A crescent moon hung high in the sky. In the deep night, lights in the magical creatures hut remained bright.
Various magical materials as thin as cicada wings were spread across the table. Evans held tweezers in his hand, comparing each material's light refraction properties one by one, observing their performance after Mirror Charms were applied.
He was planning to create a device that wouldn't affect vision while preventing basilisk eye contact.
Even he'd suffer considerable damage from direct eye contact with an adult basilisk's gaze. If he didn't have time to defend himself, immediate death was possible.
But as long as there was a medium to prevent direct fatal eye contact, he had many ways to resist subsequent petrification.
Actually, he still thought tearing down the school would solve everything once and for all. Unfortunately Dumbledore wouldn't allow it, and the Board of Governors probably wouldn't permit it either. So he could only use this method to prevent accidents.
Besides this, he also planned to equip each young wizard he knew with such a device. Although those students couldn't resist petrification, being petrified was better than dying.
Unfortunately, while he had some ideas, every single one required considerable mental energy and materials. He couldn't make enough for the entire school.
Otherwise, if he could equip every student with one, they wouldn't need to fear what chaos the basilisk might cause.
The experiments continued. Common materials were quickly eliminated.
Although obsidian shards and glass fragments had good adaptability to Mirror Charms and Extension Charms, they were simply too fragile. Even with reinforcing Preservation Charms, they broke easily.
This was something to be placed inside eyes. Absolutely couldn't use such fragile materials.
Even in the magical world, treating eye injuries was quite troublesome. One careless mistake could cause complete eyeball necrosis. Though magical eyes could be used, nothing was as comfortable as the original.
After eliminating common materials, few options remained.
Materials that could solidify Mirror Charms were numerous, but materials that could also withstand Undetectable Extension Charms weren't many. Without withstanding Extension Charms, he couldn't achieve his desired effect.
After picking and choosing, soon only one pure black thin sheet remained on the table.
Looking at the pure black fabric, thin as cicada wings, Evans's expression became somewhat strange.
"Who would've thought that the fabric shed by Little Cloak would have such uses?"
Originally, he'd just tried it casually, not expecting the fabric shed by the small creature to have perfect adaptability for both Extension Charms and solidifying Mirror Charms. Unfortunately, Little Cloak had only moulted once so far. This fabric couldn't make many devices.
Shaking his head, Evans lightly tapped his wand and began slowly cutting the fabric on the table.
Flashes of magical light passed by. After about half an hour, looking at the thirty-odd small circular pieces on the table, Evans nodded with satisfaction.
The finished products looked somewhat like contact lenses, but the entire thin sheet was pure black, appearing rather eerie.
However, after wearing them in the eyes, they could refract pupil colour and shouldn't be too conspicuous.
The principle of these lenses was using Undetectable Extension Charms to create space between two thin layers, applying Mirror Charms to both sides of the space at an angle, and refracting external light through the two layers into the eyes.
Like a hollow periscope, just shrunk countless times and solidified onto such a thin film.
Picking up a thin piece and carefully placing it in his eye, feeling vision that wasn't much different from before, Evans clicked his tongue in appreciation.
"If Undetectable Extension Charms weren't restricted, this thing's complexity would deserve an award."
However, its application was too narrow. Herpo the Foul had disappeared for so many years that few basilisks remained in the world. There might only be the one in the school.
Without basilisks, such light-refracting contact lenses were useless.
Placing those dozen lenses into an exquisite small box, Evans stretched lazily.
Time to sleep. Tomorrow he'd probably have to deal with people sent by the Ministry.
Although for Madam Shari's sake, they probably wouldn't make things difficult for him, the Ministry was a mixed bag. There might be some oddballs who specialised in doing thankless tasks.
Like that Umbridge from last time.
"Forget it, not thinking about it. Sleep, sleep!"
Casually picking up Nana, who'd long been asleep nearby, Evans collapsed on the bed and soon entered dreamland.
The next day, morning.
Walking somewhat absentmindedly out of the Charms classroom, Harry's expression remained dejected.
This morning, he'd learnt from Professor Kahn about last night's events. Although Colin's daily pestering had been somewhat troublesome, having someone he knew turned into that statue-like petrified state still made him feel uncomfortable.
Moreover, if next time the victim was someone more familiar to him, or even his friends... what should he do then?
Although Professor Kahn had given them thin films this morning, saying they could prevent basilisks from directly killing them, he was still worried.
Seeing Harry's low spirits, Ron stepped forward and patted his shoulder.
"Cheer up. It's not like he died. Professor Kahn said so too. Wait a few more months for Professor Sprout's Mandrakes to mature, and he'll definitely be fine."
Shaking his head, Harry spoke softly:
"I'm just afraid... what if next time, it's you who encounters such a thing?"
"Don't worry. Professor Kahn said with these things, basilisks can't directly kill us." Ron pointed to his own eyes, where his light blue pupils showed some eerie black.
"If we really encounter a basilisk, at most we'd just be petrified. Being petrified for a few weeks means not having to attend Snape and Binns's classes for a few weeks. Is there anything happier in this world?"
"Actually, I think Potions class is quite interesting!"
Though saying this, Harry's expression relaxed somewhat. "You've got a point though."
No longer thinking about those unpleasant matters, the two chatted while walking toward the Great Hall.
But just as they entered a corridor, they suddenly saw a group of five people rapidly proceeding toward the stairs leading to the seventh floor.
Among them, the one trailing behind had jet-black skin and looked very composed. Beside him stood a young woman wearing strange shirts and jeans with extremely bright-coloured hair, constantly pestering him with various questions.
Behind them followed two very silent-looking men who seemed constantly alert to their surroundings, hands always hovering near their wands.
What caught Harry's attention most was the person walking at the front of the group.
It was a woman with a somewhat rigid posture who looked like a toad. Perhaps sensing Harry's gaze, the woman turned around, revealing a sickeningly sweet yet somehow rigid smile.
Then she turned back around, following the Ministry group around the corner and disappearing at the corridor's end.
Taking a deep look in the direction the woman had left, Harry's eyes showed some confusion.
Strange person.