176: First Attempt at Wandless Spellcasting and a Visit to Lovegood (8K Chapter)
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Yongye people have been declining day by day, and there have been more overt and covert humiliations here. Overnight, no one is afraid of this once dominant behemoth.
Why is Lermontov so unwilling?
But form is stronger than people, so Lermontov had to accept the status quo.
He used the Flashback Curse, the Obstacle Curse, the Thunderbolt Explosion Curse, and the Safeguarding Curse on William's wand, all of which were petrified...
It looks like a behavioral reaction after encountering a wild beast, without any flaws.
Lermontov gritted his teeth and said: "I have a condition. As long as you agree, this disappearance case will be treated as if nothing happened!"
Dumbledore looked at Amelia Bones. This was a matter for the Ministry of Magic and had nothing to do with him, the Headmaster of Hogwarts.
"...Mr. Lermontov, please speak." She hesitated before responding, but in her heart she didn't think Lermontov had any capital to negotiate terms with her.
Lermontov seemed to understand what she was thinking, snorted coldly, took out a black velvet bag from the pocket of his robe, and then took out a suitcase from the bag like a matryoshka doll.
It belonged to Joel. He had left the suitcase in the Norwegian forest to escape William's pursuit.
Lermontov stared directly at Joel, "This suitcase is cast with a traceless expansion spell. I only need to go to the store in the UK that legally sells this kind of space container to investigate and find out who owns this suitcase.
"
"What's in here?" He opened the suitcase and took out two sets of Hogwarts house robes, with the Ravenclaw emblem printed on the chest.
Dumbledore pursed his lips.
"Is this considered capital for me to negotiate with your country?" Lermontov said with a smile, "If we put pressure on the International Wizarding Tribunal, this matter will not be settled so easily."
Director Bones said nothing, and Lermontov opened his mouth to put forward the conditions, "I want to take this tiger back to Moscow."
In his mind, William still lost his wand after casting a bunch of spells, and most likely died in the tiger's mouth, which proved that this tiger was no ordinary person. In this case, it would be reasonable to take this tiger back to Moscow and study it carefully.
It's not impossible, maybe you can discover some novel theories.
"Impossible," Hagrid was the first to object before Director Bones could say anything. "The Forbidden Forest is its home, and it definitely doesn't want to leave here."
Tiger Tom had a pitiful expression, but despite his huge body, he didn't look like a harmless person.
Joel stood up at this time and said, "Mr. Lermontov, if I read correctly, the suitcase you are holding is mine."
"Aha!" Lermontov suddenly became excited, "You little brat, did you admit it?"
"What did I admit?" Joel blinked and pretended to be innocent, "Don't spit on me!"
"I thought this box was too big and was inconvenient to carry, so I threw it away. The robe inside also had to be thrown away because my body had grown in the past two years and I couldn't fit it in." Joel sometimes admires his ability to keep his expression calm and his heart not beating.
, he opened his eyes and told lies, "I don't even know where you found these items. Maybe I have to re-evaluate the Russians' ability to rummage through trash cans."
"Besides, is it possible that the wizard named William you mentioned was killed by a tiger himself and wants to blackmail us for compensation from the UK?" Joel's words were sonorous and powerful, "The entrance to the Forbidden Forest is clearly written on it.'
Unrelated persons are prohibited from entering'."
"You, you..." Lermontov was speechless. He had held back what he wanted to say, but after all, English was not his native language. When using it, he had to go through it in his mind before he could speak English. He looked at
The sharp-tongued Joel was so angry that his teeth itched.
Joel shut up at the right time and gave up the stage to Lermontov, otherwise the old guy might cast a curse on him.
"You don't want the box with the Traceless Stretch Charm cast on it?" Lermontov's face turned red. "Are you kidding me? You should know how much this thing is worth..."
"It's only 150 galleons," Joel chuckled. "It's just this little money. Do you think I'll take it seriously? Just throw it away."
The words were full of disdain.
He was simulating Haylis's mentality. If this little rich woman were here, what tone would she use to say such a thing?
Joel took another blue satin bag out of his pocket and opened it to reveal the black Gringotts vault key inside.
"Black gold key!"
Lermontov's eyes widened, and combined with his excessively old face and bloodshot eyeballs, he looked like he had hyperthyroidism.
In Russia, the monthly salary of a Ministry of Magic employee is only 30 Galleons. 150 Galleons is a huge expense for many wizarding families. He investigated Joel before coming and knew that he relied on a set of teaching aids to gain income.
He earned the third-level Merlin Order and probably made some money, but he never imagined that this 14-year-old boy actually had a black gold key.
The black gold key is made by Gringotts and symbolizes wealth - it can only be obtained by depositing more than 30,000 gold galleons in Gringotts. Each black gold key corresponds to exclusive customer service one-on-one service, and the owner is the best Gringotts customer.
Favor a valued customer base.
Not only Lermontov looked surprised, but other batters also felt sour in their hearts.
A hitter plus field subsidy, overtime pay and holiday benefits are equivalent to an income of 100 gold galleons for one month. 30,000 gold galleons require them to save for 300 months without eating or drinking. This key appears in the hands of a 14-year-old boy.
Somewhat dreamy.
"Mr. Lermontov, does this box prove anything for you?" Joel crossed his arms. "Is it possible that the International Wizarding Tribunal will convict me after seeing this box? There is clearly not a single bit of strong evidence in it!"
"The information we can know now is that a wizard from Russia broke into the UK without permission and came to the Forbidden Forest of the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to do some sneaky things. Then he
The probability is... dead."
"It's that simple," Joel's words turned into sharp blades and struck Lermontov. "Among all the clues we found, there is no second person, no murderer, no suspect like me, only William himself, and he is very good.
They may be intelligence or spies sent to Britain by the Russian Ministry of Magic."
Lermontov finally fell silent.
"Will the International Wizarding Tribunal believe your whims or the definite evidence we have?" Joel sneered, "Director Bones, we must have a mature set of laws to deal with foreign wizards who enter the country without authorization, right?"
Director Bones nodded in agreement, while Lermontov looked ashen.
Joel took the broken wand from Lermontov's hand. The wand was only held together by a single unicorn hair and looked miserable.
"Tom," Joel turned to the big tiger again and showed the wand to him, "you killed its owner, right?"
Tom stared at Joel who was squatting in front of him with wide eyes. He saw the fierce light on the front of the upright ape, which was vaguely threatening, and knew that he was dissatisfied with his unauthorized actions. He quickly lay down and howled.
He shook his big head in response, and resisted the thunder on his head.
"Okay, okay..." Lermontov couldn't think of any words to retort. The tiger had already admitted the fact of killing, "I'll remember you, brat."
"That's really my honor." Joel bowed slightly and gently stroked Tom the Tiger's back with his palms, letting the big cat purr comfortably under his hands.
Since the Russian Ministry of Magic no longer pursued the case of the missing wizard, the group returned to the castle under Hagrid's guidance.
After enjoying a sumptuous dinner in the Great Hall, Dumbledore and Hagrid just sent them off to Hogwarts.
"Regarding this disappearance case, our Legal Enforcement Department will continue to follow up," Miss Crawford said. She was neither humble nor overbearing when facing Lermontov and performed her duties. "Mr. Lermontov can go to the department to check the case files at any time. We will check the case file as soon as possible."
Sort out the results and give a satisfactory answer to the Russian Ministry of Magic."
One sentence blocked what Lermontov was about to say. He looked at Amelia Bones, who was silent, knowing that the British Ministry of Magic would not say anything more about this matter, and the cause of William's death was unknown.
The final conclusion is - accidental death.
He was silent for a long time, and then followed Miss Crawford to the hotel where he would stay tonight.
Lermontov was very aggrieved. He didn't care about William's death. He just wanted to take back the complete set of Nordic slates in Joel Taylor's hands and hand them over to Andrei Ulyanov. The intimidation had just failed.
, the idea of inducement was forgotten as soon as he came up with it.
What a joke, how much does it cost to seduce a person who has the black gold key of Gringotts? The last time Lermontov came to the UK was thirty years ago. Only when he came here again did he really see the current level of development in the UK. He applied
The travel expenses he received were simply not enough. If the British Ministry of Magic hadn't helped him solve the accommodation problem, he might not have had to sleep on the streets.
How to get the Nordic Slate back from Joel Taylor? Lermontov was puzzled, but he didn't want to give up.
On the other side, Joel shook hands with Director Bones and said goodbye.
"If there is nothing else, I will go back first," Joel smiled shyly, "I still have a few papers that I haven't had time to read."
"No problem," Director Bones responded, "Our Ministry of Magic can take care of the rest. Don't worry, this matter has nothing to do with you."
Joel returned to his home in Godric's Hollow, exhausted. He sat on the deck chair on the balcony on the second floor, watching several children playing in the flowers outside. The sun was a bit dazzling, and the side of his face was slightly swollen.
Hot, Joel simply went to the study to find a book and read it slowly.
It is the book "Analysis of the Spellcasting Methods and Mysterious Spells of Eighth-Century Nordic Wizards", which describes the research of Nordic wizards on wandless and silent spellcasting.
In the modern wizarding teaching system, there are three elements of magic: waving the wand, chanting the incantation, and concentration.
Silent magic eliminates the need for chanting incantations, while wandless magic eliminates the need for waving the wand. These two advanced spell-casting actions require very demanding mental concentration, and many outstanding wizards in modern times are unable to fully master them.
Silent spellcasting, not to mention the more advanced wandless magic.
Joel has thoroughly read the entire book in the past few months. In his opinion, the medieval wizarding system is completely different from modern times.
Taking the current education system of Hogwarts as an example, it ensures that children living in the UK can enroll in education as long as they show some magical talent. The threshold cannot be lower. In other words, if Hogwarts is not willing to
Accepting this child to school means that he must be a Muggle/Squib.
The advantage of this low-threshold education is that the number of young wizards receiving magic education is increasing. The population of the magic world is expanding rapidly. The shortcomings are equally obvious. The magic world only provides students with 7 years of education, regardless of whether you have been exposed to it before.
To study magic, you have to learn Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Astronomy, Herbalism, etc. during these 7 years. The subject knowledge is so complex.
For this reason, the magic education community can only try to make the subject content as easy to understand as possible. This is the case with charms. The textbook knowledge is becoming more and more simple. The audio spellcasting system that relies on the wand is taken seriously, and students enjoy it.
In Northern Europe in the eighth century, there was no complete entrance education system, and the methods to determine whether a child was a wizard were more stringent. They dismissed the dependence on wands. Many well-known wizards believed that only those with low magic power could become wizards.
Using a tool like a wand, they can cast magic wandlessly and silently, which makes them look cool. They can also deceive unsuspecting Muggles into claiming that they are protected by gods, and take the opportunity to attract followers and make money.
Getting back to the topic, if you want to abandon the two-step process of using magic wands and chanting incantations, you must improve your spiritual power. However, this book does not mention how to practice spiritual power.
Joel looked at the blank writer's column and closed the book.
Mental power... this thing was so ethereal that Joel had no choice but to wave his wand and cast a fluorescent flash. While casting it, he recalled the changes in his body when he cast the spell. Unfortunately, this feeling passed by in a flash and he had no time to capture it.
It seems that the magic power extracted by the fluorescent flashing spell is not enough.
Joel stood up and looked into the distance. There were hundreds of families living in the small mountain village of Godric's Hollow. Wizards and Muggles lived in peace and harmony. This gave him the confidence to cast spells here.
Trace couldn't tell whether it was him, an underage wizard, who cast the spell, because there were hundreds of wizards living in Godric's Hollow, as well as in Hogsmeade. The supervision measures of the British Ministry of Magic in this regard were crude and low.
effect.
"Clear water like a spring!"
This is a sixth-grade spell. Joel has not gone to the system to redeem the proficiency of this spell before, but he can use it quite well.
Joel closed his eyes, and he concentrated on feeling it with his heart. A ray of magic power in his body was mobilized and flowed to his fingertips. At the same time, an unknown energy flowed out from his brain and merged at his arm. The unknown energy wrapped the magic power smoothly.
Flow to the wand with your fingertips.
After the action of the wand, a rapid stream of water shot out from the tip of the wand and fell onto the floor tiles of the balcony.
Joel took a deep breath, that’s it!
The unknown energy shunted out from the brain is spiritual power, which carries the magic power into the wand. The wand fuses the magic power with the mental power and embodies it into the external manifestation of the spell.
If the spell of clear water like a spring is cast, the magic power will turn into water when it leaves the tip of the wand. If the spell of transformation is cast, the external image of the target object will be changed...
In short, waving the wand mediates the process of casting a spell, helping the wizard blend the two forces (spiritual and magical) together, like an autofocus point-and-shoot camera.
He made himself a pot of black tea and leaned on the recliner to think slowly. Bobby the owl cooed. He had not gone out for a walk in two days and was very depressed.
Joel was a little annoyed by the noise. When he got up, he suddenly remembered that there was one thing he had not done, so he ran back to his desk and wrote a letter.
"This address," Joel took out a copy of "The Quibbler" from the drawer, with the address of Mr. Xenophilius Lovegood, the editor-in-chief, printed on it, "send the letter there."
Poppy was a little angry. She pecked her master twice on the head and arranged Joel's neatly combed hair into a bird's nest before grabbing the letter and leaving Godric's Hollow.
The black tea was also brewed, and Joel added another spoonful of sugar and orange slices. The taste was moderately sweet and sour, and the tea had a sporadic grape aroma, and the taste was delicate and soft.
The warm tea relaxed Joel's mood. He looked at the blue sky and slowly closed his eyes.
From this point of view, the difficulty of wandless spellcasting mainly lies in whether mental power can replace the function of the wand, and the magic power can be embodied as an external manifestation. Silent spellcasting seems to be easier. It does not require mental power to be strong enough to replace the wand.
As long as it can replace the role of mantra chanting.
Mental power...
Is Occlumency related to psychic powers?
Joel thought about it and felt that this idea was very reliable. In this way, his mental power should be very strong. After all, he has perfect Occlumency.
Joel recalled the feeling of casting wandless spells on behalf of Odin in the Nordic tablets. He opened "Analysis of Spellcasting Methods and Mysterious Spells of Eighth-Century Nordic Wizards" and found several simple wandless spells on it.
He gently raised his palm, then made it parallel to the ground, pressed it downwards, and whispered a spell, mobilizing the magic power in his body and the spiritual power in his brain, which gathered at his right arm and then flowed out along his fingertips.
Joel worked hard to integrate the two energies, and tried to let the mental power take the lead, so that the magic could completely follow his command and play its due role.
He had never tried to cast a spell without a wand. At this time, he relied entirely on his habits and inferences from Norse mythology to cross the river by feeling the stones. The process was extremely difficult.
The magic power in the body is not obedient. Every time it is fused with the mental power in the brain, the magic power always wanders around restlessly. It seems to prefer to obey the orders of the magic wand.
During the deduction process, Joel discovered a paradox of wandless spell casting: this kind of spell casting that does not rely on the movement of a wand extremely tests the magic capacity, so that he can more easily feel the existence of magic in the body, but a large magic capacity will not
It is difficult to control. If there is no magic wand, these magic powers will become independent in the body and will not obey the command at all.
He was a little troubled. When he finished his research on wandless spellcasting, the sky above his head was already full of stars. The children who were playing in the flowers must have been taken home to rest by their parents. The chirping of cicadas ruled this quiet world.
, the black tea at hand has cooled down, there is a cooing sound around him, Poppy's eyes are wide open, and there is a reply letter on the table.
Joel stretched out his hand to smooth Bobby's fur, carried the teapot and envelope, walked back to the study, took out two handfuls of owl food from the bag on the side and gave it to Bobby.
He sat on the chair behind the desk, poured out the cold water in the teapot and boiled it again. While waiting for the hot black tea, Joel opened the envelope, and inside was Mr. Lovegood's reply.
Joel read it carefully. There were only two lines of scrawled words on it, and there was no objection to his proposed visit.
It seemed that the attitude was perfunctory, and Joel was not surprised by this. If the parents of the original owner of the body and Mr. Lovegood had always maintained a good relationship, there was no reason for him not to search for the children of the Meadows couple after they disappeared.
Even though he thought so, he still had to buy the gifts that needed to be prepared.
Early in the morning two days later, Joel carried the gifts he had prepared and headed to the village of Ottery-St. Catchpole at the agreed time. The Lovegood family lived on the top of a small hill, under a huge black cylinder.
The shaped house stands like a huge stone.
The garden in the yard had obviously been carefully tended and looked bright and tidy. When he approached the gate, he could still smell the fragrant aroma. Joel saw a bush covered with orange-red radish-shaped fruits, which looked small and cute.
.
Three hand-painted signs were nailed to the courtyard door. The first one read: "The Quibbler" editor-in-chief Xenophilius Lovegood; the second one said: Please pick out a bunch of mistletoe; the third one said:
Don't touch Airship Lee.
Joel didn't understand what the content of the last two wooden signs meant, but he could understand it. If you understood it, your surname would also be Lovegood.
The courtyard door was not closed, so Joel gently pushed it open and walked in.
Two crabapples were planted on both sides of the front door, with small red fruits and a large mistletoe corolla decorated with white beads spread over them. Two palm-sized gnomes emerged from the soil and looked at the visitor with curious eyes.
Joel gently knocked on the Lovegood's door. The door was embedded with iron round nails and had an eagle-shaped knocker, which was quite similar to the knocker leading to the common room of Ravenclaw House.
After a while, the door opened, revealing a man with white hair and white pajamas. His eyes were sleepy, his hair was extremely messy, and his eyes seemed to have no focus. Joel felt that this man's sight went beyond him and reached into the distance.
There is no emotion in the eyes.
The man was stunned for two seconds before he realized what he was doing. He took a deep look at Joel, then gave up his position at the door, turned around and walked back to the house.
Joel had just determined that Mr. Lovegood's eyes were born like this, making people feel like they were in a daze all the time.
He followed Mr. Lovegood into the room. The house was a standard circle, and even everything was made into arcs to match the walls: including the stove, sink and cupboards, and they were all painted in bright primary colors.
The paintings are full of flowers, insects and birds, and the painting style is quite uninhibited.
In the center of the room, a cast-iron spiral staircase led to the upper floor. Lovegood chatted with him as he walked up.
"How did you know about my relationship with your parents?"
"Professor Lockhart, sir," Joel replied politely, "Gilderoy Lockhart."
He could clearly hear Mr. Lovegood sneer, "A guy who is just looking for fame, I asked him to endorse "The Quibbler" and he thought the money was too little. He was really blind back then..."
He muttered very dissatisfiedly.
Upstairs is the living room - or the operation room is more appropriate. The very standard circular space is filled with books and papers. There are also a bunch of strange animal models hanging on the ceiling, some of which look very scary.
Among them is a monster that looks like a squid with dozens of tentacles, and there are several small boats painted next to it. The single-leaf flat boats are used to set off the hugeness of this monster.
There were old printing presses on the table in the living room, which looked like discarded versions of the Daily Prophet - Joel was sure that he saw the logo of the Daily Prophet under the printing presses, they were clicking and hesitating,
Throwing out color copies of "The Quibbler" one after another.
Mr. Lovegood strode up to the machine and pulled out a colorful tablecloth from under a pile of books and papers, which rolled to the floor.
He put the cloth over the printing press to cover up the pinging and clicking sounds.
"Okay, come here," he led Joel to the table - there were two wooden chairs there, and he placed a clean and tidy tea set on the old printing presses, "What do you want to drink? Black tea shop
?”
"No problem," Joel agreed readily and handed the gift in his hand to Mr. Lovegood. "These are some gadgets I bought in Diagon Alley. I hope you and Luna like them."
Mr. Lovegood stared at Joel for a long time with his unfocused white eyes, which made his heart tremble. Then he took the gift and went downstairs to make tea.
"Joel?" A girl's clear voice sounded from upstairs. Joel had just been immersed in the animal models on the ceiling, and then he realized that the Lovegood house has three floors. The top floor is probably Luna and Xenophilius.
Rest room.
"Why are you here?" Luna jumped down the stairs. She was wearing bunny pajamas, and her long golden hair was spread on the white pajamas, looking particularly bright and dazzling.
This was the first time that Joel took a closer look at Luna, and found that her eyes, like Mr. Lovegood's, were unfocused. She was beautiful, but could not see any emotion.
Joel stood up. He and Luna were not very familiar with each other in school. After all, the age difference was quite large and communication was not easy.
"Good morning Luna," he smiled, "I'm here to ask Mr. Lovegood some questions."
Luna thought for a while and didn't ask any more questions. In some aspects, her senses were sharp and different from ordinary people.
"Are you interested in this sea monster?" Luna changed the subject, "I see you have been staring at it before."
Joel saw that Lovegood had no intention of coming up for a while, so he started chatting with Luna.
"This is Kraken, the Kraken," Luna stretched out her chubby little hands to smooth her hair behind her ears. "It is huge, hundreds of meters long. When it floats to the surface, sailors will mistake it for it."
My body is like a red island..."
"Wait a minute, doesn't Kraken exist in Norse mythology?" Joel interrupted Luna politely.
"There are records of it in Nordic mythology, but there are not many pages, just a few strokes." When talking about this topic, Luna said seriously, "It is not enough to highlight its power and power. The real thing is worse than what is described in the text.
It’s going to be huge and scary.”
"Have you ever seen it with your own eyes, and it sounds so weird?" Joel asked again.
"Of course, I often see it in my dreams," Luna said angrily. She had just finished the first grade and was at the age of innocence and cuteness. "And it's not a monster. Kraken is just a giant monster with a huge body."
It’s just a squid, it’s very cute, and it’s not its fault that it’s big.”
Joel didn't take Luna's words to heart. There is a giant squid with a length of hundreds of meters under the North Sea? Only a little angel like Luna would believe it. This is even more ridiculous than the statement that Odin is a wizard.
"Luna, don't just sit here," Mr. Lovegood came up and told his daughter, "Go and wash up, and then ask Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to borrow some potatoes. I can't go out today."
It’s time to buy groceries, so bring two copies of the new “The Quibbler” to give to them.”
Luna glanced at her father, then at Joel, and left angrily, waving her hands. She hadn't even talked to Joel about the cute giant squid in detail.
Joel looked sideways and could see through the second-floor window of Lovegood's house that there was a crooked tall building in the distance, which was the Burrow, the residence of the Weasley family.
Mr. Lovegood poured the black tea from the teapot into the cup and pushed it to Joel.
There was no sugar or orange slices in the black tea this time. When Joel took a sip, he felt that it was full of bitterness and sweetness, and it was not really delicious.
"Tell me," Mr. Lovegood sat on the chair and swung the teacup, his eyes fixed on Joel, "What do you want to know from me?"
"...It's mainly about my parents' past," Joel said. "I heard Mr. Lockhart said that you had a good relationship with my parents when you were in school?"
Mr. Lovegood seemed to have expected that Joel would ask this question, and he answered without much thought: "We had a good relationship during those few years at school."
Does this sentence imply that the relationship has cooled down after graduation?
Joel cursed in his heart, but still had a smile on his face. He did not give up the last bit of hope, "Then do you know what mission my parents suddenly disappeared for? Professor Dumbledore only said that it was because of someone from the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic.
A task..."
"Of course I do," Lovegood said an answer that Joel didn't expect, "but do you really want to know the truth?"
Joel frowned and looked at Lovegood, meeting his emotionless white eyes. Joel took two deep breaths and said, "Of course I want to know the truth. I have been waiting hundreds of days and nights to seek it."
."
Lovegood's fingers gently rubbed the edge of the tea cup, as if he was weighing and thinking about something. Luna had just finished washing and was getting ready to go out, and it seemed she still had plenty of time.
"This story is very long, you have to be patient..." He sighed.