Chapter 139: Essential Qualities of an Assistant Professor

After finishing the letters to Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, Tom started sorting through the letters delivered by the owls.

Tom organized the mail delivered by the owls: fan letters were archived, to be used as fuel in case of an apocalypse. As for the letters from students applying for the assistant professor position, they needed replies, but the responses were mostly standardized, using a template. He expressed regret that, despite reading their resumes and motivation letters carefully, they were not quite suitable for the position.

Tom, Professor Tom Lohart, required his assistant to possess several qualities: first and foremost, they needed to be intelligent; secondly, they had to be diligent and hardworking. Due to the demanding nature of the job, they also needed to endure hardship. Given the professor's personality, he hoped his assistant would have a strong desire for knowledge—a liking for reading would be a plus.

Oh, because Professor Lohart often read ancient texts, the assistant had to be familiar with Latin.

Furthermore, since senior students needed to prepare for exams, the position only accepted students in the fifth year or below. First-year students were not considered, as they were not familiar enough with the campus. For third and fourth-year students, who had elective courses, Professor Lohart hoped they would prioritize their studies. Of course, if they had enough free time, they could also become assistants.

In the spirit of fairness, gender was not a limiting factor.

After filtering through these conditions, Professor Lohart found suitable candidates for the assistant position, which he planned to announce in the next class.

After quickly dealing with the letters, Tom went to class. When he returned after class in the evening, the joint reply from Professors McGonagall and Flitwick was already on his desk. The two professors had also privately communicated and found a suitable time: after dinner.

During this time, all three of them had no classes—night classes were rare and were usually on magical history and astronomy. It was a rare moment of free time for the deans, only occurring when it came to O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams.

Of course, they were a bit worried, fearing that they might hear a lot of nonsense from Lohart during the meeting, as the image of Lohart in their minds had not completely changed.

However, when Professor McGonagall stood outside Professor Lohart's office, she already understood that it was too late to turn back. She glanced at Professor Flitwick beside her.

"Anyway, I have to patrol at night," Professor McGonagall tried to console herself: at worst, it would be considered an early-night patrol.

Professor Flitwick hesitated for a moment, "If his proposal doesn't make sense, we can play wizard chess in his office."

Professor McGonagall: ?

"Not ordinary wizard chess, but an improved version. He asked me about it today..."

Listening to Professor Flitwick's description, Professor McGonagall felt that this matter was full of unreliability. She suddenly became pessimistic about tonight's conversation: indeed, Professor Lohart was still the same.

She knocked on the door.

At this time, Tom was examining his creation: an adult-sized puppet with flexible joints.

"Come in!" Hearing the knock, he knew that the two deans had arrived, so he quickly opened the office door for them.

"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, please come in and have a seat here!" Tom brought two armchairs for the professors.

Looking at the life-sized puppet, Professor McGonagall frowned and sighed, "Professor Lohart, what brings us here?"

Tom took out a teapot and three teacups.

"I have been researching past exam questions for O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams recently. I found that practical exams mainly focus on the unraveling of various curses and proficiency in protective spells."

Professor McGonagall's expression became slightly more serious, and she nodded, "That's correct. So I suggest that Professor Lohart train the students more in this aspect."

Tom shook his head, "A wizard's abilities have limits. Besides, the time in class is not enough, and the progress of students practicing on their own is not fast. So, I thought of another way, but it requires the help of both Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick."

"Does Professor Lohart, skilled in adventure and proficient in various curses, need the help of other professors?" Professor McGonagall teased Tom a bit, after all, professors at Hogwarts rarely sought help from other professors. This Lohart was something else; he even bothered Philius to play a game.

Tom didn't seem to notice at all. Anyway, he didn't think it was embarrassing; his own accumulation was indeed not as much as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick. In terms of unraveling various curses, Flitwick was more skilled.

"Yes!" Tom stood up. "I hope you two can help me create a puppet that can use various curses and protective spells. This way, during class, I can use the puppet to practice with the students, allowing them to quickly master protective spells through practical combat. It will also enable students to help each other in unraveling curses, thus training them in various curse unraveling techniques."

Professor McGonagall suddenly felt that this idea was somewhat interesting, but she looked at Tom suspiciously, "Why don't you personally go up and battle the students?"

That's because I know fewer curses! Moreover, if Tom doesn't transform, he won't last through an entire class of intense battles.

Tom didn't beat around the bush; he directly stated that he had limited knowledge of curses, and his mastery of corresponding counterspells was also lacking. Therefore, he needed a combat puppet to help him with practical teaching.

Professor McGonagall once thought she had misheard something: this Lohart could actually admit that there were things he couldn't do? However, his idea was genuinely considerate of the students and would benefit them a lot. Since it was beneficial to the students, Professor McGonagall would lend a helping hand.

But a crucial problem lay ahead of them: Tom's idea was a bit too complicated.

Even if it's a semi-automatic puppet, making it would be terribly troublesome.

"First of all, there's a problem: where does the puppet get its energy from?"

When ordinary wizards cast spells, they use their own magical power. For a lifeless puppet to cast magic, it would need a source of magical power.

If this puppet needs to consume the operator's magical power, it's a bit impractical. After all, it has to serve as a teaching tool! No professor can sustain magical output for an entire class. Wizards rarely experience magical exhaustion because the intensity of most fights is not enough—most encounters are resolved within a few moves, sometimes just one spell against another.

But that doesn't mean a wizard's magical power is limitless. If one were to maintain magical output for an entire class, even a professor would be drained.

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