, this stuff really works!" he grinned, combing through the monkey's now silky fur.
"What do you think, Anzu?"
"Funny. Caw~"
The monkey's neat side-part made it look utterly ridiculous—but hey, the New Detangling Shampoo was a success!
The next day, Ted turned to Harley. "Harley, do you mind reaching out to Mr. Black for me? I've got a business idea I want to run by him."
Harley blinked. "You want to talk to Sirius? About business?!"
Through Harley, Ted got in touch with Sirius.
After some back-and-forth letters and a few meetings via Sirius' special fireplace-call magic, they hammered out several agreements.
Normally Sirius couldn't care less about business.
He was a noble from an old house with too much time and not enough patience for coin-counting.
But this? This was different...
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Word count: 1510
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