Gerald practiced according to the Qi-Perception Spell's instructions for a while, but he felt no noticeable difference.
"I should have mastered it, right?"
Gerald wondered to himself.
At six in the morning, Gerald left the Room of Requirement. After giving his face a quick wash in the washroom, he cast Scourgify on himself.
He had Charms and Potions that morning, so he planned to eat breakfast in the Great Hall first, then return to his dormitory for his books.
Gerald sat at one of the long tables in the Great Hall, with fried eggs and bacon already piled on the golden plate before him.
He had arrived so early that he was the only person there.
Just as he was finishing, several older students arrived.
Gerald glanced over and saw Charlie Weasley at the front, followed by Wood and several teammates whose names Gerald couldn't quite remember. They looked as though they had just finished their morning training, with sweat still clinging to their faces.
He was about to stand up and greet them when he suddenly froze.
A pale red aura enveloped Charlie Weasley, as though he were wrapped in an extremely thin layer of red mist.
It was so faint that, without a close look, Gerald might have mistaken it for morning light falling through the stained-glass windows.
He turned to the teammates behind Charlie. Every one of them had the same pale red aura, though its shade varied.
Charlie's was the deepest, while Wood's, who was several years below him, was the faintest.
"Morning, Green! You're up early!" Charlie noticed his gaze and walked over with a smile.
"Morning, Prefect. Just finished training?" Gerald quickly looked away and forced a smile.
"Yeah. Wood insisted on an extra half hour." Charlie shook his head with a grin, patted Gerald's shoulder, and sat beside him.
The pale red aura around him shifted slightly with his movements, like the wavering heat above a flame on the verge of going out.
Gerald lowered his head to look at his pumpkin juice, his mind already in turmoil.
Could this be because of the Qi-Perception Spell?
The possibility quickly occurred to Gerald. After all, the spell's most basic function was to distinguish the strength of a cultivator's aura.
What he was seeing now meant that the Qi-Perception Spell worked on wizards too.
In that case, the different shades should represent the strength of the magical power each person could control.
Charlie's red was the deepest, which meant he was the strongest of these older students.
Gerald finished his remaining fried eggs, wiped his mouth, and got up to head back to his dormitory.
Gryffindor Tower was extremely quiet at half past seven in the morning.
His roommates were still asleep. Fred's and George's blankets hung halfway off their beds, trailing onto the floor.
Gerald took his Charms and Potions textbooks from his bedside table and stuffed them into his bag. Before leaving, he glanced at the four boys in their beds.
Their auras were extremely faint, almost nothing more than a trace of red within a grayish-white haze.
Gerald looked away and headed for the Charms Classroom.
To test his theory, he still needed someone he knew was powerful.
As a former Dueling Champion, Professor Flitwick clearly belonged in that category.
When Gerald entered the Charms Classroom, Flitwick was standing on a stack of books, his small frame just visible above the lectern. He was directing his wand at the blackboard, making the writing arrange itself.
Gerald looked toward Professor Flitwick.
The aura surrounding him was extremely dense, like a piece of iron freshly forged in a furnace.
Its red hue was brilliant, worlds apart from Charlie's gauzy, pale red.
Just as I thought.
The deeper the color, the stronger the magical power.
This ability was incredibly useful.
Even without the ability to read terrain and divine fortune and misfortune that came with complete mastery of the Qi-Perception Spell, simply being able to judge someone's magical strength would spare him plenty of trouble.
In the wizarding world, the last thing he wanted was to run into someone powerful pretending to be weak.
With the Qi-Perception Spell, he could get a rough sense of everyone's magical power and tell at a glance who was dangerous and who would be easy to handle.
Of course, not every danger could be measured by magical strength.
A Potions Master might possess only average magical power, yet brew a poison capable of killing a dragon. An Alchemy-ist might have no combat ability at all, yet make a magical item that could send someone into outer space.
Still, it was a very reliable point of reference.
The students gradually filed into the classroom.
Professor Flitwick jumped down from his stack of books, a sight that made Gerald's heart lurch every time.
A man in his sixties jumping down from a height of a meter...
When "George Weasley" and "Fred Weasley" were called, Lee Jordan answered, "Here," but Professor Flitwick caught him almost immediately.
"It seems the Mr. Weasleys have overslept again. Two points deducted from each. And you, Lee Jordan-while your loyalty is admirable, Gryffindor will lose another two points for it."
"What?" Lee Jordan immediately slumped in dejection.
"Now, let us begin." Professor Flitwick returned to the lectern, half his head peeking above the stack of books. "Today, we will be learning Aguamenti. This is a very practical spell that conjures clean drinking water from thin air. It is extremely useful for surviving in the wilderness or dealing with fires."
He picked up his wand from the lectern and gave it a smooth swish.
"The incantation is Aguamenti. Pay attention to the wand movement: flick upward, then push forward."
Gerald took out his wand and practiced Professor Flitwick's movements several times, his motions smooth.
He hadn't specifically practiced this spell over the summer, but Aguamenti was hardly more difficult than the Levitation Charm. It posed little challenge to him.
"Now, pair up and practice together." Professor Flitwick waved his wand, and an empty cup appeared on every student's desk.
Gerald's partner was Lee Jordan, whose old habits hadn't changed.
It wasn't that Lee Jordan deliberately chose to partner with him-he simply rushed to sit beside Gerald every time they were told to pair up.
"Boss Gerald, I'm here to ride your coattails again." Lee Jordan pushed his cup in front of Gerald.
Gerald raised his wand over the cup, flicked it upward, then pushed it forward.
"Aguamenti."
From the wand tip shot-
a stream of clear water, flowing precisely into the cup and stopping exactly one centimeter below the rim.
Professor Flitwick hurried over from the front of the classroom and clapped delightedly. "Very precise control, Mr. Green. Five points to Gryffindor."
"The boss is mighty!"
Lee Jordan raised his own wand and repeated the incantation at the cup several times before a stream of water finally burst from its tip. But he failed to control the flow. It kept coming after the cup was full, spilling water all over the desk.
He hastily stopped the spell, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and began wiping the desk.
Gerald cast a cleaning spell and cleared away the water for him.
Lee Jordan stared at the dry desktop in silence for a moment.
"I finally understand why George and the others call you a monster. Just how many spells do you know? Aren't you from a Muggle family?"
"Keep it quiet."
As Charms ended, George and Fred finally arrived.
When they learned that they had each lost two points, George and Fred were furious.
"George, this is all your fault. You had to drag me into working on that Nosebleed Nougat."
"As if you weren't messing around with it too!"
Listening to their bickering, Gerald felt completely at ease.
Until he saw Snape.
When the Gryffindors arrived at the Potions Classroom, Snape was standing before the lectern, arranging cauldrons. His black robes hung motionless to the floor.
Gerald instinctively glanced at Snape. The color of his aura was on par with Flitwick's.
But unlike Flitwick's bright, even red, Snape's was tinged with faint black wisps around the edges.
The sight alone was rather unsettling.
Strange. Could that be because of dark magic?
Before you continue