Chapter 57
The next morning, the snow that had begun falling during the night had turned into a fierce blizzard and rumors that Harry was the heir of the Chamber of Secrets had spread.
Wherever he went, students avoided him. He felt that if he simply squatted in any corner, he could "overhear" discussions about him. It made him deeply irritated.
But soon—another matter drew away the vast majority of the attention and firepower directed at him.
Because Professor Sprout had to put socks and scarves on the mandrakes—a task that required great care—she didn't feel comfortable entrusting it to anyone else.
Getting the mandrakes to grow quickly so they could cure the petrified Mrs. Norris and the Professor were currently the most important thing.
Therefore, all Herbology classes for the last week before the Christmas holidays were canceled.
The students were overjoyed and were just about to leave the classroom when, the next moment, a familiar figure who shouldn't have been there walked in and politely greeted Professor Sprout.
It was that workaholic—the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Lucian!
Still dressed entirely in black, his face wearing that eternally indifferent expression, only now the voice lacked the cold detachment it had carried at the beginning of the term—but to the young wizards, that very voice somehow carried even more emotional weight!
"Alright, you all know the situation. For the next week, Professor Sprout's Herbology classes will be replaced with Defense Against the Dark Arts. The relevant notice will be sent to your common rooms later. Remember to bring your textbooks to the next class."
"No!!!!!!!!!!"
Wails of despair filled the Herbology classroom.
They had thought they could have an easy half-day, playing wizard chess in the common room while quietly mocking the Boy Who Lived behind his back—who could have expected this twist?
"What are you all whining about?" Lucian looked at the group of students with an expressionless face "Didn't yesterday's dueling experience make you realize? If your skills are poor, you get beaten. Do you actually want to fall behind everyone else?"
"…"
The students fell silent.
Relying on Professor Lucian's recent softening of attitude, they could still complain or crack a joke here and there—but when it came to facing him directly, no student could withstand the pressure.
"Fine then. Let's begin the lesson."
"…"
Today's class was exceptionally quiet.
After class ended, Lucian assigned new homework. The students left the classroom with somewhat lifeless backs.
By lunchtime, two entire year groups had already fallen victim to Lucian's claws. The notice about Herbology being temporarily replaced with Defense Against the Dark Arts had also appeared in every common room.
Afterward, the students who had already experienced the morning extra class and received new homework stood on the tables in the common rooms loudly condemning Lucian!
"Can you imagine? Originally, because Herbology was canceled, the last week before the holidays was supposed to be relaxed.
But then! Professor Lucian had to stick his foot in. This week every single one of us has to take four Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons! Double classes! Double homework!"
"Piles and piles of it! Can't finish it, and can't even memorize it!"
"Mate, calm down. It's just one week. And those assignments aren't as hard as you think. You really should try harder—last I heard, most of the Ravenclaws have already memorized the two hundred dark creatures in advance. Actually, the homework the professor assigns is really helpful for us, isn't it?"
"Exactly. Sometimes I really wonder what you people even come to school for? Just to play wizard chess every day and mess around in the castle? Didn't the professor's performance in yesterday's duel make you realize how lucky we are to be able to learn from such a high-level expert? I seriously wonder what's inside your heads!"
"What do you mean? Are you saying we're not working hard? I'm just saying there's no need to have four bloody Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons in one week. It's going to drive me mad, you understand?"
"Do I need to remind you, mate? The very last lesson of this week is the Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam."
This time, the four houses didn't even have the energy to direct their anger outward—they started arguing among themselves because of Lucian's actions.
No one was paying attention anymore to the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, or the incident yesterday where someone tried to incite a snake to attack Justin Finch-Fletchley.
This left Harry with a rather complicated feeling and when he himself had to attend the extra Defense Against the Dark Arts class the next day, that feeling became even more complicated.
"Ughhh—I can't do this anymore! I never imagined having to face dark creatures twice in one day!" Ron collapsed next to Harry. Thinking about the mountain of homework piling up this week, his expression lost all vitality.
"This is definitely the most meaningful week of the semester for me."
Hermione sat beside him, disdainfully organizing her books and notes before standing up and heading straight to the library.
No matter how the Hogwarts students felt about the last week before the holidays, it would eventually pass.
Mid-December. All autumn term classes officially ended.
The next day, the students heading home boarded the Hogwarts Express together and left school. Hogwarts suddenly became more than half empty. Silence, mixed with heavy snow, slowly enveloped the entire castle.
The Christmas holidays had officially begun.
Lucian and his two assistants now had a full ten uninterrupted days to study magic.
In the spacious underground chamber, Lucian held his wand and once again summoned Fiendfyre.
During this busy period of teaching, he had put far too little effort into this spell. The second conjectured experiment had been delayed again and again.
Now, with ten full days, he could finally think it over carefully.
Although this spell was no longer quite so important to Lucian now, it was just that if he didn't study spells, he didn't really know what else he should be doing during this time.
So first—review.
"Pestis Incendium."
Flame seeds the size of a baby's fist ignited one after another, forming a line in front of Lucian—eighty-one in total—then rearranged themselves into a 9×9 grid.
Because there was no "fuel" and because each one was too small, they couldn't grow in a short period of time.
Lucian adjusted his breathing and gradually loosened his control over his magic—he imagined himself returning to a dark castle, moonlight spilling across his body… first his nose, then his heart… he began to breathe deeply. Magic started flowing slowly through his body like blood.
He didn't know how much time passed.
At a certain moment, he opened his eyes, grabbed the wand beside him, and swung it.
Boom—
A roaring blaze erupted. Thirty-two of the eighty-one flame seeds were activated by the magic—the flames surged violently upward!
"32/81?"
He swung his wand again in reverse; the black flames, which had begun to show signs of merging, shook violently. Soon after, they all went out together.
Lucian watched the scene, deep in thought; when the day came that he could unconsciously control all eighty-one black flames at the same time, that would probably mean he had truly entered the inner chamber from another perspective on magic.
***
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