A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts-Chapter 126: The Enchanting Quill

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

During the short Christmas break, Wood had devised three targeted tactics to counter the new characteristics and strategies exhibited by other houses this year.

The others returned to the castle to do their homework.

As evening approached, the Ancient Runes office.

Felix Harp was inspecting Hermione's progress in her studies. Lately, she had been dedicating herself to refining and upgrading the spellwork for the bead pouch.

"You've mastered all the enchantments needed to upgrade the bead pouch. The next step is crucial—learning how to construct magical circuits," Felix explained.

"Professor, where does the difference lie?" Hermione inquired.

"Individually inscribing enchantments is relatively simple, but when connecting them into a circuit, you must consider the overall stability and balance of the runes. This truly tests your command over magic," Felix said, his fingers flicking through the air to form a string of letters. These letters were arranged in three rows, with subtle differences in brightness and size for each row.

"If these were enchantments you completed at different times, the brightness represents the amount of magic you infused," he continued.

Hermione observed the letters. Then, under Professor Harp's control, they rearranged themselves into a line.

The realigned letters appeared disorderly, with bright and dim, large and small runes mixed together, creating a chaotic and awkward appearance.

In an instant, she understood what Professor Harp meant by "stability and balance" — each rune within the circuit required consistent magical energy.

"Even slight discrepancies in magical energy can render the circuit ineffective," Felix explained.

"Professor, what should I do then?"

"There are two approaches. The first is to write the enchantments all at once, in one go. Your magical energy will tend to be more consistent, but of course, it still requires a lot of practice."

"But with this method, you need to adjust the structure of the runes actively, performing subtle deformations... which isn't something you're capable of doing at this point."

"But wouldn't doing that make the enchantments themselves malfunction?" Hermione asked in surprise. All the information she had encountered emphasized writing enchantments in a strict and unchanging manner.

"That's the intriguing part of it," Felix provided an example. "This process is somewhat like transitioning from individual letters to forming words. When we learn letters, we strive for standards and norms, but when it's time to combine letters into words, we make subtle adjustments to ensure the writing is fluid and aesthetically pleasing."

"This method challenges your understanding of runes," Felix added subtly.

To put it plainly, if you don't deeply understand runes, it's best not to dabble in these tricks.

Hermione nodded with a mixture of understanding and uncertainty.

"There are some techniques involved here as well, but we'll discuss those later. The second method involves completing individual runes and then extracting magical lines from them, connecting them one by one to form a closed and stable circuit."

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

"Let's give it a try—"

Felix and Hermione approached the workbench, taking out several pieces of chestnut wood.

He opened a delicate tool box, inside of which were arranged seven different-sized engraving knives made of various materials - metal, wood, and some whose material couldn't be discerned.

"Are these professional magical tools? Where can one buy them?" The young witch couldn't help but ask.

In her mind, these engraving knives had already become as synonymous with magic as wands, essential tools for her to study Ancient Runes.

As a result, Professor Harp, with a slightly amused expression, said, "These are ones I crafted myself, well... except for the metal one."

He didn't rush to continue the previous topic, instead placing each knife in front of her one by one.

"First, I must remind you that engraving runes doesn't have specific tool requirements. Engraving knives, wands, or even fingers can be used. What's important is magic and your understanding of runes. But—"

"If there are more convenient tools available, why refuse them?" Hermione nodded, understanding. Just like some wizards skilled in wandless magic, they never refused to use wands. Tools could assist them in achieving finer operations.

Laid out before her were a total of seven engraving knives.

The first was a metal engraving knife. Its silver-white blade had a streamlined shape with a noticeable curve at the grip, and the tip of the knife seemed to be made of a different metal.

Felix said, "I purchased this one from a micro-carver merchant. After comparing various options, I found this metal material to be the least resistant to magic."

Hermione took the engraving knife; it seemed somewhat heavy, but surprisingly light.

"As I've told you, there's no single form for engraving runes. You can use writing to leave runes on the surface of objects, or you can use carving to leave marks on materials."

He picked up a piece of chestnut wood, infused magic into the metal engraving knife, and the tip of the metal engraving knife emitted a small but hot red light, leaving a rune on the chestnut wood.

"Look, its surface isn't flat."

Hermione touched the surface of the rune with her fingertip and could distinctly feel the indentation on the chestnut wood - this was the mark left by the metal engraving knife.

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

Hermione began to understand. For inert magical materials, maintaining magical energy wasn't easy; thus, leaving marks through carving could strengthen the form of the runes.

"In fact," Felix added, "this process is separate - carving and infusing magic. I've just become very skilled at combining these two steps, but when you practice, you should do them separately."

One of his hidden cards, the 'Felix's Wisdom Tooth,' was accomplished in this way.

Hermione nodded.

Felix then produced five wooden engraving knives in succession. They looked somewhat like alternative wands. Hermione had seen twin imitation wands during the day and was quite impressed.

"These knives are made from the same materials as wands, and their inherent qualities are similar to when they were crafted into wands." Felix pointed to each one in turn -

"Yew Wood Engraving Knife, not easy for beginners to handle. It's extremely sensitive to magic, maybe overly so. But once you master it, it will quickly adapt to the owner's magic, becoming extremely personalized, and no one else will be able to use it;"

"Blackthorn Wood Engraving Knife, excels in engraving offensive runes. Of course, mastering it isn't easy; it will harmonize well with an owner who has the courage to be themselves and not follow the crowd;"

"Red Oak Wood Engraving Knife, personally, I believe it has a certain level of memory. Once you're skilled, it will guide you proactively in completing runes;"

"Chestnut Wood Engraving Knife, a favorite of beginners, no particular preference, of course, no additional attributes either;"

"Laurel Wood Engraving Knife, well, I'm not very fond of this type. You have to use it regularly, or else, after a long time, it might unleash a lightning attack at you when you infuse it with magic..."

After Felix finished explaining, Hermione curiously picked up these knives, looking at them repeatedly. The more she looked, the more she liked them. She cheerfully said, "Professor, when can I have a knife like this? I mean... I'm willing to pay, of course..."

"You don't need to worry about these for now. The chestnut wood engraving knife is here for you to practice with." Felix said, "Wait a few years; you'll need to think about getting a dedicated engraving knife then."

"Oh, by the way, what material is your wand made of?" Felix asked.

"It's vine wood," Hermione said, "with a dragon heartstring core, twelve and three-fourths inches."

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