HP Bella's Lie

18 - stop abruptly

The school bell rings.Riddle packed his things and said to the front table, "I'm going home for dinner, and I won't go to the laboratory today."

Unexpectedly, the front desk grabbed his hand with great excitement: "What's important for you? If you don't have one, stay here, and follow me to plan your 'important matter' how to investigate!"

Riddle instinctively wanted to express his contempt for his emotional intelligence, but remembering that he had half the credit for his determination, he reluctantly said: "...Okay. It's a bit abnormal to go home so early, it might make her curious, stay in It would be good to make a detailed investigation plan here.”

Hearing this, the front desk was overjoyed, he didn't even bother to pack his own things, grabbed Riddle's schoolbag, swept his things in, dragged him up and rushed out of the classroom, leaving smoke and dust billowing behind him...

Running all the way to the door of the laboratory, the front desk holding Riddle's hand has turned into being dragged away by him.

Riddle helped him into the laboratory with a face full of black lines, and the latter rushed up to the spacious laboratory table like a hungry wolf, and then immediately transformed into a cartilaginous animal, lying on it and panting wildly.

"I'm so tired and running so fast." Riddle was also a little out of breath, put down his schoolbag and poured a glass of water to drink.He didn't understand why he rushed here as if he was rushing to reincarnate, and it wasn't the first time he came to the laboratory—as early as when they designed the time bomb, they managed to apply to the school for the qualification to use the laboratory—of course, Funding is paid by the father at the front desk.

"I...I'm not...for you..." The front desk replied breathlessly, "Looking at you...so impatient...of course I... have to hurry up... time... ..."

"Okay, okay, let's catch our breath first."

After a while, after recovering from physical strength, the front desk took out a piece of paper and spread it on the laboratory table, and then wrote a line neatly with a pen:

Mysterious Anomaly Investigation Plan (First Draft)

The front desk was full of enthusiasm: "Come on, let's plan it out. Hmm... Where do I start... Let me think about it..."

After pondering for a while, he realized that he had no idea at all.

Seeing Riddle in a daze, he couldn't help complaining: "I'm making a plan for you, you should think about it yourself... Ah, by the way, tell me what's going on first."

Riddle glanced at him blankly, grabbed the pen, pulled the paper, and wrote without saying a word.

He didn't expect the front desk to help him with this kind of thing, and he just wanted to find a quiet place to think about plans when he came here with him.

"Go do your experiment, don't make trouble for me." He coldly dismissed the front desk, and then fell into his own thinking.

First of all, according to the preliminary exploration last night, there are still two possibilities for how Bella left: port keys and magic items.

Although the former is the most common, he doesn't know of a good way to find it; the latter has been nearly ruled out after last night's search.The next thing to do is to completely rule out the possibility of magic items, then look up the relevant knowledge of the Portkey, and at the same time find a way to obtain useful information from Bella.

Second, last night's windfall: the glass ball that Bella shattered.

He didn't find a way to dispel the fog inside, and this also requires consulting relevant knowledge.

After analysis, what he needs to do most now is to search Bella's room thoroughly, and the second is to go to the old house to consult a large number of magic books.

Another point that needs to be done with caution is the insinuation of Bella.He needs some clever and unobtrusive way to ask what he wants.

Riddle suddenly stood up, attracting the attention of the front desk who was silently doing the experiment.

"Huh? Have you planned it?" He secretly paid attention to it for a long time.

Riddle nodded curtly, rolled up the plan and stuffed it into his schoolbag, then strode out of the laboratory.

The front desk called behind him: "Hey, let me see—where are you going!"

Riddle ignored him, turned into the bathroom in a few steps, found a private room to enter, then took out the old house key he carried with him, and left here.

After some uncomfortable experiences, Riddle appeared in the storage room of the old house.He lifted the lid of the box with ease, and used the floating spell to wrap a room full of packages in one piece.He piled up all the packages on the table, and Riddle didn't have time to unpack them, so he ran directly to the bookshelf.

Now a quarter of the book classifications here are sorted out by him himself, and the rest of the book classifications are also clear.Riddle quickly scanned the rows of books, moving back and forth between several bookshelves, and more and more books were floating around him.

After picking more than a dozen books he wanted, Riddle returned to the table and sat down, flipping through them one by one.

That night, while Bella was leaving again, Riddle thoroughly searched her room and ruled out the option of magic items.

—Then, the Portkey.

Standing beside Bella's bed, Riddle tentatively said, "The portkey is coming."

The house was quiet.

He waited for half a minute and nothing changed.

This method really doesn't work.

He was not surprised at all, and gave up this search.Then he took out the glass ball from the dark pavilion that he discovered yesterday, and tried to disperse the fog inside by practicing wandless magic.

He found out in the books of the old house that this kind of glass ball is a special storage container, and the area covered by fog can be completely isolated from the outside world. Protect what you want to store.

That's a good explanation.

What Bella didn't want him to know was not the memory ball, but something stored in it.

Riddle tried several times, and finally managed to drive away the fog inside the ball.But to his disappointment, there was nothing inside.

Apparently Bella has transferred that stuff.

The investigation thus far appears to have reached an impasse.

Riddle returned to his room, took out the draft plan, and scribbled and corrected it.

The method of leaving has been determined: Portkey.

The glass ball has figured it out: storage balls.

The previous two problems have been solved, but a bigger problem has been encountered.

First of all, how to find the door key?Second, what's in the storage ball?

Two questions that at first glance seem to be clueless.

But when Riddle wrote them together on paper, a strange thought popped into his mind.

Could it be—the Portkey was originally in the memory ball?

Although this is not a rigorous enough reasoning, Riddle's thinking was instantly opened, and he boldly reasoned along this guess——

That's right... Bella's abnormality started suddenly at that time.Something must have happened at that point in time to change her thinking and behavior.

It is related to the Portkey... It should have been placed in the storage ball... That is to say, the source of the mutation has always existed, but Bella suddenly discovered it at a certain point in time... This source is very important, Or so special that she didn't tell him in the first place.

So, what is this source?A portkey?

No, the portkey is just a tool, and generally what is important is the place the doorkey leads to, and the doorkey itself is as inconspicuous as possible, and should not be kept so solemnly.

So, it is the source itself that counts, not the Portkey imposed on it...

Riddle felt that he was about to figure out a certain key, but suddenly he heard the sound of the door lock opening!He hastily pulled out a circuit design drawing and put it on top of the draft, and then randomly drew a certain circuit component.

Bella routinely completed the planned memory filling work, and brought water to Riddle as soon as she returned from the attic.

"Honey, what circuit are you designing again? Drink more water." Bella put the cup in his hand and asked casually.

"Well... it's a previous circuit, I think it can be optimized." Riddle acted calmly, even though his heartbeat hadn't calmed down yet.

Bella smiled: "You are the best. Muggle knowledge doesn't need to be so perfect, it's very tiring."

"It's okay, I can do it." Riddle felt that his smile was awkward, "You know, I will be very uncomfortable if I don't do my best."

"Okay... just do what you want." Bella patted his shoulder dotingly, feeling that he was more and more overlapping with the figure of the future, she suppressed her sadness, and gently told, "Go to bed early. "

"Yeah." Riddle watched her leave, his eyes a little out of focus.