A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 127 Wands and Wizards (Seeking first subscriptions!)

"Grapevine?" Felix repeated, and the little witch noticed that Professor Hyp's expression clearly froze for a moment.

"Very good," he commented briefly.

Felix explained, "In my personal experience, engraving knives are very similar to wands, so aside from chestnut wood knives, it's best to choose the same material as your wand for your first engraving knife."

"For example, I find ebony carving knives most convenient."

Hermione had a look of sudden realization. She thought to herself, "Grapevine wood, the first choice for my own carving knife."

However, this also made her curious. When she was buying a wand, Ollivander said that it is the wand that chooses the wizard, not the wizard that chooses the wand. Professor Hyp also gave similar advice. Is there a secret behind this?

She shared her questions with Professor Hep.

Felix thought for a moment and said, "That makes a lot of sense, because Ollivanders Wand Shop never makes custom wands, which means that young wizards have to adapt to the characteristics of wands."

"So, the wands we wield are only generally compatible with us?" Hermione understood what he meant.

"That's one way to understand it, but don't worry, for the vast majority of wizards, there's absolutely no need to consider such subtle differences," Felix said. "It's quite an interesting question. You can go to the library and look up what kind of wands your friends have and what qualities they represent."

Hermione was indeed very interested; this kind of behavior, which satisfied both her thirst for knowledge and her desire for gossip, was simply irresistible to her.

"Professor, do you have any book recommendations?" the little witch asked. She was used to asking Professor Hyp for a reading list and always received an accurate reply.

really--

"Hmm... I remember there's a book in the library called 'Wands and Wizards,' which introduces hundreds of famous wizards and their wands," Felix said.

Hermione muttered a couple of sentences and wrote down the book title.

"Alright, next up is the seventh carving knife." Felix steered the conversation back on track.

The little witch stared at the last carving knife, thin as a dagger, its color a chilling, deathly white, resembling the teeth of some creature. She exclaimed in surprise, "This is... a basilisk's fang?"

"That's right, I came up with the idea of ​​using parts of magical creatures' tissues to make rune-carving tools quite by chance," Felix said with a smile. "It was just an experiment."

Hermione thought the material was too evil; wouldn't the runes carved from it be infused with snake venom or curses?

So she asked Felix, "And how effective is it?"

Felix clicked his tongue and vaguely said things like "it opened up new ideas" and "try using a unicorn horn next time." Hermione wisely didn't press him further.

After spending some time explaining the concept of the "Inscription Knife" invented by Professor Hyp himself, the two finally returned to their original topic—the difference between a single inscription and an inscription loop.

Felix put away the other carving knives, leaving only the ebony and chestnut carving knives. He handed the chestnut carving knife to Hermione.

Hermione examined the carving knife in her hand carefully, realizing that it would be with her for a long time.

Its color is somewhat like a light coffee color, and its material is uniform and dense, with straight and fine textures distributed on it, which looks a lot like the pattern of Yuhua stones.

Then she stared at the carving knife in Felix's hand—

Professor Hyp's ebony carving knife, like his wand, was made of carefully selected heartwood, without a single impurity.

It was a pure, deep black, with a matte sheen, giving it an extremely heavy and hard texture.

Felix picked up a thin piece of chestnut wood and said to Hermione, "Whether it's a wand-shaped carving knife or a piece of chestnut wood, both are very magic-friendly, so carving runes is more like writing an article."

He deftly held the carving knife and smoothly wrote a string of magical runes. A red glow bloomed from the black tip of the knife. When Felix lifted the carving knife, the fiery magical runes had quietly extinguished, leaving a black mark.

"There are two ways to write the magic runes: either in one go or one step at a time."

"This is the first type."

He then took another piece of chestnut wood and wrote individual runes on it one by one. After showing it to Hermione, he carefully drew lines to connect them together.

Hermione held both chestnut wood pieces at the same time, comparing them.

In her mind, the former resembled a single, flowing stroke of cursive script, but at the expense of individual letter legibility; while the latter was a neat, regular printed script, except that some mischievous children had connected the letters together with crayons. Compared to the pleasing appearance of the former, it looked more like a poorly made doodle, making one want to frown.

But Felix told her, "This is the one you need to master." He pointed to what he called the combination of "print and graffiti."

"Your beaded pouch will require three sets of rune loops, and I will explain how they are connected."

Felix snapped his fingers lightly, and the two consciousnesses entered the Mind Chamber.

Since the beginning of the school year, he has become increasingly proficient in controlling this magic.

This seems to align with Snape's theory—that magic he invented would naturally become more powerful.

……

On Sunday morning, Harry yawned as he walked out of his dormitory and saw Ginny and Ron sitting next to Hermione, looking at something.

"Good morning," he said. He had been training Quidditch late the night before, so he was a little sleep-deprived.

Harry pulled out his Potions homework from his bag, but his mind was a jumbled mess.

Several minutes passed before he noticed the strange behavior of the three people opposite him. "What are you doing?"

Hermione was writing intently on a thin piece of wood—which he mistook for parchment, examining it repeatedly.

The tool she was holding was also strange; it looked a bit like a quill pen, or a miniature magic wand.

But Hermione clearly didn't have time to answer him, and Harry looked at Ron.

Ron whispered to him, "It's a magic loop."

Ginny retorted, "No, it's a spell loop."

Ron shrugged. "Pretty much," he explained to Harry. "You know, for fixing her beaded pouch."

He looked over from the other side of the table and saw Hermione sketching a strange pattern on a thin wooden board, which, from his angle, looked a bit like a giant squid from the Black Lake.

Red light flowed continuously from the 'pen tip' as she wrote slowly, the initial strokes already cooling to black.

"Phew~" Hermione let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from her face.

"How did it go? Did it work?" Harry asked with interest, though he still didn't quite understand what she was doing.

But Harry estimates he will also be taking Ancient Runes next year.

Hermione relaxed completely and said lazily, "I can never consistently infuse magic; the differences between individual runes are too great."

"I remember you said your success rate was 90%?" Harry asked.

"That's a single rune; rune loops are much more difficult..." she sighed.

(End of this chapter)