"In other words, it has no intelligence of its own. It is simply a 'program' that faithfully executes commands. When Lilia says 'move forward,' that command activates the pre-set Transfiguration spells—'left leg bend,' 'left leg straighten,' 'right leg bend,' 'right leg straighten'—in the sequence I arranged. And so, it performs the action of 'stepping forward.'
"It's just like computer programming in the Muggle world. Using the most basic 0s and 1s—what I use as 'bend' and 'straighten'—you can combine them to create infinitely complex behaviors."
The living room fell silent.
Robert and Carla stared at Alan, then at the little robot still awkwardly moving on the table.
This novel gift, and the profoundly logical yet seemingly advanced theory behind it, gave the wizarding couple their first truly intuitive and shocking understanding of their son's "scientific magic" research.
This wasn't a child's whimsical idea—it was a complete, revolutionary system with infinite potential.
Lilia had completely immersed herself in her own world. She named her new toy "Woody" and solemnly announced to the entire family that it was the most luxurious, thoughtful Christmas gift she had ever received.
Watching his sister's pure, radiant smile, Alan felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.
Perhaps this was the ultimate meaning of all his research.
The leisurely Christmas break was a golden period for Alan to engage in systematic, deep learning.
Hogwarts had shed its usual bustle, becoming spacious and tranquil. Thick snow blanketed the towers and courtyards, gently absorbing all sound, leaving only the soft crackle of the chestnuts burning in the fireplace.
Without the interruption of classes or the chatter of classmates, Alan immersed nearly all of his waking hours into the deepest reaches of his consciousness.
Inside his mind palace, the grand hall he had constructed with his will was undergoing a dramatic expansion. With the help of the Illustrated Dictionary of Ancient Magical Runes Penelope had gifted him before the break, his research advanced at an astonishing pace.
At first, he used the dictionary merely as a stepping stone, an index. But soon, he realized it was a doorway to an entirely new world.
Every ancient rune was far more complex and profound than he had imagined.
They were not merely phonetic or ideographic symbols.
Each was a highly compressed packet of information, an independent unit containing a specific "concept" and "energy model."
Alan's consciousness hovered in the central hall of his mind palace. In front of him, a rune was lifted from the two-dimensional plane of the book page and projected into a three-dimensional structure.
It was the rune representing "fire," Kenaz.
To traditional wizards, it symbolized "torch," representing light, knowledge, and enlightenment. But in Alan's analysis, the symbol revealed a deeper essence.
Its strokes branched sharply from a solid apex on the left to the upper-right and lower-right…
This was not merely depicting the shape of a torch.
It simulated the physical process of energy erupting from a highly concentrated singularity and then violently dispersing outward.
Alan extended a "hand" made of mental energy and touched the apex of the stroke, the starting point.
In an instant, the entire rune structure lit up.
A miniature energy model roared to life before him. He could see how magical power was channeled, constrained, and then ejected at precise angles through the two branching "pipes." This internally stabilized energy model precisely defined how, once activated, the magic would manifest—either as "flames" or "glowing orbs."
The discovery sent tremors through Alan's mental core.
He had completely abandoned the traditional wizarding method of learning by rote, relying on vague intuition and memorization without understanding the underlying principles.
What he was doing was treating rune study as a completely new "magical programming language."
He began "reverse-engineering" each ancient rune.
He deconstructed its stroke structure, analyzed its internal energy fluid dynamics, and defined its core "functions," labeling them precisely.
Some runes had stable, restrained structures, like "variables." They existed naturally to store or transmit energy and could be assigned different "values," acting as data carriers within magical operations.
Other runes contained sensitive trigger points, like "conditional statements." They could respond precisely to specific changes in the external environment—such as light intensity, magical energy density, or even certain intentions—determining the flow of subsequent actions.
The most complex runes had convoluted internal energy paths, like encapsulated "functions." Once called, they could execute specific, often compound operations such as "protection," "deflection," or "amplification."
Throughout the Christmas break, Alan worked like a programmer obsessed with code.
He tirelessly built his own "magical code library" within his mind palace.
Time in the real world passed, but in this realm, the speed of thought was everything. He deconstructed each rune into its most basic stroke units, analyzed how every angle and node affected energy flow, and recorded an enormous amount of foundational data.
As the holiday drew to a close, and the last rays of the setting sun stained the snow outside crimson, Alan slowly withdrew his consciousness from the mind palace.
He opened his eyes. The room was dim, yet countless tiny sparks of light flickered deep within his gaze.
During this break, he had not only mastered reading, writing, and interpreting all known ancient runes.
More importantly, he had successfully built a "basic rune instruction library" inside his mind palace.
This instruction library was his first result from deconstructing and reorganizing the ancient magical system using modern programming concepts. It was clear, rigorous, and logically self-consistent, with each rune assigned standardized interfaces and functional definitions.
It was the cornerstone for Alan's future "magical programming."
He began the next step:
Like a compiler, he combined different rune "instructions" to create a more complex "magical program."
The protective rune he made for his sister was his first "compiled" creation.
In his mental vision, the entire process was clear.
He first invoked the rune representing "perception" as the program's input, continuously scanning the environment for malicious fluctuations.
Then he set the rune representing "barrier" as the output. Once triggered, it would activate instantly.
Finally, he used the rune representing "energy" as the power core, and the rune representing "stability" to construct the program's operational framework, precisely linking input and output.
A complete, autonomously running "protection program" was born.
Although the program's code was still rudimentary, its functionality extremely limited, and it consumed massive energy,
it proved that the path Alan had chosen was indeed feasible.
He stood and walked to the window of his room. A thin layer of frost had formed on the cold glass. He traced his finger across it, leaving a clear line.
Outside, night had fallen, and fresh snow began to drift silently, covering the world in white.
In his heart, there was no wild joy, only an unprecedented, weighty sense of ambition.
He knew he was doing something no one had ever done before.
He was transforming the ancient, mysterious, and intuition-dependent magic into a precise, orderly system—a science that could be defined through logic and code.
A path to the "divine realm" of the magical world was slowly unfolding beneath his feet.