"Hagrid! Open up! Hagrid!"
It was Harry’s voice, sounding frantic.
Outside the door stood an anxious Harry and a pale-faced Hermione. Between them, practically being held up by both of them, was Ron Weasley, his face green and his expression twisted in agony.
"What happened? What’s wrong with the boy?" Hagrid asked in shock.
Harry and Hermione helped Ron over the threshold and into the hut. Harry lowered him into a chair and hurriedly explained the whole slug-vomiting situation to Hagrid, who did not seem especially worried.
"Better out than in," he said. Newly become a druid, he was in an excellent mood. He dragged over a large copper basin and set it in front of Ron. "Get it all out, Ron."
"I don’t think there’s anything we can do except wait for it to stop on its own..." Hermione said worriedly, watching Ron hunch over the basin, ready to spit out another slug at any moment.
"A Slug-Vomiting Charm?"
Lynn walked over from the old table in the corner of the hut. Only then did Harry and the others notice he was there.
"Professor Gray!" Harry greeted him first, while Hermione sat off to the side, looking a little awkward.
"Mhm." Lynn nodded to them with a smile, then stepped over to Ron and adjusted his glasses, studying him carefully.
"Urgh, "
Ron gagged painfully, and another huge live slug, still glistening with slime, dropped out of his mouth and landed in the copper basin with a wet, distinct plop.
A faint current of unreadable data flickered beneath Lynn’s lenses.
Remarkable...
He wondered inwardly.
In the spell system of Faerûn, there were certainly spells of a similarly prankish nature, such as the enchantment spell Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.
But the principle behind that spell was to affect the target’s mind, making everything around them seem irresistibly funny until they collapsed to the ground laughing.
The Slug-Vomiting Charm Ron had been hit with, however...
Even among conjuration spells, which specialized in creating things, Lynn had never heard of a spell capable of endlessly generating living creatures inside the human body. Ron’s esophagus, stomach, and other organs all appeared completely intact. The slugs seemed to be manifesting out of thin air, almost as if the concept itself had been forced into reality.
And the growing pile of slugs in the basin showed no sign of vanishing as the magic faded. On the contrary, they were full of life, crawling vigorously over one another. They were clearly real, physical creatures.
Was it really possible that simply because the caster wanted the target to vomit slugs, magic had bypassed the law of conservation of matter altogether and produced the result through a method that was utterly absurd, yet perfectly effective?
A fervent light flashed through Lynn’s eyes.
This kind of "mind over matter" magic seemed illogical on the surface, but it contained a terrifying kind of potential.
If I could integrate this "if I will it, it exists" property into my own rigorous spell models...
...then maybe I could create a legendary spell of my own, one that surpasses even 9th circle.
"Professor?"
Seeing Lynn staring at the basin of slugs in a daze, Harry could not help speaking up softly.
"Ron... he’ll be all right, won’t he?"
"He’ll be fine. Hermione’s right, just wait for the spell to burn itself out."
Lynn pointed at the wand in Ron’s hand, the one that had been wrapped back together with Spellotape, and asked, "This is the culprit that caused the backlash, I assume?"
"Y-yes, Professor." Ron weakly lifted his head, his face full of shame. "It... hit the Whomping Willow before. Snapped in half."
In this world, a wand had always been treated as the most important possession a wizard could have. Lynn had previously studied them in some detail and found that most wands counted as fine-grade magical items, while a rare few, Harry’s, for example, reached the level of rare items.
And once a wand was damaged, even Ollivander had difficulty repairing it.
But for Lynn, who was also highly proficient in transmutation magic, this was probably not much of a problem.
He took the wand from Ron, rummaged through his pocket, and pulled out two shrunken lodestones, restoring them to full size. Then he placed both the wand and the stones on the wooden table.
Drawing his own wand, Lynn pointed at the break and intoned, "Mending."
To the astonishment of the trio and Hagrid alike, the Spellotape peeled itself away. As the lodestones vanished, the broken grain of the wand seemed to come alive, regrowing and knitting itself seamlessly back together.
"Here." Lynn tossed the wand back to Ron. "Next time you plan on picking a fight, check your weapon first."
"Th-thank you, Professor!" Ron exclaimed so emotionally that he promptly vomited up another slug.
Hagrid had already brewed tea for Harry and the others. His dog, Fang, meanwhile, was circling excitedly around Harry and drooling all over him.
"What are you doing here at Hagrid’s, Professor Gray?" Harry asked, scratching Fang behind the ears.
"I was discussing a few things with Hagrid about magical creatures."
"That’s right, Professor Gray knows a bit of everything," Hagrid said as he came over and sat down too. Then he asked, "Who was Ron trying to hex, anyway?"
"Malfoy called Hermione something," Harry said. "It must’ve been really awful, because everyone got furious."
"Very awful," Ron rasped. "Malfoy called her a Mudblood, Hagrid, Professor Gray, "
The word made him so angry he vomited up another slug.
"Did he really?" Hagrid looked at Hermione and bellowed indignantly.
"Yes," she said. "But I don’t know what it means. I could tell it was very rude, of course..."
"It’s about the worst thing he could’ve said," Ron said, lifting his head and breathing hard. "Mudblood’s a slur for Muggle-borns, people whose parents can’t do magic. It means dirty blood, inferior blood. Malfoy thinks his pure blood makes him better than everyone else."
Hermione’s eyes were starting to turn red.
"Miss Granger, there is absolutely no need for you to be troubled by such pointless words."
Lynn stood and walked over to her. Through his silver-rimmed glasses, his dark eyes seemed to look straight through to her soul.
"Did you know? My parents were both Muggles too."
Hermione jerked her head up. The tears still clinging to her lashes trembled. Harry and Ron stared in shock as well.
Strictly speaking, that’s true... my parents are just in another world, Lynn mused, amused by their stunned expressions.
"Y-you’re Muggle-born too?"
"Of course." Lynn shrugged. "And yet that hasn’t stopped me from standing here as your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
He bent slightly and looked Hermione in the eye, his tone turning serious and steady.
"Listen to me, Hermione. Blood is nothing more than biological inheritance. It does not determine your future. Some people take ridiculous pride in that laughable notion of purity without having the faintest idea where real power actually comes from."
Gently, Lynn patted her on the head.
"For you, that source is intelligence. Just as I said in the first lesson, your Intelligence is exceptionally high."
"Too right! There isn’t a spell our Hermione can’t do that hasn’t been invented yet!" Hagrid chimed in from the side.
"Thank you... Professor Gray..." Hermione’s voice had never been so soft. "Even though in your first class I said what you were teaching was... complete nonsense. I’m sorry."
"It’s all right. I know some people may not understand what I’m teaching at first, especially children as bright as you. Sometimes, the smarter you are, the easier it is to become trapped inside what you already know."
Lynn adjusted his glasses and turned to Hagrid.
"Facts are the best teacher, after all. Hagrid, would you mind demonstrating the spell I just taught you?"
"Oh! Course! Course I can!"
At being called on by the professor, Hagrid sprang excitedly to his feet. A kind of confidence Harry had never seen before was shining from his stubbled face.
"Watch closely, all of you."
He walked to the middle of the hut and took the sprig of mistletoe Lynn handed him.
"Hagrid? What are you doing?" Hermione rubbed her eyes in confusion.
They watched as Hagrid closed his eyes and muttered softly, "Forest... animals... nature’s gift... Goodberry."
A surge of emerald magic filled with the breath of nature welled up from inside Hagrid and gathered around the mistletoe in his palm.
Under the stunned gaze of the trio, the green sprig glimmered with tiny points of gold and turned into four fragrant berries.
"Here, Ron."
Hagrid handed one of them over.
"Eat it. It’ll do your stomach good."
Ron stared blankly at the berry in his hand. After only a brief hesitation, he popped it into his mouth.
"Mmm!"
The instant the juice burst across his tongue, an indescribable coolness spread through his entire body.
The pale, exhausted look on his face, caused by nonstop vomiting, actually began to fade, color returning to his cheeks.
"I feel... like my strength’s come back. And my stomach feels all warm," Ron said, rubbing his middle.
"What... what kind of magic is that?"
Hermione shot to her feet, staring fixedly at the remaining berries in Hagrid’s hand. The hurt in her eyes had completely vanished, replaced by raw thirst for knowledge.
"How could you cast a spell without a wand? Is it Transfiguration? But then why does it have healing properties?"
"Allow me to answer that, Miss Granger."
Seeing how shaken the little witch was, Lynn stepped in at exactly the right moment.
"Hagrid spends his life in the Forbidden Forest and treats every living thing in it with love and reverence. That has given him the power to commune with nature."
"Then... is this... a druid?" Hermione had clearly already read The Adventurer’s Handbook.
"Good. It seems you did your homework from my class very well," Lynn said approvingly. "That’s right. Hagrid is already a druid, and the spell he just cast was a druid spell, Goodberry."
"This is what I wanted all of you to understand in the first lesson: there is more than one path to magic. What is written in books is valuable, but it is not the whole of it. If all you ever do is stare at the spells already written down, then you will never see the full breadth of the forest."
Hermione opened her mouth as though she wanted to argue, but when she looked at Hagrid’s confident smile and at Ron’s rapidly improving complexion, she finally only drew in a deep breath and gave Lynn a solemn nod.
"I... I understand now, Professor."
This time, there was no doubt in her eyes, only awe toward the unknown.
"I’ll... reconsider everything you’ve taught."
"Excellent."
Lynn clapped his hands in satisfaction.
"All right, our wonderful bit of extracurricular tutoring is over. If you don’t want to miss the roast chicken legs and pumpkin juice at lunch, you’d better head back to the castle with me now."
The four of them said their goodbyes to the reluctant Hagrid and Fang, then stepped out of the warm little hut.
But the moment they entered the cool stone entrance hall of the castle, a voice rang out.
"So you’re back, Potter. Weasley."
Professor McGonagall came striding toward them with a stern expression. She gave Lynn a nod, then turned to Harry and Ron.
"You two will be serving detention tonight."
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