Chapter 30: Confirming the Direction

The new week began just like this, with Allen and his roommates eating breakfast in the Great Hall.

Allen idly poked the pie on his plate with a fork; he was a bit distracted, had no appetite, and wondered if it was because he had been too excited yesterday.

His brain, having shed the excitement, became calm again.

He began to think calmly.

His discovery from yesterday really felt useless! What use could all this flashiness have? Had he been influenced by Shougong Geng without realizing it?

Hiss~ Shougong Geng is actually this terrifying!

Allen had originally thought the light sphere could fly very far, like a flare, but subsequent experiments doused him with cold water: the sphere could only fly less than five meters. This discovery led Allen to quickly label it useless.

The only use Allen could think of now was to summon two light spheres over Malfoy's head, one drawing an "S" and the other a "B," then enjoying his foolish look.

So Allen was very disappointed.

Reporting such a discovery to the Ministry of Magic would probably not yield much reward; with such a bizarre style, it likely wouldn't be liked by the old scholars who study magical theory either. Getting it into textbooks would only bring empty fame, and what he needed most right now was to keep a low profile. Moreover, even if he cast this spell in front of others, they probably wouldn't guess how it was cast, so whether he reported it early or late made no difference.

So reporting it should wait. After all, he owed so much debt that the bonus from one discovery wouldn't cover it, and it would draw unnecessary attention to himself, which was the last thing he wanted right now, given he still had quite a few secrets.

So let it be; just pretend this never happened, and quickly start researching the ancient runes for the Cleaning Charm. He felt that researching this would yield far greater rewards than the Lumos spell.

Allen made up his mind.

Besides, his research into ancient runes was simply too slow; should he go find professors to research together? Allen thought of this question again.

After thinking it over repeatedly, he still decided to research on his own, because he had absolutely no way to explain how a Muggle-born little wizard like himself had obtained so much precise and unknown ancient runic knowledge.

Time passed day by day. Harry became busier; he heard they were all undergoing Quidditch training. Ron often ran off and disappeared from sight. Allen found an opportunity to apologize to Hermione, and their relationship seemed to have mended a bit; at least Hermione was willing to research ancient runes with him.

And he, obsessed with ancient runes, recently had no mood to practice wandless talent transfiguration. His research with Hermione on ancient runes had also hit a bottleneck. Research into ancient runes was simply too backward, and the various materials were too numerous and too chaotic. Up to now, Allen still hadn't translated any useful information from the Cleaning Charm. Allen had to start considering adjusting his learning direction.

Because his thoughts had started to change again.

Allen already felt a sense of urgency in his heart, because through memories from his past life, he knew the Harry Potter movies were filmed in eight parts, while Hogwarts had seven years total. So he guessed the movies definitely filmed one part for each year, and then defeated the final Dark Lord in the eighth part.

In Allen's understanding, all movies have a beginning, development, climax, and ending; sometimes there are even multiple climaxes. As a movie with very strong special effects, Harry Potter definitely had many climaxes. A climax meant a grand scene, and a grand scene meant something big was happening.

And as a good friend of the protagonist, deeply bound to the protagonists, he would definitely participate in these big events. But he didn't know the plot, had no protagonist halo, and his strength was very poor. If things continued like this, he might very well die in a muddle!

So Allen's heart began to fill with anxiety. He wanted to quickly increase his combat power, but the things taught in first year simply weren't very useful for combat.

First-year students couldn't borrow magic books recording combat spells from the library either, and his progress on the path of ancient runes was extremely slow.

It seemed he could only adjust his learning focus. He must find a way to quickly improve his strength. Perhaps he could only privately find professors to learn from and ask questions. After all, they had to adjust their teaching plans in class according to the progress of most little wizards. Even if he learned very fast in class, there would be no new knowledge to learn. Allen sat in the library, thinking silently.

He quickly ran through the professors he knew in his mind:

Professor Dumbledore was like a dragon appearing only with its head visible and its tail hidden every day; finding him was probably impossible.

Professor McGonagall, as Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress, had a huge pile of trivial matters every day. Big and small school matters all needed her to handle them. Who made Headmaster Dumbledore such a hands-off boss? So she simply had no time; finding her was inappropriate.

Professor Snape hadn't given him a good look in a long time. He still had some self-awareness and shouldn't go provoke bad luck.

Professor Sprout was always taking care of his magical plants after class; she probably had no time to attend to him either.

Professor Flitwick was a very suitable candidate; he had heard he was once a Dueling Champion. But he had heard Flitwick's after-class life was very rich, so he probably had no time to teach him either. (In the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade Village, Professor Flitwick, drinking Butterbeer, sneezed heavily, unaware that his reputation had been slandered.)

After thinking it over, only Professor Quirrell was the most suitable. His professionalism was very high, and Dark Arts Defense was itself a combat discipline; it was the only course in first year where one could learn combat spells.

After reading the textbook, they would learn the Petrification Spell and the Leg-Locker Curse. These two were very practical spells that could greatly enhance one's combat power. But these two spells were relatively complex, with too many points to note. Self-study would be very inefficient, and without guidance, magical accidents were easy to occur. These were not things Allen wanted to see.

But now, because Professor Quirrell suffered from severe social anxiety, the teaching progress was advancing very slowly. In that case, by the time they taught the Petrification Spell and the Leg-Locker Curse, the grass on his grave would probably be three feet high. Allen calculated silently.

Professor Quirrell seemed to have nothing to handle after class usually, so his time should be very abundant. Moreover, his facial features looked very humble; he definitely couldn't withstand Allen's bitter pleading. The only thing worth considering was that if he randomly rolled for the nose, he couldn't go find him, because the garlic smell was quite strong. Allen kept imagining this in his mind; the more he thought, the more he felt this direction was correct.

Allen made this decision. As an action-oriented person, he decided to proactively find Professor Quirrell after the next Dark Arts Defense class to explain his request, striving to get the opportunity for Professor Quirrell to guide him individually.

"Such an opportunity must be fought for and grasped firmly! It must succeed!" Allen said to himself silently in his heart. "Besides, I was a science and engineering guy before, and Professor Quirrell has such a strong science and engineering guy temperament. We will definitely spark something together."

Until Allen lay in bed at night, he was still thinking about this matter.

Until Allen was almost falling asleep, a thought still floated in his mind:

I will definitely spark "fireworks" with Professor Quirrell!