The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Instead, she now sees Rhett as a guide who can lead her to explore higher realms of magic.

She is very interested in trying out whatever Ryze is currently researching, and she will not give up even if she encounters setbacks. She will simply record them and try them again when she is strong enough.

Similarly, she also hopes to participate in Ryze's current creative magical research.

"Didn't Ryze just finish developing the Ultimate Flash Charm recently? I know Professor Flitwick gave him 30 points last week, and now Ravenclaw's score is far ahead of the other two houses. What new ideas does he have now?"

Anthony shrugged: "He calls it 'Light Curved Barrier.' It's a concept that Ryze mentioned when the senior students in the Duel Club were discussing other development directions for the Illumination Charm, and everyone became very interested in the idea."

"A curved light barrier?" Hermione frowned slightly, as if trying to understand the concept of the term.

“Yes, it seems that Rizzi wanted to develop a new type of protective magic composed of light,” Anthony recalled Rizzi’s description at the time. “Rizzi mentioned a lot of physical principles of the Muggle world, and those technical terms are probably hard for you to understand... In short, Rizzi meant that if light could be made to follow a specific trajectory, it might not only form an effective defense, but it might also be able to deflect light to achieve an invisibility effect similar to the Disillusionment Charm.”

Hermione had heard of optical invisibility and had seen the concept of photon barriers in some science fiction works, so she couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

"That sounds complicated."

“Yes, it’s very complex, but also very innovative. So much so that a few days ago, Ryze wrote to his cousin-in-law, who has some connections in the Muggle world, and bought a lot of books and materials on modern optics and sent them over,” Anthony said helplessly, adding that he didn’t quite understand those professional books either and was still looking at the basic content. He also said a few technical terms to the three of them.

"To be honest, even Ryze himself didn't have high hopes for the development of this magic. He said that the wizarding world still doesn't study the concept of light enough."

"However, the upperclassmen and Professor Flitwick, because of the successful development of the Ultimate Flash Charm, are now very interested in this topic, and they are currently studying its feasibility with Ryze."

Ron and Harry, who were standing nearby, were already starting to get confused when Anthony mentioned those technical terms related to optics.

Hermione wasn't much better.

However, she pursed her lips and said, "Since there isn't much research on this topic in the wizarding world right now, can I go and take a look? I want to see the books that Ryze brought."

Anthony smiled and said, "When Rizzi was chatting with us before, he mentioned that the level of research that Muggles have done on this world has exceeded the imagination of many wizards. Wizards can use the theories discovered by Muggle scientists to develop more new magic."

“He said that these studies certainly couldn’t have been done by him alone. We are now slowly learning about this area. If you are interested in it and want to participate, Reiz will definitely welcome you.”

He pointed to the office: "Go ahead if you want, it's open to the public. But don't force yourself. We stayed there for more than ten minutes, and we came out to practice because we couldn't understand what they were talking about."

Hermione glanced at Ron and Harry behind her.

The two subconsciously averted their gaze.

The two of them genuinely had no interest in this kind of purely academic discussion. Even Anthony and the other two, whose theoretical scores were better than theirs, couldn't stand it, so they were even less interested.

Hermione didn't force them: "In that case, you two stay here and practice with Anthony and the others. I'll go check on things."

She looked at Anthony and asked if he minded if Harry and the others could join in the practice.

Anthony was also curious to see if Harry could still display the same agility under their attack, so he readily agreed.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and immediately called Ron to go practice with Anthony and the other two.

Hermione pursed her lips, nodded helplessly to Anthony, and then walked alone toward the office.

As Hermione approached the office, before she even pushed open the door, she heard a heated discussion coming from inside.

"...No, it's too difficult to accomplish in theory. After all, we haven't confirmed whether 'light' as a 'special particle' has the ability to withstand physical or magical impacts. In comparison, it's more reliable to deflect light to achieve invisibility."

The speaker was probably an older student, who seemed to think that the concept of a photon barrier was difficult to realize.

Then came Rez's voice.

"It is indeed very difficult to accomplish. After all, light particles are something that is hard for us wizards to imagine. To achieve the formation of a protective barrier with light, we first need magic that can accurately capture and restrain these light particles. Only after we can do this can we continue with subsequent attempts."

"However, we can take it one step at a time, starting with simple theoretical work and then gradually moving forward."

Chapter 148: Light Deflection Magic

When Hermione knocked and received a response, the first thing she saw was the state of the office.

Several desks were pushed together, piled high with all sorts of theoretical books and draft papers, including several books from the Muggle world.

Professor Flitwick stood on a stack of books, frowning as he flipped through a brand-new "Introduction to Optics".

Besides the professor and Ritz, there were four or five senior Ravenclaw students in the office, deep in thought about the arithmetic divination formulas on the parchment.

“Oh, Miss Granger, good afternoon,” Professor Flitwick looked up from his book, seemingly surprised. “Is there something you need?”

“Good afternoon, Professor,” Hermione had already prepared her words outside the door, so she went straight to the point, “I just ran into Anthony outside, and he told me that Rhett is trying to develop a brand new kind of magic... I’m very curious about this idea, so I wanted to come and see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Ryze heard Hermione's words and then gave a somewhat helpless smile.

"If you want to help, you are always welcome. However, the development of this magic will probably not make much progress for a long time."

He pointed to the theoretical books on the table: "Professor Flitwick and Mrs. Pines brought almost all the books related to light in the Hogwarts library. We even borrowed the light-absorbing extinguisher that Headmaster Dumbledore developed in his early years, but the result was not very optimistic."

Rhett spread his hands and looked at Hermione, continuing, "In the traditional view of wizards, light is no different from fire, wind, and lightning. It is regarded as a pure element that can be summoned or dispelled directly by magic."

“We have ‘fluorescent flashes’ to create it, and ‘knox’ to extinguish it. If needed, we can also control the properties of light, turning it into sunlight, moonlight, or even lasers. But apart from that, almost no one has studied it in more detail, let alone imagined that light is a substance composed of tiny ‘particles’.”

The older students standing nearby were also scratching their heads. They were naturally quite proficient in the study of traditional magic theories, but the sudden switch to Muggle technology theories did leave them feeling somewhat at a loss.

Of course, they are certainly not lacking in intelligence.

Although these Ravenclaw elites understood wave-particle duality and many optical terms in just a few days, the laws of Muggle optics underwent a series of strange changes after being interfered with by magic, which were completely outside the existing magical system.

The stack of draft paper on the table, filled with various formulas, had its arithmetic divination formulas stuck in a logical loop shortly after they were started.

This does not mean that the idea is not feasible, but rather that the existing calculation formulas are not yet sufficient to verify the feasibility of Raz's idea.

"So it's obviously impossible to simply apply Muggle theory to spells. It's a very complicated task, and Professor Flitwick said it could take several years."

Seeing Professor Flitwick nod, Hermione realized that this research work was much more difficult than she had imagined.

But this only made her more interested.

This was a completely new path in magic, and she felt she would definitely benefit greatly from leaving her mark on this research.

“I understand, but I still want to participate in this research, Professor,” Hermione said firmly, straightening her back. “I will use my spare time to study at the library and try my best to keep up so as not to hold everyone back.”

Professor Flitwick chuckled. “If you’re prepared, we’ll all welcome you. Mr. White is also planning to start with the simple things, so let’s hear his thoughts.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Ryze and nodded slightly, signaling Ryze to continue.

Ryze coughed lightly, gesturing for Hermione to find a place to sit, and then continued explaining his ideas.

"My current idea is to start with the refraction and deflection of light. Besides optical cloaking, this is the simplest approach."

Rizz drew his wand and drew circles in the air.

As Ryze's wand drew the third circle, the air around him rippled like a lake rippled after a stone was thrown in.

Immediately afterwards, Ryze's entire figure appeared to be slightly elongated, and his position in the ship also shifted noticeably.

“Because it was just something I came up with on the spur of the moment, this is all I can do for now,” Ryze maintained the spell and then explained to the Bloodstained Haze, “Although the effect is rather average, I think everyone can understand what I mean.”

He reached out and touched the table, but as Ryze's hands approached the table, the table in their line of sight shifted strangely.

"With my magical intervention, I made the rays of light passing by me bend slightly. Of course, the deflection effect is still very rough, so the flaws can be easily seen."

Ryze withdrew his magic, restoring his physical form to normal.

“Next, if we can control it more precisely and make it more stable, we should be able to achieve a very realistic effect.” He looked at the demon and gave an example. “My deflection just now was a few inches away from my original position. It doesn’t seem like much, but in a duel, the effect is very obvious.”

“Think about it, in battle, you use this magic to gradually deflect your position, while your opponent keeps casting spells at your phantom,” Ritz paused, then said with a smile, “Instead of guessing that you deflected the light, your opponent will most likely think that you cast some kind of special protective charm that can deflect spells.”

“That’s right,” a senior student’s eyes lit up. “Even if the opponent realizes something is wrong, the usual revealing spells can’t break this optically based deflection. They have to study how to break it from scratch.”

“If used at crucial moments, this is a winning method that is in no way inferior to the Ultimate Flash Charm,” another student nodded, but then he asked another question.

"However, this magic has rather strict requirements for the environment and lighting, which requires a strong ability to control it. In a duel, it would probably be difficult to release it without attracting attention."

Ryze's answer to this was very simple.

"Then we could consider starting with Ultimate Flash of Light. We can include a specific Illumination Charm in it to forcibly change the lighting conditions around the dueling ring to our predetermined environment. While the opponent is dealing with Ultimate Flash of Light, we can then use our Light Deflection spell to complete the attack."

Chapter 149: Snape Threatens Quirrell?

Magic is indeed a wonderful thing; some special lighting spells can keep the entire room bright even without a clear light source.

There are many places in Hogwarts with such lighting magic. For example, the candles and torches in the Great Hall mostly serve to create an atmosphere, while the lighting magic used to decorate the Great Hall is more important.

The House of Requirement also possesses such magic, and the lighting can be adjusted at will according to the user's wishes.

Ryze came up with this combination technique immediately because he had put a lot of thought into the Room of Requirement, adjusting the lighting in the room to his most comfortable level.

After the idea was proposed, the two older students thought about it for a moment and then each started calculating a series of formulas with paper and pen.

This time they verified it very quickly. In less than ten minutes, the calculation results from both sides were put together, and they finally got a positive answer.

They looked excited: "No problem. It's not difficult to add a specific illumination charm to the ultimate flashing light. It's at least two levels easier than the ultimate flashing light charm. We learned these theories and techniques in third grade. Give us an hour and we can complete the modification of the charm."

"Moreover, starting with Ultimate Glow was a dueling style that was popular for a period of time in the early 20th century, so it doesn't seem strange to use it now."

"Most importantly, after being stimulated by the strong light at the beginning, they will have difficulty realizing the changes in the surrounding light in a short period of time. We can then take advantage of this to cast the deflection spell while applying a protective spell to ourselves."

"...If we artificially alter the lighting conditions and then use a deflection spell, the requirements for controlling magic power are indeed greatly reduced. Ryze, with your tactical approach, I estimate that it will only take a few days to develop this spell."

Professor Flitwick nodded approvingly from the pile of books: "That is indeed a brilliant idea. We can even make some modifications to the protective charm. Although we can't directly use light to form a protective charm, I think we can achieve the effect Mr. White mentioned if we can apply a light deflection effect to a transparent protective charm."

"If we can showcase all of these things at the Wizarding Tournament, the entire wizarding world will probably re-evaluate the Illumination Charm!"

Even though the research has only just begun, Ryze has already proposed a new combat strategy, and now he has developed a whole new style of light magic dueling.

Several older students couldn't wait to develop the spell and start practicing.

With this tactical approach and the Ultimate Flash Charm, the chances of Hogwarts, and even Ravenclaw, winning the Wizarding Tournament this year have increased significantly.

Furthermore, after Rizz proposed a spell idea that would allow people to see the effect, Xingshuomu became more confident in other development directions for lighting magic.

After encouraging everyone, Professor Flitwick, in addition to the light deflection and optical invisibility he had already proposed, assigned some research tasks according to age and ability. He also put forward some feasible ideas for research directions such as organizing the magical theory of light waves and how to use magic to capture those scattered light particles.

Hermione was also assigned a document editing task.

......

After further discussion on the issues of light deflection and optical cloaking, today's discussion has come to an end.

As several upperclassmen hurriedly grabbed their draft paper to continue their research at the library, Professor Flitwick frowned once again and began to look at the theoretical books in the Muggle world.

After the discussion ended and she confirmed her specific tasks for the next month, Hermione told Ryze, who was pondering the light particles, why they had come.

Ryze had initially thought they had finally found some information related to the Marauder's Map after spending half a month.

Hermione's answer, however, made his eyelids twitch involuntarily.

Yesterday was the Gryffindor Quidditch match, which Rizz knew, and with Snape as the referee, Harry caught the Golden Flying Man in just the first five minutes with astonishing speed.

However, that's not the point.

The key point is that after the game, after Harry had received everyone's congratulations, he finally found a chance to put his broom back in the broom shed at dinner time, and that's when he saw Snape sneaking off toward the Forbidden Forest.

Having learned that Snape was once a Death Eater, Harry still harbors a degree of suspicion towards him.

Seeing Snape's mysterious appearance, Harry rode his broom and secretly followed him under the cover of night.

As a result, he overheard Snape threatening Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest.

Harry overheard Snape interrogating Quirrell about his thoughts on the Philosopher's Stone and whether he knew how to get past Hagrid's Cerberus.

He then added that Quirrell's tricks were useless against him, and that Quirrell should think carefully about who he was truly loyal to.

The two didn't talk much, but Harry could clearly tell that Snape had ill intentions.

Upon returning, Harry immediately pulled Ron and Hermione aside for a discussion, ultimately concluding that "Snape might be trying to figure out one by one what kind of mechanisms the other professors had prepared."

Hearing Hermione's words, Ryze couldn't help but sigh that Snape really did all the time to do things that were easy to misunderstand.

Previously, he was concerned about the safety of the Philosopher's Stone during Halloween, but he was bitten hard by Fulwei, which made him lose face and was also suspected of having ulterior motives towards the Philosopher's Stone.

Now they're starting to suspect Quirrell is the one who wanted to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and they're trying to warn him not to do anything, but Harry notices their warning.

From Harry's perspective, this was practically a scene of villains forcing innocent colleagues to join them in their evil deeds.

Hermione sighed softly: "Although, according to Hagrid and Rhett, we know that the mechanism guarding the Philosopher's Stone was set up by many professors, and even Headmaster Dumbledore may have wanted to use this method to lure out the hidden mastermind... even so, we still cannot completely trust Snape."

"Harry said that Professor Quirrell stuttered terribly under Snape's questioning, and although he couldn't see his expression, he could imagine how nervous Professor Quirrell was."

"Putting aside the safety of the Philosopher's Stone, we all believe that the other professors' mechanisms will not be so easily breached by Snape. What we are more worried about now is whether Professor Quirrell's body will give out before that."

Chapter 150: Professor Quirrell is too great

Hermione continued to speak with concern about Quirrell's recent situation.

After the New Year, Quirrell's complexion looked worse and worse, seemingly aggravated by the curse from his Defense Against the Dark Arts course.

“He looked deathly pale, even somewhat delirious, which already gave the impression that he could collapse at any moment, and now there’s the threat of Snape,” Hermione continued, “so we were thinking, is there any way we can help Professor Quirrell?”

"For example, we could send him some tonics in the name of a student, or... let him go to St. Mungo's to recuperate for a while. After all, everyone is basically learning the Defense Against the Dark Arts course on their own based on the materials we've compiled. Even if he takes a month or two off, it shouldn't have a big impact."

She paused for a moment, then said somewhat uneasily, "Actually, we also guessed that Snape himself might be a bait deliberately left by Headmaster Dumbledore to attract the attention of the mastermind... most likely the mysterious person, so we can ignore Snape's suspicious behavior."