In the afternoon, Harry followed the team to the Quidditch field for training.

During the short Christmas holiday, Wood came up with three more targeted tactics to deal with the new features and tactics shown by other colleges this year.

Others returned to the castle to do their homework.

Towards evening, in the Ancient Runes Office.

Felix was checking Hermione's learning progress. Recently, she has been working hard to improve and upgrade the beaded bag.

"You have learned all the runes needed to upgrade the beaded bag. The next very important step is to learn how to build a rune circuit."

"Professor, what is the difference?" Hermione asked.

"The depiction of a single rune is relatively simple, but if you want to connect them into a circuit, you need to consider the stability and balance of the runes as a whole. This is a great test of your ability to control magic."

Felix's fingers kept moving, dragging a string of letters from the air. These letters were divided into three rows, and the brightness and size of each row were slightly different.

"If this is the rune you completed at different times, the brightness represents the amount of magic you put into it."

Hermione looked at the letters, and then, under the control of Professor Hepp, they were arranged in a row in a shuffled order.

The rearranged letters seemed chaotic, with bright, dim, large and small mixed together, looking both disordered and awkward.

She immediately understood what Professor Hepp meant by "stability and balance". The magic used in each rune in the circuit must be as consistent as possible.

"Even a slight difference in magic power will make the circuit ineffective." Felix said.

"Professor, what should I do?"

"There are two ways. The first is to complete the writing of the rune at one time. Your magic power will tend to be more consistent. Of course, it still requires a lot of practice."

"But with this method, you need to actively adjust the structure of the rune and make some slight deformations... This is not something you can do now." "

But won't this make the rune itself invalid?" Hermione asked in surprise. All the information she came into contact with was that the rune should be written in a regular manner, and no changes were allowed.

"That's the charm of it." Felix gave an example: "This process is a bit like the process from letters to words. When we learn letters, we will try our best to require standards and specifications, but when we need to combine letters into words, we will make subtle adjustments to the letters to make them more fluent and beautiful."

"This method tests your understanding of the magic runes." Felix said implicitly.

To put it bluntly, if you don't understand the magic runes deeply enough, you'd better not play any tricks.

Hermione nodded, not quite understanding.

"There are also some techniques in this, we will talk about it later. The second method is to complete a single magic rune, draw out the magic lines from it, and open them up one by one to form a closed and stable circuit."

Hermione has seen this method several times, and she is not unfamiliar with it.

"Let's try it."

Felix and Hermione came to the workbench and took out a few pieces of chestnut wood.

He opened an exquisite tool box, which contained seven carving knives of different sizes and materials, metal, wood, and some materials that could not be seen.

"Is this a professional magic rune tool? Where can I buy one?" The little witch couldn't help asking.

In her mind, these carving knives have been equated with magic wands, and have become essential tools for her to learn ancient magic runes.

As a result, Professor Hepp said with an amused expression: "I made these myself, um... except for the metal one."

He was not in a hurry to continue the previous topic, but placed the carving knives in front of her one by one.

"First of all, I want to remind you that there is no specific tool requirement for carving magic runes. A carving knife, a magic wand, or a finger can all be used. What's important is the magic power and your understanding of magic runes. But..." "

If there is a more convenient tool, why refuse it?"

Hermione nodded to show that she understood. Just like some wizards who are proficient in wandless spellcasting, they never refuse to use a magic wand. Because tools can help them complete more delicate operations.

There are a total of seven carving knives in front of her.

The first one is a metal carving knife. The silver-white blade is streamlined, with a clear arc at the grip, and the tip of the knife seems to be made of other metals.

Felix said, "I bought this from a miniature carving merchant. After repeated comparisons, I found the metal material that is least resistant to magic."

Hermione took the carving knife. It looked a little heavy, but surprisingly light.

"I told you that there is not only one way to carve magic runes. You can leave magic runes on the surface of an object by writing, or you can leave marks on the material by carving."

He picked up a piece of chestnut wood and injected magic power into the metal carving knife. The tip of the metal carving knife emitted a small but burning red light, leaving a magic rune on the chestnut wood.

"Look, its surface is not flat."

Hermione touched the surface of the magic rune with her fingertips and could clearly feel the traces of the chestnut wood sinking downwards. This was the knife mark left by the metal carving knife.

"This method is especially suitable for inert magic materials, such as Muggle items, ordinary stones, or the scales of some magical creatures, etc."

Hermione understood a little. For inert magic materials, magic is not easy to maintain, and you can use carving marks to strengthen the form of the magic rune.

"Actually," Felix added, "this process is separate carving and infusing magic. I am just very proficient in this process, so I combined these two steps. When you practice, you still have to do them separately."

One of his back-up: 'Felix's Wisdom Tooth' was completed in this way.

Hermione nodded.

Felix took out five wooden carving knives in a row. They looked a bit like alternative wands. Hermione had seen the twins' fake wands during the day and was impressed.

"These carving knives are made of the same material as wands, and their own characteristics are similar to when they were made into wands." Felix pointed at them one by one.

"The elm wood carving knife is difficult for beginners to use. It is very sensitive to magic. In fact, it is too sensitive. But once you master it, it will quickly adapt to the owner's magic and become extremely personal. Others can't use it at all;"

"The ebony carving knife performs outstandingly when carving offensive runes. Of course, it is not easy to control it. It will cooperate well with those masters who have the courage to be themselves and not follow the crowd;"

"The red oak carving knife, I personally think, it has a certain degree of memory. When you are proficient, it will actively guide you to complete the rune;"

"The chestnut carving knife, the favorite of beginners, no preference, of course, there is no bonus;"

"The laurel carving knife, uh, I don't like this kind of carving knife very much. You must use it often, otherwise when you remember it after a long time, it may launch a lightning attack on you when you inject magic power into it..." After

Felix finished explaining, Hermione picked up these carving knives curiously and looked at them repeatedly. She liked them more and more. She said happily: "Professor, when can I have such a carving knife? I mean... I am willing to pay a reward..."

"You don't have to think about these for the time being. The chestnut carving knife is for your practice." Felix said: "Wait a few years, and you will need to consider the issue of a dedicated carving knife."

"By the way, what material is your wand made of?" Felix asked.

"It's grapevine wood," said Hermione. "The core is dragon heartstring, twelve and four-fifths inches."