Chapter 430: A Short Victory (2 in 1)

After exiting Flitwick's office, Felix found an opportunity to be alone with Snape. "So ... Barty Crouch Jr. wasn't planning to secretly poison and kill us all back then?" Felix asked, he actually wanted to know what kind of potion Barty Crouch Jr. was making in the Chamber of Secrets.

"Then he would have had to be careful enough to avoid the hundreds of eyes in the kitchen." Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "It is a potion that is used in case of emergencies to keep dying people alive, I identified unicorn blood and a variety of highly poisonous ingredients, as well as a snake venom of unknown species."

"Sounds like some kind of cursed thing?"

"Almost, it would be extremely agonizing after taking it, but the effect is obvious, isn't it?" Snape said, opening the door to his office. His office hadn't changed much; it is still dimly lit, and the shelves against the wall are filled with specimen glass jars of all sizes.

Felix thought of the moans he heard in the old Crouch mansion from Voldemort and pretty much understood the statement. He looked around and said with discontent, "I remember I sent you a magic lamp ..."

"A qualified Potions master will not easily change his lifestyle," Snape said calmly, his eyes skimming over the row of jars, both large and small, that lined up against the wall, "And there's a line you didn't include in the product description, the light emitted by the magic lamp can affect some dark creatures."

Felix thought about it, it's really true, the principle of the magic lamp is to solidify illumination magic, and then slowly release it; while the illumination magic has the effect of dispelling the mist and driving away the dark creatures.

But this additional effect is not considered strong enough to harm even the lowest level of Inferi.

"But Remus is fine though." Felix said.

Snape "tsk", and slowly said: "Unlike werewolves - Potion materials are very delicate, and they require special spells for preservation against the loss of magic power, I remember I have taught all these things in class? "

"A person's energy is limited, and I happen to know you and Belby, so naturally I have no intention of spending too much energy on potions; For me, it's enough if I know some of the essential knowledge, such as how to detoxify the poison." Felix said in a roundabout way: "Why don't we talk about ancient runes?"

Snape glared at him, "I placed the magic lamp in the bedroom."

Felix shrugged and found half a bucket of gray mucus in a suspicious corner of the office, sealed with a transparent cover, he leaned down and looked at it: " Is this collected from the Firetrail Snails?"

"Slightly corrosive, I have not yet found a good way to eliminate those properties." Snape said lightly.

Felix blinked, "How about an illumination magic?"

Snape stared, as he remained standing in the same place for a good while before saying in a dry voice, "It's ... not impossible ... worth a try ... "

Soon, he took a few drops of mucus out of the bucket. When he raised the lid, the strong stench of rotten fish and shrimp instantly filled the whole room, Felix immediately covered himself with a layer of humanoid shield charm, he used this magic instead of the Bubble-Head Charm.

"Do you need some help?" He asked in a muffled voice through the magic, Snape's face looked pale, but his fingers remained exceptionally steady.

"No," Snape squeezed a word out of his throat, catching a whiff of smelly warm air from the surrounding, his face turned even paler, and he couldn't stop a lump from squirming in his throat. Then he closed the cover quickly and resealed it with his magic, then Felix cooperated by creating a whirlwind out of thin air, hurling the turbid hot air from the office into the corridor.

Hopefully, there would be no little wizards who had just eaten passing by.

Snape held his breath. As he swiftly transferred the soggy mucus into a small glass jar and quickly corked it, after finishing all this, he took a deep breath.

On the other hand, a ping-pong size ball of light has been held in the palm of Felix's hand, in addition to a light layer of white light on the surface, it did not give off any bright light, it looked like a glowing glass ball.

Snape guided the small glass jar to float over, while Felix controlled the ball of light to approach it, the ball of light effortlessly entered the jar, then he quickly cast a spell on the outer surface of the glass jar, so that the ball of light couldn't scatter.

Losing Felix's restraint, the ball of light swelled up completely, filling up the entire interior space of the small jar -

"It doesn't seem to have much effect." After a long while, Snape said uncertainly.

"What effect do you want, Zizi sound? That's too crude. The illumination's light is so gentle that even if it's released against your face, it will at most cause some dazzling and blinding sensation without damaging your eyes." Felix explained.

He then settled on the couch comfortably, as he leisurely grabbed a book and flipped through it casually: "Let be patient, the process of infusing the material with magic alone can last for a few months at a time."

Then Snape stared at the small glass jar in his hand for half a day, his eyes sparkled all of a sudden.

Felix looked startled and thought he might be about to say something smart and mean, when Snape said something impatiently, "Let's try it a few more times! Using different conditions and have them act as a comparison against each other."

"Oh ..." Felix trailed off, he didn't want to see that gooey thing again. "Hold on a second." He muttered, as he took out a Ring of the Ouroboros Snake from his space ring, under Snape's weird gaze, a dozen or so small balls emitting a hazy white light appeared in front of him in no time.

Then, the Ring of the Ouroboros Snake in his hand suddenly moved, the body of the little snake twisted, and with each mouthful, a ball of light was swallowed; After that the little snake returned, circling Felix's fingers, and turning into a ring again.

Felix then handed the Ring of the Ouroboros Snake to Snape, "It can store ancient runes- and of course, it can do that essentially because it is made of materials that can isolate magic very well and drastically reduce the overflow of magic itself ... so it can also be used to store illumination magic."

Snape took it from him and gave it a slight glance, "Basilisk's scale?"

Felix nodded.

...

When Felix returned to the office, Niffler Valen immediately pounced on him, grabbing his clothes to climb up, but then her movement stopped abruptly.

She withdrew her two little stubby hands immediately as her nose twitched a little. Her little face immediately wrinkled up, the little round black eyes filled with accusations as she looked at him.

Felix froze for a moment as he sniffed his own clothes, "Smelly?"

Valen nodded vigorously and made a dry heaving gesture.

"Probably smell of the Firetrail Snail's mucus," Felix guessed, "you have a good nose, I am covered with humanoid shield charm, and you can still catch the smell clearly ..."

Valen looked at him smugly.

Felix cast a few clean-up spells on himself, then Valen stepped closer to him and tried to take a sniff to make sure there was no unpleasant smell before jumping into his arms.

Meanwhile, Felix while cuddling Valen, pondered on, Niffler's sensitive nose can not be wasted, should he need to add some 'extracurricular practice' in the normal literacy?

At least learning to recognize the smell of some poisons certainly won't hurt.

In the evening, Harry came over to learn the Occlumency.

Taking advantage of the Christmas holidays, Felix explained to him some techniques about Occlumency, but Harry looked confused and baffled when he heard it. In the end, Felix was compelled to let him continue reading that enchanted book.

Harry came over every two days, and occasionally he will encounter Hermione here, but after the fourth year, Hermione doesn't come by every day of the week, as her attainment in the ancient runes surpassed everyone except Felix in the Hogwarts.

With her current level, even if she no longer progresses, she has more than enough knowledge to be considered a professor. So Felix will simply assign assignments and answer questions of his assistant occasionally.

Harry turned the fifth page of the book, and stared at the portrait of the male wizard on it with a repulsive face, he was no stranger to this picture - he had seen it when he was flipping through the materials in the restricted section, and this male wizard had been on the cover of a restricted book, which Ron thought at the time that he looked particularly like Draco Malfoy.

But this time the feeling is completely different. In a trance, Harry found that the male wizard's face seemed to have turned into his own, and he is being tortured in place of the male wizard ... This is an illusion, his ragged breath puffed on the male wizard in the book, and then he felt like his skin had been hit by a hurricane.

Harry held his breath and his face turned red as he kept reminding himself that this is all the effect of Professor Hap's magic, and he can be really brilliant at it ...

Harry knew full well that his body was not half hurt, but his mind got filled with the exact opposite emotion.

I can't go on any longer ... I have to stop this feeling or I will definitely go crazy ... Let me think about what is the most basic thing of Occlumency is, calm my mind, and let it be blank ... ...phew ... phew ... It is too difficult; Harry feels as if he has been thrown into a den of Firetrail Snails, with a dense mass of Firetrail Snail larvae crawling all over his body, with sparks shooting from their tails, making him feel itchy and sore ...

I need to make my brain blank ... blank ...completely blank

But why in the bloody hell! Harry thought irritably, and a sudden surge of intense anger washed over him, which broke through the restraints of magic, and he looked around him - he had somehow managed to stand up, and the enchanted book had fallen at his feet, while he gasped for breath.

Professor Hap's voice resounded from the chair behind his desk.

"Anger can be good if you can use it well, but obviously, anger is not an emotion that can be maintained for a long time, and people are not a barrel of gunpowder, so it is impossible to be angry all the time, but ... well done, this time it is counted as you passed."

Harry did not get much comfort from this statement, as he asked somewhat dejectedly, "Do I suck?"

Felix looked at him with great understanding: "Occlumency is an extremely difficult magic, many wizards are unable to get started in their whole life, and the best way to learn is to let your mind experience the feeling of being 'invaded' again and again, of course, the extent of which is difficult to grasp, and I happen to have some experience! ..."

Harry, of course, did not know that the professor's 'experience' pointed at how he invaded other people's minds, this experience came from Felix's year of travel alone, with the ' help' of many dark wizards, he mastered the prototype of thinking room magic with some difficulty.

And now it seems that all the effort was worth it, the magic has changed beyond recognition.

Harry could only take Felix's words as fact. He sat down to think about it and decided to play a hand of cards with Valen to ease his tightened emotions, but his mood got worse when he found out that he had actually lost to Valen.

This led him to return to the common room with a look of frustration that remained on his face.

"Is that book really that scary?" Ron asked quietly, while secretly handing Harry a jug of butterbeer. " It is the stock from when Fred and George last time went to Hogsmeade, and they actually asked me five Sickles for it!"

"Yeah, you can get it for two Sickles at Three broomsticks." Harry said woodenly, he was in such a bad state that it was hard to feel sympathy for Ron. He took a sip of his butterbeer, the thick foam lifted his spirits and made him feel alive from the inside out.

"Harry, Tell me more about that book." Ron prodded, staring into his eyes.

"Well ... you have to deal with a lot of scary emotions and have to do everything you can to prevent them from affecting you ... in short it's just scary, and the professor said that if I could read it all in one go it would mean that I am beginning to learn the art of Occlumency, and- And that's quite an accomplishment." Harry said intermittently, taking the opportunity to drink up the butterbeer in his hand.

He looked at the empty jug with some regret and wondered if he should look for Fred and George, he guessed it wouldn't be so hard if he could have a hot jug of butterbeer after every practice?

"The professor is right," Hermione said from the sidelines, looking up from her big book, "I've read the theory about it, and even those who have mastered the Occlumency can't always explain how they learned it, they usually just learn it passively."

"Passive learning?" Ron looked at her in disbelief.

"Invaded." Harry stated paraphrasing what the professor had said to him to Ron, "The best way to learn is to let your mind experience the feeling of being 'invaded' over and over again." He thought for a moment and added, "I guess it's about getting your mind sharp enough."

Ron's enthusiasm visibly waned.

"You want to learn this?" Harry asked, not really understanding such an idea. Ron laughed dryly twice and stammered, "I thought - you said this magic is difficult, so I thought if I learn it ..."

"It would be very proud to say it out loud." Hermione helped him to finish adding the unfinished meaning of the words.

"In fact, there is an easy way, the professor mentioned to me ... remember that dementor doll of mine? The professor said that thing is equivalent to a simplified enchanted book. If you want to try it, I can lend it to you." Harry offered, the thing is now locked under his trunk.

Ron looked rather tempted, but he gave up after a while of thinking about it and slumped down on the table as he muttered, "I'd better study the magic I'm going to use in the second task. What spell do you guys think I should learn first - the Bubble-Head Charm or the Revulsion Jinx?"

"The Bubble-Head Charm is an advanced spell." Hermione reminded him.

"But the humanoid shield charm isn't easy either, and I haven't even met the entry requirements." Ron groaned, "I think I'm going to drown, Harry, I'll be the first champion to be eliminated."

"Don't assume that," Fred's voice suddenly surfaced, he said with a grin as he placed his bum next to Ron, "Think positively, maybe Ilvermorny will be in the bottom again this time."

"I suggest you guys better practice your swimming, otherwise it will be too embarrassing to run out of steam halfway through the swim." George grinned.

"You reminded me at the right time," Hermione said, "I was only focused on the magic part." She took a small book out of her bag to jot down George's words, and Harry knew it is filled with Hermione's plans for dealing with the second task, so far a half-full book was completed, but he and Ron hadn't been brave enough to go through exactly what is written on it.

At that moment, Ron suddenly looked up, as if he thought of something, and stared blankly at Fred and George.

"You guys know the Bubble-Head Charm?" Ron asked bluntly.

"Oh ... of course, this is the magic that must be mastered for pranks, and we have suffered some losses in the past ..." Fred said with a look of deep emotion.

"Teach me." Ron said.

"What?" Fred and George looked at each other.

"Teach me the Bubble-Head Charm." Ron repeated.

Fred and George looked at each other, and Fred said, "Look, we're busy, with a dozen or so products on our hands waiting to be perfected-"

"Okay," Ron said briskly, then muttered in a voice that everyone could hear, "I haven't written home for what seems like ages, Mom must be worried about me, and she might know the Bubble-Head Charm enough to give me some pointers ... "

Fred and George stared at Ron as if they had reacquainted with him for the first time.

The two men exchanged quick glances, and after a while - Fred said with exasperation, "All right, you win, little Ronnie."

Ron flashed a triumphant smile.

When they both left, Ron, who still recovering from his triumph, said excitedly, "I've wanted to do this for a long time."

"You mean ...?" Harry asked slowly, with a bad feeling in his heart.

"Win them once!" Ron said loudly.

Harry fell silent, he didn't think it is a good idea to use coercion to get someone to help with the training. Regarding this point, he knew it well as he once had received a special training - Professor Hap had always been friendly enough, but he still found some days particularly difficult, and if Snape had taught him instead, he could not imagine what would happen to him.

He had expected that Fred and George would come up with all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to screw Ron, and the key point is that it was Ron who delivered himself to their front door wrapped in gift ribbon.

But looking at Ron's satisfied expression, Harry decided to tell him about his concerns later.

Late at night, as Harry lay tossing and turning in bed, his ears were filled with the sound of Ron and Neville snoring one after another; Now he again thought it would be good to let Ron try their special training first, while he will use that time to think about some comforting words in advance ...

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