Chapter 19: Born At The End Of July
「Dragon dung, lucky stars, shining stars……」
Neville’s eyes were somewhat dazed, holding the password list, the parchment feeling rough, feeling inexplicably somewhat unreal: “This… is the spell I cast?”
Melvin didn’t answer, patted his shoulder again, and casually asked: “You have the password now, can you get back on your own?”
“Probably… I can?”
Neville’s voice was still trembling a bit.
Melvin shook his head, searching in the portrait frames on both sides of the wall: “Sir Cadogan? Sir Cadogan?”
“Noble spirit and strong body, summon Sir Cadogan if you need!”
Accompanied by an excited shout, a short and fat knight in armor ran out from a small path deep in the portrait, no one knew who told him, followed by a pony, equally short and fat, its hooves clopping.
“Sir Cadogan.”
Melvin clenched his fist to his chest, performing a knight’s salute: “This little guy is lost, could you trouble yourself to escort him back to Gryffindor Tower?”
“Escort mission! Leave it to me!”
The short and fat knight’s eyes lit up, he flipped to mount his pony, but was shaken off by the horse with a shake.
Cadogan got up and stood steady, not embarrassed, adjusted his sword, put on his visor and looked at Neville: “Stay close to me, soldier!”
He then plunged headfirst into the neighboring nun’s portrait frame, chased and beaten all the way to another portrait, the next one was a woman in a hoop skirt, another round of chasing and fleeing, making a clanging racket.
Neville glanced at the knight running far away, then at the professor beside him, hurriedly chased after, not forgetting to wave goodbye: “Goodbye, Professor Levent!”
“Hehe…”
Melvin thought the portraits in the school were all quite interesting.
“The Summoning Charm in my memory doesn’t have such momentum, and Lumbardons’ change…”
Dumbledore walked out from the staircase landing, holding a cup of hot chocolate, his thoughtful brow slightly furrowed, curiously asked: “Melvin, how did you do it?”
“A bit of insignificant teaching technique.”
Melvin wasn’t surprised, not long after he found Neville, the headmaster had been hiding there, who knows if he installed surveillance in the corridor.
“That child’s casting gesture was very standard, an incompatible wand would cause hindrance, but not to the point of complete spell failure, from my observation, his biggest problem is self-doubt…”
Melvin changed the subject: “In the Muggle World, there’s a short-distance vehicle called a bicycle, relying on the gyroscopic effect from the rotation of two wheels, and the rider’s control to maintain balance, it’s very difficult for beginners, one aspect is the bicycle is hard to control, the other is overcoming the psychological barrier, Muggle parents have summarized a teaching method from this.
“When teaching a child to ride, pretend to hold from behind, helping the beginner find balance. As the wheels spin rapidly, the gyroscopic effect quickly helps the child master balance, and the child learning to ride thinks the parent is supporting them, starts riding freely with confidence.
“They ride a long distance before realizing the parent let go long ago. While realizing the truth, they have already overcome the psychological barrier, so they quickly learn to ride.”
“What do you mean?”
“As long as you give him firm belief, a support, even a false support, it can help him find balance, let him ride forward on his own.”
“…”
Dumbledore’s deep blue eyes widened, shimmering with crystalline light: “The Summoning Charm doesn’t come with gale winds, but the Cleaning Charm can create gale winds, you cast the Cleaning Charm to summon the gale, and Lumbardons thought it was the influence produced by his Summoning Charm, this belief combined with the correct casting gesture truly released the Summoning Charm…”
“A first-year student’s magic power isn’t strong, luckily, that list was nearby.”
“Truly… an astonishing miracle.”
“Magic always brings us surprises.”
“I mean your idea.” Dumbledore sighed softly, “I’m glad, Melvin, glad I sent you that invitation that night.”
“This is my honor too.”
“Melvin, do you have time tomorrow weekend? I have something I want your help with.”
“Going to Hogsmeade in the morning, afternoon?”
“I’ll wait for you in the office.”
“See you tomorrow then.”
“See you tomorrow, Melvin.”
…
“Light of the Fairy Realm.”
The Fat Lady prefers setting Latin or astrological terms as passwords, appearing elegant and classical.
As the password voice fell, the stone cave behind the portrait rumbled open, revealing the passage to the Gryffindor Common Room.
Bidding farewell to Sir Cadogan, saying good night to the Fat Lady, Neville entered the Common Room, his expression still somewhat dazed.
Such a grand Summoning Charm, was it really cast by me?
Lights out had been nearly half an hour, the lounge was pitch black, borrowing the faint starlight through the window, Neville looked down at his hands.
One hand held the wand, the other the list.
A solid wooden staircase connected the Common Room and dormitory, branching left and right to separate boys’ and girls’ dorms, walking along the passage inward, this year’s first-year dorms were positioned inside, perhaps to protect student privacy, this corridor had no portraits, and rarely saw ghosts. Thus lacking supervision, the walls on both sides had sporadic graffiti, some well-drawn with visible images, some just meaningless ink blots, the house-elves’ scheduled cleaning had oversights, in hidden crevices, one could see students’ writings from hundreds of years ago.
Neville gently pushed open the door, entered the dormitory, his roommates had already changed into pajamas and gone to bed, Seamus and Dean sleeping deeply, Harry and Ron huddled together whispering, tomorrow they were going to visit the gamekeeper Hagrid, that big fellow.
“You’re back, Neville!”
“I thought you’d stay in the Hospital Wing tonight.”
Ron and Harry kept their voices low.
“Shh, talk tomorrow.”
Neville put a finger to his lips.
“Oh oh…”
“Okay.”
These roommates were all very friendly, good to him, not minding his poor classroom performance, though not tutoring and explaining like Hermione, they always returned to the dormitory with him after dinner, just worried he’d forget the password or lose the password list, it was just that the Potions class accident happened today.
Night was deep, silvery radiance shone through the glass window into the dormitory, damp mist seeped through the window cracks, with faint moist water vapor.
Slipping into the bathroom to wash up, changing into pajamas, coming out half an hour later, lying in bed staring blankly.
Parents’ enemy, grandmother’s expectations, uncle’s hopes, the view outside the second-floor window at home, the potion smell in St Mungo’s sealed ward, and the candy wrapper mother gave him.
Those things he thought he couldn’t remember, now clearly surfaced in his mind.
This was Neville Lumbardons’ first eleven years.
Roommates’ help, classmates’ explanations, professor’s care, delicacies on the Great Hall long table, plants in the Herbology greenhouse, and the whistling late wind in the midnight corridor.
This was his first week at Hogwarts.
Born at the end of July, Neville had no sleepiness, turned to look at the bedside cabinet drawer, inside was a letter home not yet sent.
He raised his wand, pointing at the drawer.
Lips moved slightly, voice extremely low.
The drawer opened and closed smoothly, the parchment envelope flew out quietly.
Neville gripped the envelope, fingers turning white, he murmured: “Grandmother, I learned the Summoning Charm.”
