"It's my wand that's in poor condition, that's why the magic failed!"
"Is that so, Mr. Weasley? Then you should go to Ollivander's for a refund."
Faced with Hermione's taunt, Ron's face and ears turned as red as his hair.
He had also wanted to show off some magic just now, indicating that he could turn his pet rat, Scabbers, yellow.
Of course, it failed. Ron's older brother, Fred, had taught him that spell just to tease him.
Scabbers was a small rat, shedding fur and missing a toe.
It was currently burying its head in a snack wrapper, feasting heartily.
Scabbers completely failed to notice that someone was observing it with great interest.
Lucien narrowed his dark green eyes, looking down at the shedding rat.
This rat's true form was an Animagus, Peter Pettigrew.
He had been hiding in the Weasley family for over a decade, and had also been the pet rat of Ron's other brother, Percy.
Tsk, tsk, why didn't the Weasleys think, how could a rat live for so many years?
Lucien's thoughts drifted in another direction.
Animagus, the highest achievement in Transfiguration.
A Wizard can transform himself into an animal while retaining his magic.
I need to master this knowledge and successfully put it into practice within a year.
If I had an experimental subject to observe, it should speed up the process, right?
There are still too few Animagus 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 Animagus.
Professor McGonagall is indeed a highly skilled Animagus. Lucien could ask her for guidance and practice, but he couldn't observe her freely to analyze this Transfiguration.
But Peter Pettigrew, the pet rat Scabbers, is different!
Not only is he an illegal Animagus, but he also framed Sirius Black and betrayed Harry's parents back then.
Even if he were used for some observational experiments, how would he dare seek help, and who could he even ask for help?
Thinking of this, Lucien unconsciously smiled.
He manipulated a pumpkin pasty to fly in front of Scabbers.
Scabbers looked at the pumpkin pasty in front of him, then looked up at Lucien.
He didn't know why, but despite the seemingly kind smile, Scabbers suddenly felt a chill all over his body.
He inexplicably didn't want to eat the food Lucien offered, but he also felt it would be strange for a rat to refuse food.
Scabbers still bit into the pumpkin pasty, forcing himself.
Harry, who was observing Hermione and Ron arguing, suddenly caught sight of Lucien's spell-casting to feed Scabbers, and a hint of envy appeared in his eyes again.
Although he was called the Boy Who Lived, Harry had never formally encountered magic before.
He didn't even know the simplest spell!
Harry had lived with his Aunt Petunia since he was young. His relatives were all Muggles, and Muggles who hated Wizards and feared magic. No one had ever taught him magic.
As for self-study from books?
Harry would get dizzy just looking at those magic books. The books Hagrid had bought for him at Flourish and Blotts were still brand new, packed away in his trunk.
So Harry envied Lucien and the others.
He envied Hermione, who could learn magic through self-study, and he envied Ron, who was born into a Wizarding family and had been exposed to magic since childhood.
Harry envied Lucien even more, envying how skillfully he could use magic.
Harry didn't understand magic, but he could tell how high Lucien's magic level was among his peers by the awe Neville and the others showed at Lucien's spell-casting skills.
They were all about the same age, yet Lucien could already use magic so effortlessly.
"Lucien?"
Harry pushed up his glasses and leaned forward, quietly asking Lucien:
"You seem really good at casting spells. Did you have a Wizard elder in your family teach you?"
Lucien was thinking about how to borrow Scabbers from Ron later, and simply replied to Harry's question:
"Oh, no, I'm from a Muggle family. All that magic I learned from books."
Lucien's casual reply stunned Harry.
At the same time, it also made Hermione and Ron, who were still arguing, stop.
"You're also Muggle-born!?"
Hermione looked at Lucien with astonishment.
Lucien's effortless spell-casting made Hermione assume he was a descendant of a pure-blood family, or at the very least, of mixed-blood, with at least one magic-knowing elder to guide him.
But Lucien said he was also from a Muggle family, and he learned all that magic by reading books.
This meant Lucien's situation was very similar to hers, but if they both practiced magic from magic books, why was the difference so great?
When Hermione used the Reparo spell to fix Harry's glasses, she wasn't entirely confident; she was just provoked by Ron, and her inherent pride made her try.
However, amidst her shock, Hermione also felt an extra sense of closeness to Lucien.
After all, among the four young Wizards present, Ron was a pure-blood descendant of one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, and Harry's parents were both Wizards. Hermione had originally thought she was the only pure Muggle-born.
When reading books about the Wizarding World, she had learned about the prejudice some pure-blood Wizards held against Muggle-born Wizards.
But her strong and proud nature wouldn't allow Hermione to feel inferior, so she practiced spells from magic books for a long time, barely mastering a Reparo spell.
Now that she had Lucien, who was like her, from a Muggle family, and who also learned magic by self-study from books.
The young Witch's eyes looked even brighter at Lucien, and the friendliness and closeness contained within them became more apparent.
Ron, on the other hand, was wide-eyed, staring at Lucien with some disbelief.
"Learned by himself? magic?"
"magic of this proficiency is self-taught?"
Ron, a Weasley child, with both parents pure-blood Wizards, and five older brothers, had grown up in an environment full of magic since he was small.
So he understood even more clearly the level of the Accio spell Lucien had performed.
He had successfully used the Accio spell on completely unfamiliar items, items that were invisible from 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 dragon tamer, one who worked at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and a Hogwarts Prefect; he had seen what "talent" meant.
But Lucien's…
Compared to Ron's complex expression, Harry was much simpler, just looking at Lucien with admiration.
After all, Harry didn't understand Wizards, didn't understand magic, but he just thought it was amazing that Lucien could master magic through self-study!
Harry even had an impulse to ask Lucien to teach him magic.
But thinking that they had only just met a few hours ago, and would soon be entering Hogwarts to formally study magic, Harry temporarily suppressed that thought.
Facing the reactions of the three youngsters, Lucien was actually quite satisfied.
Not only did he need to build good relationships with them, but he also needed to project a reliable image in front of them.
That way, when the three of them later hear about the Philosopher's Stone and eventually go looking for it, they will think to come to him for help.
Making plans to access the Philosopher's Stone in advance is one thing, but ensuring that I can ultimately find the Philosopher's Stone and use it to refine potions is also crucial.
"Woo-woo—"
A loud, piercing steam whistle sounded.
"Children, please change into your Wizard robes as quickly as possible."
"You have arrived at Hogwarts!"