Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 331 New School Year

Chapter 332 New School Year

For Siron, discovering a relatively active magical reaction in the Blasttail was a pleasant surprise, at least giving him another option for crafting wand cores.

But when he told Hagrid the good news after the course ended, the other man's smile seemed a little forced.

"I bet Hagrid didn't make those things to make wand cores," Harry couldn't help but ask on the way back to the castle. "But can something like a Blasttail really be made into a wand core? I mean, it doesn't have any obvious hair or feathers or anything like that on its body."

"Maybe it will grow bigger," Celen shrugged. "But it probably won't. It doesn't look like it'll grow very big."

+

They returned to the castle, sat down at the Gryffindor table, and ate steak and potatoes.

The afternoon was a divination class. After not seeing her for a holiday, Professor Trelawney seemed even more eccentric, and she wore more rosaries, necklaces, and bracelets, which jingled with every step she took.

In the first lesson of the new semester, they will learn astrology, also known as divination.

However, unlike other forms of divination, there is an essential condition that needs to be met before learning astrology: finding the positions of the planets.

But it's not like an astronomy class where you search through a telescope; instead, it's from a complex chart of planetary movements.

To be honest, this is a really tedious and boring job, requiring the calculation of many tedious times and angles.

Even a wizard like Xilun, who possesses some talent for divination, was driven to distraction by this chart—it was even more troublesome than numerology.

He had reason to suspect that Professor Trelawney was deliberately targeting him, because while he was searching for planetary trajectories by comparing them to his birth date, the other woman stood beside him, making incomprehensible noises from time to time.

It's unclear whether the attack was directed at him or at Harry sitting next to him.

In addition, she assigned a lot of homework after class.

"Hermione was right." As they went downstairs to the Great Hall for dinner, Ron said bitterly, "I should have skipped the Divination class too. Now I've wasted the whole weekend."

"You can't give up," Xilun said calmly from the side.

"Why!" Ron protested. "Hermione was willing to give up the course, and she said Professor McGonagall agreed almost without hesitation."

"That's because she chose all five elective courses." Siren glanced at him. "But you only chose two; school rules state..."

Everyone needs to choose at least two subjects; you've already met the minimum requirement.

Ron moved his lips, but remained silent.

And thinking about the remaining three subjects—Arithmetic, Muggle Studies, and Ancient Runes—it's clear that Mathematics is slightly easier.

They arrived at the auditorium, where dinner consisted of onion soup and buttered bread, which tasted quite good. Just as they picked up their cutlery, Fred and George came over together.

Both of them had slightly flushed faces, still carrying a lingering excitement.

"What—" Xilun glanced at the two of them and asked, "Have you thought of a way to increase your age?"

"We thought of that a long time ago," Fred said.

"It's Moody," George said, moving to the other side. "We had his class today."

"That was fantastic!" Fred said, a look of lingering enjoyment on his face.

"For once, Headmaster Dumbledore was reliable."

"I dare say he's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor I've ever seen."

"It's just a bit tiring," George said. "You have to stay alert all the time, or else—"

He suddenly stopped talking halfway through his sentence, which made Ron very anxious.

"Otherwise what will happen? You'd better tell me already."

"Ah, it's no fun saying it out loud." Fred took a bite of bread. "Anyway, he really knows everything about fighting dark magic."

Ron became even more agitated, rummaging through his bag for his timetable. "No need to look," Siron said. "Our Defense Against the Dark Arts class isn't until Thursday!"

Ron and Harry immediately looked disappointed.

They hadn't thought much of it at first, but after Fred and George said that, they really couldn't wait any longer.

But it's only Monday, and there are still two days until Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

After resting for a while after dinner, everyone went to the tower in the middle of the night for an astronomy class and observed real planets.

After that, the first day of school was over. Most people felt that the courses were similar to last year, and the difficulty level had not changed much.

However, this idea only lasted until the next day.

During the Transfiguration class in the morning, Professor McGonagall gave them a rude awakening—they needed to transform a pincushion into a hedgehog.

When Harry first heard the request, he didn't think it was anything special, since they had learned how to turn a hedgehog into a pincushion last year.

Therefore, in his view, the difficulty levels should be about the same.

But it wasn't until he picked up the wand that Harry realized he was wrong, terribly wrong.

Turning the pincushion into a living, freely moving hedgehog was an impossible task for him. By the end of get out of class, he had only managed to conjure up a motionless fake hedgehog that didn't look alive at all.

Harry couldn't understand it. It was the same thing, just reversed, so why did it feel a hundred times more difficult?

He looked at Xilun.

Of all the students in the classroom, only Siron had completed Professor McGonagall's requirements.

Although the hedgehog Hermione conjured could move freely, it looked somewhat stiff and rigid, like a child's toy with batteries, and was not nearly as agile as Sheron.

"How did you do that?"

"That's easy," Celen said, and Ron, Hermione, Neville, and the others all perked up their ears to listen.

"Just try a more difficult transformation once, and you'll succeed," Siron said casually.

All the surrounding sounds disappeared, and after a moment of silence, the crowd immediately dispersed.

"Tch, I thought you were going to say something else—" Ron muttered, sounding disappointed. "How did you become just like Hermione?"

"Ron, what do you mean by that!" Hermione glared at him. "What do you mean by becoming like me!"

"No, it's nothing, you misheard," Ron said, then went upstairs toward the Gryffindor common room.

Xilun watched them from behind, shrugged. He was telling the truth, so why didn't anyone believe him?

He did attempt more difficult transformations, and he succeeded.

Since he completed his first Animagus transformation, ordinary transformations have been completely effortless for him.

Even if he hadn't learned it before, he could quickly master it and use it proficiently after just one viewing.