Mysterious Journey
Chapter 958 The Price of Power
Specific wand movements, the correct incantation, the caster's subjective awareness of the spell's effect, and a certain degree of concentration from the caster.
When at least one of these four basic conditions is not met – for example, if the caster does not use the correct wand movements, does not correctly pronounce the incantation, does not concentrate, or does not have a clear idea of the spell's effect in their mind – the spell will not be cast successfully, and may even backfire, resulting in an explosion of magical energy, which is the cause of death for ninety percent of spellcasters.
Fortunately, the magic of underage wizards is not yet sufficient to kill themselves.
On the other hand, spells, or rather their corresponding magical effects, can also be cast without a wand or without uttering the incantation, which is known as silent and wandless casting, but this requires a particularly high level of ability from the wizard.
Therefore, silent and wandless spells are not taught to beginner and intermediate learners in general spell teaching, nor is practice encouraged.
For example, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, silent spells are not taught until the sixth year. Before that, young wizards' magical control and power have not reached the point where they can bypass the constraints of incantations and gestures and independently complete a magical effect.
Of course, all of the above restrictions only apply to: underage, ordinary, human wizards.
For Aileen, beginner spells like the Freezing Charm have almost no casting difficulty once the root of the magic is understood.
"theworld——"
Accompanied by the surge of her magic, a bone-chilling cold quickly spread outward from Aileen's fingertips.
Fine ice crystals began to appear in the air, and the air that Hermione exhaled formed a cloud of cold mist.
Worse, she felt as if she was stuck in a viscous swamp, and even blinking her eyes required all her strength.
"Well, it looks like the time stop worked?"
Aileen curiously poked Hermione's tender lips, enjoying the changing expressions of shame and astonishment in the little beaver's eyes.
From a microscopic point of view, temperature is essentially the degree of intensity of thermal motion of molecules.
Regardless of whether the origin of the "Freezing Charm" is "stillness" or "freezing", the process of magic presentation may still be a black box that cannot be fully cracked for the time being, but the results it produces are mostly observable objective physical states – magic originates from the wizard's consciousness; Umbridge's n.e.w.ts spell assessment standards are essentially just concentration and the manifestation of magical dissipation.
When the caster has a certain understanding of the macro and micro world, such as Aileen, she can selectively increase the magical effect on one side.
In other words, whether it's freezing or time stop, she can easily...
Ouch——
Before Aileen could finish the thoughts in her mind, she suddenly felt a pain in her index finger.
Hermione, who had broken free from the "time stop" restraint at some point, opened her mouth and bit the claw that was poking her lips, filled with resentment.
"Hiss——"
Aileen couldn't help but gasp, looking at Hermione with helpless eyes.
Since she had previously strengthened her strength by three times, she didn't dare to act rashly now. If she accidentally knocked out the little beaver's teeth, then she might be in trouble for a while. This wasn't like Neville, where she could just spank his butt, heal him, and pretend nothing happened.
Most importantly, who did Hermione learn this bad habit of biting at the slightest disagreement from?!
However, since they were in class, Hermione grudgingly let go of her teeth after grinding them for a while.
"What was that just now? That spell..."
Hermione lowered her voice, shivering unnaturally.
It was a very uncomfortable experience, as if she had suddenly been stripped naked and stuffed into an icebox, with the skin all over her body feeling a sudden drop in temperature at the same time, and her body unable to react. The wizard robes were like heavy armor, making it impossible for Hermione to move.
"Freezing Charm? So... is this the advanced casting technique that Professor Flitwick was talking about?"
"Well, I guess so. Uh—what's wrong with your hand..."
Aileen was shivering from the cold and subconsciously reached out to touch Hermione's left hand, which was resting on the desk.
Ice cold.
Huh? How could it be so cold?!
Before Hermione could speak, Aileen's hand quietly dropped and, under the cover of the desk, reached into Hermione's thick wizard robes and groped around.
Judging from the temperature feedback from her fingertips, it wasn't just the exposed back of her hand, but Hermione's entire body seemed to have undergone a rapid cooling, but it didn't cause any damage to her body. It seemed more like a comprehensive decrease in body surface temperature.
No wonder she looked so embarrassed and angry just now, so that's why...
"Hey! We're still in class, Aileen. If you keep messing around like this, I'm really going to get angry—"
"Stop it, wyrd——"
Aileen frowned and directly activated the healing runes, pressing them gently on Hermione's waist without explanation.
In the next moment, a warm current instantly spread through Hermione's body, quickly dispelling the lingering cold in her body. The comfort of soaking in a hot spring almost made Hermione moan, but she used the last of her rationality to bite her lip hard.
"Sorry, Granger... it was my fault just now. I didn't expect this magic to..."
Aileen looked at her palm in confusion, carefully recalling the various details when she cast the spell just now.
Theoretically, wizards receive spell amplification when using a wand.
Therefore, her wandless, silent casting just now should have presented a certain weakening.
But the opposite was true. The "time stop" she cast on Hermione not only forced Hermione into a state of stillness in terms of macro actions, but also acted on Hermione's body functions and the surrounding environment's temperature drop.
This was completely different from the effect when Aileen used her wand to cast the "Freezing Charm" in class before.
It seemed that experiments on molecular magic, or rather microscopic magic, needed to be more cautious and set up more repeated experimental groups.
"This knowledge belongs to Muggle physics and the application of magic, just like the delayed explosion charm you mastered before. If you are really interested in these things, you can stay in the Hufflepuff common room for the next few days, and I will give you extra lessons at night—"
Aileen thought for a few seconds, temporarily putting aside the improvement of "microscopic magic", and turned to look at Hermione.
After spending so much time together, she certainly knew how to dispel Hermione's anger. When faced with those mysterious and interesting knowledge, the know-it-all Miss had never had much resistance, especially when these contents were also closely related to the school exams.
Sure enough, Hermione nodded lightly, her bright amber eyes shining with light.
"Then it's a deal. You can't add extra requests, okay!"
"Well, of course."
Tap, tap—
The faint sound of high heels hitting the ground came from behind the girls.
Aileen realized that Umbridge, not far away, was approaching, seemingly wanting to hear what they were talking about.
She quickly touched Hermione's shoes with her foot under the desk, while opening her book and starting to read the contents in a low voice. She felt that it was better not to let Umbridge get involved at this time. It would be too wasteful if the High Inquisitor "died" here.
Aileen had already decided that she would squeeze the Ministry of Magic and Umbridge for value this time, creating a villain image.
To this end, she reduced the Hogwarts Campus Research Institute's topics by 30% and suppressed the information about werewolf community attacks that Rita Skeeter had risked collecting. The current situation was different from when she was in the fifth grade in the original book. Whether it was Cornelius Fudge or the magical society, their relationship with Dumbledore had not become so tense, which also restricted the boggart in their hearts.
Although Umbridge and Fudge always claimed to the outside world how much they cared about and valued the stability of the magical society.
But Aileen was very clear that the only thing they cared about was the power under their butts – the suspension of the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic would tear a crack of desire for power in Umbridge's heart, and she would inevitably gradually reproduce the bad deeds she committed in the original timeline.
And before that, Aileen had to pull out enough time and space for Umbridge, waiting for her to gradually anger all the teachers and students of Hogwarts.
"By the way, Aileen. You said you were going to apologize, right?"
Just then, Hermione's voice suddenly came from Aileen's ear.
"You just said this morning that verbal apologies are meaningless. Apologies must be put into action—"
"Eh?"
Aileen turned her head blankly, meeting Hermione's bright amber eyes.
"I hope—"
Hermione paused for a few seconds before saying seriously.
"When Professor Flitwick conducts the spell assessment later, can you go all out—in the way of a student, with your true magical strength, I want to see how much difference there is between me and you. As for the content, it should be today's Freezing Charm."
From a long time ago, Hermione vaguely felt that Aileen had been holding back.
This white-haired fluffball was like an unfathomable vortex, and Hermione would never know what her limit was.
Just like the spell sparring at the beginning of class, no matter what spell she cast, Aileen could use "Finita Incantatem" to complete a perfect counter-spell response – she truly made the "Stopping Charm" the "Finita Incantatem" that only existed in theory.
"Full power... casting?"
Aileen thoughtfully stroked her wand.
"Okay... I'll try. But let me say this first—don't be surprised if I'm too powerful."
Speaking of which, she didn't seem to have ever cast a functional spell with full power.
It just so happened that the "Freezing Charm" would not produce derivative freezing effects if "molecular casting" was not considered. She might even create a "counter-effect" by suppressing that part of the magic acting on the molecular level, so it might really be worth a try...
After all, a defensive spell like the Freezing Charm wouldn't accidentally make a hole in the castle like an exploding spell, would it?
…………
In the subsequent Charms class, Aileen did not continue to try "molecular magic".
As a hybrid wizard combining the advantages of humans and Veelas, the lower-grade Charms class was not difficult for Aileen at all. Unless the casting logic and principles underwent a revolutionary change, her magical talent from her bloodline was a gap that Hermione and others could never catch up with through hard work.
When class was about to end, Professor Flitwick added points to Aileen twice more as a reward for her brilliant magical performance.
In the last round of magical practice, her spell instantly froze all the books floating in the Charms classroom.
If Aileen had not miscalculated, if she used her wand to cast the "Freezing Charm" with full power, she should be able to create at least five to ten seconds of a small-scale "time stop · pseudo". The most important point was that this magic was not a slow, path-dependent beam magic.
However, she had not yet tried the limit casting distance, and she did not know if she could span the Quidditch pitch like Dumbledore.
"Today is a tie, and you also won two points for Gryffindor, didn't you? Hermione."
Aileen said, as they left the Charms classroom, walked down the steps, and walked through the long corridor to the entrance hall to prepare for lunch.
"The fineness of magical manipulation is something that can't be rushed. When you finish advanced physics, you might be even more powerful than me—"
Seeing that Hermione's emotions seemed a little low, Aileen continued, "I mean, look at Professor Umbridge, she's also learning new knowledge. Senior officials from the Ministry of Magic are still like this, so you don't need to be too anxious and frustrated. Compared to most students, your magic is already very good. And in the class Q&A session, you've been better than me this semester. Isn't that the most obvious victory?"
A muffled grunt came from Hermione's throat.
"Of course, I might have a little advantage in terms of magic power, which may be an amplification formed by runic magic. When you finish advanced mathematics, advanced physics, and advanced chemistry, I'll try to see if I can condense healing runes and secretly teach them to you—"
They sat down together at the Hufflepuff table.
"If that doesn't work, I can still try to ask Professor Apocalis for you. Maybe he'll be willing to make an exception and teach you a second time..."
"Aileen," Hermione bit her lip, "If you think that letting me win in class or deliberately losing to me will make me happy, then you are definitely wrong. Your magic limit has already exceeded the level of everyone in the same year, right? You've been letting me win all along, haven't you?"
"I don't—of course I haven't thought of that—Besides, as time goes on, everyone's magic will slowly grow—"
"Humans have limits," Hermione said, scooping tomato beef stew into her bowl, "but you and Professor Flitwick are different."
"Huh, when did you notice—"
Aileen was stunned for a moment, then shrugged helplessly.
If Hermione couldn't find those unusual things about her after such a long time together, that would be strange.
"Okay, I do have some magical talent—but there's a price to pay for it."
"...A price?"
Hermione repeated softly.
Then, she looked at Aileen's chest and raised her eyebrows.
"Oh?"
"Not that price! Don't guess!"
"Oh—"
Hermione's tail tone was drawn out, and her gaze flickered over Aileen's angry ahoge on her head.
I see, that explains everything.
For example... why Professor Dumbledore would let a first-year student like Aileen be the intermediary between Hogwarts and Gringotts.
Gringotts Goblin Queen... Goblin, Queen...
She should have thought of this long ago—