LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 45: Guest Psychiatrist
As the Creevey incident fermented, the young wizards of Hogwarts showed an extremely unreliable side as everyone hid from their professors, giggling and exchanging amulets, talismans, and other protective playthings.
During this period, such a practice quickly took the school by storm, with Neville Longbottom buying a large, smelly onion, a spiky amethyst, rotting water, and a salamander tail.
As a result, the other Gryffindor boys told him he actually isn't in danger: he's pureblood and therefore safe from attack.
"They went after Filch first," said Neville, his round face filled with fear, "and everyone knew that I was pretty much a Squib."
The professors had to repeatedly emphasize the complete ineffectiveness of these things in class three times over. Among them, Felix, with his good reputation and gentle attitude, gained a lot of fans from the young wizards.
There were even a number of lower-year students who "came in" and asked for psychological guidance.
"Professor, can I, can I have a chat with you?" A curly-haired Hufflepuff boy stopped him while he's patrolling the hallways.
"Sure." Felix sighed inwardly, the fourth one this week, this reputation is wearing him down.
The young wizard looked a bit formal as the two made their way to a pillar, but Felix's high " favourable" rating among the young wizard community helped him calm down quickly.
"Professor, I'm having some difficulties." Felix gestured for him to continue, "My name is Justin Finch-Fletchley, I come from a Muggle family ..."
Felix's mind became clear.
"... When I received my admission letter, I wasn't sure about coming to Hogwarts, but, well, as you know, I was originally going to attend Eton, where my parents graduated from."
Felix said approvingly, "I've heard of that school, it's quite famous in the Muggle world."
"Yes, that's right." Justin got a little more excited, "But I was more curious about magic, and I convinced them to let me come to Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall's display shocked them at the time."
Felix nodded, Hogwarts traditionally has the habit of visiting new students from Muggle families.
But it would be interesting to imagine the expressions of the Muggles under the idealistic view, who saw magic for the first time.
Justin continued, "A lot has happened this year, with difficult times ... everyone is panicking, and a lot of people are writing home."
"Your parents are worried about you too, right? Did they let you take a break from school for a while?" Felix asked.
"No, no, Professor," Justin said quickly, "I didn't tell my family, I'm sure Hogwarts will stay open, Professor, and I love magic! I, I'm just a little scared, there are a lot of rumours that ... Harry, Harry, he is the heir of Slytherin!"
"Rumours are mostly untrue." Felix said calmly, "Do you believe this rumour?"
"I'm not sure, judging from logic, well, Professor, you know the word logical, right? Great, judging from logic, they just appeared in the wrong place, but I don't know much about magic ..."
"Don't worry, it's not him, I can assure you of that, the professors have enough insight to separate fact from rumour."
Justin breathed a clear sigh of relief.
"Are there any more questions?"
"And, Professor, I hear you're a Muggle-born too? Sorted into Slytherin?"
"That's right."
"Then you must have suffered a lot of trouble with others, right? Did you hit them back hard?"
"Ah, you could barely say that."
Justin's expression perked up, "Professor, many young wizards, especially those from Muggle families, worship you, you're their idol!"
?
I've just, become the idol of Muggle wizards?
"Professor, everyone wants to be as brave as you are ..."
After sending off this young wizard who was initially shy and then quickly turned to a chatterbox, Felix's heart remained somewhat amazed. He laughed softly after a while. This feeling ... is not bad.
December came, and with the tireless efforts of the professors, the young wizards finally abandoned their unreliable amulets and turned to more practical gadgets, such as a pair of Foe-Glass that could detect potential dangers in advance.
It was rumoured that girls carried a small mirror with them and used it to look around every corner, but this practice was quickly abandoned and not many people were able to stick with it.
The devil's snare that Felix had raised for so long also sprouted strong and ready for consumption.
They're also the branch of the whomping willow, under more than a month of diligent Magic irrigation, every inch of it is infused with Felix's own magic, which makes its surface shine and still maintain enough vitality.
Felix sampled the effect, he drew his wand, "Reducio!" The seven to eight-meter-long branch shrank rapidly and became a long snake-like thing in the blink of an eye.
"It's still a little thick."
He kept casting spells, and the branch became smaller and smaller, but the process also became more and more difficult. Luckily, the branch was soaked with his own magic power and did not reject him, and with the help of a few more techniques from the ancient books, he managed to turn it into a thin, flexible rope of emerald green colour.
Without rest, he quickly carved dense runes on the surface to maintain the effect of the magic.
"It looks quite good!"
But next, there's a dilemma in his mind.
According to his vision, he wanted to rely on whomping willow thin rope as a skeleton, the unicorn hair knitted into it, forming a small pouch-like thing.
But he's stuck on the first step, how to weave them together in the proper way?
"I know about this, I learned to knit sweaters with my mother!"
In the end, with the help of his assistant, Hermione provided seven knitting solutions in a row, impressing Felix.
After three days of work, the little witch finished her work brilliantly, even using the leftover bits of material to knit a small beaded pouch for herself after getting Professor Hap's permission.
The beads were also ready-made, and Hermione made them out of a block of chestnut wood that she used to practice runes.
The final half-finished product is a delicate purse that belongs to Felix, and a beaded pouch, which belongs to Hermione.
"The rest of the work, is to carve magic rune circuit, let's make the devil's snare mobile in the pouch and mislead itself to think that it is still growing strong ... and tweaking, probably need a week or two."
"Wait until the critical point, then we can use the magic to motivate the devil's snare to launch an attack."
"Of course," Felix explained, "your beaded pouch material is not good enough and may not be able to hold too many devil's snare vines."
"That's enough for me." Hermione said happily, "Professor, can I complete the construction of the runes by myself?"
"You can't do that for now, but, you can help me with it."
...
On Thursday afternoon, a small group gathered around the bulletin board, reading the words on a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up.
A few words at the top sparkled and kept drawing attention to it. It read--
Dueling Club.
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