Hogwarts' Public Magic Lesson

Let's set aside for now how the students of each grade at Hogwarts view the upcoming new public magic lessons at the school, and go back half a month. At that time, aside from a few essential staff and the ghosts who weren't afraid to die, the yet-to-reopen Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry campus and main castle were still rather quiet—but the headmaster's office was a bit lively!

Because this day was an important little occasion! The wrinkled little pet phoenix that Annie had given to Hermione could finally leave the care of the adult phoenix Fawkes; it was now capable of surviving on its own! So, Dumbledore had notified Hermione to find time to come to Hogwarts and pick up her little phoenix! Of course, if possible, she absolutely had to bring little Annie along. Dumbledore had some thoughts he needed to discuss properly with Annie, and he could also take the chance to build up some goodwill.

The little phoenix that had once looked wrinkled, ugly, and featherless to Annie was now fully feathered! Its whole body was covered in bright, fiery red plumage, with a streak of golden flame-like markings on its chest—it looked absolutely gorgeous! Hermione was now playing with her new pet; after a simple contract, the little phoenix had acknowledged her as its master! Inspired by the name Fawkes, Hermione had given it a new name: Jinx!

But in Annie's eyes, this Jinx was just a smaller version of Fawkes! It looked like a slightly smaller red turkey! Good thing she hadn't decided to raise one back then, or she'd definitely regret it now! She might as well have roasted and eaten it!

Thinking about eating, Annie glanced over, and Jinx got so scared it flew in a flash back to Hermione's shoulder. It seemed terrified of Annie! No doubt Fawkes had been bad-mouthing Annie in front of it all the time! Through constant exposure, in its eyes, Annie had probably turned into something like the Big Bad Wolf by now!

Tch! Seeing this little bird too afraid to come near her, Annie couldn't be bothered to pay it any more attention. She turned back and continued chatting idly with the old man Dumbledore! Since she had nothing better to do anyway, and this old guy named Dumbledore was willing to talk about magic and such, Annie certainly wasn't going to back down!

In her view, although this old geezer headmaster named Dumbledore wasn't all that impressive in terms of strength, he had real insight into the magic of their wizard world! His knowledge base was exceptionally rich! If Annie needed to borrow the strengths of certain spells from this world, having a chat with him would be perfect!

And so, the three of them—one old and two young—spent a whole pleasant morning chatting in that small office. But most of the time, it was just Annie and Dumbledore discussing various spells and insights, while Hermione listened intently on the side.

The sly old fox Dumbledore skillfully used language to glean all sorts of information about Annie during the chat, including her origins and the customs of the Valoran Continent! Meanwhile, Annie also picked up some key points about this world's magic—a small gain for her too!

The one who gained the most was probably Hermione! Listening quietly on the sidelines the whole time, even though she couldn't understand much of what they said, that didn't stop her from recording it all with a quick-capture spell! This knowledge and experience couldn't be found in books—it was an exchange between two of the world's top mages. The value of what she recorded was far beyond what Hermione could imagine at the time! In the future, these notes would bring her immense help!

After the magic exchange came to a pause, Dumbledore kept sighing in amazement! In his view, the world of magic truly held far too many unknowns! As for Annie, who had crossed through time and space to arrive here, Dumbledore was surprised but didn't dig too deeply! Even if he couldn't understand it for now, since it had happened, it must have its own reason for existing! No matter how unbelievable it seemed!

Perhaps this was something he, Dumbledore, had heard during his early travels in the East: "Beyond the sky, there is another sky? Beyond the man, there is another man?" If he could interpret it that way, it meant there were countless worlds beyond this one? The world their wizards inhabited might just be a single grain of sand among countless worlds? So the universe could really be this vast?

So their wizarding world had been stagnating all along! The pinnacle of magic could actually break through the barriers between worlds and reach another realm? And according to little Annie's recent words, the magic she knew was far from its peak—in the exploration of magic, there was no end? Magic wasn't just about destructive spells? It could also analyze everything in the world and the rules of the universe? If one truly reached that level, what immense power that would be!

If one really reached that height, calling them a true creator god wouldn't be an exaggeration, would it? And the Annie before him, whom he considered the peak of the wizarding world, was only at what she called the demigod rank? On Valoran, there were plenty of demigods, true gods, and beyond? And as a demigod, she could only use the rules within certain domains? What even was a domain? Dumbledore couldn't understand! He hadn't even touched the edges of rules! As for demigods, he dared not even think about them!

For the first time, Dumbledore felt that he had been nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well! Always thinking the sky he saw was that big! There was a time when he had been smug about his achievements! Little did he know, the sky outside was far bigger than he could imagine! In his remaining years, he truly wanted to go out and see that sky again!

But Dumbledore also knew that this old frog at the bottom of the well was far too old! So old that he probably didn't have many years left! He definitely couldn't jump out anymore! And he had no desire to try. Maybe little Annie was right last time! Their wizards were just a bunch of weirdos waving sticks and flinging spells!

Even if this old frog couldn't jump anymore, that didn't mean others couldn't! Besides, Hogwarts had plenty of other saplings! They were still highly moldable! Glancing at Hermione Granger, who was diligently taking notes on the side, Dumbledore lowered his head in thought for a moment, as if making some decision. When the conversation ended, he might try to make a pitch.

"By the way, Annie, there's something I've been wanting to ask. It seems you don't need a wand at all when you cast spells?" Dumbledore was quite puzzled by this. As powerful as he was, he could barely manage Wandless Magic, but only for minor tricks that required little magic.

For combat spells, he was helpless; he had to rely on a Staff. Otherwise, the surging magic within him, without a wand as a conduit to channel and release it, would harm him before it could harm his enemies!

Currently, in the wizarding world, aside from Annie, Dumbledore hadn't heard of anyone who could cast spells entirely without a wand. The reason wizards needed wands was to channel the magic within themselves. Wands were made from parts of magical creatures that conducted magic well; these magical materials were essential for casting! They could channel magic effectively!

Having read many texts, Dumbledore recalled that in ancient times, there were supposedly no wizards at first. Humans had no magic in their bodies and couldn't use any spells. It wasn't until the time of King Arthur that the first true wizard in human history appeared: Merlin!

Merlin was said to be the offspring of a magical creature, a Nightmare with extraordinary magical power, and a mortal woman. The Nightmare's bloodline allowed Merlin to inherit supernatural power! Thus, the first ancestor of human wizards was born! Later, through continuous reproduction and more and more human women seeking exotic magical creatures, or human men mating with female magical creatures, the wizarding community gradually grew and expanded!

However, although humans at that time had magic in their bodies due to their bloodlines, their fragile bodies lacked the natural conductivity for magic that magical creatures had. So, casting spells was still unreliable for wizards back then! Only a few exceptionally talented wizards could do it easily!

It wasn't until some wizard first made a simple wand, making spellcasting easier, that the human wizarding community truly began to grow and thrive! From that point on, human wizards seemed never to have left their wands behind!

Earlier, at Gringotts, since Dumbledore hadn't fought Annie, he hadn't paid it much mind. But later, after seeing the battle scenes in the newspaper, he noticed this startling fact: little Annie's spellcasting required no wand at all! And she suffered no magic backlash!

This made his assessment of Annie rise another notch! It was almost too terrifying! If Dumbledore himself tried to cast a fireball without a wand, without one, the fireball would probably treat his arm as a wand. If he forced it, either the spell wouldn't release and cause backlash, or it would burn his arm off first! After all, a human arm wasn't as tough or conductive as magical creature materials!

"Right! Annie, how do you do it?" Hermione, who had finished her notes and was about to tease the little phoenix on her shoulder, turned to ask.

She was also very curious about this. Wandless Magic was way too advanced for her right now! If she tried it without a wand, even if she mustered all her magic, she probably couldn't produce the simplest Lumos spell! Or at best, she'd cause a violent magical outburst?

"Huh?" Annie looked back at them with curiosity. "Wandless Magic? Is that so strange? Who told you magic has to be cast with a wand? Was it that old geezer selling wands?" Thinking of that stubborn old man named Ollivander, Annie got furious!

On the Valoran Continent, she had never heard that magic absolutely required a wand! In Annie's view, a wand was at most an extra tool to amplify spell power! Something optional! Of course, having one was better than not—a good wand could increase spell damage!

But Annie didn't like wands because they were too troublesome to carry! Even more troublesome to use! Clumsy and inconvenient! Most wands were too tall for her! Look at those Frozen Scepters, or the Scepter she'd swiped from Loki in New York! Their normal forms were all taller than Annie! What would it look like for little Annie to hold them?

Annie had also heard that on Valoran, there was some evil little mage who had a nice artifact hat! What was it called? Deathcap? It supposedly increased spell power and boosted spell damage by thirty-five percent? If it were something that convenient, Annie could accept it! But wands? Forget it!

"You have to use a wand to cast magic!" Hermione stared at Annie in shock. She had always been taught that casting required a wand! Every wizard must have their own exclusive wand! A wizard without a wand was about as good as a Squib!

That's why one of the Ministry of Magic's punishments for wizards who committed serious crimes was to snap their wands and forbid them from buying new ones! In their view, a wizard without a wand wasn't a proper wizard! A wandless wizard posed no threat! Take You-Know-Who—how powerful was he? Would he dare go out without his wand?

"Have to use a wand? Nonsense! Hmph! Watch closely!" Annie glared at the old man and the girl, stood up angrily, and stretched out a finger. A fireball the size of a washbasin, radiating scorching heat, appeared right above her fingertip! In her view, these two had definitely been fooled by that old geezer selling wands! That old crook wished everyone would be stuck with his crappy wooden sticks forever!

"This! This! This! How do you do it?" Hermione knew Annie could use Wandless Magic from the Gringotts incident, but she had been too scared and confused by the situation to notice the details!

Hermione had only learned more from the newspaper later! Though she had some idea, this was the first time she had seen it up close and clearly! The sight before her was hard to accept! It felt like everything she'd learned at school was overturned! Or maybe she'd been fed wrong information? She'd wanted to ask Annie at home but held back, thinking it might be some secret technique!

"Hmm~! Quite enlightening!" Dumbledore mused. As a top figure in the wizarding world, he had seen and sensed much more than Hermione just now!

Most wizards cast spells using their own magic, consuming a portion to create the spell effect. Magic grew as the wizard aged, so older wizards had stronger magic—factoring in talent, of course. The greater the talent, the more room for growth! But just now, he had barely felt any magic fluctuation from Annie! It was as if the spell hadn't used a shred of her magic! Could it be that she had so much magic he couldn't sense the change?

"Annie, this fireball didn't use a wand, but it also didn't seem to draw on your own magic?" Dumbledore asked uncertainly, a bit confused by his own judgment. You could cast without a wand, and without an incantation, but not consuming any of your own magic—that seemed a bit un-magical!

"Evocation spell! Just build a Spell Model to guide the surrounding energy into resonance—why waste your own magic?" Annie was equally surprised by the old man's thinking! If every spell required her own magic, she'd be drained dry before casting some massive domain-level forbidden spell! Only apprentices used their own magic to cast!

This was a fire spell from Evocation! And a fireball was just the most basic one! In a world with a magic net, a mage just needed to connect to it to cast! In a world without one, like Valoran, you connected to the free energy in nature or the void, then built the Spell Model!

There was so much usable energy in nature—why be stupid and use your own? Low-level mages might need to waste a lot of their own magic to trigger resonance, but for Annie, it was just triggering resonance. The tiny amount wasted was less than what she regenerated naturally! No need to worry about it!

"Evocation? Spell Model?" Dumbledore had never heard these terms. Could magic really be done this way? Wasn't magic just divided into dark magic, white magic, attack and defense magic, and other support spells? When needed, you chanted an incantation, waved your wand, and whoosh—spells flew out? That's how their wizarding world had always been!

"Huh? You don't even know that? Then how do you cast spells?" Annie suddenly grew curious. Did the wizards here have some trick she didn't know about?

"Uh... well..." Dumbledore suddenly found it hard to say.

"Magic is just chanting an incantation, following the instructions, moving according to the gestures, channeling magic, and waving your wand a few times, right?" Hermione said weakly. That's how she had always learned magic! And she learned fast! She'd always been proud of it!

"Ha! So that's it! No understanding of principles, no Spell Models! Just relying on incantations, gestures, and your own magic to cast? No wonder you're so dependent on that rotten piece of wood!" Annie was a bit shocked!

She finally understood why, at Gringotts, those wizards had meekly surrendered and let her tie them to pillars after she took their wands! She had been puzzled—she'd just casually bound them with magic ropes—why hadn't they fought back? So that was it! It all made sense now! They really did need those wooden wands!

Even though Annie had been a bit lazy in the Voodoo Lands, she had still read through most of the books in the Gray Order's mage towers, the library, and her home collection, right? Even if a lot of it was forced on her by her mom Amoline, or memorized with magic! But once she understood the principles of magic and the Spell Models, and with her uniquely gifted talent, everything about casting fell into place! That's how Annie achieved what she had! Otherwise, did you think she was born like this?

"And what about them? Only learning incantations and gestures? If they were in Valoran, they'd probably be apprentices for life, wouldn't they? By the time you finish chanting your spell, they'd have already smashed several spells in your face! Or they wouldn't even need to counter your spell or disarm you—just hit you with a Silence spell, and what would you do then? How would you chant? Stab them with your scepter and fight hand-to-hand?"

"Heh! That really is a problem." Dumbledore gave an awkward laugh, then finally made up his mind about something. He cautiously asked Annie, "So, Annie, would you like to come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"Huh? School? Go to class?! No way!!" Annie recalled her time in New York, and it wasn't fun at all! Homework, waking up early to go to school! That was bad enough, but on top of it, people were always tattling on her! She was sick of it! She didn't want to go to school ever again! Absolutely not! Besides, once her Space Stone was fully charged, she was going to bolt! She didn't want to stay in this world any longer than she had to!

"No, no, no! Annie, you've misunderstood. I'm not asking you to come to Hogwarts as a student! Besides, I doubt there's much we could teach you anymore! What I mean is, I'd like to ask: would you be interested in teaching an open class at the school? One dedicated to your, ah, special magical knowledge?" Dumbledore wiped his brow, then adjusted his half-moon spectacles, his eyes gleaming as he looked at Annie!

He'd been thinking about this for a while! Joy shared is joy doubled! It would be a waste not to take advantage of this powerful little demigoddess! Her knowledge was incredibly useful! It could drive great progress in reforming the wizarding world! And besides, what good would it do if only he listened to her? Only by sowing the seeds of change could the wizarding world hope to leap out of its stagnant well! No longer be the frog at the bottom of it!

"Huh? Teach a class? Let me be a professor? Are you sure you're not joking?" Annie perked up as if she'd heard something interesting! This seemed way more fun than being a student and going to class!

"Of course not! And! When you teach, the schedule is entirely up to you!" Seeing Annie's reaction, Dumbledore knew his suggestion had been accepted by little Annie! Ho ho~! A lost little lamb! Back in this old man's bowl, eh? Wandless Magic! Spell Models, Evocation, and all that—this old man wanted to learn them too!

Dumbledore had also just realized that he couldn't keep asking the little girl to come to his office every time to chat and exchange magical insights. And how much could they really cover in his office? One day, the little girl might get annoyed and never come back! That would be a huge loss!

Since that was the case, it was better to just let the little girl teach her own class! That way, he could go and listen too, right? And to set a good example, Dumbledore decided he would make time to sit in on every single one of Annie's classes! The headmaster leading by example, setting a good model for the students!

"Alright! It's a deal then!" In her last world, New York, Annie had always been the one going to school. Here, she was suddenly told she could teach her own class and be a professor! She couldn't pass up this opportunity! Being a teacher! That sounded like fun! Anyone who didn't listen would get their hand smacked with a ruler! Hehe!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone!

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