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Chapter 38: I Was So Stupid
🕑 Added 2025-02-16 13:41:00 +0000 UTC
Demon hunters really exist, and their history is very long—so long that they can even be compared with Merlin.
As for whether there is a man named Geralt among these demon hunters, Noah doesn’t know.
At least, Noah didn't find this person’s name in the limited information he had, which made him feel quite regretful.
Looking at the three-headed dog that was still sleeping but beginning to stir, Noah knew better than to wait for it to wake up and then waste effort dealing with it.
Although waking it up might look more dramatic, it would also be incredibly stupid. Why make things difficult when there was an easy solution?
"Somnus!"
Noah’s wand immediately emitted a silver light, and his magic seeped into the three-headed dog’s brain through his wand.
The beast, which had just begun to rouse, instantly slumped back into deep sleep, snoring even louder than before.
“See? It’s that simple.”
After finishing, Noah shrugged at Harry and Ron, who were still staring in disbelief. He then clapped his hands together and gestured at them.
“Well? Shouldn’t you two be moving its legs? It’s blocking the trapdoor.”
“Huh?” Harry and Ron snapped out of their stupor, but Ron quickly muttered in protest, “Why do we have to move its legs?”
“Because we can’t expect you to do anything else.” Noah shot him a look. “Unless you'd rather I wake it up so you can deal with it?”
“But—”
“Alright, I get it.”
Looking at the enormous beast, Ron swallowed hard, deciding that arguing with Noah wasn’t worth it.
Wake it up and fight it? Was he serious? Harry and I aren’t like these lunatics who seem to know everything, let alone Noah, who even knows spells that seem suspiciously close to the Dark Arts!
And so, begrudgingly, they got to work.
They soon realized that the three-headed dog was absolutely filthy, which explained the overpowering stench in the room.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances and instantly understood why Noah had made them do it—he simply didn’t want to touch the dog!
“This is disgusting! If I could, I’d give this thing a proper bath. At least then it wouldn’t stink so badly,” Ron grumbled as he struggled to push one of its massive paws aside.
The task was difficult, but not impossible. Soon, they managed to move the beast’s legs away, revealing a wooden trapdoor in the floor.
Opening the trapdoor, they peered inside. It was pitch-black.
Harry hesitated for a moment before making a decision. He wasn’t about to stand idly by while Noah and his group did all the work.
“I’ll go down first,” he said. “That way, I can warn you if there’s any danger.”
“There’s no need for that,” Noah replied.
“No, I insist!” Harry said firmly.
“Uh… suit yourself.”
Seeing how determined Harry was, Noah simply shrugged.
Below was a mass of Devil’s Snare. The drop itself wasn’t dangerous, but if you weren’t familiar with its properties, things could get complicated.
But since Harry insisted, Noah wasn’t going to stop him.
If he wanted to dive in headfirst without thinking, then so be it.
Noah wasn’t his babysitter.
Even Dumbledore didn’t hold his hand through everything, right?
“Noah… are you sure this is okay?” Hermione asked, watching Harry jump down.
“He should be fine. But if I were him, I’d cast a Lumos spell first. At the very least, he should be able to see what—”
"AHH! BLOODY HELL!"
Noah sighed as Harry’s scream echoed from below.
Ron immediately panicked, about to jump in after him, while Kenn and the others rushed over to see what had happened.
"Lumos Maxima."
Evan crouched at the edge of the trapdoor and cast a spell, sending a bright light down into the darkness.
The moment the area was illuminated, they saw Harry completely tangled in Devil’s Snare, his face twisted in panic.
The more he struggled, the tighter the vines wrapped around him, and it was clear he was beginning to suffocate.
“Honestly, Harry,” Evan sighed, shaking his head. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be moving so much. Try relaxing a bit. For Merlin’s sake, didn’t you pay attention in class?”
“Relax?! Are you insane? That thing is killing him!” Ron shouted, horrified.
“Wow, you really are an idiot,” Evan said, looking at Ron in disbelief. “You jumped down there without a single thought, without even using Lumos to see what you were getting into. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
At that moment, Hermione stepped forward, raising her wand. Years of study had made her magic much stronger than in the original timeline.
"Lumos Solem!"
A brilliant light, as bright as the sun, erupted from her wand.
The Devil’s Snare recoiled instantly, retreating as if burned, and Harry fell unceremoniously to the ground.
“The Devil’s Snare, also called the Strangling Vine, tightens around anything that struggles against it,” Hermione explained coolly as she lowered her wand. “If you relax, it won’t hurt you. And, of course, Devil’s Snare is weak to sunlight—this is basic Herbology knowledge.”
To her, this was all elementary. There was nothing impressive about knowing these things.
Whether or not Ron and the others actually listened wasn’t her problem.
But as she observed Harry and Ron’s reactions, she couldn’t help but feel that the so-called Boy Who Lived and his friends were on a completely different level from Noah and his group.
For a brief moment, she even questioned if the whole savior thing was a lie.
Of course, Hermione wasn’t stupid enough to say that out loud.
Whether or not it was true had nothing to do with her.
She was just a student.
Her only concern was learning everything she could.
Other matters were for the future—if they ever became relevant at all.
She let out a small sigh, muttering under her breath:
“I was so stupid back then… I should have listened to the Sorting Hat and gone to Ravenclaw.”
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