It turns out that even a mischievous peist learn to reason if the person standing in front of it is holding the truth.

  "I was wrong; I shouldn't have scared you. I deeply regret it." Peeves, realizing he couldn't escape, immediately surrendered, pleading for mercy.

  "Who's the little troublemaker now?" Ia him with his wand in hand.

  "It's me, it's me, the wicked Peeves." The peist, now sp an uional afro from Ian's earlier fmes, responded with uncharacteristic obedience.

  "I've always been mild-mannered; you attacked me first."

  Ian grabbed Peeves by the colr and lifted him. Although Ian wasn't particurly tall, he still mao loom over the peist.

  "If I hear you spreading these tales to the professors, I'll hang you in the Great Hall for a day, set you abze twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year."

  "And if it's a leap year, I'll even grant you a day off. That's how merciful I am!" Ian's righteous threat left Peeves sniffling with fear.

  "I uand! I won't tell anyone! I swear I won't say a word!" Peeves, for all his troublemaking, knew when he was outmatched.

  "Good. Let's hope we all be ho and trustworthy." Ian nodded, l his wand. His suspis had now been firmed.

  The boundaries between the living and the dead, between humans and peists, didn't seem to apply to him. This peculiarity was likely lio his ability to ehe Twilight Zone.

  pared to his personal skillset, this bizarre privilege clearly held deeper mysteries yet to be uood.

  " you let me go now? I promise I won't scare you again." Peeves was genuinely shaken; there was something unnervingly different about Ian.

  "Before you leave, let me warn you: twisting the truth won't help you. Sectumsempra was taught to me by Professor Snape himself, and Dumbledore even called my spellwork delightful!"

  With that final threat, Ian released Peeves.

  "ah~"

  Peeves wailed as he floated away, thhly humiliated.

  He wao pin. He wanted justice! But he didn't dare.

  His previous fiden pulling pranks had e from the fact that no one could touch him. But this year… something was different.

  'Damn it!'

  'What was happening?'

  How could a first year wizard be so terrifying?! He'd heard rumors of a wicked student arriving at Hogwarts this year. It had to be this little mena front of him! Just like that European fellow called Grindelwald!

  Peeves's eic heart trembled in fusion and fear. A living person shouldn't be able to grab or hex him. He couldn't make sense of it, even as he fled down the eighth floor.

  "I hate pranks."

  Watg Peeves vanish, Ia pletely at ease.

  As he had said before. He hadn't used any truly dangerous spells. The two spells he had cast were .

  If Peeves dared to snder him, Ian would just catch him again tomorrow night and teach him another lesson. Perhaps he could even introduce Peeves to Pandero a Ariana practice her swordsmanship on him.

  "I need a pce to hide things… I need a pce to hide things… I need a pce to hide things…"

  Muttering his i, Ian paced three times before the wall, fog on the Room of Requirement's entrance.

  Of course, he was also sidering other possible uses for the room. As he pleted the third pass, a smooth wooden door materialized before him.

  A copper doorknob shimmered invitingly.

  "Click~"

  Ian grasped both sides of the handle and pulled firmly. The hidden chamber's door creaked open, and the eager young wizard darted inside.

  The sight that greeted him was astonishing.

  A cavernous space, far rger than most stadiums, stretched before him. It resembled an a, fotten city hiddeh a dome, with tless discarded items f mountains of lost artifacts.

  Broken statues, spliables and chairs, jars filled with mysterious liquids, stacks of fotten books and notes, dulled magical tris, frayed robes…

  Even a few abandoned Muggle oed in a dusty er.

  Faced with such a spectacle, Ian knew he had struck gold.

  Objects only appeared in this room if their owners had long abahem. That meant everything here was fair game— a thousand years' worth of fotten treasures.

  Junk?

  Not at all!

  There were treasures hidden among the ruins!

  "Why are there so many colorful magazines?!"

  Rifling through the stacks of books, Ian discovered old diaries and study notes, but more surprisingly— numerous animated wizarding magazines of a rather questioure.

  Hmm.

  "The older students would probably pay well for these… but I have a reputation to maintain." Ian dropped the magazines bato the pile. Some money simply wasn't worth making.

  Besides, there was no she of valuables here. Abandoned artifacts would only rot away in this pce.

  "They deserve to be appreciated once more. And I am the oo make that happen."

  Ian raised his wand.

  "Accio everything that be sold!"

  He had been practig the Summoning Charm for a while now, but the heaps of junk remaiubbornly unmoved.

  "As expected, it only works on specific targets…" He sighed, having already anticipated this oute. Still, it had been worth a try.

  "I'll e back ter and sort through everything properly." Ian decided to find a secret passage to Hogsmeade first— he knew of a shop that bought sed-hand magical goods.

  "Now, Accio Gold Galleons!"

  Ian cast the spell with a clear image in his mind. To his delight, hundreds of uncimed Galleons soared out from the piles of junk.

  He swiftly caught them, stuffing the s into his pockets and robe.

  That weight.

  That glorious weight.

  It was the taste of true happiness.

  "Now then…"

  Recalling sketches from the library, Ian resumed his search, sing the piles of fotten artifacts with the precision of a hawk.

  Time slipped by unnoticed.

  Half an hour ter—

  "There it is!"

  Ian finally spotted his true prize— a tarnished old diadem, resting atop a mound of decayed relics.

  Its once-lustrous gems had dulled to the color of ash. Ravencw's Diadem, now defiled by the e of Tom Riddle.

  "Such a disgrace to a legendary artifact… Only a true monster could have dohis." Gritting his teeth, Ian grabbed a nearby tattered box and carefully pced the Horcrux inside.

  He had read extensively about Horcruxes. As long as he didn't wear it, there was no immediate danger. Still, it infuriated him to see such a brilliant piece of alchemy defiled in this way.

  "If only it weren't corrupted… it would have been the ing jewel of Ravencw's legacy!" Ian ched his fists.

  This o be dealt with.

  Tomorrow night.

  Ian would take Voldemort on a little journey.

  To the pce he should have gone long ago.

  (End of Chapter)

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