[HP] Chapter 134-136

### [HP] 134: The Change in the Reality Marble

“This seed… can it be planted inside a Reality Marble?” Louis muttered to himself.

Light flickered in his eyes—the visions of countless futures revealed by his Clairvoyance.

Every possible outcome played before him. Though the images weren’t perfectly clear, he had seen all that he needed to confirm.

The seed’s effect was extraordinary, almost miraculous. Louis was itching to plant it immediately.

A Reality Marble, in the Fate series, was a special ability: to unfold a unique world within a fixed area and drag enemies into it. (T/N: aka Domain Expansion)

Unless one had powers that specifically countered space and barriers, nothing could break through a Reality Marble.

However, once the Marble collapsed, anything not belonging to it would be expelled, returning to its original location. Nothing could truly remain behind.

Take Louis’s Reality Marble, Avalon, the Ideal Land. It appeared to be a perfect pastoral paradise. He could even pluck flowers from it. But he couldn’t plant anything inside.

Carrying farmland around wasn’t so easy.

But this “Fast-Grown Yggdrasil Seed”… it seemed to have some mysterious property.

“So that’s what it means to stabilize a space and make it real.” Louis murmured.

With Clairvoyance, he could glimpse the truth of the future. The World Tree and dragon he had just seen were indeed destined to come.

And the setting in that vision—he could never mistake it. It was his Avalon.

“In that case, let’s try it. No harm in planting.”

Louis rose from the sofa. At once, a whirlwind of petals swept around him. In a blink, the scenery opened into clarity.

An endless sea of flowers stretched without end. In the far distance, a tall tower rose.

Louis gazed at it, faintly making out a figure atop it.

That tower was merely part of the Marble’s “background.” He had tested it before—no matter how far he walked, he could never reach it.

But it didn’t matter. At least the tower added some variation to the boundless flower field.

Louis dug a small pit beneath his feet and tossed in the so-called Fast-Grown Seed of Yggdrasil. He was just about to cover it when the seed suddenly sprouted roots, drilling deep into the soil.

At that instant, everything around him shifted—becoming real. What was once a dreamlike illusion hardened into tangible substance.

The ground trembled beneath him, the peaceful garden disturbed by its uninvited guest.

The flower-covered earth split apart, thick roots bursting from the cracks.

Louis staggered as the quaking ground threw him off balance, astonishment written across his face.

In barely a few dozen seconds, the flower field within fifty meters around him had been torn up, overturned into a mass of dark roots sprawling like earth-dragons into the soil.

And yet—contrasting against those monstrous roots was a single, tiny sprout.

Louis’s expression twisted strangely. He stepped quickly onto the roots, moving closer to examine it.

Nestled among the titanic root network, the seedling grew in their center—the focal point where all the nutrients flowed.

The sapling itself was textbook perfect, the very image of a freshly drawn plant shoot… except it was absurdly small.

The roots had exploded outward with the force of hollowing out the entire land—yet the sprout was just a fragile little sprig.

It was like staring at a fifteen-meter-tall musclebound giant… topped with the head of a normal-sized little girl.

The more Louis thought about it, the more unbearable it felt.

Louis grimaced and pulled his gaze away—if he kept staring, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist yanking the little sprout right out of the ground.

Who knew how long it would take before it grew up?

“Forget it. The sapling isn’t the point—the Reality Marble is.” Louis looked around. Aside from the scar left where the roots had plowed through, the sea of flowers hadn’t changed much.

He thought for a moment, then released the Volumen Hydrargyrum in his hand.

The silvery liquid slid across the ground and condensed into a giant mercury sphere before him, awaiting his command.

But Louis didn’t give any command. This was just a test.

He snapped his fingers, and a wind of petals rose, dispersing the Reality Marble.

Normally, with the collapse of the Marble, everything inside should have been expelled alongside him. Yet the Volumen Hydrargyrum was gone.

“It really did fix it in place…” Louis’s eyes lit up as he re-opened the Marble.

Once again, he stood within Avalon, the Ideal Land—right atop the roots of the World Tree.

And there was the Volumen Hydrargyrum, still exactly where he had left it.

“Now I really do have a portable farm. A whole endless flower field, at that.” Louis was delighted with the change.

This would make shady work far more convenient too. No need to toss corpses into the Black Lake and pollute the water—just dig a pit in here, bury them, and turn them into flower fertilizer!

“…No, no, bad thought. Sinful, sinful. How could I think of something like that?” Louis scratched his head, about to leave—when suddenly he whipped around, staring behind him.

The flower sea stretched on, swaying softly in the breeze. Nothing unusual at all.

“Strange.” Louis stroked his chin. He could have sworn he’d just sensed something. But now—nothing.

His eyes flared like searchlights as he scanned the surroundings.

His Clairvoyance, able to peer into the future, swept outward, probing for any anomaly.

But he found nothing. Nothing now, nothing in the future.

“Must’ve been my imagination.” Louis shrugged, took the Volumen Hydrargyrum, and left the Reality Marble.

The moment he disappeared, silence fell again. The flower sea stood serene, save for a wandering breeze from nowhere.

This place seemed untouched by the outside world, where blossoms never withered and even time itself had no hold.

Suddenly, a transparent figure appeared amidst the flowers.

It slowly approached the World Tree’s sprout, extending a hand to gently stroke it.

The little sapling swayed joyfully, as if it had grown taller in that instant.

“Grow quickly… grow strong,” the figure whispered—then dissolved into the breeze.

…………

Back in the Room of Requirement, Louis pulled out a cauldron and resumed his study of dark-qi magic.

He had once dismissed it as short-sighted. But now that he had begun cultivating it in earnest, he realized how incredible qi-magic truly was.

Granted, compared to the magic of the Harry Potter world, qi-magic was more complex and cumbersome. But its versatility was unmatched—so long as the target was clear and preparations made, there was no problem it couldn’t solve.

Simply put: Harry Potter’s magic had a high floor but a limited ceiling, while qi-magic had a floor so low it scraped bedrock—but a ceiling so high it was boundless.

Studying it more could only bring benefits.

---

### [HP] 135: The Chance to Snatch the Dragon

Time slipped by quietly, almost unnoticed.

During this period, Louis went to Hagrid’s hut whenever he had spare time—not for anything else, but to build up Norbert’s affection.

It worked. By now, Norbert had already learned to obey Louis’s commands.

Not just Louis—even Harry, Ron, and Neville, who occasionally came by, could give Norbert simple orders.

But it wasn’t the same. They lacked Louis’s natural affinity. If they gave commands for too long, Norbert grew restless and impatient.

Still, it was no small feat. Without Louis smoothing things over, Norbert wouldn’t have bothered with them at all.

By the time Norbert’s tail alone had grown to a full meter, Easter had arrived.

Easter came with a holiday, but Louis didn’t go home.

On the surface, he claimed it was because he was worried Harry Potter might secretly send the dragon away during the break, so he stayed behind to keep an eye on things.

In truth, his adoptive parents—the Wilsons—had taken the rare opportunity of Mrs. Wilson’s time off and Mr. Wilson’s holiday to escape to France for a romantic getaway, leaving Louis “all alone and unloved.”

To “make it up to him,” they had left him a massive chocolate Easter egg stuffed with toffees, along with an apologetic letter, a week before the holiday.

It took Louis three whole days to finish the egg—sickly sweet!

But he was certain that what students would remember most about this Easter was not the chocolate, but the mountain of homework.

Unlike the easy, relaxing Christmas holiday, Easter came just ten weeks before final exams. To prevent the students from having too much fun and forgetting an entire term’s worth of knowledge, the professors had buried them under a suffocating load of assignments.

And during this time, Ron ended up in the hospital wing. The official explanation? …Scabbers bit him.

Louis visited him and made sure to look at the wound. In that moment, he almost wanted to pry open Ron’s head to see what was inside.

How could anyone possibly mistake the deep punctures of four sharp canines and rows of serrated teeth marks… for a rat bite?

Madam Pomfrey didn’t say much, but the look she gave Ron could only be described as “you absolute idiot.”

Of course she had figured it out—her treatment was correct: detoxification first, then bandaging.

Dragon teeth were poisonous. Especially those of a Norwegian Ridgeback like Norbert.

Louis was certain Madam Pomfrey would inform Dumbledore of the truth. But knowing Dumbledore, he would probably turn a blind eye.

What was raising a dragon, really? As long as it wasn’t discovered, he wouldn’t even care if you kept a basilisk.

One night, Louis got up as usual to do his rounds of “dragon surveillance.” But the moment he rose from bed, he noticed something off.

“Malfoy? What are you up to?”

There, sneaking about, was Draco Malfoy.

Ever since Louis had taught him a harsh lesson on the train, Draco had become much more restrained—especially around Louis, where he didn’t even dare to speak a word.

“I… I was just going to the lavatory,” Draco stammered, body freezing at Louis’s voice.

“The lavatory?” Louis gave him a doubtful look, then his expression shifted slightly.

“Oh, well, go on then. It’s late—don’t miss your sleep.”

He said it casually and lay back down on his bed.

So easy to talk to?

Draco’s face showed clear surprise. In his eyes, Louis was a powerful, hot-tempered tyrant—just now, when Louis called out to him, Draco had already braced himself for bullying.

Who would’ve thought the other boy would let him off so easily?

“Ha! Tonight’s my lucky night. I’ll definitely see Harry Potter and that Weasley get caught!”

Clutched in Draco Malfoy’s hand was a letter—Charlie Weasley’s reply. It stated that tonight they would be sending Hagrid’s dragon away.

This was the perfect chance, a chance to get them discovered by the school and expelled!

Excited, Draco dashed off, not even bothering to call for his two usual lackeys so as not to lose time.

Meanwhile, Louis lay in bed, looking as though he were asleep—but in reality, he had pulled out the Marauder’s Map.

On it, the names of Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom were slowly moving toward the Astronomy Tower.

Louis watched for a while, noticing their pace remained steady, and quickly understood their approach.

Norbert was probably being carried, wasn’t he?

In the end, Harry and Neville still hadn’t managed to get Norbert to behave.

It was time to snatch the dragon. But there was no need for his real body to get involved in something like this.

Yet he couldn’t use Dio Brando’s face either. A “cross-over” slip in such a small incident could expose the elaborate lies he’d woven.

He decided to just use his own face—more practical, and his powers would remain intact.

The Faceless Phantom materialized, taking Louis’s appearance. At the same time, the phantom sigils of the Twelve Talismans flared behind it, transforming into streams of light that merged into its body.

The Faceless Phantom’s special ability allowed it to become the Stand User himself, inheriting seventy percent of the Stand User’s power!

… … …

At this moment, the Faceless Phantom was essentially a “mini-Louis.”

But to Louis’s surprise, once the power of the Talismans flowed into that body, the Phantom—which already wore his likeness—began to change further.

Scales sprouted across its skin. Scarlet irises spread across its eyes. Jagged bone spurs pushed from the edges of its face. Its features widened and lengthened, sharp fangs jutting out beyond its lips.

Its limbs stretched, pale green scales spreading across its whole body. Razor-sharp claws replaced its nails.

And worst of all—a long, flexible tail unfurled from its back.

The handsome Louis had been turned into a hideous half-human, half-dragon monster.

“The Twelve Talismans… can actually do this?” Louis muttered in astonishment, staring at the transformed substitute. The feedback told him nothing was wrong—this really was the Faceless Phantom inheriting his form and powers.

No wonder he’d felt so strange when the yin-aspected Philosopher’s Stone catalyzed the Talismans. If he hadn’t stopped and reversed the process in time, he might have ended up like this—or worse.

“The Holy Master’s Twelve Talismans…? If breaking the seal outright makes you a half-dragon beast, then why…? In the original, others mastered the Talismans’ power without such a change.”

Indeed, in the original story, no such transformation was shown—for example, when Jade Chan absorbed the Twelve Talismans, her appearance didn’t change one bit. So what exactly was different here?

---

### [HP] 136: A Simple, Unpretentious Way to Steal a Dragon

“This question will probably only be answered once I use the Philosopher’s Stone to completely master the power of the Talismans, huh?” Louis muttered to himself.

Still, even with his Stand’s body warped into such a form, it didn’t hinder him at all. On the contrary, it saved him the trouble of putting on a disguise. Walking out looking like this, there was no way anyone would recognize him.

Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the half-dragon, half-human Stand flew out of Hogwarts Castle, its body gradually turning semi-transparent as it rose.

Because it only had seventy percent of Louis’s strength, the Faceless Phantom couldn’t achieve perfect invisibility—only this half-seen, hazy form. But under poor nighttime lighting, its concealment was more than enough.

Louis’s perspective was locked onto the Phantom, directly controlling it as it flew toward the Astronomy Tower.

Charlie Weasley and his companions had only one way to reach Hogwarts: first arriving at the outskirts by Portkey or Apparition, then flying in on broomsticks to pick up Norbert.

That gave Louis a window of opportunity. He had more than enough time to take the dragon for himself.

At the Astronomy Tower, Louis had been waiting. Soon, he heard the heavy, labored sounds of someone hauling something up the stairs.

Splitting his focus, he glanced at the Marauder’s Map and saw Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom’s names nearing the tower.

They were on their way. And on another corridor, Draco Malfoy was tailing after them in secret.

What caught Louis’s attention most, however, was another name wandering about the map.

Dumbledore. He was lingering in the Clock Tower, purpose unknown.

At this hour?

Louis thought it over, then understood.

Tonight, the Forbidden Forest would be lively as well. Clearly, Dumbledore had arranged something.

He must have already realized someone was stirring trouble in the forest—and probably knew exactly who it was.

After all, the death of a unicorn was no small matter. It wouldn’t take Dumbledore much effort to deduce Voldemort’s condition, or even identify the host body he was riding.

The reason he hadn’t exposed it was obvious: to give Harry Potter the chance to grow through real trials.

Sure enough, Louis saw Dumbledore’s name move toward Minerva McGonagall’s. The two seemed to be conversing, and the topic was most likely…

Harry Potter’s punishment for sneaking out at night.

For example—assigning him to detention in the Forbidden Forest.

“The Savior’s first trial, is it?” Louis chuckled.

From the Phantom’s vantage point inside the tower, he watched three broom-riders approach through the sky.

At the front was a stocky, broad-shouldered man with short red hair—surely the eldest Weasley son, Charlie.

Harry and Neville had meanwhile thrown off the Invisibility Cloak, dumping it casually to one side as they dragged the now-hefty Norbert out with difficulty.

The Faceless Phantom’s gaze lingered on that cloak, wondering if Harry would even remember where he’d tossed it.

Things gotten too easily were always the least cherished.

Louis sighed, then casually scooped up the Invisibility Cloak himself. He planned to take it back and toy with it—maybe it would even trigger a new mission.

At that moment, Charlie Weasley had already met up with the two boys.

“Only you two? Where’s Ron?” Charlie asked in confusion.

“He got bitten by the dragon. He’s still in the hospital wing,” Harry said helplessly.

“Clumsy lad,” Charlie muttered, before his eyes fell on Norbert, whom Harry and Neville were dragging along. “Wow… now that’s beautiful.”

“A fine Norwegian Ridgeback,” said one of the men who’d come with him—clearly another dragon researcher. He identified the breed instantly. “But it looks like a female. Why are you calling it Norbert?”

“Female?” Harry and Neville exchanged a glance.

Well, neither of them could tell a dragon’s sex, and dragon-loving Hagrid hadn’t been able to either.

“Not important right now. Worst case, you can change its name later. Let’s just hurry and get it out of here,” Charlie said. “Who cast the Stunning Spell on it?”

“Hagrid. Several times,” Harry answered.

“Figures. But that was the right call. You can’t control a dragon otherwise, even one this young.”

Charlie waved his wand, conjuring a set of ropes to bind Norbert and hang it from their brooms. “We’re off. You two should get back as well—don’t let Filch catch you.”

Filch had been at Hogwarts for years. Charlie himself hadn’t been spared by the caretaker during his own school days.

“Mm.” Harry and Neville nodded, watching Charlie and his companions fly off with Norbert dangling beneath them.

“Let’s go too,” Neville urged. “I don’t want to lose points if we’re caught.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got the Invisibility Cloak,” Harry said proudly—until he looked down and froze.

The cloak was gone. Louis had already taken it, and the two boys couldn’t find it anywhere.

Even if Louis hadn’t taken it, chances were slim they’d have found it anyway. Carelessly tossing around something so rare—that was a bad habit.

“It’s fine. We’ll just look carefully—it has to be here on the ground somewhere,” Harry said, trying to reassure Neville. He was just about to drop down and feel around when Filch’s voice drifted up from below.

“Who’s there?”

Then came the sound of frantic footsteps charging up the stairs.

From the Phantom’s perspective, Louis saw Draco Malfoy, pale and panicked, dash up and collide with Harry and Neville. That was enough for him—he left the tower and slipped after Charlie Weasley and his men.

As for Harry, Neville, and Malfoy, Louis didn’t even need to watch to know how it would play out. A night in the Forbidden Forest—nothing too serious.

On the contrary, it was a rare chance to get up close and personal with Voldemort.

Charlie and his team flew above the Forbidden Forest and descended to the spot where they’d prepared a Portkey for their escape to Romania.

But just as they landed and reached to lift the dragon, a wave of dizziness hit them. Their consciousness clouded, and they collapsed into a deep sleep.

The half-dragon Faceless Phantom strode forward. After a glance at the unconscious men and the stunned Norbert, it swapped places with the real Louis. He extended his hand, summoned Avalon, the Ideal Land, and tossed Norbert inside. Then, in the blink of an eye, he switched back.

Stealing a dragon? Keep it simple. No need for flashy theatrics. A bit of hypnosis solved everything—clean, efficient, and left the least evidence.

Handling the people, however, was trickier.

Louis thought a moment, then pulled several test tubes of violet-black liquid from his storage.

“Erase their memories and dump them back in Romania.”

The Portkey was right there anyway. Send them back, wipe the traces, then have the Phantom teleport home.

Flawless plan.

---