A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

Chapter 8: Figurines

What does it take to create a "genuine" magical puppet?

First, one must understand what a magical puppet is. Simply put, it's a guardian and protector. As Felix Harp knew, Hogwarts School had a collection of stone puppets, intricately crafted and enduring through the ages, always safeguarding Hogwarts' security.

However, for the purpose of teaching, such strictness was unnecessary.

Find some high-quality clay, mix in a bit of dragon dung, and add a splash of magical creature blood - dragon blood would be best, but for instructional purposes, cost-effective options would suffice.

But Felix himself could certainly create some advanced combat puppets for his personal collection...

Felix quickly submitted an application report to Professor McGonagall. After a complex exchange, Professor McGonagall ultimately agreed to his idea, allowing him to give it a try.

Along with the acceptance letter, a formal appointment, and a small bag of Galleons arrived.

Felix promptly acquired the materials for the student version of magical puppets. He dug the clay himself, and obtained dragon dung and magical creature blood from the black market. Then, he spent three days wandering Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, and various magical black markets around the world, finally gathering the premium materials for his "deluxe edition" magical puppets.

Subsequently, Felix wrote to his "dear" Slytherin classmates, borrowing house-elves from their homes temporarily to establish a magical version of an assembly line.

Felix cleared out his own house and used the Traceless Extension Charm to transform the room into a plaza-sized space.

Before him stood a row of house-elves.

"Everyone, I'll be relying on you from here on!" After demonstrating the puppet model creation process once, Felix stepped back and delegated the task.

As for himself, he was busy too! Aside from redesigning his "deluxe edition" combat puppets and adding various restricted powerful magical circuits, he also had to tend to the food needs of the house-elves, ensuring they could fully devote themselves to their work.

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Felix wasn't just speaking idly; the testimonies of the house-elves confirmed it: "Mr. Harp is truly magnificent!" xN

Days slipped away, and in the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

Felix looked at the models of hundreds of magical puppets and was greatly satisfied, even though these models lacked any magical circuits, they could be considered unfinished products at best.

But it was sufficient.

As a farewell gesture, Felix prepared a lavish farewell feast for the house-elves.

"You're truly generous!" xN

After harvesting another round of thanks, Felix saw off these "volunteer laborers."

In the following week, Felix began crafting ancient magical runes of varying difficulty based on the number of students in each year. He reinforced them with strengthening charms to prevent damage, after all, these were valuable!

Felix exhausted himself to the point of near death before finally finishing.

"Next time, I won't do something like this! It's so damn tiring!"

Felix felt drained, his face pale, but he had taken a significant step forward in understanding ancient magical runes.

Casually picking up a semi-finished magical puppet, it was a palm-sized (about half a foot) figurine of a young man in proportionate reduction. He wore traditional Eastern-style student robes and had a pair of black gloves with exposed fingers, adorned with a golden sun emblem on the back of the gloves and the robe.

After spending a few minutes completing the ancient magical rune circuit, he waved his wand, and the magical puppet immediately sprang to life.

First, it cautiously moved its limbs, kicked and punched, then it raised its index finger in a classic pose. After a few seconds of pause, it swung its arm forcefully. A football-sized flame followed the predetermined path of ancient magical runes, erupting from its fingertip, flying out half a meter away...

"Hehehe..."

Felix's magical puppet, while drawing inspiration from a fighting game, wasn't a mere copy. He made some magical modifications to its appearance and moves.

The magical puppets came in twelve different designs, featuring handsome men and beautiful women, old and young - a variety for students to choose their favorite type.

And for each puppet, in addition to basic combat moves, there was the design of "external skills." But considering practicality, Felix Harp didn't make it too complicated. He simply divided them roughly into four categories: "fire," "ice," "lightning," and "cutting."

Take fire as an example. Considering safety concerns (one mustn't underestimate young wizards' curiosity), the "external skill" released by the student version magical puppet was just ordinary flames, at most made to look more impressive.

In this aspect, he was quite knowledgeable. He even modified a character's skill: the ultimate move transformed into a fiery phoenix – yes, a phoenix.

Felix was very satisfied. Perhaps, he could bring a new trend to Hogwarts! With teaching tools sorted, Felix turned his attention to his "deluxe edition" combat puppets.

Six in total.

If you must label them to satisfy imagination, you could summarize them with the following keywords:

Fire Master, Beautiful female doll;

Ice Master, Beautiful female doll;

Lightning Master, Beautiful female doll;

Cutting Master, Beautiful female doll;

Speed Master, Beautiful female doll;

Transfiguration Master, Beautiful female doll;

Hehe, surprisingly consistent in features~

Overall, in his collection of figurines, he added two new types: speed assassins and transfiguration disruptors. These six figurines weren't run-of-the-mill; he expended a significant amount of premium materials, engraved intricate ancient magical runes, and protective magic to create these alchemical masterpieces.

For instance, the Fire Master's figurine was engraved with a potent magical fire, with extremely high temperature. It could shoot flames up to 20 meters away, its power capable of smashing half a wall and maintaining this combat intensity for ten minutes.

According to his estimate, any of these six magical puppets could easily overpower a seventh-year graduate with minimal effort.

And when the six figurines combined, there were ranged and close combat options, speed and power, strong offense and disruption. They could fight individually or pair up, or form teams of three, four, even up to six, with their combined power increasing exponentially.

Hmm, Felix thought maliciously, with these six puppets, he could easily stall an unnamed Potions Professor for ten minutes!

The only flaw was that they required a wizard to control them.

But the key was that Felix himself was far stronger than magical puppets...

A bit disappointing, Felix shook his head. There was still much room for improvement.

At the very least, they needed some combat intelligence.

Looking at the remaining materials, he pondered and decided to mix in some lower-grade materials to make five more puppets – stronger than the student version but weaker than the deluxe edition.

Consider them as prizes for the start of class – one for each year!

Perfect!

Felix took out a small box and placed the teaching tools inside – needless to say, this box was also subjected to the Traceless Extension Charm.

For his six figurines, Felix didn't think much. He waved his wand, causing them to float and fly onto a jade-green ring on his left index finger.

This object, resembling a storage ring, was fundamentally an alchemical creation reinforced with the Traceless Extension Charm and stable magical inscriptions.

Hidden magical circuits were also inscribed, minimizing magical fluctuations. From the outside, it looked like a decorative gemstone ring.

However, this ring held a third of his fortune, accumulated from his travels near and far!

Though the saying goes "a fox has three burrows," Felix had already established two burrows, only one left.

And this third burrow, he had already begun to outline it a few days ago.