LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 32: Drooling
"Not if the thread and cups are hyper-sensitive, I did imbue them with sensitivity. I can do natural imbuement now. So, seventh year's charm will work, professor."
"It seems you thought of everything, Mr Leon. I believe playing around with the principle behind this enchanted item can take you to at least Owl's enchanting or artificing my boy, simply marvelous. Yes, this has the potential to be your topic for at least your fourth year." Professor Flitwick muttered excitedly, wringing his hands.
"I do have cool ideas for my third-year professor, but I am not done yet."
Leon took out another prototype.
The prototype was four small cups the size of a fingernail, two red and two blue with string hanging from them.
"Professor, please enchant this red cup's thread to this blue cup and vice versa."
"Smart! Now you can both talk and hear at the same time, the vibrations from your talking cup will go to the other set's listening cup and vice versa."
"Isn't it awesome professor? Now I can talk with anyone from literally anywhere."
"Yes, Yes, with my spell you can talk with anyone in the world if they have this opposite set, but a seventh-year's spell isn't that powerful, Mr Leon, I am sure you know."
Leon wasn't sure what to do with his idea, he wasn't lacking money. But more money is good, especially because 'his' money is in the vault out of his reach if he doesn't dance to the tunes of his House's old parchment.
"What do you think of this item, professor? Are their artifacts similar to this?"
"Yes, yes, there are artifacts that carry sound. But yours works on the simplest principle I know and can imitate the results of those artifacts with more magical principles. Don't lose your innovative and curious mind, my boy. It will help you more than you believe."
The duo fell into silence, Flitwick analyzing his e-item while Leon thought about its uses.
'It will make for a good spy item too I guess.'
"Now, as exciting as this is, we should go for dinner. Dinner started 10 minutes ago."
Leon waved his wand at the first set of prototypes and used the spell he learned this morning. He miniaturized the cups before stuffing them into his pockets.
And then the duo left for the great hall.
"If you were going to sell this as a trinket, I would have asked you to check things like your animation duration, and the protean charms duration and such, but I believe you are not selling this as a trinket, right?"
Leon had to walk fast to keep up with his diminutive professor, as the charms master moved like the main character in an energy drink ad.
"I am not sure yet! But why only as a trinket, professor? Isn't this useful for civilians or aurors?" he asked, shifting between jogging and fast walking.
The professor furrowed his eyebrows before he remembered about Leon's background.
"For one thing, the cups are too unwieldy for civilian use and aurors have their own artifacts to communicate which are more secure and powerful."
'I guess, the auror artifacts have things similar to fingerprint or access codes to use them and you can hijack the lines of my e-item though I don't know how. Hmm! Should I sell this as a specialty item- a trinket, or not? I guess we will see if I need the money urgently.'
Selling something that has principles of science for pocket change didn't appeal to Leon. If he wants money, he will aim for a large amount, not pocket change.
After all, he already has a vault full of gold and is shameless enough to not even bother looking up the real inventor of the string telephone.
"Even if you make them convenient to use. The wards around the houses will most likely interfere with your enchanted item. And I don't think you know enough about wards and such to make it a household item like floo. So, you better wait if you don't want to sell it as a trinket or you should dedicate most of your time to catching up on your lack of knowledge."
The professor stopped and turned towards Leon, fixing him with his eyes.
"You will be underestimating the owls- Which are magical in nature, in addition to being bred for centuries to work as messengers- if you think your instant message delivery with paper cups will give you an edge in the market."
With that Flitwick ran off to the professor's table, leaving Leon standing near the entrance.
'What does he mean by that?... I should read up on owls.'
The Hufflepuff walked towards his table, cursing the number of hours in a day.
"Look who is here? The lost badger, where were you firstie? We are not seeing you much these days, did you change houses?"
Tonks started ribbing him just as he sat beside Hannah who was trying to transform into a chipmunk from a badger.
"I was in the enchanters' clubroom. And Hannah, slow down, no one is going to eat your pudding."
Hannah ignored him and continued stuffing herself.
"Somehow, I doubt no one is going to steal her pudding, firstie. With you here, aren't you going to give her competition? I saw you finishing a whole bowl of pudding by yourself."
"It's not like the elves can't make more," he said, ignoring the limit mentioned in Gamp's law.
While food can be multiplied in quantity, the limit is 3 times the amount of the original amount you have. And as much as House-elves are magical, they can't create pudding out of thin air.
Leon started serving himself and started to demolish the food.
The puffs concentrated on filling their stomachs with the delicious food and silence descended on them.
"Awesome as always," He patted his stomach after eating his fill before turning towards his friends.
"Want to see what I made today?"
Hannah, who looked like she was going into a food-induced coma, nodded her head, shaking her twin tails while Susan raised just her eyebrow.
'Damn! She looks cool, should I learn how to raise a single eyebrow too?'
Getting rid of stupid thoughts in his head, Leon took out the first set of prototypes, the one with two cups.
He gave one to Susan and another to Hannah.
"Hold it near your ear, Susan. And Hannah, turn around and whisper into it, please."
The duo followed his instructions, one looking dubious and one just happily playing along.
"What! how?" Susan looked taken aback.
"Magic!" Leon snickered.
'Ah! I always wanted to say that.'
"Now! You talk and let Hannah listen."
Hannah excitedly hovered the cup near her ear and nudged Susan, who was still staring at him, to speak.
"Amazing!" Hannah muttered.
"Susan, why don't you toss the cup to our form-changing eavesdropper?"
Tonks didn't even look embarrassed as she caught the paper cup.
"Looks like you have some talent, firstie. I can't even imagine the first step on how to create this interesting Knick knack."
Leon covered up the threads by increasing the cup size and attaching a fake bottom.
Unlike Flitwick who suddenly became a diminutive Sherlock for someone who doesn't know much about physics, Tonk's response was more along the line of his expectations.
'Maybe she can guess it if she sees the thread vibrating?' He didn't know how she could. 'I guess even if she sees the thread her thoughts will lean towards a new spell instead of sound traveling through the thread.'
"What is its range?" Tonks observed the cup, turning it up and down.
"Well! According to Flitwick anywhere in the world."
"Good! Now, let me show you your senior's talent. Take the cup from Hannah and keep it near your ear."
Leon curiously looked at her before shrugging and did just that.
Tonks took out her wand and waved it around the cup, muttering some spell.
She kept at it for a couple of seconds before he started to hear entirely new sounds.
"While the food is good, don't think I forgot about you guys' meeting Hagrid every day without me." A muffled voice rang out like someone was talking with their mouth full.
'Is that the Hogwarts troll, Weasley?' Leon wondered. 'We would have made great food buddies in another world.'
Suddenly the sound of drinking drowned down all the other noise and the conversations snapped back to his table.
"How?" he asked, thoroughly impressed.
"I like that look on you, firstie. It's a shifting charm, the charm temporarily shifts the magical properties of one object to another." Tonks gave him a smug look and exaggeratedly preened under his gaze.
"What did you hear?" Hannah poked Leon, snapping him of this amazement.
"Weasley, I heard Weasley. I think Tonks charmed a cup near Weasley to act as the other end of my e-item."
"Oh! Then, Tonks let's hear what Daphne is talking about."
The Slytherin's table looked like they were dining in a fancy restaurant at a formal meeting.
Some bites were followed with napkin dabs which were spread on their laps.
Everyone was only speaking with the person in front or beside them, and their conversations were short like they didn't know each other.
'I wonder if they don't get bored if all their lunches and dinners are so tedious.'
"Please!" Hannah pleaded seeing the seventh year not responding.
Tonks eyed the Slytherin table before relenting under the puppy eyes of the badger.
Hannah poked him again, prompting him to give her the cup.
Leon observed the Slytherins as Hannah excitedly placed the cup near her ear.
"I can hear her!" She giggled.
Her words were followed by Daphne suddenly turning towards their table making eye contact with Tonks and sending her a smile.
Tonks harrumphed.
"She is sharp as always."
"How did she do that?" Leon was equally tired and excited about the number of times he was amazed today.
"A simple surveillance charm. Your e-item broadcasts its intent to transfer sound to even the simplest of spells."
'Right, Spells work on intent. Does magic pick up intent from mass-made machines made in factories too? Argh! Why can't there be more time in a day.'
While Leon did think of Time Turner, he didn't think valuable artifacts that are supposed to be banned by the ministry would be in the room of requirements.
After all, as the elves call it, it is only a lost and found room.
'I should still check it out or maybe my vault has one.'
"Hey! Susan," Leon whispered as they walked back towards their dorms after dinner.
"Why did Tonks learn that spell with that long incantation? After she becomes 21 and thus a Witch, she won't need the spell anymore, right?"
"Oh! I didn't mean that you become a Witch after you turn 21, some people take longer and some shorter. My aunt became a Witch at 19 and many of her friends too. She said War was a great incentive to become powerful." She ruefully shook her head and continued.
"21 is the age the founders let their students out into the world. That's why we became legal adults after 21. Rumor is that Slytherin wanted students to study until they become 27 but was rejected."
'I guess it is logical for a long-lived race to have become adult much later when compared to their counterparts.'
Susan stopped for a second as Hannah turned towards them before going back to her conversation with Tonks.
"For a Witch, who gets results like a seventh year performed the spell by just wishing for it, the spell forms make their magic more refined and concentrated. So, Spells are packed with more power than just letting magic react to your wishes, it's a qualitative leap in power but even my aunt still uses spells."
'Cool!'
The trio parted ways and went to their rooms.
Leon laid down on his bed, face down, ruminating about the things he learned that day.
'The wizarding world is more complex than I thought. But that's logical. The muggle world is also complex with so many subjects and lines of thought, the inclusion of magic should make things more hectic, I guess.'
The lamps dimmed reacting to his drowsiness. As darkness covered the room, some words appeared on the roof and glowed.
They looked like they were made up of sunlight and glowed for dozens of minutes before they disappeared.
Leon drooled on his bed missing everything as he had his face stuffed in his pillow.
Another day passed; Leon was still waiting for Rose to contact him but at least listening to Ron talk about how they were meeting Hagrid let him know she was working on it.
The Hufflepuff trio were sitting in the library to get their homework done when Daphne and two other Slytherins sat at a table beside theirs.
Leon ignored them, concentrating on finishing his assignments so that he could get to other things.
He didn't resent the assignments much, as they helped him summarise his thoughts by writing them down.
But he didn't care if people other than him couldn't understand his writing.
He exhaled and tossed his Quill aside.
'It's legible enough, I think… Meh! The professors are experts in magic, they can manage.'
While he made efforts at the start of the term to keep his handwriting neat, as the term progressed and the number of things he wanted to do increased, his handwriting gradually became more like scratches than actual writing.
"Why are you sitting near the yellow losers?" A high-pitched voice broke the silence in the library. "Do you think Greengrass wants to befriend those losers, Goyle?" The obnoxious noise continued making Leon's relief at completing his assignments evaporate.