Chapter 48: Setting Up Office, Lovegood, Return To The Icy Vault (1/2)

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After his first day at Hogwarts, the owner of A.I.D services walked to the office with a suitcase in hand. He hummed a tune as he inserted the key into the key slot, turning it to unlock the door. The lock clicked to release the bolt that secured the door to the frame.

But the door wasn't unlocked, as there were a couple more things Quinn needed to do to unlock the door. He placed his hand on the door and funneled magic into the door. Before leaving last year, Quinn had fused the wood of the door to the wood of the frame by using transmutation, forming a weld between the woods of both structures.

Lifting his hand up to lift up the four wooden planks that barred the door from opening.

Finally, Quinn held the handle on the door and was about to push the door open when he got jolted with a stun of lightning.

”Fu-, motherfu-, shit, bloody hell, Merlin's saggy balls I forgot about that,” heaved Quinn, his face all scrunched up in pain, clutching his hand and jumping up and down. There was a charm on the door handle that shocked anyone who touched it.

Quinn angrily disabled the charm on the door after recovering from the shock. He grabbed the handle and was about to push the door but stopped.

”Did I place something else in there?” After a few seconds of thinking, Quinn determined he was safe and entered the office.

White sheets covered the entire office furniture, and some dust flew in the room because of the sudden disturbance of the opened door. Quinn looked to the right and saw the big glass wall, which used to have a door slot to enter the workshop, but now didn't have a single opening. Quinn had sealed the door slot when he left for the summer break.

He walked to the glass wall and touched it to transmute a door slot into the glass wall, making a rectangular opening into the glass. He stepped into the opening, entering the workshop, which too was covered in white sheets covering the table and cabinets.

He sat down his suitcase on the floor and gathered his magic as he walked around the familiar room, smiling the entire time.

Quinn clapped his hand once, and the room came to life as white sheets in the office and workshop flew up and folded themselves into a neat stack on the floor. A wave of magic hit the entire classroom-turned-office-and-workshop and cleaned every nook and cranny of the room, eliminating the dust in the room.

Every drawer and door of every cupboard and cabinet opened and went through the same cleaning process, turning the entire room into a squeaky clean place.

The suitcase on the floor fell to the side and opened up with a dozen or more clicks of locks unlocking. It took a while before things flew out of the suitcase.

Various types of tools, vials of potions, reams of papers, other utensils, and all kinds of things that once filled the cupboards in the workshop once again took their rightful place in the workshop. Quinn again filled the file cabinets that he had emptied before leaving with documents and manilla folders.

In the office, decor adorned the walls. Furnishing the look that Quinn had decided for the office. With a snap of fingers, the chandeliers on the roof lit up the room, everlasting candles shining the room with their flames.

”Now, this feels right,” said Quinn. And, at last, Quinn looked at the door leaning against the glass wall. The door lifted itself and took its place in the glass wall, covering the opening in the wall.

A.I.D was back in business

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- (Scene Break) -

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Gilderoy Lockhart didn't make a positive first or any impression on Quinn. The entire first class, the pompous lying piece of phony lied his butt off about everything. He had wasted an hour of Quinn's time, and even though Quirrell and Binns did that last year, they weren't annoying as Lockhart.

Quinn hated every second of his Defense Against Dark Arts class and had to hold the urge to stun the blonde bastard into oblivion. He spent an hour listening to the bragging that came out of Lockhart's mouth, and there was something about Lockhart's voice that Quinn couldn't ignore. It was like a mosquito's buzz, extremely annoying and hard to ignore.

”Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming-Smile Award, my ass,” groaned Quinn, rubbing his temple, entering the Ravenclaw common room.

He made a beeline to his favorite chair in the common room and stopped when he saw a first-year sitting in his spot.

Quinn stared at the chair and the first-year sitting in it, and the first-year noticed Quinn staring at him. The first-year kid felt uncomfortable at being stared down by a senior. He looked around, wondering why Quinn was staring and concluded that Quinn wanted to sit in the chair.

He bounced up from the chair, not wanting to fight with an older student, and walked away from the spot, avoiding confrontation.

”Hey, kid,” called out Quinn, causing the first-year Ravenclaw to freeze in his spot. He slowly turned to face and saw something thrown at him and instinctively caught it in his hand. The kid looked at his hands and saw chocolate sitting there. When he looked up at Quinn, he saw Quinn not looking at him and sitting down on the chair.

Quinn sat down on his chair and thought, 'Kids are weird.' Not noticing the reason behind why the kid left the chair.

Quinn slumped down in the chair and looked around the common room. When he looked to his side, he came across a pair of silvery eyes staring at him with a look of distinct dottiness. The girl was extremely close to him and almost startled him out of his chair.

”Can I have a chocolate?” asked the girl with silver eyes.

Quinn studied at the girl, and it took a second, but Quinn recognized the girl.

Stood in front of him, leaning down close to his face, was the girl with waist-length, straggly, dirty blonde hair and a feel about her that made her seem otherworldly.

Luna Lovegood wanted chocolate.

Quinn slowly took out a chocolate cube from his robes and placed it on Luna Lovegood's outstretched hand. She sat down on the chair beside him, unwrapped the sweet chocolate, and put the whole cube in her mouth.

She turned to Quinn, and he could see the small chocolate cube poking against the inside of her cheeks as she put it aside to speak, ”Thank you.”

Quinn nodded, observing Luna as if she was a rare creature, and extended his hand for a handshake.

”Quinn West,” said Quinn, introducing himself.

Luna looked at Quinn's hand for a moment before taking it with both her hands, turning it so that Quinn's palm was facing her.

'Is she... reading my palm?' thought Quinn, but let the blonde do whatever she was doing, finding her behavior interesting.

”Your hands are amusing,” spoke Luna. Her voice had a dreamy quality. If her words and voice were solid, they would fly and float away like a feather in a breeze.

”Amusing?” asked Quinn, not knowing what she meant by it. He looked at his other hand to see if anything was amusing with it but couldn't find anything particularly amusing.

She nodded while tracing the lines on his palm with her fingers, ”Very amusing.” She moved the chocolate cube in her mouth before continuing, ”You love magic, don't you.”

”... You found that from my hand?” inquired Quinn, watching her still playing with his hand.

She nodded, humming in agreement. Luna pulled on his fingers, popping knuckled while doing so, and smiling when his hand made popping sounds.

”I am sure that you would have no Wrackspurts around you. Your hands say so,” said Luna, smiling in delight, but then frowned. ”I forgot my pair of Spectrespecs at home, or else I would have been able to see them... maybe I should write a letter to daddy to send them to me.”

She suddenly looked at Quinn's face and asked, ”Can I have one more chocolate?”

Quinn took another chocolate cube from his robes and put the cube on his other hand that was still in Luna's grasp. The ever eccentric Luna requested something from Quinn, ”Please unwrap it.”

Quinn unwrapped the chocolate with magic, making sure that he had his fake wand out. His eyes almost bulged out when Luna leaned forward and ate the chocolate straight from Quinn's hand.

'”Thank you. It is quite delectable,” said Luna licking her lips that were stained with chocolate.

”... You are welcome,” said Quinn, not really sure how he should feel about the current situation.

”What is your name?” Luna stared into Quinn's eyes, silver meeting stone-grey. Usually, in these kinds of situations where he wasn't sure what to do, Quinn would take the opportunity to read the mind to get some hold of the conversation. But right now, he didn't have that in mind.

”My name is Quinn West,” introduced Quinn, even though he already did it once. ”And, you are Luna Lovegood.”

”Yes.” She finally released Quinn's hand and now was staring at Quinn's face.

”Your father is the editor of Quibbler, right? Can I buy a subscription,” asked Quinn, trying to build a connection with Luna.

Her stare changed a little as if looking for something. She looked at Quinn for a good while before nodding, ”I would need you to fill a form and pay the subscription fees. I will send it to daddy.”

”That's it?” asked Quinn.