A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

Chapter 16: Unveiling Magical Inscriptions

Returning to his private professor's quarters, Felix Harp began arranging the room according to his own ideas. From his suitcase flew items of various sizes, big and small.

Once everything was in place, he watched a movie for entertainment and then contentedly went to bed.

Early the next morning, Felix hurried to the library, wandering among the millennium-old books of Hogwarts.

On the first day of school, there weren't many people there to read. Felix selected an original copy of "Ancient Alchemical Secrets" from the Restricted Section and eagerly started reading.

As expected, forbidden books had their allure; the content inside widened his eyes. He even discovered seven methods for crafting a scrying mirror.

However, his purpose wasn't the alchemical creations in the book. After all, it was quite old, and many things were outdated. What he valued were the ancient magical inscriptions hidden within the alchemical creations.

Ancient magical inscriptions never appeared all at once, nor did they decline suddenly.

In the earliest and untraceable ages, during the savage times of magic, some gifted "individuals" struggled to lay the foundation of the magical edifice. They sought the secrets of magic in magical creatures and plants, unexpectedly discovering patterns that could temporarily store magical power, resulting in marvelous magical effects.

This was the origin of the earliest ancient magical inscriptions.

Through the continuous efforts of numerous pioneers, wizards began to grasp more and more magical inscriptions. This led to the development of powerful ancient magic and ancient alchemy, allowing human wizards to stand out.

At that time, magical inscriptions symbolized power.

As time went on, more and more potential "individuals" were discovered, the number of wizards increased, and they urgently needed a form of writing to record their magical knowledge.

People gathered together, basing themselves on magical inscriptions, and derived a form of ancient script that spread widely. By this point, most magical inscriptions were not imbued with power; they were merely vessels for recording knowledge.

Long ages passed, and new magical inscriptions with potential were discovered one after another. Meanwhile, the original ancient script that had been created continued to evolve and change, undergoing its own evolution all around the world.

This process gave rise to numerous homophones, synonyms, mistranslations, and irregular writings, causing countless troubles for future researchers.

Following this, two significant events deeply affected the wizarding world.

The first was the invention of the wand, which made spellcasting more stable and straightforward.

The second was the emergence of simplified magic derived from ancient magic. While this form of magic might have slightly less power, with the amplification of wands, it was still quite impressive. Importantly, this simplified magic was easier to learn and safer!

And so, over more long years, wizards gradually abandoned magical inscriptions, and they eventually faded into legend.

Today, these magical inscriptions are collectively referred to as ancient magical inscriptions. Many wizards simply view them as a type of writing, with their only purpose being to translate the magical manuscripts left by their predecessors.

Felix wasn't interested in studying ancient history. What he wanted was the "magical" ancient inscriptions or, in other words, the original inscriptions. As for the rest, what were they really for?

But after all, learning was still learning. At least now, he could use them to teach students, right?

Those original inscriptions, whether lost to time or existing within ancient magical tomes, were now gathering dust in some forgotten corner.

As Felix Harp researched, he found that these magical inscriptions were best preserved within the realm of alchemy, even evolving and developing their own logical systems.

From the current state of affairs, magical inscriptions and alchemy had little connection.

However, in terms of historical origins, an alchemical creation often represented an ancient magical inscription circuit or its evolution. This was especially true for the most ancient alchemical creations.

This was exactly what Felix desired!

Currently, he had only mastered a little over two hundred original magical inscriptions and a dozen or so magical inscription circuits.

The road ahead was long and challenging.

A day passed swiftly, and Felix made considerable progress. He had discovered at least six entirely new magical inscription circuits!

If he could break down these circuits, return to their original forms, or rather, return to the original magical inscriptions, he believed his knowledge reserves could increase by at least one-third.

What is referred to as millennium-old heritage?

This was it.

Felix hadn't even eaten all day—well, who needed food when there was knowledge? A bottle of potion could solve everything!

Efficiency could increase by a whopping seven percentage points!

Nobody should bother him.

"Professor Harp!" a low-pitched female voice greeted.

Felix looked up to see Hermione standing next to him, holding a thick book. Glancing at the title, he recognized it as one of the books on his reading list.

And, coincidentally, it was one of his own works— "Exploring Ancient Magical Inscriptions."

Of course, this wasn't a coincidence. Hermione was a very clever witch and was eager to secure the position of "teaching assistant." However, the reading list provided by the professor was just too extensive!

Skimming through the entire list in a week was still possible, but studying in-depth? It was simply impossible.

She had to prioritize one book while using the others as references.

Just now, when she spent half an hour selecting books from the list, she unexpectedly found that one of them was authored by the young professor himself! She immediately determined which book to focus on.

Was there even a need to choose? Anyone who hesitated on this question was clearly a fool!

Felix and Hermione sat in adjacent seats, not disturbing each other, until the closing bell rang.

Hermione yawned without reservation.

"Professor, good night."

Holding the book, she took brisk steps and quickly disappeared.

Felix gingerly stretched his stiff neck. Only now did he realize how hungry he was!

Managing to borrow a book just in time, Felix sauntered into the kitchen. Using "please," "kindly," and "thank you" as the magical keywords, he obtained three pies, a piece of cheese, and a jug of pumpkin juice from his house-elf.

On his way back, he encountered two young Hufflepuff wizards sneaking out to get an extra meal, but he pretended not to notice.

Back in his quarters, he devoured the food hastily before collapsing into bed.

The second day followed suit;

So did the third day;

In the blink of an eye, it was Thursday morning.

Transfiguration class.

Seeing Hermione rushing off right after class, Harry and Ron exchanged glances and hurriedly caught up.

"Hermione, slow down!" they panted.

"What have you been up to lately? Can't see you anywhere these days."

Hermione walked swiftly, responding quickly, "I told you both already, didn't I?"

Harry paused for a moment. He had been busy too, with Quidditch practice. Ron quickly recalled, "You mean, you're preparing to become the new professor's assistant?"

"Exactly! But I'm not the only student candidate."

The three of them arrived at the Potions classroom. Hermione placed her Potions textbook aside and took out another book. She muttered incantations while flipping through it, and the thickness of the book was enough to make Ron and Harry, who weren't exactly scholarly, despair.

"Is this your task? To read through such a thick book?" Ron eyed the book with trepidation.

"It's not just one book, it's twenty!" Hermione answered while scanning, jotting down valuable information rapidly. This was her fourth book so far. Besides Felix's own work, she skimmed through the others, searching for useful passages.

But the number twenty still filled her with some despair, making her quite restless recently.

This chapter took quite a few words to lay out the setting, but it's also essential.

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