Chapter 56: Ron's Brief Notes

This unprecedented first public magic lecture at Hogwarts lasted nearly an hour. After Annie finished her final point regarding the basic principles of magic convergence, the lesson was, for the most part, a perfect conclusion. Seeing that there was nothing left to say, Annie impatiently announced the end of class; she was truly exhausted today.

The students began to exit the classroom in an orderly fashion. For everyone who had attended and stayed until the very end, this public lecture on wandless magic had certainly not been a waste of time! Students of all years and even professors had gained significantly; they had all learned, to varying degrees, something they had been seeking. More importantly, this was knowledge that could not be found anywhere else!

Before passing through the classroom doors, the students walking past the podium all bowed in unison to Professor Annie sitting above them, as a sign of respect and gratitude. They felt they had truly come to the right place and had struck gold by learning something extraordinary. Those who hadn't attended would surely be crying in a corner once they found out.

"Whoa! Hermione, how... how could you possibly have taken this many notes?"

Ron, who had just stepped out of the classroom, inadvertently caught sight of Hermione as she was about to close her notebook. Her notebook was densely packed with at least two pages of notes. Comparing it to his own—why did he only have two or three lines? This was impossible. Had they not just attended the same class? Why was there such a massive difference?

After looking at Hermione's notes, Ron reopened his own.

He began to seriously doubt whether he had actually missed something. Had he spaced out during class? But it didn't seem like it!

In this class, Ron had, quite uncharacteristically, listened attentively from beginning to end! Besides, standing right behind him were his old rivals, Goyle and Crabbe; even if he had wanted to talk or get distracted, he had no one to talk to.

He and Hermione had been in the same classroom listening to the same professor, and Ron swore he had recorded every single word Professor Annie said without missing a beat. So why were his notes so vastly different from Hermione's? It didn't make sense! Had he really misheard? Or had he truly missed something?

"Ron, when you were taking notes, didn't you think about recording your own insights and reflections? You really are... sigh, hopeless!" Hermione shook her head helplessly, stuffed her notebook into her bag, and walked straight toward the Gryffindor common room, arm in arm with her friend Padma.

It was already quite late after class. She didn't intend to waste any more time with Ron; she wanted to get back, have a cup of hot chocolate, take a quick shower, and then lie comfortably in bed to digest everything she had learned today.

"Harry, quick, give me your book! Let me see your notes!" After a moment of stunned silence, Ron's sense of injustice and suspicion flared up. When he saw Harry walking out, he rushed over and tugged at him, insisting on opening Harry's notebook to compare it with his own. If he didn't clear this up, he might not be able to sleep tonight!

Thank goodness, thank goodness!

Once he saw that the length of Harry's notes was not much different from his own—in fact, it was a few words shorter—Ron let out a massive sigh of relief.

It seemed that he, Ron, hadn't missed anything. It was just that, as a poor student, he couldn't compare himself to a top student like Hermione; they simply lived in different worlds! See? Now that he had compared them with Harry's notes, his heart had immediately regained its balance.

Ah ha! The weather tonight is truly wonderful!

"Hey! What's wrong with you, Ron? Is there a problem?"

Harry was utterly confused by Ron's inexplicable behavior. Why was he so frantically grabbing his notebook? Had he failed to take notes during class? If that were the case, he could just go back and copy them later; was there a need to be so urgent?

"No, I'm fine! It's just, I suddenly feel much better. Let's go, Harry, it's time for us to head back too. The moonlight is beautiful tonight! We'd better hurry back and finish our homework."

As expected, without comparison, there is no pain! Sometimes, if you can't compare yourself to those better than you, it's a good idea to try comparing yourself to those worse off. That can be a decent choice, after all.

"Okay, but... the moonlight is beautiful?"

Harry was a bit dazed, then looked up at the sky outside the window.

How was the weather good tonight? Dark clouds hung overhead, and the sky outside was pitch black. Forget the moon, you couldn't even see the stars! Where was this moonlight coming from? Tsk! Why did he suddenly feel like Ron had become a bit strange? He just couldn't figure it out!

After a while, only little Annie, Dumbledore, and Snape remained in the classroom. Seeing that most people had left and there were no more students outside the door, Dumbledore finally stood up and approached Annie to chat: "Annie, thank you very much for this lesson. I find that I have benefited greatly myself!"

"Oh? Really? That's good then." Annie was feeling a bit drowsy and appeared somewhat listless.

She had spent a long time playing wildly in the Forbidden Forest today, nearly got into a brawl with a group of Centaurs, and then rushed back in time for class. She was truly exhausted!

All she wanted now was to return immediately to her luxurious suite at the top of Hogwarts Castle, which was both comfortable and offered a view of the distant scenery, then take a lovely hot bath and have a deep sleep—she probably wouldn't even want to get up even if the sun hit her backside tomorrow.

"So, Annie, what do you plan to teach in the next lesson? And when will it be held?" Dumbledore asked somewhat sheepishly.

Snape, standing to the side, was also listening intently; this was a question he wanted to know as well! He simply hadn't found the opportunity to ask out of pride. Since Headmaster Dumbledore had asked first, he wouldn't interject.

"Eh? The next lesson?" The novelty of being a teacher had already worn off for Annie; she wasn't thinking about the next lesson at all! She was currently sleepy, hungry, and tired, and had no desire to keep idling here with this old man.

"As for the next lesson, I'll let you know once I've decided. Goodbye~!" With a *pop*, she vanished in a flash, leaving only Dumbledore and Snape in the vast classroom.

"Wait—" Dumbledore's hand, extended into mid-air, froze stiffly as he stared speechlessly at the spot where Annie had disappeared.

*You should at least tell this old man what the second lesson will be about! Or at least be specific and give a time for the next class. I need to know the time so I can arrange my schedule! I am the Headmaster, and as Headmaster, I am very busy! How can I spend all day staring at you, waiting for a notification? What if I accidentally miss it?*

...

"Severus, what do you think?" After Annie left, the large classroom fell silent once more, leaving only Dumbledore and Snape. After a moment of silence, the Headmaster turned to Snape and asked.

"It is indeed effective. Look." Snape put his wand back into his pocket, extended a finger toward the floor of the podium, and coldly uttered a spell.

"*Diffindo!*"

This was an offensive spell Snape had created himself; it possessed dark magic attributes and was a spell whose principles he was most familiar with. Therefore, it was only natural that he would use this spell for experimentation! As he spoke the incantation, an invisible blade sliced through the air a moment later, leaving a shallow scratch on the floor.

"Because there is no wand, the speed of spell formation is relatively slow. Although I increased the magical output, the destructive power is far inferior to when using a wand," Snape summarized, frowning as he looked at the scratch on the floor.

"It might also be due to a lack of proficiency. With more practice, perhaps... I estimate there might be some improvement? But if we are talking about completely replacing the status of wand-based casting, I think it is still unlikely—at least not yet! But overall, it is very useful! At least, in future combat, even if one is accidentally disarmed by a Disarming Charm, one won't have to worry about immediately losing the power to resist," Snape concluded broadly.

In truth, what Snape really wanted to research right now was what little Annie had just mentioned: using a tiny amount of magic in conjunction with a convergence array to perform wandless magic. However, the classroom was clearly not a good place for experimentation.

"That is indeed true..." Dumbledore thought for a moment, then extended his somewhat withered finger. Without even chanting a spell, a tiny flame instantly formed at his fingertip, flickering continuously.

"It seems the wizarding world is about to face another period of upheaval. I wonder if this is a good or a bad thing? Sigh..." Extinguishing the fireball on his fingertip, Dumbledore shook his head and sighed.

Since wandless magic had now been proven to be truly feasible and effective, it was foreseeable that its large-scale spread would be inevitable. Regarding this tidal wave, Dumbledore did not believe it was something an old man like him could stop. Even the Ministry of Magic would likely be powerless, wouldn't they?

Before this, the most common method the Ministry used to punish criminal wizards was to snap their wands. Their monitoring methods generally involved tracking wands and determining which wizard cast a spell based on which wand was detected.

But now, even if you snapped someone's wand, they could still perform wandless magic and remain at large. If people wanted to do something sneaky and didn't use a wand to cast, the Ministry wouldn't be able to monitor them at all. This felt like the rhythm of imminent chaos!

"Why do you care so much about these things? You should worry less. The Ministry will have to deal with the headache; what does it have to do with you, Dumbledore?" Snape wouldn't worry about such things. In his view, Dumbledore was just being meddlesome and idle! Why bother worrying about this? He wasn't the Minister of Magic; he was merely the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"True enough!" Dumbledore also felt that leaving this matter to Fudge to worry about was a good idea.

"Severus, how about coming to my office for a drink? We can chat a bit more?" He felt quite cheerful today; having a drink before bed seemed like a good idea. Perhaps he could have two pieces of cockroach cluster? Er, no, that's not good, too sweet; eating it before bed might be bad for the teeth.

"No need! I'm heading back." Snape refused hastily, out of fear, and hurried out of the classroom door with a swish of his black robes.

He wasn't stupid! How could he possibly spend his late night having tea and chatting with an old man? He wasn't crazy!

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Revision 1

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Currently working hard on revising the earlier chapters. Since this is my first time writing a book, the punctuation in unrevised chapters can be quite messy.

(End of Chapter)