Chapter 27

The ancient magic rune professor’s office.

Felix in the middle of grading assignments, a job so tedious it gave him the illusion of counting 1 plus 1 and repeating it hundreds of times. Luckily, he’s completely liberated when he handed over this job to Hermione, who had just knocked on the door and is still unsure of the situation.

“It’s mainly Year 5 and Year 7 papers, based on multiple-choice and translation of short sentences, and it’s relatively easy to mark – you just compare the correct answers and cross all the wrong ones.”

And Hermione lived up to her reputation as a school tyrant, quickly getting into the swing of it, and, well, she is very good at this type of work.

Felix, on the other hand, looked over Hermione’s revised thesis – it’s going to be submitted to Professor McGonagall for publication in an academic journal, and he had to keep a strict eye over it. But instead of simply and brutally modifying it straight away, he kept making comments and giving page numbers for references.

He thought this approach would be more helpful in the case of Hermione.

Half an hour later, the two had finished their work at about the same time.

“Okay, let’s get to the point.”

While Hermione had been the one performing her assistant duties before, it’s now up to Felix to fulfil his promise.

The two sat face to face on the sofa with a small short table between them and Felix used his wand to conjure up two glasses of juice. He tried to get Miss Granger to relax, but she still seemed restrained.

“I can see from your thesis that you already know enough about the history of ancient magic runes, even if you haven’t started studying it yet, but I can assure you that your progress will be very fast.”

“Professor, I am reading the Easy Introduction to Ancient Magic Runes and have also learned how to consult the Dictionary of Magic Runes and the Collection of Magic Charms, including the list of books you gave me earlier, though I do not fully understand most of them.” The young witch sat up straight and quickly described her latest learning progress.

Felix froze for a moment, “Very good, but I won’t spend much time discussing how to translate it with you, at most I’ll give you some advice.”

“You can begin around the year 900, the point at which Hogwarts is established; the four founders were all great figures who carried on the legacy of their predecessors, and they both translated many of the manuscripts of their predecessors and left behind a lot of research material that left future generations scratching their heads, which dwelt in the earliest library.”

“However, that part of the material is now kept in the Forbidden Books section, with Madam Ravenclaw keeping it mostly intact, while most of the Slytherin material got lost, probably because he took his research with him in a fit of anger after splitting up with the other three …”

Felix unfolded a piece of history that Hermione kept listening to, “But it could also be that what Slytherin researched was not suitable for the library, who knows.”

“I can sign some slips for books if you need them.”

Felix stood up and gestured for Hermione to follow him, and the two made their way to his workstation.

“My research is not directed towards translation, but towards discovering the power of the magic runes themselves. Like this-”

He picked up a palm-sized piece of chestnut wood on the table and injected magic into the carving knife, carving a single magic rune into the surface of the chestnut. When the words were first written out, they quickly glowed a searing red, but soon died out and turned into dark lines.

Hermione, seeing this for the first time, watched with awe while she searched her mind to try and decipher what the professor is doing, but came up with nothing.

Felix finished carving the magic rune and handed it to Hermione casually, “You can have a feel of it.”

She reached out and took the chestnut piece, without having to fondle it she sensed the magic fluctuations on it keenly, a warm touch came to her fingertips as she ran her fingers across the dark magic rune.

“The magic rune can store magic for a short time, but if left unprocessed, the magic on it will last up to three days, and that’s with the properties of the chestnut wood itself stacked on top of it.”

Hermione nodded; chestnut wood, as a wand material, is quite good at carrying and conducting magic power.

“There are quite a few solutions for this flaw, such as -”

“You can thread them through and form circuits, thus greatly extending the retention of magic;”

“Or you can apply special preservation enchantments;”

“Or add storage and conversion circuits …”

Hermione’s little brain desperately tried to memorize, she couldn’t wait to pick up the parchment and write down every single word Professor Hap had said.

The process of Felix’s explanation is also a process of reorganizing his own knowledge system. Unlike the previous three years when he had not had enough knowledge to eat, he now had too many choices to make and had to choose carefully.

The lecture to the little witch is therefore incidental, and at the moment he is lost in thought, muttering, “But these means will only last, thirty to fifty years, and they will eventually decay with time.”

Why his voice trailed off? Hermione quickly moved closer to the table and stretched her neck to listen harder.

“Are the heroes and mythical creations just a speculation, or are they real?”

“Were their mighty wizards?”

“If so, those Rune creations that have been passed down for thousands of years, how exactly do they manage to be immortal?”

Watching the professor lapse into silence, Hermione speculated, “Maybe they can provide themselves with a constant source of magic from their surrounding like us.”

Felix laughed dumbly, “How is that possible, they aren’t living creatures.”

“And what about the Sorting Hat? The Sorting Hats have been around for a thousand years and can communicate with people and has its own intelligence.” Hermione tried to give examples to support her speculation, “And the portraits of past Headmasters in the Headmaster’s office, I’ve heard Harry mention them.”

“Miss Granger, the portrait itself is a subtle magical artefact that carries a person’s thoughts. And as far as I know, a magical portrait cannot be sustained for long without regular maintenance, although this interval may last for decades …”

“But, Sorting Hat,” Felix pondered for a moment, “I did overlook it, I don’t know much about it, perhaps I should reintroduce myself to it sometime?”

“Well, Miss Granger, let’s stop our brainstorming tour there. Next-”

Felix took the palm-sized piece of chestnut wood from Hermione’s hand, “Next I will thread these magic runes through so that they form a circuit, just watch.”

This work is quite delicate, and he carefully drew out the lines and connected them to each other, explaining as he did so, “This step is important, many alchemical creations have complex functions.”

Ten minutes later, he handed the chestnut piece to Hermione, allowing her to feel the difference between before and after.

“I feel the magic flowing, there are fluctuations and ups and downs, it … it seems to be resisting me,” Hermione stated her feelings with some disbelief.

It is a little incredible.

Felix understood, “You say resisting because it is a rough half-finished piece in its own right now, with magical fluctuations spreading wildly, and you felt that.”

“Of course, it also means you’re very perceptive, you must have a great talent for the magic spell.”

Hermione’s face turned red.