The Max-Level Muggle-Born: Hogwarts Isekai

The raw, unfinished body of the Whomping Willow wand felt like a dangerous secret hidden in her trunk. It was a constant, tangible reminder of her primary quest, a promise of future power that vibrated with a low, chaotic energy only she could feel. But for now, it was useless—a high-level weapon schematic without the necessary core components and binding agents. With the third-floor corridor locked down by Dumbledore's upgraded security, her most direct path to the Cerberus whisker was blocked. This forced a strategic pivot. Her only viable strategy was to ensure the "Hero Party" succeeded in their own quest, as their fated journey was the only thing that would eventually reopen that path. It was time to stop being a passive observer and start being an active, if invisible, support class.

Her first target was Hermione. Evelyn's game knowledge was absolute on this point: the first true obstacle past Fluffy was a Devil's Snare plant. She also knew that while Hermione was a walking encyclopedia, her knowledge was limited to first-year texts. More critically, her character profile indicated a tendency to panic under pressure, causing her to forget simple solutions in a crisis. This was a critical flaw in the party's composition, a potential wipe condition. Evelyn needed to pre-load the necessary data into Hermione's cache, like installing a software patch before a critical mission to prevent a predictable party wipe.

The execution had to be flawless. She couldn't just tell her; that would raise too many questions and flag her on every watchlist from McGonagall to Dumbledore. The intervention needed to feel like a natural discovery, a lucky break that fit within the established patterns of the world. Evelyn went to the library, the familiar scent of old parchment and quiet focus a comforting backdrop for her clandestine operation. She found a quiet, secluded alcove in the Herbology section, hidden from the view of Madam Pince. She checked out a copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and, ensuring no one was watching, laid her hand on the specific page about Devil's Snare. She whispered a complex duplication charm, a spell far beyond first-year capabilities. A faint shimmer of light, visible only to her, lifted the ink and illustrations from the page, creating a perfect, non-magical copy on a blank piece of parchment she had brought. The original page was left completely unharmed.

Next, she located a copy of Quintessence: A Quest for Perfection, an advanced Charms textbook she knew Hermione would find as irresistible as a cat to catnip. It was the perfect bait. Using a minor illusion charm to make it look like the Charms book had been misplaced in the wrong section—a common enough occurrence in the sprawling library—she left it on a table she knew the Trio frequented. The final touch was tucking the duplicated page on Devil's Snare inside the advanced textbook, making it seem like a forgotten bookmark from a previous, more advanced reader. The page detailed the nature of the plant, its violent aversion to light and heat, and listed several effective fire-starting charms. She specifically chose a page that highlighted the Bluebell Flames charm, Incendio Caeruleus—a spell that was both safe for indoor use and not on the first-year curriculum, making it a perfect piece of advanced, yet attainable, knowledge.

It was a perfectly crafted breadcrumb trail. It offered a solution without being an overt giveaway, playing directly into Hermione's established behavior pattern of seeking out advanced knowledge. Evelyn didn't linger. She planted the clue, a digital seed in an analog world, and left, confident that the target's own programming would do the rest.