Can Scabbers Be Used for Experiments? The Shock of the Trio

"It was because my wand was in bad shape that the spell failed!"

"Is that so, Mr. Weasley? Then you should go to Ollivander and ask for a refund."

Faced with Hermione's mockery, Ron's face and ears turned as red as his hair.

He had also wanted to show off a bit of magic just now, saying he could turn his pet rat, Scabbers, yellow.

Of course, it had failed. The spell Ron's brother Fred had taught him was nothing but a joke at his expense.

Scabbers was a little rat with fur missing all over his body, and even one toe gone.

At that moment, he had buried his head in a snack wrapper and was feasting away.

Scabbers had not noticed at all that someone was studying him with great interest.

Lucien narrowed his dark green eyes and lowered his head to observe the balding rat.

This rat's true form was an Animagus: Peter Pettigrew.

He had hidden in the Weasley household for more than ten years, and had once been the pet rat of Ron's other brother, Percy.

Tsk, tsk. How had the Weasleys never stopped to think—how could a rat possibly live that many years?

Lucien's thoughts drifted in another direction.

Animagus—the highest achievement in Transfiguration at present.

A wizard could transform himself into a certain animal while still retaining his magic.

I need to master this knowledge, and successfully put it into practice within a year.

If I had a test subject to observe, it should speed up my progress, shouldn't it?

There were still too few Animagi nowadays, at least very few registered with the Ministry of Magic.

As for Peter Pettigrew and the group that included Harry's father, they had all been unregistered, illegal Animagi.

Professor McGonagall was indeed an extremely accomplished Animagus. Lucien could ask her to guide his practice, but he would not be able to observe her freely and use that to analyze this form of Transfiguration.

But Peter Pettigrew, the pet rat Scabbers, was different!

Not only was he an illegal Animagus, he had also framed Sirius Black back then and betrayed Harry's parents.

Even if Lucien used him for some observational experiments, how would he dare seek help from anyone? And who could he possibly turn to?

At that thought, Lucien unconsciously smiled.

He controlled a piece of pumpkin pasty and made it fly in front of Scabbers.

Scabbers looked at the pumpkin pasty before him, then raised his head to look at Lucien.

For some reason, even though it was clearly a kindly-looking smile, Scabbers suddenly felt a chill all over.

For some inexplicable reason, he did not want to eat the food Lucien gave him, yet he also felt that a rat refusing food would look strange.

Scabbers could only bite the bullet and start gnawing on the pumpkin pasty.

Harry, who had been watching Hermione and Ron argue, suddenly caught sight of Lucien casting a spell to feed the rat, and envy appeared in his eyes again.

Although people called him the Boy Who Lived, Harry had never formally come into contact with magic before.

He did not know even the simplest spell!

Harry had lived at Aunt Petunia's house since he was little. Those relatives were all Muggles, and Muggles who hated wizards and feared magic at that. There had been no one to teach him magic at all.

As for teaching himself by reading?

Harry got dizzy the moment he looked at those magic books. The books Hagrid had taken him to buy at Flourish and Blotts were still brand new, all stuffed in his trunk.

So Harry envied Lucien and the others.

He envied Hermione for being able to learn magic by studying on her own, and envied Ron for being born into a wizarding family and being exposed to magic since childhood.

Harry envied Lucien even more, envied how skillfully he could use magic.

Harry did not understand magic, but from seeing Neville and the others marvel at Lucien's spellcasting technique, he could tell just how high Lucien's level of magic was among people their age.

They were clearly about the same age, yet Lucien could already use magic so deftly.

"Lucien?"

Harry pushed up his glasses, leaned forward, and asked Lucien softly, "I feel like you're especially good at casting spells. Do you have wizard elders at home teaching you?"

Lucien was thinking about how he could borrow Scabbers from Ron in the future, so when he heard Harry's question, he only answered casually, "Oh, no. I'm from a Muggle family. I learned all that magic from books."

Lucien's breezy answer left Harry stunned.

At the same time, it also made Hermione and Ron, who had still been arguing, stop.

"You're Muggle-born too!?"

Hermione looked at Lucien in astonishment.

Lucien's effortless spellcasting made Hermione think he was the descendant of a pure-blood family—or at the very least, half-blood, with at least one elder who understood magic to guide him.

But Lucien said he also came from a Muggle family, and that he had taught himself those spells by reading books.

In other words, Lucien's situation was very similar to hers. But if they had both practiced magic from spellbooks, how was the difference so huge?

When Hermione had used the Mending Charm to fix Harry's glasses, she actually had not been completely confident. She had only been provoked by Ron, and the pride in her bones had pushed her into trying.

Still, beyond the shock, Hermione also felt an added sense of closeness toward Lucien.

After all, of the four young witches and wizards present, Ron was a pure-blood descendant of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and both of Harry's parents were wizards. Hermione had originally thought she was the only one of purely Muggle origin.

When she read books about the wizarding world, she had learned that some pure-blood wizards discriminated against Muggle-born wizards.

But her strong-willed, proud nature would not allow Hermione to feel inferior, so she had practiced spells from her magic books for a long time and had barely managed to master one Mending Charm.

Now there was Lucien, who was the same as her: from a Muggle family, and self-taught in magic through books.

The little witch's eyes grew a little brighter as she looked at Lucien, the friendliness and closeness in them becoming even more obvious.

Ron, meanwhile, was dumbstruck, staring at Lucien in disbelief.

"You taught yourself? Magic?"

"A spell at that level of mastery was self-taught?"

Ron, a child of the Weasley family, had two pure-blood wizard parents and five older brothers above him. It could be said that he had grown up in an environment filled with magic since childhood.

That was why he understood even more clearly what level Lucien's Summoning Charm had reached.

He had successfully used the Summoning Charm on an object that was completely unfamiliar to him, at a distance, and out of sight.

If Lucien had been taught by a wizard elder, Ron could still understand it, but he said he had learned it just by reading books?

Among Ron's brothers, there was a dragon trainer, someone who worked at Gringotts, and a Hogwarts prefect. He had seen what "talent" looked like.

But Lucien's kind of talent...

Compared with Ron's complicated expression, Harry was much simpler. He merely looked at Lucien with a face full of admiration.

After all, Harry did not understand wizards or magic, but he just felt that Lucien being able to master magic through self-study was amazing!

Harry even had the urge to ask Lucien to teach him magic.

But when he thought that the two of them had only known each other for a few hours, and that they would soon be entering Hogwarts to study magic properly, Harry temporarily suppressed the thought.

Faced with the three little ones' reactions, Lucien was actually quite satisfied.

Not only did he need to build a good relationship with them, he also had to shape a reliable image in front of them.

That way, after the three little ones came into contact with news of the Philosopher's Stone and eventually went to search for it, they would think of coming to him for help.

Making preparations to come into contact with the Philosopher's Stone ahead of time is one thing. Ensuring that I can definitely find the Philosopher's Stone in the end and use it to brew a potion is also crucial.

"Wooo—"

A piercing, loud steam whistle sounded.

"Children, please change into your wizard robes as soon as possible."

"Everyone, we have arrived at Hogwarts!"