Chapter 59 – Who'd Have Thought Maths Class Can Be Magic?(1)

Again the children sat extremely quietly at their desks.
This is how they used to sit at maths time, which many professors avoided teaching to the children and which was then taught by none other than ... Professor Knudlac.
'Julian Southwood, please tell me how you find out what it means ..."
The professor read a recipe.
'What does it mean: 4 measures of beetle powder and 2 and a half times more ... juice of Dionaea Muscipulatore Grande? A carnivorous plant," explained the professor to the children, poking his nose out of the book.
Julian drew on a small tablet 4 measures of beetle powder. After that he drew four measures of dust ... and four more and four more.
The students who already knew the result started laughing.
But with a simple, short-sighted piercing gaze of Knudlac's, they twisted their guts for laughter.
'Let's see, Julian Southwood. Let's think about it," Knudlac told the boy who was no more than nine. The first 4 measures of beetle dust are drawn very well. The rest of the measures, I say to delete them and think a little better."
The boy did it.
'How much do you think it means 2 and a half?"
The boy thought a little, and then replied:
'It would mean to mix once the quantity of beetle powder, that is four measures."
'Very well."
'Then again four measures of beetle dust."
'And that means altogether?"
'Eight measures of beetle powder."
'Exactly ... Let's put them on the board."
Julian began to draw the eight measures. When he finished drawing, Knudlac tried to help him further.
'But the quantity needed is two and a half. That means we have to add ..."
'Another half of the amount of dust."
And the boy cheerfully finished the calculation very quickly drawing another half measure of beetle dust. But when he saw the professor's gaze, he realized something was wrong.
'If you have four measures of beetle powder, what does half that amount mean?"
"Two measures," said the boy.
'Then how much do you think it means two and a half the amount of beetle dust. The recipe says we need 4 measures of beetle powder and ..."
'Ten measures of beetle dust."
Again they laughed, but Julian understood that now it wasn't a mistake in mathematics, but because he was in a hurry, so he didn't get upset.
'Ten measures of juice from Dionaea Muscipulatore Grande," he said, gloriously.
'Now do you think we can put it in the form of calculations?"
The boy nodded his head slightly.
'Then ... according to Merlin's recipe, we have to add: 4 measures of beetle powder, and two and a half more juice of Dionaea Muscipulatore Grande."
The boy wrote the results on the board.
Another half of the already existing quantity of unicorn milk.
The boy kept calculating on the blackboard. He obtained seven measures of unicorn milk.
'Very good, Julian Southwood," the professor smiled at the boy.
The professor made the following mixture on his table:
4 measures of beetle powder
10 measures of Dionaea Muscipulatore Grande juice.
7 measures of unicorn milk
After mixing them all in a bottle, he poured two drops of a blood-coloured substance onto the geranium and its flowers became very aggressive mouths of a carnivorous plant.
The children became extremely excited when they saw the plant was trying to bite almost anything closer to less than half an elbow. They were like hungry wolves in the form of flowers.
'And now, if those calculations were correct, I hope something cool happens," Mr. Knudlac smiled out of the corners of his mouth, trying to snatch a pencil from the mouth of the aggressive geranium.
When he saw so much joy and happiness on his students' faces, he smiled whole-heartedly.
Then he poured three drops according to the recipe calculated by Julian Southwood over the plant, and its flowers sprang back into shape, leaving the pencil chewed on in many spots to fall back on the table, in the children's sighing voices.
"Well ... it seems that Julian has calculated very well," said the professor. 'The role of the potion was to nullify the aggressiveness of the carnivorous plants. It can help you whenever you want to go through the huge, thick, carnivorous herbs from the Ancient Forest, up to the dark Swamp."
The professor tried to cheer up the children, but for them, that normal and beautiful flower, devoid of that terrifying aspect, was more than boring.
'Woe, it's late. Do we still have time for another recipe? I don't believe that…"
'Oh yes ... please," the children shouted in a voice, seeing there were several minutes until the well-deserved break. 'Please ... we want maths!"
Mr. Knudlac asked another student to go to the blackboard:
'Who wants to come and calculate a new recipe?"
Lots of hands raised in the air. Of course, everyone wanted to. Everyone wanted maths ... as much maths as possible.
'Johnny Davies."
But not this boy. Not young Davies.
He never stood up happily from his desk at maths time, as most of the others do, who, cheered by their colleagues waited to go to the blackboard and see the crazy outcome of the calculations made with the help of Professor Knudlac.
The impatience was seen on all the cheerful faces, but not on Johnny's.
The truth is that maths time was indeed magic for students and professor alike, but for Johnny it was terrifying. He considered it the only obstacle he couldn't overcome to become one of the best wizards.
"Let's see ..." began Mr. Knudlac, facing the smiling gaze of the children.
Everyone waited breathlessly the outcome and the change through the potion obtained.
The professor quickly read the recipe to the end, and then began:
'A quarter cup of flying chestnut liquor ... that is ¼, that is, a quarter," Mr. Knudlac helped Johnny.
The boy wrote it on the board.
'With less than a quarter ice dragons' scales. Yes ... it's a little harder recipe, but that doesn't mean we can't pull it off," Knudlac tried to encourage the boy, seeing that he was increasingly confused. 'And then we add the same amount of basilisk glue.
The professor looked at the boy, who was lost like a comet in the universe.
'Do you think we can do the calculation, Johnny?"
The boy, confident in his own intellectual strength, began to calculate.
¼ - ¼ = 0
Even he was surprised by the result. He looked at Knudlac like a child whose ice cream disappeared from his hand just as he wanted to bite it.
'Let's not rush ..."
The boy cleaned the blackboard because he felt something was wrong.
"Let's think a little," the professor told Johnny. 'A quarter less than the quantity of a quarter of a cup it means ..."
The boy wrote again on the blackboard.
¼ - ¼ = 0
Again the same mistake, so the professor stood up and started writing on the blackboard.
¼ - flying chestnut tea
1- ¼ - water from dragon scales
The professor gave Johnny the magic chalk.
'And the same amount of basilisk glue."
But Johnny was so confused, that he was about to cry.
"I don't understand why we should learn such calculations," he sighed.
'Because we need maths all the time. For potions, for example," Knudlac again showed Johnny the geranium that was quiet and calm.
'I'm not interested in potions," the boy defended his point. 'Neither maths. And I don't understand why there are no caps or hats that once on your head, help you calculate. To wear them only in need..."
Mr. Knudlac got close to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder.
'Dear, mathematics first develops thinking. Without it, we wouldn't have much of what we have today. Mathematics is used in all fields. Sceptics use it to know how to build, invent, develop technologies that help humanity. In all their fields ... and all their inventions make their lives easier."
'I don't want to be a sceptic. I'm not interested in it. I just want to be a strong wizard."
'And we use what they invented. And also to be a strong wizard, you need to know maths."
'That's not true," the boy went on, stubborn.
'My dear Johnny ... do you understand what I'm telling you?"
'No ... but I pay attention to you, Mr. Knudlac."
The children started laughing, and Knudlac had to somehow show him that he was wrong. He had to prove to him the opposite.
'When you are a strong wizard, difficult times will surely come when you have to fight with black magic wizards. Let's just say I'm one of them."
The boy prepared his wand as for a duel.
"Debilitatio Dextera Manu Sua" Knudlac said, until the boy who hated mathematics could react.
But the magic wasn't for Johnny. It was for a skeleton that was around.
You could see now the bones of the upper right limb of the skeleton slightly rotated, like twisted branches of a willow tree.
'We consider, dear Johnny, that your right hand got numb, as if paralyzed. You drop the wand, but you must not lose your temper."
Johnny joined the game. What could be more exciting than a fight with Knudlac himself? As if his arm had a problem, Johnny took the wand in his left hand.
'To recover your right arm, this recipe can help."
A quarter cup of flying chestnut liqueur.
Less than a quarter ice dragons' scales
And then ... we add just as much basilisk glue.
The professor gave the boy that half smile, and then continued:
'Unless you know another method ..."
The boy nodded confirming he didn't know anything else that could help him.
'If you can follow this recipe, you'll be able to stop the effect of my magic. If you fail, I'll do the potion, but that means ... you lost the duel against a black magic wizard. If he cast such spell on you, he'd immobilize your arm for at least a few hours."
Johnny took the chalk in his right hand, and then prepared to write on the board.
'Your right hand is numb, dear."
Some of the other students smiled. But Johnny frowned slightly, and then he smiled too. It was his idea to try not to use his right hand, as if he were injured, not the skeleton.
The boy started to calculate. He showed the results to the wizard professor and the latter created a potion as calculated by him. When the boy saw the potion was ready, without questioning what effect it would have, he poured a few drops of that elixir on the right arm of that skeleton.
'Only three drops," Mr. Knudlac took the boy's bottle when he saw that he tried to pour more.
In just a few moments the potion had its effect. Only ... not the one he wanted.
The petrified bone of the skeleton began to become elastic like heated rubber. That bone stretched and stretched, until it touched the ground. It was now a bone scattered on the floor of the classroom, like honey that flew out of a jar without a lid.
"You seem to have completely destroyed your arm," Knudlac smiled at the boy.
The other children wanted to laugh, but Mr. Knudlac's sharp gaze stopped them again.
'A little maths would have helped."
'Silvya Kruman, do you think you can help me with the recipe?"
'Yes," the girl replied. 'Put a quarter cup of ground flying chestnuts into a bottle."
The professor filled a small bottle with flying chestnut dust.
'Then put three quarters of ice scales juice out of a similar bottle."
The professor followed the instruction.
The girl stopped a little.
'And from a similar bottle three quarters of basilisk glue."
The professor mixed the ingredients, after which:
'Debilitatio sinistram eius..."
And he poured three drops of potion and the twisted bone of the skeleton's left hand skeleton regained its original form.
After that a whisper repaired the rubber bone of the skeleton too.
The professor sent Johnny to his desk just waving arm.
'Not only mathematics is necessary to know. All the subjects are important in life. Chemistry, Botany, Biology, Geography, History ... You need them to become strong wizards."
'How can Geography help us?" a boy asked.
'If I sent you to bring me yak horn powder, for one of my recipes, where would you go?"
'I think in ... Tibet," said the boy.
'How do you know this?" Knudlac smiled, pleased that the boy knew the answer.
'From the Geography lesson."
'See? It's necessary to have expertise. Knowledge, as I call it. It's the foundation of a wise mind ... the foundation to become great, good and strong wizards."
The professor smiled at them and began to clean the blackboard moving a magic sponge with the wand. That sponge, even though it was very small, cleaned all the writing on the blackboard in the blink of an eye.
'I wish you a wonderful day. The maths time is over. And I'm waiting for you next time at an even more interesting maths class. It will be a class more interesting than any class has been so far. See you next time."
The students took their stuff and started out of the classroom, laughing and joking, more than happy, summing up the maths class and wondering what could be done to make it even more enjoyable.
And Johnny ... he understood he had to learn ... even maths.