Time flew by.
Three weeks had passed since the night talk, Will’s detention had long since ended, and Old Dumbledore had not sought him out again.
During this period, they also started Flying Class.
Will wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it.
It wasn’t that he disliked flying.
Rather, he wanted to fly through his own physical strength like Lord Voldemort, instead of having to rely on a broomstick.
As expected, Flying Class soon saw Harry and Malfoy reenact the scene involving the Remembrall, and Harry quickly joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
None of this had much to do with Will.
He was far too busy grinding for experience.
Over the past three weeks, his Potions skill had already reached LV3, and he had gained an additional ability called Potion Proliferation.
[LV3 Additional Ability, Potion Proliferation: The yield of Potions you brew increases by 5%.]
In reality, Dumbledore’s night talk hadn’t had much of an impact on Will.
After all, he wasn’t a power-seeker like Lord Voldemort.
As for pursuing strength…
in a magical world where knowledge equaled strength, his own power was merely a byproduct of knowledge.
Yes, it must be so…
Saturday.
The library.
“Will, Will.” Sylvia poked Will, who was engrossed in his book.
“What is it?”
“Longbottom is looking for you.” Sylvia pointed toward Neville, who was standing nearby.
“Neville? What is it?” Will put down his book.
“Next time, when I’m absorbed in reading, just call me directly.”
Will knew Neville was too shy to disturb him.
He had done this several times already.
“O-okay. I… I want to learn Accio from you.” Neville spoke softly, his timid demeanor still present.
“Accio?” Will was startled, but quickly understood.
“Trevor is lost again?”
“Yes. He always tries to escape from me.” Neville looked as though he was about to cry.
“I tried to learn Accio myself, but I’m too clumsy. I just can’t learn it.”
“Oh, no wonder you and Hermione have been in the library for the past two days.” Sylvia suddenly looked enlightened.
“Neville, you can’t learn Spells just by reading books. You need to practice.” Will closed his book.
“How about this? We’ll find a suitable place, and I’ll teach you.”
“But where do we go?” Sylvia helped Will put his book into his satchel and asked.
“Hogwarts is huge. Anywhere would work. The lawn, the Black Lake, even the Forbidden Forest.” Will picked up his satchel.
“However, I suddenly thought of an even more suitable place.”
…
“Aren’t we practicing Spells? Why are we going to the eighth floor?” Sylvia panted as they climbed the stairs.
She knew Hogwarts’ staircases could change at random, and they had already encountered several shifting staircases on the way, causing them quite a bit of trouble.
Will stopped in front of a portrait.
“Here we are.”
“But… this is just a corridor.” Neville was panting even harder.
His stamina was somehow even worse than Sylvia’s.
Opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, Will walked back and forth, thinking carefully.
After he passed the same section of wall for the third time, a smooth door suddenly appeared in the wall.
Will pushed it open.
“Welcome to the Room of Requirement.”
Because of Will’s request, the Room of Requirement didn’t appear as a vast storage room filled with countless abandoned objects.
Instead, it became a spacious circular hall with several training dummies standing along one side.
“Where is this?” Sylvia asked curiously.
“A magical place in Hogwarts, the Room of Requirement. It can transform according to the needs and wishes of the person who enters.” Will gestured toward the room.
“We’ll practice magic here from now on.”
“Cool!”
Sylvia eagerly rushed inside, while Neville followed Will into the magical room.
After the two finished looking around curiously, Will patted Neville on the shoulder.
“It’s time to practice Spells, Neville.”
Neville looked into Will’s silver-gray eyes, and an inexplicable shiver ran through him.
For some reason, he felt as though something terrifying was staring directly at him.
He swallowed nervously.
Five hours later, Sylvia was sitting bored in a chair against the wall.
She had understood the basics quite quickly, but Neville was surprisingly clumsy.
Even now, he could only move the apple used for practice a short distance.
“Say it clearly. That’s right, you need to have confidence in yourself!”
“Good job! The apple is moving. Do you see it?”
“Raise your hand! Watch your arm movements!”
“Careful, it’s Accio, not ACC… I… O…”
Will wasn’t particularly strict, but Neville finally understood why Will’s grades were at the top of the class.
Will would repeatedly demonstrate the Spell for Neville and then have him imitate it.
If he couldn’t do it once, he tried twice.
If twice wasn’t enough, he tried four times.
Although Will cast far more Spells than Neville, he didn’t seem nearly as tired.
However, Neville didn’t notice that Will’s silver-gray eyes had been observing him the entire time.
With his Wizards Eye activated, Will noticed that Neville’s magical flow was somewhat different from that of ordinary young Wizards.
If a normal Wizard’s magical flow was like a river, Neville’s was like a river filled with countless obstructions and irregular currents.
Will was very curious about what had caused Neville’s magical flow to become like this.
He suspected it might have something to do with the Memory Charms Neville had received from his grandmother, but he couldn’t understand why a Memory Charm would affect someone’s magical flow for such a long period of time.
He secretly noted down Neville’s condition, planning to study it further.
For now, however, he still needed to teach Neville Accio.
Due to Neville’s unusual magical flow, combined with his lack of confidence and incorrect incantation, he always struggled to complete the magical circuit of a Spell, resulting in repeated failures.
Will could only teach him again and again, having him imitate his incantation and wand movements until he gradually corrected his technique and learned how to complete the magical flow of Accio.
By the end of the afternoon, Will had lost count of how many times he had cast Accio, and he was thoroughly exhausted.
However, Neville beside him looked even more tired, his arms almost too heavy to lift.
“Huff… huff… Neville… one more time. You did very well just now. The apple actually flew toward you.” Will panted, feeling both magically and physically exhausted.
“Believe in yourself. Remember the trick I told you? You have to firmly believe that you can do it.”
Will emphasized this point because it was indeed important. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Modern magic differed from ancient ritual magic.
A Wizard’s emotions and will could genuinely influence the outcome of a Spell, with Expecto Patronum being a classic example.
“Accio, apple!”
Neville waved his wand.
The apple immediately flew toward him.
Neville cried out in surprise, “I did it! I did it!”
“Well done, Neville!” Will praised him generously.
[Someone has developed a good impression of you, Charm EXP +1.]
[Someone has developed a good impression of you, Charm EXP +1.]
…
[You have cast a certain Spell multiple times and gained a new understanding of it, Charms EXP +3.]
[You have undergone physical training, Stamina EXP +1.]
[You have undergone physical training, Stamina EXP +1.]
…
[Your Stamina progress has increased to LV2. You can acquire an additional ability.]
[LV2 Additional Ability, Vigorous Stamina: Your maximum Stamina is increased by 10%.]
The afternoon hadn’t been wasted after all.
Will had gained quite a lot of experience and even obtained a decent additional ability.
However, could practicing Spells really count as physical training?
Did that mean he had to practice Spells every day until he was completely exhausted from now on?
Were there Potions that could improve physical fitness?
Could they also provide experience?
He would have to try.
Since it was already past dinner time, the three of them, Will, Sylvia, and Neville, didn’t go to the Great Hall for dinner.
Instead, they went directly to the Hogwarts kitchens, which Will had discovered while looking for a late-night snack after his detention had ended.
By the time Neville returned to the Gryffindor common room, it was already very late.
He looked utterly exhausted and dejected.
Neville wasn’t merely physically drained.
His magical reserves were also nearly depleted, something that couldn’t be solved simply by eating a large meal.
“Neville, what’s wrong? What did Malfoy do to you this time?”
Harry, who was playing Wizard’s Chess with Ron, saw Neville’s miserable state and immediately assumed Malfoy had pranked him again.
After all, Neville had been targeted by one of Malfoy’s curses a few days earlier.
“No, it was Will.”
Neville continued panting heavily.
His head was becoming increasingly dizzy, a clear sign that he had exhausted too much of his magic.
“It’s that Slytherin! I knew it! Slytherins are all the same!” Ron immediately jumped to his feet.
“No, I went to him to learn a Spell.” Neville sat down and rested for a moment.
“I learned Accio.”
“You learned Accio?” Harry looked at Neville in surprise.
He knew how much Neville had struggled with magic.
“You went to a Slytherin to learn a Spell?”
Ron’s focus was always…
peculiar.