Ryan slowly opened his eyes, blinking as a warm golden glow filtered through the tall window.
Seeing the time on a nearby clock, he noticed it was nine in the morning.
'Oh shit, classes!' he thought, about to spring up like a coil, but then realized it was Sunday...
"Uff..." he murmured in relief, resting his head back on the soft pillow.
He wasn't in his Gryffindor dormitory, nor in the Room of Requirement.
He was in a room on the fourth floor, hidden behind an enchanted tapestry that only responded to a password. The room wasn't large, but it was cozy. The pale stone walls had a warm hue that the sun enhanced, and a light breeze slipped in through the half-open window, carrying with it the scent of damp leaves and the lake.
He was using a long, dark-toned leather sofa as a bed, comfortable enough to sleep on without waking up with an aching body. It wasn't as wide as a real bed, but just right for someone to spend the night without ending up twisted.
Even two people could fit there if they snuggled up. And, in fact, Ryan was not alone.
Curled up against his chest, sleeping peacefully, was Mia Macmillan.
Ryan looked at her. The only thing covering them both was a dark reddish blanket, very Gryffindor-like. Beyond that, they were both naked.
'In twenty days we went from making out to sleeping together...' Ryan thought, a little surprised at how things had developed.
After their first "educational outing," they continued seeing each other. After ten days of kissing and a few more, their sexual desires were inevitable, and they ended up sleeping together.
This room was a place Mia found in her fifth year and furnished to her liking. It didn't have a bed, but the sofa was more than enough for sleeping and, well, doing other things.
Since that Saturday night when Mia brought him here and they had sex for the first time, they had already repeated the same thing three more times.
'Life is good,' Ryan thought with a slight smile, looking up at the ceiling as he put his arms behind his head.
A month since he started Hogwarts, and he'd already had sex with a seventh-year student. And not just any student. A beautiful seventh-year prefect with an intimidating presence and a strict personality. And, not a minor fact, she belonged to an ancient pure-blood Macmillan family.
In these past twenty days, quill sales had improved on average compared to the first ten days of the school year. Ryan had managed to sell a total of 55 quills, which came to almost three per day.
Because he sold them directly himself, he could keep the price at 10 galleons per unit.
Although, from time to time, he managed to place one from a slightly more luxurious category, like the one he sold to Mia. However, no one had yet ordered a truly high-end quill, such as a griffin feather or one where even the base quill without runes cost 10 or 15 galleons.
'Allowances aren't as high as I thought for these spoiled kids…' he thought with a grimace.
Many students came from wealthy families, even from old aristocratic houses. But that didn't mean they had unrestricted access to their parents' fortunes. After all, everyone received an allowance—more or less generous, but still an allowance. And while Ryan didn't have exact figures, he had made some subtle inquiries.
For example, last time after having sex with Mia, he asked her how much she got per month. After each nighttime session, she tended to be more affectionate and didn't mind sharing such things with him. She told him her allowance was 17 galleons. Not bad in Muggle terms, almost 100 dollars a month for a 17-year-old student in 1971.
She came from an old family that could be considered upper-middle class, not aristocratic like the Blacks, Lestranges, or Malfoys. So a student from those families might well receive an allowance of around 30 galleons on average, depending on whether they were only children or not.
So it was normal that no one would jump at spending 40 galleons on a griffin quill, no matter how beautiful it was or how it could write in the air, when they could buy a regular one for 10 galleons.
On the other hand, the double-speed glasses he sold for 40 galleons each to Marlene, Dorcas, Celeste, and Alicia, they bought them instantly without hesitation. They clearly recognized the value and usefulness of owning such glasses.
And considering that their families were also upper-middle class, their allowances must have been 15 galleons or more. Since all of them were prudent girls who surely saved month after month, spending 40 galleons on an object was something they could afford if they saw it was worth it.
The former Ryan had a savings of 80 galleons that he had never used. Not as bad as he had first thought. And his allowance was quite generous, being an Ollivander: 25 galleons. After all, he was the only Ollivander in Hogwarts and his family spoiled him quite a bit, though with sarcasm and money.
But Ryan was different from his predecessor and from the other Hogwarts students. He didn't need to wait until the end of the month to count his coins. His current personal fortune exceeded 2,000 galleons.
He had sold 55 quills at 10 galleons:
– Gross revenue: 550 galleons
– Plus luxury sales: +77 galleons
– Total: 627 galleons
– Materials used: –55 galleons
– Net profit: 572 galleons
To that were added the 132 net galleons obtained from delivering the four pairs of 2x fast-reading glasses.
Subtotal: 704 galleons
Added to his previous capital of 1,680 galleons, Ryan now had a total of 2,384 galleons.
And that wasn't all.
Even though traffic in Diagon Alley had dropped after the high season, he was still receiving orders from the shops he had previously worked with. Although his production had decreased due to schoolwork, he could still craft about four quills per day, of which he kept three to sell at Hogwarts and set aside one for the shops. Of course, he didn't send them one by one.
Instead, he shipped them in batches of five or ten. In total, over these twenty days, he had sold 20 quills to the shops in Diagon Alley.
– Sales to shops (20 quills x 8.5 g): 170 galleons
– Material costs: –12 galleons
– Additional net profit: +158 galleons
Total capital as of today: 2,384 + 158 = 2,542 galleons
'I could present the quills in some shop at Hogsmeade…' Ryan thought.
Another way to increase his daily sales. However, it wasn't as simple as it sounded.
During summer vacation, his routine had been flawless. He slept his eight hours, and had sixteen hours completely free. He set aside a few of those hours to rest and spend time with his family, and the rest he devoted to studying what truly interested him: runes, offensive and defensive enchantments, system books, transfiguration with his mother, Potions, and of course, practicing his creations.
Now, at Hogwarts, things were different. Just between classes, walks, breaks, and meals, about 10 hours of his day were already taken. That from Monday to Friday.
On top of that, there was the time he had to dedicate to homework. He was in fifth year, and while he liked several subjects—Defense, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration—others, like History of Magic or Herbology, though interesting, cost him more effort. Not wanting to fall behind with the O.W.L.s ahead, he had imposed on himself a minimum routine of two hours of daily study, which also included doing homework.
With that, 12 hours of his day were already occupied.
That left him with 4 free hours per day.
Of those four hours, he dedicated one to his daily quill production. He worked quickly and precisely: four quills a day, thirteen minutes each, like clockwork. He even had a few minutes to spare.
That left him with 3 hours per day.
And that was when his favorite part began: studying the Practical Rune Manual II. He hadn't finished it yet. If he had to put it into numbers, he'd say he had a solid theoretical and practical grasp of about 70% of the book. It was taking him much more work than he expected because of the limited hours he had to dedicate to it, although thanks to his glasses he managed to maintain a decent rhythm.
In those final three hours, he normally devoted two to reading it carefully. Not just reading: understanding, experimenting mentally, reviewing strokes, studying equivalences, and exploring direct magical applications. It wasn't passive reading. It was practical study of rune magic.
The remaining hour, over these twenty days, he had invested in creating the x2 glasses. Each pair took him five hours of intensive work, so with 20 hours in total he had managed to complete the four pairs of fast-reading glasses he had already delivered. Fortunately, he could work on them for one hour, stop, and pick it up again the next day.
He finished one pair every five days or so.
Weekends were another story.
There he had real freedom, and he made good use of it. Though he studied more, he also gave himself room to practice practical defensive and offensive magic. Just like during the holidays. Casting spells in sequence, with precision and efficient body movement. Cutting down the seconds between castings, moving his wand faster, and so on.
One of his greatest achievements so far was being able to cast Expelliarmus nonverbally at a remarkable speed.
He had refined it so much, from the fluidity of his wand movement to the precise mental intent, that in a real situation he was convinced he could disarm an opponent before they even raised their wand.
Of course… only if that opponent was an average Hogwarts student. Someone from his own year, or maybe even a seventh-year if they weren't particularly skilled.
But the truth was different.
Although he knew that nonverbal magic was usually taught only in sixth year, and he already mastered it with a key spell like Expelliarmus, he also understood that this wasn't an absolute guarantee of superiority in combat.
Because, to be honest, Ryan had never truly fought another wizard.
Not now, not before.
The original Ryan had barely had a couple of informal school duels—simple exchanges with classmates of his year, more for play than for real competition.
Nothing serious. Nothing that could give him a firm sense of the true level of sixth or seventh-year students.
And it all depended on countless variables.
There could be a seventh-year who barely mastered the basics because they focused on other areas: Herbology, Arithmancy, Magical History. And at the same time, there could be another who trained daily as if preparing to become an Auror—or a bloody professional duelist.
The same applied to adults.
A Ministry clerk who had spent years behind a desk was probably rusty, relying on magical protections but lacking real reflexes. Whereas an active Auror—or worse, a Dark wizard with experience—that was another level.
A real threat.
Ryan knew this. And although he trusted in his talent, he was rational enough not to underestimate them. He hadn't yet faced anyone who posed a genuine risk.
Not a duel that forced him to think quickly, improvise under pressure, or face a threat that triggered his survival instinct. Everything so far had been training and theory.
'Maybe I should provoke someone,' he thought.
Mulciber, perhaps?
He was in Slytherin. Same year. He had a reputation for being malicious, for enjoying violence, and for that very reason many feared him.
He had that troll-like appearance, stocky, with a square, somewhat chubby face, as if he'd been dragged out of a fight club and dressed up in a neat Slytherin uniform.
Compared to Mulciber, Ryan couldn't imagine losing to that boy.
As he kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling, mulling over how to start an "accidental" fight in the middle of the Great Hall or along the corridors, a soft voice pulled him out of his trance:
"What are you thinking about…?"
...
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