The days at Hogwarts

"We didn't see her either. She disappeared early in the morning after breakfast. Maybe she was reading and forgot the time. You know, she is Hermione, so this is normal." Ron turned his back to Harry and stretched out his arms, revealing the mud spots on his back, and answered Loren's question.

Just before class started, Hermione trotted into the greenhouse, following Professor Sprout.

Hermione stopped beside Loren and gasped for breath, her nose red from the cold. The slightly hot temperature in the greenhouse and the running just now made the little witch's fair cheeks blush. There were tiny beads of sweat on her forehead, and a few strands of scattered hair stuck to her forehead.

It was obvious that he had run all the way from the castle because class was almost about to start.

"Where have you been?" Loren stared at Professor Sprout who was giving a lecture in front of him and asked in a low voice with concern.

"Hoo~" Hermione was still breathing heavily, "I, I'm here, hoo~ Room of Requirement, hoo~ practicing the Traceless Stretching Charm."

Loren did not ask any further questions. He listened to the little witch next to him slowly calming her breathing, and slightly moved sideways to block her in front of him to prevent the professor from noticing him.

After a while, Hermione recovered and stood up to listen to the professor's lecture carefully. Loren saw this and saved his questions for the practical operation.

Professor Sprout's voice echoed in the greenhouse. "Today, we will continue to loosen the soil for the wintering plants, and apply insect repellent potions to some insect-infested beds. There is also an insect repellent spell that will be learned in the third class this week..."

Half a class later, Professor Sprout distributed the potions, and the young wizards and their partners went to their respective auxiliary areas to start practicing. The greenhouse was buzzing with activity, and everyone was chattering away.

"Why are you so anxious to practice the Traceless Stretching Spell?" Loren finally waited for the opportunity to ask this question.

"So that I can make my beaded bag sooner." Hermione followed the professor's instructions and checked the soil at the roots of the sneezeweed in front of her. She poked it a few times with a small shovel to determine the tightness of the soil.

The soil they were responsible for was relatively soft. Loren used the shovel to shovel three times per inch according to the standard given by the professor, and continued to ask, "Don't be so anxious. You almost got late for the herbal medicine class. At worst, I can make one for you after I make it."

This was what he had originally planned. The storage device made with the traceless stretching spell blessed by the alchemical array would have even better performance.

"Focus on your work!" Hermione didn't continue the topic, and the small shovel in her hand was shoveling quickly.

I know you can help me, but I just don't want to fall behind you. Only the little witch knows what she is thinking.

When the get out of class was over, Professor Sprout assigned today's homework and walked out of the greenhouse.

Loren was still whispering in Hermione's ear about the Traceless Extension Charm.

Hermione looked at the dirty dirt on her fingers and wanted to smear it on Loren's face.

In the evening, Loren and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room, having just returned from the Room of Requirement.

Ron and Harry sat opposite each other in their dressing gowns in the corner of the common room playing wizard chess.

"See you tomorrow!" Lauren said goodbye to Hermione and moved closer to see why Harry was asking for trouble.

Loren's shadow was cast on the chessboard by the light. The two people playing chess noticed the person coming and looked up.

Harry said excitedly, "Loren, you don't know, George and Fred gave me a new set of chess pieces that obey orders!"

"It turns out that it was all about the chess pieces. I can now play against Ron on equal terms."

Loren was silent for a moment when he heard this. What good could there be in the twins giving something? He always felt that George and Fred had bad intentions. He looked at Ron, wanting to hear his explanation.

"George got this from the Christmas firecrackers. It's a brand new set of wizard chess pieces." Ron explained the origin of the pieces while directing them, "Soldiers, move forward!"

"Oh, you want to stack three soldiers together. I see."

Harry was smug. He felt that he had seen through Ron's tactics. "Knight, eat it."

It actually went back and forth. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Loren took a few steps back and sat on the soft chair next to him.

The difference can be seen from the states of the two people playing chess. Harry buried his head on the table, completely immersed in the situation on the chessboard. Ron leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of hot cocoa from time to time. He was looking at Harry more than the chessboard.

Moreover, Harry had to think for a long time before making a move, but Ron hardly had to think at all and could follow up immediately after Harry made a move.

This amount of water might fill up the Atlantic Ocean, Loren complained inwardly. He was also somewhat puzzled. In the past, Ron would be bored with this kind of chess, so why could he be patient enough to play with Harry this time?

After a long time, the game of chess was finally over.

"General!"

Harry won with a narrow advantage, his eyes full of excitement, "I knew it was a problem with the chess pieces before."

He happily skipped back to the dormitory, intending to show off to Seamus and point out that there was something wrong with Seamus' old chess pieces.

Loren sat next to Ron and asked in confusion, "You haven't seen Harry for a holiday, so you're willing to let him play chess?"

"hey-hey!"

Ron was packing up the chess pieces. Seeing that he had been exposed, he couldn't help laughing, "I found a new and challenging way to play chess."

"Force a draw with him?" Loren watched Ron packing up the chess pieces.

The knight chess piece waved its lance and poked Ron's finger in disgust, shouting, "Get out of here! You've been so stupid today!"

Ron tickled the knight's horse's butt with his little finger, and the horse trembled with laughter, and the knight was tossed back and forth.

"Enough! I surrender, but you have to defeat him tomorrow." The knight said and rode back to his seat.

After putting away the chess pieces, Ron slowly said, "I'm trying to guess which move Harry will make when he plays chess."

"When I started playing with him, I couldn't guess correctly. Later, when I found that we were playing back and forth, it was easier to guess correctly. At first, I could only guess where he would go next, but now I can guess the next three steps."

Loren was amazed when he heard this. Wow, Go really has given you some ideas. You're doing data analysis here.

Harry is so pitiful. Let’s observe a second of silence for him.

Chapter 89 Understanding the Runes

In the alchemy laboratory of the Book of Fantasy, Loren pursed his lips tightly, staring at the slowly moving tip of the wand at the bottom of the box, paying attention to every turn of the pen, fearing that there would be any mistake.

This was the umpteenth time he had drawn his first pair of magic runes.

The tip of the wand was surrounded by unicorn tail hair that emitted a silver-white glow. Under Loren's careful control, it slowly and forcefully outlined a strange, not-too-complicated symbol.

The glowing lines were printed bit by bit on the bottom of the black leather case, passing through a few strange pen spinners, and finally the magic wand was gently lifted up to use up the last bit of light ink from the unicorn's tail hair.

As Loren finished writing, the entire mysterious and strange symbol suddenly burst into bright light, and finally merged into a whole with the hexagram array base wrapped in double circles.

Loren looked at the symbol in front of him and smiled with satisfaction.

After several nights of hard work, he was already able to skillfully draw the array base and the first magic rune. Compared to the double circle and the six-pointed star, which used three unicorn tail hairs, a single magic rune symbol required one feather, and if he made a mistake, he had to start over from the circle.

He pulled another strand of unicorn tail hair from the floating unicorn tails, and with a flick of his wand, a pure silver-white magic glow was emitted. He became much more skilled in using the summoning spell.

The Summoning Spell can be considered the predecessor of the Flying Spell, but it does not involve complicated magical principles and does not contain any spells.

Compared to the Flying Spell, which can make an unknown object fly directly to it as long as there is a target, the Summoning Spell only summons things within the line of sight. It is not even a spell, and some adult wizards can achieve this effect subconsciously.

But the fact that the young wizard can achieve the summoning effect naturally and smoothly shows that Loren has a more comprehensive control over the magic power in his body, which will make him more adept at using other spells and will not cause the magic to get out of control like the explosive genius Seamus.

The wand pulled the glowing unicorn tail hair and spun it neatly between his fingers, leaving a beautiful ring in the space. Loren turned the suitcase 180 degrees and began to carve a rune that was symmetrical to the center of the first rune.

The first one is the positive rune, and the second one is the negative rune.

With the experience gained from the first rune, the second identical rune progressed smoothly and was about to reach the final stroke.

Just like holding a brush, the ring finger pressed against the magic wand and applied light force. The tip of the magic wand pulled the unicorn's tail hair and ink upwards, and the reverse magic rune was finished.

Loren stared at the second rune, expecting it to echo the rune he had previously drawn and merge into a whole with the double-ring hexagram array base.

The second rune emitted a silvery-white light, and instead of fading as normal, the light quickly turned into a warm yellow. Loren realized that something had changed, and the warm yellow gradually deepened and turned into a fiery red. The two runes collapsed into the air, dispersing into tiny sparkling fragments of light.

The alchemical array began to emit light and heat, causing the bottom of the leather box to emit white smoke and an unpleasant burning smell, and finally left a black, charred circular spot.

The sketch failed.

Flamel floated behind Loren and glanced at the black spot. "Can you recall which step went wrong just now?"

Loren frowned and carefully recalled the process of sketching just now, confirming that every step he took to sketch the second rune was the same as the first rune. He shook his head and replied, "I can't think of any step that's wrong."

"Of course, there was nothing wrong with the drawing process. But you didn't understand the meaning of the rune and only remembered its shape." Flamel took off again, as if he had anticipated this situation.

"Magic is a reaction within a wizard. If you don't understand the meaning of the runes, you can't use them."

Loren was puzzled, "But I successfully drew the first magic rune."

"When you drew the first rune, you hadn't used it yet. When you drew the second rune that echoed it, you had to use it if you wanted to achieve the effect." Flamel turned in front of Loren and fell, stopping at the same height as him.

Loren still couldn't accept it, "I already know the meaning of this magic rune. It is an isolation magic rune under the space."

"You are absolutely right. It belongs to the scope of space and has an isolating effect. But this is just your perception of it, not your understanding."

"What is understanding then?"

"Give me an example. When you see the word black, the image of black comes to mind." Flamel seemed to feel that it was not intuitive enough and paused. "Give me three black things right away."

"Frozen pear, magic robe, magic wand." Loren answered quickly. In his mind, he also thought of the night sky, the water of the Black Lake, his hair, and so many black things.

"That's understanding, you understand the meaning of black." Flamel looked into Loren's blue eyes.

"Then how should I understand the magic runes? Is there anything that can be presented intuitively?"

Loren believed that only after seeing many black objects would one have the same perception of black in his mind, and what real and perceptible expression could the magic rune have?

"Think about its meaning, and you will notice it in real life." Flamel did not give a specific answer. After that, he floated away, leaving space for Loren to think.

"Space is isolated from space..."

In the empty alchemy laboratory, glowing magic runes flow on the red brick walls, reflecting the shadow of a person in deep thought.

Gryffindor common room.

Loren leaned on the bench, his eyes wandering on the ceiling, muttering: "Space, compartment..."

Harry and Ron took their Transfiguration homework and looked for Hermione everywhere. They tried to get Hermione to help them correct their homework. They went around upstairs and downstairs and asked Parvati Patil, but she didn't know where Hermione was.

Since discovering that most young wizards had basically returned what they had learned in the previous school year to the professors during the Christmas holiday, Professor McGonagall has almost doubled the homework she assigned. Some of it was the content of the previous school year, which was assigned as homework for everyone to review, and some of it was the teaching content for the next school year.

This is a problem for some little wizards who write slowly and suffer from procrastination.

The two men sat down on the bench dejectedly, completely unaware of the invisible man Loren standing beside them.

"What is Hermione doing lately? I can't see her anywhere." Harry complained.

"She's Hermione, we won't be able to find her anywhere she's reading." Ron didn't seem that anxious, "Or we can look for Loren."

"Ah~" Harry sighed, "Loren will just give us the homework to copy."

He paused and continued, "It's not bad, but I still feel more at ease doing it myself by reading books."

Ever since many people in the Transfiguration class were unable to conjure up a snuff box, Professor McGonagall was very disappointed but did not blame anyone. Many young wizards felt guilty about this and their attitude towards learning improved.

Loren withdrew his mind from the magic runes, heard the conversation between the two people, and had a vague guess about where Hermione was.

"I can also help you mark the wrong answers." This wasn't a big deal, so there was no reason for Loren not to help.

Harry and Ron were startled by Loren's sudden voice.

"Damn it! When did you come?" Ron looked at Loren who was sitting next to him in surprise.

"Is it possible that I was sitting here from the beginning?" Loren said with a tone of artificial grievance, "As roommates, you didn't care about me at all."

The two of them looked uncomfortable, as if they had eaten a bunch of cockroaches and were speechless.

In order to interrupt Loren's performance, Harry quickly handed over his homework, "Please help me correct the Transfiguration homework."

Loren put away her complaining attitude and took the parchment. She looked around and couldn't find the ink bottle and quill pen. She subconsciously used her magic wand to draw on Harry's homework. After a few strokes, she found that there was no unicorn tail hair here, so the magic wand could not draw anything.

Turning around, he saw Harry and Ron staring at him blankly. Loren raised his wand and tapped his head, thinking that he was confused when drawing the rune.

Without looking for a quill, Loren performed Transfiguration on Harry's handwriting, extracting some ink from the original words, which made them lighter in color. The extracted ink formed circles around the wrong answers on the parchment, and the page number of the correct answer in the textbook was condensed next to it.

Loren handed Harry the corrected homework, "My Transfiguration won't last long, enough for you to find the correct answer before tomorrow night."

"Oh!" Ron exclaimed, "I think your Transfiguration has improved again."

Then he handed the homework to Loren.

"You will also improve if you use the time you spend playing chess to practice," Loren said. After the beginning of the next school year, the two of them became obsessed with wizard chess. Harry enjoyed evenly matched battles and the joy of victory, while Ron was trying to see how many moves he could predict for Harry.

Ron didn't respond. "By the way, do you know what Hermione has been busy with lately? No one can see her except for classes all day."

Loren looked down at Ron's homework without raising his head. "I was practicing a new spell earlier, and Hermione wants to catch up with me."

"Tsk!" Ron smacked his lips, "She always doesn't want to fall behind and wants to be number one."

Harry thought for a moment, "I would say that this is not a good character. We should help her."

"Do you have any ideas?" Loren said.

"Playing chess. Hermione only loses when playing chess. This is good for her." Harry finally revealed his intentions.

Maybe he really has some ideas to help Hermione, but he also has his own little thoughts.

No one had ever been better than Ron at chess before, including Hermione. Now Harry felt that he could play chess with Ron on par with both sides, and that he was already at the same level as Ron. If he could beat Hermione...

Harry couldn't help but smile at the thought.