A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

He extended his wand and gently touched Hermione's forehead, the tip of the wand emitting a ring of golden light.

The little witch's face didn't change at all.

"Hmm, Transfiguration won't work; it might be conflicting with the potion's effects... How interesting, uh, I mean, how troublesome. Well then, let's try some less common spells."

In Hermione's eyes, Professor Hyp was enthusiastically casting spell after spell, and he even took out a piece of parchment on which he recorded the effects of various spells.

"This won't do!"

"It does have some effect, but it's not obvious."

"How about trying this?"

Hermione stared blankly at Felix. "Are you trying to help me? I've seen through you, Professor!"

Finally, a rather obscure spell took effect.

The brown hair on her face quickly fell out and disappeared, revealing her skin regained its fair and clean appearance. Hermione noticed this change; she first touched her face, then picked up a small mirror from under her pillow to examine herself closely.

"Oh my God." Hermione covered her mouth.

At this moment, her appearance had changed drastically. Most of the thick, bushy brown fur on her face had disappeared, but her whiskers and a pair of pointed ears on her head had stubbornly remained.

But this effect alone was enough to make Hermione, who was on the verge of a mental breakdown, extremely happy.

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror with a delighted expression.

"Professor, what kind of magic is this?"

“It’s a lightweight transformation spell that can correct minor imperfections on the body. Of course, it’s temporary, and the magical effect can last for about two hours,” Felix explained.

"Is it shapeshifting?" Hermione asked knowledgeably. She had originally planned to learn this spell, but she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed, because shapeshifting was an extremely difficult spell.

It is so difficult that even most adult wizards cannot master it.

"You could say that, but its effect might not be as good as you think—it can only modify a limited area. You know, this spell was invented by a vampire, and its original purpose was simply to conceal their fangs."

"Vampires?" Hermione asked with great interest. Most of the trouble that had been bothering her had been resolved, even if it was only temporary, which made her feel much better.

"Yes, in the Middle Ages, vampires were universally hated. To hide among the crowd, they developed this magic. But to be honest, the effect was mediocre at best, and it couldn't compare to shapeshifting or the Disguise Magus. Nowadays, hardly anyone uses it."

"Professor, I've heard that Disguise Magus can change his appearance at will?"

“Yes, one of my junior classmates has this talent, it’s really convenient.” Felix glanced at her. “That way, you don’t have to risk taking compound decoctions.”

Hermione lowered her head, and her pointed ears drooped down.

"Professor, I..."

"You guys secretly brewed the compound decoction, didn't you? I mean you, Potter, and Weasley."

Hermione looked up at Professor Hyp with a surprised expression.

“Yes,” Felix said casually, toying with his wand. “That’s easy to guess, especially when I think about how you specifically asked me about special potions. I introduced six powerful potions, but you were clearly more interested in Polyjuice Potion.”

"Compound decoctions can change a person's appearance, which can indeed allow for the secret extraction of information—"

“So, what I want to know is, who are you suspecting?” Felix asked Hermione.

After a long silence—

“Malfoy,” Hermione whispered. “We suspect he is Slytherin’s heir.”

Chapter 78 New Ideas for Learning Magic

"Well……"

Felix felt a sense of absurdity. Had Malfoy opened the secret room? He certainly had.

As far as he knew, the escape room had been opened four times this semester.

The first time was when Harry was in solitary confinement in Lockhart's office and heard strange noises coming from the ceiling; the second and third times were when Mrs. Norris and Colin Crevy were petrified respectively; and the fourth time was when Harry saved Justin.

Malfoy only took over the diary after Colin Crevy was attacked. From that perspective, he wasn't entirely wronged.

But he is not Slytherin's heir; the real culprit is currently trapped in his box.

“Granger, I’ve had a fairly in-depth conversation with Malfoy, and I can confirm that he is not the heir to Slytherin.”

"But, Professor..." the little witch said, somewhat unwillingly.

Felix said, "The location of the Chamber of Secrets has been found, and the monsters inside have been cleared out. The only thing to worry about is that so-called Slytherin heir, but he can't cause any trouble."

"Please pass this on to Potter and Weasley. As a professor, I think you'd better focus on your studies."

However, Hermione sensed something and couldn't help but ask, "Professor, have you discovered some clues?"

Felix only vaguely said, "I've been watching. So, for you and the little wizards in the castle, the danger is over, and the adventure should end."

Hermione kept the professor's words in mind, and then asked another question, "Professor, can I learn the Lightweight Transfiguration you just mentioned? Of course, I know it will be difficult..."

"You want to learn this magic?"

“Yes, Professor,” Hermione said seriously. “The holiday is almost over, and I don’t want to miss any classes.”

If Hermione hadn't known about this curse, she would have had no choice but to accept her fate and stay at the school hospital for three weeks. After all, she couldn't possibly go to class with a cat face; that would have made her mortified.

But after witnessing Professor Hyp's "lightweight deformation technique," her mind began to wander.

Once she learns this magic, she can wear thick clothes and a hat to class, and as for the cat whiskers on her face, she can just pluck them off—compared to the heartache of missing two or three weeks of class, this pain is nothing.

However, Professor Hyp shook his head. "Miss Granger, while Lightweight Transfiguration is not as difficult as Human Transfiguration, it is still not something a second-year wizard can master."

“But, Professor—” Hermione pleaded, “we have already learned animal transformations, and I have mastered them very well. Even Professor McGonagall is very satisfied.”

“Those are two different concepts. The difficulty of transforming ordinary animals and transforming wizards is completely different. Do you know why?” Felix asked patiently.

"Is it because of the existence of magic?" Hermione thought for a moment and said.

“That’s right, magic can interfere with your spellcasting,” Felix explained. “Similarly, the transformation of magical creatures is also very difficult.”

"That's such a shame," Hermione sighed.

Felix said gently, “Miss Granger, you are already one of the few talented and hardworking young wizards I have ever met. Magic may seem idealistic, but it actually has a rigorous logic and requires climbing step by step, so—”

He suddenly stopped, his gaze shifting constantly, and his wand was drawing small circles in his hand.

Hermione looked at Felix, knowing this was Professor Hyp's habit when he was thinking, and a glimmer of hope rose in her heart.

Perhaps the professor can come up with a solution?

Felix ignored Hermione and took a piece of parchment from his ring, quickly writing down his thoughts on it.

Hermione leaned forward, her eyes wide as she looked at the contents.

Professor Hyp first wrote "Lightweight Transformation" in the center of the parchment, and then drew more than a dozen lines from these words, each line corresponding to a word that was either familiar or unfamiliar to her—

She carefully counted seventeen entries, including spell casting actions, incantations, gestures, level of understanding of spells, techniques for manipulating and shaping magic power, and various levels of magical theory.

Seeing this, Hermione began to understand. Was this a process of breaking down the factors influencing the spell? But what was the point?

Felix paused briefly, then added a few lines of smaller text below the "Spellcasting Action" entry: "Requires the skill of flicking and shaking the wand; see the first and second year spellbooks for details; requires waving the wand; angle diagram attached."

Hermione looked at the content, which was similar to what Professor Flitwick had taught in class. The only difference was that Professor Hyp mentioned far too many influencing factors! There were many of them that she had never even heard of before.

Furthermore, he also listed the necessary theoretical knowledge.

For example, under the entry for "Levels of Magical Theory," there is a series of complex things such as "Prerequisite Theories: Basic Transfiguration; Biological Transfiguration; Theory of Human Transfiguration (attached)."

Each line was then elaborated on on another piece of parchment.

He spent the next half hour completing this process.

Soon, two sheets of parchment were not enough, so the professor took out a third, a fourth...

Professor Hyp put down his quill, and before her lay nine sheets of parchment covered with writing.

Hermione looked on incredulously; the professor had written more about this one spell than she had ever published a paper.

Felix was still savoring what had just happened—

Simply put, he broke down all the theoretical knowledge and spellcasting techniques required for a spell into multiple different dimensions, and listed the specific requirements and judgment criteria for each dimension.

In essence, it's the process of breaking down a general goal into hundreds of smaller, assessable goals.

Once this step is complete, the rest is simple. Have the young wizard practice individually until they achieve all the small goals. Finally, combine them together to master the complete magic.

In this process, any obstacles encountered by the young wizards are no longer obstacles. They can follow the clues, find their own shortcomings, and then make targeted improvements.

Some characters with a strong foundation, like Hermione, have already completed some of their goals ahead of schedule.

These mere nine pages of parchment revealed all the secrets of this magic.

Of course, his method is not suitable for "intuitive" wizards—often, they themselves do not know how they learned a spell.

Felix nodded with satisfaction. Apart from himself, who had gained experience through repeated "leveling up," how many people in the current British magical world could be so familiar with a specific spell and dissect it as skillfully as a butcher dissecting an ox?

He could never forget the scene when his spell advanced—after practicing the same spell hundreds or thousands of times, he finally reached a certain limit, and all the memories of practicing this spell in the past surfaced in his mind.

Every wave of the wand, every movement of magic, every test of power, every verification of a hypothesis…

These originally insignificant insights suddenly burst forth in his mind, and countless sparks of inspiration shone simultaneously, forming step by step that pushed his spell to a whole new level.

……

Felix looked at Hermione. “Miss Granger,” he said gently and calmly, “I think I’ve found a way.”

If his assistant can learn the Lightweight Transformation Technique through this method, he will be fully confident in teaching the upcoming dueling lessons.

Felix couldn't wait to verify this.

Chapter 79 Dialogue

the next day.

When Harry and Ron visited Hermione at the university hospital, they found that she was no longer as sullen as she had been a few days ago. Instead, she was waving her wand with great enthusiasm, her hairy face gleaming, and occasionally flipping through the parchment on the table.

Hermione, what are you doing?

"Of course, I'll practice magic. If nothing unexpected happens, I might be able to learn it before school starts."

"Why before the start of school?" Ron was a little confused.

"Because it can help me solve a little problem," Hermione said with a squinty eye and a grin.