Chapter 39: Spirit and Will vs. Magic

As Wizard Sean Green stared at the sudden candies in his bag, Jia Jia Siting despaired,

the owl suddenly huffed,

“Little wizard, hmph! Lucky little wizard! Get inside quickly! Don’t let Ravenclaw Lady find you!”

With a flap of its wings, a crack opened in the wall, revealing a sky-blue door,

Hermione immediately widened her eyes.

“Thank you.”

Jia Jia Siting instantly smoothed his downturned face and offered a sincere thanks.

Wizard Sean picked up the feather candy, lost in thought.

Inside the hidden room.

A trace of doubt still lingered on Hermione’s focused face,

Wizard Sean took out his notebook, then heard Jia Jia Siting whisper:

“Actually, portraits get lonely too, right? Master Owl has been hiding inside the wall—I bet he can’t wander freely like other portraits,

otherwise his glasses wouldn’t keep falling off.”

“Mm.”

Wizard Sean said.

“Oh, Wizard Sean, if no one ever talked to me, I think I’d go mad.”

Jia Jia Siting seemed to recall something, his pale gray eyes deepening.

“What are you planning to do?”

Wizard Sean seemed to have anticipated it.

“What if we move it?”

Jia Jia Siting whispered.

“We could try.”

Wizard Sean nodded, though he didn’t truly believe it would work,

one of Hogwarts’ most enchanting features being the countless secrets it held.

Even Headmaster Dumbledore couldn’t be certain he knew all of Hogwarts’ secrets.

And the owl portrait was part of that secret.

Wizard Sean had reason to suspect,

it was like Gryffindor’s Fat Lady, clad in a floor-length gown,

entrusted with a duty similar to guarding the entrance to Gryffindor’s common room,

a duty that clearly couldn’t be casually erased.

Otherwise, the professors wouldn’t have left this classroom unattended.

But…

he still held a sliver of hope.

As he had said,

trying couldn’t hurt.

…

“Wartweed Potion is one of the simplest potions, and one most frequently used by wizards of Beimeizhou,

I altered its ritual, greatly increasing the success rate and significantly improving the potion’s quality,

before using it, ensure you have mastered the modified ritual and possess the mental stamina to stay awake for three days.”

Greatly increased success rate?

Improved quality?

Wizard Sean felt his breath quicken.

“I understand the excitement every potion researcher feels upon reading this,

but I must remind you once again,

during potion brewing, ensure you make no mistake in the ritual—or you’ll have to pray to Merlin for mercy,

lest you open your eyes and find me gone.”

Typical wizardly dark humor…

Wizard Sean thought silently.

Then,

he began learning and mastering the modified ritual.

Beside him, Jia Jia Siting and Hermione resumed practicing the Levitation Charm.

Outside the window, owls flew out of Hogwarts carrying letter after letter,

every weekend being the busiest time for the owls,

bearing words that delivered the language of longing,

returning with even heavier longing

Thus, Hogwarts Castle gradually sank into twilight.

Magical lanterns glowed softly,

illuminating Jia Jia Siting’s anxious face,

“Professor Flitwick said the feather must spin once to mark a wizard’s mastery of the Levitation Charm,”

his face weary, yet the feather didn’t stir at all—

even though he had followed Wizard Sean’s instructions exactly.

Even Hermione looked troubled; though as new students, they were already exceptional,

compared to that wizard who mistook the Lumos Charm for a conjunctivitis spell, they still felt overwhelming pressure.

On the other side of the classroom, Wizard Sean had finished familiarizing himself with the ritual and turned to the last page of his notes:

“When a wizard feels strong emotion toward the potion he brews—whether joy, worry, or sorrow—it profoundly affects the potion,

which is why potion-makers must remain focused and calm,

but magic always has two sides: certain controlled emotions can unleash unimaginable power.

This is precisely what the modified ritual aims to achieve.”

Libashu Bolachi, this potion master, had left behind more than mere improvements—perhaps, as he claimed,

this was a great pioneering work.

Wizard Sean thought.

During the ritual, he would become more focused,

and a powerful emotion would mingle with it—similar yet distinct from the emotions used in Transfiguration and Lumos.

“Then what emotion does the Levitation Charm require?”

Wizard Sean murmured, naturally recalling the unanswered question from the last charm lesson.

He looked at the feather,

and suddenly wondered: why must the practice object always be a feather?

Just because it’s light?

“Because a feather symbolizes liberation—liberation from gravity, freedom from restraint—

Win—gar—dium—Le—viosa!”

【You practiced the Levitation Charm to expert standards, proficiency +50】

A flash of light from Wizard Sean’s wand, and the feather floated up slowly, spinning in the air several times,

then, like a bird flapping its wings,

danced rhythmically through the air.

Jia Jia Siting stared, dumbfounded.

“He just mumbled a few words, said things I didn’t even catch, and achieved this level?”

Jia Jia Siting murmured,

“Sometimes I think Wizard Sean is exactly like the wizard I imagined—muttering a few phrases and defying the magic I barely understand.”

Hermione stared fixedly at the dancing feather, then frowned at her own wand,

and sighed helplessly.

She looked at Wizard Sean’s focused profile, her small face gradually hardening with determination.

The feather drifted gently down,

Wizard Sean raised his wand again.

“Win—gar—dium—Le—viosa!”

【You practiced the Levitation Charm to expert standards, proficiency +50】

As the system notification chimed, Wizard Sean felt a wave of exhaustion; he let the feather drift gently into his palm,

then saw Jia Jia Siting beaming with excitement and Hermione blushing shyly.

…

“As Professor Flitwick said when explaining the Lumos Charm, spells infused with a wizard’s emotion grow stronger,

Lumos requires the wizard to yearn for light,

The emotion required for the Levitation Charm is detachment,

detachment from gravity… I suppose that’s why wizards always use feathers to practice.”

After Wizard Sean finished speaking, Jia Jia Siting’s expression had grown slightly dazed,

Is that how you understand it?

Why didn’t I think of that?

Then he and Hermione quickly took out their pens and wrote down every word Wizard Sean said.

Wizard Sean slowly pulled out his Magical History notebook from his bag,

tomorrow,

he would have a full day to complete the timeline of Magical History and compile a “Wizard Sean-specific” chronology of magical history.

Astronomy class was the same; though it was an arcane part of magic, the standards for young wizards were always low,

Wizard Sean only needed to record the celestial trajectories, just as he had done with Magical History.

This meant his scholarship fragments would reach four tomorrow,

namely:

Charms, Transfiguration, Astronomy, and Magical History.