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The unprecedented Gryffindor-Slytherin team, a perfect 1:1 collaboration, officially made its first historical appearance on the Hogwarts dueling platform in the damp winter of 1974.
"How about we team up properly for this?" Sirius asked in a low, rapid voice, adjusting his grip on his wand. "For the first row of pawns, you take the left flank and I take the right. Second row of elites, we concentrate our fire and go together?"
"Okay," Severus nodded sharply, raising his wand. His dark eyes analyzed the heavy stone targets waiting at the far end of the board. "Let's try casting spells with conflicting attributes to cause thermal shock. Like, you use concentrated fire, I can use an active freezing charm... like this..."
"Good tactical idea," Sirius nodded seriously, an aristocratic smirk touching his lips. "Let's do it."
The two boys, partnering for the absolute first time, discovered an incredibly unexpected, seamless rapport. The smooth, rapid rhythm of their spellcasting didn't seem like a first-time collaboration at all; it looked like they had been tactical partners for years.
Their sheer speed, physical flexibility in dodging, and combined spellcasting ability left the upper-year Wizards dumbfounded once again. Even Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn couldn't help but exchange proud, relieved smiles from the sidelines.
"Second on the right! Focus fire!" Severus shouted hoarsely when the last six heavy target pieces aggressively approached the two dark-haired Little Wizards.
Sirius followed the command without a single microsecond of hesitation. The two boys rapidly cast spells in rapid succession: one roaring burst of fire, one deep freeze of ice, a powerful Impediment Jinx, a slicing Cutting Charm...
Before the massive opposing King and Queen pieces could violently push them physically off the board, the two managed to jointly defeat yet another heavily armored elite Troll chess piece with a final, echoing explosion.
The name "S. Black and S. Snape" rapidly rose on the glowing list under everyone's stunned attention, ranking steadily at the forefront right beneath Regulus's score.
After a brief, breathless silence, the Great Hall erupted in a massive burst of warm applause and deafening cheers.
"I genuinely want to award these specific Little Wizards massive extra points!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, clapping his small hands together as he turned to Professor Sprout.
"Awesome!! Brilliant shot, guys!!!" James shouted excitedly from the crowd, pumping his fist in the air.
"They... cooperated so incredibly well, didn't they?" Mary excitedly turned to Lily, who was happily, proudly applauding for her friends.
Alan Avery also applauded in a daze. Severus on the stage was just too incredibly cool, and even the hulking Mulciber beside him was nodding blankly, too stunned to offer his usual pureblood insults.
"Ah—Black, I absolutely love you!" It was the exact same, amused older girl's voice as before, causing another loud burst of laughter to ripple through the crowd.
Sirius, currently sitting heavily on the ground after being pushed out by the King, shook his head helplessly and laughed. Severus, standing beside him, also couldn't help but laugh out loud, a rare, genuine sound.
The two Little Wizards, who had eventually been mercilessly, physically pushed down by the relentless chess pieces, smiled warmly at each other, shook hands, and helped each other up. They walked off the wooden stage together, simultaneously scanning the massive crowd, searching for that highly familiar figure—
Standing right at the front of the cheering crowd, the most dazzling, brilliant Little Wizard of the entire day was smiling proudly and giving them a confident thumbs up.
At this specific moment—
Winning or not, and the exact numerical results on the scoreboard, were absolutely no longer important to Regulus.
Being able to physically see Severus Snape and Sirius Black happily fighting side by side, his "Harry Potter Themed United Kingdom Tour"—
Was already mathematically more than halfway worth the price of admission.
...
Time quietly passed in the Scottish Highlands.
Everyone's individual story naturally continued. The complex, branching river of fate actively turned in hidden places Regulus deeply knew about or didn't know about, and then quietly, seamlessly converged at highly unexpected moments—
Following the glowing recommendation of Professor Sprout, Headmaster Dumbledore officially began to actively read the localized, magic-modified version of The Witcher, and he personally showed massive academic interest in theoretical concepts like the "Conjunction of the Spheres."
Professor McGonagall was highly surprised to privately tell Dumbledore that Regulus had actually, successfully lifted her heavy, specially made Wizard chess pieces entirely with a basic Levitation Charm, even though she had previously, firmly magically fixed the pieces directly to the heavy board.
Rabastan Lestrange quietly, firmly issued a strict notice directly to his inner Slytherin circle, aggressively urging them completely to act incredibly low-key recently and absolutely not to cross the dangerous red lines of the rising Hog Party faction.
Benny Shafiq and several other upper-year Ravenclaw students officially, solemnly submitted a formal application directly to Regulus, actively hoping to officially join the ranks of "HP"...
Absolutely all of this organic intelligence, naturally carried by the cold wind blowing through the sprawling campus, by the idle whispers of the magical portraits, and the stray feathers falling from the delivery owls, scattered smoothly into every dark corner of Hogwarts.
...
Saturday, Hogsmeade.
Under the highly convenient guise of advanced Apparition special training, Regulus logically could now legitimately appear in Hogsmeade village on weekends without raising suspicion.
After Regulus successfully, flawlessly Apparated a clean hundred meters again without a single stutter, the onlooking sixth-year students had completely lost their temper and given up complaining.
Without a doubt, he also mathematically became Mr. Twycross's absolute favorite student. The Ministry official repeatedly, publicly praised Regulus and even sent a formal, glowing letter directly to Orion Black, expressing the profound professional honor of actively guiding the brilliant Little Black.
"Regulus, I know you are highly talented, but magical practice absolutely should be gradual, which is incredibly helpful for stabilizing raw spell control," Twycross smiled and instructed gently. "Don't actively try long-distance Apparition for now; focus strictly on practicing short hops within Hogsmeade village first."
"Okay, thank you for the guidance, sir!" Regulus nodded solemnly, playing the perfect student.
"I was initially worried about young people naturally being reckless, but you absolutely won't be," Twycross continued with deep satisfaction. "I'm saying this not only to you—even if the young Albus Dumbledore himself stood exactly in front of me—I would mathematically still have to strictly remind him like this. You logically know, as the physical distance heavily increases, the inherent risk of violent Apparition splinching rises sharply."
"Understood, sir," Regulus listened humbly, his gamer mind analyzing the mechanics. "So, exactly how do you highly experienced officials usually safely travel long distances?"
Twycross thought for a moment, stroking his chin, and said in a low, professional voice:
"Currently, I logically can safely Apparate directly to Nice, France for a holiday vacation. No problem at all, provided of course that the specific destination is incredibly clear and mathematically definite in my mind. But the very first time I went to Nice, I could only legally use an authorized Portkey. Any further than that, Apparition is mathematically almost impossible for a normal human."
He paused and continued his lecture:
"Cross-continental Apparition is mathematically almost certain to brutally result in highly serious injury or even gruesome death—I absolutely also have to legally take a Muggle boat to travel to the United States, exactly just like Mr. Scamander did, and exactly what's needed vastly more on those trips is a highly powerful Confundus Charm... Not to mathematically mention the strict legal restrictions heavily placed on accompanying items and people. Like most complex magic, these limitations depend largely on the caster's own inherent skill ceiling."
"If you're actively curious about the deeper spatial theory of Apparition, you logically can successfully find the following specific books to read in the restricted section..."
Absolutely all of this detailed information made Regulus physically feel deeply benefited—
Professor Twycross was indeed a highly seasoned expert in his specific field, and even vastly better, he patiently answered almost all of Regulus's probing tactical questions.
And the more he deeply learned, the vastly more Regulus was in pure awe of complex spatial magic.
The various theoretical and highly practical possibilities implied heavily within it mathematically made his gamer imagination logically run absolutely wild and his heart surge with ambition—
For example, could Wizards theoretically inherently be highly advanced interdimensional beings? Or simply refugees from entirely another dimension? After all, instantly crossing massive physical spatial barriers is logically itself a violent defiance of the fundamental time dimension.
Just exactly like the character Diolena at the beginning of the third book in the Three-Body Problem sci-fi series, Death's End. This woman briefly gained the incredible ability to directly retrieve objects from a massive distance safely through a higher-dimensional space. As long as she successfully found a stable channel, she could instantly, flawlessly move to her desired destination.
Shrinking the ground into a single inch, violently shattering the void—that's incredible sci-fi, that's incredibly cool!
The Undetectable Extension Charm, Apparition, and his previous highly experimental magical idea of aggressively "hitting a bull safely through a mountain" to bypass Dragon hide—spatial magic undeniably has infinite tactical potential.
From mastering space to mastering time, from ordinary Muggles to powerful Wizards, from the fragile physical body to the immortal soul—this is exactly the true, profound exploration of life and the magical world.
Picking absolutely any one of exactly these massive research directions is mathematically vastly more highly advanced than actively studying that crude, brute-force Avada Kedavra curse!
Dark magic does indeed superficially seem highly powerful, logically otherwise the Dark Lord Voldemort absolutely wouldn't mathematically have been legally able to physically cause so much massive trouble.
But—
So, Gul'dan, exactly what is the terrible price?
In the very end, didn't the highly powerful Tom Riddle tragically lose directly to Lily Evans's pure magic protecting baby Harry?
Huh?
A sudden, highly blinding flash of pure inspiration violently sparked entirely in Regulus's mind, but the specific inspiration was incredibly fleeting.
What exactly was it?
He shook his head, desperately trying to violently regain his highly specific thoughts, but the brilliant idea was mathematically exactly like a cleanly broken thread.
Never mind, truly important tactical things absolutely will mathematically always be seamlessly remembered again.
Isn't it fundamentally just the Avada curse? Mrs. Weasley's basic household spell specifically designed for aggressively making creamy mashed potatoes logically isn't necessarily mathematically weaker if applied creatively in combat!
The absolute, fundamental importance of highly actively maintaining the immortal soul's strict independence and structural integrity—the brilliant author of Soul Power has highly repeatedly emphasized exactly this.
Before he mathematically completely clarifies the complex, exact relationship safely between highly toxic dark magic and permanent soul damage, he, Regulus Black, also legally known as Black Regulus, is absolutely not highly interested in actively learning the dangerous set of skills derived entirely from reversing the "Nine Yin Manual"—
Absolutely not interested.
...
Pop!
Regulus highly accurately, flawlessly Apparated directly outside the heavy wooden door of the Hog's Head Bar.
The winter sun mathematically set incredibly early, and the biting evening wind was highly cool. He smoothly pushed the heavy door completely open, immediately greeted by the highly warm, flickering firelight and the rich aroma of roasted lamb ribs.
By the dusty window table, several highly familiar people were absolutely already actively waiting.
He smiled warmly and seamlessly sat down. And exactly at this specific moment, the faction table was mathematically perfectly balanced, Slytherin and Gryffindor—
3:3.