Chapter 122: Cornish Pixies?
The humid air of the greenhouse was thick with the characteristic earthy scent of manure.
For their first class, Professor Sprout simply asked everyone to review how to repot Mandrakes.
Harry also returned quickly, joining Ron's group.
The Mandrakes' roots were still as ugly as ever, and their cries were just as loud, but with the experience from the previous year, everyone handled them fairly smoothly.
Even though the end-of-year exams last year required them to repot Mandrakes, it was done in groups of four.
But now, Professor Sprout required them to work in pairs to complete the repotting.
—This semester, they even had to master repotting Mandrakes on their own.
"Be careful, everyone. Even though these Mandrakes aren't fully grown and their cries won't be fatal, they can still make you faint,"
Professor Sprout reminded everyone, "I certainly don't want any of you to miss the first day of school."
Dylan wore earmuffs, his leather gloves gleaming coldly in the morning dew.
Dylan was paired with Neville. He barely had to do anything before Neville successfully transplanted the Mandrake from one pot to another.
After Neville finished, Dylan took over. The Mandrake's roots tried to struggle, but he held them firmly in his hand.
—Dylan even took the opportunity to snip off a few of its root tendrils.
This made the young Mandrake cry even louder, its hoarse screams almost piercing through the earmuffs' soundproofing.
But when Professor Sprout looked over and saw the Mandrake struggling so violently, yet Dylan still holding it effortlessly, she nodded in satisfaction.
"It seems a summer holiday hasn't made this little fellow's technique rusty at all!"
The time for the first class passed quickly.
—Practical lessons always went by much faster than theoretical ones.
When the class ended.
Dylan took off his earmuffs and lightly tapped his wand. "Scourgify!"
Magic cleaned the dirt off him, Neville, Harry, and the others.
Ron followed beside them, looking numb. "Blimey, I still think you need four people to subdue that horrible thing!"
Harry, who was paired with Ron, had a class full of unexpected mishaps. Hearing his best friend's words, he nodded in agreement.
"I bet for the end-of-year exam, Professor Sprout might make us repot Mandrakes on our own! I'm really worried I won't be able to hold onto it then!" Ron wailed.
Then he looked at Neville. "I remember you repotting those things on your own last year, right? How did you do it?"
"Um... just slowly, you know? Like petting a Mimbulus Mimbletonia."
"Actually, if you just pull the Mandrake out of the pot directly, it will scream very loudly. If you do it slowly, its struggles will also weaken."
Neville shared his experience with Ron.
The group continued walking, leaving the greenhouse and heading straight for the Transfiguration classroom.
"Still the familiar rush between classes."
Dylan and his companions strode along the path, through the castle corridors, and arrived at the classroom.
Professor McGonagall's lesson was a mix of theory and practice. The first half of the class was mostly spent explaining the key points of the Transfiguration process.
For the second half, Professor McGonagall asked the students to turn a frog into a gemstone.
—Dylan simply waved his wand, the incantation barely uttered clearly.
In the emerald green light of the spell, the green-skinned frog that had been hopping around beside the ink bottle suddenly stiffened, letting out a "croak"—
Its slimy skin crystallized into countless facets at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the diamond-cut surfaces of its webbed feet refracted the sunlight into rainbow-colored spots.
Professor McGonagall looked over and gave a satisfied smile. "Mr. Hockwood, well done. Quick and accurate as always. Ten points to Gryffindor."
Dylan, feeling bored, kept transfiguring the diamond in front of him.
—He was trying to transform the diamond into a living, self-moving diamond frog that was no different from a normal frog.
The surrounding students lowered their heads one after another when they saw his actions.
Just then.
"Bang!"
A loud explosion suddenly rang out.
Without turning his head, Dylan directly flicked a Scourgify Charm towards Seamus's direction.
But when he looked at Seamus, he found the boy standing there blankly, blinking.
The frog in front of him was still croaking.
Seamus held his wand, staring blankly at Dylan.
"Huh, it wasn't Seamus who caused the explosion?" Dylan tilted his head, only to realize that the noise seemed to have come from Ron.
Ron, covered in soot, was clutching a wand held together with tape, a faint wisp of smoke slowly dissipating from its tip.
—Ron's wand was broken.
This was one of the reasons why he had been so depressed yesterday.
And in front of Ron, the frog that was supposed to have turned into a sapphire was croaking madly with a charred crown on its head.
"Poor little thing."
Dylan cast another Scourgify Charm on Ron, then continued to study the crystal frog in front of him.
The transition between inanimate and animate objects also involved some ancient knowledge recorded in The Book of Abraham the Jew.
—Dylan was referring to the inanimate crystal frog, and how it could become animate in its crystal form.
Professor McGonagall had obviously noticed Dylan's actions and walked over, standing beside him, observing his research.
As her silver-green wizard robes brushed against the corner of Dylan's desk, they carried a faint scent of mint and cedar.
At this moment, under Dylan's focused study, the translucent frog-shaped gemstone in front of him suddenly twitched its hind legs, and its agate-inlaid eyes rolled around twice.
"No, the force isn't enough, I can only do this much for now."
But even so, the corners of Professor McGonagall's usually tight lips slightly turned up as she reminded him.
"Try the animate transfiguration I told you about."
Dylan did as she said. Not long after, a lifelike crystal frog that could hop around appeared before him.
"Very good." Professor McGonagall's smile widened a bit, then she lightly tapped the house point hourglass with her wand, and a rain of golden-red gems immediately stirred up a pleasant tinkling sound in the Gryffindor hourglass.
The entire Transfiguration class didn't involve any overly complicated operations.
After it successfully ended, Dylan went to the dining hall with Neville and Harry.
From afar, Dylan saw a little boy with a camera hanging around his neck.
Dylan greeted Harry, then led Neville to another table.
Harry was stunned for a moment, but in the end, he joined Ron and Hermione, and the three of them huddled together, whispering about Ron's broken wand.
After Neville sat down beside Dylan, he took out his timetable before eating.
"Dylan, this afternoon we have Defense Against the Dark Arts. That Professor Lockhart... feels weird, I just can't seem to like him."
"He is quite strange indeed."
Dylan took a piece of steak, cut it into small pieces, and ate slowly.
Regarding Lockhart, he didn't plan to learn anything about Defense Against the Dark Arts from him.
—But that didn't mean he had to distance himself from Lockhart.
After all, the guy's Obliviation Charm skills were still extremely high. If he could get Lockhart to teach him how to use the Obliviation Charm, Dylan would be willing to play along.
After finishing his meal, Dylan took the opportunity to pull out Transfiguration Today and began to read the content he had missed during the holidays.
—He had to catch up as soon as possible.
When it was time for class in the afternoon.
Dylan didn't sit at the front, but he also didn't squeeze into the back. Instead, he found a middle seat.
Neville blinked and walked over to Dylan, sitting to his right.
No matter if Dylan sat in the first row or wanted to sit further back—Neville would follow him.
Because if Dylan did something, there must be a reason for it.
Just like last year's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Dylan had always sat in this middle-of-the-road position.
In the end, Headmaster Dumbledore said that Professor Quirrell had been dismissed because he had made some huge mistakes.
And Professor Quirrell's teaching in class was also quite... not good.
Neville had thought at the time that Dylan not sitting in the first row was truly prescient!
So Neville believed that this time would be the same.
After everyone was seated, the bell rang.
Only then did Lockhart step into the classroom, right on the bell.
"Please place the books we will be studying today on your desks."
After seeing the covers of his smiling, winking books appear on all the students' desks.
Lockhart also smiled.
"Let me introduce myself. I am—Gilderoy Lockhart."
"Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Anti-Dark Forces League; and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award—but—"
"As you know, the modest me never boasts—I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her."
Lockhart finished speaking and began to grin foolishly at the students.
And it didn't end there. Dylan looked at the magical quiz papers that Lockhart had handed out and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Neville beside him looked even more troubled.
On the magical quiz paper, there were a full fifty questions written.
Picking out any few at random was enough to make one's vision go dark.
What is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest ambition? What is Gilderoy Lockhart's most impressive magical achievement? What is Gilderoy Lockhart's ranking in terms of influence in the wizarding world? ... What kind of gift would you like to give Gilderoy Lockhart?
Looking at the last question, a vein throbbed on Dylan's forehead.
Good heavens, Dylan simply couldn't understand.
To what extent must a person's brain be addled to specially compile such a quiz and ask students on the first day of class in a prestigious school?
Dylan gritted his teeth, his peripheral vision glancing at the grinning idiot standing on the podium.
Coded language, concealing the truth.
Was there this part of the plot in the original story?
For this quiz, Dylan casually filled in a few answers, ignoring the rest as if he didn't know them.
—Actually, after flipping through several of Lockhart's books, although he hadn't read them carefully, Lockhart's self-boasting in the books was truly excessive.
He had been forced to see some of it, more or less.
So, even if he didn't get a perfect score on this quiz, he could at least answer most of the questions.
However, there was no benefit to completing this quiz, so Dylan naturally wouldn't bother giving Lockhart a satisfactory answer sheet.
Compared to Dylan's casual attitude, Hermione, despite already noticing from Dylan's hints and Lockhart's exaggerated performance that the man might not be as brilliant as he appeared, still chose to fill the entire quiz paper completely.
—And even got a 90.
It was the highest score in the class. Lockhart was so happy that he directly changed the score to a perfect 100.
"I didn't expect such a little lion from Gryffindor to be so fascinated by my experiences! Excellent! Ten points to Gryffindor, no, fifteen points!"
Hermione's eyelids twitched.
However, this didn't seem to be the limit of what Lockhart could show.
He bent down and took out a constantly shaking cage from the empty slot under the podium, which was also covered with a black cloth.
"Considering that your quiz papers were not entirely satisfactory to me, and some of you even handed in almost blank sheets—"
Lockhart's gaze swept towards Dylan.
"Therefore, I will have you face in this classroom what is, in your understanding, the most terrifying thing ever!"
"Of course, I will be standing right here—rest assured, they won't cause you any harm at all—after all, I'm here."
Lockhart laughed loudly and unveiled the black cloth.
Dylan saw a group of Cornish Pixies with bluish skin jumping up and down in the cage, making sharp, chattering noises.
"Eight inches tall, little known is the fact that their small antennae on their heads and their dragonfly-like wings on their backs can be used as adjuncts in potions."
This was a piece of knowledge Dylan had found after reading a large number of potion books.
These two materials contained special magical factors that could be used as trace additives to enhance the activity of potions and accelerate the speed at which they circulated in the body.
However, when brewing potions, only a very small amount of these two materials could be added. Too much would make the magical properties of the potion too active and unstable.
But this instability, in Dylan's view, could also lead to unpredictable results to some extent.
This would instead help him further in his research on the variability of potions and in touching and probing the boundaries of potion effects.
"I was originally thinking of asking Hagrid to catch some for me after returning, but now, it seems there's no need."
Dylan tilted his head, watching Lockhart open the cage door.
In an instant, the pixies shot out of the cage like arrows released from a bow, and in the blink of an eye, they filled the entire classroom like blue lightning.
Chaos erupted wherever they went.
The pixies wreaked havoc at will, some tearing down the portraits on the walls, while others threw the students' textbooks all over the floor.
Even Hermione's "Lockhart Quiz," which had received a perfect score, was torn into snowflake-like shreds by them.
The students were all frightened by this sudden situation and screamed, leaping up from their seats and running around wildly. Many even hid under their desks.
The classroom instantly turned into a chaotic mess.
"Calm down! Calm down! Listen to me, herd them together!"
Lockhart shouted loudly at the front, trying to take control of the situation, but in the midst of the uproar, no one was listening to him at all.
Lockhart frowned, his wand pointed directly at the air.
"Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"
Lockhart strained his voice, trying to cast a spell to subdue these creatures, but embarrassingly, the spell he uttered had no effect at all. The pixies continued to cause trouble as they pleased.
What was worse, in the brief moment Lockhart raised his wand, a blue-skinned pixie flew swiftly past and snatched the wand from his hand.
Then, like throwing a dart, it smashed a window and flung the wand out.
Lockhart's face instantly turned ashen. He looked out the window in a panic, then looked back at the chaotic classroom.
Soon, he noticed Dylan sitting quietly in his seat, with not a single Cornish Pixie daring to approach him.
Lockhart's eyes lit up. "Aren't you the top student of the last year? Now, I order you to catch all these creatures and then clean up the classroom. I will award points to Gryffindor!"
With that, he hurriedly ran out the door, leaving behind a sentence, "I'll go get my wand back, I'll be right back!"
Watching Lockhart hurriedly leave the classroom, Dylan turned his head and saw that amidst the giggles of a group of Cornish Pixies and the sound of overturned desks and chairs, Neville was surrounded by several blue-skinned pixies in terror.
Their slender but strong hands tightly gripped Neville's clothes, trying to pull him into the air and then drag him towards the chandelier overhead.
Neville struggled desperately, his feet kicking wildly in the air.
Dylan narrowed his eyes, drew a circle with his wand, and flicked it sharply.
"Vigmo Transfiguro!"
This was a specially designed Transfiguration Charm incantation he had created, capable of transfiguring a large area of his intended targets.
As soon as he finished speaking.
"Swish!"
The spell spread out from Dylan like invisible waves, whooshing outwards in all directions.
The originally menacing Cornish Pixies instantly stiffened.
Under the power of the spell, their figures gradually shrank, and their transparent wings slowly folded, solidifying into the metal arcs of key rings, even with delicate decorative patterns. The outlines of their pointed ears and small, sharp faces became round and cute, and their ferocious fangs transformed into adorable wavy lines.
Finally, all the Cornish Pixies were transformed into small and exquisite keychains.
"Rustle rustle"
The blue-skinned pixies, now keychains, fell from mid-air one after another, scattering on the ground with crisp clinking sounds.
The chaotic scene suddenly fell silent.
"Merlin's long johns!" Seamus's exclamation startled the stuffed owl on the windowsill, which had been trying to hide.
Dylan twirled his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
As the spell took effect, the keychains floated up again, moving towards Dylan, finally arranging themselves in neat rows in mid-air.
Dylan smiled, opened the backpack he carried with him, and with a flick of his wand, the keychains jumped into his backpack one by one.
After putting the last Cornish Pixie keychain into his bag, Dylan zipped it up and then looked around.
The once tidy classroom was a mess, desks and chairs were overturned, scattered on the ground, and books and papers were strewn everywhere.
His classmates all looked disheveled, some with messy hair and wrinkled clothes, while others slowly peeked out from under the desks, cautiously looking around.
"Reparo!"
"Tidying Charm!"
Dylan first flicked a Repairing Charm, then a Tidying Charm.
The overturned desks and chairs were lifted up one after another, returning to their original positions with a few "bang" sounds.
The books scattered on the ground also floated up automatically and then stacked themselves on the desks.
The portraits that had been pulled askew by the blue-skinned pixies now straightened themselves automatically, and the people in the frames cautiously peeked out from the edges of the frames.
In an instant, everything became clear and orderly, as if the chaos just now had never happened.
The surrounding classmates all widened their eyes, completely stunned.
Dylan smiled. "I've taken these troublemakers away. They won't cause any more trouble."
Hearing this, the surrounding students finally relaxed their tense nerves a little, their expressions gradually softening. Many looked at Dylan with admiration and worship.
Dylan put away his wand and gently patted the keychains in his backpack.
He would find some time to throw these little guys into his suitcase.
The suitcase was currently in his inventory panel—he had spent ten thousand Galleons to unlock this feature.
Dylan had tried it. Originally, the suitcase couldn't be directly put into the inventory, but after spending Galleons and adding an [Item] tag to the suitcase.
Although the suitcase had a vast internal space, simply storing it in the inventory was not restricted.
"It's a pity that these guys' reproductive ability isn't very good, they can't compare to the cockroaches at all."
"Although their overall number isn't small, it's only because they are difficult to catch and eliminate that they seem so rampant when accumulated."
"Otherwise, they wouldn't mainly be distributed in Cornwall."
Dylan felt a bit disappointed.
But then he considered something else.
Could the genes of these magical creatures be manipulated?
(End of chapter)
.....
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