Although during their training, the students had cursed the four "Fathers' Woes" who came up with this so-called military training event countless times, when the two-week military training finally came to an end, many of them found themselves reluctant to part with it.
But no matter how reluctant they were, they ultimately had to begin their formal classes.
On the morning of the day after military training ended, the students received their schedules for the new term.
At this moment, Kyle was closely examining the parchment in his hand.
"Muggle Studies is at nine o'clock this morning, and Divination is also at nine o'clock this morning."
"Oh, not just Divination—Arithmancy is too." Kyle turned his head to look at the little beaver beside him. "The times clash. How are you going to attend three classes at once?"
That's right. Hermione had stubbornly signed up for all the elective courses.
But early this morning, she ran into a major problem: the schedules for three of her classes conflicted.
"Of course there's a way to solve it," Hermione said, tilting her head up and revealing her fair, slender, swan-like neck, around which a golden chain was looped.
She pulled a golden pocket watch out from her collar.
Kyle, who was deeply versed in alchemy, recognized what the pocket watch was at a single glance.
"A Time-Turner?"
He had previously been quite interested in this kind of alchemical creation that could travel through time, so he had written to his alchemy mentor, Nicolas Flamel, and asked for a few of them.
Kyle had originally intended to decipher the principles of the Hour-Reversal Charm, improve upon it, and use human alchemy to embed it into his own eyes. As long as he set the trigger condition to his own death, a magical version of Izanagi would be complete.
However, even after browsing through a vast number of books on time magic and dismantling seven or eight Time-Turners in a row, Kyle still hadn't managed to master the Hour-Reversal Charm, let alone improve it.
Time magic was still far too advanced for him.
"Shh..." The little beaver put a finger to her lips. "You can't let anyone else know."
The little beaver had also seen the dismantled, scattered pieces of Time-Turners on the desk in Kyle's alchemy laboratory back at New Nurmengard Castle. That was why she was willing to tell Kyle about this.
"A Time-Turner can stretch out your day, but your fatigue will accumulate along with it." Kyle rummaged through his ninja tool pouch. "I don't recommend wasting a Time-Turner just to listen to some boring elective courses."
"If you really want to use a Time-Turner, I suggest that after finishing your classes for the day, you use it to go back to a point twenty-four hours earlier. That way, your biological clock won't get messed up."
He placed a few bottles of stamina-restoring potions onto the table in front of the little beaver.
"Here, take these. They should be of help to you."
"Thank you," Hermione said, smiling sweetly.
She uncorked a potion bottle and sniffed it, instantly recognizing it as the Invigorating Draught, a potion that enhances the drinker's vitality and isn't taught in Potions class until the fifth year. Moreover, several other ingredients had been added to it; it looked like Kyle had modified it himself.
The Muggle Studies classroom was located on the second floor of Hogwarts Castle.
Kyle was no stranger to this classroom.
Back when he was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts... no, Muggle Art Appreciation, Kyle had refused to keep using the name 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' and chose to introduce a completely different course instead.
Of course, the course content was exactly the same. Both taught students how to defend against the harms of Dark Magic.
Because he was starting fresh, Kyle hadn't used the original Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. After checking the schedules of all seven years across the four houses, Kyle found that the Muggle Studies classroom perfectly avoided any scheduling conflicts with their Muggle Art Appreciation class.
Thus, with only two theory classes requiring a classroom and the "Fathers' Woes" too lazy to clean out a new room, they had borrowed Professor Charity Burbage's Muggle Studies classroom.
Right before stepping into the classroom, Kyle caught a fleeting glimpse of the little beaver's stealthy figure slipping past in the distance. Then looking not far ahead, he saw that the little beaver was currently whispering and chatting away with the little iron girl.
It seemed Hermione had indeed used the Time-Turner.
Kyle shook his head with a smile and followed the two of them into the classroom.
The decor of every classroom at Hogwarts changed depending on the professor. For example, Snape's Potions dungeon had walls lined with various specimens pickled in glass jars.
The decor of the Muggle Studies classroom was similar to Snape's, only it wasn't nearly as dark and gloomy. It also had two large display shelves running along the walls on both sides, packed with Professor Charity Burbage's private collection—all of which were contraptions manufactured by Muggles.
Kyle swept his gaze across them; the items on the shelves hadn't changed much since last year. Rice cookers, microwaves, landline telephones, radios, televisions...
By now, about twenty-odd students were scattered across the classroom, representing all four houses.
Elective courses at Hogwarts weren't like the core subjects, where two specific houses were always paired up for classes. This was because for some electives, the total number of enrolled students didn't even match the size of a single year in any one house.
If they were still divided by their original houses and split into separate sessions, it would be an immense waste of Hogwarts' teaching resources. After all, the number of professors at the school was already meager enough.
Just as the classroom was nearly full, Charity Burbage emerged from the staff room behind the podium.
Professor Burbage was a blonde woman in her forties. Judging by her attire, she was trying very hard to mimic the daily dress of Muggles. However, due to her lack of actual understanding of Muggles, her clothes ended up looking neither here nor there, making her resemble a version of the Ancient One with hair.
Uh... as the Professor of Muggle Studies, she actually didn't understand Muggles well enough? Kyle suddenly felt like he had been swindled.
After finishing her opening remarks, Professor Burbage began to speak volubly about her perceptions of Muggles.
"...Electricity is to Muggles what magic is to us. Just as we can use magic to cast spells, Muggles can leverage electricity to perform many incredible incantations."
Professor Burbage walked briskly over to her beloved display shelf and took down a hairdryer.
"According to my research, this contraption is an alchemical tool used by Muggles to start fires. Through technological means, Muggles have embedded a spell similar to Incendio onto it."
Kyle and Hermione exchanged shocked glances, clearly dumbfounded by Professor Burbage's remarks.
"Now, allow me to demonstrate for everyone."
"Since a wizard's stray magic can interfere with Muggle creations..."
Professor Burbage lightly tapped her wand on the podium, and a transparent barrier immediately rose from beneath it, enclosing both her and the entire stage inside. Judging by her thorough preparations, this wasn't the first or second time Professor Burbage had conducted research on Muggle appliances.
A cluster of lightning appeared at the tip of Professor Burbage's wand. Under her control, it was slowly channeled through the power cord and into the hairdryer.
Professor Burbage flipped the hairdryer's switch, and a blast of scorching fire instantly spewen out from its nozzle.
The two of them finally understood where the problem lay.
Obviously, for a pure wizard like Professor Burbage who was born into a wizarding family, trying to understand the rated voltage and current required for a Muggle appliance to operate was simply too difficult. The electrical current Professor Burbage was funneling into the hairdryer clearly exceeded what was required for normal operation by a massive margin.
Therefore, it wasn't entirely without reason that Professor Burbage claimed this thing was a flamethrower.
For this poor hairdryer to hold out for so long in her hands was truly quite an achievement.
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