Inside the Room of Requirement, Leo sat behind his desk, rapidly marking corrections on Ron's drawings with his pen.
Ron stood beside Leonardo with hands clasped, somewhat anxiously. He kept looking back and forth between his own drawings and his friend Harry.
At this moment, Harry was sprawled at his desk, gripping his pen and writing sporadically on a test paper. This was the quiz Leo had given him when he first arrived—a pop quiz to check recent learning progress.
The test had fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, and short answer questions. Harry's head was about to explode. He kept pushing up his glasses and scratching his hair.
Ron couldn't help feeling sympathetic as he watched Harry struggle. He'd originally thought Harry just had to chop materials and tend cauldrons, but never expected...
"No need to feel sorry for him. You'll have this too eventually."
Leonardo said without looking up.
Hearing this, Ron's face immediately stiffened. He instinctively pointed at himself. "Wait, I'll have it too?"
"Of course. You need to memorize mechanical principles, draw diagrams—all these will be tested."
Leo kept his head down, marking Ron's drawings, speaking in an ordinary tone. Actually, judging from these drawings, Ron did have some talent in mechanics. At least better than his magical performance.
However, as an heir of a wizarding family who wasn't a Squib, Ron couldn't possibly become a mechanical engineer in the wizarding world. So if Ron hadn't proposed learning alchemical mechanics from him, he probably wouldn't have discovered this aptitude until much later.
Life was full of surprises.
After finishing the corrections, Leonardo explained things to Ron again, watching over him as he completed the revisions.
"Very good. Put mechanical theory aside for now. Let's learn Transfiguration."
Alchemy itself encompassed part of Transfiguration and Potions knowledge. And the alchemical mechanics field Ron wanted to learn—Transfiguration was the top priority, especially inanimate-to-inanimate transformation. He must thoroughly grasp this.
Hearing they'd be learning proper magic, Ron immediately brightened up. Although he was also interested in mechanical knowledge, as a kid who grew up immersed in magic, Ron was still more familiar with and drawn to spells.
Actually, not just Ron—even Harry, who was suffering through the test, couldn't help perking up his ears and glancing over upon hearing this. Indeed, under Leo's instruction, Harry had truly settled down to study Potions and gradually recognized its value. But there was no helping it—gorgeous, magical spells were still more attractive than relatively dry Potions work.
Ron pulled out his wand and asked excitedly, "What Transfiguration are we learning?"
Leo pulled a match from his pocket. "Transform it into a silver needle."
"Didn't Professor McGonagall already teach this?"
Ron was somewhat puzzled. He obviously wanted to try some new Transfiguration, the more interesting kind.
Facing Ron's question, Leonardo only glanced at him. "So you've already mastered it? Transforming a match into a needle?"
"Um..." Ron awkwardly touched his long nose, his tone somewhat unnatural. "Well, still working on it."
"Fine, then try once. Transform it into a silver needle."
With that, Leo placed the match on the desk before Ron. Ron could only bite the bullet and try.
He waved his wand. The end of that worn wand flashed a bit of white light—magical power surging from the unicorn hair core.
Leonardo saw the match remained completely motionless. Well, not entirely—the red match head seemed to have a bit more silver-white coloring.
It seems like it wasn't "still working on it" but rather that he'd only learned the very beginning.
"Sorry, my Transfiguration..."
Looking at Ron, whose ears were already starting to turn red with embarrassment, Leo's tone remained calm without reproach. "It's fine. When performing inanimate-to-inanimate transformation, you only need to think of the item you want to transform into..."
Leonardo patiently explained the key points and techniques of this elementary transformation. During the process, he'd appropriately pause to let Ron attempt it.
But Ron's progress remained very slow. His Transfigurations were always oddly shaped.
Leo continued breaking down the detailed points to note, but Ron's face grew increasingly red with embarrassment.
"Sorry, Leo. Magic—I'm really not very good at it..."
Hearing Ron's words, Leonardo shook his head. "No need to be so hard on yourself. Everyone learns at their own pace."
Looking at the wand in Ron's hand, Leo seemed to think of something. "You mentioned before that this wand was your brother's?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah, this was my brother Charlie's. I haven't gone to Ollivander's to buy a wand yet."
As Ron spoke, his voice grew softer and softer. The Weasley family had many members and was also a wizarding family with a long history. But financially they were indeed quite tight. Most of what Ron wore were hand-me-downs from his brothers.
Ron's response made Leo immediately understand. That's right—every wizard had the most suitable wand for themselves. Mr. Ollivander had said the wand chooses the wizard.
Leonardo recalled when he'd spent half the day trying so many wands without success. Ron inheriting his brother's wand like this basically wouldn't be compatible.
Moreover, Leo looked at the wand in Ron's hand—the unicorn hair core was already exposed at the end. Unable even to send it to Ollivander's for maintenance and care, there was even less hope of smooth spellcasting.
Wandmaking involved alchemy. Making a wand from scratch would definitely be very difficult, but if it was a simple repair...
Leonardo pondered solutions to the problem, even though it wasn't his own problem. Thinking through how to apply knowledge was second nature to him now.
Seeing Leo fall silent, Ron thought he was deeply disappointed in his learning ability and said dejectedly, "I'm not very talented. I learn magic very slowly. As for the wand... How about I just don't learn anymore? Consider that spellcasting technique book a gift. We're friends anyway..."
Stop learning? How could someone give up on knowledge halfway through?
Leonardo listened to Ron's rambling—Ron was essentially saying his talent was poor and he had no money to buy a wand. Besides his family's financial struggles, compared to his five brothers, who each excelled in different areas, Ron felt his talent was even worse—practically nonexistent.
"Your background doesn't define you, Ron. What matters is what you do with what you have."
"What?"
Ron looked at Leonardo in confusion.
Leo shook his head, his tone firm but kind. "It means that regardless of talent or family background, there's no need for shame or to feel inferior. Keep learning, keep accumulating knowledge, and rise to the occasion when it matters—those are the people who succeed."
Seeing that Ron still didn't understand, Leonardo continued speaking softly. "You might think I have no right to say this. But the principle itself is absolutely sound."
"You think your magical talent is poor, but you still have magical talent. Compared to the vast majority of people in this world, you're born able to use magic, already with the privilege of learning magic."
"Don't give up so easily. Don't underestimate yourself. Being able to learn, having the opportunity to gain knowledge—that's a privilege most people never have."