Professor Bones shook his head, ughing. “Don’t be too modest. This spell is groundbreaking, enough to make a name for you in the wizarding academic world. Get started on a paper—I’ll help you submit it to the best journals.”

  “Of course. But, Professor, I’d like to list you as a co-developer. We made this happen together,” Alex replied, genuinely.

  Professor Bones nodded, smiling warmly. “Fine, but I insist on being the sed author. This is your idea, after all.”

  They exged a pleased smile auro the office, celebrating the birth of a new spell over a shared cup of tea. During the celebration, Professor Bones shared his knowledge of the wizarding world's alchemy se, expining that Wizards had a promi alchemy research ter in Cairo, Egypt. He revealed that the British wizarding unity tributed little to alchemy studies iionally, with Dumbledore being one of the few renowned British alchemists.

  As Alex listened closely, he felt his uanding of the wizarding wrowing. He was surprised to learn that Britain wasn’t very focused on alchemy pared to other pces. This sparked a new curiosity in him about alchemical practices abroad.

  From that night onward, Hogwarts had two people wearing monocles: Professar Bohe Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Alex. Their new accessory quickly drew attention from the student body.

  It didn’t take long for Vivian, with her lively curiosity, to notice. “What’s with the monocle, Alex? Are you starting some rend?” she teased.

  “Oh, it’s just a little gift for Professor Bones,” Alex replied, rolling his eyes as Vivian tio pester him.

  “e o me try it!” she begged, tilting her head mischievously. Relutly, Alex handed over the monocle, knowing it wouldn’t show her anything special uhe Echo Charm was active.

  Vivian slipped on the moruck a pose in front of a nearby mirror, and squi herself. “Seriously, there’s nothing to it. Are you wearing this just to look cool?” she teased, quickly losing i.

  Alex took back the moh a quiod. He didn’t have time to linger here with Vivian; there was too mu his agenda. After saying goodbye, Vivian hurried back to her in the Forbidden Forest. Today, Alex was determio plete his researd testing on a new spell: the infrasonic spell. This was essentially the opposite of the Echo charm.

  The Echo charm used high-frequency ultrasonic waves that bounced back when they hit objects, allowing Alex to detect obstacles and structures through sound refle. Its primary use was for reaissand exploration.

  Infrasound, however, operated on ultra-low frequency waves. Because its vibration frequency was close to that anic tissues, it had the potential to resohin living anisms, directly impag their nervous systems. At high iies, infrasound could even be deadly.

  After much trial and error, Alex had figured out how to adjust sound wave frequencies. If he could increase the frequency for the Echo charm, he reasoned, he could also lower it for the infrasonic spell. Over the past few days, he’d been tirelessly refining this new spell.

  "Beginning the 33rd test of the 'Infrasonic Spell.' Spell structure: triangur formatioing on October 10th at 2:16 p.m.," Alex noted in his journal. Then, he carried a small cage with a brat outside.

  Sihis ell with potentially lethal effects, he’d prepared several mice as test subjects. Drawing his wand, Alex carefully visualized the spell structure in his mind, eling his magic to shape the spell at the wand’s tip. With a quick tap on the cage, he activated the spell.

  A barely audible ulsed out from the tip of his wand. Although there was no sound, Alex immediately felt a jarring impact. His head throbbed with a dull ache, and a siing wave of nausea hit him, making him stumble.

  He could barely stand as he leaned against the wooden railing, doubled over with nausea, vomiting untrolbly. His eyes watered, his nose was running, and he felt pletely miserable, hardly able to think straight. After five or six painful minutes, he finally mao pull himself together. His head was still foggy, but he stumbled into the , spshed his face with water, and looked at his refle in the mirror.

  "At least my eyes aren't too bloodshot, my vision is okay, and my hearing seems to be ing back," he muttered, still shaken. "Taste and touch are fioo. Guess I survived... barely."

  Despite everything, Alex couldn’t help but admire how strong the spell was. “The good news is the spell structure works, and the interference is powerful,” he muttered. “The bad news? This spell doesn’t care who it affects. It almost feels like it’s desigo backfire.”

  He suddenly remembered the mouse and dashed outside to che it. Looking into the cage, he saw the little creature lying motionless, blood oozing from its eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

  "This spell is… deadly," he thought, a chill running down his spine. If he’d pushed the spell any further, he might’ve met the same fate. Even if it didn’t kill him ht, it could cause irreversible damage.

  "Looks like Bones was right about spell experiments being dangerous," Alex muttered grimly.

  Now, he was left with a dilemma. The spell structure was there, but using it was hazardous, almost like wielding a self-destruct spell. It was effective, but the risk of harming himself was too high. He o find a way to shield himself from the infrasound’s effects.

  "Would Muffliato stop the infrasound? But then again, infrasound doesn’t just travel through hearing; it vibrates directly within the body," he pondered. "Maybe a Quietus could work?"

  Determined, Alex decided tain. He lowered the spell’s power output by seventy pert to minimize risk. Then, he cast every sileng spell he knew on himself, from Muffliato to Quietus to Imperturbable Charm, stag them all in hopes of lessening the impact.

  With his hearing dulled and his mind brag for the worst, he cast the infrasonic spell again. The effect was less intehis time, thanks to the lowered power output, but he still felt an unfortable nausea rising and had to lean on the railing as he gagged. He recovered faster than before, but his clusion was clear: these spells had little to no impa infrasonic waves.

  "I’ll need a spell specifically desigo blofrasound. What a headache," he mumbled, dejected by the setback. Despite the spell’s potential, it posed a signifit risk.

  "Maybe Professor Bones knows a workaround. I’ll ask him tonight," Alex decided, feeling a mix of excitement and frustration.

  Just then, Charles came over, covered i from his training. Since Alex had been busy with experiments, he’d asked Charles to train a bit farther away on his own.

  “What’s that smell, Alex? And why does it look like something died around here?” Charles asked, wrinkling his nose.

  “Just a small experiment that didn’t go as pnned,” Alex said, waving his wand to clear the air. “I’ll it up now.”