Suddenly—

Dawn’s fingers paused for a moment. He flipped back a few books and pulled a thin volume with a dark red cover from the shelf.

[Mad Magic: Blood and Taboos]

This was it!

So it really was here in the Restricted Section!

Dawn’s eyes lit up, and he quickly walked over to a nearby table, raising his glowing wand as he leaned in.

The cover of the book was matte and smooth to the touch—surprisingly pleasant.

After activating his Occlumency, Dawn cautiously opened the book.

However, there didn’t seem to be any cursed black magic woven into the pages. It looked like the book had been placed in the Restricted Section purely because of its contents.

Before the actual text began, the first page contained a few scattered lines of a preface.

“In 1534, a friend of mine studying Ancient Runes told me in frustration that the wizarding world was undergoing an irreversible decline.”

He described it to me like this—

‘Merlin’s beard! This year, the number of Hogwarts students who chose to study Runes is down by half compared to last year!’

‘Can you believe it? Runes, the very crown of magic, are now fading into obscurity! We’ve lost those immensely powerful ancient spells, and now even the key to regaining our former glory is rusting away!’

‘Look at the theories these fringe wizards are proposing! Emotions? Thoughts? They’re deliberately abandoning logic and reasoning, and placing their hopes in something as unmeasurable as feelings?!’

“His face was twisted with rage as he said those words, like Salisbury Cathedral on the verge of collapse.”

Alright.

As his friend, I felt I should try to understand him. After all, he grew up with two Muggle parents who studied mathematics, and he had been steeped in logic since childhood.

But what I didn’t dare to tell him was…

I’m one of those so-called “fringe” wizards who advocate for emotion and thought… though, historically speaking, our side has always been the majority.

Losing Runes may indeed be a step backward in terms of spell potency, but from the perspective of spellcasting itself, we’ve made significant progress.

Yes!

I believe that losing Runes isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It simply brings us closer to the true essence of magic. I want to prove to my friend that the advancement of magic cannot rely on Runes alone!

Yes! I will do just that!

Even if I don’t have enough talent to research magic myself, I’m willing to dedicate my life to gathering the thoughts of great wizards, organizing them, and passing them on.

In the hopes that future generations can push magic even further.

And so it begins.

With the question Runes cannot solve—the transformation into magical creatures.

Dawn clicked his tongue softly.

Looks like Professor Flitwick was right—there really have always been heated debates about Runes versus emotion.

Even four hundred years ago.

Still…

Were ancient spells crafted with Runes really more powerful?

Dawn unconsciously bit the inside of his cheek.

He turned the book over, trying to find out who this “I” was—the one who compiled the text and published [Flesh and Flesh].

Unfortunately, the book offered no name or surname for the compiler.

Honestly, Dawn really wanted to see what other material this person might have put together.

The thoughts of various great wizards… there had to be something fascinating in that!

Shaking his head, Dawn kept reading.

……..

The book wasn’t thick. The main content was divided into three handwritten sections.

The first was titled—[Transfiguration Explorations: On the Total Volume of Magic Power]

It was a theory proposed in 1376 by a witch named Celestine Edwin.

She believed that the strength of a wizard’s magic ultimately depended on the total amount of magic power they possessed.

The reason wizards couldn’t transform into magical creatures wasn’t due to countless strange and complex explanations. At its core, it boiled down to one thing—

Wizards simply didn’t have enough magic power!

Dawn raised an eyebrow. Thinking of that copy of [The Tales of Beedle the Bard] that could only recover gradually, he found himself agreeing with the theory.

Yeah, as long as you had enough magic, a lot of problems could be avoided—like the short duration of the pattern transformations he’d done on that toad.

Maybe the reason wizards couldn’t transform into magical creatures really was just due to a lack of magic?

Dawn nodded slightly.

But he quickly realized something—

“What’s the point of just stating this kind of theory?”

He curled his lip.

In the wizarding world, everyone knew more magic meant better results!

But a person’s magic reserves are ultimately limited.

Even Dumbledore, with the Elder Wand in hand, couldn’t transform into a magical creature.

Even if you say enough magic can make it possible—has ‘any’ wizard throughout history ever reached that level?

To Dawn, it sounded like an empty statement.

But as his eyes glanced down…

Well, what do you know!

Celestine Edwin actually did have some real skill!

Her manuscript recorded a method to increase a wizard’s magic reserves.

—The Body-Splitting Curse!

Supposedly, this was inspired when she was treating a patient whose head had inexplicably split into two due to a miscast spell.

After several years of research and referencing the effects and principles of restorative potions like Skelegro, she created this spell.

The Body-Splitting Curse.

A spell that allows one to grow extra limbs or organs—essentially turning oneself into a form resembling conjoined twins.

The key difference being, all the bodies shared a single consciousness.

Dawn wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Celestine’s logic in the manuscript was this:

After death, if a wizard clings to the world of the living, they can return in the form of a ghost.

But ghosts can no longer cast spells.

In other words, magic power is not tied to the soul—it resides in the body.

So, if one could expand the body’s “capacity,” wouldn’t that break the physical limits and allow access to greater magic reserves?

Hmm…

Reading this, Dawn couldn’t help but recall similar theories mentioned in [Flesh and Flesh], and it was hard not to suspect that Celestine’s ideas had influenced later works.

But… could a ghost really be equated to a wizard’s soul?

Dawn rubbed his aching temple, frowning at this overly simplistic analogy.

To him, ghosts had definitely lost ‘something’—some part of what made up the soul.

They couldn’t be equated one-to-one, and certainly couldn’t be used as definitive proof.

Still—

Dawn thought there was a certain truth to the idea that magic resided in the body and was affected by it.

But a better piece of evidence, in his view, was how wizards’ magic growth stagnated after age 18—once physical development was complete.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep