Chapter 116
Perhaps having learned his lesson from teaching the Gryffindors, Lockhart did not pull the Cornish pixies out from under his desk this time.
But perhaps to keep the curriculum balanced between classes, the lesson still covered Cornish pixies.
"Some of you may already know that in yesterday's class, to exercise your practical abilities, I deliberately released a group of Cornish pixies to test your ability to handle a crisis. Unfortunately, the Gryffindor students all failed. So today, we will study these little troublemakers from the textbook."
Lockhart glossed over yesterday's mistake with a straight face, prompting snickers from the little snakes who didn't know the truth and were hostile toward Gryffindor.
"Those Gryffindors are useless. If it were us, we'd definitely catch them all without letting a single one escape."
Ethan had to admire Lockhart's thick skin. It was really something else. No wonder the man had become a bestselling author.
That said, as a bestselling writer, Lockhart was undeniably eloquent. The stories he told about the Cornish pixies were engaging, slightly changing Ethan's opinion of him.
Lockhart winked playfully at the class and watched them file out. "Alright, class is dismissed for today. I hope everyone has remembered what I told you. In future classes, I will conduct spot checks at irregular intervals."
"I will conduct spot checks at irregular intervals," on the way back to the dormitory, Draco mimicked Lockhart comically, drawing loud laughter from the Slytherin boys.
But this annoyed the girls. "Is there something wrong with what Professor Lockhart taught? As an internationally renowned writer, is what he said incorrect?"
Facing the girls' fierce accusations, Draco retreated, lowering his head and walking quickly back to the dormitory.
At seven-oh-one, Ethan arrived at the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor.
A door opened in the wall. Ethan quickly slipped inside, and the door shut rapidly, vanishing from the wall.
This time, the Room of Requirement was laid out like an alchemy workshop, with two workbenches inside.
A rotten stench filled the room.
"What is that smell?" Ethan fanned the air before his nose.
George answered, "It's the silt that built up in the pit we dug over the summer. The smell is pretty strong. Maybe our Portable Swamp should just simulate the mud without the stench. Or we could make two types, one with the smell and one without."
"It's up to you, but this smell is a bit much." Ethan cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself, blocking out the stench.
Fred, with two wads of paper stuffed up his nose, looked at him enviously. "Cast one for us too. What spell is that? We should learn it."
Ethan aimed his wand at the two of them and cast a Bubble-Head Charm on each. "Bubble-Head Charm. Very simple. It lets you explore underwater or, like now, avoid unpleasant odors."
After a quick lesson, both twins had learned the charm.
Only then did Fred get to the point. "What was that idea you mentioned this morning? The one you need our help with?"
"There's a small game I want to make. If it goes well, it should earn some money. But before we get into that, let me give you the funding I promised." Ethan looked at the two alchemy workbenches and chose the one without the silt.
Ethan took out his small black bag and pulled out handfuls of shiny gold Galleons.
"I forgot to tell you this morning. Did you bring a bag to hold the money? Besides the two hundred Galleons for developing your other projects, I've prepared another two hundred for this game's development. It may not be a huge amount, but it's still heavy to carry in your pockets."
"We didn't, but we have these bags for materials we can use." Fred pointed to the bags of alchemy supplies beside the workbench.
"That works."
Ethan had thought this through carefully.
He'd realized that giving them the money after explaining the concept would inevitably raise suspicions about using funding as leverage. Better to take the money out first, to be more straightforward.
When Ethan pulled out the last Galleon he'd prepared, a small pile had stacked up on the table.
The two looked at each other delightedly and said in unison, "Thank you, Boss, for investing again!"
"We agreed on this beforehand. No need to thank me." Ethan waved a hand magnanimously, trying to minimize any potential resentment.
"Next, I should talk about the game." He took out a scroll of parchment from his small bag, thicker than the one from that morning.
He'd written it that afternoon in his dormitory. It was more detailed than the version from last night.
"Look, here's what I'm envisioning." He opened the parchment and weighed down each corner with several Galleons to keep it flat.
"I believe that, currently, the wizarding world doesn't have many truly fun games. You could even say that, besides Wizard's Chess, other games are so niche that basically no one plays them."
The twins nodded vigorously. "When we were kids, there were other games to play, but by the time we grew up, there was basically nothing besides Wizard's Chess. So we invented joke products to give our peers another form of entertainment."
"Great minds think alike. So after playing Wizard's Chess yesterday, I started thinking: why can't we create a new kind of game? When I got back to the dorm, I came up with this."
Ethan smiled.
"I want to start with Hogwarts as the foundation, with the four Founders as the initial selectable heroes, and have card battles."
"What's a hero?" Fred asked, raising a hand. He'd never played Muggle games.
"You can think of it as the king in Wizard's Chess for now. Even though there are big differences, he's the piece that determines victory or defeat. Listen carefully while I explain." Ethan made a somewhat inappropriate analogy.
Next, he explained the rules of mana growth, the differences between card types like spells, weapons, and companions, deck-building strategies, how to achieve victory, and the other rules.
"Wait, wait, this is too complicated. Give us a moment to digest this." After Ethan finished, the twins were completely overwhelmed. There were too many new terms to take in all at once.
"It's fine. I've written it all down on parchment. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask and I'll try to explain it clearly."
The twins walked over to the table. They turned to the parchment and discussed it among themselves first, trying to understand the rules Ethan had described in their own way.
Ethan sat in a chair to the side, watching the twins discuss the problem, thinking about how to achieve the effects he wanted.
Actually, ever since he'd come up with the idea yesterday, Ethan had realized it was fraught with difficulties.
Moving card faces, spells that could be cast, chess pieces that could move, reducing health points, and so on were all problems.
The card faces were the simplest. He could look at Chocolate Frog cards or photographs to see which method was more suitable.
The spells were something the twins would have to figure out. He couldn't think of a way to produce spell light and shadow effects without causing damage.
Health points would also be up to the twins to handle. Perhaps they could reference Wizard's Chess?
Finally, for moving companion cards, he had two ideas: first, have the cards themselves display a kind of light and shadow effect when activated by magic; second, use alchemy to craft cards that could transform.
The first required developing a new spell that could display stereoscopic 3D effects. Ethan was very interested in this.
The second required referencing several alchemical items Dumbledore had given him last semester for self-protection.
While Ethan was thinking, the twins finished their discussion and began asking questions one by one.
Faced with the idea of this game, the twins erupted with immense enthusiasm. After understanding the game's mechanics, they both agreed that if done well, this project would definitely be a money tree that would sweep the wizarding world.
Moreover, producing this game would give them plenty of practice with applied alchemy, accomplishing two things at once. They were highly motivated.
George thought for a moment, then proposed a solution to one of the trickier problems.
"The spell effect is easy to handle. We just need to build the effects into the cards and activate them with magic. We've made wands before that could cast a single charm. The principle is the same; it just needs some tweaking."
Fred continued, "The health reduction problem should be manageable too, but we'll need to study the alchemical notes for a while."
Ethan explained his ideas for the chess pieces to the two brothers.
"I'll handle the first method, the light and shadow presentation. As for the second, you can try combining alchemy and Transfiguration to turn the cards into moving chess pieces."
"No problem, we'll figure it out." The two looked at each other and saw the fire in each other's eyes.
Ethan knew that the Shafiq family held shares in several publishing companies, one of which was quite substantial.
"First, make the initial version. We'll playtest it and adjust it bit by bit. As for large-scale production down the line, don't worry. The family holds shares in factories that can meet the demand."
The two nodded firmly. "Okay, then we'll start working on the first version."
"As for the project's name, what do you think of 'Wizard Legends: Hogwarts'?" Ethan suggested the name he had come up with.
The twins thought the name was perfect for the game. Since Ethan had clearly put some thought into it, they had no objections.
Ethan held out his hand and high-fived the twins in turn.
"Then let's work hard together!"
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