Mysterious Mirror!

Mysterious Mirror!

Over the past few days, Ted had been keeping to himself, and naturally, his friends had noticed.

Hermione in particular had noticed that Ted often practiced magic alone in abandoned classrooms. Even in the library, he was constantly studying things she could not understand... She was very worried, and a little unaccustomed to it.

Hermione: Is he trying to leave me behind? Even the carefree Gryffindor quartet noticed something was off after four or five days—Ted was lost in thought even while eating, not nearly as lively as Anzu, who was busy demolishing fries.

"Do you think something's bothering him?" Ron asked.

"Doesn't seem like it. It looks more like he's thinking about some problem," Jerry said.

"Mm." Hermione nodded. "He said he was researching new magic!"

"New magic? I-Is it a prank spell?" Neville looked astonished.

In the end, Harriett made the call. "Why are we standing around making wild guesses? We should just ask Ted directly! Listen, I have a plan..."

Everyone: "Forget it, forget it! Not this time, Harriett. No need, really, no need!"

That evening at dinner, after Ted quickly finished eating, said goodbye, and left, the five exchanged meaningful looks.

Ron hurriedly stuffed the drumstick in his hand into his mouth, while Jerry directly stuffed some cheese into his lunch box for a midnight snack.

"Come on, follow him!"

Ted arrived outside an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor of the Left Tower. Facing the empty corridor behind him, he called, "Come out already. You've been following me all the way. What are you thinking?"

"How did you find us?" Harriett was extremely unwilling to accept that her surprise-attack plan had failed.

Harriett: My magnificent plan... Ted laughed. "The sound of all five of your footsteps together was as loud as beating drums!"

"What's going on? Why were you sneaking around following me?"

Hermione stepped forward. "Ted! Are you... are you researching some dangerous magic?!"

Ted looked at Hermione and the others, their serious faces tinged with unease, and could not help laughing. "Hahaha! Thank you, thank you for caring about me. Come in with me. I'll show you what I've accomplished..."

The six entered the room. Ted raised his wand and pointed at an old training dummy at the far end of the classroom. "This is the Freezing Charm—freeze and bind!"

A pale-blue spell shot out and struck the dummy six or seven meters away. A layer of thin ice instantly spread over its body!

"Wow! Cool!" Jerry cried.

Harriett clapped enthusiastically too. "Great! So you've been hiding here practicing this spell? This is perfect—teach it to me. Next time, I'll use it on Malfoy!"

Poor Malfoy. Harriett thought of him first thing~ Ted shook his head. "Not just that. There's also the Obstacle Charm~"

Another faintly red spell struck the dummy, but no one could see any effect.

"That was the Obstacle Charm?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yes. Once it hits someone, their movements slow down. It usually lasts around ten seconds," Ted said.

"I haven't fully learned the Shield Charm yet, so I won't demonstrate it."

Ron said, "So you really have been practicing spells here? Spells that aren't taught until the upper years?!"

He was so despairing! Why were there so many overachievers in this world? Are you trying to work me to death? Don't come any closer! "No. I haven't been practicing those spells here. I've been developing a new spell!" Ted's words stunned his friends.

"A new spell?!"

"Yes."

Inventing spells was not exactly unheard of in the wizarding world. Outstanding wizards—or wizards who happened upon an opportunity by chance—could always discover all sorts of strange spells. Those with practical value would be passed down.

But having a friend the same age as you, who had only been at school for a little over a month, suddenly say he was developing a new spell—that felt entirely different!

It was like how there were countless influencers and streamers online. Having a hundred thousand followers was nothing special; only those with millions of followers counted as somebody.

But if you discovered that someone around you had suddenly become a major streamer, that would feel completely different!

That was exactly how Hermione, Harriett, and the others felt right now: You're not joking around and messing with us, are you?! This time, Ted did not point his wand at the battered training dummy. Instead, he held it before him and traced an extremely complex pattern in the air. Then he said, "Frost... armor..."

A shield of ice suddenly appeared above Ted's head, then vanished.

For an instant, his friends felt a biting chill, as though they were wearing T-shirts in the snow.

"Hiss~" Ron hugged his arms and shivered. "What happened? Did you just use magic?!"

Everyone looked at Ted, and Ted began "explaining" his "newly invented" spell.

According to him, it was a new spell formed by combining the Freezing Charm, the Obstacle Charm, and part of the Shield Charm.

Once the spell was cast, an invisible layer of protective ice surrounded Ted.

A transparent layer of ice floated around his body, capable of blocking some low-level spells.

More importantly, it could defend against physical attacks, while also slowing down any attacker with its frost! At present, the spell could last for six minutes.

"Punch me," Ted said to Ron.

"Let me!" Gryffindor's boxing champion, Harriett, immediately volunteered, throwing a punch right at Ted's smooth, fair face.

Thump~ Her punch was blocked by the ice shield, and a layer of frost spread over Harriett's arm.

"Ah! So cold! My arm's gone a little numb!" Her muscles contracted in the cold, and her whole body became sluggish.

"This is amazing! Teach me!" Harriett was instantly interested, and the other friends' eyes shone as well.

"You'll have to wait... This spell is only in its infancy. It isn't fully complete yet."

"Not fully complete?"

"Yeah. You saw it just now—I had to wave my wand around and draw for ages, and it consumes a huge amount of Magic Power. It still needs more optimization..."

As for the incantation, Ted had already worked it out after much experimentation and refinement.

The incantation needed to describe the spell's attribute and form.

Frost was the spell's attribute, while armor was the form it took.

But he had made no progress with the wand movement.

He was even considering replacing the wand movement with a hand gesture. That would bypass this difficulty and allow the spell to be cast barehanded.

The development of the Frost Armor Charm briefly ignited his friends' enthusiasm for studying.

They noticeably increased the time they spent studying in the library and practicing magic, but it only lasted a few days.

To learn the Frost Armor Charm, they first had to master both the Freezing Charm and the Obstacle Charm, and they also needed some knowledge of the Shield Charm.

The Freezing Charm was second-year material, the Obstacle Charm was third-year material, and the Shield Charm was even fifth-year material. The prerequisites were simply too demanding.

Ron and Jerry spent four whole days just learning the Freezing Charm before giving up outright. "Just teach us once you've fully developed it, okay~ We won't disturb you anymore~" Harriett and Hermione, on the other hand, progressed quickly. They had already learned the Freezing Charm and the Obstacle Charm and were now studying the Shield Charm.

One day, the Weasley Twins suddenly approached Ted while he was eating lunch. After whispering mysteriously to him for a while, they left.

Ron immediately leaned over and asked, "What did George and Fred say to you? They were acting all mysterious!"

Ron was annoyed that the twins never came to their own younger brother when something was up, but instead were always pranking him. That was why he cared so much about them approaching Ted.

Ted told his friends, "George and Fred found something suspicious and asked me to go investigate it with them."

The moment Harriett heard the words "something suspicious," her eyes lit up. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Don't rush. We'll have plenty of time after lunch."

Under Harriett's urgent urging, everyone hurriedly finished lunch and went to find the twins.

"Here it is!" George and Fred led them to a secluded corridor and pointed at the wall.

It was an oval half-length mirror with a silver-plated, embossed frame. It was gray with dust and clearly had not been wiped in a long time.

"A mirror?" Ron asked doubtfully.

Fred put an arm around his shoulder and teased him. "My foolish little brother~ Don't look with your eyes. Look with your heart!"

Hearing that, Ted somehow felt that Fred wanted to use Ron to test his own courage.

Ted said, "Eyes can't see most magic, but sharp Perception can sense the existence of Magic Power. Feel carefully..."

Ted had long noticed that Hermione's Perception and control of Magic Power were exceptional. That was also why she learned magic so quickly—her control was strong.

She reached out and touched the mirror's surface. "There really is Magic Power here. And this dust... can't it be wiped off?!"

"Wow~" George marveled.

"Smart!" Fred cried.

The two had discovered by accident that this mirror was unusual.

Normally, the decorations in the castle were maintained by house-elves. Whether paintings or suits of armor, they were polished until they gleamed.

But this mirror was covered by a layer of "dust." That was very strange.

Ted sensed the flow of Magic Power within it. It was somewhat complicated, unlike any of the types of magic he knew.

His foundation was still too shallow, and he had mastered too few spells. He could not identify it.

He turned and asked, "Does any of you know Revelio?"

"No!"

"Isn't that fourth-year material?!"

"Looks like we'll need to go learn some spells first..."

Thank you to reader Ultimate Old Train for the 500 reward.

Thank you to reader Qi1 for the 100 reward.

Thanks~