"Wait, Ron, what exactly are you walking?"
Hearing his brother's question, Ron was somewhat puzzled—wasn't this obvious?
Ron lifted the left leash. "This is Fang, Hagrid's dog."
Percy's mouth twitched. He was very familiar with his brother's thought process but was still helpless. "I mean the other one."
Percy frowned at what stood beside Ron—a creature with a completely white body that resembled a dog. A mechanical creation?
Its tail swayed naturally, the end emitting a faint glow of residual magical energy.
"Oh, you're asking about that? This is White Fang, also named by Hagrid. It's an alchemical creature Leo created. Alchemy—that's what I want to learn."
Ron pointed at the white creature.
Percy turned to look at Leo, struggling to find words. For a moment he didn't know what to say. He'd come at Mum's request to assess things for Ron.
But before they'd even started talking, his brother had shown up with an alchemical creature as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"By the way, Leo, when we took White Fang for a walk earlier, his right front leg seemed a bit off. Want to take a look?"
Leo nodded, walked outside, and drew his wand to inspect White Fang. Metal shell, gears, and bearings gradually separated and floated into the air one by one.
Several thin threads of magical power emerged from the wand tip, moving nimbly within the mechanical cavity.
Hearing the commotion, Harry also walked out of the house. After greeting Ron's brother Percy, he came to stand beside Ron to watch Leo repair the creature.
"Not too bad, no major problems. Just need to fine-tune some parts and add some lubricant and adhesive."
As he spoke, Leo used Transfiguration to adjust the shape details of certain small components. Then he pulled out two small jars from his pocket, extracting some liquid from each and controlling it to fly into the gaps between parts.
Standing behind them, Percy silently watched this scene without saying a word. His mind reeled with shock.
Percy had just advanced to fifth year. He couldn't yet take Alchemy courses. But Percy, always disciplined and strict with himself, had long prepared for various courses and had some basic understanding of alchemy.
So when Percy saw Leo's operation, he was absolutely certain that this junior student, a first-year student, actually knew alchemy!
Alchemy was a very complex discipline with comprehensive content. This mechanical creation belonged to one branch, and this creature wasn't the most complex type.
Percy remembered reading in books that the pinnacle of alchemical mechanics was golems of extremely massive size. Supposedly ancient alchemists had created golems as large as mountains—truly miraculous.
But the methods Leo demonstrated still seemed impossible to Percy. And that skillful use of magical threads was exactly fifth-year Charms curriculum content that Percy was currently struggling with.
Percy suddenly realized something—Hogwarts seemed to have admitted a prodigy. His brother Ron seemed to have made a remarkable friend.
"Ron, come here a moment."
Percy waved, indicating for his brother to come over.
Ron put down the dog leashes and walked to his brother. "What is it, Percy?"
Percy pulled two items from his robes—a red envelope and a thin booklet. After hesitating a moment, Percy first handed the booklet to Ron.
"This is what Mum asked me to give you—on spellcasting techniques and methods." Percy paused, then added, "What Mum means is that you're still at an age for building foundations. Don't worry about how many spells you know—focus on your casting technique first, then you'll learn new spells faster later."
Actually Percy understood Mum's intent perfectly—inherited spell books definitely wouldn't be shared with outsiders. Wizarding families inherited not just magical bloodlines—the magical knowledge accumulated and refined through generations was the true foundation.
Ron accepted the booklet happily. He didn't think too much about it, just felt that now he should be able to follow Leo and learn to create alchemical creatures.
Anyway, if Leo felt this knowledge wasn't enough to learn creatures like White Fang, starting with simpler ones would be fine too.
But before Ron's excitement could settle, Percy handed him something else.
Looking at the red envelope that appeared in his hand, Ron's smile froze. "This is a Howler, right? From Mum?"
Ron's hand trembled noticeably as he asked incredulously.
But when he looked up again, Ron found Percy had already retreated some distance, only nodding firmly at him.
"I'd advise you to open it now. The later you open it, the louder the Howler's voice will be."
Hearing this, Leo also stood up, leading Fang and the repaired White Fang back to Percy's side. Although Harry didn't understand what a Howler was, he also wisely followed Leo.
Alone, Ron tremblingly opened the Howler.
Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out, a hundred times louder than normal: "Ronnie, dear, since you've decided, then study hard! Learn from your friend, learn from your brother! Be a man of your word and fulfill your promise! I'll have Percy check on your learning progress regularly! Remember to dress warmly in the mornings and evenings, eat well, but don't overeat. The Hogwarts Hospital Wing..."
Hearing his Mum's voice, Ron's face and ears rapidly turned as red as his hair. He glanced at Leo and Harry, his expression deeply embarrassed.
Being cared for by Mum was wonderful, of course, but having her fuss over him like this in front of his friends was mortifying.
"Alright, that's my mission done."
Percy bid farewell to Leo and the others, returning to Hogwarts Castle.
Ron had already swept away his embarrassment, impatiently handing the booklet to Leo. "Leo, take a look—will this work?"
Leonardo took it and flipped through the booklet. All techniques for casting spells. The handwriting in the notes was of several types—having passed through several generations of owners, it should be insights left by generations of Weasley wizards.
But it definitely couldn't count as family inheritance. That was normal though—how could they produce precious magic books the first time? Those were the lifeblood of every wizarding family.
Harry's situation was unique. He was treating family heirlooms like pocket change—going all-in right from the start.
Still, Leo had to be fair. The knowledge recorded in those magic books was already worth more than a year's worth of school supplies and equipment.
Leo thought about Harry's recent learning progress. His Potions talent was quite good—the intensity could be increased further.
Flipping through more pages, Leo still saw some techniques that made his eyes light up. For example, in actual combat, through spell continuity, constantly accumulating momentum, while combining some spell sequences to make output smoother and more fluid.
This wisdom from previous generations was invaluable—at least it could save him some pointless trial and error.
"This works. Let's start from the basics. The theoretical alchemical structure, the Transfiguration you'll need... After you've learned some knowledge, you can show the results to your brother..."
Ron was immediately overjoyed, listening to Leo's introduction and nodding repeatedly.
So he completely didn't notice that Harry was looking at him with sympathetic eyes. Leo's teaching was very effective, but as for the strictness level...
Harry recalled his previous experiences. Right—if Ron was going to suffer, Harry might as well have company!