Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 94 I have deciphered the demonic runes

In an ordinary transformation class.

At the beginning of the next school year, some young wizards, feeling guilty, worked hard for a while. During that time, no one talked in class, and everyone completed their homework diligently.

However, students are students after all, and this enthusiasm quickly faded.

The course has progressed to turning a mouse into a snuffbox, and this lesson is the theoretical part. We've already learned how to turn a matchbox into a snuffbox, so this lesson sounds a bit boring.

Harry was plucking the quill feathers one by one, intending to pluck them all out as quickly as possible. Suddenly, he felt a venomous gaze behind him, cold and chilling, sending a shiver down his spine.

Generally speaking, it should be Malfoy, but Malfoy's malice wouldn't be so vicious or insidious.

Harry was somewhat surprised by this conclusion, as his senses had always been quite sharp.

Who else could it be but Malfoy?

While Professor McGonagall wasn't looking, Harry turned his head slightly to look behind him.

A fat man with a fleshy face was staring at them with venomous resentment.

It's Malfoy's henchman, I think his name is Crabbe.

That look was really uncomfortable, so Harry turned his head back and leaned towards Ron and the others.

"Hey, what did you guys do that day? Malfoy's henchman hates you guys." Harry said in a low voice.

Ron, who was trying to read the chess notation from the Transformation textbook, turned around casually and glanced at Crabbe when he heard this.

"I beat him up, he deserved it." Ron didn't care at all. "I'll beat him up again next time."

Clearing his mind of the magical symbols, Loren glanced sideways upon hearing this.

Good grief, what you're saying sounds exactly like something a school bully would say. It's like Slytherin and Gryffindor have swapped roles.

Hermione stopped writing too. "Behave yourselves. As long as we don't cause trouble by the end of the semester, the House Cup is ours."

These words carried weight, and Ron abandoned his idea of ​​teaching Crabbe another lesson.

Neville, standing to the side, actually felt a little disappointed.

"I'm thinking of going to see Hagrid on Friday. Do you guys want to come?" Harry changed the subject.

Speaking of Hagrid, Hermione recalled something strange: "I keep seeing him in the library lately."

"Hagrid? The library?" Ron thought about the scene for a moment, then shook his head; the incongruity was too strong.

Harry couldn't imagine how Hagrid could flip through those books that weren't even as big as his palm. "I can ask him when we meet. Maybe he's run into some trouble."

"I'll talk about it later," Loren said hesitantly.

Counting the time, it's been more than a month since school started, and there's been no progress on the magic runes, but the Seamless Stretch Spell has made some progress.

It would be even more difficult if it were delayed until summer vacation, because due to the tracking threads, magic might not be usable during summer vacation, and the space equipment might have to be delayed until the second year.

He planned to spend more time reviewing the runes that Flamel had taught him before. The runes used in alchemy were basically inherited from runes, so perhaps he could find some breakthroughs.

If there's still no progress by Friday, go for a walk in the Forbidden Forest to clear your head.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance; they also wanted to take advantage of Loren's absence to discuss Professor Quirrell and the Philosopher's Stone.

Having ulterior motives, they did not press Loren about his intentions, and both sides reached an agreement.

Nighttime, inside the Book of Fantasy.

"How exactly should we understand the isolation between spaces?" Loren had a large pile of books in front of him, but he still couldn't find anything.

"Don't think of space as just space. It's not just isolated length and width, up and down, it's not a cuboid or a sphere." Flamel slowly landed on the pile of books.

"For a wizard, space is not an absolute existence."

Flamel stretched his hand forward, and his entire palm disappeared neatly in front of Loren.

Loren's eyes widened. He could clearly see the fascia, the cut surface of the bone, and the tender pink muscle texture inside the wrist cross-section.

A pressure came from his shoulder; Flamel's hand was patting his shoulder, moving it rhythmically.

"I simulated the effect of Apparition splitting." Flamel retracted his arm, and the hand on Loren's shoulder also retracted, gradually disappearing and reappearing on the original arm.

"Don't think about how to supply blood to your hands, how to control your detached hand, or how to be bound by space."

"Whether it's the 'Seamless Stretch Charm' or 'Apparition,' space is something a wizard can alter."

"Think of space as water, as building blocks, as something you can pull, fold, and piece together."

Flamel could see that Loren viewed space as some kind of absolutely existing field, and was therefore stuck at the step of understanding.

Loren frowned, still unable to understand. He was indeed wondering how blood was supplied and returned, and how nerve signals traveled across space to reach the severed hand.

"It's isolation, yet connection," Flamel said.

Loren sat there lost in thought, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.

Flamel's demonstration gave him a vague sense of a thin film that was easily broken, but he couldn't quite grasp the key to it.

Friday morning, in the Potions classroom in the basement.

Today they will learn how to prepare a paste-like medicine. This medicine itself doesn't have any special or miraculous uses. It's more of an auxiliary medicine, a carrier, that helps the truly effective medicine penetrate into the body.

"The Napier Tree is a magical shrub mentioned in 'The Amazing Aquatic Plants of the Mediterranean,' which lives underwater and whose sap has a strong penetrating effect."

"When treating some deep wounds or internal organ wounds, it can be mixed with white cinnabar to transport the white cinnabar to the wound inside the body." Snape's voice echoed in the dimly lit underground classroom.

After explaining the theory, Snape demonstrated the brewing process, and the young wizards began to brew their own.

Hermione broke off a damp, black twig and dripped the blue sap from the cut into the bubbling cauldron.

Seeing the magical changes taking place in the crucible, Hermione's eyes lit up with surprise. "Loren, I think I know why this tree is called the Air-Diving Vine Tree."

As the liquid dripped into the boiling crucible, the bubbles that rose from the bottom up became bubbles that kept sinking from the top down, gathering at the bottom of the crucible and then disappearing without a trace.

"This is amazing!" Hermione exclaimed, staring intently at the potion boiling in reverse.

Loren looked at the magical sight in the cauldron, his eyes shining. He seemed to understand the meaning of "space" in the wizard's eyes.

It is completely different from the space that ordinary people understand. Distance is not space, length is not space, it is neither up nor down, gas is not necessarily on top of liquid, and the space occupied is not necessarily occupied.

His previous idea was completely wrong. Just like Transfiguration doesn't need to consider changes in molecules and atoms, turning inanimate objects into living ones, or living ones into inanimate ones, doesn't need to consider details like cells and the nervous system.

As long as a wizard has the intention to achieve a goal, magic can work. In the Muggle world, biology and physics are two separate systems of understanding.

The storage device does not create an auxiliary bubble space in the main space, nor does it need to consider any dimensions or wormholes.

His understanding of space was mixed with too many ideas, which made it impossible for him to comprehend the magical runes. Space is not special; a wizard can change it at will.

"I understand! I understand!" Loren patted Hermione on the shoulder with delight.

Hermione was a little confused by his excited expression. "I understand why he's angry at the Water Vine Tree."

"Loren Morgan, disruptive behavior in class, ten points deducted from Gryffindor." Snape's voice echoed from the podium.

Loren had to suppress his joy; he couldn't wait to try sketching the reversed runes.

After class, the young wizards emerged from the basement.

"Give my regards to Hagrid, I won't be going!" Loren said happily and ran off quickly.

The three watched as Loren's figure gradually disappeared into the distance.

"He's not even eating lunch? What's wrong with him?" Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head to indicate that she didn't know.

Ron wasn't concerned with that; he said angrily, "That old bat Snape has been deducting points even more drastically ever since we won the Quidditch Championship."

This caught Hermione's attention. She did some quick mental calculations and thought, "Fortunately, at this rate, Gryffindor will still have higher grades than Slytherin until the end of the semester."

Loren took some snacks from the cabinet, ate a few things, and then entered the Book of Fantasy.

In the alchemy laboratory, a hemispherical space built of red bricks, crimson patterns of light emerge from the surface of a black boiler in the very center.

"Flamemer! I think I understand!" Loren shouted excitedly.

"To be honest, this is taking much longer than I expected," a voice came from behind Loren.

Flamel floated in front of Loren. "I don't understand how you, as a junior wizard, could have such a complex understanding of space."

Loren chuckled awkwardly without answering; he couldn't very well say it was because of his knowledge of physics.

Flamel waved his sleeve, and a briefcase containing unicorn tail hair appeared in the air.

After several days, Loren resumed his work on drawing alchemical arrays.

Having grasped the concept of space within the wizarding world, Loren's first attempt at drawing runes became much smoother.

As the reverse-shaped runes were written, they began to resonate with the corresponding upright runes, the two centrally symmetrical runes emitting a faint flash at the same frequency.

Eventually, it settled and left a deep imprint on the bottom of the black leather suitcase.

Looking at the top and bottom corners of the six-pointed star filled in, Loren lay down in the laboratory, unable to suppress a smile, a sense of accomplishment welling up from the bottom of his heart.

"Flamemer!" Loren called out, wanting to show him his work.

"That's only a pair of magic runes, don't even think about showing off in front of me." Flamel floated lazily above the boiler.

Loren, unfazed by his exposed thoughts, replied seriously, "I wanted to ask you what points I should pay attention to when drawing the second pair of runes?"

"As long as you don't have any strange ideas about weight, it shouldn't be difficult to understand."

Loren began to reflect on whether he had any strange perceptions about weight.

Mass-energy conservation.

Newtonian classical mechanics.

mass constant...

"Hiss~" Loren gasped. These things shouldn't affect his ability to draw the magic runes, right?

Anyway, there are plenty of materials in the alchemy lab, so let's draw the orthodox runes first.

He sat up, tapped his wand, and the unicorn's tail hair emitted a beautiful light. Loren guided the light and began to draw a second pair of runes on the bottom of the box.

With previous experience, the progress was very fast this time.

By evening, Loren's Orthographic runes were almost complete, requiring only one or two strokes to form. He had intended to finish drawing the runes in one go, but it was Friday, and he still had Snape's daily quest to complete.

As I exited the fantasy book, the sky outside the window had completely darkened. In the inky sky, the stars shone brightly, making it a perfect day for stargazing.

Loren ate a quick bite and then headed to Snape's office.

The Potions Professor's Office.

When Loren knocked and came in, Snape was grading homework; he was always grading homework.

I did the math in my head: Hogwarts doesn't have many students, and the lower grades have one Potions class a week. The advanced Potions classes for the upper grades have fewer students, but the number of classes per week increases.

Being a professor at Hogwarts is no easy job. Emmm, even Defense Against the Dark Arts class can be quite dangerous.

"Good evening, Professor Snape!" Loren was in a very good mood today, and his tone was unconsciously cheerful.

Snape glanced at him with his deadpan eyes, then lowered his head to continue grading papers. Gryffindor students were now far ahead in scores, and he wasn't in a good mood.

"There are two boxes of potatoes in the storeroom. Use the 'Sword of Deception' to peel the potatoes. The peel should not be thicker than a fingernail." Snape finished speaking and ignored Loren.

Loren felt a chill run through him; the temperature was below zero, but Snape's words were even colder.

How could he come up with so many tricky teaching methods? Last time it was healing potatoes, this time it's peeling potatoes, and next time it might be making mashed potatoes.

Do you know that my least favorite food is potatoes?

After silently cursing in his mind, Loren deftly pulled out his wand and vented his anger on Potato, using the Divine Slash Spell with exceptional skill.

He finally finished the process before turning off the lights, and he even felt a bit relieved from cutting potatoes.

When I returned to the common lounge, there were hardly any people left.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were sitting together, loudly plotting something.

Loren could hear Harry and Ron's voices even standing at the door of the lounge.

"Fire dragon! That's illegal."

"At the Wizarding Convention in 17*9, a law was officially passed banning the keeping of dragons, which was a very dangerous move," Ron rarely advised Harry to follow the rules.

The three of them went to visit Hagrid today and found that he was actually incubating a dragon egg, which he supposedly won in a bet at a bar.

"Aren't there any wild dragons in Britain?" Harry asked.

Hermione was also very concerned about this issue; she had never heard similar rumors in the news.

“Of course,” Ron said. “There are ordinary Welsh green dragons and Heathdeer black dragons. The Ministry of Magic has staff specifically assigned to handle these matters.”

He then advised Harry that keeping a dragon violated more than 700 laws, including the Statute of Secrets, and that the consequences could be enough to turn Hagrid into dragon food.

"But!" Harry said in a low voice, "how many times in our lifetime will we see a baby dragon hatch?"

Ron couldn't refute it; his heart began to race. Watching a little dragon hatch was such a unique experience.

(End of this chapter)