The great hall bustled with noise.
The young wizards looked around on their toes, waiting for the arrival of today's dueling class professor.
"Don't let it be Professor Moody, he's awful." A Ravenclaw girl said, "Especially when he rushes over to correct you, it's like he's going to hex you ..."
"That's why he's paired with Professor Flitwick." Her friend next to her commented.
At that moment, Felix appeared from the entrance hall and walked into the great hall, when he stepped into the gilded ring, he unexpectedly spotted students from other schools.
"We seem to have some new guests today, welcome." Felix said softly while taking out his wand and shooting out a few clusters of sparks from the tip, "Normally we mostly only see other school students during meals or in the library; Now this is a rare opportunity for you to learn about the magical arts of different schools."
"Professor, are we gonna engage in a duel?"
"Not entirely," Felix said gently, " I would prefer you all to use this opportunity with the main aim of exchanging different views, would any of the champions like to give it a try? Introducing your school magic to us?"
After a moment of silence, a tall champion stepped onto the stage, Nona Leibert as she smoothed her hair, she revealed her long, chocolate-coloured neck and feral eyes.
"Nona Leibert," she gestured, "from Uagadou, specialized in Astronomy and Self-Transfiguration, and of course, after coming here, I discovered I'm also specialized in gesture casting."
Nona waved her hand, and something more akin to a club than a wand flew over to her, and she caught it in her hand, which she waved twice, making a haunting "swoosh" sound, and several students who were close backed away, fearing that they might be hit.
"The wand is certainly not dispensable to us, as it allows us to cast spells more fluidly," Nona said, "and of course, in addition to the wand, we also stick to learning separate hand gestures to cast spells that are convenient, quick and stealthy."
She raised her head, "If you want to dislocate someone's jaw, all you need to do is wave your hand ... provided you're skilled enough."
"Very well, Miss Leibert, would you like to have an exhibition match next, or--"
"No, I've heard that you can ask the professor for guidance, is that true?" She said with burning eyes, "I'm interested in dueling, especially with someone better than me ... I've challenged every upperclassman on Mountains of the Moon, including young professors."
"Sure." Felix nodded as he nudged Niffler Valen's head and motioned for her to find a more secure place.
"Over here--"
"Look over here! Valen-"
More than one student shouted this, and Valen appeared to be quite popular, but she still bounded over to Hermione, who is looking at the ring on tiptoe, and scooped her up in her arms, "Gee, we should take a closer look, maybe it will be helpful in the third task..."
"I don't want to go up against a student of Uagadou or Ilvermorny." Ron muttered, "Whether it's Self-Transfiguration or Combo Magic, both are tricky and from what Byers said, they all trained according to Aurors standard when they took Defense Against the Dark Arts class."
"That's an advanced course only for upper years, considered an Auror reserve." Hermione reminded.
On the field, Felix and Nona Leibert bowed slightly, followed by a swift wave of Nona's hand, and a trail of sparks erupted at Felix's jaw as he used the humanoid shield charm right after bowing.
Felix's voice also followed: "The hand gesture casting is quick enough, if you can not be sure, the first choice should be protecting yourself ... you can use the shield charm, or you can prepare an amulet for yourselves."
Nona waved her hand repeatedly, her fingertips flicked rhythmically, and soon the floor of the ring became broken, Felix gently flicked the spell away, so far, Nona did not demonstrate enough strength.
At that moment, the shattered floor planks twisted and turned into six African spiny-haired mouse, Felix stabbed his wand firmly, as six magic ropes flew out from the tip of the wand, which looked like a big six-headed snake, the ropes swiftly wrapped around the spiny-haired mouse which made the transfiguration forcibly broken.
The spiny-haired mouse suddenly erupted into a puff of thick smoke, at which point, Nona's figure suddenly disappeared.
Felix, with his magical perspective firmly locked on her trail, then he turned slightly from the center of the ring and watched as she elongated her body and transformed into an agile panther, and approached him quietly with the help of a thick smoke cover. She turned nimbly in midair like a big cat, ready to pounce, and the magic ropes on the ground that had previously been scattered by the blast suddenly sprang up and turned into layers of snake shadows encircling her.
"Hiss~Hiss~Hiss~"
Nona saw three snakes staring at her at the same time, and a hissing sound came from behind her, so she decisively chose to admit defeat.
After the smoke cleared, she returned to her original form. And with a calm expression, Nona asked Felix, "In what area do you think I need to improve?"
"I can see that you have your own tactics," Felix said thoughtfully, "but your intention to attack is too obvious, and the lack of defense when performing Self-Transfiguration ... such an oversight should not exist, no? "
"It's not an oversight." Nona laughed, "We've been working on coordination lately, so instead of Nona Leibert, you're facing a 1/3 team of Uagadou's Champion, and under normal circumstances, when I turn into a panther, my body will be covered with various protective magic."
"So that's how it is." Felix nodded slightly, and he roughly simulated in his mind. Uagadou's Self-Transfiguration tactics may really be promising, even with just the three animal forms they have shown so far - Green Eagles, Leopards, and Elephants - although each of them is not considered overly powerful, it's different if they have teammates around to apply protection magic.
They just need to use their respective strengths as fully as possible and display them explosively - using the green eagle to observe and discover weaknesses; using the leopard to assault and seize important positions; then using the elephant to rampage and break through the traps to open the way. This combination posed little challenge to even an average dark wizard, who is well versed in fighting slyly.
Then a champion from the Durmstrang school came forward, and the crowd looked at him curiously, knowing very little about this champion, who has even less of a presence than the one named "Bewick".
At least that Bewick offered a highlight - Professor Hap descending from high above Black Lake, grabbing him and pocketing him, causing an area of the projection screen to go black for a few minutes.
"Uh, hi guys," the man stammered, "My name is Aurus Poliakov, and I'm very fond of Hogwarts booze ..."
A burst of laughter rang out in the great hall.
Poliakov's face turned even redder, and he looked lost for words. When the laughter subsided, he continued, "I, uh ... I'd like to introduce the dark arts ..."
The sound in the great hall died down at once.
"I, I've heard rumours over the past few months that Durmstrang teaches students dark magic without any scruples ... I feel the need to state, ahem! The rumours are not quite true ...," Poliakov said, "... it is necessary to give an introduction about my school, otherwise the misunderstanding will only get bigger."
"Durmstrang has been very focused on dueling and war magic since the time of the second Headmaster. Today, over six hundred years later, we are carrying our legacy to the extreme. Yes, Durmstrang does teach dark magic, but each one of them is carefully selected to ensure that nothing goes wrong ... otherwise Durmstrang wouldn't be on par with Hogwarts and Beauxbatons... ..."
There is a lot of chatter from the young wizards offstage.
"What do you think, Harry?" Ron asked.
"It seems to make some sense," Harry said thoughtfully, "but I just don't like Karkaroff." He happened to learn that Karkaroff had given Durmstrang's Champion Team ten points again in the second task, while the other teams were merely hovering around seven or eight points.
That was the result of a warning to Karkaroff, who otherwise would have given others even lower scores.
"Nobody likes Karkaroff," Ron muttered while looking up at Poliakov in the ring, who was introducing some of Durmstrang's school rules to demonstrate Durmstrang's strict approach to dark magic.
Sparse applause rang out in the great hall.
"Our school rules also prohibit night trips, trespassing into forbidden forests, and trading in Dungbomb!" Ron said briskly.
Harry couldn't help but laugh.
"Next, I'm going to show you a few dark arts," Poliakov said enthusiastically, pumped up by the applause, "It's not as evil as you might think, you just have to use it in the right place and invoke the negative emotions wisely ... "
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