Chapter 497: The Art of Operation

Chapter 497: The Art of Operation
The time came to the next day, Tuesday, September 9rd.

At breakfast time, Harry and Hermione appeared at the table with black eyes. Obviously, they didn't sleep well last night.

There are two classes in the morning. Gryffindor has two Charms classes followed by two Transfiguration classes; Slytherin is just the opposite, with two Transfiguration classes followed by two Charms classes.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick each spent fifteen minutes stressing the importance of the OWL exam to the entire class.

"Without serious study, practice and application," Professor McGonagall said seriously, "you will not be able to pass the OWL exam. I think that as long as all the students in this class invest time and effort, there is no reason why they cannot obtain an OWL certificate for Transfiguration." Professor McGonagall said, "Today we will start learning the Vanishing Charm. The Vanishing Charm is simpler than the Transfiguration Charm that you usually practice when you reach the NEWT level, but it is still the most difficult magic that will appear in your OWL exam."

The Vanishing Charm is arguably the most difficult magic a fifth-year student will encounter in Transfiguration.

By the end of two classes, not even Draco had been able to make their practice snail disappear, but Daphne succeeded in making hers disappear on the third try, earning Slytherin House ten points from Professor McGonagall.

Schelling had mastered this magic earlier. He even mastered the NEWT-level creature transmogrification spell and human body transformation spell. It can be said that Schelling could not learn anything useful in the mainstream courses at Hogwarts.

Charms class.

"You must remember," said the short Professor Flitwick shrilly, standing as usual on a pile of books so that he could see the class from the podium, "these exams may affect you There are many years ahead! If you haven’t seriously considered your career yet, you should do so now. In the meantime, I’m afraid we all have to work harder than before to ensure that you all perform at your best. !”

They then spent over an hour reviewing the Summoning Charm, which Professor Flitwick said would be part of their OWL exams, and before get out of class ended he gave them an unprecedented number of spells as homework.

In the afternoon, Gryffindor has Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology; Slytherin can relax and rest for a while after Care of Magical Creatures.

I don’t know if it’s because of what happened last year or because this is an exam year, but Hagrid’s teaching has improved greatly - he’s no longer a scary monster or a boring Flobberworm.

The teaching content of this class is the tree guarding bowtruckle.

The weather was cold and windy, and the students felt scattered raindrops falling on their faces as they walked down the grassy slope towards Hagrid's cabin at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid was standing ten meters away from the door of Hagrid's hut, waiting for his classmates. In front of him was a long shelf table with many thin branches on it. In the fence, there were several strange little creatures hanging crookedly on the branches.

"Okay, classmates, what we are going to learn today is the Bowtruckle!" Hagrid's loud voice echoed in the empty hunting ground.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood at the front of the crowd, with Neville, Seamus and other Gryffindor students beside them. On the other side, the Slytherin team, led by Shaylin, Draco, Daphne, Pansy and others, was standing lazily, looking ready to cause trouble at any time.

"Bowtruckle?" Ron frowned and looked at the small creatures in the fence that looked like branches. They had slender bodies and thin limbs. They looked extremely fragile. They were grabbing the bark with their claws, and occasionally shaking like branches swaying in the wind.

"They're not just any twigs," Hermione added in a whisper, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "Bowthorns are guardians of trees, and they particularly like to live in the woods used by wizards and witches, such as blackthorn, hawthorn, and even holly."

"Oh, Hermione, please, we're not here for a wandmaking class." Ron sighed helplessly.

"Shut up, Wesley." Draco interrupted him with a sneer, a mocking smile on his face, "Why not worry about whether you can tame a Bowtruckle? I heard they don't like clumsy people."

"Stop talking nonsense, Malfoy!" Ron retorted immediately.

Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Hagrid waved his hand and signaled them to be quiet: "Alright, alright, stop quarreling! Bowtruckles are very docile little guys, but they are very picky about people. If they think you are not trustworthy, they won't let you touch them."

He motioned for everyone to gather around and demonstrated how to get a Bowtruckle to climb onto his hand. He held out one of his huge hands and gently placed his fingers in front of a Bowtruckle, which watched warily for a moment before slowly climbing up Hagrid's arm.

"You guys try it too," Hagrid said with a smile, "see if you can make them trust you."

The students began to try to attract the attention of the Bowtruckle. Hermione carefully stretched out her fingers and whispered to comfort the little creature in front of her. Soon, a Bowtruckle slowly climbed onto her palm and entangled between her fingers. Hermione showed a satisfied smile.

Harry tried it too, and although it wasn't easy, he finally succeeded in getting a Bowtruckle to accept him. Neville seemed a little flustered, and he was so nervous that the Bowtruckle avoided him and refused to approach.

"Hey, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you." Neville tried to persuade gently, but the Bowtruckle still retreated, as if he had no trust in him at all.

"Look at this," Daphne said calmly. She had successfully made a Bowtruckle lie down steadily in her hands. She stroked it gently, looking calm, as if showing off her talent. "Obviously, they prefer attractive people."

"Come on, Daphne." Pansy pouted, "It's just because your hands are stained with the smell of tree bark that Bowtruckle likes."

"At least I do better than some people." Daphne glanced at Ron and Neville with a hint of sarcasm on her lips.

"Ha, of course." Draco looked at Gryffindor with disdain, his eyes falling on Ron. "Look at your poor hands, as rough as a farmer's. No wonder Bowtruckle doesn't like them."

"What did you say?" Ron's face turned red and he clenched his fists, as if he was ready to rush up and beat Malfoy at any time.

"All right, stop making noise like little kids," Xie Ling finally said. He had been standing in the back, seemingly uninterested in the competition. He stepped forward and casually pointed his finger at a bowtruckle in the fence.

A wonderful thing happened - the Bowtruckle was originally wary of everyone, but when Xie Ling approached, it climbed onto his fingers without hesitation, and even happily circled around his wrist, as if it was acting coquettishly.

The whole class fell silent for a moment.

Hermione's eyes widened, Ron opened his mouth, and Draco smiled with satisfaction: "There's really nothing we can do. Sherin just has this talent."

"That's not fair," Ron muttered. "How on earth did he do that?"

Hermione stared at Xie Lin and was silent for a few seconds. She said thoughtfully: "Bowlins like people who are smart and trustworthy... They are also very sensitive to magic. Maybe Xie Lin's magic is particularly attractive to them."

"Come on, Hermione," Ron muttered in dissatisfaction, "this guy is just lucky."

However, when they saw that all the Bowtruckles in the fence began to scramble to get closer to Xie Ling, everyone realized that this might not be just luck.

After the class, the Slytherin students were obviously more proud than the Gryffindors, especially Draco, who kept whispering and mocking the Gryffindors all the way, while Pansy, Goyle, and Crabbe would always laugh out loud at the right time. Ron was naturally very angry, and although Harry didn't say much, his eyes flashed with a thoughtful look from time to time. Harry didn't believe that Shalling did it by luck alone, but he didn't agree with Hermione's statement either - he thought that Shalling must have used some obscure and unpopular magic to bewitch the Bowtruckle, and it was even possible that it was a kind of dark magic...

……

There were no Slytherin classes next, so everyone gathered in the common room to start catching up on their homework.

The atmosphere in the Slytherin common room was oppressive and dreary. The dark green flames jumped in the fireplace, making faint crackling sounds, reflecting everyone's gloomy expressions. Thick homework papers were scattered all over the ebony table, and quills and parchment were intertwined, creating a busy and desperate scene.

"This is pure torture." Blaise Zabini leaned his head on the table and groaned in pain, "Professor Snape's moonstone paper must be at least two feet long... two feet! I haven't even seen what a moonstone looks like!"

"Professor McGonagall is even worse!" Pansy rubbed her forehead fiercely and complained in a low voice, "The practice of the Vanishing Spell requires recording the progress every day. God knows how many times I have to write 'I failed' in my diary."

"Don't forget Professor Binns." Draco sneered. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking like he didn't want to face reality. "Giant War? We just finished Hagrid's class and are about to hand in our papers... McGonagall, Snape, Binns, plus Hagrid's Bowtruckle paper, are basically hanging us on the gallows."

"Can't you give me less homework?" Daphne sighed and rubbed her sore wrist. "I feel like my hand is going to break."

Everyone complained, and a low pressure spread in the common room. However, in this gloomy fog, Xie Ling was a breath of fresh air - he lazily leaned on the sofa, holding a book that had nothing to do with the course in his hands, and even had a lazy smile on his face, as if he didn't care about the pile of homework at all.

This strange contrast quickly attracted attention.

"Xie Lin, why aren't you worried at all?" Blaise glanced at him and frowned. "Have you finished writing?"

Hearing this, Xie Lin slowly raised his head, smiled, and said nothing. He slowly pulled out his wand and tapped it lightly on his temple. Then, a silvery-white gaseous substance was extracted from his brain and floated in the air like a thread. The silver stream of light surged gently like water waves, as if carrying some unspeakable wisdom and memory.

Everyone was stunned.

Then, Xie Ling gently waved his magic wand, and the silver-white memory thread seemed to be pulled by some invisible force and slowly flowed into the three quill pens neatly arranged on the table. These three quill pens were all black, inlaid with dark gold patterns, as if flowing with mysterious magic.

Then, magic happened—

Three quills moved at the same time, as if controlled by an invisible hand, writing quickly on the parchment. The pen tips slid across the paper, making a smooth rustling sound, recording the words accurately. Soon, neat and elegant papers appeared on the paper, and every letter exuded the brilliance of calmness and wisdom.

The entire lounge fell into deathly silence.

Everyone stared at the scene in front of them in amazement, as if they had witnessed a magical miracle.

"...How did you do it?" After a while, Draco broke the silence and asked in a complicated tone.

Xie Lin closed the book casually, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, with a hint of teasing in his eyes: "This is just a small magic trick."

He waved his wand casually. "You must have heard of the Pensieve, right? It can store memories, allowing us to revisit fragments of the past. What I just did was to extract certain specific memories and knowledge from my mind, and then use these quills to let them write for me."

"The point is..." He paused and added slowly, "If you can't clearly organize and summarize your memories in your mind, you won't be able to accurately extract the parts you need. In other words, you must first learn to turn what's in your mind into a knowledge base that can be retrieved at any time."

Everyone was stunned.

"You mean..." Daphne blinked, a hint of uncertainty in her tone, "You can methodically categorize all the knowledge you've learned? And then you can just take whatever you want?"

Xie Lin nodded slightly: "Almost."

"This..." Blaise muttered, staring at the three quills that were still writing rapidly with complicated eyes, "This sounds more difficult than the spell itself."

"Of course." Xie Ling shrugged and said with a half-smile, "If your mind is a mess, don't expect to easily find the memory you want."

Draco frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly asked, "What about these quills? Ordinary automatic quills are not so magical."

"These are specially made by the Hohenheim family." Schelling stretched out a finger and gently tapped the pen holder. "They are endowed with unique alchemical markings that can accurately read the information in the memory and convert it into written language."

He paused and added calmly, "This is not something you can buy outside."

There was a dead silence in the lounge, and everyone was in deep thought.

Then--

"This is unfair." Nott muttered in a low voice, but he was indescribably envious in his heart. Although his family was also known for alchemy, he had never seen an automatic feather pen of this level of craftsmanship.

"Yeah, Sherin, you're cheating." Blaise sighed, looking envious, "It's unreasonable that you have such a cheat."

Pansy stared at Xie Lin with burning eyes: "Can I rent a quill from you in exchange for gold galleons?"

"I'll pay double," Daphne added immediately.

"You guys are really..." Draco rolled his eyes, but his eyes were also full of envy, "Xie Lin, do you want to consider opening a rental business? I think you can make a lot of money."

Xie Ling chuckled and shook his head, as if he had no intention of sharing this special convenience.

He stretched out his finger and flicked it lightly. The three quills paused in the air for a moment, then the tips of the quills trembled slightly, beautifully writing the last period, and then fell back on the desk in unison.

"Okay." Xie Lin stood up, stretched, and moved his shoulders. "The paper is finished. I have activities in the Spell Club later, so I'll leave first."

As he turned around, the quill and parchment on the table disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving a room full of stunned Slytherin students, thinking deeply about the gap in human IQ.