A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Two more dueling classes passed, and Harry and his friends learned two new spells. One was a defensive spell—the Armor Charm; and the other was a minor evil spell invented by Snape himself to help younger wizards—the Tongue-Locking Charm.

His actions also sparked some controversy, but Snape ignored these comments.

“Even dark wizards usually shout spells during duels, relying on language to evoke emotions and emotions to amplify the power of their spells,” Snape said sarcastically. “Therefore, it is essential to silence your opponent.”

In fact, Felix had privately suggested that Snape switch to the Silent Curse, but Snape refused.

"The Tongue-Locking Charm can glue a person's tongue to the roof of their mouth. It's not as gentle as the Silent Charm, and that's exactly what I wanted," Snape said. He had developed it independently while in school, and he was very satisfied with its effectiveness in actual combat.

The Ironclad Charm, taught by Professor Hyp, is much more advanced, and many younger wizards simply cannot master it.

Even Harry and Hermione never succeeded.

But it is a spell that can resist many kinds of magic, and what's even more remarkable is that—

Professor Hyp said at the time, "The Ironclad Charm can defend against both spells and physical attacks. It is probably the most practical defensive spell you will encounter in school."

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Damocles Belby, also explained a very useful spell in class—the Sense Enhancement Charm, which makes students' senses more acute. Flitwick had mentioned it in his dueling class.

"You can use it to sense danger in advance, especially when you are in a dangerous environment."

He used magic to create a cloud of black mist. "Let's assume it's late at night—that's when Red Hat and other magical creatures like to launch their attacks. If you're in the wild, do you remember what to do?"

The young wizards started discussing it animatedly.

Belby nodded and said:

"Peaceful protection... All protected... Thief detection... It would be best to add a Muggle shielding charm as well. Of course, you can't do these things now, but that doesn't prevent you from memorizing this knowledge."

Then he had the young wizards enter the black mist one by one to try to avoid the Red Hat's attack.

“I’ve laid some leaves and twigs on the ground. Stay focused, and you’ll spot the danger before it’s too late.”

However, the truth is that only a few people can spot the red hat in advance and fight back; most of the young wizards are driven out of the black mist by being hit with cork sticks.

Fortunately, apart from being a bit disheveled, no one was injured.

Harry had always been curious as to why the two red hats were so cooperative. Later, Professor Belby explained that he had fed them many nutritional potions, "They love the taste of blood, especially the blood of magical creatures, and I happen to have plenty of that..." Now, the two red hats could be considered his assistants.

Unbeknownst to many, dueling lessons and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts class had become an integral part of the young wizards' lives, subtly changing the entire school. The most obvious manifestation of this was that many young wizards enjoyed playing dueling games in the hallways after class.

But these students didn't fare well; Filch arrested a large number of them.

For a few days, the Gryffindor Cup jewels started falling from the sky, and Professor McGonagall's expression nearly scared the little lions to death.

It wasn't just Gryffindor; quite a few young wizards from the other three houses were also caught.

During this period, the number of students punished with voluntary labor was extremely large. Snape directly asked a group to process potion ingredients, Professor Sprout asked a group to take care of flowers and plants, and Hagrid also asked Professor McGonagall to find a few young witches to take care of the soon-to-be-born unicorn.

Even Professor McGonagall couldn't resist the trend; she had the remaining students work with a modified version of the test using 'answer parchment'.

Having learned a painful lesson, the young wizards of Hogwarts finally realized that casting spells in the corridors was extremely foolish, and they chose abandoned classrooms, the Black Lake, the courtyard, and hidden corners instead...

Just like now, Harry is instructing Neville on the Disarming Charm.

Neville, his face flushed, struggled to cast the spell. Finally, after countless attempts, a very thin red light flew out of his wand.

“Great job, Neville!” Harry shouted.

Hermione and the others, who were sitting on the grass, clapped their hands, and several Gryffindor whistles could be heard in the distance.

Neville blushed, wanting to say something, but all he did was scratch his head and grin happily.

The two returned to the open space, and the group began to chat.

Ron spoke of information he received from the twins: "A new version of the 'Question Parchment' is nearing completion, and many of the features mentioned at the time are included."

Of the six people present, four had participated in the first test—except for Harry and Neville, who were all very interested in the topic because the new teaching aids were said to be used in the seventh grade.

"What new features are there?" Harry asked with interest.

“The most important thing is definitely the leaderboard,” Ron said without hesitation. “I hope to see Gryffindor surpass Slytherin, ideally first, but that’s unrealistic; the Ravenclaw nerds will definitely have the upper hand…”

“Ron!” Ginny glared at him, then turned to look at Luna, who was a Ravenclaw.

“Uh…” Ron said softly, “I’m sorry.”

Luna expressionlessly pulled a very delicate-looking wand from her pocket and pointed the tip at Ron—

“Oh, Luna,” Harry advised, thinking Luna was about to cast a curse on Ron.

But the next second, the wand in her hand let out a piercing scream and turned into a giant rubber mouse.

Ron's expression became comical, one eyebrow furrowed tightly, the other looking like it was about to fly off his forehead.

Luna pointed at his face and laughed exaggeratedly, while Ginny chuckled softly. The two girls hugged each other and fell to the ground on the grass.

Neville tried hard to suppress his laughter, but he couldn't help it; he made intermittent "coughing" sounds.

“Okay, this is funny,” Ron muttered as he watched Luna pound the ground with her fists.

Hermione, holding the rubber mouse by the tail, watched in amazement as it transformed back into a wand. "What is this?"

Ginny got up from the ground, wiping away the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes: "It's a prank item Fred and George came up with, they call it a fake wand. But they probably haven't been developing it for very long... How did you get this?" She looked at her friend.

“I… haha! I bought it from them… ten silver sicoes,” Luna said, panting.

"How do you use this?" Harry asked with interest.

"Infuse magic into it... into it."

Harry took the fake wand and tried to infuse it with magic, but with a scream, it turned into a rubber mouse again.

Ron poked it with his finger and said with some disdain, "It's nowhere near as good as Scabbers."

Harry gazed at the giant black squid that was faintly visible in the Black Lake, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair, and he felt quite relaxed.

The battle against the basilisk in the secret chamber seems to have been a long time ago.

Chapter 124 The Demonic Rune Carving Knife (Seeking first subscription!)

In the afternoon, Harry went with the team to the Quidditch pitch for training.

During the short Christmas break, Wood devised three targeted tactics to counter the new characteristics and tactics that other colleges had shown this year.

The others returned to the castle to do their homework.

It was nearing evening in the Ancient Magic Script Office.

Felix is ​​checking on Hermione's progress—she's been working on improving and upgrading her beaded pouch lately.

"You have learned all the runes needed to upgrade your beaded pouch. The next step is very important: learning how to construct rune circuits."

“Professor, what’s the difference?” Hermione asked.

“The inscription of a single rune is relatively simple, but if you want to connect them into a circuit, you need to consider the stability and balance between the runes as a whole—this really tests your ability to control magic.”

Felix's fingers moved continuously, drawing a string of letters out of the air. These letters were arranged in three rows, each with subtle differences in brightness and size.

"If these are spells you completed at different times, the brightness represents how much magic you infused into them."

Hermione examined the letters, and then, under Professor Hyp's manipulation, they were rearranged into a line.

The rearranged letters appeared chaotic, with bright and dark, large and small letters mixed together, looking both disordered and awkward.

She suddenly understood what Professor Hyp meant by 'stability and balance'—the magic used in each rune of the circuit should be kept as consistent as possible.

“Even the slightest difference in magical energy can render the circuits ineffective,” Felix said.

"Professor, what should I do?"

"There are two methods. The first is to write the runes in one go, in one go. Your magic will tend to be more consistent. Of course, you still need a lot of practice."

"But using this method, you need to actively adjust the structure of the runes and make some slight deformations... This is not something you can do right now."

"But won't doing this invalidate the runes themselves?" Hermione asked in surprise. All the information she had received suggested writing the runes strictly according to the rules, without allowing any changes.

“That’s what makes it so fascinating.” Felix gave an example: “This process is somewhat like the process from letters to words. When we learn letters, we try to be as standard and regular as possible, but when we need to combine letters into words, we make subtle adjustments to the letters to make them more fluent and beautiful to write.”

“This method tests your understanding of runes,” Felix said cryptically.

To put it bluntly, your understanding of runes isn't deep enough, so you shouldn't try any fancy tricks.

Hermione nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"There are also some techniques involved here, which we will discuss later. The second method is to complete a single magic rune, then draw out magic lines from it, connect them one by one, and form a closed and stable circuit."

Hermione had seen this method a few times before, so it wasn't unfamiliar to her.

"Let's give it a try—"

Felix and Hermione went to the workbench and took out several pieces of chestnut wood.

He opened an exquisite toolbox, inside which were arranged seven carving knives of different sizes and materials—metal, wood, and others whose materials were indistinguishable.

"Is this a professional spell tool? Where can I buy it?" the little witch couldn't help but ask.

In her mind, these carving knives were synonymous with magic wands, becoming essential tools for her to learn ancient magical runes.

Professor Hyp replied with an amused expression, "These are all handmade by myself, um... except for the metal one."

He wasn't in a hurry to continue the previous topic; instead, he placed the carving knives in front of her one by one.

"First, I must remind you that there are no specific tool requirements for inscribing runes. A carving knife, a wand, or even your fingers will do. What's important is your magic power and your understanding of runes. But—"

"Why refuse a more convenient tool if one is available?"

Hermione nodded, indicating she understood. Like some wizards skilled in wandless spellcasting, they never refused to use a wand. Tools allow them to perform more precise maneuvers.

There were seven carving knives in front of her.

The first one is a metal carving knife. The silver-white blade is streamlined and has a distinct curve at the handle. The tip of the knife seems to be made of another metal.

Felix said, "I bought this piece from a micro-carving merchant. It's a metal material that I compared repeatedly and found to be the least averse to magic."

Hermione took the carving knife; it looked somewhat heavy, but was surprisingly light.

“As I told you, there is no single way to inscribe runes. You can either write them on the surface of an object or carve them into the material.”

He picked up a piece of chestnut wood and infused it with magic into a metal carving knife. The tip of the knife emitted a small but scorching red light, leaving a magical rune on the chestnut wood piece.

"You see, its surface is not flat."

Hermione touched the surface of the runes with her fingertips and could clearly feel the chestnut wood dented downwards—the marks left by the metal carving knife.

"This method is especially suitable for inert magical materials, such as Muggle items, ordinary stones, or the scales of some magical creatures."