Mysterious Journey

Chapter 944 Covetousness and Divergence

Hogwarts Library.

Draco Malfoy was helping Ron and Harry revise their essays, while trying his best to suppress the rising discomfort.

Compared to their peers in the non-magical world, young wizards had some natural advantages in learning. This advantage wasn't merely on the surface of being able to manipulate magic, but more importantly, their wizarding constitution, which had been constantly surrounded by magic and improved by magical optimization.

Whether it was resistance to blows, vitality, mental strength, memory...

Even the first-year students who had just entered the school, without exception, possessed physiques far superior to ordinary people.

If the learning ability limit of an ordinary teenager was said to be one hundred, then roughly 60-80 points of potential could be tapped under the elite teaching and training of the non-magical world. But in Elena's view, the limit for teenage wizards could be at least two to three times that, but the current Hogwarts teaching content and pressure might not even have successfully explored 50 points of the "non-magical world passing line" potential.

Undoubtedly, Hogwarts' original teaching model was too gentle and scattered.

And under the tide of "new curriculum standards" and "new curriculum reform", the Hogwarts curriculum was rapidly becoming richer.

In addition to the original magic courses, math, physics, chemistry, astronomy, grammar... these interesting tools that support people's understanding and interpretation of the world have also been added to the "Hogwarts teaching package," and collided with magic to produce new knowledge.

It could be foreseen that in the near future, the richness of the magical world's curriculum would soon surpass that of the non-magical world.

The tiered differentiation of each grade at Hogwarts had already begun to raise warnings. As the courses became more difficult, dropping out would inevitably occur.

Therefore, attempts to improve the inheritance of memory magic had gradually been raised from a peripheral project to a rather important position.

As the head of this project for the foundation, Gilderoy Lockhart would first imprint the knowledge points of those Muggle courses in his mind using memory magic, based on his own learning effects in "Academy City," and form them into transferable memory content.

And Draco Malfoy, who had been promoted to a C-level member, voluntarily opened his memory and became one of the first wizards to receive a magical "灌顶" (guanding - empowerment).

"Draco, are you okay?"

Harry frowned, looking at the pale Draco with concern.

Perhaps in the eyes of most students, Draco Malfoy's face was always pale, but Harry knew very well that Draco's condition was quite wrong. Something was obviously wrong with his body, but he didn't know what had happened yet.

"I'm fine, maybe I'm just a little tired lately..."

Draco shook his head, closed his eyes, and let out a gentle breath, revealing a tired smile.

"Just rest a little, there's been a bit too much homework lately. Okay, Ron, don't be distracted. These formulas are wrong in several places. You should remember them carefully later. You can rely on the content you remember through hard work, and try not to leave anything out because of laziness. Too much debt will be troublesome later."

"What does it matter? At worst, I'll fail - or repeat a year. Anyway, my family doesn't lack one good grade."

Ron curled his lips indifferently, muttering softly, a hint of loneliness flashing in his eyes.

As a child of the Weasley family, he was inevitably compared to other Weasley children by his parents, professors, and classmates.

Not to mention Percy, Bill, and Charlie, who had long been labeled "excellent," and the George and Fred Weasley twin brothers, who were extremely popular in Gryffindor, even Ginny, who had just entered the school, seemed to be much more outstanding than him now - both in terms of grades and Quidditch.

Smack!

"Repeat a year? Weasley! Do you think you can just repeat a year if you say so? I can't afford to lose that person."

Before Ron could finish his sentence, Draco Malfoy casually rolled up his notebook and hit him on the forehead.

"Didn't you say you were going to surprise me at the end of the term? How come you're giving up after only three months? Repeating a year at Hogwarts now isn't a pleasant or easy thing. If you don't want to suffer and regret it later, you'd better spend more time studying now."

"What can I do? I'm not like you and Harry, who can learn easily..."

"Then work twice as hard to learn. Besides, do you think I have any talent? I'm not just..."

Draco interrupted Ron rudely, saying coldly, his words suddenly pausing for half a second.

"Uh, I'm not just working hard to memorize and remember those things. Do you think it's any easier for me? I'm writing these assignments one word at a time, Second Sister, Big Sister, they're all the same... Everyone is like this."

"It's obviously not the same. Anyway, you're in the top tier now, just like Big Sister, so of course you can say that."

Ron muttered with some dejection, scattering the papers on the table.

"You, you're determined to argue with me to the end today - ugh -"

Looking at Ron's self-deprecating appearance, Draco Malfoy's pale face turned red. Before he could curse, the nausea he hadn't been able to suppress rolled up more violently, causing him to let out a dry heave that sounded terrifying.

"I didn't – Draco, what's wrong?" Ron was stunned for half a second, looking at Malfoy with some confusion.

Draco wasn't... directly angered by his previous conversation, was he?

Only then did Ron realize that Draco Malfoy's condition was a little off.

Draco's lips were a bloodless, grayish-blue, looking as if he had just returned from a winter swim in the Black Lake. Fine beads of sweat oozed from his forehead, as if Draco was enduring some kind of incomprehensible torment.

"Let's stop here for today, Draco. I think you need to see Madam Pomfrey."

Harry frowned heavily, stood up, and stuffed the papers and pens on the table into his bag in one go.

"Ron, help me. We have to drag him to the hospital wing today - Draco, your condition has been too strange these days. Slytherin has a game this weekend, and I don't want to see you fall from the sky then."

As he spoke, he pulled Draco up without explanation and walked out of the library with Ron's assistance.

"I'm fine, I'm really fine..."

Draco struggled, trying to break free from the coercion of his two friends.

As a participant in the "Memory Inheritance Project," Draco Malfoy certainly knew the reason for these reactions.

People's "memory" doesn't exist in just one area, nor is it a simple accumulation of files like a computer hard drive.

Gilderoy Lockhart believed that the memory process was the process of processing, storing, and extracting input information.

Only processed information can be remembered. Processing is the process of processing and transforming the input information. If it has not been understood and processed, then the information will be like chaotic and crazy ravings, and it will all rush out when it is extracted.

Before he could fully understand the knowledge forcibly implanted into his mind, dizziness like this would occur from time to time.

On the other hand, today's "灌顶魔法" (guanding - empowerment) was ultimately transformed from memory modification magic.

Even if Gilderoy Lockhart consciously reduced the frequency and amount of input, he still couldn't completely eliminate the side effects of the magic. Compared to the ideal final state of the magic, today's memory inheritance was still in the earliest stages of exploration and trial and error.

Therefore, even if he went to Madam Pomfrey's hospital wing, aside from mental weakness, not many other problems could be found.

In fact, Draco's current condition had long been jointly diagnosed by Nicolas Flamel and a series of top wizards. The biggest problem mainly came from Lockhart's subjective consciousness. This act of others' consciousness invading inevitably triggered Draco's body to resist automatically.

According to Grindelwald, from a soul perspective, forcibly implanting memories was extremely similar to the Imperius Curse.

It was like a "blood transfusion" treatment at the memory level. The basic "rejection reaction" was ultimately unavoidable. Different magic frequencies and memory imprints were inevitable states that could not be avoided under the artificial memory implantation model and could only be healed over time.

However, in Elena's expectation, future memory magic would obviously not adopt the current artificial model.

On the one hand, this would make the subjective instability very large, and on the other hand, it would greatly waste the energy of top wizards - wizards like Gilderoy Lockhart who were good at memory magic were hard to find a second one in the entire magical world. The "灌顶" (guanding - empowerment) mode still had considerable room for optimization.

If there were no accidents, Draco should be the first and last experimental participant of "artificial empowerment."

After months of attempts and experiments, the high-level members of the "Tarot Society" found some optimization methods.

However, there were still some small differences between them...

…………

"No, no - absolutely not, let's talk about this later..."

"No matter what you say, it won't work. This is a matter of principle."

"I've said it before, I am the headmaster of Hogwarts, and I will never agree to this matter under any circumstances."

"...It's no use for anyone to say anything, not even Flamel. I said it decades ago!"

Hogwarts Headmaster's Office.

Dumbledore said firmly with a serious face, his voice leaving no room for negotiation.

Not far behind the old wizard was a huge wooden table with claw-shaped corners. Behind the table was a shelf with a ragged old pointed wizard hat - possibly the smartest hat in the entire magical world, Hogwarts' famous and respected Sorting Hat.

And in the other direction of the headmaster's office, four or five wizards of different ages were currently conducting their eleventh attempt at persuasion.

"This is for Hogwarts. Just study it a little, it's not as serious as you think."

Elena patiently explained again, giving a friendly smile to the Sorting Hat, and continued to say softly.

"You also know that the magical world will sooner or later usher in an era of memory innovation. This is a path that education will definitely take. But relying solely on artificial forms has too many drawbacks. The four founders gave the answer more than a thousand years ago - intelligent, clever magical items."

"As one of the students of Hogwarts, I guarantee that the Sorting Hat will not be damaged during the research process. Please trust me once."

"The Sorting Hat can read the thoughts of wizards, and in a gentle, non-aftereffect way, and it also has the ability to directly transmit thoughts into people's minds. This is only one step away from the effect we hope to achieve. If we can decipher the mysteries of the Sorting Hat and replicate a batch of 'learning hats' that have recorded basic knowledge, the magical world, no, human civilization, will completely step into a new era..."

As Elena's voice fell, the hat trembled and shrank further inside, seeming particularly afraid.

"I've said it before, this is the only thing that is out of the question - I don't want Hogwarts' thousand-year tradition of sorting to be buried in my hands."

"No, it won't. Albus, even if you're worried about this little girl messing around, but we've known each other for so many years, don't you trust my abilities and knowledge in this area? Beauxbatons has never had this kind of sorting hat, and it's been fine for so many years..."

"Of course I understand you, Flamel! In fact, frankly speaking, you're the one I trust the least!"

Dumbledore replied irritably, looking at the six-hundred-year-old alchemist, his eyes filled with vigilance.

You know, the Hogwarts Sorting Hat is pretty much recognized as a top-notch alchemical product in the entire magical world.

As one of the greatest alchemists in the world today, Nicolas Flamel has been coveting the Sorting Hat for more than just a day or two. If he just handed over the Sorting Hat like this, who knew what terrible things this alchemical maniac would do to the poor hat.

Perhaps most likely nothing would happen, but what if an accident occurred?

For more than a thousand years, the Sorting Hat has diligently sorted students according to their talents and qualities. This magical hat, which has been injected with the thoughts of the four founders, can be said to be the most important link in the Hogwarts college system. It can even be regarded as half of Hogwarts' symbol.

"Okay, looks like there's no room for discussion?"

Elena sighed helplessly, wrinkling her nose at Grindelwald, who was watching the show next to her.

Such conversations had happened several times this week, but Dumbledore's attitude had been very firm.

Whether it was openly reasoning well, or Grindelwald, Flamel, and others playing the emotional card privately, Dumbledore was like a stone in a latrine, stubbornly guarding the bottom line of "not lending the hat," with no sign of letting go.

"Pro-Professor Dumbledore, you won't hand me over, will you?"

Behind Dumbledore, the wrinkles of the Sorting Hat seemed to be all crumpled into a ball, looking like a wrinkled crying face.

Of course, it knew what had been happening at Hogwarts during this time, and it also knew what kind of devilish idea that little witch was brewing in her mind. The only thing it hated now was why it had been so eager to show off its wisdom before, so that it was now targeted by that witch.

"Of course not, Sorting Hat. As long as I am still the headmaster of Hogwarts, I will definitely not."

Dumbledore comforted the Sorting Hat gently, turning his head and looking at Elena with a helpless expression.

"Don't scare the poor Sorting Hat. It's over a thousand years old. It would be fine if you had clear progress and plans, but now you're just stuck with ideas. You haven't even figured out the key links of memory inheritance yourself, so don't bother it."

"Okay, okay - then I won't force you about the Sorting Hat for now."

Elena shrugged her shoulders, a hint of cunning flashing in her lake-blue eyes, and took out a parchment from her chest and shook it.

"Then let's talk about the werewolf concentration camp and the large-scale recruitment of Aurors? Of course, there's also the issue of Professor Umbridge's post as High Inquisitor... Your kindness is still as always lacking in action, unable to prevent any harm from happening."

"So -"

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Goodie!