Hermione walked to the center of the classroom, standing in the space Moody had just cleared, facing Moody's wand.
"Imperio," Moody said, pointing his wand at Hermione.
The spell hit Hermione, and her body trembled. A strange sensation flooded her mind. Hermione felt light, stripped of all the anxiety and excitement she had felt before stepping onto the stage, leaving her with only an unexplained, white joy.
At that moment, Hermione almost entered a state of self-forgetfulness, carefree, extremely relaxed, with a severely weakened perception of the outside world, almost completely isolated from the external world.
At that moment, Moody's voice resonated in Hermione's mind: [Raise your hands above your head...]
Hermione raised her hands effortlessly but felt a burning sensation on her wrists. With some confusion, she looked at her wrists, but they were empty; there was nothing there.
[Raise your hands above your head...]
[Why should I do this? What's happening to my wrists?]
A different voice rose beside Hermione, challenging Moody.
[No! First, I have to figure out what's happening to my wrists!]
The two voices intertwined in Hermione's mind, echoing in her ears. In the next moment, she felt pain in her knees. It turned out that the two voices had confused her, and unintentionally, she ended up kneeling on the floor, hitting her knees almost to the point of breaking.
"Well, very good. That's how it should be!" The strange sensation in Hermione's mind disappeared, and she could see her fellow students around her again.
"Look! This is what's called a truly strong will! She managed to resist the Imperius Curse!" Moody pointed at Hermione, praising her loudly. Hermione blushed in embarrassment, knowing that her willpower had little to do with it, and that the bracelet on her wrist was the real hero.
"Granger, tell us how you did it," said Moody, planning to have Hermione share her advanced experience. This left Hermione in a dilemma as she couldn't suggest looking for a boyfriend. She could only stammer and express her doubts in her mind.
"Well, asking lots of questions and thinking a lot is also a way to deal with the Imperius Curse. Next!" Moody clearly thought Hermione was talking nonsense. It was like asking a top student why they got good grades; everyone knew it was a combination of talent and effort. But it's easier said than done; many know the great truths, but only a few achieve success.
Moody felt that Hermione was able to resist the Imperius Curse mainly because she had a strong enough will.
Even with Hermione as an example and sharing her experience, none of the students who followed could resist Moody's Imperius Curse.
Moody looked at this group of incompetent young wizards and sighed. Besides Hermione Granger, none of them caught his attention.
He had already reduced the intensity of the Imperius Curse, but aside from Hermione, no one could free themselves from his control. They didn't even show signs of resistance. In the face of his orders, they all acted like obedient children.
This made Moody feel powerless. How could they face dark wizards in the future with this level of skill?
Moody was a bit out of touch with reality. He didn't have an accurate understanding of the abilities of the young wizards at Hogwarts. All these young wizards in front of him came from an era of peace; they hadn't been baptized by war and were all very inexperienced. Expecting them to resist the Imperius Curse was simply too difficult.
It looks like I'll have to do it several more times, Moody thought to himself. He planned to make the young wizards experience the Imperius Curse several times to strengthen their willpower. It would be even better if they could develop the ability to resist the Imperius Curse.
"Tom Yodel," he pulled the young wizard who was spinning around and then called the next name on the list. When he saw that name, Moody's normal eye narrowed. He remembered that name; it had drawn a lot of attention during the World Cup final.
I wonder how a kid like that would act. Moody raised his wand with some anticipation. "Imperio."
The Imperius Curse can be dodged, and it can also be rebounded with a Protego Charm, but Tom, to experience the feeling of the Imperius Curse, stood there doing nothing and received the spell.
Afterward, Tom understood what it meant to feel light and euphoric.
However, when Moody gave instructions, Tom felt a burning sensation in his wrists. This stimulating burn caused a direct change in his right eye, which turned into a long, narrow snake-like pupil. And something astonishing happened: Tom saw something entirely different in both eyes.
The normal eye saw the empty, foggy scene as before, while the snake eye saw the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Tom could see the stacked tables and chairs to the side, his peers around him, and Professor Moody holding his wand.
Suddenly, he remembered. He was in class, experiencing the Imperius Curse. When he realized this, Moody's Imperius Curse automatically unraveled, and what both eyes saw returned to normal.
With the help of the bracelet and Occlumency, Tom managed to free himself from the Imperius Curse. After recovering, Tom canceled the spell in his eye, and his eye returned to normal. However, the change in his eye was clearly noticed by Moody, who had a magical eye.
Moody unconsciously frowned. The change to snake-like eyes was not a good sign from his perspective, as, thanks to the influence of dark wizards throughout history, the serpent was always associated with dark magic and Slytherin. However, even for Moody, seeing eyes immune to the Imperius Curse was something never witnessed before, truly astonishing.
"Congratulations, you've managed to free yourself from the Imperius Curse," despite his concerns, Moody verbally praised Tom.
The young wizards looked at Tom in amazement. Not being affected by the Imperius Curse and breaking free from its control were two different things. Immunity to the Imperius Curse was a high-level skill that only Hermione could achieve, let alone completely breaking it.
In the remaining time, Moody had the younger wizards who hadn't yet taken the stage one by one to experience the Imperius Curse. When the last wizard finished their experience, Moody looked at Tom and Hermione, opening his scarred lips and showing a terrifying smile.
"Let's try it again!" He planned to increase the intensity and test Tom and Hermione's limits.
After an hour, when they left the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, both seemed a little dazed. However, the benefits were also evident, as both could stably resist Moody's Imperius Curse.
Before the class ended, Moody poured some cold water on Tom and Hermione, telling them that he had been restraining his power and that he wasn't a real dark wizard, that the power of the Imperius Curse was less formidable than that of a true dark wizard. He reminded them not to be complacent about their abilities.
Hermione couldn't take it anymore and muttered, "Does he think we're in danger of being controlled by the Imperius Curse at any time?"
"Who knows," Tom rubbed his throbbing temples.
A week after the start of the school year, Tom and all the fourth-year students noticed that the workload for this semester was considerably higher compared to the previous year. In response to the students' complaints, Professor McGonagall made it clear that the fourth-year young wizards were at a crucial stage, as the O.W.L. exams were just around the corner, and everyone needed to prepare properly.
What Professor McGonagall didn't mention was that the O.W.L. exams wouldn't be until fifth year...
This behavior of starting to prepare for exams a year in advance awakened painful memories in Tom's DNA, making him wish to skip some classes to alleviate the wounds within. Divination class remained the same as always. Professor Trelawney devoted a quarter of the class time to discussing mysterious things, and then another quarter of the time to making unfortunate predictions, most of them directed at Harry. The rest of the time was split between praising Tom's talent for predictions and asking him to make some, leaving only a little time for the actual lesson.
Being Professor Trelawney's "favorite," Tom was forced to make many predictions. It was a technical job since Professor Trelawney only wanted to hear bad things, which made Tom feel quite miserable— even inventing so many disasters was difficult! However, the benefits were also evident as Ravenclaw was earning many good points in Divination class.
The Transfiguration subject had assigned a large number of tasks, Divination class caused trouble every day, and the other subjects were not far behind. Professor Binns had assigned an essay; Professor Flitwick demanded that everyone study three books to prepare for summoning spells, while Professor Snape had come up with an extremely peculiar activity: teaching students how to prepare antidotes, and he would possibly poison one of them before Christmas to see if the antidotes they prepared were effective. This made everyone feel uneasy, even though Harry from Gryffindor was there to take the bullet, no one dared to let their guard down.
If there was any class that had a positive outcome, it was Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class. Since Hagrid adopted Tom's suggestions, his business of breeding Blast-Ended Skrewts reached its peak.
After being separated and placed in different locations, the Blast-Ended Skrewts stopped fighting each other and began to feed seriously. With a proper supply of nutrients, they grew impressively, which caused genuine concern among many students. They were growing too fast! At first, they were only 15 centimeters, and now they were close to 30 centimeters! And their growth rate showed no signs of slowing down.
Fortunately, Tom's little revelations spread quickly, which also accelerated the mortality rate of the Blast-Ended Skrewts. They had various causes of death: some encountered their companions during a stroll, fought, and ended up dying together; others were injured by the side effects of the fights; and some Blast-Ended Skrewts chose to end their own lives due to extreme sadness.
In the face of the increasing mortality rate, Hagrid remained quite calm.
"It's normal for the offspring of these creatures, which are at the top of the food chain, to have a high mortality rate. They can lay hundreds of eggs at a time! If the mortality rate weren't high, Hogwarts would have been overrun by Blast-Ended Skrewts long ago!" Hagrid said nonchalantly.
Days passed one after another, and two weeks had already passed since the start of the school year. During this time, Tom completed an order for curse-breaking gloves for the Ministry of Magic and managed to finish Hermione's birthday gift while finding some free time. The amount of tasks he had managed to complete was astonishing, even surprising himself when he tallied them up.
Finally, the Triwizard Tournament was about to begin.
That day, after finishing the Magical Creatures Cooking class, Tom returned to the castle and found the entrance hall crowded with students.
There was a notice at the top of the entrance hall.
[Triwizard Tournament: The representatives from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive on Friday afternoon at 6. Afternoon classes will end half an hour early. Please prepare your personal belongings and gather in front of the castle to welcome the visitors. School robes are mandatory...]
This news meant that the Triwizard Tournament was about to begin.
"There's not much time!" Tom saw McMillan from Hufflepuff making his way through the crowd with bright eyes. "I don't know if Cedric already found out; I have to tell him about the notice."
Many people were doing similar things—each student from the different houses wanted to tell the upper-year students who could become champions.
The young wizards from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were obviously a little more disappointed. However, the most likely champions from their houses, Tom and Harry, were not old enough.
"Does Diggory want to be a champion with that appearance?" Fred said mockingly. "I bet if Harry could participate, Diggory wouldn't stand a chance."
Cedric was the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and Fred had long been annoyed with him.
"If Harry Potter can sign up, then our Yodel can sign up as well. I believe if Yodel can sign up, there will be no doubt about the outcome."
"Generally speaking, that's true."
"Yodel is impressive, but Harry is good too. He's the 'Boy Who Lived' after all!"
"So, is there a test of resistance to the Killing Curse?"
"..."
Suddenly, a strange atmosphere of comparison pervaded the school. Many Ravenclaw students lamented that Tom couldn't participate in the selection and began comparing themselves to students from other houses, comparing their combat skills and even belittling each other.
These comments annoyed some students from the other three houses, but they couldn't do much about it since Tom had a great reputation but couldn't participate in the selection.
However, a few days later, a small rumor completely erupted in public opinion: even if they didn't become champions, they could still participate in the Triwizard Tournament as stage heads!
With this, countless young wizards got excited and secretly prepared, hoping for their chance.
After all, there was only one champion, and the chances of being chosen were not very high, but the chances of joining the trials were much greater.
Thus, the topic of the Triwizard Tournament spread like wildfire among the students. Wherever they went, the main topic of discussion was the Triwizard Tournament.
What would the tasks be, who would become the champion, what was the difference between the students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons...
Finally, the day arrived when the other two schools were set to arrive.