A Web Of Magic

Winter was upon Hogwarts and the whole landscape was covered with snow. Magnus's sale of items has slowed down with the passage of time as the craze over the troll incident passed over. The twins still sold some joke items from time to time, but Magnus stopped selling his miniature trolls. It was never meant to last for long anyway and he made decent money of 70 galleons altogether. That was good enough for him as his investment was literally nil monetarily. He only transfigured some wood and applied some minor enchantments.

Today Magnus was walking towards the staff room in order to talk with Prof. Flitwick. The professor stayed here during the class hours. Just as he was about to enter, he saw Harry running away from the staff room looking all scared. He disappeared around the corner before Magnus could ask him what happened. Magnus just shrugged. It probably wasn't anything serious and it didn't concern him anyway. When he entered the staff room, he unfortunately discovered that Prof. Flitwick wasn't in. Just when he was about to go back, he heard Prof. Snape calling out to him, "Mr. Webb, a moment."

Magnus turned around to see the gloomy professor. He was standing in a corner with Filch near him holding what looked like bandages. "Yes, professor. How may I help you?" Magnus asked normally. Prof. Snape usually doesn't ask his students anything apart from questions, so it was a rare occasion.

When Magnus got close enough, Prof. Snape gestured towards his leg and pointed out the wound on his leg. "I was wondering if you could take care of that for me Mr. Webb. It's being a bother," the professor said.

Magnus didn't ask the professor why he didn't approach Madam Pomfrey from the medical wing. There was probably a good reason for it and the professor wouldn't tell him even if he asked anyway. Magnus pulled out his wand and observed the wound. It was a large gash right above the ankle and it was bleeding profusely. Magnus didn't believe that the potions professor didn't know any healing spells on his own or lacked any potions that replaced their function. That meant that the wound was different from the usual type and wouldn't heal using the traditional healing methods.

Magnus decided to test out his speculation and cast a diagnostic spell at the wound. He was right in his assumption. There was something in the flesh that was preventing the wound from healing. It was something dark in nature. Not only was it preventing healing, it was also causing the increased bleeding. 'Was he hit by some dark magic spell? But it doesn't look like it. It looks more like an animal attack. Did he go to the Forbidden forest and come across some dangerous creature? It shouldn't be. Even if there was a creature he couldn't defend against, he could just escape away by apparition. Unless he couldn't escape by apparition? Did this happen on the castle grounds? But the only creature around that fits the bill is that Cerberus on the third-floor corridor. Unless Hagrid brought some other creature. Now what would the professor be doing in the forbidden corridor?' Magnus speculated in his head but his wand didn't stop moving.

He cast a Purify spell and a grey smoke rose from the wound and dispersed into the wind. Then he cleaned the wound and healed it back up in no time. When he was done, there was no trace of a wound left. Prof. Snape was surprised on the inside at the boy's healing prowess. No wonder he won the award. The boy looked like he was talented in multiple areas of magic. Despite feeling grateful on the inside, he still only gave a curt," Thank you, Mr. Webb."

Magnus nodded his head and said, "You are welcome professor." He then exited the staff room in search of Prof. Flitwick but he kept his speculations to himself. 'Looks like I need to pay more attention to the third-floor corridor.'

The next day was the quidditch match of Gryffindor vs Slytherin. To Magnus it was just another day but to the rest of the student body it was an exciting event. The Gryffindor and Slytherin students were more aggressive with each other than ever. It was as if they were going to some war. Magnus found all of this drama silly. He still made some banners for both of the houses that got sold out before the match. Why waste any opportunity to make some easy money?

Magnus stood on the sidelines on the ground as usual to perform his duties as an emergency healer. Madam Hooch was the referee and Jordan was the commentator, just like always. The Gryffindor team thought that their new seeker Harry was kept a secret, but most of the student body knew it by now so it wasn't much of a surprise. Not much of a secret when they kept bragging to their friends the past month.

A few moments into the match and Magnus was called over as Alicia Spinnet got hit by a bludger from the Slytherins. Not much of a surprise there. The Slytherins always played like brutes. The next to get hit was Pucey by Fred. Magnus healed him up and sent him back into the game. He was a professional, he would do his duty even if he didn't like the patient.

Half-way through the game, Harry and the Slytherin seeker Higgs found the snitch at the same time. But surprisingly, Harry's broom started doing weird movements. Eventually everyone could see that there was something wrong with Harry's broom as it tried to buck him off with zig-zag motions. Magnus could easily make out that the broom was jinxed. 'I thought they tested those for any tampering before the match? Is someone casting the jinx right now? Who is so bold?' Magnus thought.

Just when Magnus was thinking if he should interfere, the shaking of the broom stopped and it went back to normal. 'Hmm, weird,' Magnus thought. It was a bit too much for a prank. Moments later Harry drove towards the ground and landed. He then started puking and out came the golden snitch. 'Well, that's one way to catch it,' Magnus thought wryly. Everyone started cheering immediately and the Gryffindor team went into a celebratory mood as they all congratulated Harry. Magnus's work here was done so he went back to the castle. He had plenty of other things to do.

Magnus made his way into Slytherin's Laboratory discreetly. A few moments after he entered the inner lab, his silhouette disappeared. A new Magnus came out from hiding behind the desk nearby. He placed many of the freshly picked ingredients from his new Undetectable extension pocket on to the table. He patted the time-turner on his c.h.e.s.t. 'This saved me a lot of time.' He had been using the time-turner generously whenever he wanted apart from attending his classes. Especially when he had to participate in boring events like today, he would just go out to either brew a potion, enchant something or even gather ingredients from the Forbidden forest. It acted as both time saving as well as an experiment to understand the workings of the time turner. While he made some observations, he still needs more time to see the effect of the time-turner on his body. Maybe he could find a cure for his blood-curse this way? He planned on testing all avenues. He had a hunch that he would need to find a solution soon.