A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 215 Assessment

"Professor." "Hello, Professor Hep."

Harry, Cedric, Ron, and Hermione greeted each other.

"Come and sit down." Felix nodded to them, waved his wand, and four small tables appeared out of the grass. The four of them chose their seats and sat down.

One by one, small teacups jumped into their hands, followed by a long-necked, narrow-spouted teapot that gracefully bent over, pouring out amber-colored liquid.

Harry drank the tea. He rarely drank tea, but he thought it tasted good. The long-necked teapot came over to refill his cup. He curiously scratched the teapot's large belly with his finger, and it suddenly trembled, as if it had been tickled, and shook with a "clanging" sound, spilling tea all over the low table.

"Excuse me, Professor? It suddenly became..." Harry was somewhat at a loss.

"Oh, it's not your fault." Felix waved his wand, quieting the teapots down again. "I've been trying to get them moving, to make them more autonomous... but sometimes they get a little too lively."

Hermione asked in surprise, "You gave them intelligence?"

"It's not that exaggerated. It's more of a rigid response. In terms of feedback mechanism alone, they—" Felix pointed to the small platform in front of him, "are actually more advanced."

The four of them focused their gazes on the magical puppet—

The drama continues, and these 'actors' seem to truly possess their own wisdom. Some are full of emotion and recite their lines fluently, while others are somewhat perfunctory, pausing from time to time as if they have forgotten their lines, and then continuing only after a few seconds.

Those not on duty nearby would wander around aimlessly, appearing quite unprofessional. For example, a strange old man-like magical puppet carried a wine jug and would occasionally take a sip.

Harry stared at it for a long time, finally confirming that the little flask was purely decorative. He said strangely, "Professor, they can be lazy?" He racked his brains for similar examples: "Like the portraits in school, they have their own hobbies and interests?"

Felix explained, "Their intelligence is similar to that depicted in the portraits, but essentially, they have no emotions, and all their actions are pre-programmed. Of course, I didn't intend for them to have the same intelligence as humans; being able to understand simple commands is enough."

The four listened with a mixture of understanding and confusion. Ron said enviously, "It sounds a bit like a house-elf, someone who can help you with chores and stuff. I used to dream of having one so it could do my homework for me."

Hermione said, "Ron, they wouldn't do such a boring thing."

“No, Hermione, you don’t know, they do everything, they’re all-rounders,” Ron retorted. “Don’t believe me? Ask Harry. Didn’t Dobby tell him?”

Harry shook his head. "Dobby didn't mention much about his life with the Malfoys, but it must have been pretty bad." He looked at Felix. "Professor, how's Dobby doing these days?"

The day before school started, Dobby resigned from the Leaky Cauldron and is currently handling some book publishing matters for Professor Hyp.

Felix nodded and smiled, saying, "He did a good job. I'm considering giving him a raise..." He waved his wand, ending the theatrical performance. "Alright, let's get back to the main topic. Are you all planning to join the Spellbook Club?"

“Yes, Professor.” Harry took out a stack of parchment. “This is my paper.” Ron also took out a few slightly wrinkled pieces of parchment from his bag and tried to smooth out the curled corners.

Felix touched it with his wand, and it immediately became perfectly straight.

Ron asked with great interest, "Professor Hyp, what kind of magic is this?"

Felix said casually, "It's a simple little trick, not even magic."

He turned to Cedric. "Diggory, judging from your performance in class, you are fully qualified..."

Cedric declined his offer: "I've practiced a lot in private and wanted to show you the results."

Felix had no reason to refuse. He took out a half-finished magical puppet from his ring, which only had faint traces of magic runes on it. "You have about two hours. I think that should be enough."

Cedric took it with great enthusiasm and began working diligently.

Felix waved his wand, silencing his surroundings and freeing him from disturbance. Cedric was initially startled, but quickly understood and smiled gratefully at Felix.

The students who were going to take the assessment arrived one after another, all curiously looking around the space. Several seventh-grade students pointed and whispered, their expressions nostalgic.

An older female student remarked with emotion, "Last year, we had a spellbook practice class here, and I dug up three hidden boxes, which allowed me to collect a precious spellbook manuscript."

Harry and his two companions busied themselves recording information about the participants in the assessment, and they saw many familiar faces.

Harry spotted several of his teammates. "Angelina, Arya, Katie, you guys are all here!" He also saw the twins walking towards them in the distance and joked, "Is this a team party?"

“Oh no, Katie and I will give it a try, but Arya has a good chance,” Angelina said. “As for Wood, he’s not here. I bet he’s hiding somewhere working on new tactics. In his final year, he’s definitely hoping to win another Quidditch Cup.”

As they were talking, the twins walked over, their arms around each other's shoulders, seemingly playing some kind of game. But as they got closer, Harry noticed that their legs were stuck together tightly.

"We're testing the limits of the Sticky Charm," Fred said, winking. "Isn't that cool?"

The twins started performing exaggeratedly, but they lost control of the distance and rolled onto the ground together.

The three girls giggled, but Angelina waved her hand, "Oh, don't make me laugh."

Ron rarely saw the twins looking so unlucky, so he walked over, grinned, and squatted down in front of them, holding up a piece of parchment. "Excuse me," he said, "what have you chosen for your assessment?"

The twins lay on the ground, and Fred chuckled, saying, "Silly kids, we're just here to watch the show. We already got inside invitations."

Ron looked at them in surprise: "Are you serious?"

"Of course, I think Hermione got a spot too."

"But she wrote a paper just like us!" Ron said.

Hearing Ron's words, Fred looked at George and said in a mocking tone, "Shouldn't we reflect on ourselves? Otherwise, it will seem like we're slacking off."

George sighed. "Fortunately, we came prepared."

The two stood up, walked over to Felix, and pulled a palm-sized heart-shaped cube from their pockets. "Professor, remember the couple's mirror from last semester? This is the final product."

Felix toyed with the magical artifact in his hand; it looked even more exquisite, one side painted black and the other pink. He touched it with his finger, and the heart-shaped cube automatically split in two.

"You designed it as a pair? A clever idea..."

Its interior is shaped like a small makeup mirror, but instead of a lens, there is a carefully polished circular flat surface coated with silver powder.

On the outer side of the circular plane, some patterns were carved. Felix stroked these uneven lines and felt a familiar trace.

"Is this the magic rune circuit I taught you last year?"

"That's right, we took your suggestion into account and used rune loops to store synchronization magic, and it worked very well—information transmission was more accurate, and the communication distance was greater," Fred said.

George said, "We also added magic to prevent it from being hacked."

Percy appeared out of nowhere, standing at a distance to the side with Penelope Crivart of Ravenclaw.

Penelope told Percy, "They seem to have figured out something amazing, that couple's mirror."

"You know?" Percy said in surprise.

Penelope said calmly, "They snuck into the Ravenclaw common room a couple of days ago to promote their new product and noted down a few names of potential buyers."

"You didn't kick them out?"

"Why? Ravenclaw welcomes anyone, as long as they can answer the question at the door. And," she laughed, "I've also put my name on the list."

"Penelope, how could you..." Percy stared at the twins in the distance without saying a word. His two younger brothers were talking animatedly with Professor Hyp, discussing something in a serious manner, their faces beaming with pride.

(End of this chapter)