Chapter 29: Thinking Room

Felix obviously noticed Hermione's gaze. "Oh, those are indeed books about dark magic, but there's an old saying? If you want to defend yourself against dark magic, you have to have some knowledge of it. As far as I know, the Auror in the Ministry of Magic particularizes in learning a little about dark magic."

"But I rarely see ..."

"Some wizards don't use dark magic, but that doesn't mean they don't understand it."

Felix smiled gently at her, "I have travelled around the world for a year and I have to mention that dark magic is indeed more effective when it comes to solving certain specific problems."

Hearing Professor Hap's explanation, she thought it over quickly and found the reasoning barely acceptable, but said with a stern face, "Professor, I would still advise you to use less dark magic in the future, I read it in a book: dark magic always creeps into you, leaving you unknowingly corrupted - -"

"-- Many young wizards have gone astray in this way, and especially for the young wizards who are underage, dark magic is a poison to the heart that is difficult to reverse," Felix said, following Hermione's words.

Looking a little surprised at the young witch, he winked, "I've read that book too."

"But thank you for the advice."

Hermione pursed her lips, looking like Professor McGonagall.

Seeing his assistant puff up in anger a little, Felix changed the subject without a trace as he praised, "I didn't realize you'd read so much, quite an accomplishment for your age."

Following the professor's gaze, Hermione then realized that the other half of the room - the side divided by the small low table, near her - is surprisingly decorated in a completely different style.

The warm sunlight shed a large, bright glow, and the light brown carpet and goose-yellow curtains gave it an extremely comfortable feel, with a small round table in the centre, on which were two pots of green plants.

On the wall directly opposite the room is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Inside are hundreds of neatly arranged books, and on the second shelf, from top to bottom, stand seven or eight photo frames, both of hers and her families from her birth.

Close to the bookshelf is an ivory doorway.

Hermione covered her mouth in surprise; this half of the space, surprisingly, resembled 70 to 80% of her room at home.

She turned her head to look at Professor Hap, her mind full of doubts, which only this professor could now clear up.

And Professor Hap did give the answer, "This is the world of thought, the abode of fantasy, call it what you will. Of course, none of this is real, we are just consciousnesses that exist here."

Hermione tsked as she stood at the junction of the two spaces, her eyes wide as she kept glancing from side to side, she waved her hand a little hesitantly, "So, this place is a joint construction of ours? Half of it represents your inner world and half of it represents mine ..."

Felix gestured over his head, "Just a partial outer mapping and projection of our inner worlds." Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"And the deepest secrets of our innermost minds are behind the door entirely." He glanced at the ivory door before flicking his wand, and the dark green curtain behind him rolled up high to reveal a tall gateway.

Hermione visibly relaxed; she had quite a few secrets that she didn't want to reveal so easily.

Harry's Parseltongue, for example.

"Professor, why have we come to this ... mindscape?"

Instead of answering directly, Felix first introduced a part of his experience by saying, "After graduation, I first spent a year travelling around the world before settling in London and focusing on muggle studies."

"Muggles are no less intelligent than wizards, and in many ways, such as logic, reasoning, and problem-solving methodology, are much better. And the more crucial point is legacy."

"They pass on their knowledge, accumulating it from generation to generation, triggering qualitative change from quantitative change."

"Wizards have the same legacy, like Hogwarts, but in terms of inheritance and development, it's far worse."

"It was by realizing this that I started reading Muggle books, and to be honest, being used to the moving pictures, it was a bit uncomfortable to read Muggle books."

"Their research on the mind and brain caught my attention, and I discovered that they were way ahead of us in this area - which should have been a much more specialized area for wizards - after all, we have a range of memory magic, like the Obliviate, Legilimency, and the Occlumency."

"But unfortunately, we only inherited the spells, not the philosophies of them."

"So, I combined the Muggle knowledge and created a magic spell which, although it is still quite far from my intended vision, is perfect for what we are teaching today."

"What does this magic do?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Thought acceleration." Felix explained, "In here - I call it the Thinking Room - your thinking is sped up, and with the help of this place we get the illusion of time being stretched out. I can only manage to increase it by a factor of three to four at the moment, any higher would be dangerous."

"Similar to the Baruffio's Brain Elixir, although the two don't behave exactly the same, the latter enhances the brainpower of the person taking it."

Hermione's eyes widened, "Professor, this magic is just amazing."

Felix shook his head, "It's not perfect at the moment."

Seeing the professor's reluctance to say more, Hermione began to practice carving ancient runes, using the chestnut wood pieces Felix had provided her with - one of the downsides of this magic, what you can't understand, you can't make it appear.

For most of the next few hours, Hermione practiced on her own, with Felix giving some guidance at regular intervals.

After seven thinking hours.

Felix noticed that Hermione's face is covered in sweat and her figure is fading, looking somewhat like a transparent ghost.

"Professor, I can't concentrate, I can't keep ... attention."

"Well, it's almost time, so that's enough for today." Felix snapped his fingers and the next moment, the sky spun and the two of their minds were back to the common room once again.

Felix's wand is still resting on Hermione's head when he suddenly stumbled and nearly fell to the ground after having been still.

He pressed one hand to his forehead and waved his wand with the other, a vial of magic potion flying out of his suitcase.

Under the command of his wand, the bottle of magic potion became quite self-conscious, not only opening the lid by itself but also summoning two cups and pouring out a portion of the potion.

On the other hand, Hermione had it worse, she collapsed straight on the sofa with a pained look on her face, as if she is going to pass out in the next second.

"Drink it, it will ease your symptoms."

Hermione reluctantly drank the magic potion.

"Have a piece of chocolate." Felix shoved a piece of chocolate into her mouth again.

It took seven to eight minutes for Hermione to get over it, and she kept whispering, "It's horrible, it's horrible."