Chapter 21: The Weekend Homework Crisis
Today was the weekend, and it was a rare occasion where Hodu didn't wake up early, only getting out of bed close to eleven o'clock.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Ron dragging Harry into a game of wizards chess. Hodu couldn't muster the slightest interest in it. In his opinion, this thing was incredibly boring; not to mention wizards chess, other entertainment in the Magical World was about the same.
When he had first left behind his phone, computer, and television, he felt as if he were living in exile. Even now, he still occasionally missed the entertainment of modern society.
The wizarding world was like an isolated utopia, with its own culture and pastimes, but to Hodu, who had experienced the true era of entertainment, these things always fell a bit short.
Based on this era, game consoles should have already appeared. If he bought a television, got a console and some controllers, he could play as soon as he brought them back.
Actually, he didn't even have to wait until graduation. He could just find some time to take a trip to the Muggle world and buy them. The only troublesome part was the issue of electricity.
However, for a Wizard, electricity wasn't that difficult to handle; casting some magic to modify things would probably solve it. Unfortunately, Hodu didn't know how to do that himself, so this plan had to be put on hold for now.
As Hodu packed up and prepared to go out, Ronimmediately noticed his movements.
"Hodu, where are you going?"
"To find Bitun." Hodu didn't hide it from them; he had mentioned Bitun's existence to Harry and Ron before.
Hearing that it wasn't to go out and play, Ron immediately lost interest. He had thought Hodu was going to take them somewhere to hang out.
Hodu didn't leave immediately, instead asking, "Then what are you guys planning to do this afternoon?"
"Play wizards chess, of course," Ron answered without a second thought, and Harry had no objections either.
After all, they couldn't find anything else to do besides that.
Hodu raised a hand and slapped his forehead. Well, it seemed that was their only option; they couldn't possibly spend the afternoon studying, could they?
Just then, Neville, shrinking back to the side, asked in a low voice, "Have you guys finished your homework?"
The dormitory fell dead silent.
Hodu even sucked in a breath of cold air.
Oh no, he had actually forgotten about this!
Almost every Professor had assigned homework, not even sparing Astronomy Class. Piled up together, the amount from all the subjects was by no means small.
"Have you finished yours?"
The three of them turned their heads simultaneously, staring at Neville in perfect unison. In the entire dormitory, no matter how you looked at it, only this most honest-looking guy was likely to have seriously done his homework.
Unfortunately, though Neville looked simple and honest, he was actually also one of those people who didn't do their homework. Feeling a bit uncomfortable under their gazes, he eventually shook his head.
Hodu immediately felt a wave of regret.
If he had known, he should have gone to Ravenclaw; at least he could have found a roommate willing to do homework. Now, look at this—the ones around him were each more unreliable than the last.
"Hermione must have written hers," Ron suddenly thought of someone.
Hodu and Harry looked at him together, their eyes as if they were looking at some kind of idiot.
Harry asked on Hodu's behalf, "Do you think she would let us copy her homework?"
Ron fell silent for a moment, showing quite a bit of self-awareness. "...She definitely won't."
The dormitory fell into silence once again.
Hodu began to rack his brain, wondering who else he could borrow homework from. But he quickly realized that this path wouldn't work at all. The Professors assigned different content to different houses, so even if they found Ravenclaw students, it wouldn't help them with their homework.
Not doing homework didn't seem like the end of the world either.
Hodu comforted himself in his heart. He was essentially an adult, so how could he care about such a trivial matter? At most, he would be made to stand by Professor McGonagall, endure a round of cold mockery from Snape, and finally have Professor McGonagall write a letter to inform his parents.
What was the big deal?
Hmm... actually, it still seemed pretty serious.
Unknowingly, the afternoon plans of the three were completely changed. Each of them took out parchment and quills, putting on a posture of preparing to work hard.
However, while the posture was fully there, they all got stuck the moment they actually tried to write.
The group gathered around the blank parchment, scratching their heads, and after struggling for a long time, they couldn't even write a single word.
Hodu felt an indescribable sense of shame. He never expected that he would one day sink to the level of being a poor student alongside Harry and Ron.
What made it even more painful was that the homework still had to be written. He could only cooperate with the two poor students, with each person taking charge of one subject.
Looking at the excessively clean parchment in front of him, Hodu suddenly felt that there was no hope left in life.
Right at that moment, he thought of a solution—relying on external help.
For example, Tom's diary.
Inside it was hidden a soul fragment of the young Lord Voldemort. At that time, Lord Voldemort was by all accounts an outstanding student. If he used the diary as an answer key, wouldn't his homework for the next seven years be easily completed?
Besides the diary, there was also Ravenclaw's Diadem. Rumor had it that after putting it on, one would possess wisdom beyond ordinary people, though he didn't know if it still retained this function now.
Even if the diadem was no longer useful, he wasn't completely out of options. Unfortunately, the myriad things fusion system could not yet fuse non-living objects; otherwise, if he fused the diadem into himself, he might be able to directly become a straight-A student. At that point, what would mere homework even matter?
Moreover, Ravenclaw's Diadem was right there in Hogwarts, and Hodu could sense its location. If he really wanted to get his hands on it, it didn't seem like it would be too difficult.
Hodu felt that he was seriously contemplating a solution to break the deadlock.
In reality, there was a more accurate name for this state—daydreaming.
Two hours passed, and Harry, Ron, and Hodu still hadn't written even a single word.
As for Neville, he had already fallen asleep face down on the side.
Harry stared at the blank parchment and finally spoke, "I think we should just beg Hermione. Maybe she'll be willing to help?"
Even he himself didn't quite believe those words.
"Agreed!" Hodu nodded immediately, consenting crisp and clean.
He of course knew what Hermione's current temper was like better than Harry and Ron did, but what if? What if Hermione suddenly showed great mercy today?
The group immediately tossed their quills aside and happily headed out the door.
Hermione wasn't in the dormitory. Harry and Ron were about to search around the Castle aimlessly, but Hodudirectly said, "She should be in the Library right now."
Harry and Ron thought about it and felt that this indeed made sense, so they hurried to the Library together.
Sure enough, Hermione was inside.
Seeing Hodu and the others appear before her, Hermionewas clearly taken aback. She knew her own temper very well and was aware that she wasn't very popular in the house, so she hadn't expected them to take the initiative to come find her.
Just as Hermione was about to ask, the gaze of the librarian Madam Pince swept over. She immediately shut her mouth, stood up, and walked out of the Library.
Once outside, Hermione lowered her voice and asked what they actually wanted.
When Harry and Ron explained their purpose, her reaction was indeed as intense as they had anticipated.
"Don't even think about it! You are deceiving the Professors!"
After saying that, she put on a stern face and self-righteously lectured them.
Ron's face turned dark as he heard this, and he retorted on the spot, "If you don't want to lend it, just say so, you cheapskate!"
Hodu rubbed his temples, feeling that this idea was absolutely terrible.
In the end, they parted on bad terms, each of them red-faced with anger. Hodu didn't get upset along with them; as an adult, there was really no need to fight with kids over this kind of thing.
He thought about it, decided to temporarily give up on doing homework, and turned to head towards the first basement floor.
Chapter 22: The Egg Feast in the Kitchen
When Hodu walked into the kitchen, it was already a bustling scene. Although dinner was still several hours away, the House-elves had already started preparing ingredients ahead of time, scurrying back and forth.
"Mr. Hodu, are you here to see me this time?"
Bitun popped out of nowhere, his face filled with uncontainable excitement.
Hodu didn't beat around the bush and directly told him that he wanted to borrow the kitchen utensils.
"Of course, no problem." Bitun nodded quickly, but then showed a troubled expression. "But eggs are different; those are Hogwarts property. Bitun does not have the authority to give them to you to use."
Borrowing pots and pans was no big deal, but no matter how cheap eggs were, they were still school property. Although the House-elves ran the kitchen, they could not bypass their masters to dispose of these ingredients on their own.
"Then I'll pay for them myself."
Hodu had long anticipated this and immediately spoke up.
From Bitun's explanation, he also managed to figure out how Hogwarts usually purchased ingredients. As the Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall was mainly in charge of the school's daily affairs, so she naturally wouldn't personally oversee details like purchasing. She only needed to approve the funds, and the rest of the matters were left entirely to the House-elves.
And this group of elves was indeed quite reliable in such matters.
Every morning, a group of House-elves would set off. The scene looked just like a group of Little Red Riding Hoods picking mushrooms, running out excitedly, and then spending money to buy back what they needed from the Goblins.
As for where the food in the Goblins' hands actually came from, Bitun wasn't quite sure.
Hodu secretly guessed that most of it was probably provided by Muggle society. For Wizards to till the land and grow grain themselves, even if they could use magic to help, it probably wasn't as convenient as buying it ready-made. As for House-elves, they were usually only common in pure-blood families and were very few in number, making it even more impossible for them to be sent to farm.
"As long as Bitun doesn't have to use his own money, Bitun is very willing to make a trip for Mr. Hodu!"
Bitun patted his chest and gave his word.
Hearing this, Hodu felt relieved. After all, they weren't his own House-elves, but as long as he maintained a decent relationship with them, they would be willing to help when something came up. No matter how he looked at it, this was a good deal.
He pulled his coin pouch out of his pocket and handed it to Bitun.
"Go and see how many eggs these Galleons can buy first. If there's enough money, buy me five thousand; if not, just buy as many as you can."
Hodu had absolutely no concept of the prices here, so he could only let Bitun judge for himself. If the money wasn't enough, he would have to find a way to withdraw money from Gringotts.
That place wasn't somewhere he could just visit whenever he wanted. Hodu was only a first-year student now and couldn't freely visit Hogsmeade Village on weekends like the third-year students. However, if he really needed to find a way, sneaking out wasn't entirely impossible.
"Five thousand?"
Bitun's eyes went wide upon hearing this.
This quantity was clearly beyond his expectations. Not only would the kitchen be unable to use them all up anytime soon, but even if the entirety of Hogwarts ate them together, they probably wouldn't consume so many.
"Mr. Hodu, what on earth do you plan to do with so many eggs?"
"Eat them, of course."
Hodu replied very crisply.
He still had a Devouring Trait on him that he hadn't had the chance to try yet. Five thousand eggs might seem exaggerated to others, but they might not be much to him. However, in front of these House-elves, he couldn't expose this matter for the time being.
Even if he really couldn't finish them in the end, he could distribute them to the House-elves or simply use them for Hogwarts' dinner. The exclusive quest only required cooking the food; as for how to handle it afterward, that wasn't within the scope of the quest.
Bitun's expression shifted back and forth, clearly still finding this matter incredibly absurd. But since Hodu had made up his mind, he could only agree.
Afterward, Hodu stayed in the kitchen to wait, while Bitundirectly cast Apparition and left.
This scene made Hodu feel quite envious. He had originally thought he could obtain this trait from the House-elves as well, but it turned out that was clearly not the case.
If he really had Apparition, combined with his Ten-Thousandfold trait, the Anti-Apparition magic set up at Hogwarts and other places might not be able to stop him. When that time came, going anywhere would be convenient.
After a while, Bitun reappeared. Other than Hodu's coin pouch, he brought nothing back in his hands.
However, this trip wasn't in vain, as he brought back at least two pieces of news—one good, one bad.
The good news was that the price of eggs was quite cheap. One Galleon could buy fifty eggs, so five thousand eggs would only cost one hundred Galleons in total, which was much lower than Hodu's original estimate. He didn't need to make a special trip to Gringotts to withdraw money anymore.
The bad news was that there wasn't enough stock on hand. Currently, the kitchen could only source about a thousand eggs, and the rest needed to be pre-ordered. As long as they waited until tomorrow morning, the Goblins would be able to deliver the missing portion.
Hodu naturally had no objection to this; it was merely waiting one more day, which wouldn't delay anything at all.
Bitun left the kitchen again. When he appeared for the second time, he was already holding a wooden crate filled with eggs in his arms.
In order to move all of these thousand-odd eggs back, he ran back and forth five or six times. Once the last crate was put down, Hodu immediately selected an empty cauldron and began boiling water.
Food in Britain had always been relatively simple, but the utensils in the Hogwarts kitchen were quite complete. The firewood was brought over by Bitun, and the fire was also lit with his help; only the water in the cauldron was poured in by Hodu himself.
The flames licked the bottom of the cauldron, and the iron pot soon made soft, crackling sounds, with the firewood occasionally popping. Before long, the water was boiling vigorously, with steam rising in waves.
Hodu took out two eggs, extended his arms, and carefully lowered them over the boiling water. He didn't want to get scalded by the splashing hot water.
The two eggs dropped into the cauldron one after another, turning from raw to cooked in the blink of an eye.
Instead of scooping them out immediately, Hodu quickly opened his system to check the progress. The progress for fusing with the House-elf had actually increased by two points.
This showed that every single egg was calculated individually by the system. Even if they were put into the pot at the same time, they wouldn't be undercounted just because they were cooked together.
Hodu immediately felt relieved.
If all five thousand eggs had to be boiled one by one, he would have been busy enough to question his life choices just by repeating this step. Now it seemed he could just boil them batch after batch.
Since the system had already recognized the food as completed, Hodu no longer worried that Bitun's help would affect the determination of "cooked by hand," and immediately had him take charge of scooping out the cooked eggs.
The division of labor after that was much simpler: Hodukept putting raw eggs into the cauldron, while Bitunwaited for the eggs to cook and then scooped them out to the side for him.
As time passed, the analysis progress in the system rose steadily. Basin after basin of cooked eggs gradually piled up next to the large cauldron.
Looking at these results, Hodu immediately called over the House-elves in the kitchen to eat.
The eggs were simply boiled in plain water, and their taste was as ordinary as could be, but this was a gesture of goodwill proactively offered by Hodu. Although he was clearly just asking them to help finish them off, he phrased it as inviting everyone to eat eggs.
Faced with such kindness, how could the House-elves possibly refuse?
Hodu's mood instantly brightened.
Despite the unusual appearance of these House-elves, when something actually came up, they were each more reliable than the last. He would remember the favor from today's egg feast.
From now on, their trouble would be his trouble, and his, Hodu's, business would be this group of House-elves' business!
Chapter 23 Hodu Discovers the True Power of Everyday magic
The appetites of the House-elves were truly not small, and it was even more exaggerated after they ate to their hearts' content.
By the time Hodu finished boiling all one thousand eggs, each of them had round, bloated bellies from eating too much.
[Current Fusion Target: House-elf
Analysis Level: Grade B
Analysis Progress: 1251 / 5000]
Hodu glanced at the system interface, and his mood immediately improved.
It's just that the House-elves had already eaten to their limit, and there were still more than fifty eggs left on the table.
These things certainly could not be wasted.
Hodu picked up an egg, quickly peeled off the shell, and then stuffed them into his mouth one by one.
His Devour trait had long since been applied; the eggs didn't need to be chewed at all, and disappeared directly down his throat the moment they entered his mouth.
If there hadn't been so many House-elves watching nearby, he wouldn't even have bothered to peel the eggshells.
His Devour trait had always been able to swallow anything and decompose anything.
When the last egg was also taken care of by Hodu, the surroundings suddenly quieted down.
He looked up and saw that all the House-elves were staring at him with wide-open eyes and gaping mouths, even forgetting to do the work in their hands.
Clearly, this appetite had frightened them quite a bit.
"If everyone could eat as much as Mr. Hodu, the Galleonissued by Professor McGonagall would probably fall far short of being enough."
A House-elf said in a daze.
"I'm still growing." Hodu replied casually.
After saying that, he lowered his head to look at his arm, and the expression on his face suddenly froze.
At some point, a layer of grayish-white fine particles had appeared on the surface of his arm, looking just like a layer of salt.
He reached out and wiped it, and his palm was instantly covered with this stuff.
Not just his arm, but all other parts of his body were covered in it as well.
Hodu quickly guessed the reason.
These grayish-white particles should be the beneficial components decomposed by the Devour trait, but since his body couldn't hold them all, they were discharged through his pores.
He had previously worried that they would be excreted in other ways, but now finding that they only grew on the skin's surface, he instead breathed a sigh of relief.
Dealing with it this way would be much easier.
Just as Hodu was about to draw his wand and cast a Scouring Charm on himself, the magic power inside his body suddenly surged on its own.
The next moment, the gray particles on his palms and arms all disappeared.
Scourgify!
Hodu's eyes suddenly widened.
Just now, he was clearly only thinking about casting the Scouring Charm, but the magic actually completed itself without even needing to chant the incantation.
This wasn't even non-verbal and wandless magic.
To him, Scourgify seemed to have turned into a bodily instinct; with just a thought, the magic would naturally appear following his idea.
Needless to say, this must be the effect brought by the Domestic Expert trait.
Is this being handy with everyday magic?
Since the Scouring Charm could reach this extent, wouldn't other spells be the same?
The more Hodu thought about it, the more excited he became, only realizing at this moment that he seemed to have underestimated this trait previously.
After traits stacked high enough, even originally inconspicuous abilities could produce outrageous effects.
He finally experienced the truly attractive part of magic.
magic should naturally be used according to one's will; how could there be any reason to stubbornly rely on a wooden stick and an incantation when casting spells?
Hodu couldn't wait to find a place immediately to try other spells, but this was clearly not a suitable venue, so he could only suppress that impulse for now.
He took back his money pouch, made arrangements with Bitun for tomorrow morning, and only then left the kitchen.
It was almost dinnertime by now, but Hodu didn't feel a shred of hunger.
After all, those fifty-odd eggs from just now had all gone into his stomach.
After returning to the Gryffindor Common Room, he reported the password, and the Fat Lady immediately opened the passage.
In fact, with Hodu's ability, even if he didn't follow the normal procedure, he could forcefully open the passage.
There were indeed traces of magic on it, but the power of magic could not block his Excavation trait.
Hodu was still quite confident about this.
When it came to fighting, he might not be considered formidable; but speaking of the fields he excelled in, he was the most professional.
Even if Dumbledore came personally, he might not be able to stop him.
Returning to the dormitory, it was indeed empty; the others should have all gone to dinner.
Hodu immediately flipped out his textbook — "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1".
He quickly scanned the book from beginning to end, roughly committing all content belonging to everyday magic to his memory.
Clearly without deeply studying it, having only read it once, he inexplicably produced a feeling.
It was as if he had already completely learned it.
Could he really be a genius?
Unfortunately, this feeling only appeared regarding everyday magic.
After all, "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1" was just a textbook for first-year students, and most of what was recorded inside were simple spells used in daily life, which happened to be quite close to the scope of everyday magic.
Therefore, he felt that he had mastered the entire book after reading it just once.
The more Hodu thought about it, the more excited he became, jumping straight off the bed and walking in a few steps to sit by the round table in the center of the dormitory.
He unfolded the parchment, picked up the quill, and began writing his homework rapidly.
A dozen minutes later, the surface of the paper was densely filled with content.
Not only was Hodu's practical ability strong, but he could also immediately organize a complete set of theories for the everyday magic he had already mastered.
The homework assigned by Professor Flitwick held simply no difficulty for him.
Originally only required to answer a few questions, he wrote all the way down, stubbornly turning it into an academic paper.
This feeling was simply too awesome.
Hodu was almost moved to tears.
As expected, he and those two academic slackers, Harryand Ron, were completely not the same thing.
Until the entire piece of parchment was covered with text did he finally stop writing, put the tip of the quill to his lips, and gently blew a breath.
That appearance looked extremely like a Western gunman blowing away the gunpowder smoke from his muzzle after winning a duel.
Subsequently, Hodu began to test the spells he had just mastered.
With a shift of his mind, the flames of the candles above his head went out all at once, and the room also grew dim.
This was the Extinguishing Charm, whose function was precisely to make the firelight disappear.
Immediately following, Hodu drew his wand and gently tapped the candle chandelier above, and the just-extinguished flames lit up once again.
However, this time it wasn't because he cast some spell.
That candle chandelier itself was a magical item; tapping it with a wand allowed it to switch between being extinguished and lit, much like an electric light.
Unfortunately, the contents in "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1" were simply too basic, lacking even slightly more complex magic.
The book's grade being too low also prevented the Domestic Expert trait from being fully exerted.
Of course, everyday magic already covered a quite large portion of the magic system.
If all these magic spells could be mastered at will, calling oneself a master wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Thinking of this, Hodu could no longer sit still.
Although he only had a first-year textbook in his hand, in the Hogwarts Library, there certainly wouldn't be a lack of other spell books.
He immediately left the dormitory and headed straight for the Library.
Arriving in front of the bookshelves, Hodu pulled out several books in succession.
"The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2"
"The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3"
...
"The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5"
Just looking at the book titles, one knew that the authors of these books were the same person as the one who wrote "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1" in his hand.
Hodu hugged the four books, sat down at an empty table, and proceeded to flip through them.
Encountering other types of spells, he didn't even stop and turned past them directly; encountering everyday magic, he would temporarily slow down his speed, carefully read for a while, and then continue searching for the next one.
This process was even more relaxing than eating a Memory Bread.
After spending some time, the contents of the four books were all "read through" by Hodu, and he also gained quite a lot from them.
Chapter 24 New Discoveries in the Library and Eggs in the Kitchen
Hodu's gaze flickered slightly.
Although daily-life magic could not be directly categorized into defense or offense, the practicality of some spells among them was not necessarily inferior to those combat magic.
Accio was one of them.
As long as the casting was successful, the desired object from afar would come to hand by itself, making it quite convenient for daily use.
When it came to Hodu, this spell was even simpler.
He didn't need to chant or wave a wand; as soon as a thought popped into his mind, the target item would fly into his hands.
However, the few copies of "The Standard Book of Spells" on the table obviously could not cover all daily-life magic.
Those that could be compiled into textbooks were basically what the Magical World considered content that students should master, and the scope was limited after all.
Household magic for cooking, as well as housework magicrelated to knitting, Hodu hadn't found in the books, yet Hannah had clearly performed these methods at home.
Those spells were probably hidden in other books.
Thinking of this, Hodu got up, picked up the books on the table one by one, and put them back on the bookshelf according to their original positions.
Looking for books wasn't something to rush; being able to have these gains today was already enough.
After leaving the Library, he returned to the dormitory along the way he came.
Harry, Ron, and Neville had returned a step ahead, but the three of them were acting a bit strange.
When Hodu's gaze swept over them, they either lowered their heads or turned their faces aside, as if fearing to make eye contact with him.
Hodu looked several times, still failing to figure out the situation.
What was going on, was he being ostracized?
"What are you guys making that expression for? What happened?"
He simply asked directly, while suspecting whether these three people had solved their homework behind his back.
Of course, this thought was just a casual guess.
If it came to writing homework, the few of them were still far from the point where they could write answers into essays.
Thinking of this, a trace of small pride even arose in Hodu's heart, and he finally understood why Hermione was always so prominent.
Asked by him like this, Harry and the others became even more uncomfortable.
The three of them looked at each other, unable to complete a sentence for a long time.
In the end, Ron gritted his teeth and spoke up for everyone.
"Um... our homework is already done."
Hodu's eyes suddenly widened.
Good grief, they really proved his guess right; they had actually secretly finished writing their homework!
But just completing homework didn't warrant putting on such a guilty look.
Unless...
Hodu's brows slowly furrowed, and his gaze first fell on Harry.
Harry immediately turned his face away, followed by Ronand Neville, both of whom avoided his gaze without exception.
"You guys aren't planning to not let me copy, are you?"
Hodu asked in utter disbelief.
Yet the truth happened to be just like that.
Harry and the others hurriedly explained, and the matter had to start from when they had a falling out with Hermione in the Library.
They returned to the dormitory fuming, but before long, Hermione came looking for them herself.
She wasn't here to lend them her homework to copy, but was willing to guide them by the side so they could finish the homework with their own hands.
Harry and the others eventually agreed.
There was no help for it; without Hermione's help, staring at the parchment for half a day, they probably wouldn't be able to put down a single word.
But Hermione also put forward a condition: the homework could no longer be lent to others.
This demand wasn't aimed solely at Hodu; no one could take it for others to copy.
Harry and the others originally wanted to find Hodu, but unfortunately they didn't see him in the dormitory.
Hearing this, Hodu gently sighed.
This matter indeed couldn't be blamed on them.
Since they had already agreed to Hermione, he couldn't possibly force the few of them to hand over the homework.
"Fine, I understand."
He answered crisply on the surface, but in his heart, it wasn't really that upsetting.
It was just that he originally thought everyone would go stand in detention together, but in the end, only he became that unlucky fellow.
However, upon second thought, Hodu found a way out.
"You guys can't give me the homework, then tutor me!"
"Tutor?" Harry was stunned.
A smile appeared on Hodu's face: "You guys reading the answers to me while standing by, isn't that considered tutoring?"
This of course wasn't the kind of tutoring Hermioneunderstood, but it didn't directly hand the completed homework over to him either, just bypassing that restriction.
Regarding this kind of loophole-exploiting practice, Hoduwas already quite practiced at it now.
Harry glared at him, his face full of disbelief.
"Can you even do it like this?"
They hadn't thought of this path at all before.
After Hodu explained the reasoning behind it clearly, the few first felt it was absurd, and then discovered that it seemed indeed nothing was wrong with it.
So Harry, Ron, and Neville took turns reading out the answers, while Hodu gripped his quill and hurriedly wrote them down.
After tossing about for a while, his homework was finally completed as well.
When the last word was written, Hodu put the quill aside and raised his hand to massage his sore palm.
He hadn't expected that he would still get a headache because of homework; this kind of experience had been separated by a long time.
The previous time was from even earlier back.
Early the next morning, as soon as Hodu woke up, he jumped down from the bed, without even waiting for Harryand the others, and hurriedly rushed out of the dormitory.
From waking up to leaving, it didn't even take five seconds in total.
He crossed the common room, went all the way down the stairs, straight from the heights of the Castle to the dungeons, and then entered the kitchen.
The House-elves in the kitchen were all busy to exhaustion, after all, they had to prepare breakfast.
However, as soon as they saw Hodu, they still greeted him one after another.
Through the contact of the past two days, the elves here already recognized him.
Bitun quickly came before Hodu with a bit of apology on his face.
"Mr. Hodu, the eggs you wanted have all been delivered. It's just that it's really too busy today, so I might not be able to lend a hand for you."
He needed to prepare breakfast for all teachers and students in the school; this matter was obviously a higher priority than Hodu's personal needs, and he wasn't deliberately refusing to help.
"That's alright."
Hodu didn't mind.
Although he couldn't spare his hands, Bitun had still prepared an iron pot and boiling water for him in advance.
Next, he just needed to put the eggs in and boil them.
Putting many eggs in at once wasn't difficult, but a quantity close to four thousand was still no small project.
The hot water in the pot continuously emitted steam, and the kitchen was an enclosed place, so Hodu felt like he was staying in a sauna before long.
Having stood for a long time, sweat soaked his clothes, and the fabric clung tightly to his body.
He shifted a thought, and the clothes on his body were immediately cleaned by Household Mastery.
But while clothes could be cleaned, the temperature couldn't be eliminated, and the sweat on his forehead still kept streaming down, soon converging into a thin stream.
Under this state, cleaning up couldn't solve much of a problem.
Time passed bit by bit, and Hodu repeated the action of throwing eggs into the pot and scooping out the boiled eggs.
The wooden basins used to hold the eggs quickly became insufficient.
Hodu simply cast the Duplication Charm, copying out a dozen or so wooden basins in one breath, temporarily solving the problem of insufficient containers.
When the last batch of eggs was scooped out, Hodulooked up around him, only to find that the eggs just scooped out had vanished in the blink of an eye.
Bitun was standing nearby, obviously continuously receiving these finished products.
"Where did all the eggs go?"
"Mr. Hodu, they are all fully boiled."
Hearing this sentence, Hodu reacted.
He looked around, and at some unknown time, wooden basins filled with boiled eggs had been placed all around him.
The quantity was somewhat exaggeratedly large.
If all these wooden basins were piled together, they would probably pile up into an egg mountain.
Bitun glanced at the time and reminded: "Mr. Hodu, it's not far from class time anymore, shouldn't you..."
"Has so long already passed?"
Hodu only then perceived that his stomach was rumbling, and his waist and back were also aching and sore in waves.
He had stood here for a full two hours; being too engrossed in the busyness just now, he hadn't really felt it much.
Now that the matter was over, his legs instead couldn't quite hold up.
"Is there anything to eat?" Hodu asked listlessly.
Bitun had already prepared breakfast for him long ago, and immediately handed the food over.
This time Hodu didn't have time to taste slowly, grabbing bread and stuffing it into his mouth while activating Consumption.
In less than ten seconds, this breakfast was completely decomposed, transformed into energy, and Hodu's state also recovered along with it.
Chapter 25: First Apparition
After finishing breakfast, Hodu didn't have time to dawdle. He immediately left the kitchen and sprinted all the way back up the stairwell to the Gryffindor common room.
As soon as he arrived, he was panting heavily, but since he hadn't grabbed his textbooks yet, he had to quickly pick up the books he needed for class and rush off to the classroom without stopping.
The moment he stepped into the classroom, the class bell rang right behind him.
Hodu sat down beside Harry and the others, and Harryimmediately lowered his voice to ask him where he had run off to early in the morning.
Hodu whispered back, saying only that he had gone to look for Bitun.
This class was the History of Magic by Professor.
Normally, Hodu probably wouldn't listen attentively, but today he didn't even have the heart to doze off. He first leaned against his seat to catch his breath for a while, and after his body recovered, he finally freed up his hands to check the system.
All five thousand raw eggs had turned into cooked eggs, and the progress of fusing with the House-elf was completely completed at this moment.
One of the fusion slots, which originally only had two, finally opened up.
Immediately afterwards, a new trait popped up in the system.
[Apparition: More talented when performing Apparition, and the commotion produced will be smaller.]
A gleam immediately lit up in Hodu's eyes.
This could be considered an unexpected harvest.
If he weren't still sitting in the classroom right now, he almost would have laughed out loud.
But how small would a smaller commotion actually be?
He stared at that line of description, a guess slowly emerging in his mind.
If casting it was as quiet as walking without even the slightest sound of footsteps, wouldn't it be extremely difficult to detect when sneaking up on someone?
House-elves being able to use Apparition at Hogwartswas perhaps based on this very logic.
It wasn't that the anti-Apparition magic had failed, but rather that movement was far too subtle to be captured by magic at all.
Just like when someone enters a room without making a single sound, the people inside naturally wouldn't know.
Right at this moment, a very clear feeling suddenly arose in Hodu's heart.
As long as he was willing, it seemed he could travel to any designated place at any time.
His body trembled violently, and he hurriedly pressed that thought down.
This was not an illusion.
If he had really followed through with that thought just now, he likely would have vanished directly in front of everyone.
Just thinking about that kind of scene was troublesome enough.
Yet, clearly being able to do it while having to forcefully hold back from trying felt like scratching an itch through a barrier where you could never quite hit the exact spot, leaving Hodu feeling quite anxious inside.
Time passed bit by bit.
Throughout the entire History of Magic Class, he remained completely awake, whereas Harry, Ron, and the others beside him kept dozing off, jolting awake as soon as they closed their eyes.
After finally enduring until the end of class, the group prepared to go to the Great Hall for dinner first before returning to the dormitory to rest.
However, Hodu had completely no mood to eat. He immediately clutched his stomach and put on a painful expression.
"You guys don't worry about me. I'll just go back to the dormitory and lie down for a while."
Harry didn't suspect anything and simply asked with concern whether he wanted to accompany him to the Hospital Wing to take a look.
Hodu hurriedly refused, insisting that he would be fine after resting for a little while.
Upon returning to the dormitory, he couldn't even be bothered to tidy up his textbooks, tossing them casually to the side, and immediately began studying the newly acquired Apparition trait.
According to his understanding, Apparition belonged to quite advanced magic, typically only touched upon by older students.
It was even more dangerous when first learning it, as a single mistake could cause Splinching.
Without an experienced old Wizard guiding him nearby, trying it rashly could easily lead to terrible results.
Of course, although this magic was convenient, it also had limitations.
If one wanted to go somewhere, they first had to clearly lock onto the target in their mind, sensing its location and appearance.
Only after completing the positioning could one arrive smoothly.
Therefore, places one had never been to usually could not be accurately traveled to.
In addition, it could not cross distances without limit; long-distance movement also had range restrictions.
But the Apparition obtained by Hodu was clearly not the same thing as what ordinary Wizards mastered.
That feeling was actually somewhat like Treasure Perception.
He closed his eyes, settled his mind to feel along the intuition emerging in his mind, and an illusory planet quickly appeared before his eyes.
That was precisely the world beneath his feet, merely outlined in his mind by his consciousness.
Immediately afterward, mountain ranges, rivers, and basins gradually appeared on the surface of the sphere, followed by buildings emerging one after another, spreading across the entire planet.
Hodu seemed to be placed in a pitch-black space, his body suspended within it.
Floating ahead was a small blue planet, about the size of a basketball, emitting a faint glow.
He raised his finger and pointed casually at a location on the sphere.
That illusory planet suddenly magnified, and the target area continuously pulled closer along with it.
Finally, his fingertip landed on a street that had already been clearly presented.
In an instant, noisy human voices surged from his ears, as if a large crowd of people were coming and going all around.
Hodu suddenly opened his eyes.
The next second, he found himself truly standing on a street.
"Ding-ding, excuse me, make way!"
A shout carrying a familiar hometown accent came over.
A middle-aged man with long hair and slightly old-fashioned clothing was riding a bicycle. Although the bicycle's style was old, its exterior was polished very brightly.
While ringing his bicycle bell, he rode toward Hodu.
Hodu hurriedly retreated backward, making way for him.
Only then did the middle-aged man wobble past him, turning back several times along the way to size up Hodu.
"What kind of clothes is this young man wearing? His eyes are even blue, is he a foreigner?"
Hodu couldn't be bothered to respond and simply turned his head to look around.
The scene here wasn't completely identical to what was in his memory, yet it still gave him an indescribable sense of familiarity.
Especially that long-lost language, which sounded exceptionally distinct in his ears.
There were no densely packed high-rises by the roadside, and the cars on the road weren't very numerous; simplicity permeated everywhere.
Yet it was precisely this simplicity that made Hodu feel at ease.
His sudden appearance did not draw much attention.
The quiet effect brought by the new trait seemed to have even weakened the abruptness of materializing out of thin air.
Unless someone specifically stared at that spot, it would be very difficult to tell that he had popped out in broad daylight under everyone's eyes.
However, after standing on the street for a while, he was gradually noticed by other people.
The reason was also very simple: the Wizard robe on his body was far too conspicuous in this era.
"Hi, how's it going?"
Someone approached to strike up a conversation with him, clearly taking him for a foreigner and practicing their English on him along the way.
Hodu was somewhat speechless upon hearing this, and opened his mouth to reply in a heavy regional accent: "What are you doing?"
That person instantly lost interest and sheepishly backed away.
Hodu did not use Apparition to leave immediately.
Now that people had noticed him, if he vanished out of thin air in front of these people on the street, he feared he would make the news that very night.
Besides, he planned to come back again in the future and couldn't leave too obvious of a commotion.
Therefore, he blended into the crowd of people, walking straight ahead along the street until he turned into an alley.
Hodu stopped his footsteps, first carefully looked around his surroundings, confirmed that no one was following behind him, and only then walked deep into the alley.
The next moment, his figure vanished silently.
Back in the dormitory, Hodu reappeared in form, the expression on his face somewhat complicated.
Excitement was naturally present, and melancholy also existed, but that emotion did not last very long.
Soon, he revealed a smile again.
Sure enough, under the blessing of the ten-thousand-fold trait, Apparition was completely not the same concept as ordinary Apparition.
Just now, he had effortlessly crossed a continent without the slightest bit of discomfort throughout the entire process, as smooth as ordinary breathing.