Chapter 50: Weaslette, Divergence, and Profits (1/2)

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Walking in the Hogwarts corridors could be a daunting challenge if you didn't know your way around. There were too many corridors, cuts, paths, doors, and goddamn stairs that liked to shit with people. But, those who spend an ample amount of time in Hogwarts could find order in chaos.

So, when Quinn walked in the corridors of Hogwarts, with a dazed look in his eyes, you didn't need to worry about him. As even with his mind somewhere else, his legs were taking care of the navigation.

The cause for the dazed Quinn was because he was thinking, which was crossing over to daydreaming about the riddle of the second vault. It had been a couple of days, but he hadn't been able to make any serious progress.

The wording of the riddle was vague, and Quinn didn't know what to make out of it.

'What is the stage of completeness? Is there something known as oil of green revenge? To get to the reward, I need to appreciate accolades? What was Friar on when he was thinking of this?' Multiple thoughts circled in Quinn's mind as he walked in the corridors, not really paying attention to his surroundings.

”Ouch.”

”Umph.”

Quinn walked into something, and while he didn't move at all, the thing he collided into did fell down.

Focus returned to his eyes, and he looked at the 'thing' he walked into and saw the 'thing' was actually a person.

A head of flaming red hair greeted him. The person looked up to show her freckled complexion with light skin, a very petite stature, and bright brown eyes.

The person on the floor was the only female progeny of the Weasley family, Ginny Weasley.

Quinn's mind, which had been solely focused on figuring the sense of the riddle, stopped and reassigned itself to the person in front of him.

”I am very sorry. I wasn't paying attention, and look what happened,” spoke Quinn, as he helped the first year Weasley up.

”It's okay. I, too, wasn't looking,” said the girl. She noticed the golden ring on Quinn's finger before she looked up and saw Quinn's face.

”Red hair, hmm... a Weasley? Oh, wait. I remember you. You are a first-year, aren't you?” said Quinn, breaking ice into a conversation. ”What is your name?”

This was the perfect chance to have a conversation with the carrier of Tom Riddle's diary, a.k.a Voldemort's first Horcrux.

”My name is Ginny,” replied the Weaslette.

”I see, Ginny. What are you doing here? There aren't any first-year classrooms here?” said Quinn, glancing around to see if there was around. It would be better for him if there wasn't anyone around. Easier for him to work when there weren't any witnesses.

But, at the same time, Quinn was nervous as he wondered if the girl in front of him wasn't Ginny but Tom Riddle. It would answer what a first-year was doing far away from the usual first-year student hotspot locations.

”... am l-....”

”Pardon me, but I wasn't able to get that,” said Quinn, leaning towards her.

”I am lost!” half-shouted Ginny, her face becoming as red as her hair in embarrassment.

Or, it was a lost Ginny Weasley in front of him, thought Quinn, not really sure if Tom Riddle would be able to pull off a red-hot embarrassed expression.

”Ah~ well, there is no reason to get embarrassed because of that,” assured Quinn, comforting the girl who truly had become red as her hair. ”You are a first-year, and Hogwarts is a confusing place.”

He smiled and offered, ”Where do you want to go? I will take you there.”

Ginny looked relieved as her flush receded, leaving behind a faint blush on her cheeks. ”I want to go to the charms classroom.”

”Alright, let's go. We are on the fourth floor, but the charms classroom is on the third floor. You must have stepped on the wrong flight of stairs,” replied Quinn.

And, when Ginny made eye contact with him, Quinn wasted no time and took the opportunity to send a mental probe into Ginny's mind.

'Got in,' thought Quinn, latching his probe into Ginny's unprotected mind.

”Come on, let's go, or you will be late,” said Quinn, as he broke eye contact and funneled magic and focus for maintaining the connection with Ginny's mind. This technique, while tricky for most Legilimency practitioners, for Quinn was easy as his way of practicing Legilimency was to sit in the Great Hall and eavesdrop into people's minds, 'listen' to their surface thoughts and emotions.

In the past two years at Hogwarts, Quinn had become weirdly good at using Legilimency without maintaining eye contact.

”So, how are you finding Hogwarts? Having any fun?” asked Quinn, making idle questions as he navigated his probe deeper into her mind, trying to reach the layer where memories resided.

”... Gryffindor common room is fun,” said Ginny as she finished speaking, showing the starry-eyed expression of any new first-year.

”Nice, when I was in my first year, I kept a diary and wrote every new and fun thing I saw in it. Believe me, Hogwarts doesn't have a shortage of fascinating things. By the end of the year, my diary was full of fun stuff.”

Quinn sneakily and smoothly deployed his standard Modulus Operandi (M.O.) of mentioning a keyword relating to the memory he was looking for. Hoping that it would trigger the memory in the target's mind, causing it to rise on the surface, making it easier for Quinn to find the relevant memory.

Quinn furrowed his brows a fraction as nothing relevant came to the surface, only Molly Weasley's house budget diary and Arthur Weasley's work diary.

'Gotta do it the long way,' thinking that Quinn focused deeper and dove deeper into Ginny's mind, trying to find anything relevant, and it was when they reached the grand staircase did Quinn finally found something.

'Got it!'

It was the memory of the day of shopping. The Weasley family, along with the Potter family, went shopping for school supplies. Just like the books, they met up with the Granger family. They ended up meeting Gilderoy Lockhart at his signing event.

Like the books, the real-life didn't cut out the brawl between Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy. It almost made Quinn chuckle when he saw Arthur throw himself on Lucius. The two men knocked themselves into a bookshelf, starting a domino chain of falling bookshelves.

While Quinn watched the memory, the duo of younger Gryffindor and older Ravenclaw walked down the stair. As they descended, they heard a shout,

”Ginny!”

Quinn focused and saw four people on another flight of moving stairs. It was the golden squad: Harry Potter, Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. The one who called out to Ginny was her brother, Ron.

'Time's up, I guess,' thought Quinn as he looked at them.

Quinn and Ginny reached a relay point to change stairs. Quinn looked at Ginny and smiled, ”It seems my job ends here. Your friends would guide you from here on.”

Quinn took out an A.I.D card from his pocket and handed it to Ginny.

”If you need help with anything, you can see me here. I will try my best to help you out,” said Quinn. Ginny looked at the card and nodded.

”Good, now I will take my leave,” said Quinn and stepped onto a staircase that came to the relay point.

”Wait, what is your name?!” called out Ginny.

Quinn turned as the staircase started to move and smiled, ”Quinn West, and it might be late, but welcome to Hogwarts!”

The next set of stairs that arrived at the relay point were the golden squad's stairs, and as they stepped off the stairs onto the platform, Ivy asked,

”Ginny, what did he wanted from you?”

”Hmm? Nothing, I was lost, and he was guiding me to the charms classroom. He was nice,” said Ginny. While Quinn did spend all the time looking at Ginny's memories, he made sure to hold a proper conversation with Ginny.

”What did he give you to at the end there?” asked Ron.

Ginny held the card in both her hands and showed it to Ron, ”He gave me his card.”

”Show it to me,” said Ron as he tried to take it from Ginny, but the smaller Weasley was faster and snatched back her hand before Ron could get his hand on the card.

”Nope, if you want one, get it from Quinn,” said Ginny, looking at the card in her hands. It was the first time she had received something like this, and she didn't trust Ron with it.

”I will give it to you later,” Hermione spoke to Ron, who was trying to get the card from Ginny, who was effortlessly evading her brother.

Harry glanced at Hermione and asked, ”You have one?”

”I have multiple cards. They aren't difficult to find. You can usually find them under the classroom tables,” replied Hermione, and then quipped, ”Of course, you wouldn't know it, would you.”

She was commenting on Harry's lack of attention during lessons.

”What do you mean by that?” asked Harry, getting ready to quarrel with Hermione.

Ivy looked at her brother and best friend and immediately recognized the signs of another childish exchange, their usual thing.