The atmosphere in the compartment was exceptionally bizarre, and Will turned a deaf ear to the few people.
“Regarding the nature of curses, opinions vary widely in the current Wizarding World; however, the mainstream perception in Egypt is the ‘legitimacy’ of curses. That is to say, curses possess legitimate significance in a magical sense, which is a right bestowed upon them by the ‘gods’. Therefore, many curses in Egypt are long-lasting curses that can span a thousand years, whereas the duration of curses in other regions is relatively short-lived.”
“It is just my personal opinion that the so-called ‘bestowed by the gods’ still remains questionable; it is also generally believed in the current European Wizarding World that the essence of a curse is nothing more than a variant of magic, and in essence, it is closer to small-scale ritual magic. Moreover, in my curse-breaking work over the years, every excellent curse Wizard or curse-breaker I have met has had remarkable insights into ritual magic, and some are even half-ritual magic Wizards themselves.”
“In the curse-breaking work I undertake, I also frequently need to utilize various rituals to break curses.”
Will nodded noncommittally.
Ritual magic was a major branch of Ancient Magic, and magical worlds across the globe possessed a long history of ritual magic, such as rain-making and sacrifices in China; those were typical examples of ritual magic.
Will thought of the examples he had seen previously in “A Brief History of Eastern magic” and “Mysterious Asian magic”: Zhuge Liang borrowing the east wind, which was also a large-scale ritual magic.
“Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle~” It wasn’t until Will’s stomach made a sound that he closed the book.
For Will, fine food was also a true love; although knowledge was spiritual food, he couldn’t fill only his spirit.
Will pulled out from his trunk…
a few metal-textured lunch boxes.
When Will opened the lunch boxes, the food was actually still steaming with hot heat: beef curry, stir-fried snow peas, and the great British specialty Coronation Chicken, along with a box of white rice.
The portions of the dishes were not large, but the entire compartment was filled with the aroma of the food.
This scene shocked the three people around him, making them widen their eyes; Sylvia and Hermione uttered surprised sounds even more.
“You even brought food with you?”
“Your food is actually still hot, is this magic?”
Sylvia and Neville were shocked that Will had actually brought food on board, while Hermione focused on how these dishes were clearly inside ordinary metal lunch boxes, yet remained steaming hot after an entire morning—a high probability that magic had been cast upon them.
Will’s stomach was truly a bit empty, and only after swallowing a mouthful of beef curry did he answer the two people’s questions.
“Yeah, after all, I heard it will take until evening to reach Hogwarts; a warming Charisma has been cast on these dishes; oh, the warming Charisma is in both “Conjuring Up a Feast” and “The magic of Cooking”.”
Hearing Will casually recite those book titles, Hermione felt a trace of impatience in the bottom of her heart.
She hadn’t even heard of these books; it seemed Will had already read quite a few magic books, and she felt like she had been overshadowed by him again this time.
Will looked at the three of them, waved his wand, and turned a few toothpicks by the lunch box into spoons.
“Would you like to eat some too?”
[Someone has developed a favorable impression of you, Charisma experience + 1] × 3
The corners of Will’s mouth curled up; even a mosquito’s leg was meat.
“Transfiguration?
You’ve actually already learned Transfiguration?
I tried it a few times following “A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration”, but none of them succeeded.
How did you do it?” Hermione’s focus was always on this aspect.
Of course, Will knew that she was afraid of falling behind, afraid that students from wizarding families had already mastered too much magical knowledge while she had just entered the Wizarding World.
However, these worries were always superfluous; you must know that the Wizarding World did not have magical elementary schools, and the vast majority of Young Wizards studied at home by themselves before entering Hogwarts.
Mixed-blood families might send their children to Muggle elementary schools, while pure-blood Wizard families—the lesser ones taught themselves, and the better ones among the nobility might hire private tutors.
“This isn’t difficult, is it? Do you guys really not want to eat some?” Seeing that none of the three went to pick up a spoon, Will didn’t force it and popped a piece of Coronation Chicken into his mouth himself.
Neville looked miserable at this moment: “Of course this is very difficult! I haven’t mastered a single magic spell up to now, and I haven’t even really looked at those books. Merlin’s beard, will I be expelled from Hogwarts? I just knew I had no talent.”
“Don’t be silly, Longbottom. I’ve never heard of anyone in your family being expelled. In fact, I’ve never heard of any Wizard being expelled because of talent. Instead, some people were expelled during school for other things, like that Magical Creatures expert, Newt Scamander.” Sylvia’s tone was slightly cold, but Neville seemed to be somewhat encouraged.
As a member of the Lestrange family, Sylvia had deliberately learned about Newt.
“You’re saying that zoologist is an expelled student from Hogwarts?” Hermione couldn’t believe it.
In her current worldview, expelled students were all hopeless scum, mud that couldn’t be plastered onto a wall, which could be said to be equivalent to losers in her cognition.
Newt Scamander was a famous British Magical Creatures expert, traveler, and travelogue author, as well as the author of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”.
She remembered that this was the textbook for Hogwarts’s Care of Magical Creatures Class.
“Yeah, so Hogwarts is not an absolute authority.” Will swallowed the food in his mouth and expressed his own view.
“And in the Wizarding World nowadays, there are also some Wizards who don’t go to any school at all, but instead follow a teacher for an apprenticeship-style study, except that the drawbacks of this learning method are very large.”
“How do you know so much? Is your family also a wizarding family?” Hermione finally asked what she wanted to ask.
Will’s behavior was more like a child from a wizarding family than Neville was, yet it was an indisputable fact that he was her elementary school classmate.
“Of course not. The people related to me by blood are all Muggles; I just read a few more books.”
Hermione felt under immense pressure; she had indeed been overshadowed by this classmate once again.
She secretly made up her mind that she had to work even harder; she couldn’t be compared and beaten down by him again.
“Oh god, Behrens, you are truly a natural Ravenclaw.” Neville sighed sincerely, “I probably can only go to Hufflepuff.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Hufflepuff either. You must know that Newt Scamander came from Hufflepuff. Furthermore, Hufflepuff has produced many famous Wizards, such as Grogan Stump, who served as the Minister for magic of the British Ministry of Magic from 1811 to 1819; or Professor Silvanus Kettleburn of the Care of Magical Creatures Class; or Hengist of Woodcroft from the Chocolate Frog cards, who founded Hogsmeade village.”
“These Wizards are all extremely excellent Wizards. There is nothing wrong with Hufflepuff; they are upright and steadfast in character, which can be said to be the best choice for making friends.”
Will had seriously considered going to Hufflepuff.
The little badgers wouldn’t disturb his peaceful life, and he could also be closer to the kitchen; studying and eating could both be taken care of, and his Charisma skill might even level up rapidly in the badger house.
Hearing Will’s explanation, Neville seemed to be touched: “It seems there’s nothing wrong with Hufflepuff either.”
“I think although Hufflepuff is good, the best house should be Gryffindor. You know, Dumbledore graduated from Gryffindor.” Hermione insisted on her own opinion.
“Then which house do you want to go to, Sylvia?”
“The vast majority of people in my family are in Slytherin,” Sylvia said faintly, as if she already knew she would definitely go to Slytherin.
“It seems there are students from all four houses in this compartment?”
Will shoveled his hot rice and didn’t refute anything, but he still couldn’t be sure where he would go—Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?
He definitely didn’t want to stay together with that group of reckless Young Wizards from Gryffindor.
Ha, ostracizing top students?
What on earth was going on in this bunch of people’s heads?
As for Slytherin, he didn’t think he would get along well with those “pure-blood nobles” who were arrogant and rude to Muggle Wizards.