Chapter 197: How Can You Research Without Reviewing Papers

"Hagrid?"

Hermione shared with everyone the conversation she had overheard between Professor McGonagall and Murphy. "Maybe we should ask him."

"But we're not close to Hagrid," said Harry.

Unlike in the original story, Harry had been living with Sirius and thus had not had much interaction with Hagrid. They weren't friends yet. Even though Hagrid seemed more approachable than the professors, wouldn't it be awkward to suddenly ask him about this?

The group fell silent for a moment, then Hermione suddenly said, "Ron, don't you want a new wand?"

Ron, confused, replied, "What about it?"

"I just remembered, Professor Murphy has been researching wand-making lately. He's recruiting assistants for wand crafting. Maybe he would make you a new wand."

"But what does this have to do with Hagrid?" Ron was struggling to keep up with her train of thought.

"Professor Murphy's wand-making place is right next to Hagrid's hut."

...

During the second practical class, Murphy provided feedback and guidance on the research proposals submitted by various groups.

"Malfoy's group, your topic is 'An Analysis of the Superiority of Purebloods'..."

"While this title is a bit generic and subjectively biased, I must say, it's a good topic."

Malfoy looked smug, but Murphy continued:

"However, I suggest changing the title to: 'An Analysis of the Influence of Wizarding Bloodline on Magical Ability.'"

"In your methodology, you haven't written anything valuable, just some bits and pieces advocating bloodline theories. This won't do."

"I suggest conducting a statistical analysis. First, define what constitutes a pureblood, and what is considered half-blood. For instance, does pureblood mean no Muggle ancestry for ten generations or just five? For half-bloods, you can also categorize them based on the proportion of pureblood, like the percentage of Muggle ancestry within the last five generations, and so forth…"

"Then, conduct a survey, including parameters that reflect differences in magical abilities, such as academic performance at school, or more specifically, grades in particular subjects or abilities in certain types of magic."

"Finally, perform a statistical analysis of the collected data to either prove or disprove the relationship between blood purity and magical ability."

"For statistical methods, if you're unfamiliar, I can recommend some books for you. 'Basics of Statistics', 'Statistical Surveys', 'Regression Analysis'... Start by understanding these books, and I'll check your progress in the next class."

Research starts with literature review. As a mentor, the first step is to provide a reading list.

Malfoy looked utterly shocked.

What? I just wanted to show off, and now I have to read books?

Goyle and Crabbe were completely bewildered. What is statistics? What is analysis?

The two Ravenclaw girls and one Hufflepuff boy who were practically dragged into this were glaring at them with hatred. "It's all your fault for picking this topic!"

But the experiences of the other groups weren't much different.

"Dean's group, for your research on flying, I suggest starting with the principles of broomstick flight. The recommended reading includes 'Basic Techniques of Flying Brooms', 'The History of Broom Flight', and knowledge related to flying, like 'Bird Flight' and 'Basic Principles of Various Aircrafts'."

"Qiu Zhang's group, interested in Transfiguration? This happens to be my key research area. Start with 'Basic Principles of Animagi', and I have some research books to recommend that could be helpful to your study."

"Hero Group, oh, that's a nice name," said Murphy, looking at the proposal Hermione handed in. "Research on the soul and personality. The topic is broad, but the research objectives are clear: one is to communicate with the deceased through soul research, and the other is to recover memories, very specific."

Murphy glanced at Harry and Tom sitting below, understanding their intentions.

"For communicating with the deceased, I suggest starting with ghosts and portraits. The relevant books include 'Ghost Studies', 'How Ghosts Are Formed', 'The Realm of the Deceased', 'Techniques of Portrait Painting', 'Advanced Portrait Creation', and so on."

"For memory recovery, the most worthy of study is certainly Legilimency. This spell itself is very complex. Relevant books include 'Invasion of the Brain', 'Legilimency', 'Cases of Legilimency Application', 'Walking in the Memory Garden', etc."

"Some of these books are dangerous, so I hope you start with the simpler ones. If you really need to study the restricted books, you can ask me for authorization."

After commenting on dozens of groups, Murphy's voice was nearly hoarse. The entire afternoon passed this way.

Finally, Murphy said, "I'll provide a list of the books mentioned earlier. Borrow them from the library; for restricted books, you'll need my signature in advance. Also, some of the recommended books are Muggle publications, which I will prepare for you."

As class was about to end, Harry stopped him.

"Professor, I heard you're recruiting assistants for wand crafting?"

Murphy's wand-making venture had not been going smoothly.

The wand-making technique book he got from Ollivander detailed all the steps, but was vague about the specifics. For instance, how big and long should the space for the wand core be, what are the requirements for the shape and proportion of the wand body, and key points for potion blending for fusion were not clearly explained. The most common terms used were "appropriate amount" and "moderate," emphasizing intuition.

Murphy's attempts based on intuition had yielded wands no better than ordinary sticks.

Initially, he thought it was a core issue, so he switched to using his own hair as the core. Later, he suspected the wood, so he had Hagrid bring various wand woods, but the final products were still disappointing.

That's when Murphy realized why Ollivander wasn't worried about being outdone – there was indeed some secret technique involved.

Blind trials were meaningless. Murphy realized he needed a set of evaluation standards.

For this, he designed several experiments, planning to recruit some young wizards to help test them. A few days ago, he posted a recruitment notice, offering one Galleon per week as compensation. Hermione's group was the first to ask him about it.

Murphy looked at Harry. "Yes, how about it? Do you want to give it a try?"

The young wizards nodded.

"Alright, follow me."

...

Murphy led the group to a makeshift shed near Hagrid's hut, set up as his wand-making workshop for easy access to materials.

The shed contained only a few basic workbenches. One was filled with various tools such as chisels, saws, planes, and wood scraps, while another was filled with bottles and jars containing what seemed to be animal tissues. There was even a potion-making station with an auto-stirring cauldron bubbling away.

Hagrid was outside chopping wood and greeted Murphy upon seeing him.

Harry and Ron also greeted Hagrid, then exchanged glances with Hermione and Tom before saying to Murphy, "Professor, can we go and talk to Hagrid?"

"Of course."

As Harry and Ron headed to Hagrid for intel, Murphy turned to Hermione and Tom, "How good are you two at math?"

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