Just as Professor Baker had said, the Disillusionment Charm on its own wasn't particularly difficult to cast.
Baron was the first to succeed—half an hour later, he managed to produce his very first Disillusionment Charm, turning himself into a muddled patchwork of shifting colors. Then, once Avada had finally observed the spell's magical structure through his Magical Perception, he launched into pursuit with determination. The moment he successfully cast it, his skill improved at lightning speed, and soon he could already blend into the surroundings in a rudimentary way.
Baron, however, was long used to this—after several days of training, he had fully adjusted to Avada's peculiar learning pattern: slow to start, frighteningly quick to accelerate.
With Professor Baker's further instruction, and Avada providing real-time corrections through Magical Perception, Baron's own mastery of the Disillusionment Charm climbed rapidly. After only a short while, he too had reached Professor Baker's expected standard.
This had been their training rhythm from the start:Baron learned a spell first and demonstrated it to Avada;Avada then rapidly pushed the technique to proficiency;and finally, Avada fed the refined results back to Baron…This back-and-forth, as ridiculous as "using your left foot to step on your right foot to fly," boosted both of their progress by an entire tier, and even Professor Baker could not help but praise their uncanny coordination.
Yet, as Professor Baker had also said, mastering the Disillusionment Charm was only the beginning.
Once Baron's Disillusionment Charm passed inspection, they moved on to the supplementary skills required for infiltration: silent movement, eliminating footprints, masking odors, using cover, controlling sightlines—all sorts of tactical maneuvers. If not for the fact that Avada and Baron were only first-years, Professor Baker would likely have taught them the Silencing Charm as well.
One could use Magical Perception to cheat at spellcasting, but there were no shortcuts for physical training—especially for someone like Avada, whose athletic aptitude was… less than ideal. Even though Professor Baker slowed his teaching pace to accommodate him, Avada still felt tremendous pressure over the next few days.
But when the time came to put their training into practice, Avada felt that all his earlier pressure had been too mild.
When Professor Baker told them to thoroughly master the Disillusionment Charm, he had once mentioned, "It'll be extremely useful when obtaining magical materials." Back then, the naïve Avada didn't understand what that meant. Now, the truth was finally revealed…
[Someone's coming—Disillusionment Charm, quickly!]
[Got it. Already hidden.]
"Hey, Ken? You're here too?"
"Cedric? Are you looking for Professor Baker?"
"Oh—yes. There's something in the textbook I can't quite understand… Did you already talk to him?"
"I wish. He's not in his office right now, so I'm waiting here. What's the part you don't understand? I've already self-studied nearly all the second-year Defense material—maybe I can help?"
"Uh… thanks. I'll show you. Let's take a look together."
"Hm… doesn't seem too difficult, it should be—"
[Ken, I've cracked the protective enchantments. You can enter.]
"…Nope, looks like I can't understand it either. Sorry, I got ahead of myself and wasted your time."
"Don't worry about it. Being able to self-study second-year curriculum is already amazing. I'll head to the library and try again. See you tonight."
"Alright, see you tonight…"
Once Cedric had fully left, Avada immediately cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself, pressed close to the wall, and slipped silently around the corner toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. The door—normally shut—was already cracked open, and beside it was an unnatural patch of color.
As expected, Avada and Baron were in the middle of infiltrating the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.
It was already mid-February. As time passed, the setup for the Consciousness Extraction Spell had finally reached its final stage. But at this last step, the boys discovered a serious problem: using spells alone was almost impossible. They needed specific magical materials to support the "spell formation."
Those materials were either dangerous banned substances or so rare that even Baron froze when he saw their prices. When they asked Professor Baker what they should do, he calmly explained that some materials could be found in the Forbidden Forest, while others were stored right here in his office…
Thus, armed with the "Forbidden Forest Creatures & Herb Distribution Map" and the "Defense Office Exploration Guide," the two had already performed one infiltration—into the Forbidden Forest. They gathered many herbs and even teamed up to bring down a small Acromantula to harvest its venom. Along the way, an accident occurred: they had chosen a location directly along Rubeus Hagrid's patrol path.
Avada had sacrificed himself that time: he dispelled his Disillusionment Charm and pretended to be a first-year foolishly wandering into the Forest out of love for magical creatures, and Hagrid caught him on the spot, allowing Baron to escape unnoticed.
Thankfully, with Avada's decent knowledge of magical creatures and his good conversational ability, the incident turned out unexpectedly pleasant. After enthusiastically chatting for half an hour about the behavior of Hippogriffs, Hagrid didn't report him to Professor Sprout—he only scolded him and warned him never to break school rules by entering the Forbidden Forest again.
Now came their second mission: infiltrating the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.
Oddly enough, breaking into the office was safer than entering the Forest. Professor Baker had arranged the place himself and had given them extremely detailed instructions. Since Fake Baker shared the real Baker's habits, he knew exactly when he'd leave the office, how long he'd be gone, and whether he'd notice evidence of intrusion afterward.
The only obstacle was that breaking the defensive wards and alarms took time, during which other students might walk by. That required one person to stand watch outside and maintain constant mental communication with the other—thus the scene from earlier.
And since Hufflepuffs generally had better reputations than Slytherins, even though Avada's Magical Perception would have sped up the ward-breaking process, he chose instead to be the lookout while Baron handled dismantling the enchantments.
Once Baron finished cracking the defenses, they gently widened the door's gap, squeezed inside, closed it silently, and immediately began searching according to the marked locations.
[Some of the materials are scrap shards used for crafting crystal balls. That section is shielded from sight—even Fake Baker doesn't know about it…]
Avada cast a spell on the soles of his shoes, crouched, and tapped a floorboard in a specific rhythm. The board popped open, revealing jars and bottles hidden in the compartment below.
[These we can take without restraint.]
He removed his wizard robe to use as a makeshift sack and packed the concealed materials inside. All he'd need to do later was cast a Disillusionment Charm on the robe itself.
[But the rest is stored in the regular cabinets. Taking them carelessly will leave traces… You have the substitute materials, right?]
[Of course.]
While Avada worked on the hidden stash, Baron—wearing protective gloves—pulled open drawer after drawer, removing the needed materials and stuffing the fake substitutes at the bottom so the reduced amount wouldn't be obvious.
[How much time has passed?]
[Twelve minutes until the earliest time Fake Baker might return.]
Avada checked his Muggle wristwatch.
[But we need buffer time for emergencies, and clearing traces also takes time. We should hurry.]
[Understood.]
Baron sped up his search, while Avada checked each collected item against their required list. After several more minutes, they finally finished gathering everything.
Then, after meticulously erasing every trace of their presence and confirming through Magical Perception that no one was outside, Avada cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself, then on the large bundle in his arms. He slipped out the door first; Baron followed immediately behind.
Since the ward had been dismantled through skill rather than brute force, they didn't need to worry about the spell alerting anyone to their intrusion.
(End of Chapter)