Photos and Longing

The day after the review concluded, Beauxbatons Castle enjoyed a completely relaxing day off.

All competition events have concluded, and tomorrow's awards ceremony will bring the grand event to a close.

The winter sun shone warmly as Lucien strolled alone through the magnificent campus. With a rare moment of leisure, his pace was much slower than usual.

He walked around, stopping frequently to admire the sights, whether famous or unique.

The iconic Fountain of Fair Fortune, the Merpeople sculptures frolicking in the fountain square, the giant magic tapestry depicting the founding legend of Beauxbatons, the ancient yew trees trimmed into the shape of Unicorn and Winky in the sunlight...

Lucien picked up the old-fashioned film camera hanging around his neck with great interest, adjusted the angle, and pressed the shutter.

"Click," "Click."

Like Hogwarts, Beauxbatons' dense magical barrier also rendered most Muggle electronic devices inoperable.

Those that can function properly here are often classic designs with relatively simple structures that rely on pure mechanics and basic principles.

The process of developing photos has also returned to classic steps: it requires a series of operations in a darkroom, including developing, stopping, and fixing.

However, the intervention of magic led to a completely different outcome.

By simply using a special alchemical potion instead of ordinary chemical agents in the final fixing stage, the images recorded on the soaked photographic paper will "come alive"—the people in the photos will smile and wave, the fountain's water will circulate and ripple, and the leaves will sway gently in the breeze.

Besides capturing pure scenery, Lucien also includes himself in the shots.

Sometimes I would ask passing students to take a picture; other times I would use a Levitation Charm to levitate the camera, set a delay, quickly run into the frame, pose, and give a natural smile.

In truth, Lucien knew that what parents wanted to see wasn't the scenery in the photos, but rather the children within them.

These photos will be sent back home so that Aunt Penelope, who lives far away, knows that she is having a good time in a foreign land.

"Ding--Beep beep beep--"

A crisp, slightly comical bell rang out from the pocket.

Lucien pulled out a thin book and opened the cover.

What a coincidence!

The page flickered with a faint glow, and the person requesting the connection was Aunt Penelope.

"Good morning, Aunt." Lucien smiled at the face that was gradually becoming clearer on the pages of the book and waved.

Aunt Penelope in the picture is still beautiful and elegant, but she does not respond immediately, and even her expression is frozen and unchanged.

Lucien was not surprised; this is an unavoidable problem in cross-border real-time communication. After crossing long distances and complex interference, audio and video transmission becomes unstable, often resulting in severe stuttering, delays, or even audio-video desynchronization.

Optimizing communication quality is indeed a key technical challenge that "Instant Whisper" urgently needs to address in the next step.

Lucien patiently held up the book, waiting for the reading to stop.

After about ten seconds, Penelope's soft voice came through intermittently. "Good morning... little Lucien. The wizarding world is truly amazing. Such a... lightweight book can actually... transmit images and sounds..."

Her surprise was actually quite normal.

Although the Muggle world already had mobile phones and televisions at that time, most of it was still in the stage of "brick phones" and bulky televisions.

"Instant Whisper," with its lightweight portability and real-time video communication capabilities, is like a smartphone from the future. It truly surpasses the mainstream impression of current Muggle technology and seems like a creation of the future.

Lucien strolled along the sun-drenched cobblestone path, chatting with his aunt through intermittent images and sounds.

Every now and then, turn the camera on "Instant Whisper" to the surroundings, letting her see the towering spires of Beauxbatons, the tranquil Ice Crystal Rose Garden, or the distant snow-covered mountain silhouettes.

Actually, "Instant Whisper" was designed for wizards and requires simple magic to activate, but Lucien specially made a "Instant Whisper" book for his aunt that didn't require magic.

This also reminded Lucien of a problem he had previously overlooked.

Some of the young wizards' parents are Muggle and cannot use the regular Instant Whisper.

But the longing for one's child is not affected by whether or not it possesses magic.

Muggle parents naturally want to have easier access to contact their children who are in school.

Therefore, it is necessary to design a batch of "special Instant Whisper" that do not require additional magic manipulation.