Chapter 528

The next morning, Felix overslept on a rare occasion and missed the owl in the great hall. He randomly found a seat and sat down. In between sips of porridge, he looked thoughtfully at the students in the great hall; the number of newspaper subscriptions seemed to have increased.

Two seats away, a Ravenclaw student took her paper and quickly flipped through the headlines on the different pages, and let out a deep sigh of relief.

” Everything’s peaceful.”

Her friend had grown accustomed to her behaviour.

“Why don’t we talk about the assessment spell?”

“What’s there to talk about, all you need to master in fourth and fifth years is disarming charm, stunning spell, and shield charm, which I learned a long time ago.” The Ravenclaw girl said with a toss of her hair before scrutinizing her friend, “Oh, I forgot, you’re not interested in dueling and have never competed in one before …”

Her friend rolled her eyes and then sighed, “I envy the first, second, and third years, all they need to do is master the side-along apparition. Absolutely easy, isn’t it?”

” Don’t be like that, mum told me that quite a few accidents involving group apparition are caused by young wizards who become overly nervous, small children who are not trained will subconsciously mobilize their magic to resist, resulting in apparition mishaps …”

Felix listened halfway through, then focused on his breakfast, staring at the oatmeal and imagining them being a collection of runes, no, to be precise, a pattern that would stably carry magic.

A plan of digging a pitfall for Voldemort is progressing slowly.

He had been able to change into some magical creatures, but that didn’t mean that everything is fine; in fact, he had never thought of fighting Voldemort in his magical creature form. It would be too difficult, even if they are indeed magical in some ways, but just look at the belief Newt promoted – no magical creature could defeat a well-established wizard (because they’re less intelligent).

Only by transforming the magical talents of multiple magical creatures into runic magic and using them with a wizard’s body would they be considered potent, but while the two are inextricably linked historically, that doesn’t mean that magical creatures actually have a distinct rune, or runic circuit, inside them.

What Felix had to do is ‘create’ ancient magic by himself, just like the original group of ancient wizards did, and the volume of work involved in this process is quite high.

The first step is transforming into a magical creature, then using the body of a magical creature to experience their magical talents, feel the mysteries of the magical creature’s bloodline, and experience how his own magic flows and works. He must repeat this process over and over again to get a vague pattern – something that looks like a jumble of capillaries or a complexly intertwined Devil’s Snare.

This is what ancient wizards saw when they dissected magical creatures.

After that, it is just a matter of trying and practising to extract one rune after another.

The biggest problem Felix faced was that he was not always able to find the right rune to match the magical structure of the magical creature, so he had to “create” his own rune, which would undoubtedly lead to a thousand failures.

But the good news is, he is on the right track, and he keeps getting better. That is all that matters.

Despite the tediousness of the process, Felix enjoyed it, especially the significant views that developed during the process. For example, magical creatures derive their magical abilities from their own bloodline and unique physical structure, but what about wizards?

Felix suspects that the soul plays quite an important role in the process. One piece of evidence is that only wizards can transform into ghosts; neither ordinary people nor magical creatures can.

He was quite fascinated by these types of thoughts, and even as Felix stood on the podium, his mind wandered with all sorts of whimsical ideas. At his level, the theory and practical aspects of magic were becoming more and more outside the bounds of belief, and every step forward represented an overturning of the perception of magic in the eyes of ordinary wizards.

This is true both in terms of the act of recreating magical creature talents using runes and bringing memory magic to reality by tailoring Lady Rowena Ravenclaw’s memory magic.

” Take out the rune carving knife. I will reserve a few lessons for you to get used to your new tool, after which you will realize that it actually works better than a wand in some ways, especially if you intend to do some fine manipulation.” Felix said calmly, “Today is a practical lesson, and I need you to write down the practical runes and runic circuits you have learned over the past two years on a chestnut board.”

The students moved and went to the podium in order to get their chestnut boards and returned to their seats to start practising.

“A bit too easy, isn’t it?” Ron said cheerfully, “We practised it in the Magic Rune Club before.”

“It is indeed easy for us, but-” Hermione cut the palm-sized chestnut boards into slips, each one just about the size of her index finger, as she smoothly wrote down a string of ancient runes, and looked up at the rest of the class with satisfaction.

“Bang!”

The chestnut slab in Seamus’ hand suddenly exploded, and a cloud of smoke and fire spread out.

Felix waved his hand and the smoke and flames disappeared at the same time, ” Keep your eyes open, Student Finnegan, you need to focus more on your board, instead of looking at me.” He said as he looked up from a three-dimensional pattern made up of ancient runes, his gaze swept around the room and a number of students lowered their heads sheepishly.

“When are we going to be like the Professor?” Harry couldn’t resist asking, the runes in the professor’s hand looked like specks of fine gold dust, glistening in the sunlight.

“The Professor told me not to be overly ambitious.” Hermione said sadly, obviously, she had asked a similar question, she then grinned widely, “But the Professor complimented me on my explorations and experiments on the runes.”

She gestured at the work she had just finished, and Harry and Ron glanced over from the side and smacked their lips in secret. Dense ancient runes were inscribed on the small slab of chestnut wood that belonged to Hermione, if you didn’t look closely it looked like it had been scribbled on with ink.

“Hermione … it’s not going to blow up right?” Harry asked with trepidation, recognizing what this thing really is – dozens of blast circuits that subtly crammed together in a palm-sized area, which linked together crookedly with a golden line that shone with a pulsing light.

“Don’t worry, I’ve combined the blast circuits with the stability circuits, you have to use a specific frequency of magic to trigger it, and that frequency is something only I know.” Hermione smirked as she tucked the chestnut slab into her little beaded pouch while Harry and Ron gulped.

Hermione seemed to be getting scarier and scarier, especially over the summer when the Professor came over every now and then and Hermione asked questions during their conversations, which led to her research rapidly reaching a level that they didn’t understand at all, for example, the term ‘specific frequency of magic’.

At one point the professor said to her, “I’ve thought about creating different levels of awards for individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the field of ancient runes, but the conditions are not ripe yet … If I ever created it, would you like to contribute your name? The Hermione Granger Award?”

Harry believed that the professor’s tone sounded serious with no hint of a joke.

For the next few moments, he began to imitate Hermione, writing the runic circuits in a smaller and smaller sizes, and when he looked up during the break, the mass of runic symbols in the professor’s hand had shaped into a vividly realistic Occamy.

At the weekend Felix held the first Magic Rune Club assembly of the school year, and the members of the club beamed with joy, exchanging recent incidences with each other.

“Professor Sprout promised to write me a letter of recommendation, but I haven’t figured out where to go yet, I mean, Dad wants me to get into the Ministry of Magic, but …” Cedric said, with a gentle smile on his face.

“Mum sent me a new dress and a book.” Neville said, “I thought I had left something behind again, but I didn’t, it was just a simple gift.”

In the corner, Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione in a sullen tone, “‘Pumpkin Pie’ invited us to tea because his brother had learned ten new words.” Pumpkin Pie is the new codename they have given to Hagrid because Hagrid doesn’t want anyone else to know that he has returned, as it would make his absence from class conspicuous.

If Grawp’s presence were to be exposed, things could get very messy.

“I don’t want to put Dumbledore in a difficult position,” Hagrid wrote in his replay, “if parents became aware of the presence of an uncontrolled giant in the Forbidden Forest they would make an unnecessary alarm … I think it is not appropriate for young Grawp to appear in public until he learns the necessary manners.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all agreed on this point, except for a slight disagreement on the term ‘unnecessary alarm’.

“I don’t want to go.” Ron said in a hushed voice, greatly repulsed by the invitation, “I’m not trying to shirk it, but we have a lot to do, we have Quidditch practice this afternoon, and Angelina was very upset about our absence yesterday, and I don’t want my name to be brushed off by her. In case she decided that Hooper’s nagging and bossing isn’t that unbearable …”

Ron’s concerns weren’t unfounded; at Friday’s Quidditch try-outs, Ron had only come in third. He was able to claim the keeper’s spot because Angelina felt that both Vicky Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper ahead of him had obvious flaws: the former valued the ‘Charms Club’ more, and the latter grumbled at the drop of a hat, complained about petty things, and tried to get Angelina to follow his plan.

Weighing up the options, Angelina ended up picking Ron to take Wood’s place as keeper.

They ended up skipping their first official training session yesterday because they had to go to the Potions class office for detention, which was awful, as Snape gave Harry, Ron, and Hermione a large bucket full of potion ingredientsfor each to handle, which would be used for all seven grades, and Harry still smelt the lingering smell of Mandrake mixed with rat innards under his fingernails.

“… Not to mention all the assignments, now I wish he’d come back to his real job, Professor Grubbly-Plank leaves us a ton of assignments, why would I need to sketch ten Bowtruckles? It’s not like I’m planning to become a painter!” Ron said with vehemence.

“It’s O.W.Ls year and the Bowtruckles are the focus of the exam every other year.” Hermione pointed out the unpleasant truth.

Harry and Ron stared at her.

“Ugh, but of course, I hope he will come back too.” Hermione shrugged. “Hey, Luna.” She turned to look at Luna, “How was your holiday?”

“Very good, Dad managed to secure a deal.” Luna said gleefully, as she invited Hermione enthusiastically, “I’m going to see Firenze this afternoon, do you want to come?”

“Oh, uh, okay.” She looked left and right, but since Harry and Ron had to go to training, and she really couldn’t find an excuse, she ended up agreeing pitifully.

“Students.” Felix smiled as he settled back comfortably on his armchair, “Welcome back, and before the assembly begins, let me make an announcement: the Future World Company and the Ancient Rune Society have collaborated to create a monthly magazine called The New Solutions to the Rune, and for the time being, the magazine The Quibbleris will handle this venture – ”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione immediately looked at Luna.

” – And for the temporary period, I personally will act as editor-in-chief, so if you are planning to submit a manuscript in the near future, you can forward it directly to Miss Granger, who will organize it and give it to me. On a side note, the manuscript fee is very public-friendly. The call for submissions is here–”

Felix waved his wand and a pile of flyers flew up from the table and landed in each person’s hand with precision.

“Elder Wand.” Hermione muttered as she stared at his wand.

“What did you say?” Harry became very sensitive to this word, after all, this was the reason they were in detention.

“I’ve recently found the book The Tales of Beedle the Bard to read through.” Hermione said briefly, “Shhh, I’ll talk about it later.” Professor Hap’s eyes looked over, so she closed her mouth and sat upright.

On the side, Luna looked at her, with burning eyes.

…

“The Deathly Hallows?” Harry’s mouth dropped open in surprise, they had only just emerged out of the Magic Rune Club when Luna caught up with them.

“That’s right.” Luna affirmed, “The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone that brings the dead back to life, and the Cloak of Invisibility that allows you to hide from the Death; together these three items represent the Deathly Hallows, the possessor of which will become the Master of the Death.”

“Nonsense,” Hermione raised an eyebrow, “that’s just a fairy tale, something like the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, it doesn’t exist in reality!”

“But they do exist, and countless wizards obsess over them.” Luna said calmly, “Dad tried to convince Florean to join him in his search for the Deathly Hallows when they were young, but he refused, pretending that his ancestors had never owned the Elder Wand.”

“Who’s Florean, the name sounds a bit familiar?” Ron asked.

“He’s the owner of Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour.” Luna said.

” No way that’s true!” Hermione said firmly, “I’ll write to him and ask him for clarification.”

Harry, however, drifted back to the time when he had sat under the brightly coloured sunshade outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour to do his assignment; he had previously been so focused on the free supply of ice cream that he had never realized that the shop’s owner knew everything about his History of Magic assignment. Although Harry didn’t know the exact age of the ice cream parlour owner, he guessed he had graduated at least thirty or forty years before, would he remember his knowledge from school so well if he isn’t an avid fan of the history of magic?

“He won’t write back to you, he disappeared.” Luna said, “The neighbours speculate that he may have moved abroad because he feared the war. Because the Ministry of Magic Aurors who patrols Diagon Alley day and night didn’t hear any alarm from the warning device. This incident is written in an obscure corner of today’s newspaper.”

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