"But who could have replaced it?" said Hermione, frowning.

"It's probably Dumbledore who replaced it, he was the one who found it at the tower, and no one else has touched it," said Ron, convinced that Dumbledore did have a few screws loose.

"I don't know," admitted Harry, "but it's probably not Dumbledore. He wouldn't lie to me about something like that, he was the one who gave it to me in the first place,"

Hermione exploded, "Yes, only for you to face You-Know-Who, I mean it's terrible - you could have been killed."

"No, it's not," said Harry thoughtfully. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could."

Ben was astounded by Harry's blind faith in Dumbledore, 'Brah, I feel like you deserve what's coming for you,' he thought.

"Doesn't know enough of what goes around here if things just keep getting stolen, does he?" Hermione retorted and Ben gave her a high five but was left hanging as he was invisible.

"Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right," said Ron and for the first time, Ben found himself agreeing with him.

"Listen, you've got to recover soon, the end-of-year feast is the day after tomorrow. The points aren't all in but Slytherin will most likely win, of course - you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you - but the food'll be good."

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT" she said firmly and Ben quietly followed the two out, leaving a few extra boxes of candy on top of the huge pile of gifts from Harry's well-wishers. Being a celebrity does have some perks.

They were soon replaced by Hargid, who looked too big to fit in this place, to be honest.

"It's - all - my - ruddy - fault!" he sobbed with his face in his hands as he towered over Harry's bed even though he was on his knees.

Even though Ben considered Hagrid a friend, he couldn't help but agree that it was kinda his fault.

--

Ben went to sleep early and woke up to Aquila lightly nibbling on his ear around midnight. He had asked her to wake him up once everyone was fast asleep. The mental link with the familiars was quite useful, as he often communicated through it. Similar to talking to a baby, he could feel them learning and getting smarter each day.

Closing the curtains on his four-poster bed, Ben summoned the portal to his very own private island. A cloud of black mist escaped his chest, forming a swirling portal. Going through it, Ben saw that the landscape was just as barren and sad.

The sky looked dim, as the small sun failed to illuminate the land properly. Two moons in the sky reflected two different shades of light, giving the sky two different shades. Looking around, Ben still couldn't spot a single blade of grass on the land. The small lake in the middle of the island looked just as calm as it was dead.

Looking at this dead world, Ben could feel the silence and sadness in the air. He felt lonely here. Perhaps he should try populating this place and get some plants.

"That's probably not going to work. I doubt this place even has the necessary microbes in the soil," Ben thought out loud, trying to liven the silence around him.

"It's already a miracle that the air in here is breathable," he said, taking a deep breath.

He decided to solve the complex task of bringing life to this place some other time and focus on what he came here for in the first place: to practice his Thu'um.

For the rest of the night, shouts of "FUS" followed by shockwaves of force filled the previously silent space. Ben could feel his understanding of force slightly increase with practice, but it seemed frustratingly slow.

Screaming with such intensity and force bore a heavy burden on his throat, and it soon got sore. Luckily, Ben had the [Healing] spell to take care of such minor inconveniences for him. Soon he got into a cycle of screaming his throat sore and then healing it, only to then scream at the top of his lungs again.

Thu'um did not require one to scream for it to work; even a whisper was enough to topple over the world if one had the mastery. But as a beginner, Ben found that screaming his lungs out did help in producing stronger shouts, and it was fun on top of that.

By the time morning arrived, Ben's throat had already gone through countless cycles of getting roughed up and healing, and had grown a lot stronger. His voice had started to sound a lot gruffer and deeper with a slight reverb. But the biggest shocker was the improvement in his Restoration skill. It had already levelled up to level thirty-two, three levels in one night, and that too without focusing on it much.

At level thirty, he unlocked a Magicka circulation method that increased the rate at which he could absorb ambient energies or magic to Magicka by at least a quarter. While on the topic of ambient energies, it was strange that this place was full of a strange mixture of Magicka and magical energy, which was strange as up until now, the only source of Magicka had been he himself.

Ben had a feeling that this place was sucking in magical energies from the outside world and transforming it into Magicka, just as he did, but that was only a conjecture for now.

The next two days, Ben spent his days reading up on things he had planned for the break, and his nights on the island shouting his lungs out and practising his skills. It seemed that it was easier for him to level up his skills on the island compared to the outside world, which gave Ben immense joy.

Slowly, Ben started to feel at home in this barren land.

DreamyApe

--Dreamscape--

We need a name for Ben's island/dimension/plane/world. I don't want to spoil anything, *Wink*Wink*, but give me names according to how you think the island might change in the future.

Ah, feels good to make you guys do my work.

If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon.com/DreamyApe, I have houseplants to feed.