HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error
Chapter 477: Unmarkable Progress.
Time passed by in weeks as Loki started spending most of his time trying to experiment with Helga Hufflepuff's spirit thread.
There were several observations he made by doing so.
But that wasn't all that happened within those few weeks.
Along with experimenting carefully with Helga Hufflepuff's spirit thread, which could burn him if touched the wrong way, Loki was slowly letting his body get used to having his Spirit Body thread captured by whatever guarded the Department of Mysteries.
Loki wasn't doing it to train himself or such, but because he wanted to develop a spell that did such a thing.
Loki hoped that as long as he could isolate the runes that allowed whatever was on the other side of the door to manipulate the spirit body threads of everyone near it, he would be able to replicate those abilities with the help of the Grey Fog even before he became a Sequence 2 Angel which was when Klein got access to the neighbouring pathways abilities.
It would be a great help in advancing his powers since he couldn't directly steal someone's spirit body threads, yet.
Loki assumed he would get the ability to manipulate fate directly when he became a Sequence 2 Trojan Horse of Destiny, but getting some rudimentary control wasn't wrong as long as it strengthened him.
All the regular visits to the Department of Mysteries had allowed Loki to experiment with something else too, it had allowed him to experiment with forming an internal clock that would help him substitute for his lack of time inside the leading corridor.
But this was easier said than done.
The first instinct was to use the sea of subconscious to keep time since that was something which connected all people, and finding an island sufficiently far away from his own, of a person outside the Department of Mysteries, and using its internal clock would do the trick since the 'foolish guard' who could manipulate the spirit threads clearly had a range.
But Loki quickly realised that it was impossible to do such a thing.
Simply because he couldn't go far enough from his own sea of subconscious.
It was because whatever made people lose their sense of direction as they got closer to the Department of Mysteries worked to make sure that as long as you stepped a little away from your sea of subconscious you'd never be able to return unless someone brought your body out again.
The second plan was to use the grey fog or the Sefirah Castle in some way. Perhaps using a worm of time left behind in the Sefirah Castle by allowing it to parasitise a mystical clock could do the trick and it would be simpler even.
But that too was useless.
Loki did get regular updates regarding what the time was every fifteen minutes.
But because he didn't already have a sense of time, all he understood was that all time seemingly passed away all at once.
It was a paradox.
It felt like an eternity, yet to his logical mind the duration seemed as short as a moment.
It was confusing.
The previous weeks had also been productive in terms of Mystical research.
But none of his problems had made any progress.
He was still at the stage where he was banging his head against the wall to see what would stick and finally let him through.
Irritated about his lack of progress, Loki collapsed into his comfortable bed as a wet towel dropped onto his face to cool it down.
It felt comfortable.
'Helga's spirit body thread is nigh immutable as long as I manipulate it directly…'
'I did develop several spells to avoid getting burnt though…'
'It also helped me experiment with creating spells to control spirit body threads…given that my spells can create ripples in her spirit body threads before all my spirituality is burnt away, I can guarantee that any simple Beyonder shouldn't be able to stop themselves from becoming my marionettes…'
'But that's not enough is it?'
'And then there's the project that I haven't even started on.'
'Sending Dumbledore to the Forgotten Land of Gods…'
'Snape has had the same thought on his mind the last two tarot club meetings…he's wondering when I'll give him the item he needs to plant on Bellatrix…'
'Hmm…to send Dumbledore to the Forgotten Land of Gods…Rowena did leave behind mentions of it in the books she's written. They are also mentioned in Salazar's books since he conducted several experiments there, but neither of them had written down its location.'
'Just that Mr. Error helped them get to and from it.'
'And then there's the Chaos Sea that I need for my own advancement.'
Loki stared at the ceiling.
"How nice it would be if this room would become the Chaos Sea…"
Loki gave himself a wry smile as the lights dimmed a little when he said that.
"Don't worry, you don't need to be the Chaos Sea! You're crazy helpful in your own way. I wouldn't ask for a better one under any circumstances." Loki assured the room while petting the bed.
"Though I do wonder…you read a person's mind to work right?"
"So your principles should be similar to the way magic works…"
"Perhaps I can compare you with how magic works and figure out if there are some common errors in both the systems? So that I can hijack magic from the outside!?"
As Loki continued speaking, his eyes widened.
'How have I never thought of doing that!?'
Almost immediately Loki looked at the Room of Requirements with a sharp gaze that anyone would swear caused the entirety of Hogwarts to lightly tremble.
"I have a new order for you! Strip!!!!"
With a new aim in mind, Loki rushed to study the runes of the room even though the room itself looked like it was being forced to cooperate.
Loki promised it that he would compensate it appropriately by giving it some much needed modifications like giving it the ability to act more freely and kick out people it didn't like.
Loki didn't understand why the room wanted such an ability but he shrugged nonetheless and accepted the deal since it was a bargain.
'Perhaps it wants to prevent people like Voldemort coming in here?'
But he pushed the thought aside since he was way more interested in seeing the runes carved into the room. Something that had been hidden from him for long enough.
But he also had another thought at the same time-
'Now that I think about it, I should also examine how the Cards of Blasphemy were made. Rowena made them too and so her style should be similar. It might help me somewhere.'
With his thoughts cleared after that, Loki walked to the new wall that had appeared at the far end of the room.
The wall had a small shelf built into it and once Loki reached the handle he paused.
"Rowena won't smite me because of this right?"
"...well I doubt she's even looking at me right now. She's probably more worried that I haven't given Helena a response yet."
"The ritual with Tom should be close to completion too."
"sigh...how do I have so many things on my hands?"
Pushing away the distractions, Loki opened the shelf door, swinging it after twisting its handle.
The door opened without a sound, Loki noticed. Assuming that several charms had been cast on it to automatically take care of this important place in the room.
The shelf itself was mostly empty.
It contained a note, likely from Rowena herself.
But it wasn't a note addressed to anyone else, it was a TODO note for herself.
"Did Rowena have to go to sleep while she was making this or something?" Loki mumbled, mostly asking himself.
Loki quickly checked the note.
'Remember to check if the connection between the Hogwarts wards and the Chaos Sea can be optimised.'
Loki's lips automatically split into a wide smile.
"So it does work like I thought it did! And it seems like an 'error' is already built into it for me to exploit."
"....how wonderful and interesting!"
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A/N : Fell asleep before uploading the chapter due to messed up sleep schedule. Will upload another chapter later today. Thank you for reading.