Hagrid Was Very Serious

"This spell is called Mage Hand." Mu En spoke slowly as he searched through the desk, eventually finding several parchment manuscripts.

"Mage Hand?" Harry murmured.

"That's right. It creates a ghostly hand that can help the caster manipulate and interact with objects."

As he spoke, a faintly translucent azure hand appeared before Harry's eyes. The hand was extremely nimble, lightly tapping along the bookshelf before pulling out a book.

"It's a basic spell. Many beginner wizards choose it as the first spell they learn," Mu En explained.

"Give me a simple explanation of this spell from a casting perspective." As he spoke, the azure Mage Hand floated in front of Harry.

Harry thought for a moment, then shook hands with the Mage Hand.

The azure hand interacted with reality and possessed tangible form. It felt somewhat cold when he grasped it.

"Shape, color, and... interaction with reality!!" Harry said, his eyes growing brighter as he muttered, "No... that's not right. The core is interfering with reality, interacting with the real world!

"From the logic of spellcasting, neither the shape of the hand nor its color is anything more than a framework placed over it to better help the wizard affect reality!"

After saying that, Harry looked up at Mu En nervously.

"Interesting. You're basically correct. The fundamental logic of Mage Hand is interfering with reality."

As he spoke, the Mage Hand before Harry began to twist and writhe, changing shape.

"Whether its shape or color, they're merely frameworks for an abstract concept, allowing beginners to better anchor it to reality."

Harry watched in amazement as the Mage Hand changed like putty, becoming a knife one moment, a sword the next, then a rope.

"At this stage, Mage Hand can already be used as an offensive spell. Especially once we discard its color, it can produce surprisingly effective results."

As he spoke, the ever-changing Mage Hand before Harry gradually turned transparent. Then, Harry felt a faint prickling pain in his forearm.

Looking closely, he saw that a patch of skin on his forearm seemed to be repeatedly poked by an invisible knife.

Harry immediately dared not imagine how terrifying it would be if someone were suddenly attacked like this without warning.

"So that's how it is!" He nodded.

Mu En nodded as well. "Mediocre wizards treat Mage Hand as utility magic; excellent wizards treat it as combat magic capable of producing unexpected effects.

"But do you remember what I said at the beginning?"

"This spell is meant to develop the brain," Harry answered immediately.

"Correct!" Mu En snapped his fingers and said with satisfaction, "Once this spell breaks free of the constraints of color and shape, the demand it places on the coordination of our thoughts rises sharply.

"So for top-tier wizards, Mage Hand is a rare spell for training the brain!

"Learn this spell before your birthday. Before school starts, manipulate at least two Mage Hands simultaneously.

"Any questions?"

Harry nodded, full of fighting spirit. "No problem."

There was still a week until his birthday. Though time was somewhat tight, Harry felt that this was not an impossible task.

"Very good, that's the spirit!!" Mu En praised. "And these two books on Ancient Runes are also your homework for the holiday."

"Huh?!" Harry stared blankly as the two thick books floated toward him, catching them in a daze.

"Keep it up!" Mu En said with a smile, then placed the two parchments from earlier atop the books Harry was holding.

"These contain the casting method and thought process for Mage Hand. You can ask me if there's anything you don't understand."

A week passed quickly. During that week, Harry had rarely been exhausted to the point of collapse since entering Moonlight Castle.

Unlike his previous exhaustion, Mage Hand kept pushing him close to his casting limit nearly every day, even leaving him looking somewhat drained.

However, after a week of torment, he had finally become proficient with the spell.

He could already conjure a small blue hand to help him pick up things that were not too heavy.

However, he still could not use Mage Hand for precise actions such as writing.

Whenever he tried to conjure two hands, the spell would repeatedly collapse.

Yet Harry had personally seen Uncle Mu En sitting on the sofa while more than a dozen Mage Hands simultaneously performed writing tasks for different subjects.

The spell precision, information-processing ability, and magical control represented by that nearly made Harry feel suffocated.

It was far too terrifying!!

Early one morning, after breakfast and cleaning up the dining table, Harry was about to head to an empty room on the second floor for his physical training when Mu En suddenly called out to him.

"Harry, go change your clothes. Don't practice today. We have a guest," Mu En said.

"A guest? Is it one of your friends, Uncle Mu En?" Harry was somewhat surprised. He had been here for so long, yet he had never seen any guests come to visit.

"No. I don't have... many friends around here." Mu En shook his head.

Just then, a violent pounding erupted at the door.

Harry frowned and quietly thought, So an unwelcome guest has come knocking!!

With that, he went to open the door.

A huge figure stood outside. The enormous beard and fleshy face made the person beyond the door look utterly menacing.

Harry was instantly startled. He hurried back several steps, his breathing growing heavy.

That body was simply too enormous, its presence overwhelming.

He watched the person outside warily, his hand already moving to his waist and gripping the hilt of the Blue Steel Longsword inside the cloth bag.

Then, under Harry's wary gaze, the tall figure tried his best to soften his brows and eyes into a friendly expression. "Oh, hello. I'm Rubeus Hagrid. From Hogwarts... uh, the groundskeeper responsible for taking Harry to Diagon Alley."

As he spoke, he suddenly changed the subject. "You're Harry?!"

"Harry, don't be so wary. He's from Hogwarts." Mu En finally lifted his backside from the red sofa and said, "Quick, invite him in for a seat."

At that moment, Hagrid noticed the figure inside the house as well. He shouted in confusion, "Dursley?! Are you Dursley??"

Mu En opened his mouth, looked at Harry, then looked at Hagrid.

This man... wasn't pretending?

Well, Mu En had to admit that Hagrid's words had rendered him speechless.

Mu En waved a hand. "I told you Dumbledore had gone senile. He didn't mention me to you?!"

"Hey! Don't talk about Dumbledore like that!" Hagrid suddenly bristled, clearly quite furious, but in the next moment, he suddenly remembered.

Dumbledore had told him that Harry Potter was currently staying with a very powerful wizard.

"You're the wizard Headmaster Dumbledore told me about?" Hagrid finally realized, then said seriously:

"Dumbledore hasn't gone senile. I just forgot myself!!"

Mu En froze for a moment upon hearing that. He carefully looked Hagrid up and down, then said helplessly, "Fine. Dumbledore hasn't gone senile. It's all your fault."

"That's right! Don't say such excessive things again!" Hagrid was very serious.