The Charm of A History of Magic

When the bell rang, everyone finally let out a breath of relief and leaned toward Wizet, wanting to say something.

"Do you want to stay here and clean the classroom?" a cold voice sounded. Snape's eyelids drooped as he spoke unhurriedly.

Everyone startled like frightened birds, hurriedly packed up their textbooks, and shoved their way out of the classroom.

Snape suddenly said, "Wizet, you stay behind and clean."

Michael and the others gave him looks that said "you're on your own," then waved as they left the classroom.

Hannah said weakly, her face already bright red, "Can I stay too?"

"Heh!" Snape gave a cold laugh and offered no direct answer.

Wizet waved a hand. "There actually isn't much to clean. I can manage by myself."

"If it weren't for you, I definitely wouldn't have finished my potion." Hannah did not explain much. She rolled up her sleeves and began wiping the tables.

"Thanks!" Wizet thanked her softly, picked up the broom and dustpan from the corner, and swept up the snake fang fragments and dried nettles on the floor.

Thud... thud... thud...

The sound of the stone pestle striking snake fangs echoed through the classroom. As if no one else were there, Snape processed the ingredients, preparing to brew a Boil-Cure Potion.

The cleaning was finished quickly. Wizet stood in front of the platform and carefully observed Snape's brewing process.

Snape's movements were very steady, without a single unnecessary action. In no more than ten crushes, all the snake fangs had become extremely fine powder.

When handling the slugs, he did not use tweezers. Instead, he pinched each slug between his fingers, then placed it into the steamer.

The entire potion-brewing process flowed smoothly. With the confidence of true mastery, Snape used a fierce flame to shorten the brewing time.

In no more than ten minutes, an extraordinarily pure pink mist bloomed like a flower, announcing the complete success of this cauldron of potion.

Snape looked up at Wizet and asked in an icy tone, "What did you see?"

Wizet thought for a moment, then said clearly, "Familiarity with potion ingredients! Whether you were handling snake fangs or dried nettles, every movement was perfectly precise."

"The same was true when steaming the slugs. You kneaded the slugs with your fingers to judge the quality of the ingredients, so even without lifting the lid, you could still obtain slugs of the best quality."

"Before adding the Porcupine Quills, you used a scraper to remove impurities from their surface, making the potion flawless. That was the point I learned the most from."

"Not bad. It seems you aren't stupid." Snape spoke softly, his emotions impossible to discern. "Talent can raise the upper limit, but potion-making is not a simple discipline."

"Experience is just as important as talent. Only when you can rely on experience to judge the quality of ingredients will your path in potions go further... Five points to Ravenclaw. You may go."

Hannah looked utterly incredulous and even covered her mouth.

"Thank you, Professor Snape. We'll be leaving first, then." Wizet looked at Snape. He seemed to see a trace of approval in Snape's eyes.

But that flicker of approval vanished in an instant, making him feel he might have seen wrong.

When they reached the entrance to the Great Hall, Hannah was still a little dazed. "This is the first time I've known Professor Snape could say so much. And he even gave you five points! Five points!"

"Wouldn't he?" Wizet asked. "I remember Cho Chang telling me every professor has the authority to award and deduct points."

"Professor Snape is different..." Hannah glanced behind her before lowering her voice to explain. "Professor Snape only gives points to Slytherin and deducts points from the other three Houses."

"So that's how it is?" Wizet smiled faintly. "Looks like I'm pretty lucky."

After a morning of Potions Class, Wizet gained quite a bit of goodwill among the Hufflepuff first-years.

When he passed by the Hufflepuff long table, those first-years even smiled at him.

Madam Pomfrey's medical advice really was effective. After meditating for the whole noon break, he appeared in the A History of Magic classroom full of energy.

This classroom was on the second floor of the castle. Its layout was neat and orderly, with not only good ventilation but also very decent lighting.

In the afternoon, bright sunlight spilled into the classroom, nurturing a calm and warm feeling.

As the only ghost professor at Hogwarts, Professor Binns had a particularly special way of entering the classroom.

As soon as the class bell rang, Professor Binns came through the wall and drifted to the lectern.

"It's time. Let us begin class!"

He did not take attendance, nor did he even glance at the students before the platform. He simply began teaching in a dull voice with no rise or fall in tone.

"There was a stable and prosperous period between wizards and Muggles... Wizards lived in Muggle villages, exchanging potions and healing magic for daily necessities..."

"Emeric the Evil rose in southern England, where he carried out a reign of terror... The appearance of this dark wizard was the fuse that ignited the Muggles' 'witch hunts'..."

"The relationship between wizards and Muggles broke down, and wizards began moving away from Muggle villages... Though Muggles could not deal with adult wizards, they could target young wizard children..."

The bright, warm sunlight, combined with that dragging, droning voice, was simply perfect for catching up on sleep.

Around Wizet, the roommates who had planned to take notes seriously could not withstand Professor Binns's voice either. They began nodding off like chicks pecking at grain.

Without anyone noticing, only two sounds remained in the entire classroom—Professor Binns's lecture, and the soft rustle of Wizet taking notes.

The book A History of Magic was simply too thick. Even though Wizet had copied out the entire book, it was still hard for him to memorize all its contents thoroughly.

When Professor Binns lectured, he did not simply read from the book. He refined and summarized the material, which benefited Wizet greatly.

Unfortunately, those points were hidden within his drawn-out, sing-song delivery, and one needed the patience of a prospector to discover the shining words of gold and jade within.

Professor Binns continued his lecture. "Some wizards, because their children had been killed, gradually went to extremes, taking the torture and murder of Muggles as a means of revenge..."

"The emergence of these Dark wizards intensified Muggles' fear of wizards. The 'witch-hunts' grew ever more severe, leading to even more wizard children being brutally killed..."

"Wizards developed methods specifically aimed at Muggles, such as the Muggle-Repelling Charm and Muggle-proof doorknobs. The appearance of these methods further reduced interaction between wizards and Muggles..."

As the saying went, by taking history as a mirror, one could understand the rise and fall of things.

Through Professor Binns's lessons, Wizet came to understand, step by step, why wizards had isolated themselves and thereby formed a "magical world."

Wizards were beings born able to cast magic, and their way of thinking differed greatly from Muggles'.

For wizards, when they ran into trouble in life, their first instinct was to solve the problem with magic. This was also the reason the Muggle-Repelling Charm and Muggle-proof doorknobs had appeared.

Yet this was another case of different paths leading to the same end. Muggles created all kinds of tools for production, while wizards, in order to deal with trouble, invented all kinds of magic.

Thinking about it this way, Wizet felt the charm of A History of Magic all the more.

The bell rang for the end of class, and his roommates woke one after another, all wiping away the traces of drool at the corners of their mouths as if by prior agreement.

Terry rubbed his eyes and asked in a drowsy voice, "Ah... Wizet, why do you look so energetic?"

"I was taking notes," Wizet said, still savoring it. "A History of Magic is so interesting!"

Michael opened his mouth, then patted his own face and said, "Maybe this is what a true Ravenclaw is... even able to work that hard in A History of Magic!"

Wizet smiled noncommittally and turned his gaze to the scenery outside the window.

He suddenly felt that writing letters was not so difficult after all. There were far too many interesting things he could talk about.