A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 220 New Attempts and Recruitment List

The third-year ancient runes class was finally on track. After studying two excerpts from somewhat mystical magical journals, they were finally in for their first truly interesting lesson.

Felix stood on the podium. "Put away your textbooks. We're going to try something new today."

The young wizards perked up at the news. "I've been looking forward to this day for ages!" Dean Thomas exclaimed. "I've heard that all year: Professor Hyp's classes are always full of new possibilities!"

Felix was used to the chattering of the young wizards. He pulled a small wooden box, no bigger than his palm, from his jacket pocket, waved it at the students, and then placed it on the lectern. "I made this in my spare time. My original intention was to train my control over practical ancient runes. But then I thought, why not make better use of it?"

He took out his wand and touched the tip of it to the lid of the small wooden box. Circles of golden and red magical patterns awoke from their slumber and emerged from the surface of the box.

Felix casually fiddled with the magic pattern, and it separated layer by layer—

"Clatter!"

The box was opened.

"What's inside?"

"I want to know too."

There was a lot of noise and commotion below.

Felix looked at the students below the stage with a sigh. As a professor, he could easily distinguish the differences between the two houses. The Gryffindor students were more emotional, with most of them craning their necks to see what was in the box. In stark contrast, the Slytherin students were much more reserved. Their eyes were also full of curiosity, but apart from a few seemingly dull-witted students, most of the students were able to control themselves.

It's not a matter of superiority or inferiority; they simply represent two different qualities.

Soon, a spell symbol jumped out of the box. Hermione recognized it at a glance; it was a spell symbolizing the power of a bison. She couldn't help but puff out her cheeks. These days, thanks to Li Jordan's big mouth, her reputation had grown louder and louder. The two things she talked about were breaking the chair armrest and threatening Draco Malfoy.

Many junior wizards from the outer courts came to see her, chattering excitedly, eager to witness her abilities.

There aren't many students like Hermione who can recognize the rune at a glance. Draco, on the other hand, just felt that the rune looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

The next moment, the second rune flew out of the box, followed by the third, the fourth...

Hundreds of colorful runes flew out before the box suddenly closed. The young wizards stared wide-eyed at the runes floating near the podium, their hearts filled with awe.

They turned their gaze to Professor Hyp, who was appraising the array of runes in front of him. Then, he suddenly pushed his hand, and hundreds of runes flew everywhere, filling most of the classroom in just a few seconds.

The young wizards looked up at the magical symbols that shimmered with various colors in mid-air, somewhat like candles floating in the air at a banquet in the auditorium, but these runes were much closer to them, and they could reach out and grab one.

Seamus Finnigan couldn't resist touching a fiery red rune in front of him with his wand. It suddenly scattered a patch of small, orange-red flames and floated away, startling Seamus.

Felix cleared his throat, flicked his wand in an arc, and the runes froze instantly.

"Next, I will teach you a little trick for sensing magic. In this lesson, you need to choose the five spell symbols that you feel most comfortable with and write their shapes on parchment."

"Just a friendly reminder, this is related to your grade on the practical part of the final exam."

The other students looked at him with longing eyes. "What are we waiting for?" Simon shouted, and a low chuckle came from below.

Felix explained the so-called technique: "It's actually very simple. Reach out and touch the symbol, feel the magic within it. The more you 'see,' the more compatible it is with you... You can begin!"

Ron whispered to Harry, "That sounds like something Trelawney would say."

Harry couldn't help but glance at Hermione, who had a lot of complaints about Professor Trelawney and had ridiculed the terms "third eye" and "vision" as unreliable more than once—these were professional terms used by the Divination professor to describe whether a young wizard had divination abilities.

Similar terms include "aura surrounding one's surroundings" and "receptiveness to the future," but unfortunately, Hermione is categorized as lacking the ability to divine.

Normally, she would have a lot to say when this name was mentioned, but this time, Hermione didn't respond at all. She quietly moved closer to Professor Hyp and asked him something in a low voice.

Harry's heart skipped a beat, and he pulled Ron along to follow.

"—Is there some purpose behind this?" He barely caught the rest of Hermione's words.

"To prepare for the first event of the Spellbook Club," Felix explained. "And also to test a possibility—if wizards are naturally suited to spells more suited to them, like Potter's Disarming Charm," he nodded to Harry, "could something similar exist in ancient spellbooks?"

Hermione understood. "You believe everyone has an ancient rune that's best suited to them? All we have to do now is find it based on our intuition?"

Felix said, "I'm just guessing, but it's worth a try."

Harry couldn't help but interject, "Professor, have the results from the Spellbook Club come out yet? Ron and I..."

Felix glanced at him. "Your papers... barely pass, and are ranked in the second tier."

"Second tier?" Harry had never heard this before. He planned to ask Hermione later; she would definitely know. But Harry understood what "barely passing" meant, and he and Ron both breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way," he heard Professor Heap say to him, "how's your paper on the dueling system coming along?"

"Uh... I'm still writing," Harry said awkwardly. He had taken a lot of notes, but he was only a third of the paper done. And right now, his mind was full of things like first-tier and second-tier papers.

Back in her seat, Hermione explained the categorization of the results: "The professor divided the assessment results into three levels, with the lowest level resulting in direct elimination. In the professor's words, they were just taking a chance and hadn't prepared at all."

"So the second level is qualified, and the first level is excellent?" Ron guessed, which made perfect sense.

"No," Hermione sighed, "the first tier is the qualified one. As for the second tier, you retain the right to audit classes, but the professors won't care whether you come or not, or whether you can keep up with the club's classes."

Ron's mouth dropped open, and he couldn't help but raise his voice: "So, we're just here to make up the numbers?"

"Professor Hyp believes—" Hermione raised her voice, "that a few of you may be able to keep up with the course, but most of you will fall behind and naturally drop out."

"Currently, there are only seven people in the first tier, which is too few, so the professor is preparing to select a few more from the second tier."

Harry couldn't help but feel uneasy. He felt that he would most likely fall behind, perhaps even being eliminated in the first round.

(End of this chapter)