Chapter 666
The Forest Fairy's Hair
Chapter 666 The Forest Fairy's Hair
In the magical world, books are not merely a medium of words.
"The Book of Monsters" can chase and bite people like a vicious dog, "The Book of Invisibility" is invisible itself, and some ancient black magic books can even tempt people to commit suicide.
Voldemort hid fragments of his soul in his diary, which was considered a dangerous "magic book" by ordinary wizards.
At this time, Professor Morrie had the future alchemists create a relatively rare type of book. The book itself had a built-in identification function, and anyone other than the owner could only see blank parchment when they opened it.
A magically encrypted diary, very practical, but unfortunately few people know how to make it.
So, as you can imagine, the production was very difficult, the students performed poorly, and Professor Morrie's face was clouded with worry.
"The moonstone powder must be added at the same time as the unicorn hair!" He tapped on a student's crucible and questioned in an unfriendly tone, "In your opinion, can a difference of two seconds really be called 'at the same time'?"
The girl whose name was called looked nervous. She frantically tried to fix it, but suddenly, in a moment of madness, she sprinkled in a pinch of powder.
Professor Morrie: "..."
Seeing this outrageous operation, he was so angry that his beard almost stood on end.
Suddenly, a muffled "bang" came from the other end of the classroom. A cloud of purple smoke rose in front of a tall, thin boy, turning his entire face purple and glowing. He stared blankly at his smoking artwork.
Professor Morrie temporarily abandoned reprimanding the girl who had made a mistake, strode over, and with a wave of his wand, all the smoke was swept out of the classroom.
He glanced down at the boy's artwork, took a deep breath, and, suppressing his anger, questioned him in a low voice:
"You didn't memorize the ancient magic runes I had you all write down last week?"
"I..." The boy swallowed hard, stammering, "I memorized it... but... I didn't memorize it..."
“Oh, then your memory is a bit off,” Professor Morrie said coldly. “Tell me, are ‘concealment’ and ‘outburst’ the same thing?”
At this moment, Professor Morrie's image almost overlapped with that of Professor Snape, and Wade, standing outside the window, couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth into a smile.
His gaze swept over the other students: some were sweating profusely, some were frantically flipping through their notes, and one student was secretly wiping away the magical script he had just written with his sleeve.
But with only a few students in the classroom, no one's little actions could escape Professor Murray's keen eye.
He pointed out each student's mistakes one by one, repeatedly comparing them to Wade:
“If Wade were here, he could have buried you all with his well-made spellbook in the same amount of time!”
“Wade memorized all of this in just one month! And you? I’ve been teaching you for half a year, and you still make such basic mistakes! Go back and copy the entire Magic Dictionary from page 37 to page 58!”
“Wade made the same mistake once and remembered it. How can you keep making the same mistake?”
When the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class, the students all looked relieved. They packed their things and left the classroom. As soon as they stepped out of the door, they saw Wade not far away.
The group paused slightly, and complex gazes swept over Wade.
Professor Morrie was right behind them. No one said a word, except for one Ravenclaw upperclassman who pointed at Wade with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, and whispered:
"You've made us get yelled at again... Next time we get together, I'm going to get you drunk!"
A group of people walked away dejectedly. Before they had even completely crossed the corridor, Wade heard a girl who was almost crying complaining softly:
"Why do you always compare us to him... That guy is Wade Gray, even Professor Morrie in his younger days wasn't necessarily better..."
Another student snapped, "Shut up! If the professor hears you, he might make you copy the entire dictionary!"
Wade pretended not to hear the murmurs and waited until the people had gone far away before gently knocking on the door frame.
"Oh, you've come, Wade."
Professor Morrie, who was writing something on parchment, looked up and, upon seeing the figure at the door, his previously gloomy expression immediately brightened.
Professor Morrie put down his quill, leaned back, and smiled. "Come in... How was your experience using last week's quill?"
As he spoke, he waved his wand, and the copper kettle in the corner of the classroom automatically started boiling water.
"very good."
Wade went inside, put down his bag, and casually placed a teacup on the table. He said, "The quill pen made from unicorn tail hair is the most comfortable to hold. I think it can calm you down. If you get injured, the tip of the pen can lightly touch the skin near the wound and help prevent infection and promote healing—though it's not very noticeable."
This quill pen might be of some use to Muggles, but for wizards, its effect is barely worthwhile.
Since graduating from third grade, Wade has been practicing making all sorts of quill pens for the past six months. Some are very useful, some seem like superfluous additions, and some even have bizarre magical effects.
For example, he once made a quill pen that started singing as soon as you wrote on it. The singing voice was that of a dwarf, rough, hoarse, and unpleasant to listen to; it was simply noise pollution.
Of course, the purpose of this learning is not to create various magical quills, but to understand the properties and combinations of various alchemical materials from a subtle perspective, and to become familiar with different alchemical techniques.
Wade took out the unicorn quill pen, and Professor Morrie took it and examined it for a moment, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothing out:
"Very good, the magic runes are still as stable as last week. This quill pen will not fail for at least five years."
He put down his quill, took out an exquisite wooden box, blinked, and said, "This time we're looking at a completely new material. I guarantee that even that kid Marchionne can't get it for you."
Wade's eyes lit up; he was genuinely curious.
Machioni was always incredibly resourceful; he could even procure a whole box of African tree snake skin (one of the raw materials for the compound tonic), which was considered a contraband, so that Vader could use it as he pleased.
Is there anything that even Marchionne couldn't obtain?
When the wooden box was opened, the bottom was covered with a layer of pebbles about the size of a thumb. Wade almost thought this was what Professor Mori wanted him to see.
He looked up at the professor's mysterious smile, and after observing carefully for a moment, he discovered a thin thread on the stone.
Wade picked up the tweezers next to him, carefully picked it up and examined it, asking, "What is this?"
Professor Morrie didn't keep them in suspense and said directly, "This is the hair of the legendary forest fairy."
"...A forest fairy?"
All Wade knew was the Lake Nymph.
In the fairy tale, Merlin, who was as powerful as a god, was imprisoned by a lake fairy named Vivian.
Of course, just like the story that "Merlin is a half-demon born of a nightmare and a mortal woman," this kind of story is treated as an embellishment in the Merlin story. Only children would believe it completely, while most people would be skeptical.
At this moment, Wade looked at Professor Morrie with a question in his eyes as he examined the hair that was as thin as a spider's thread.
The old man chuckled, “I didn’t pluck this from the head of a forest fairy, so I don’t know if they even exist.” “But a quill pen made from this hair has a very magical function—it can translate the language of forest animals into a language that the user can understand.”
"Any animal will do?" Wade couldn't help but ask.
“That depends on you,” Professor Morrie said with a smile. “The most talented person I’ve ever seen made a quill that could translate the languages of twelve animals. If it were you, I think you should be able to at least reach that level.”
A sound came from the corner: "Glug glug glug..."
The water is boiling.
Wade got up, picked up the kettle, and poured hot water into the teacup. The slender tea leaves swirled and danced in the water.
He sat down and asked, "Can this hair be reused?"
“Of course not,” Professor Morrie laughed. “But we only need to take a tiny bit each time.”
He gestured with his finger to indicate the length of "a little bit," roughly equivalent to a finger joint, and then slowly added:
"If it fails, I can let you try a maximum of three times."
Wade laughed and said, "Then I'll try to succeed on the first try, so as not to waste such precious materials."
The "Forest Fairy's Hair" is indeed very precious; Professor Morrie wouldn't even let anyone else touch it.
But when facing Wade, he just smiled and said, "Don't be so sure. This material is very sensitive and easy to fail at. Setbacks are inevitable. It's okay to practice a couple more times."
He waved his wand, and the chalk placed on the side of the blackboard immediately jumped up and began writing on the blackboard, drawing several incredibly precise pictures.
Professor Morrie said, "Forest magic requires the moon's affinity. Besides hair, you'll also need to collect six other materials..."
While looking at the words on the blackboard, Wade had already memorized them perfectly.
Like potions, most alchemical ingredients cannot be used directly, but must undergo complex processing: cutting, grinding, drying, calcining, baking, soaking...
Sometimes, what may appear to be an ordinary "stone" may have undergone dozens of processing steps.
Forest fairy hair is such a troublesome thing because it is highly sensitive. Any mistake in any step—even just a slight increase in temperature or a few seconds less processing time—can completely ruin this material.
Therefore, Professor Morrie did not let Wade make the alchemy himself that afternoon; instead, he spent the entire time teaching him how to process the materials and the final alchemical steps.
"Remember, you must begin making it when it is completely quiet and there is plenty of moonlight."
Professor Murray advised, "When you resonate with nature, you will know in your heart—this is the moment—that is your best opportunity."
"Thank you, Professor. I've noted it all down."
Wade put away his notebook, which was filled with several pages of notes, and nodded seriously.
Professor Morrie recalled his students who, despite being emphasized eight times, would still make mistakes on their ninth alchemy attempt. Comparing them to Vader before him, he couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.
If every student were like Wade, how wonderful that would be!
Mori couldn't help but think.
He picked up his black tea, took a sip, and prepared to tell Wade to go back for dinner. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly noticed that the boy had stuffed his notes into his bag, and his downcast eyes made him look somewhat gloomy.
"What's wrong?" Mori keenly sensed something was amiss, his brow furrowing slightly. "Is something on your mind?"
"nothing."
Wade gave a wry smile, his fingers gripping the backpack straps slightly, his knuckles looking somewhat pale.
"Can't you say?" Professor Morrie emphasized, "That unsure expression doesn't seem like you—what happened?"
Vid's tone was unusually nervous as he said, "Well... we set up the spectator stands yesterday, and it seems this competition is on an extraordinary scale; many countries' ministries of magic will probably send people to watch. So I..."
"Are you worried about failure?" Professor Morrie asked.
“Yes,” the boy said softly, “even if others fail, everyone can understand. But if I lose… if the championship doesn’t go to Hogwarts in the end… I suspect the whole world will laugh at me…”
Professor Morrie chuckled softly.
He placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and said gently, "Silly boy, what you bear on your shoulders is not the honor of Hogwarts, but your own courage."
"So what if you lose? Just the fact that you're even on the field already puts you ahead of 99% of the competitors!"
"The real failure is not losing the championship, but being bound by fear and losing the courage to pursue it. As long as you have given it your all, no matter the result, you will not be laughed at, and this castle will always be proud of you."
"certainly……"
He straightened Wade's collar and said, "I believe my students are better than anyone else, and you should believe that too."
Feeling the weight on his shoulders, the boy took a deep breath, and when he raised his head again, his gray eyes had regained their confidence and determination.
"I understand... I won't let you down!"
……
"despair!"
As the door closed, the faint wavering, vulnerability, and emotion on Wade's face vanished.
He stood at the doorway, unconsciously turning his head to look at the thick wooden door, his eyes regaining their usual calm and composure.
The parchment in my arms was hot; Antoine's message arrived right on cue:
[Antoine: So? Did you find anything?]
After a while, Wade wrote his reply:
[Wade: No, I didn't find anything suspicious.]
[Antoine: Well, let me tell you what I found out—your Professor Morrie has been selling off most of his assets since two years ago, including his shares in Nimbus Flying Broomsticks.]
[Antoine: Everyone knows this is a golden goose; we wouldn't sell it even if we had to sell the old house. I can't think of any reason why he would do that.]
Wade's heart sank. He closed his eyes briefly and asked, "What about the other person you were investigating?"
(End of this chapter)