The Shock of the Trio 12: Chapter 12: Can I Experiment on Scabbers?
The Shock of the Trio “My wand is just in bad condition, that’s why the magic failed!” “Is that so, Mr.
Weasley?
Then you should go back to Ollivander for a refund.” Faced with Hermione’s mockery, Ron’s face and ears turned as red as his hair.
He had just wanted to show off some magic, claiming he could turn his pet rat, Scabbers, yellow.
Naturally, it failed; the spell Ron’s brother Fred taught him was nothing more than a prank.
Scabbers was a small rat, balding all over and missing a toe.
At this moment, it had its head buried in a snack wrapper, feasting greedily.
Scabbers was completely unaware that someone was sizing it up with great interest.
Lucien narrowed his dark green eyes, looking down to observe the balding rat.
The true identity of this rat was an Animagus, Peter Pettigrew.
He had hidden in the Weasley family for over a decade and had once been the pet rat of Percy, another of Ron’s brothers.
Tsk, tsk.
Why didn’t the Weasleys ever wonder how a rat could live for so many years?
Lucien’s thoughts drifted in another direction.
Animagus, the pinnacle achievement of current Transfiguration.
A wizard can transform themselves into a certain animal while still retaining their magic.
I need to master this knowledge and successfully practice it within a year.
If I had an experimental subject to observe, it should speed up the progress, right?
There are still too few Animagi today, at least very few registered with the Ministry of Magic.
As for Peter Pettigrew and Harry’s father’s group, they were all unregistered, illegal Animagi.
Professor McGonagall is indeed a very high-level Animagus.
Lucien could ask her for guidance in practice, but he couldn’t just observe her at will to analyze this Transfiguration.
But Peter Pettigrew, the pet rat Scabbers, is different!
Not only is he an illegal Animagus, but he was also the one who framed Sirius Black and betrayed Harry’s parents back then.
Even if I use him for some observational experiments, how would he dare seek help, and who could he even turn to?
Thinking of this, Lucien unconsciously broke into a smile.
He manipulated a Pumpkin Pasty to fly in front of Scabbers.
Scabbers looked at the Pumpkin Pasty before him, then looked up at Lucien.
For some reason, despite the kind-looking smile, Scabbers suddenly felt a chill run through his body.
He inexplicably didn’t want to eat the food Lucien gave him, yet he felt it would look strange for a rat to refuse food.
Scabbers bit the bullet and began nibbling on the Pumpkin Pasty.
Harry, who was watching Hermione and Ron argue, suddenly caught sight of Lucien’s act of feeding with magic, and a hint of envy reappeared in his eyes.
Despite being called the Boy Who Lived, Harry had never formally encountered magic before.
He didn’t even know the simplest spell!
Harry had lived with Aunt Petunia since he was a child.
Those relatives were all Muggles, and Muggles who loathed wizards and feared magic at that.
No one had ever taught him magic.
As for self-study from books?
Harry felt dizzy as soon as he looked at those magic books.
The books Hagrid had taken him to buy at Flourish and Blotts were still brand new, stuffed in his trunk.
So Harry envied Lucien and the others.
He envied Hermione for being able to learn magic through self-study, and Ron for being born into a wizard family and being exposed to magic from a young age.
Harry envied Lucien even more, envying how he could use magic so skillfully.
Harry didn’t understand magic, but seeing Neville and the others’ amazement at Lucien’s casting technique, he knew how high Lucien’s magical level was among his peers.
They were clearly about the same age, yet Lucien could already use magic so effortlessly.
“Lucien?” Harry pushed his glasses up and leaned toward Lucien, asking softly: “I feel like you’re really good at magic.
Did you have a wizard elder at home teach you?” Lucien was thinking about how to borrow Scabbers from Ron in the future, and only replied casually upon hearing Harry’s question: “Oh, no.
I’m from a Muggle family.
I learned all that magic from books.” Lucien’s light-hearted answer left Harry stunned.
At the same time, it also caused the still-arguing Hermione and Ron to stop.
“You’re Muggle-born too!?” Hermione looked at Lucien with a look of utter astonishment.
Lucien’s effortless casting had made Hermione think he was a descendant of a Pure-blood family, or at the very least Half-blood, with an elder who knew magic to teach him.
But Lucien said he was also from a Muggle family and had self-studied all that magic from books.
In other words, Lucien’s situation was very similar to her own.
But if they both practiced magic from the same books, why was the difference so vast?
When Hermione used the Reparo spell to fix Harry’s glasses, she actually hadn’t been fully confident.
She was just provoked by Ron, and her stubborn pride made her try.
However, besides the shock, Hermione also felt an extra sense of kinship toward Lucien.
After all, among the four young wizards present, Ron was a Pure-blood descendant of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and both of Harry’s parents were wizards.
Hermione had originally thought she was the only pure Muggle-born.
While reading books about the Wizarding World, she had learned about the discrimination some Pure-blood wizards held toward Muggle-born wizards.
But her competitive and proud nature wouldn’t allow her to feel inferior, so she had practiced spells from magic books for a long time, barely mastering the Reparo spell.
Now there was Lucien, who was like her—both from Muggle families, both self-taught from books.
The little witch’s eyes brightened slightly as she looked at Lucien, the friendliness and kinship within them becoming even more apparent.
Ron, on the other hand, was dumbfounded, staring at Lucien in disbelief.
“Self-taught?
Magic?
This level of proficiency in magic was self-taught?” Ron, a child of the Weasley family, whose parents were both Pure-blood wizards and who had five older brothers, could be said to have grown up in an environment saturated with magic.
Therefore, he understood even better what level the Accio spell Lucien performed was at.
Successfully using Accio on a completely unfamiliar object, and an object out of sight at a distance.
If Lucien had been taught by a wizard elder, Ron could understand, but he said he learned it just by reading books?
Among Ron’s brothers, there was a dragonologist, one working at the goblin bank, and a Hogwarts prefect.
He had seen what it meant to be “talented.” But someone like Lucien…
Compared to Ron’s complex expression, Harry was much simpler, looking at Lucien with a face full of admiration.
After all, Harry didn’t know wizards or magic, but he just felt that Lucien being able to master magic through self-study was amazing!
Harry even had an impulse to ask Lucien to teach him magic.
But thinking that they had only known each other for a few hours and would soon be entering Hogwarts to formally study magic, Harry suppressed the thought for now.
Lucien was actually quite satisfied with the reaction of the trio.
Not only did he need to build a good relationship with them, but he also needed to cultivate a reliable image in front of them.
This way, when the trio encountered news of the Philosopher’s Stone later and eventually went to find it, they would think of coming to him for help.
Planning to make early contact with the Philosopher’s Stone was one thing; ensuring he would definitely find it in the end to use it for brewing potions was also crucial.
“Woo—woo—” A piercing and loud steam whistle sounded.
“Children, please put on your wizard robes as soon as possible.
Everyone, you have arrived at Hogwarts!”