Chapter 642: Transformation of Reality and Illusion

The last Ancient Rune class for the fifth grade before the Christmas holiday was changed to a free activity. The students opened the "Elementary Practical Rune" and chatted enthusiastically.

Colin Creevey took out a list and swore that it was the Animagus transformation forms of the students in the "Animagus Class". He read the names on the list aloud, glancing at Professor Hepp after each one, hoping to get a response.

But Felix was busy playing cards with several students and didn't see his wandering eyes.

Valen sat in his arms, looking at the same deck of cards with him, and kept giving suggestions with great interest. "Are you sure you want this one?" Felix asked with his head down. Valen nodded firmly and stretched out his fingers again. Yes, that's it.

"Expelliarmus." Felix said.

The student opposite, Newman Balk, grinned and revealed a card that he had been hiding for three rounds. "Human Armor Charm, I used Concealment, so the defense was successful." He said triumphantly, and then played all the cards in his hand.

"Quick Imprisonment - Professor, you are imprisoned and cannot fight back - Thunder Explosion! Add another Eye Disease Charm, hehe, it's control again... Look at this, the flames are blazing."

Felix looked at the little man representing him sourly and exploded in anger. Valen covered his eyes.

Newman Balk and another student clapped their hands to celebrate.

On the other side, Creevey read to the end. "...Draco Malfoy - White Peacock; Elvira - Fox; Harry Potter - Lion. By the way, I am not surprised at all that Harry pulled out the Sword of Gryffindor in his second year..." He said enthusiastically.

"Fake news," Ginny whispered to Luna a few tables away, "Harry said he feels more for stags." Luna was using physical runes to build blocks, trying to piece together the shape of a trophy. She raised her head slowly, "Patronus?"

"An interesting topic, isn't it?" Ginny shook her hair and said, "It's a pity that there are too few samples. Both the Animagus and the Patronus charm are extremely rare. There are not many people who have mastered them at the same time in history..."

"Many people in the club can release the Patronus." Luna said vaguely.

"We are special." Ginny immediately said smartly, "There haven't been many cases of Dementors straying around in the past few hundred years, until the third year--" She became angry, "It's all because of that woman Umbridge! I heard that the You-Know-Who destroyed her brain. It's really gratifying!"

Luna stopped, her expression thoughtful.

"My dad said that the You-Know-Who has a special relationship with Dementors. He might have disguised himself as a Dementor when he was young and learned a few tricks from him. You know, the Dementor's kiss..."

Ginny was stunned for a moment, then she chuckled happily, "Oh..."

After a long time, she straightened up, her face tense, and said seriously, "You're right, Luna. Why didn't I notice before - the You-Know-Who's clothes and the Dementor's cloak are so similar, even the body shape is... Maybe he misses those carefree days."

"And the nose and hair can also serve as evidence," Luna said seriously, "if you pay attention."

Ginny laughed silly, she lay on the table, her shoulders shrugging, Luna looked at her curiously, looking confused and puzzled, but she still patted Ginny on the shoulder, and then continued to build magic blocks.

After class, the students filed out, and many of those who went home for the holidays greeted Felix in advance.

"See you next year, Professor Hep!"

"See you next year."

After everyone left, Felix breathed a sigh of relief. He had played cards for the whole morning, but because he and Valen had completely opposite ideas, they would lose more than they won if they played together. He decided to let Valen take a seat alone in the afternoon so that they could work together to deal with other students.

"Huh?"

Valen climbed up to where Luna had sat before and curiously looked at the trophy made of magic runes on the table. It was shaky and the shape vaguely showed the shadow of the Goblet of Fire.

Felix picked up the magic rune trophy and had an idea in mind. He thought of Luna's paper. The idea was generally correct and somewhat similar to the magic rune creature he had conceived, but it would not be easy for Luna to realize it. There was too much knowledge involved.

However, this did not prevent Luna from receiving a talking trophy as a Christmas gift.

Half an hour later, a glittering trophy appeared in front of Felix. Its main body was made up of ancient magic runes and blank memory fragments, which could flexibly transform between reality and illusion. It can be stored in the Ouroboros Ring at ordinary times.

He stared at the trophy, cleared his throat, and asked, "What would Felix Hep like as a Christmas gift?"

"A magic book, a unique opinion, and a painting," the trophy replied.

"What would he not want to receive?" "

A pumpkin mask, airship earrings, and a vine cape covered with glittering sequins."

"Great," Felix said with satisfaction, and decided to hurry up and send them out. Valen listened for a long time and finally understood who sent those strange gifts.

They walked down the stairs. The auditorium looked very grand. Twelve Christmas trees covered with silver frost and tiny icicles sparkled. If you got close, you could hear faint singing. They were connected by ribbons made of mistletoe and holly. There were flower fairies dancing, and their transparent wings sprinkled silver light.

The ceiling also became different. The magic snow fell down and got into the students' necks, making them cool.

The dining table was messy as usual, and very lively. But Felix keenly caught the awkward expressions on the faces of some students, they were the students of Animagus. Neville sighed deeply as he looked at the beef pie, spareribs and vegetable soup on the table, grabbed a piece of dry bread and ate it in small bites. The aggrieved look on his face reminded people of the ghost 'Nearly Headless' Nick.

A few seats away, Harry couldn't eat either. Ron stared at the food in front of him, and then used great willpower to move his eyes away, as if he had a grudge against them. Hermione drank the porridge carefully and chewed slowly.

"Hermione, try this, it tastes great!" Lavender Brown ate the cream apple pie with gloating. During the whole lunch, she was tempting Hermione with delicious food, and whenever Hermione sternly refused, she and Parvati would hug and laugh.

"I really want to turn her into a big-mouthed frog!" When Lavender left, Hermione said angrily.

"No, you can't," said Harry weakly. He was very hungry now. "The first few people who did this were deducted 100 points, and were sentenced to detention during the entire Christmas period, without exception. Professor McGonagall was almost mad."

"Yeah, it is said that Snape was humming with joy." Ron said unhappily, "We are completely out of the chance to win the House Cup this year."

All the students in the Animagus class underestimated the difficulty of putting a leaf in their mouths - including Felix himself. It took not one or two hours, nor one or two days, but a whole month. When he and Professor McGonagall checked last weekend, they found that almost all the students had failed.

The reasons they gave were also strange. Some accidentally swallowed the leaf while drinking soup, some tore the leaf when biting ribs, some accidentally blew it out while talking loudly, and some even ground their teeth while sleeping, and the leaf disappeared without a trace the next day. The few students who took out the leaf were finally confirmed to be cheating. They just plucked a leaf from the Christmas tree in the hall before coming here.

Felix was amazed. Professor McGonagall accepted these reasons very calmly, and gave him a demonstrative look. Felix guessed that it probably meant, 'You are surprised by what you have seen before...'

"If there is no other way," Ron said fiercely with gritted teeth when he stood up, "We can only try Sirius's method." He meant to use the Stunning Spell and the Petrifying Spell, or add the Sticky Jaw Spell.

Neville looked at him with a frown, "Okay." He said softly.

The common point between the two of them is that they snore badly. The morning before yesterday, Ron and Neville woke up and found that the grass leaf in their mouths was gone. The former found the innocent leaf on the pillow, and the latter could only see some green debris from the teeth.

Harry's situation was slightly better than theirs. At least he didn't snore much, so when he woke up, the leaf was still in his mouth, but it was broken into two pieces in the middle, and the cross section was neat. He was still investigating the reason.

Among them, only Hermione refused to reveal any information about her leaves, but Harry thought that since Hermione had not raised her hand to answer questions in the past few days, it was enough to show the seriousness of the problem.

When they left the hall, Ron picked a branch from the Christmas tree and said pessimistically, "It will be used sooner or later." Hermione did not raise any objections.

In the afternoon, Felix appeared in the greenhouse of the Herbology class.

Professor Sprout was still dressed in her unkempt appearance, with a patched hat tilted on her flowing gray hair, and a lot of dirt on her clothes - in a word, it formed a sharp contrast with the well-organized greenhouse.

"Felix!" She said enthusiastically: "Minerva told me that a total of 23 mandrake leaves are needed, right?"

"Yes - yes." Felix said, "In fact, there is another thing." However, Professor Sprout had already dragged his short and fat body to the back of the greenhouse, waving a huge pair of scissors in his hand.

She said cheerfully, "We'd better find some fresh leaves. Every few years Minerva asks for some for the students... but there have never been so many as this year - we arrived and there happened to be a few mandrakes that needed pruning. They have been growing for nearly four years."

Felix followed behind and came to a separate area.

Seven or eight fully mature mandrakes were lush and green, about the height of small shrubs, planted in pots as big as Hagrid's enchanted pumpkins. He could clearly hear the snoring one after another. "Be quiet, they are sleeping, and it will be dangerous if they wake up." Professor Sprout said in a low voice, and slowly opened the huge scissors in an arc, encircling two leaves in the cold and shining blades.

"Click."

The leaves fell smoothly. Felix waved his hand, and two mandrake leaves swirled into his hand. Sprout changed position and repeated the same method again. "Don't pick too many from the same plant, otherwise they will be unhappy," she explained.

Soon they had collected everything, and Professor Sprout handed him another bag for Felix to put the mandrake leaves in. When everything was over, Felix moved a little closer, stretched out a hand, and turned to look at Sprout: "Can I touch it?"

"Oh," Professor Sprout said hesitantly: "Their cries are deadly now, it's best not to wake them up-"

"Of course, of course." Felix murmured.

He turned his wrist, and the huge jar slowly floated up and stopped in front of him. He could only see the upper half, and the rest was buried in the soil. Felix looked at it carefully for a moment, his eyes flashing with the pattern of the Book of Runes, and the magic of the Mind House slowly spread around him. With

a light flick of his fingers, the black jar gradually turned lighter, flashed a few times, and only some rough lines were left, just like Valen holding a feather pen to draw a three-dimensional picture in the air.

Professor Sprout stood by and observed curiously. She had never seen such magic.

However, it was generally acknowledged that Felix Hepp's magical attainments were close to Dumbledore's, which was why she did not stop him.

In front of them, a mass of solidified brown soil was bound by an invisible force. Felix moved his fingers again, and the virtual and real under his magic underwent a wonderful transformation. Layers of brown soil seemed to be rubbed repeatedly by an eraser, leaving vague traces like pencil outlines in the original place. The soil no longer blocked their sight, revealing the mandrake inside.

Felix didn't know who first proposed that this thing looked like a baby, but he thought they actually looked like little old men, very ugly, with unknown spots on their bodies. They closed their eyes unaffected, curled up into a ball, and pounded their pointed little fists on their chests.

"I haven't seen a sleeping mandrake yet, it's so beautiful." Professor Sprout showed an obsessed expression.

Felix had a new understanding of her aesthetics. He stretched out his hand, went straight through the rough lines similar to sketches, and directly touched the mandrake plant and the anthropomorphic face.

His magic penetrated in little by little.

On the other side, Professor Sprout also reached out curiously, gently stroking the root-like skin of the mandrake, muttering something.

Felix closed his eyes and tried his best to sense his magic. Gradually, he realized that his magic was spreading in dots and attached to some magical lines. They were the unique wood grain inside the mandrake.

In the early magical desert, these magical lines were considered to be the origin of ancient magic words. He captured some familiar shapes.

He opened his eyes and Professor Sprout was looking at him.

Felix clenched his fists and pulled back his arms suddenly. A blue grid made of pure magic was dragged out by him. These magics were like the messy shapes obtained by injecting molten iron into an ant nest. But in Felix's eyes, it exuded a unique beauty.

His eyes now were the same as Professor Sprout's obsession just now.

The large net formed by magic power slowly stretched out. He dispersed most of the insignificant magic power, leaving only a small cluster in the middle that was like a crescent moon. Under his exquisite control, the magic power underwent subtle changes, from its original rough appearance to a crystal clear crystal cluster. Soon, one of the crystal branches fell off and turned into a glittering ancient magic rune.

Sprout's eyes widened. Thanks to Felix's tireless promotion over the past four years, most professors are now familiar with the basic knowledge of ancient magic. At the moment, all she could think of was one word - ancient magic, the ancient magic of the deadly cry of the mandrake.

More and more magic symbols gradually took shape, fell off from the main body, and fell into Felix's other hand like a tired bird, gradually pieced together into a shape similar to a crescent moon, just like the magic lines before.

But even Professor Sprout knew that the two were completely different. She became more and more nervous.

When only one-third of the magic power in the air was left, it suddenly collapsed and disintegrated into smoke-like magic. Professor Sprout, who was watching from the side, actually breathed a sigh of relief quietly, and unknowingly, a trace of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.

"It doesn't seem to work." Felix smiled and said.

"You want to transform the innate ability of the mandrake into magic?" Professor Sprout asked.

"I've been studying sound magic recently," Felix said slowly, "During the summer vacation, I read some information from the library of Ilvermorny School. Recently, the progress has been slow, and I want to find inspiration from other places..."

"Speaking of Ilvermorny, Felix, do you want to see the snakewood branch you brought back? It's growing well now."

"Okay..."

They walked towards another greenhouse, and saw Professor Bubage walking away on the way. "Caridi is ready to publish her research results," Professor Sprout introduced, "She seems to be planning to publish more than a dozen papers in a row... I advise her to compile them into a book."

"I know about this too." Felix nodded and said, "Severus is also collating relevant information. Maybe they have discussed it."

The snakewood branch is growing well, already as thick as a wrist and three or four feet tall. Felix stayed for a while, then said goodbye and left. He walked in the snow, recalling his experience in the greenhouse. Professor Sprout seemed to be frightened, which is not surprising, he himself felt that this research result was very scary.

Transforming the cry of the mandrake into real ancient magic, this is the real sound of death, destroying the city and the country in an instant. Felix hopes that he will never have the opportunity to exert its full power, and only he knows it.

Ancient magic - no, the combination of ancient runes and memory magic gradually showed unparalleled power and potential, just like what he did to the mandrake flowerpot, the real and the unreal are between his thoughts.

If soul magic and time magic are added in the future, how far will he reach? He raised his head and looked at the sky, and the clouds on the horizon seemed to change into the face of Nick Flamel.

"Old man, I seem to feel the limitation you mentioned."

Felix shook his head and laughed, "Think about the easy things - at least there is a solution to Remus's furry little problem."