Chapter 46: Ron, put away your fragile self-esteem!

So, Harry and Ron hurried back to the dormitory and hid the Nimbus 2000.

During the whole day's classes, Harry's heart seemed to stay in the dormitory with the Nimbus 2000. He didn't listen to any class at all. It was not until seven o'clock in the evening that he couldn't wait to take the Nimbus 2000 to the Quidditch pitch.

On the other side, Lynn was worried about something. 

Last year, Professor Green had given him a long list of books as auxiliary materials for his three or four years of alchemy studies. Even though his current alchemy level was not low, the books on the list could still provide great help for his alchemy.

But the problem was that most of the books in the second half of the list were stored in the Restricted Section of the library. After Professor Green left Hogwarts, the permission slip that Professor Green had given to Lynn naturally lost its original validity, which made Lynn unable to borrow books from the Restricted Section with the permission slip as before.

Lynn did not think about asking his Head of House, Professor Snape, or other professors for a permission slip, but it was obvious that no professor would let him into the Restricted Section just because Lynn wanted to study alchemy, which he could only take in the sixth year.

After all, even the alchemy knowledge that was optional for the sixth year could be borrowed from the regular book area of the library. The Restricted Section contained some advanced and even dangerous knowledge. For the safety of students, these professors would naturally not let students access it without permission.

So, Lynn had to go out at night after curfew, using the Disillusionment Charm taught by Professor Green to enter the Restricted Section invisibly to find the books on the list.

Since the library was enchanted with a warning spell, even if Lynn cast the Disillusionment Charm, he could only hide in the Restricted Section to read books, or copy them with a notebook. Otherwise, once the books from the Restricted Section were taken out of the library, the library's warning magic would be triggered and Lynn would be discovered, even if the books were copied using the Gemino Charm!

In the next week, Lynn not only had to refine an alchemy array every night, but also went to the library's Restricted Section to find books.

Soon it was the weekend, and Lynn had completed the enchantment of the Desert Eagle and copied a whole alchemy book from the Restricted Section. 

Of course, he did not copy this alchemy book for nothing. He used the several alchemy runes and alchemy array diagrams recorded in this book when enchanting the bullets of the Desert Eagle.

Yes, Lynn's plan before Halloween was to enchant all the 100 bullets attached to the Desert Eagle.

Normally, it is not realistic to enchant 100 bullets in less than two months, but the size of a bullet is so small that it is impossible to enchant a complex alchemy array on it. For simple alchemy arrays, Lynn's engraving speed will naturally be much faster.

However, it is also difficult to engrave an alchemy array on such a small object, which was a test of Lynn's skill.

On the other hand, in the two months before Halloween, Irina began to explore the wandless casting of the Freezing Charm through her own non-verbal casting method.

Without guidance, wandless casting is not so easy to accomplish. At least Irina failed after trying wandless casting for two months.

But Irina's Freezing Charm was not without any progress. At least without a wand, Irina could condense a small piece of ice for her own use. With her strong affinity for the ice element, the ice that could be condensed out of thin air could be transformed into a dagger and other shapes by Irina, which allowed Irina to have a certain self-protection ability when she lost her wand.

Soon, Halloween was coming again. 

On the eve of Halloween, the whole Hogwarts Castle was filled with the sweet and tempting smell of roasted pumpkin.

In the Charms class for first-year students at Hogwarts, Professor Flitwick announced that he would teach everyone how to cast the Levitation Charm, but young witches and wizards like Irina, Hermione and Malfoy, who were gifted or had been exposed to magic in advance, had already learned the Levitation Charm by themselves.

Professor Flitwick divided the students in the classroom into pairs. Harry's partner was the accident-prone Seamus, and Ron's partner was Hermione. 

As for Irina, when Professor Flitwick demonstrated the Levitation Charm, she was praised and given extra points by Professor Flitwick because she casually used a non-verbal Levitation Charm to levitate a feather, and was given the privilege of not having to practice.

"Come on, Hermione!" 

Irina held a bag of snacks and cheered for Hermione while eating.

However, judging from the proficiency of Hermione in performing the Levitation Charm in the trophy room that day, she didn't seem to need Irina's encouragement at all.

The Levitation Charm for gifted young witches and wizards only requires them to wave their wands and think about it, but for ordinary young witches and wizards, they need to strictly follow the requirements to cast the Levitation Charm: wave and swish properly, and pronounce the incantation accurately.

Obviously, Ron was not a so-called gifted young wizard.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Ron shouted, swinging his wand like a sledgehammer to hit someone. 

Looking at Ron's exaggerated movements, Irina couldn't help but blush.

"You're doing it wrong!" His partner Hermione said bluntly, "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, with a long 'gar' sound!"

Ron's face darkened, his fragile self-esteem did not allow him to be corrected, and he roared, "If you're so clever, then go ahead!"

"Ouch..." Irina swallowed the snack in her mouth, "Ron, you seem to have forgotten that Hermione defeated Malfoy with the Levitation Charm."

Hearing this, Ron was stunned.

Hermione waved her wand: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Not only the feathers in front of Hermione, but even the table in front of them rose with Hermione's spell. 

Hermione's beautiful Levitation Charm naturally won the praise of Professor Flitwick.

After class, Ron's mood was extremely bad. He felt that his self-esteem had been trampled on. He said to Harry beside him irritably: "No wonder no one can stand her. Honestly, she's a nightmare, always nitpicking!"

Just then, Ron felt that his shoulder was hit by someone passing by. The person did not turn around, but hurried away. 

Ron looked and found that the person was Hermione, who seemed to be crying.

Suddenly, Ron's head was hit hard by someone else.

It was Irina!

"Ron, you've really gone too far! Hermione was kindly trying to help you learn the Levitation Charm properly so you could become better at magic, but how were you thinking?! Did you think she was mocking you? Did you think you deserved that?! Ron, put away your fragile self-esteem, your worth is not defined by others!"

Irina scolded Ron. As Hermione's best friend, she naturally felt terrible seeing Hermione so upset. 

She looked very angry, even when Malfoy had called her a "Mudblood", she was not so angry. Ron believed that if it was not him standing here, but another young wizard, Irina would have hit him with a Freezing Charm!

After reprimanding Ron, Irina did not stay for long, but chased after Hermione.

(End of this chapter)