A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 295 The thing you were worried about happened in April

"This guy is quite talented."

Felix thought to himself as he watched Eddie Camille demonstrate his newly acquired runes on Saturday morning.

Eddie held a small flame in his hand, showing it to the others. Then, dramatically, he closed his palms, and amidst gasps of surprise, slowly opened them, revealing an orange-red magic symbol that flashed continuously.

"Look, this is fire runes. Want to learn it?" he said mysteriously to his companion. "It only costs two silver shiks."

……

Felix came out of the Great Hall, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione suddenly appeared from nowhere. "Professor, we made a promise—" Harry said breathlessly.

Felix looked at them: "I wanted to notify you later using the Guardian Angel. Okay, come with me."

He led the three of them up to the eighth floor of the castle and stood opposite a tapestry. Harry first glanced at the amusing scene of "trolls chasing a ballet teacher," and then followed the professor to face the blank wall.

"There are many hidden rooms in the castle, some of which are magical enough to be unaffected by the Anti-Apparition Charm. The Secret Chamber is one, and this is another," Felix explained.

"In the history of Hogwarts, many people have used it unintentionally—when they needed it most, but afterwards they found they could no longer get in, so they gave it a name, the Room of Requirement, or the Room of Requirement."

The three of them kept repeating the name.

"But actually, it has always been here, or rather, this is its fixed entrance." At this point, Felix seemed a little dazed. The Room of Requirement is embedded in Hogwarts' magical defense system, and it has always relied on the castle's magic to maintain its operation.

As far as he knew, the door to the Room of Requirement could be opened anywhere in the castle. If he could use this power, could he bypass the restrictions of the Anti-Apparition Charm?

He suppressed this thought and continued, "The way to make the entrance appear is simple: concentrate on the location you need and pass through here three times. A door will then appear on the wall, just like..."

He stopped, because a silver-white door had indeed appeared on the wall, and when the door opened, a drunken woman walked out—it was Sybil Trelawney.

Felix couldn't help but marvel at his luck; it seemed to be the second time the two had met in front of the Room of Requirement. The first time was when Trelawney came out of her office to hide bottles, and he casually asked her some questions about the Room of Requirement. The second time—which was now—they had bumped into each other face to face.

"Felix...Hap?" Trelawney's eyes were blurry, and it took her a while to recognize him. "You, uh...hiccup~"

Felix took two steps back. "Professor Trelawney, you're drunk. It's morning."

"What does it matter? Anyway—I don't have class!" She took a couple of unsteady steps, her gaze falling on Hermione. "Child, I see you again. I knew it all along, uh, you would leave, leave forever..."

Hermione said sternly, "You should have just called me by my name, Professor Trelawney."

Felix blinked. He happened to know about this. His assistant had voluntarily withdrawn from the divination class some time ago. He guessed it was because her grades in the class were not outstanding, even worse than those who made up stories.

Prior to this, Trelawney had casually made a vague "prophecy" in class: Around Easter, one of us will leave us forever.

It's hard to say whether the two are related.

Trelawney seemed to come to her senses. She pulled her scarf up a little higher, and the shiny beads on it jingled. "The Eye of Heaven might become a burden. I don't want to look different, you know..." She slowly walked away.

"Oh, right," Trelawney turned around, "darling, what you're worried about will happen in April."

Harry and Ron looked at her with suspicion. Ron took a deep breath and asked softly, "Who is she talking about?"

Hermione said sharply, "There are four of us. We'll know who she's talking about if someone has a little accident in April."

Felix said casually, "I'll be attending the Merlin Medal awarding ceremony in early April, I don't know if Sybil is referring to that... to be honest, I'm not too worried."

They entered the Room of Requirement, which was a spacious, empty classroom with a fifty-foot-high ceiling and a floor so clean it was spotless, painted in different colors like colorful squares.

Each cell is marked with a number, from one to ten, which is repeated continuously.

"Professor, what should I do?" At the last minute, Harry suddenly became a little nervous. He gripped his wand and struck a silly pose. Hermione and Ron were glad that they didn't have to try it today.

"Use what you learned from the anonymous book," Felix said. "I've taught you everything I needed to, and besides, your paper is excellent."

"Really?" Harry was a little embarrassed, but he did feel a sense of relaxation and pleasure. He didn't know if the professor was just trying to comfort him, but he decided to go with the flow.

“While Apparition becomes more difficult over longer distances, we don’t need to worry about a few feet,” Felix said. “So, pick a number that interests you, Harry.”

"Uh, I choose..." He glanced uncertainly at the grid in front of him, "How about the number seven?"

"Very good," Felix said encouragingly. "You can close your eyes and listen to me recite a guiding phrase: Imagine you are in the warm sunshine... You hear birds singing, smell flowers, and you are very relaxed. Maintain this state, imagine the number seven square, and try to figure out as clearly as possible what it looks like. Now begin to mobilize your magic. Suddenly, a strong desire surges within you, wanting to occupy the space in front of you. You can't wait... right now!"

"Bang!"

The air crackled with a sound like a firework being lit, and Ron and Hermione were astonished to find Harry gone, only to reappear at the edge of the red square of the number seven.

Harry lost his balance and fell forward. He quickly reached out to steady himself on the ground, preventing himself from embarrassing himself. He panted excitedly, looking down at his feet, "I...I did it—"

"Great job," Felix said. "Now, let's try again. This time, there are no prompts; you do it yourself."

Harry was brimming with confidence. He stared at his original spot—the white square marked with the number one—his mind filled with purpose, determination, and composure…

He closed his eyes, feeling lightheaded. Had he succeeded? He heard no sound, opened his eyes, and found himself still in the same spot.

"Try again, Harry. Feelings matter."

He failed the third time and became a little anxious. The fourth and fifth attempts—

"Bang!"

Hermione screamed, and Harry opened his eyes to find himself in cell number one, the only problem being that his right leg was still twenty feet behind.

He thought he would panic and faint from fear, but he didn't. Besides Professor Hyp was there, another reason was that he had experienced the splitting of his body too many times in the Nameless Book.

"Split apart, that's a normal phenomenon." Felix walked calmly to Harry's side, waved his wand, and after a puff of purple smoke dissipated, Harry sat on the ground, panting and sweating.

"Do you want to rest, or continue?" Felix asked.

"Go on," Harry grinned. "Professor, I'm getting a feel for the special training."

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"It's still a split device, this time it's the ears. Can you hear me? — Of course, let's continue."

"Bang!"

"puff!"

"Good, you're getting more and more skilled. Did you notice? The sound of the spellcasting is getting quieter. We're on the right track!"

Ron and Hermione were as quiet as two quails. Hermione whispered, "Is this the special training Harry mentioned? It's...it's..."

"It's like self-torture, isn't it?" Ron described his feelings. "But it works really well, except for the psychological discomfort. Ugh, it's splitting again, this time it's my arm..."

Half an hour had passed. "Let's take a break and get something to eat," Felix said, stopping Harry from continuing to practice Apparition. Looking at the empty room, he said clearly and precisely, "I need a table and four chairs."

The Room of Requirement fulfilled his needs, and a small brown square table and four sofa chairs appeared in front of him.

Felix winked at them. "I'm demonstrating something for you. You might need it later. Just think about the requirements in your mind." He waved his hand, and several plates of snacks and chocolates, along with a large jug of fresh orange juice, flew out from the ring on his left hand.

Harry floated over, his legs feeling weak and limp, as if he were walking on cotton. He slumped into the sofa, completely listless.

Felix conjured a straw, and a glass of orange juice floated in front of him. Harry lowered his head, bit the straw, and gulped it down.

"Professor, if I want to practice Apparition, do I have to do this too?" Hermione asked timidly.

“You’re different from Harry,” Felix said. “He’s more intuitive, you’re more rational. So, you’re better suited to thinking and practicing at the same time, summarizing the gains and losses of each spell.”

"Hermione is the smartest witch I know," Harry said, looking up, to which Ron agreed.

"It has nothing to do with intelligence, Harry," Felix said gently. "Everyone has different strengths. Some people just rely more on intuition to learn magic, like you. You can consider it a talent."

Ron said thoughtfully, "I think I also rely on intuition, no, on experience. I learned many of my spells through personal experience, such as the Binding Charm, Stunning Charm, Disarming Charm..."

Felix looked at Ron with a strange expression. He had heard Hermione mention that Ron had created a unique "experiential learning method" that involved experiencing the effects of spells with one's own body, which greatly accelerated the speed at which one could learn spells.

The most outrageous time was when he was learning the Binding Charm. He had Harry bind him more than twenty times in a row, and before the end of the dueling study session that day, he successfully released the finger-thick magical rope.

I've heard that many people have tried to imitate him, but no one has been able to replicate Ron's feat.

Felix guessed that either Ron really had the talent of "growing through suffering", or his potential was more than that, but he just couldn't show it on a daily basis, so he subconsciously found such an absurd reason for himself.

(End of this chapter)