The dismissal bell rang through the ancient stone classroom, its echo like a pardon, instantly shattering the taut atmosphere that had stretched across the entire lesson.
The scraping of chair legs against flagstone erupted in a clamor. Young witches and wizards, as if released from captivity, stuffed quills and parchment into their bags in a frenzy, faces alight with impatience for lunch.
Alan Scott was the only exception.
He remained seated, unmoving, as though the liberating bell had nothing to do with him. His gaze stayed locked on the parchment before him—not simple lines this time, but a complex three-dimensional coordinate system composed of countless data points. Every inch of the feather's displacement under different magical parameters, every suspension, every rotation—he had captured them with cold precision, translating motion into the unforgiving language of mathematics.
Only after the last student had disappeared through the doorway did Alan slowly raise his head. He carefully rolled up the parchment filled with calculations, every movement deliberate, without a trace of haste.
He rose and walked to Professor Filius Flitwick, who was tidying the lecture desk.
"Professor, may I take a few minutes of your time?"
Flitwick turned, and when he saw Alan, his small face broke into a broad smile. For this gifted student who had already shown astonishing insight into Charms, he never withheld either his time or his admiration.
"Of course, Mr. Scott," he said, his voice warm with anticipation.
Alan wasted no time on pleasantries. He stepped up to the desk and unfurled the parchment with a crisp snap. Charts and formulas spilled across the professor's vision—an alien beauty, rigorous and mathematical, utterly unlike traditional magical theory.
"According to my preliminary measurements," Alan said, pointing at an inflection on the graph, his voice steady and without emotion, "the Levitation Charm does have a basic adaptive mechanism in its magical output. But its efficiency is poor, with roughly fifteen percent energy dissipation."
Flitwick bent closer, eyes behind his spectacles sparkling with intense interest. Energy dissipation—the concept had occasionally been raised in advanced charms research, but no one had ever quantified it with such precision.
"But," Alan continued, his tone shifting slightly, "if we combine it with other basic spells, perhaps we could achieve more interesting functions."
"Oh? Such as?"
Flitwick's curiosity flared, stronger than ever. He knew what was coming wouldn't be the ordinary first-year whimsy of "turning feathers into birds."
"For example," Alan said, his words like a thunderclap,
"could we create a spell program that automatically cleans the blackboard?"
"Spell… program?"
The unfamiliar term rippled through Flitwick's mind like a stone dropped into still waters, stirring circles of thought he had never known before. He turned it over in his mouth, tasting its unfamiliar logic.
"Yes, a program," Alan said, his eyes calm and profound, deconstructing magic with a framework of knowledge born from another world.
"Professor, you can think of it like a Muggle computer program. Not a single spell, but a logical combination of multiple spells."
Rather than feeling insulted by the Muggle comparison, Flitwick found himself focusing harder.
Alan picked up a stick of chalk and turned to a spare blackboard.
With a sharp tap, the chalk met slate.
Instead of a spell, he drew a square.
"Step one: we need a trigger condition."
He wrote a note beside the box, then drew an arrow leading to the next shape.
"For example, when you say the word 'class dismissed', the program activates."
His motions were smooth and exact, like a surgeon conducting a precise operation.
"Step two: activate a Cleaning Charm to wipe away all the chalk writing on the blackboard."
Another box, another arrow.
"Step three: activate a Drying Charm to ensure the board's surface is completely dry."
"Step four: activate a Reset Charm to return the eraser and chalk to their original positions."
"Finally, the program ends, waiting for the next trigger command."
When the last box was drawn, a neat, rigorous flowchart—cold and logical—stood fully formed before Professor Flitwick's eyes.
Alan set the chalk down, turned, and faced the master of Charms, who was now frozen in place, and delivered his final conclusion:
"By setting a clear logical sequence, trigger conditions, and termination commands, we can make a series of basic, independent spells cooperate to achieve a complex, automated function."
"This… is what I envision as magical automation."
The classroom fell into a silence so profound it seemed unnatural. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows, scattering motes of dust that drifted slowly in the still air.
Professor Flitwick stared blankly at the flowchart on the blackboard. His mind—honed by decades of immersion in Charms, the mind of a man hailed as one of the greatest Charms masters of his age—was being ravaged by a storm of upheaval.
All his life he had studied spells: how to make them stronger, how to cast them faster, how to invent new effects.
But never—not once—had he thought of this.
Never had he imagined that spells could be programmed!
This was not mere spell innovation.
This was an entirely new, revolutionary way of thinking!
It ripped Charms out of the realm of "craft"—a skill dependent on inspiration and talent—and forced it upward, into the realm of "engineering," where it could be quantified, designed, and optimized!
Professor Flitwick's small body began to tremble—not from cold or fear, but from pure, soul-deep intellectual shock.
"Genius…"
The word left his lips dry and rasping.
"This… this is a stroke of pure genius!"
His voice suddenly leapt an octave, brimming with irrepressible excitement. In that tiny frame rumbled the force of a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Mr. Scott, you… you may have just pointed out an entirely new and crucial direction for the future of modern Charms!"
At the very same instant Flitwick was overcome with passion, deep within Alan's consciousness—within the grand halls of his mental palace—resounded a chime far more majestic and solemn than the professor's praise.
It was a sound forged from the collision of logical runes, a symphony echoing with the trajectories of the stars themselves.
[Epic Quest Triggered: Magical Programmer]
A stream of radiant blue data unfolded across Alan's retina, forming a translucent quest panel.
[Quest Description: The value of theory lies in practice. Successfully research and demonstrate the world's first stable "spell program," no matter how simple its function may be.]
[Quest Rewards: Unlock new skill tree — Charm Programming; +5000 EXP; gain a random special talent related to logic.]
Alan's eyes showed not the slightest ripple at the generous reward. Yet deep within, a new, perfectly clear node in his plan was marked and locked in place.
His first core research project at Hogwarts had now been officially established.
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