Chapter 60: Summoning Charm

Magic never opens to wizards without talent,

but even those with slight talent are not always wise.

Wizard Sean silently tucked away the feather candy, while Hermione fell silent, at a loss.

When Wizard Sean placed the real feather pen down, he turned to see Hermione glaring at Jia Jia Siting, who was barely holding back a laugh,

as if he dared to laugh, she would turn him into a skunk.

“Go ahead and laugh.”

Wizard Sean sighed.

“Hahahaha—Wizard Sean, Hermione, come on, you didn’t actually think this was a real feather pen, did you?

That’s the second funniest joke I’ve heard today…”

Jia Jia Siting laughed until he couldn’t straighten up.

“Jia—Jia Siting!”

Hermione puffed out her cheeks.

At those words, Jia Jia Siting instantly stopped laughing:

“Oh, Hermione, teach me—I’ve been practicing the Summoning Charm too, but I can’t get it to work. Do you think it’s my wand motion?”

“...Your wand motion is too hesitant.”

Hermione quelled the inexplicable flush of anger and began to instruct Jia Jia Siting seriously.

Wizard Sean turned his gaze to the feather pen,

took another broken one from his bag—feather pens are known for durability,

yet not under Wizard Sean’s use.

Though he skillfully shaved the quill’s hard shaft with a knife to extend its life,

things that break will eventually break, and the worn-away parts of the quill can never return.

“Accio—Quill!”

He spoke the incantation precisely; the feather pen trembled violently, then floated gently into his hand.

【You practiced the Summoning Charm at an apprentice level. Proficiency +1】

At that moment, Wizard Sean froze.

Summoning Charm?

The interface used this name,

so why wasn’t it called the Flying Charm?

Coincidences are rare in the world of magic,

Wizard Sean pondered deeply.

“The strength of a spell is determined by the wizard—the wizard’s will to summon acts upon the object, creating the Summoning Charm.

Accio—Quill!”

The moment Wizard Sean spoke, every feather pen in the classroom trembled, then flew to Wizard Sean’s side.

You practiced the Summoning Charm at an introductory level. Proficiency +3

And not just pens landed before Wizard Sean—

Jia Jia Siting, still clutching his pen, stumbled and collapsed onto the wooden desk in front of Wizard Sean.

As Wizard Sean calmly watched Jia Jia Siting, considering whether to help him up,

he heard Hermione let out a snort of laughter, then asked with suppressed amusement:

“Looks impressive. Is that a new dance you learned?”

Soon Wizard Sean saw Jia Jia Siting’s face turn red.

…

Wizard Sean now understood the nature of the Summoning Charm:

as Hermione had said, when summoning an unknown object, a wizard need not know its exact name, only one of its properties.

For example, Hermione might not know a book’s title, but she knew it was a book about the Summoning Charm.

When she lacked sufficient knowledge to speak its name, she need only mentally fix its property (a book about the Summoning Charm) and narrow the scope (the school),

and any object within that scope matching her intent would fly to her.

But the mental strain would increase dramatically.

If one could summon living beings, the spell’s power would be terrifying,

but clearly, one cannot.

Harry had once tried summoning Hagrid—of course, it failed.

Wizard Sean thought failure was probably for the best; otherwise, Hagrid flying in…

Of course, Wizard Sean also believed no matter what Harry silently thought, Ginny would never fly to him.

As Wizard Sean’s understanding of the Summoning Charm grew clearer, his progress surged:

You practiced the Summoning Charm at an introductory level. Proficiency +3

【You practiced the Summoning Charm at an adept level. Proficiency +10】

【Summoning Charm unlocked】

Exhausted, Wizard Sean put away his wand,

turned his head, and saw Hermione and Jia Jia Siting equally drained.

But Jia Jia Siting recovered quickly, pulling three steaming cups of honey jasmine tea from Wizard Sean’s blind spot once more.

To this day, Wizard Sean still didn’t know where Jia Jia Siting kept his food.

He only knew honey jasmine tea tasted wonderful.

…

As dusk blanketed the castle, Wizard Sean set off for the dungeons.

The corridor was sliced by sunset into patches of light and shadow; the portraits on the walls entered their busiest and most pleasant hour.

Fat Lady appeared beside her good friend Violet Lady, clearly tipsy, leaning elegantly against her frame, humming a tune off-key:

“Look, it’s Wizard Sean Green, Sir Cadogan—your ‘troublemaker ace’.”

She said it with playful teasing.

Hogwarts portraits were never mere paintings—they loved to amuse themselves.

These figures could move between portraits, invent passwords, offer life advice, or challenge students to duels…

Behind the scenes, they plotted all sorts of other schemes.

Among these schemes, the most important was the so-called “troublemaker ace”—

a term that didn’t sound flattering, yet truly expressed a portrait’s fondness for a young wizard.

“By the honor of a knight, Fat Lady, a thousand years of experience rarely errs,

young Green will make a great name for himself in the magical world—I guarantee it.”

Sir Cadogan’s words drew Fat Lady’s frequent glances, for knights never lied.

Time did not exist in the dungeons,

Severus Snape had been there for who knew how long,

until the rain ceased.

The dungeons remained cold, isolated, unchanged.

The scent of potions still clung thickly; scrolls still piled like mountains.

Severus Snape stood motionless, a statue fused into the dungeon’s shadows.

A note lay open in his hand—if Wizard Sean were here, he would recognize it as hidden knowledge from Master Libius Polach’s book.

But unlike Wizard Sean’s note, this one bore a faint “ Yi ” character.

“Click—”

Wizard Sean opened the door, breaking the silence.

When he saw Professor Snape, his emerald eyes flickered with clear delight.

He hurried to his cauldron, placed his notes down, then went to the specimen cabinet to retrieve ingredients.

Wizard Sean felt slightly excited—he carried two tasks that thrilled any wizard today:

first, to test how much Master Libius Polach’s modified ritual improved potion quality.

Know that each level of potion quality improvement drastically increases its effect—and its price.

And the second task,

was to test his hypothesis from flying class: whether a wizard’s will could finely regulate potion reactions.

Yet he clearly didn’t notice Professor Snape’s far more complex gaze.