After class, the young third-year wizards walked out of the classroom in a stream, a half-foot tall golem in each of their hands, as they gleefully discussed what they had learned in their first class.
Felix stayed behind, ticking off a table as he jotted down the number 17 next to the name 'Luna Lovegood', which represented the number of cards she had finished during the class.
The process of injecting stable magic into the cards actually became more and more proficient the further the young wizards got into the class. As far as Felix is concerned, today was really just an interest-led class. Especially when viewed in contrast to the sixth-grade class that followed -
"Sixth Grade is a crucial year ..."
"Come on, Professor." Fred and George shouted accusingly from the classroom, "We've only just finished our O.W.Ls previous year!" The other students also voiced their agreement in a low voice.
They had heard similar things for an entire year in fifth grade, even still they had a nightmare about it, and a few timid students seemed to recall those difficult days with a wince as if they had felt some kind of after-effect.
The students were so distraught that they didn't know who was making the dry heaving noises, and the students looked around for the source of the noise, even their emotions were incoherent.
Felix smiled with amusement as he paced around the classroom. "The reason for this is that in this year, you don't have to worry about certificates and your knowledge accumulation has reached a peak. That means-"
He paused deliberately for a few seconds to reveal the mystery: "We have more time for practice, along with those things that are worth exploring."
Without waiting for the students to come to their senses, he turned around and walked back to the podium, and simply took out the rune cards, then he clapped his hands: "My requirement is simple: through these cards, master at least seven ancient runes-"
"They happen to form a rune circuit, and I will cover this part in the last half hour of the class."
"But I hope, all more than anything, that you will be able to discover the fun of it by exploring it yourselves. Let's begin, students, the first one to finish will be rewarded with twenty points."
Soon, in the sixth-grade Ancient Runes class, students from the four houses took the rune cards and projected a rune symbol - a piece of cake for the sixth graders who had been through the purgatory of fifth grade.
But the key point is how to go through the cards and master the runes on it.
"Right." Felix seemed to thought of something and picked up the roll call, "It's difficult to complete this step alone, so I will group you ... Miss Campbell King, don't look around, I will divide every three people into a group according to the order on the roll call."
With that, the four houses were jumbled up in order, and Felix thoughtfully morphed a small circular table, each with three chairs. The Weasley twins, taking advantage of their last name, were divided into a group, and they stared blankly at the Ravenclaw girl opposite to them.
"Wow, it's beautiful." The girl surveyed the small bright green bud projected on the card, her eyes flashed with fascination, and then she looked back down at the textbook that is filled with notes.
"According to past experience, in order to master a rune, you must first master its symbolic shape and meaning ... which is the most important, and we can precisely get it from the card, the rest just needs - you guys are looking at me For what?"
"No, nothing." George muttered, he took a card from Fred and injected magic, while whispering, "Why do you think the professor did that?"
Fred said, "I guess it's to give us the ability to teach ourselves ancient runes."
"Are you serious?"
"I heard from someone in 'Future World', well, it's actually Penelope," he grinned, "She said that Professor Hap considered rune cards as an Enlightenment toy."
"Toys!" George said with a glare.
"Yes, the same as children's comic books, but Professor Hap is more interested in promoting practical runes. Penelope said that the professor provided a scenario where the father and a mother will hold their child's hand to trace a pattern from the card, and when the child is a little older, he or she will naturally be close to the runes."
George thought about it very carefully, and he let out a long breath, "If it weren't for the 'Future World' procurement of a batch of Muggle toys, I wouldn't have known how little entertainment we had ... It gave us much more inspiration! Magic blocks, little soldiers characters, coloured bubble guns, prank cards, and the spin-off wizard duels cards ..."
The Ravenclaw girl interjected, "Why aren't there any dolls?"
"Uh, excuse me, what did you say?"
"Dolls," the girl said with a straight face, "I loved them the most as a child, spent my annual allowance on that, and collected a whole set over the years!"
The twins looked at each other, Fred slowly asked, "George, what do you think?"
George said in the same tone, "Man, I think - we should take advantage of the last two years in school to find some partners ..."
"Makes sense." Fred nodded as he turned his head and looked at the girl, "Terri, would you like to join?"
Terri looked at them in surprise.
"What do you mean?"
"Join the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Currently, there is nothing, but in the future, it will be the world's largest supplier of prank items, as well as a manufacturer of wizards' children's toys."
"You're - well - a bit out of your league -" Terri stated, at a loss for words, "This isn't another one of your pranks, is it?"
"Of course not. Do you have any plans for the future? Like, join the Ministry of Magic?" Fred and George asked, looking at each other. Initially, it was a spur of the moment, but now they really have plans to recruit people.
" I don't have any plans for that ..., I'm from a Muggle family, and I haven't thought about which side I'll stay on after graduation."
"Then just give it a try." Fred and George compelled desperately.
Terri found herself inexplicably being positioned as a partner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and her hand shook hard as she squeezed the card. A blue waterfall projected by the card flickered up and then disappeared.
...
In the last half hour, Felix explained a part of the knowledge and assigned the homework.
"Today's essay is about how to learn ancient runes efficiently using the rune cards, and I need you to summarize a proven learning program by combining your experiences in class."
After class, Felix heard the Weasley twins muttering as they passed by -
"What do you think of Cedric?"
"He's got a thing for golems ..."
" Isn't that just about right?"
"Also ... Aubrey is good, as well as Shelton and Pardis."
Felix rubbed his chin and looked at the backs of the two. They mentioned all the people from the Magic Rune Club, was there anything here that he didn't know?
After the afternoon session, Felix walked towards the great hall, with a Niffler on his shoulder, attracting many curious eyes along the way. Just as he arrived into the entrance hall, he saw Harry and Draco arguing from a distance.
Harry said something in annoyance, pulling Ron to turn away, Draco Malfoy turned red, he dropped the newspaper in his hand, exasperated, and pulled out his wand from behind his back, pointing it viciously at Harry.
"Bang!"
Harry nimbly jumped aside, a fiery spell brushed against his hair, he turned around and swung his hand violently - Draco looked like something hit him, his wand shot out of his hand, and then he stumbled backward, as he caught by Crabbe's hand before falling down.
A few screams belatedly followed.
"Merlin's beard, what's that!"
" Silent and wandless spell casting, Potter is too good, it's a shame, he's only a fourth-year ..."
"Do you think if there is no age limit, he will be able to become a champion?"
"It's hard to say, everyone has made quite a lot of progress in the past two years."
Ron looked at Harry with a shocked face, "How did you do that?"
Harry looked somewhat bewildered at the extra wand in his hand that belonged to Malfoy. Harry himself did not know what was going on, he was just indignant at the sudden attack he received, and subconsciously made a counterattack, just as he was about to say something, he heard another loud thud.
Bang! Then a roar echoed through the entrance hall.
"You're not allowed to do that, boy!"
Moody limped forward, his wand pointed at a snowy white ferret, which shivered on the stone-paved floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.
In the silence, Moody asked, "Did he hurt you?"
"No," Harry said, "the spell missed."
"Stay away from him!" Moody yelled.
"Stay away from - what?" Harry asked inexplicably.
"Not you - him!" Moody yelled again, raising his thumb and pointing over his shoulder at Crabbe, who was about to pick up the ferret, but got too frightened to move from his place.
Moody began to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret, which yelped in terror and ducked, running in the opposite direction.
"I don't believe you can escape!" Moody yelled, pointing his wand at the ferret again - when a man stepped in front of the ferret, "Oh, Professor Moody, I can't let you do that."
Felix smiled and flicked the spell away.
The ferret shrank at his feet, and Niffler Valen was looking at it curiously from his shoulder.
As for Felix himself, his eyes had dropped to the floor where he had stepped on a few, dirty Daily Prophet papers, which, coincidentally, were the headlines he had read this morning.
----------
Thanks for all your support.
There are 394+ chapters on P_atreon, if you have some extra pocket money, Support me on Pa_treon: www.pa_treon.com/Crazy_Cat.