A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 173 The Shrinking Magic Wand Tree

The July wind swept through the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, the green leaves swaying and creating a gentle lullaby. Felix felt as if a pair of hands were stroking the nerves of his brain, and his whole body relaxed.

He passed the Willow Tree and walked briskly to Hagrid's hut. "Baaaa!" The black hound wagged its tail excitedly and barked happily at him.

Hagrid pushed open the door, his large hand gripping the frame, red sauce sticking out of his mouth. "Felix? Uh, I'm eating... Please come in, it's a bit messy inside..."

He hurriedly wiped his mouth, his face turning red.

……

In the evening, in his office, a blank photograph on his desk flickered. Felix looked at the old man who had suddenly appeared in the photograph and greeted him softly, "Hello, Mr. Nicolas Lemaître."

……

late July.

Felix looked at himself in the mirror. Underneath his blue casual suit was a light-colored plaid vest, and over that, a dark double-breasted trench coat, loosely open.

He gently touched his chest, and his trench coat shimmered with a magical glow.

"The trench coat made of dragon skin mixed with snake skin is very comfortable to wear, and the snakeskin vest is also nice." Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating his fine, black hair and complementing the sheen of his clothes.

……

end of July.

Felix flipped through the data on the young wizards' learning of magic, trying to draw some useful conclusions.

"Knock knock!"

Professor McGonagall sent over the course selection list, and when he saw the densely packed names on it, he froze on the spot.

"Minerva, has something gone wrong?"

Professor McGonagall chuckled and slapped the list into his hand. "You should be happy, Felix, the students like you."

……

One day in August.

Felix excitedly counted the runes in the Mind Chamber three times before finally settling on an accurate number.

"One thousand three hundred."

In one year, he used Hogwarts’ vast library to increase the number of ancient runes by nearly a thousand, and this rate of progress will only accelerate in the foreseeable future.

As he mastered more and more magical runes, his understanding of ancient magic was no longer just a novice; often, he would have a sudden flash of inspiration.

The most obvious example is the tremendous progress he made in studying the incomplete ancient magic given to him by Flitwick. Hagrid can attest to that—

Under Hagrid's dumbfounded gaze, the branches of a wand tree shook violently, rapidly shrinking from a height of seventeen or eighteen meters to ten meters, seven meters, three meters... leaving behind a brown crater in its place, and hundreds of Bowtruckles fell to the ground, baring their teeth at the two of them.

Without a hero to lead the charge, the little guys hopped up the nearby wand tree, gesturing and complaining.

"Where's the tree? Where's such a big tree?" Hagrid stretched out his hand and drew the shape of a tree in the air.

Felix reached out. "Wand Tree, come here." A small sapling, about a foot tall, flew out of the ugly pit and was caught in his hand.

Hagrid took it; it was smaller than the palm of his hand. "This...this is the tree from before?"

"Yes, one of my spells has improved, and I can do some things that I couldn't do before." Felix was quite satisfied with the effect of the spell.

The wand tree possesses magical power, but it still cannot withstand his magic.

"Felius will be quite surprised at our next exchange."

Hagrid looked at him, then at the sapling in his hand, speechless. After a long while, a strange idea suddenly popped into his head, "Felix, if you use this magic on Luwei, will it shrink too? Can I keep it in the yard?"

"Ahem!" Felix coughed twice, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "Hagrid, this magic hasn't been tested on magical animals yet, so we don't know how effective it will be, especially with a large magical creature like Cerberus. What if something goes wrong..." He didn't finish his sentence, but he was worried that the magic would have irreversible consequences.

Hagrid said with some regret, "Is it not possible? Luwei has always been all alone, and I was thinking of giving it company with Tooth."

"There will be opportunities in the future, Hagrid. Let me refine it for a while longer."

Hagrid said with interest, "Do you need my help? I can provide some less important magical creatures, like Billywig Bugs, Shapeshifting Lizards, Spiky Creepers, Flobber Slime, Grindylos, and so on. They should be useful to you?"

Felix's eyes lit up.

"That's wonderful. I think what this magic needs most right now is practical data."

"However, Hagrid, I must remind you that magic has a time limit. Even if I extend the effect as much as possible, the expected duration is only a few hours."

Hagrid clicked his tongue. "That's fine too. At least I can still hug it. Poor Luwei, ever since it grew bigger than my house, I haven't been able to let it put its paws on my shoulders anymore."

The two squatted on the ground and carefully observed the little magic wand tree. Green magical lines flowed on its surface. After about half an hour, it grew from one foot to two feet, but only ten minutes later, it grew to two meters.

Moreover, its growth rate is getting faster and faster.

"Hagrid, move aside, I need to put it back in the pit."

Hagrid took two steps back, Felix tossed it back into the pit, and magically repositioned it. Then he saw the wand tree rapidly expand—a truly magical sight.

As Felix read in the book: when an inexperienced wizard performs Animagus restoration, the process is often extremely slow, and it is easy to see the strange scene where one part of the body is restored first, followed by other body parts.

The same was true of the wand tree. Its restoration process was anything but graceful. A branch abruptly stretched out, then the entire trunk expanded outwards, like the giant pumpkin Hagrid had planted. It then contracted back, but its overall length had increased by a foot…

Half a minute later, the unfortunate wand tree was finally restored to its original state, though it looked pitiful, with its branches drooping and a small portion of its roots exposed. Felix used magic to bury them back into the soil one by one.

Finally, he poured in another bucket of nutrient solution, and the wand tree seemed to improve slightly.

Felix examined it carefully, and after a while, he turned to Hagrid. "Don't you think it's a little crooked?"

"Really?" Hagrid didn't notice.

"Look here, I remember it was straight, but after it was restored, there's a bulge."

"Uh," Hagrid thought about the large lump that grew on his back after his Rue had recovered, and shook his head repeatedly.

Felix glanced at him. "Didn't you notice? From my angle, it's quite obvious..."

……

In the evening, Felix received a copy of the Prophet's Evening News. The headline for the evening was—

The Buslese Hotel Conference Concludes, Marking the Beginning of a New Era

(End of this chapter)