Chapter 47: Next!

Indeed, as the ring had mentioned, after Halloween, Quirrell's face grew increasingly pale, and his body would occasionally twitch.

However, this fit well with Professor Quirrell's persona, unnoticed by other students except for Tver, who observed him intentionally.

Meanwhile, Tver immersed himself in the busy teaching work. The curriculum combining theory and practice was highly suitable for Hogwarts. Especially after students realized that theoretical learning could enhance practical skills, they began to value textbook knowledge more.

Of course, Tver's mind was mostly occupied with his own affairs:

- Dueling with Flitwick (completed, feeling the peculiar charm of white magic, shifting some attention to this aspect);

- Weekly Transfiguration research with Dumbledore (great progress, even causing a badge reaction, cannot miss it);

- Private lessons with Percy Weasley (consider it as preparation until the next opponent is found);

- Studying the nature and instincts of wizards in Neville's case (slow progress, but seeing benefits, requires continuous research);

- Exploration of the four elements (almost no progress, found only three books in the Restricted Section, one incomprehensible, two useless);

- Unforgivable Curses research (postponed!);

- Wizard's chess practice (completely surpassed Percy, can now sustain on the chessboard for over half an hour);

- Magic map (results as expected, need to improve alchemy proficiency and map completeness, further refine the magic flow interruption issue);

- Training of dummies (clear upper limit, without improvement, the combat level will plateau, postponed until personal understanding further improves);

- Minor ghost magic (product of mimicking ghosts, detaching from the body, seems to have a higher ceiling than training dummies, priority increased);

- Philosopher's Stone theft plan (Quirrell's focus shifted to Snape, and progress slowed again, but the wizard's chess progress is good, can urge Quirrell appropriately to prevent him from dying before completion, if he must die, he must finish the job).

In just over two months, Tver had accomplished so much. Although he had become accustomed to the busy schedule of learning and research, he still felt a hint of fatigue.

Of course, this was also because there were too many secrets in this school, making him reluctant to rest. There was still plenty of time, and things were progressing according to plan, so he decided to take it one step at a time.

First, the magic map.

Tver was somewhat dissatisfied with the map's crudeness. There were only a few secret passages marked, which he had noticed himself. If Harry and the others were to hide in one of those passages, he wouldn't be able to find them. But to finely detail the map would require a considerable amount of time to explore every detail of the castle, which seemed impractical for him.

The best solution would be to obtain the original Marauder's Map and merge the two maps. By combining their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses, he could naturally obtain the most satisfactory map.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The knocking brought him back from his thoughts.

"Come in."

As the door automatically swung open, five figures jostling outside came into view. It was Percy's group, the five students who had private lessons in the evening.

Finally, Percy, with his head held high and his prefect badge shining brightly on his chest, walked in first, while the other four followed quietly behind.

Tver poured them five cups of tea; his office only had that now, as he had emptied the pumpkin juice last night.

"I recall private lessons haven't started yet. Is there something you need from me?"

George nudged Percy forward, prompting him to sit in front of Tver.

Percy took a sip of tea and said, "Since your wizard's chess skills are better than mine, we discussed it and decided to find you a more formidable opponent."

Now, nearing mid-November, the training dummies were facing expiration again. Therefore, they were eager to find the next sparring partner to play chess with the professor.

Tver folded the parchment in his hand.

"It's unnecessary. It might seem as though I'm giving you private lessons just to play chess."

Cedric and the others exchanged relieved glances.

"By the way, who did you find?"

"...It's Ron." Percy hesitated for a moment before reluctantly speaking up.

Perfect!

Tver had been pondering what excuse to find to play chess with Ron legitimately. Now, it seemed like the opportunity had presented itself.

Seeing Tver's obvious smile, Percy's determination was strengthened — learning wizard's chess well to please the professor was no problem!

"Since that's the case, bring Ron along when you come tonight."

George, feeling anxious, stepped forward.

"Professor, what about the training dummies?"

Over the past two months, they had learned many combat techniques with the dummies. Though they were forced to learn, each session ended with them dangling from the ceiling. But that was still learning!

Their progress was extremely evident; all four of them were among the top ten in the Halloween rankings, firmly holding positions at the top of the third-year Quidditch standings.

Tver waved his hand grandly. "Let's extend it for another month. However, that's the maximum extension. Any longer, and that dummy will fall apart."

Moreover, in a month, he wouldn't need these people to play chess with him anymore.

The five of them instantly beamed with joy.

A month's time was already sufficient; they had nearly reached the limit with the training dummies. Another month wouldn't significantly enhance their training results with the dummies, so they were content with this decision.

With their goal achieved, they intended to leave. However, at that moment, Tver stopped the Weasley twins.

"George, and Fred, do you have your badges with you?"

The twins turned back, somewhat puzzled. "You mean the ones from Halloween? We've been carrying them all along."

As they spoke, they retrieved them from their pockets.

"Hand them over for now. Don't worry; I'm just going to make a few improvements, and I'll return them to you later."

The twins hesitated a bit; these badges were too useful, not to mention their ability to replenish magical energy and be reused. However, since the badges were given by the professor and could be returned, they felt reassured and left.

Tver took the two badges, examining them, contemplating how to improve them. He didn't have time to explore the castle's details, but the Weasley twins did!

All he needed to do was develop a detection spell for their badges, automatically mapping out the terrain they had encountered, and then feed it back to the map.

Of course, it sounded simple, but there were many issues involved. The biggest problem was the issue of magical reserves.

A badge could only contain the magical energy equivalent to a few Shield Charms, and once depleted, it would become ineffective and need to be recharged. Now, if a continuous detection spell were added, it would probably need recharging every few hours.

Not to mention, frequent recharging alone would be enough to arouse suspicion among the students, let alone whether the twins would agree to it.

So, he also needed to enhance the magical energy storage capacity inside the badges.