Ted let out a long breath before asking,"Could you tell me more about the Boy Who Lived—Neville Longbottom? You see, I grew up in a Muggle orphanage. I've only recently started hearing about him."
"Oh?" Old Tom raised an eyebrow. "Right, the savior—the Boy Who Lived. We all owe him a great deal. Otherwise, who knows what things would look like now."
"He survived that disaster and somehow defeated the Dark Lord. Mind you, he was only about a year old at the time…"
"I've heard he hasn't exactly shown extraordinary talent since then. Some even say he's a bit… well… underwhelming. Because of that, certain wizards believe it was just luck…"
"But regardless of that," Old Tom continued, "the Dark Lord fell because of him. That's why we can sit here chatting peacefully instead of living under a shadow of terror. No matter what anyone says, we should all be grateful to him."
Back in his little storage room, Ted didn't continue practicing spells.
Instead, he picked up the second-hand copy of A History of Magic—a book he had never actually opened before.
The previous owner clearly hadn't been a very disciplined student. Many of the portraits in the book had been decorated with childish doodles—mustaches, horns, and other scribbles.
Still, it had been cheap.
And the book worked just fine.
Ted flipped directly to the year 1970, when Lord Voldemort began openly leading the Death Eaters in opposition to the Ministry of Magic.
Since Ted didn't remember every event from the original storyline during that decade, he couldn't immediately tell whether anything had changed.
But when he reached 1981, the difference became obvious.
According to the book, Voldemort had seized an opportunity to attack the safe house of the Auror couple Frank and Alice Longbottom.
The Longbottoms had actually had a chance to escape.
But in order to protect their child, they chose to stay and fight—and ultimately died in battle.
Afterward, when Voldemort attempted to kill Neville Longbottom, something unexpected happened.
In the end, Neville received an S-shaped scar on his forehead…
And Voldemort "died."
Shortly after Voldemort's fall, the Second Celestial Convergence occurred.
If the first Celestial Convergence had mainly brought chaotic celestial events, extreme weather, and strange plants and creatures from other worlds…
Then the second one had introduced intelligent races.
Elves.
Dwarves.
Gnomes.
And beastfolk.
These races were currently recognized as "people" and accepted by the wizarding world.
On the other hand, races like merfolk, kobolds, goblins, and bugbears were treated as humanoid monsters.
Even though they possessed crude civilizations and their own languages…
They were violent.
And, frankly, ugly.
It seemed this world should really be renamed "Neville Longbottom."
Voldemort had chosen Neville as his destined enemy.
The savior had changed.
And the two Celestial Convergences had filled the world with countless unknown magical creatures.
Who knew how much impact that would ultimately have?
Ted's greatest advantage—his knowledge of the original storyline—was gone.
"Ah… well," Ted sighed, setting down the battered copy of A History of Magic.
No matter what, life had to go on.
Whether it was Neville or Harry…
He still had to learn magic and become stronger.
And besides, he had his cheat ability.
What was there to fear?
It wasn't like he had been thrown into one of those miserable "suffering protagonist" stories.
Ted reopened Magical Theory.
The book's author was Adalbert Waffling, a British wizard who studied magical theory and was credited with writing the foundational framework for modern magical understanding.
Waffling was widely regarded as the Father of Magical Theory, since every modern wizard had studied his work.
He summarized the fundamental rules of magic and wrote Magical Theory, which remained a standard textbook for young witches and wizards at Hogwarts even today.
He was even featured on a Chocolate Frog card.
After learning a few simple spells, Ted had begun studying this book.
After all, it explained the basics—what magic actually was, how spells functioned, and other essential concepts.
Anyone hoping to achieve something meaningful in magic would eventually have to master these theoretical foundations.
Simply knowing how to cast magic without understanding why it worked wasn't necessarily wrong.
But someone like that could at most become a powerful elite Auror.
They would never reach the level of a true magical master like Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, or Lord Voldemort.
According to the theory widely accepted among wizards, magic was the manipulation of magical power through the wizard's will.
The final effect of a spell was strongly tied to the caster's intent.
Incantations and wand movements were merely supporting tools to assist in shaping magic.
After all, young witches and wizards often caused magical effects during accidental magic outbursts, even without wands or spells.
However, that primitive method was extremely unstable.
For most wizards, it was difficult—and even dangerous.
That was why, about two thousand years ago, wizards developed spells and wands.
The goal was to standardize magic, making it easier to cast and easier to learn a variety of spells.
In ancient times, each wizard only knew a small number of spells.
Everything depended heavily on natural talent.
For instance, a kind-hearted wizard with a compassionate nature might only know a handful of healing spells—and possess little combat ability.
Similarly, a witch raised in the countryside might specialize in brewing potions.
Beyond that, perhaps she could train a black cat or raven to act as a lookout.
But in a fight?
She wouldn't be very effective.
Some wizards specialized entirely in Transfiguration.
Others focused only on long-range curses.
Which was also why witch hunts had once been so effective.
Compared to that era, modern magic represented a tremendous improvement.
Ted picked up another book he had borrowed from the bookshop:
Control Your Magic – A Must-Read for Young Wizards.
This one was written in simple language and taught young wizards how to control their magical power so they wouldn't accidentally cause dangerous outbursts.
Even though the content was basic, it was perfect for beginners.
Besides that, Ted also had another book called The Power of Will.
One of the advantages of working in a bookshop was obvious:
You could read books for free.
Deep in the Flourish and Blotts warehouse were many unsold books from previous years.
Some had simply never sold.
Others were leftovers from old shipments.
Ted had even discovered a copy of The Invisible Book of Invisibility.
Apparently the shop had stocked several copies long ago.
But because they kept turning invisible and disappearing, they had never been sold.
These were all free treasures, and Ted carefully took notes on everything he read.
If he had studied this diligently back in his old life…
He probably would have graduated from Tsinghua University by now.
On Ted's character interface, a new skill had appeared:
Spellcasting Lv.1
It seemed he had officially entered the beginner stage in spellwork.
At this point, Ted had come to accept something important.
No matter how much the world changed—
Personal strength was the only thing that truly mattered.
Meet change with constancy.
The next day, Ted returned to the apothecary to process herbs.
By now, he could handle more than a dozen types of ingredients.
His progress had been remarkably fast.
Of course, that was because he worked extremely hard.
Ted wrote down every single instruction Mr. Giggs gave about potion ingredients in his notebook.
At night, he reviewed and organized his notes.
Mr. Giggs rarely had to repeat anything twice.
Now even Mr. Giggs had begun to appreciate the benefits of having a reliable "child laborer" in the shop.
Ted handled the tedious, repetitive tasks involving low-level materials—jobs that had little value but still needed to be done.
Mr. Giggs had gone out to purchase supplies.
When he returned, he carried a backpack.
It was clearly enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.
From that bag, he proceeded to remove items that together were five times its actual size.
"What herbs are those?" Ted asked.
"Heh heh!" Mr. Giggs grinned proudly. "These weren't easy to get! All new species that appeared after the Celestial Convergence. These particular ones have been tested for a long time and confirmed to have medicinal value."
Mr. Giggs began showing them off.
"Take this one," he said, lifting an ordinary-looking white flower.
"This is called Peacebloom. It can be used to brew healing potions."
Ted blinked.
That name sounded… suspiciously familiar.
Mr. Giggs continued,
"Unlike Dittany, healing potions can treat many internal injuries. Dittany can't replace that function."
"And this—Silverleaf. And Earthroot…"
"All of them are herbs that appeared after the Celestial Convergence."
"And as for this…" Mr. Giggs said dramatically.
He produced a large glass jar filled with liquid.
Inside floated something that looked disturbingly like a pig's brain.
"This is a Drowner Brain—the brain of a Drowner. Drowners are monsters that also appeared after the Celestial Convergence. If you ever go near water, you'd better be careful. These things are extremely dangerous!"
Peacebloom.
Silverleaf.
Earthroot.
Wasn't that straight out of World of Warcraft?
Did that mean Azeroth was connected to this world now?!
And the Burning Legion…?
As for the Drowner, Ted had originally thought Mr. Giggs meant something like the legendary water monkeys from folklore.
But the moment he heard Drowner Brain, it clicked.
That was from The Witcher universe!
Just how many worlds had merged during these Celestial Convergences?!
Even though Ted gained a good amount of experience points today from learning about new herbs and potion ingredients…
He couldn't feel happy about it.
Hopefully this world didn't have a Well of Eternity.
Otherwise the Burning Legion might start paying attention…