Chapter 16
Snape left, In the corner, Jeffery and Camille exchanged a glance, both noticing the subtle meaning in each other's eyes. At that moment, Lucian turned to look at them, his face still betraying no particular expression.
Camille immediately asked "Professor, is Dumbledore our enemy?"
"How could that be? Don't listen to Snape's nonsense." Lucian shook his head, his mind preoccupied with other thoughts as he replied casually:
"Professor Dumbledore could never be our enemy under any circumstances. He only ever does the right thing. You can trust him." Of course, in Lucian's heart, this statement came with a major caveat—he must not fall into Dumbledore's plans.
Once selected as a candidate to deal with the Dark Lord, or as one of the key elements in his scheme, fate would likely come knocking, making one feel utterly powerless.
But with him watching over things, there was no need to mention this to his two assistants, lest it cause unnecessary worry.
As for Snape's warning, there was no cause for concern.
He walked the straight path and held himself upright. Even if Dumbledore learned about him forcing everyone to swear an oath right now, the old headmaster would probably only feel gratified and increase his favor toward Lucian. That would be a good thing.
Snape thought Lucian was in danger simply because he was blinded by Lucian's "Slytherin side" and didn't truly understand what kind of person Lucian really was.
This wasn't Snape's fault, after all—a principled Slytherin was no different from an endangered species in that era. "I'm a bit tired today. I'll rest first. You two should get some sleep soon as well."
"Yes, Professor."
On Saturday, Lucian and his assistants spent a fulfilling day.
After abandoning the three Unforgivable Curses, he turned his attention to another dangerous spell—Fiendfyre. In the hands of the previous Dark Lord Grindelwald, this spell's power was immense enough to destroy an entire Paris.
They now had a new goal, but as for the specific research direction, the three of them first needed to thoroughly understand the characteristics of Fiendfyre and summarise conclusions that aligned with their "imagination" before they could gradually search for answers.
Besides the three of them, did the students at Hogwarts also have an unusually fulfilling day?
No one knew who started the rumor—that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had assigned a lot of homework.
In any case, after fermenting through Friday night and being put into practice on Saturday morning, all students—except those who slept until the sun was high in the sky—understood one thing.
If they didn't hurry and start writing their homework, they very likely wouldn't be able to finish and submit it by Sunday afternoon. What made it even more troublesome was that solving the problems in Lucian's assignments was only the first step; the bulk of it involved repetitive copying and memorisation.
This meant that even if you could copy someone else's correct answers, you'd still have to spend countless hours writing them out.
By the end of the day, the student body had clearly divided into three distinct factions.
The Good Student Faction: Those who never hoarded all their homework until the weekend and consciously completed it ahead of time. Although Lucian's assignments caused them some trouble, they still handled everything with ease.
The Risk-Taking Faction: Those who used enchanted quills to "automatically" complete Lucian's copying homework. Faced with the task of memorising the characteristics of ten dark creatures, after countless attempts and frantic howling, they simply chose not to memorize it!
"guys, if the professor catches me on Monday and causes the house to lose points because of it, I won't make any excuses. Please take me to the gallows and kill me." Standing on the table, Ron Weasley looked solemn. When he said "kill me," he earnestly clenched his fist and thrust it heavily against his chest.
"No!!!" Several people "anxiously" surrounded Ron in the center, their expressions filled with grief.
"What an idiot! Harry, don't you dare be like him."
"Ah, of course not." Harry's tone was full of uncertainty.
The morning Quidditch practice had exhausted him, and he was already feeling tired. When facing that homework, he even felt his head spinning.
"You wouldn't fail to finish it, would you, Harry?" Hermione Granger stared at Harry with a gaze that could kill.
"You and Ron complained all last year about learning nothing from Professor Quirrell. Now, we've finally gotten an extremely excellent new professor who's actually planning to teach us some practical knowledge, and you wouldn't... not learn it, right!"
"I—I will definitely finish it! Hermione."
Thus, the third faction was born.
The Stubborn Resistance Faction: Those who poured all their effort into completing all the copying homework before the deadline and then spent the remaining time in a desperate struggle with memorisation.
To this end, older students canceled dates (Lucian's assignments for them were exponentially more than for the lower years), Harry skipped his meeting with Hagrid, and younger students gave up their time playing wizard's chess.
For a time, most students were grumbling about the new professor, and Lucian's reputation plummeted without him even realizing it.
Sunday afternoon, 4:30.
The class monitors gathered in Lucian's office with the collected homework.
"Everyone, take a seat." Lucian casually waved his wand, and three round tables and seven chairs appeared in front of them.
"Years 1-4 at one table, years 5-7 at another." Lucian gestured for everyone to sit. The homework they were holding flew automatically to his desk, stacking neatly in order.
Barton appeared silently before everyone, holding a tray with snacks, distributing them one by one.
"Thank you." Hermione said softly in gratitude, quietly observing Barton's appearance—it was her first time seeing such a peculiar creature that resembled a human but was incredibly miniature, and it could appear without a sound.
In response to Hermione, Barton elegantly bowed, making the young girl's eyes sparkle.
"These are candies from Honeydukes? Professor, that's quite generous of you." A pleasant male voice sounded nearby. Hermione snapped back to attention and subconsciously looked down at the candies on the snack plate—hmm, they had to admit, they were quite tempting.
Of course, Hermione absolutely wouldn't eat any right now—she didn't want to immediately give the professor the impression of being a glutton.
"It only costs a few Galleons. Eat without worry. Consider this one of the perks for you monitors." Lucian didn't like dealing with unnecessary people, but once he decided to form a connection, he would start valuing reciprocity.
However, his approach often came across more like a transactional exchange.
"From now on, come here every Sunday at four o'clock. I'll give you half an hour of extra tutoring, and each of you can ask me one question. You can think of this as an additional study group. In return, I'll assign you extra learning goals. All of you must stay ahead of every other student in your classes. I'll only grade your homework, and then you'll use it to grade the other students' work."
He then swept his gaze and asked "Any questions?"
Note : Drop Powerstones for an extra chapter.