"Sirius Black."
Maka sat by the window, flipping through the belated copy of the Daily Prophet, and nodded thoughtfully.
What he cared about was not what was going to happen next semester—that was not important to him. He just thought of a magic from Sirius Black that had always given him a headache.
"…Animagus."
To be honest, Maka has been studying the principles of Animagus. But even though he had already studied it thoroughly, he had to put it aside because his transformation skills had not yet reached the requirements.
According to the information at hand, Animagus's transformation training cannot be precisely controlled, so not only can the results be unpredictable, but it is also easier to go crazy due to insufficient transformation skills.
This is undoubtedly quite dangerous.
Many wizards compare the practice of Animagus to Apparition, simply because of the danger involved.
But Maka, who has done in-depth research on both kinds of magic, doesn't think so.
Regardless of whether the coordinates of the Apparition are accurate or not, at least a strong enough will can avoid the occurrence of the splitting event.
But the practice of Animagus is completely different. Its danger lies in the uncontrollability during the practice.
For Maka, who has always put caution first, if a dangerous enough magic is uncontrollable, it means failure - this is something he absolutely cannot tolerate.
No matter it was in the past or now, he has never changed on this point.
After Maka studied hard for a long time, his level of transformation skill has actually reached the standard, but it is still far from the standard he expected in his heart.
In his opinion, the probability of failure still exists.
"No wonder all the materials about Animagus are marked with the importance of 'courage'..." He shook his head and said, "It's all because the standards required are too high. If you want to start practicing earlier, you can only rely on luck."
He threw the newspaper in his hand on the table, then took a sip of the black tea.
"It's a little cold."
Maka was muttering when she heard several knocks on the door. No need to ask, it must have been Willy who came to see him again to see the seedlings of Rafaela's Dragon Kiss.
For nearly a month, Willie seemed to have nothing to do and would come to see him from time to time. As time went by, he gradually got used to it.
When he and Willy took a walk to the top of the tower as usual, leisurely looking at the seedlings, looking at the scenery, and thinking about things. However, he discovered that summer vacation had actually come to an end.
"The growth cycle of Rafaela's dragon's kiss is very long, and we can't wait for it to bear buds." Maka said while looking at the seedlings that had just emerged from the soil about 5 inches long.
But Willy immediately shook her head.
"I can see it."
"...Summer vacation is almost over." Maka reminded.
When Willy heard this, she shook her head again.
"Take a year off from school," Willie said calmly.
Maka was stunned, looked at Willy and asked, "Suspension of school? Why?"
However, Willie stopped talking and just looked at the seedlings in the huge flower pot on the ground, in a daze.
Since she didn't want to talk about it, and Maka wasn't the kind of person to pursue her, he quickly put the matter behind him.
To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the huge collection of books at Hogwarts and Rowena's Chamber of Secrets, Maka herself would have wanted to drop out of school!
Hogwarts is not a nice place. Especially in the next few years, it will become more chaotic every year, which is not conducive to the study and research of various magics at all.
"But it can be used as a good place for practical training..." Maka said to herself as she lay on the railing and looked into the distance.
Soon, as the start date of school approached day by day, Maka finally decided to leave here.
Before he left, he gave Willie another updated version of herbalism notes as a farewell gift. It could be seen that although Willy was still expressionless, her actions when taking the note showed her love for this gift.
When Mr. Blois, Willy's father, who was standing behind Willie, saw his daughter's appearance, his eyes softened a lot. Perhaps for him, Willy's happy look was the scene he wanted to see the most, even if it was just a very subtle expression.
…
When Maka arrived in London, England, there were only a few days left before school started.
He first went to Knockturn Alley and ordered a lot of potion ingredients.
And when he was carrying his suitcase and preparing to go to Flourish and Blotts Bookstore to buy new textbooks for third grade, he met Harry at the entrance of the Quidditch boutique.
Maka reached out and patted Harry on the shoulder.
"Oh - Maka!" Harry was startled. He turned around, the surprised look on his face had not faded, "Why are you here?"
"School is about to start, and this is Diagon Alley—why do you think I'm here?" Maka said calmly.
"Oh! Yes, you are here to buy books." Harry said suddenly.
"What about you?" Maka asked.
"I'm about to go! In fact, I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron right now—"
Harry briefly talked about what he had encountered during the summer vacation, including the first time he had looked forward to his birthday so much, and also the fact that he had inadvertently flattered his evil-minded aunt.
"By the way, thank you for your birthday gift, Maka." Harry said, "We are all sorry about what happened last semester. I shouldn't doubt you... Professor Dumbledore also told me that I should trust you..."
Maka shook her head slightly and said: "It's okay, it's normal for you to have doubts... Of course, don't ask me what happened to me, it's not easy to explain clearly."
"Oh - okay," Harry shrugged, "Maka, when is your birthday?"
This time Maka shrugged - he didn't know it himself, so how could he tell others
"Probably in winter?" he replied.
The two of them chatted casually and walked to Flourishes and Blotts Bookstore together.
When they came to the door of the bookstore, Harry looked at the window of the bookstore and was immediately startled.
In the past, bookstore windows usually displayed spell books as big as floor tiles with gold reliefs. But now, such books are gone, replaced by a large iron cage containing about a hundred "Monster Books of Monsters".
The books were locked together and engaged in a furious wrestling match, biting and fighting with a bellicose attitude, with broken pages flying everywhere.
"Fortunately, Hagrid gave it to me as a birthday present this year..." Harry couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
He now finally understood why Hagrid had said in his letter that he might need this book.
"This kind of book is not suitable for use as a textbook. If you don't pay attention, you will lose a few pages." The books in Maka's cage were biting each other and said calmly.
The two walked into the bookstore, and the manager hurriedly came forward to greet them.
"Is it from Hogwarts?" he asked with a depressed look on his face, "Are you here to buy new books?"
"Yes," said Harry, "I need—"
"Please step aside," the manager said impatiently, pushing Harry aside. He put on a pair of thick gloves, picked up a thick, knotted cane, and walked towards the iron cage containing the "Monster Book of Monsters".
"No, I can just do it myself—"
Maka said, directly opening the door of the cage and reaching in decisively.
"Oh! Look out!" the manager yelled.
But Maka's actions made him shut up immediately.
Maka flipped her wrist with unusual flexibility to avoid a book biting at him, and then flipped her wrist again and accurately grasped the book firmly in her hand.
His index finger lightly scratched the spine of the book, and the originally fierce book immediately trembled and became quiet.
"Just scratch the spines of the books and they will quiet down for a while. I suggest you tie them up with a belt." Maka said to the manager of the bookstore.
"That's a good idea," the manager said with thanks as the depression disappeared from his face, "Thank you so much, I've been bitten five times this morning!"
At this moment, a loud tearing sound suddenly came from the cage - two "Monster Books of Monsters" grabbed the third one, and then worked together to tear it apart.
"Oh—stop it! Stop it!" cried the manager, thrust his cane between the bars, and opened the books.
"Guess I'd better get rid of them as soon as possible! They've been making quite a fuss these past couple of days! We've gone through two hundred of the Invisible Books before, and I thought there was nothing worse than them—those books are good It’s expensive, and we’ll never have… Well, sir, do you want one too?”
"I already have this book." Harry said hurriedly.
"Thank God—" said the manager. "Do you want any other books?"
Ten minutes later, the two walked out of the bookstore. Behind them, the manager's helpless shout could be heard vaguely. He has probably already begun to deal with those disobedient monster books.
"Harry, I'm about to leave first, there's still a place I need to go to." Maka suddenly said, "See you at the beginning of school."
"Oh - okay! See you at the beginning of school." Harry nodded.
Before school starts, Maka plans to go to Lovegood's house and have a few meals. When school starts, going to school with Luna would also be a good choice.
At least, the time spent with Luna was always relaxing.
Of course, the Lovegood family is still the same, and Luna has hardly changed.
No, she seems to have grown taller.
Maka herself has grown a lot taller, and her clothes have also been replaced with new ones. Because of this, he noticed the changes in Luna.
To be honest, he spent a lot of time with Luna last semester, maybe because she kept wandering in front of him! If you don't look carefully, it's not easy to notice.
"How was your summer vacation?"
Maka asked as she stood in front of the fireplace and looked at Luna who turned around.
"Maybe..." Luna blinked and raised the corners of her mouth slightly.