Chapter 195

Most wizards in the magical world lack imagination and curiosity, so much so that in the Magic Research Institute, most of the wizards he recruited could only cooperate with the research of Muggle researchers and found it difficult to carry out work independently.

On the road of exploring magic, the vast majority of his fellow travelers were actually Muggles, while wizards were few and far between, which was truly strange.

The lack of talent must be a problem with education.

Hogwarts' educational method focuses more on letting young wizards become familiar with and learn existing magic to cope with various difficulties that may arise in life and work.

Its educational policy tends to be cautious and conservative, not encouraging, or even suppressing, young wizards' curiosity about magic and the unknown.

The reason is also understandable; for unskilled spellcasters, magic is indeed dangerous.

If a Levitation Charm is mispronounced, it could lead to being crushed under a cow; if Apparition is slightly careless, one might be splinched. Not to mention those spells that have a certain degree of aggressiveness themselves.

Hogwarts' educational goal is actually not high, just to let young wizards be able to control their own magic power so that they don't cause trouble.

This kind of educational policy may be beneficial for the continuation of wizards' existence, but for a guy like Murphy who aims to explore the boundaries of magic, it is too conservative.

In the past, he was powerless to change these, but now, since he had the opportunity to personally cultivate young wizards, Murphy also wanted to try it.

How much wealth are so many young wizards who already possess magical abilities!

Not to mention all of them, as long as he can fool four or five wizard researchers who can stand on their own, his magic research speed will definitely be raised to a higher level.

With such an idea in mind, Murphy asked that question, "What do you want to do with magic?"

"I know that most of your parents are wizards, and your brothers and sisters are too. You have been accustomed to magic since childhood, so much so that you are not surprised by it."

Half-blood wizards accounted for the vast majority among the students, and pure-blood wizards accounted for some of the remaining students. Wizards like Hermione who were completely Muggle-born were actually very rare, even less than 10%.

"But, I still want everyone to recall the moment when magic first fascinated you."

"When you first realized that this is a power that can do almost everything, what was that most urgent wish?"

"Don't be limited by the fixed cognition of magic you already know and have formed now."

"Just assume that magic is a wish machine. What is the wish you want to make?"

The students looked at each other, and a student raised his hand, "Teacher, does wanting a pile of gold coins count?"

A burst of laughter erupted in the crowd.

Murphy also smiled, "Of course."

"In fact, this is the most common wish. When the teacher was in school, he thought about how to turn out some gold every day."

Seeing that such a vulgar idea was not ridiculed, the students became bold.

Someone said: "Does flying count? I mean not the kind with a flying broomstick."

"Of course it counts. In fact, this is a very challenging topic."

Encouraged, the students raised their hands one after another.

"I want to be a little taller."

"I want to become beautiful."

"I want to bring my grandmother back to life."

"I want to become smart."

"I also want a lot of money."

"I want to be able to turn into a fish."

"I want to travel around the world."

"I want to be a singer, I like the Weird Sisters very much!"

Before long, the classmates started to go off-topic. Murphy snapped his fingers again, and a big bell-like thing suddenly appeared beside him. He picked up a drumstick and knocked on it.

With a "clang" of the bell, the discussion was suppressed.

"Very good, everyone has put forward some very interesting ideas," Murphy said, "Then, do you want these wishes to really come true?"

"Of course I do, but is it possible?" someone said.

"Naturally it is possible. Magic is a very omnipotent tool. It is equivalent to a master key. In theory, anything you can think of, it can do."

Dean Thomas stood up; he was the student who just proposed wanting to fly, "Professor, do you intend to teach us flying spells?"

"No, I will not teach you any spells, or any magic. That is the task of other teachers."

"What I want to teach you is a method."

"A method of identifying problems and then solving them."

"Not everything we want to do has a corresponding spell. Some spells may not have been developed yet, or are only mastered by a very small number of people. For example, flying, etc."

"At such times, we may need to make a key ourselves."

"How to make this key is what I want to teach you."

"First of all, the first step is that you must learn to ask questions. Ask a question that is precise enough and detailed enough."

"Dean," Murphy named the dark-skinned boy, "You want to fly, right? Can you describe it in more detail? What kind of flying? Like a little bird, or in human form?"

"I, I want... should it be in human form?"

Murphy nodded, "Very good, then without relying on a flying broomstick, do you need to use other things? For example, flying clothes, or shoes?"

"No, I want to cast a spell, and I can fly into the sky."

"Then it is without relying on other items, how high do you want to be able to fly?"

"This... want to fly as high as I can?"

"No height limit? Even if you fly into outer space?"

"Uh, no, I mean, as high as an airplane is fine."

Dean Thomas's mother was a Muggle, so he knew more about things in the Muggle world.

"You mean, a passenger plane?"

"Yes... I think so."

"That is no higher than 40,000 feet," Murphy said.

"What about speed? How fast do you want to fly?"

"As fast as an eagle."

"Oh, do you mean the cruising speed of an eagle, or the sprinting speed, or the speed of diving?"

"... I, I don't know..."

"Hmm... then let's assume it's 50 miles per hour. Thank you, Dean, sit down."

"This is refining the problem," Murphy said.

"Flying is a very general term."

"But after refinement, we learned that the flying Dean wants is a kind of flying that does not rely on other items for assistance, in human form, in the sky below 40,000 feet, at a speed of more than 50 miles per hour."

"Only after such refinement can we know that riding on the back of a dragon is not the effect he wants, and turning into a bird is not the effect he wants either."

"Only by asking the question in enough detail can we discover the difficulties and find ways to solve them."

"Alright, young wizards, I believe everyone has understood the method of refining problems."

"From now on, group discussion, each group finds a wish you want to realize the most, and then refine the wish."

"Before the next class, submit a project proposal to me, and I will review it."

"After the review is passed, this wish you want to realize, this topic, will be the entire content of your practical course in the coming year."

As soon as the words fell, the students were in an uproar.

We are only first and second-year students, and the freshmen haven't even started learning spells yet. Is such a difficult topic really something we should study?

"Professor, can any topic be used?" someone asked.

"It cannot violate the law, it must be related to magic. Of course, you can choose easier topics, but I hope you can follow your inner wishes."

"Is a topic like resurrecting the dead okay?" suddenly, someone asked.

Murphy looked over and saw the boy with round glasses standing there.

"This is also a cliché topic," Murphy said, "Why not? Anyway, there is no law saying it is not allowed."

(End of chapter)