Infusing a magic doll with thoughts is not an easy spell to master. However, Bode had once been an outstanding graduate of Ravenclaw, earning "Outstanding" marks in several N.E.W.Ts subjects. In the end, he successfully completed the process.
The magic doll slowly opened its eyes. At first, its expression was blank, but then it gradually softened and even carried a hint of solitary melancholy—somewhat resembling Bode himself.
Bode waved his hand in front of the doll, then withdrew it under the doll's confused gaze. He asked somewhat nervously, "Hello? Do you know who I am?"
"Master," the doll said slowly.
"OK!" Bode continued, "Explain the potential risks of irreversible transfiguration… Oh, and tell me the seven elements of spatial magic, along with the mathematical formulas used to construct magical space."
Wade glanced at Bode and nodded slightly to himself.
The first question was at the level of a N.E.W.T. exam, but the latter two weren't even taught in school—they might only be known to a select few, the results of research from the Department of Mysteries.
Bode was using this test to verify just how much of his own knowledge the doll had inherited after the thought infusion.
After the doll answered each question one by one, Bode was so delighted he nearly jumped up.
"Did you hear that, Wade? He knows it all! Even better than I expected—more organized too! Merlin, this is the best magic doll I could possibly imagine!"
"As long as you're satisfied," Wade leaned against the wall with arms crossed and said with a smile. "Want to give him a name?"
Bode seemed to have already decided. Without hesitation, he said, "Caspian."
Wade asked, "Like the sea?"
"Yes," Bode said with anticipation. "He's going to be a tremendous help to our research."
Wade motioned for Bode to step aside, then quietly said, "I need to remind you, Mr. Bode: though Caspian was created to assist with your research, you'd best not treat him harshly."
Bode nodded. "I understand. He's like your own child to you, right? Don't worry, I'll take good care of him."
"Not just because of that," Wade corrected. "The reason we never sell these customized large magic dolls is to prevent unfortunate events."
Bode: "…Unfortunate events?"
Wade looked at him and asked, "Mr. Bode, can you guarantee that your own thoughts will never betray you?"
Bode wanted to firmly say "Yes," but after hesitating for a moment, he shook his head.
He had seen many strange phenomena in the Department of Mysteries and heard all kinds of bizarre cases handled by his colleagues in the Ministry of Magic.
Bode knew very well that human thoughts are complex. Even within the same person, reason and desire, morality and emotion often conflict. Every mind harbors contradictions—constantly denying and even betraying itself.
"See, that's exactly the problem."
Wade said, "The magic dolls sold by our workshop actually have many restrictions built in, to ensure they won't harm or betray their master. But the level of intelligence you requested was so high, I had to reduce some of those limits. So he…"
"He might betray me?" Bode asked grimly.
"No, it's not that easy." Wade replied, "He's like a child you have to raise with your own hands. What he grows into depends entirely on how you treat him."
Wade continued, "Most children don't betray their parents, but if you constantly abuse or hurt him, and the emotional feedback he receives is all negative… Well, let's just say his loyalty won't exceed that of a house-elf."
Bode, initially full of concern, visibly relaxed a bit after hearing that. "I understand... Wade, even if you don't trust my character, you should trust my wallet — I don't have another pile of Galleons to buy a second magic doll."
He joked, shrugging. "So of course, I wouldn't dream of doing him any harm."
"In fact, even with house-elves, I've never punished them... I know some of my colleagues enjoy doing that, but I've never done it myself. I find it cruel."
"Cruel?" Wade blinked, then asked, "What did they do?"
Bode shook his head. "Don't ask. You really don't want to know... Anyway, thank you for your help with our magical research. Here's the payment as promised… and the necklace."
He placed a leather bag on the table. After opening it, he reached his entire arm inside, rummaged around for a moment, then pulled out several heavy money pouches and set them on the table, followed by an old-looking wooden box.
Wade opened the wooden box first. Inside was a bed of black velvet, upon which lay a stone necklace. Compared to the soft luster of the velvet, the necklace looked as though a mischievous child had strung it together randomly.
He cast a few detection spells first. After confirming it wasn't a dangerous Dark object, he picked up the necklace and examined it closely.
The flat stones varied in size and shape, reminding Wade of Fiona's metal box filled with assorted buttons.
Ancient runes were carved on both sides of each stone. Wade was unable to decipher them, so he asked directly, "Do you know what these runes mean?"
"My colleagues deciphered them once. They believe it might be an ancient incantation, something like this—"
Bode held the necklace and softly chanted, "Oumegan, Fata, Tēiamo'gen, Layutha, Neupuslong'ayutha…"
He murmured a long string of words, and the stone necklace began to glow faintly, only to quickly dim again, as if short on power.
"See? It's been too long—this is all it can manage now. We haven't found a way to recharge or re-enchant it."
Bode said with some helplessness. Then, realizing this might make the necklace seem worthless, he quickly added, "But long ago, it was probably an item of protection or healing magic."
Wade took the necklace and examined it carefully.
Bode rummaged through his bag again and pulled out a thin booklet. "These are notes from our previous research. Take them too — they might be of some help to you."
Wade looked surprised. "I thought research from the Department of Mysteries wasn't allowed to be shared?"
Even though no one could say for sure if it had ever been leaked, there was definitely a rule. Not only was the material not supposed to be shared, Unspeakables rarely even talked about their work with others.
Bode chuckled, "It's not that kind of classified. After all, this necklace… well…"
"Isn't that important," Wade finished the sentence for him.
Bode sighed in relief. "Exactly."
Wade flipped through the notebook, picked out the parts of the Unspeakable's notes he could understand, and finally managed to grasp the general idea.
According to the analysis, the runes on the necklace indicated that it was meant to heal mental trauma or protect the mind from external harm.
In ancient times, people faced many dangerous and powerful dark magical creatures—some of which didn't harm the body, but devoured the soul. Wizards would also use curses far more evil than the Imperius Curse to attack each other, so they needed to wear special magical items for protection.
But times have changed. Most of those magical creatures have long since vanished from the earth and become nothing more than legends. This necklace, after enduring the passage of ages, had been worn down to a faintly glowing trinket.
After reading, Wade looked up and saw Bode watching him with a faintly guilty expression. He smiled and said, "Then I'll keep this necklace. It just so happens that I've recently been studying some magic related to the mind."
"That kind of magic is very dangerous," Bode warned. "Unless you've got Professor Dumbledore's permission, you'd best not dabble in it lightly."
"I know." Wade packed away the Galleons and the necklace. "Pleasure doing business with you. I should get back to school."
He said goodbye to Bode and nodded to Caspian, then turned and left the room.
The magic doll Caspian had sat silently the entire time and watched the two of them converse. Only when Bode walked the young wizard out did Caspian raise his eyes and fixed them intently on the man who had created him.
Bang!
The wooden door closed. As Bode turned back around, Caspian's expression returned to one of still, emotionless calm.
…
Wade spent the next few days researching the necklace.
After all, he had recently fallen victim to a mind-affecting spell, and his wariness toward mental attacks was now at an all-time high.
Although Dumbledore had helped him resolve the issue this time, what if someone else tried to use the Brain Room to issue invisible commands to the world in the future?
Granted, even Voldemort would probably find that difficult to pull off—but if the Brain Room's magic were targeted at just one or two individuals, the effect would be far stronger and harder to detect.
If he could restore the necklace, or learn the rune magic inscribed on it, he wouldn't have to stay so passive.
The Unspeakables seemed to believe the necklace had little value, but Wade didn't agree. When he used his magic vision ability, he saw that the magic patterns around the necklace were still nearly perfectly arranged, and the ancient runes were mesmerizing.
But it had run out of power. The same rune configurations, carved on the same type of stone—or even on gemstone or metal necklaces—did nothing. Clearly, a specific incantation was needed to activate it.
Wade had already reproduced the entire incantation Bode had recited. The necklace graciously glowed for about two seconds, but that was all it did.
Then, Wade discovered a problem: the rune spell carved on the necklace looked like it had a beginning and an end, but it was actually a looped incantation. In other words, the part Bode started with might not be the true beginning—the spell's starting point could be anywhere in the runic sequence.
What's more, how the incantation was spoken—where to pause, where to elongate syllables, which parts to emphasize—would all significantly impact the magical effect. But none of that was marked on the necklace at all.
As for Brute-force permutations—this incantation might have hundreds of thousands of possible ways to be pronounced.
After spending several days using the Time-Turner to study it, Wade had to admit, albeit reluctantly, that the Unspeakables were right to think the thing was junk.
The time spent figuring out how to "revive" it might be better spent inventing a similar item from scratch.
Wade casually set the stone necklace back on the storage shelf and left the wardrobe space.
Not long after, a sneaky figure floated in.
Cloak picked up the necklace, pretended it had a head, and "wore" the necklace at its collar, securing it with its neckline, then floated off proudly.
Cube, currently responsible for wardrobe space remodeling, noticed this nuisance floating past three times and snapped irritably, "Why aren't you cleaning the library? What are you messing around here for?"
"Look!" Cloak proudly showed off its new accessory. "I have a necklace now too!"
"Put it back! Right now!" Broom smacked Cloak twice and scolded, "That's something the master's been paying a lot of attention to lately. What if you break it?"
"It's just a quick wear, it won't get damaged!" Cloak dodged Broom's attack and argued, "Besides, I don't think the master even likes it anymore—he didn't put it back in the box today."
Cube just shook its head and went back to stacking bricks. Meanwhile, the firebird Mikael was drawn by their commotion and flew over, and watched them curiously.
Cloak and Broom tussled a bit, and the necklace, not properly secured, fell to the ground with a clatter.
"Ack!" Cloak yelped.
"Wasn't me!" Broom immediately zipped away.
"It's not broken! Just hit the ground, that's all."
Cloak nudged the necklace with its hem and sighed in relief after seeing it was still intact.
Just as it was about to pick it up, Mikael suddenly dipped his head and pecked the necklace a few times.
The necklace flickered with blinking red light, looking as though Mikael was about to melt it. Cloak didn't dare keep playing—quickly snatched it up and hurriedly placed it back on the shelf.
Click!
With a light snap, one end of the necklace wobbled and struck something on the lower shelf. That something immediately cracked.
The magic dolls looked at each other in silence. Then, in a flurry of panic, they all bolted, as if terrified they'd be held responsible.
…
Wade strolled around the castle and checked his final grades. As expected, he had scored high marks in every subject.
With exams over for both fifth- and seventh-year students, the whole school was in a state of carefree celebration. The end-of-term feast was as lavish as ever, satisfying everyone's appetite.
Of course, Wade still needed to return the Time-Turner to Professor McGonagall.
He had secretly hoped she'd forget about it, but when he asked, he learned that she didn't even have permission to keep it—during the holidays, she had to send it back to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic.
"It's just a learning aid," 'Professor' Percy lectured with a senior's tone, "Useful, yes—but don't get attached. Wade, being able to take all courses at once proves how brilliant you are, but don't slip up on details like this. Don't try to skirt the law."
Wade: "…"
When he finally returned to his dorm with the aroma of feast food all over his body, and stepped into the wardrobe space, he saw several magic dolls lined up, all waiting to be scolded.
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