“Man, you guys were easy!” Sol put his wand back into his pockets. He looked at the two people who were lying on the ground motionless. After half an hour of getting tortured, they finally fell unconscious. He tied them up again and dusted his hands. The two vials filled with their tears were stuffed in his satchel.

“Who knew R’s base would be Knockturn Alley? But in hindsight, it should’ve been apparent. A bunch of bad guys hiding in the Diagon Alley of bad guys. Good grief,” Sol shook his head at the absurdity of it all.

He left the two guys there and went to the door at the end of the doorway. Under its handle was a small vertical groove. Sol took out the broken wand he found in the last vault. He put it inside the groove- it was a perfect fit.

The door clicked and he grabbed the handle, pushing it. He felt the door swinging out but the door stayed the same.

“What the fuck?” Sol’s eyes widened. “Was that lag? Did I just fucking experience lag in real life?” With his head filled with questions, there was a series of popping sounds that he heard faintly from the room in front of him. There was a total of 20 pops before it stopped for good.

“Just what is happening…?” Sol took a deep breath and calmed down. He gripped the handle again and pushed it. The door opened easily and he did not feel anything strange like last time. Sol stepped him into the room and his eyes widened like they were about to pop about.

The wand in his hand that he brought out again to defend himself suddenly lost its use as there were no enemies inside the vault room. The vault room looked exactly like the one in Vault of Ice minus all the ice. But with the addition of numerous blotches of purple all around the room- on the roof, the walls, and the floor.

“This is the Vault of Fear?” Sol looked around and commented, “Maybe they should call this the Vault of Unexplainable Happenings.” He could see internal organs and other such body parts strewn about the room. They did not belong to any humans.

Sol crouched down and picked up one such body part- a finger. He couldn’t recognize it. Trying to scour his mind for animals he could match this with, he couldn’t find even one. Not even the book ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ had any information on this. The only animals that were unidentified right now were the true body of the boggart or some elusive beast that Newt Scamander himself was unable to document.

“Given the location, I reckon this is a Boggart’s finger. There were twenty of these nuisances here,” he inferred their numbers based on the number of ‘pops’ he heard outside. “But the question is- why the fuck did they explode?”

Sol walked towards the center whilst pondering this question. In the center was a pedestal. And on it were two things- an old rolled-up parchment and an arrow with a peculiar design. He took a look at the arrow first- it had an exquisitely carved stone arrowhead and sturdy wooden body.

Sol muttered to himself, “The only ones to craft a stone arrow this well in this world are centaurs.” He put the arrow in his satchel and unfurled the parchment; a mass of lines and words.

It was a map. The Hogwarts Castle was nowhere to be seen and only a dense drawing of trees littered the map. In one spot, there was an ‘X’ mark made with ink.

Sol mused, “So, up next is a vault in the Forbidden Forest.” He was thankful that this vault was an easy one. And it looked like he needed to make a trip to Knockturn Alley as well.

“Fuck me; I have so much work as a 14-year-old.” He left the vault and came back to the hallway. When he came to where the two members of ‘R’ were, he waved his wand at them and cast ‘Obliviate’ on them. He decided to increase the dose of the spell on them and then he grabbed each of them by their legs and dragged them up the library. After coming out of the Restricted Section, he just left them there and came back to the common room.

After waking up the Fat Lady who has become a light sleeper ever since Sol came, he peeked inside but no one was waiting for them.

“Have they given up?” Sol heaved a sigh of relief. Sol checked the sofas and the corners just in case but there was no one there or any sound to tip him off. With a lighter mind, he went inside the sleeping quarters, took his gear off, and changed his clothes before falling soundly asleep.

Sol was having a hard time eating his breakfast. It was partly because Hermione was glaring daggers into him. He peeked at her slightly and her eyes locked on to his, causing him to quickly shift his eyes back to his plate.

“Sol, mate, you alright?” Cormac looked over at Hermione and back at Sol, “Did you do something to her? She looks like she’s about to stab you.”

“Mate, if I knew, I wouldn’t be in this predicament now, would I?” Sol hissed.

“Yeah, just watch your back. Wouldn’t want to see a knife sticking out from there.”

“How about you stop cursing me and tell me which classes we’re doing today?”

“Just the main ones.”

Katie came over and sat beside the two. She was still yawning and looked groggy from having just woken up.

“At least, try to wake up properly before coming here.” Cormac chided her, “You look like you’re about to sleep right here with the omelets as your pillow.”

Katie glared at her, “Bugger off, Cormac!”

“I don’t know why you even try, mate,” Sol shook his head. He looked at Katie who was almost about to nod off. He made a knocking sound on the table and this jolted her awake, “Good grief, drink some tea as well. That’ll keep you awake. Ask for some chamomile. That stuff has some kick to it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do just that.” Katie yawned and a cup of chamomile tea appeared in front of her.

“Give me your Potions notes, will you, Sol?” Cormac pleaded. “Or else, Snape’s going to be on my case for it.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it to you later. Don’t want to see you take more points away from the house.”

“Thanks a lot!” Cormac grinned goofily.

Sol kneaded his glabella. Despite his light-hearted conversations with his friends, the atmosphere in the Great Hall was a bit tense. Word has it that, two fourth-year students were found on the floor of the library last night. Madam Pince woke them up and tried to berate them for violating her ‘sacred land’ but was shocked to find that they had turned into idiots, incapable of even understanding basic words.

The two boys were background characters and as last night’s matter reached the students’ ears, many were a bit weirded out to find that they really couldn’t remember any sort of interaction they had with those two. In their four years in school, not a single person had any memory of talking to them.

“Fuck, literal human beings are being created to kill me.” Sol laughed mirthlessly at his plight. He could only sigh at the level of threat he’d face when he’ll eventually go to the Vault of Fear.

“What’cha thinking ‘bout?” Katie asked him with a smile. She seemed much more energetic after drinking the tea.

“Is this the new trend? Why are you talking like that?” Sol frowned.

Katie scoffed, “Get with the times, old man. All the kids in my neighborhood talk like this. And I still think of them as my friends.”

“I see…well, good luck with that. I hope you become the epitome of hip and cool fashion.”

“That was sarcasm, wasn’t it?”

“Oh my, I seemed to have been caught red-handed.”

“Go to hell!”

“I’ll gladly do that after I die.” Katie’s words suddenly reminded Sol that he hadn’t had that much of an interaction with the muggle kids in his neighborhood. He should try to connect with some of them; he decided to do that next vacation.

“Okay, that’s enough slacking around.” Sol got up and began walking away.

“Oi, where are you goin’?” she asked.

Sol replied without looking back, “Library.” He left the Great Hall and rounded a corner. He stopped suddenly and waited. Soon, Hermione rushed around and bumped into his chest.

“Ow!” she rubbed her forehead and glared at Sol- the source of her frustrations.

“Why are you acting as if I hit you?” Sol raised his hands in defense.

She narrowed her eyes and swore, “I’ll find out what you’re up to.”

“My sister in Merlin, believe me, I’m not doing anything. I’m just roaming around the castle.”

“Then why do you always try to get rid of us?”

“Cause I want to be alone.”

“Not a good enough answer,”

“Your highness,” Sol’s tone was laced with sarcasm and helplessness, “what must I do to appease you? Come to think of it, I’m going out again tonight. If you want, I’ll take you with me. Is that a deal?” He reached his hand out.

Hermione’s narrow eyes did not ease up but she still shook his hand, “Deal.”

“Good.” Sol smiled and went on his way. As Sol turned the corner at the far end of the hallway, Hermione’s eyes did not leave his figure. But ultimately, she returned back to the Great Hall.