Chapter Sixty-Three: Methods of Learning Magic

"Karn, look! My spell worked!"

Hermione Granger’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she watched the loaf of bread float in midair. She turned eagerly to Karn, her voice trembling with delight—after only two days of practice, she had successfully cast her very first spell.

Karn praised her warmly, “That’s incredible, Hermione.”

After leaving Diagon Alley, Karn had rented a small garden cottage near the Granger household, separated by only a single street. Each day, Hermione needed just twenty minutes to walk from her home to Karn’s.

Karn knew Hermione was a young witch, and since he also had business dealings with the Granger couple, it wasn’t difficult to arrange. Moreover, the day they returned from Diagon Alley, Hermione had learned that Karn had purchased over a hundred magical books. She begged her parents to let her spend her holidays at Karn’s, reading and learning about the wizarding world as quickly as possible.

Initially, Mrs. Granger had been uneasy about Hermione’s visits and accompanied her twice. Yet, all she saw was Hermione and Karn organizing magical books, browsing through the Daily Prophet, or sorting magical ingredients. When they weren’t tidying, they buried themselves in their reading, only pausing at lunch to discuss what they’d learned. After two days, Mrs. Granger found herself utterly bored—she couldn’t contribute to the magical conversations—so, after a few words of caution to Hermione, she returned to running the dental clinic with her husband.

Though she didn’t learn much about magic, Mrs. Granger felt confident Hermione was quite safe with Karn. The two didn’t talk much, but both were unmistakably obsessed with magic—Karn was even more enthusiastic than Mr. Granger.

Hermione’s own collection of books was still rather limited. Even after the Grangers borrowed a few Galleons from Karn at Diagon Alley, it only amounted to a set of robes for Hermione.

Karn, however, had far more than just extra magical books; his house was filled with magical ingredients, higher-level textbooks, and advanced course materials. These were all extremely expensive—at Flourish and Blotts, even the cheapest volumes were Hogwarts textbooks.

But even those “cheap” Hogwarts textbooks could bankrupt the entire Weasley family.

Karn was happy to have Hermione around. Her talent was extraordinary—by her second year, she could brew Polyjuice Potion, a recipe from the Restricted Section that even graduates often failed to master on the first try. Hermione, however, succeeded immediately.

With such talent, if she focused on potions, she would at least become a master, perhaps even surpassing Snape.

“Hermione, let me give it a try,” Karn said, picking up a secondhand wand and recalling Hermione’s movements. Speaking of wands, Karn felt a surge of frustration: Old Ollivander, with his peculiar principles, had refused to sell Karn a wand, convinced he was a Muggle.

“Wingardium Leviosa!”

Bang!

The secondhand wand in Karn’s grip shattered again, just as it had the first time he tried casting magic. Both wands together had cost him seven Galleons, and now they were gone.

“My goodness, it exploded again! You’re definitely not a Muggle. According to ‘Origins of Magic,’ you must possess magical power, but for some reason, you can’t use it. If you were truly a Muggle, you wouldn’t have caused the wand to explode,” Hermione declared, clutching a thick spellbook and flipping to a passage for Karn to read.

“Maybe it’s the wrong method? Or the wand isn’t compatible? But why couldn’t Mr. Ollivander see it...?” Hermione’s words rattled out like a machine gun. Karn pondered the issue himself—magic in the Harry Potter world was more useful than deadly, and it would be a shame not to learn at least one or two spells.

Without magical power, potions and flying brooms would be forever out of reach.

Over the past couple of days, Karn had read a great number of books. At first, he believed magical power was simply a wizard’s innate strength. But after further research, he discovered many books claimed that magical power was inherited through bloodlines—from one’s parents or ancestors.

Magical power was much like chakra—if you weren’t born with it, you couldn’t train to acquire it unless someone else granted it to you or you obtained it by other means. At birth, you were already marked: wizard, Muggle, or Squib.

As for the original source of wizards’ magic, perhaps it was inherited from magical creatures or other naturally magical races?

Karn wasn’t entirely certain, but suspected this theory was likely. His lack of magical power was the missing ingredient preventing him from casting spells.

The destructive power of magic in the Harry Potter world wasn’t particularly high, but many spells were incredibly practical—Disillusionment Charms, Apparition, Transfiguration, and so on. Missing out on those would be a real pity.

Ninjutsu and wizarding magic were like two extremes: one focused on killing, the other on aiding daily life.

Karn wanted to learn both. As for gaining magical power, his only hope was the Extremis Virus.

To Karn, the Extremis Virus had untold potential. Its greatest strength was rewriting the user’s DNA and activating the brain’s healing center, repairing the body while encoding it chemically.

To put it simply, if the human body were a computer, then the Extremis Virus was the ultimate antivirus and repair software. Any foreign program would require a scan from Extremis before installation. If the scan succeeded, installation was successful and the computer could then use the program.

If the scan failed, there was a risk of explosion—but the new Extremis Virus, fused with Hashirama cells, greatly reduced this risk.

Karn could now collect the blood of magical creatures and study it using his own tissue. If, under the influence of the Extremis Virus, he managed to fuse with it without exploding, he could inject himself with a magical creature serum and thus acquire magical power.

“Karn? Mr. Karn?”

Hermione’s voice pulled him back to reality. The young girl, thinking Karn was despondent, offered comfort with heartfelt sincerity.

“Mr. Karn, when I go to Hogwarts, I’ll ask about your situation. The greatest wizard of this century, Professor Dumbledore, is there—he’s sure to know what’s wrong. Please wait for my good news.”

Karn smiled. “Thank you, Miss Granger…”

“Call me Hermione. I think we’re already friends. Only friends would help each other this much…”

Hermione did her best to appear solemn. She was referring to the fact that Karn had given her free access to all the magical books and ingredients in the house. After such generosity, asking a few questions at school was nothing in return.

Karn immediately corrected himself. “Hermione, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you…”