Harry Potter: Don't Touch the Badger's Plants

Chapter 299: Beyond Perfect and Second Year

Before Ciel, the Black-backed Ring Fly Queen had already been wrapped in a bright red cocoon. From within came rhythmic pulsations like a heartbeat. Such a scene had never been witnessed in his previous uses of Dark Magic Transfiguration.

Could it be because the Black-backed Ring Fly Queen is just too compatible with Dark Magic Transfiguration? His eyes flickered. His Petrifying Eyes carefully observed the magic flowing within this blood cocoon. At least he could relax somewhat, because the magic flowing within hadn't weakened compared to before. Instead, it was continuously growing stronger with each pulsation.

Through the bright red, semi-transparent cocoon membrane, Ciel could still hear faint yet dense cracking and rustling sounds, as if the Queen's chitinous outer shell was being pulverized and its body was undergoing changes.

This process lasted approximately two to three hours. Those fine cracking sounds finally calmed down. The heartbeat-like pulsations from the blood cocoon slowed further, but each was more powerful and vigorous. Ciel seemed to feel that a brand-new life within was eager to break out of the cocoon.

Finally, two more hours later, the blood cocoon transmitted its final pulsation. Then came a crisp cracking sound. The entire cocoon split open from the middle, revealing the completely renewed Queen.

Compared to before, it looked nothing like the disgusting maggots or flies anymore. Instead, it resembled a chubby, plump silkworm made of ruby. It even looked somewhat cute.

Ciel's eyes showed a peculiar expression. It seemed the Dark Magic Transfiguration's modification of the Queen had concluded. He hadn't expected such a dramatic change. Previously, when he cast Dark Magic Transfiguration, he'd hoped the Queen could change toward spreading pollen and sensing magical power directions, so it could more efficiently spread pollen while minimizing magical power loss from the pollen.

He wondered whether such changes had been achieved. Just then, the Queen eagerly gave birth to its first offspring, a fly that looked vastly different from the original Black-backed Ring Flies. Its mouthparts clearly weren't as lethal as Black-backed Ring Flies, but were more suitable for sucking nectar and spreading pollen. Its wings also appeared much softer, more like a fruit fly. Its entire body had a ruby-like luster.

Can call it a Ruby Fruit Fly. Just don't know if it meets my expectations for spreading pollen. Ciel looked at this Ruby Fruit Fly, then brought it back to the Sprout family greenhouse.

Ciel had originally intended to use two Margaret plants to test the Ruby Fruit Fly's pollen-spreading ability. But after arriving at the greenhouse, he discovered a specially cultivated plant in a newly opened corner.

This is Mud Arum Flowers? A very difficult magical plant to cultivate, quite beneficial for treating convulsions. Its difficulty in cultivation lies precisely in the pollination process. Mud Arum Flowers have extremely high requirements for spell pollination, so this plant is also a key component in herbology skill assessments.

His eyes showed unusual interest. This patch of Mud Arum Flowers was precisely at the stage requiring pollination. Only successful pollination would allow progression to the next developmental stage. Otherwise, their growth stage would actually regress. This was indeed the best choice for testing the Ruby Fruit Fly.

So Ciel released the Ruby Fruit Fly. This newly born Ruby Fruit Fly was obviously starving. As soon as it was released, it eagerly flew toward the Mud Arum Flowers, inserting its long mouthparts deep into the flower pistils, consuming nectar.

During this process, the Mud Arum Flower's pollen naturally adhered to its mouthparts. As the Ruby Fruit Fly sought its next meal, it carried the pollen to another Mud Arum Flower individual.

At this moment, Ciel's heart stirred. This process was precisely the difficulty of pollination in Mud Arum Flower. The magical power in its pollen dissipated extremely quickly. With even a slight delay, most of the pollen's magic would scatter, and pollination success rates would plummet. Moreover, its pollen was highly sensitive to the magical power of the individual it was pollinated by. If the magical compatibility was slightly poor, success rates would drop even further. Even if barely successful, being pollinated by such low-quality pollen or poor compatibility would reduce the Mud Arum Flower's mature quality.

But very quickly, when the Ruby Fruit Fly extracted nectar from one Mud Arum Flower and flew away carrying pollen, Ciel discovered something that amazed him. The pollen carried by the Ruby Fruit Fly, its magic isn't dissipating?

He widened his Petrifying Eyes, then clearly saw that on the Ruby Fruit Fly's mouthparts, there seemed to be an extremely thin magical membrane. It was precisely this membrane that covered the pollen adhering above, simultaneously preventing the magic within from dissipating.

Then the Ruby Fruit Fly circled for a while. It didn't choose the nearest Mud Arum Flower to continue consuming nectar, but instead selected a somewhat distant one, bringing along the pollen.

Ciel's face showed even more astonishment because through his Petrifying Eyes, he'd already discerned that these two Mud Arum Flowers' magical powers were the most compatible, practically the optimal pollination combination. Even he needed the Petrifying Eyes to discern this for a while, yet the Ruby Fruit Fly distinguished this at an even faster speed, completing this selection.

Then Ciel carefully examined that pollinated Mud Arum Flower, discovering pollination had already succeeded. And this condition, using 'perfect' is simply insufficient to describe it. More perfect than textbooks. Probably even the most proficient herbology masters in this field couldn't achieve this level!

This truly delighted him immensely. The Queen could endlessly produce such Ruby Fruit Flies, which meant from now on, all plants he cultivated would have exceptionally smooth pollination processes. Over time, those excellent plant traits could be better preserved.

This swamp trip really wasn't in vain. Then Ciel brought the Ruby Fruit Fly away from the Sprout family greenhouse.

Shortly after he left, Edeline hurried over, heading straight toward that plot planted with Mud Arum Flowers. This small experimental plot in the greenhouse was something she'd obtained permission from Professor Sprout to use. The rather expensive Mud Arum Flower seeds also came from Professor Sprout.

Her purpose was precisely to strengthen her foundations in herbology. Though she could also rely on the Robins family bloodline to accomplish things that left herbology masters dumbstruck, years of displacement meant many foundational practices lacked opportunity. Now finally able to settle down peacefully, Edeline also wanted to consolidate her foundations.

Mud Arum Flowers were precisely the plants she'd previously never had the opportunity to practice with. But the difficulty of this pollination process exceeded her estimates. Already several days, yet she'd made no progress whatsoever.

Just as Edeline's mind was still pondering how to pollinate Mud Arum Flowers, arriving beside the experimental plot, she immediately noticed that Mud Arum Flowers were successfully pollinated by the Ruby Fruit Fly.

Seeing this Mud Arum Flower's condition, Edeline couldn't help widening her eyes. This is perfect. No, a state even more perfect than perfect? How could Mud Arum Flower pollination be this successful?

Edeline's heart surged with waves of shock. This absolutely couldn't be a coincidence. Only possible if someone has completed this step. In her mind, Ciel's figure flashed by just moments ago. Her gaze also became uncertain.

Could it be him? But moments later, Edeline vigorously shook her head, dismissing this speculation. If Ciel could achieve this step, his mastery of herbology would likely already be unimaginably high. Then why would the Foresight Flower show no images of him?

Definitely not him. Then it can only be Professor Sprout. Perhaps the Professor saw I hadn't made progress recently, so secretly helped me once, pointing me out? Right, must be so.

Edeline's heart sent out heartfelt admiration. Truly worthy of being Hufflepuff's Head of House, the renowned herbology master. This herbology mastery is truly unfathomable. Seemed that during the upcoming time at Hogwarts, she could still learn much from this master.

Currently, Ciel had no idea what Edeline was thinking. He'd already arrived at Hogwarts. An owl had delivered a box. Opening the box revealed precisely the Horned Toad Slime and various materials he urgently needed.

Besides this, there was also a slip in the Gringotts underground vault. The amount on it clearly approached three thousand Galleons! This was precisely the share from the first batch of Alihotsy sales.

Ciel took a deep breath. Even he couldn't help feeling somewhat excited right now. This was still after purchasing so many precious materials, yet still three thousand Galleons remained. The Alihotsy business was indeed wildly profitable!

Thus, those herbology projects can all begin operating. By this time next year, after completing these arrangements this summer before school starts, the harvest will definitely be unimaginably abundant.

Over the next month-plus, Ciel completely immersed himself in his herbology endeavors. Every day from dawn to dusk, working around the clock, he'd almost forgotten time's passage.

Until this day, an additional letter has appeared in his mailbox. Inside was clearly the school admission notice, plus a purchase list much longer than last year's: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, Break with a Banshee, Gadding with Ghouls, Holidays with Hags...

Seeing this letter, Ciel took a deep breath, eyes sparkling with brilliance.

The second year is about to begin.