"I can't believe it! I can't believe you kept this from us!" Hermione said disgruntled, by now they had walked out of the castle, turned a corner in front of Hagrid's hut, and headed towards the Forbidden Forest, but she still remained a little indignant about that issue.
"Hermione, you were having a falling out - but, Ron, you didn't even tell me, we could have cloaked ourselves in an invisibility cloak." Harry couldn't help but speak in a grumbling tone.
"I thought ... if I failed, I'd just pretend like nothing had happened." Ron stammered, his eyes unnaturally glancing somewhere else, "I guess Malfoy was thinking the same ... Hermione, thanks for the Dittany."
The lump on his face didn't look noticeable anymore.
"That's meant for Harry when he practices Apparition!" Hermione hmphed through her nose.
"I'm surprised Malfoy made it though," Ron said, "I always thought he'd just be crying for his mom or be a hopping ferret ..."
Hermione did think it is normal.
"He's always got good grades, one of the top scores on the 'answer space', you just never paid attention."
"Yeah," Ron smacked his lips, "I didn't know that you paid attention to people who ranked lower than you, that's a long list of names ..."
Harry couldn't help but grin.
They walked into the forbidden forest, the light suddenly dimmed, as if it was evening, and their ears heard all kinds of rustling and tiny sounds in the forest. They had to find a place nearby to practice apparition, and according to Harry, he could already appear out of the "house" from inside using apparition.
Ron plucked a purple berry and asked, "Can I eat this thing?"
"Yes," Hermione glanced at it, "except it's a bit--"
"Yuck!" Ron already took a bite, then revealed a bitter look, "It's bitter!"
"... bitter taste, it seems you already know that." Hermione said with a smile, and Harry hastily retracted his hand that was poking at the branch.
They soon found a familiar path and trekked to a vacant spot -
" This place looks familiar to me." Harry surveyed the vicinity, his eyes skimming over the scattered rocks several times.
"Yeah," Hermione pointed to a large tree, "remember? We spied on Professor Hap behind that tree when he was practicing Apparition ... I asked Hagrid privately, there is no dangerous creature's lair near this piece of forest. However, we still need to take some precautions-"
She took her wand and walked around, mumbling some words under her breath.
"Protego totalum... Salvio hexia ... Repello Muggletum ... Stealth Sensoring Spell(incantation unknown) ... Caterwauling Charm(incantation unknown) ... Transfigured Guards(incantation unknown) ... Hey guys! if you don't mind, help me out a bit!"
"We only know the first three spells." Harry and Ron looked at each other as they too got busy, "That was taught by Professor Belby, in the Wilderness Safety theme ... What about the rest?"
"Oh," Hermione patted her forehead, "the Stealth Sensoring Spell can detect magical disguise, Caterwauling Charm is a kind of alarm spell, when someone breaks in it will make an ear-piercing sound ... As for the Transfigured Guard. "She paused and smiled, "Don't you guys think they're cute?"
Harry and Ron crouched down and looked at the things that looked like peanuts - their bodies were made of two small stones pieced together - supposedly using transfiguration - with no legs, as they bounced around.
Ron reached out and flicked one of the transfigured guards two feet away.
"Kind of like a LEGO Figure without limbs." Harry commented, looking up and down as he asked, "What can they do?"
"More sensitive to magic and can detect things we can't see in advance." Hermione said, "One more thing to add, this is Professor Hap's magic."
"Well prepared," Ron whispered, "I finally know why she didn't stop us from breaking the school rules, if I had learned this much novel magic as well, I would certainly look for an opportunity to use it, otherwise it would be a shame, wouldn't it?"
Late afternoon.
Felix was working on a sneakoscope in his office, tiny parts scattered across his workbench.
He carefully extracted a strand of magic from a business card, which Mr. Finch-Fletchley had handed him. Then he picked up a fingernail-sized gemstone and incorporated the magic power wrapped around his finger into it.
"The most important step is completed, then - Valen, I haven't heard the sound of reading for a while."
He said without looking up, as a Niffler Valen dozing off on a big literacy book used by muggles with various illustrations under her butt.
Hearing Felix's words, Valen grunted in discontent and walked up to him with great gusto, her small pink finger poking his arm over and over again.
She couldn't stand it, no more! Why are you teaching a Niffler how to read and write?
She had never heard of such a ridiculous thing.
For her own sake, and for the sake of any potential victims in the future, she would like to protest against the Great Demon King on behalf of all the Nifflers!...no! On behalf of all Magical Creatures!
"Kuh-kih! Gee gee gee! Chik Kik ki ki ki!"
Then a Golden Galleon was placed in front of her. Niffler Valen froze a bit as she instinctively stuffed it into her pocket.
"When you receive money, you have to do something, as we agreed." Felix nudged her with his finger.
"Gabba-"
Niffler Valen opened her beak wide, like a duck, pink beak opening and closing breathlessly.
She walked back with her head down, then she flipped the next page with her nimble pink fingers and sat down dejectedly as she stared at a picture of a motorcycle, and within a minute, her eyelids drooped ...
Hermione's presence rescued her. When she came in, Niffler leaped off the workbench with a comical stride and jumped into Hermione's arms.
"Oh ... Valen? What happened to you? You're too enthusiastic ..." She looked at Niffler somewhat overwhelmed, as Valen looked like she had been wronged, pointing to the sky and the ground, without forgetting to point at the professor and a literacy book on the table.
"Are you learning to read?" Hermione's heart welled up with a nostalgic feeling, "I read a similar book when I was three years old."
"Kiki! Keeee!"
Niffler pointed at Felix and grunted once again.
"Uh ..."
" She says she has never met a human as cunning as me, and she is running away from home to follow you instead." Felix said with his head down, putting the remaining parts of the sneakoscope together.
Hermione blinked and looked down at Niffler.
Niffler nodded her head in exasperation. That's right!
She wanted to break into a new world and gather a big hidden treasure. Sooner or later, she will make the fifth house at Hogwarts.
"Well, it's done." Felix stood up with a walnut-sized sneakoscope in his hand, and before Hermione could see it, he had raised his ebony wand and from the tip, a silver Rain Swallow Patronus flew out.
The rain swallow is as big as an owl, hovering silently in midair, Felix threw the sneakoscope in his hand which got swallowed by its open beak.
"Go on, find that man. Don't let him notice someone looking for him." Felix said calmly.
Hermione watched curiously as Rainbird disappeared from the window and into the blackness of the night, mentally guessing what kind of person the professor wanted to find.
...
"So, you're worried that you got the invitation card by cheating?"
Hermione nodded, at this point, they sat on the couch, she held a box of Eggnog cookies in her hand, feeding Niffler, while looking worriedly across the table at Professor Hap.
This matter has always bothered her, especially after Ron got the invitation card in a "normal" way.
Felix dismissed it, "Why do you call it cheating?"
"I went against the test's intent," Hermione said sadly, "I simply could not face my own fears, perhaps I am the worst of these champion candidates."
Felix laughed softly, "Granger, you, as well as the students below the sixth year, are not considered as champions to be trained, not considered as champion candidates. But because of the younger age, you are considered more talented, so we decided to let you participate in the upcoming training"
Hermione looked at him with some confusion.
"Put it this way, Miss Granger." Felix said, "Headmaster Dumbledore and I, as well as other professors, thought that it would be a waste to exclude the younger students from the training, but we couldn't really let you participate in the tournament either, so we came up with this compromise to increase your involvement."
"Increase our involvement?" Hermione repeated, "So that's why you don't mind if I cheat?"
"You misunderstand me. I never said there's only one way to cope up with your fear, did you read the words on the monolith? Courage, wisdom, resilience, and calmness, which means ... there are at least four ways."
Felix said gently, leaning his body on the back of the couch and looking at her thoughtfully.
"You did at least two things, which would have been an act I did not anticipate - first, you vaguely saw through the illusion, which may be related to your frequent exposure to thinking room related magic, so you didn't become bewitched easily; second, you took advantage of this capability, and borrowed the power of the fantasy to cast the ancient magic Golden Flame that I taught you, which is not something that ordinary people can do."
"I've discussed this with Dumbledore before."
"How do you know-" Hermione looked at him in surprise.
"If you had actually used the golden flame, you might have destroyed that place." Felix smiled, "Anyway, what it shows was, that your understanding of this magic is at a passable level, and you can already try to use it in reality."
"Now?" Hermione asked with a leap of faith.
Felix looked at her with an expectant gaze.
"Oh, uh ... well." Hermione sat up straight, cleared her throat, and recited a string of ancient incantations under her breath, then a cloud of light bloomed from her fingertips, and one by one the magic runes appeared in the air, piecing together as a whole.
"Scoff!"
A golden flame appeared out of thin air, burning quietly and appearing serene and undisturbed.
"You can take your hands off." Felix said, and Hermione did as she was told, the flame still hovered in midair, the air around it trembling gently. Under her control, the flames got morphed into various shapes, and by accident, a goblet got penetrated with a searing hole.
"You need to improve your control, Granger. You've always been good at it, but not good enough. You have to make the flames move the way you want them to, just like this."
Felix said, passing his palm through the golden flames, a small wisp of golden ember glued to the tip of his index finger.
Hermione's eyes widened.
"Is it amazing? Not at all, actually; you haven't discovered the true properties of this magic. It's not particularly explosive magic, or I wouldn't have taught you ..."
...
The new week became hectic for Felix.
After the afternoon class, he took the time to go to Classroom 7 and recorded the names on the monolith, and gave them to Professor McGonagall.
When she saw the list of candidates, McGonagall got taken aback: "There's a second-year student?"
"Yeah, I didn't expect that either." Felix said, "Unless she has a very deep and positive understanding of her fear itself ..."
"What are you going to do about it, Felix?"
Felix had a bit of a headache, "I'll discuss it with Severus, after all, she's a student in Slytherin House, and it seems she has a sister in the same house ..."
"I'll go and talk to Severus." Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and said seriously, "No matter what, I will not agree to let a second-year student get involved in this, we have discussed the training program, and frankly, I think it is too extreme, even for those fourth-year students ..."
"Minerva, fourth years are not that young, they are generally 14 or 15 years old, just when they are most craving for credit. If we discourage them, they will try various methods to sneak in or will send us a group Howler to vent." Felix joked.
"... Well, since you and Professor Moody both say so, and Albus doesn't object."
Professor McGonagall didn't insist any further, these issues had been discussed more than once before in the meeting, and she had actually agreed to it, now she was just complaining a few times. So she changed the topic to something else -
"Congratulations, Felix, Remus got a big order."
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