"Don't be discouraged, Miss Edgecombe. The Shield Charm is quite difficult to learn, and many Aurors fail to master it. However, I think you have a talent for it… it just takes a little longer," Ivan said soothingly.
"Really?" Marietta felt her spirits lift, as if she had been inspired.
"Of course, so there's no need to rush. You've been practicing for over an hour. Why don't you take a break?" Ivan replied with a smile.
Marietta immediately nodded and readily agreed, looking at Ivan with admiration.
Even during break time, Marietta had no intention of relaxing. After putting down her wand, she leaned over to Ivan and started talking.
"Hales, I saw the memories in the Pensieve yesterday…. My God, you're the bravest man I've ever known!"
"You defeated the basilisk, the dragon, and the Dark Wizards pretending to be Professors… I never realised how much you secretly did to protect this castle, and… and you fought off You-Know-Who with Professor Dumbledore… that was impressive…"
At the end of her speech, Marietta's cheeks were red, her speech was slurred, and she looked very excited.
Having expressed her admiration for him, Marietta begged Ivan to tell her about the epic battle of the previous year.
Although she had seen the general battle through the Pensieve, she was still very curious as to what had happened.
Ivan, being pestered by Marietta, felt somewhat helpless.
Ivan, however, did not refuse Marietta's request outright, and skillfully explained how he had broken through the odds, saved Harry from Lord Voldemort, and fought him.
In fact, Ivan had repeated this experience countless times, and there was nothing he could do about it. Recently, more and more students had come to admire him, and wherever he went, he would be chased and questioned.
This was so far beyond Ivan's expectations that he regretted taking the Pensieve out of the Headmaster's office.
At first, he merely wanted to use the fragments of memory in his head to break the Ministry's fabrication, but he did not expect such a "side effect".
Indeed, it is not always good to be too good.
Perhaps this is the trouble with the strong…
Ivan thought to himself as he spent some time getting rid of Marietta, then went to check the taskbar alone.
[Mission: Fanatic Crowd
Objective: Have at least one hundred henchmen at Hogwarts
Task Progress: 214/100 (completed)
…]
"So many people admire me already? Unfortunately, there are no more Legendary Points…" Ivan muttered to himself as he closed the system column.
In addition to undermining the reputation of the Ministry of Magic, another important reason why he was so keen to set up the Defence Against the Dark Arts Society these days was to see if he could rely on this long-overdue task to gain more points.
It seemed highly unlikely, and the attempt had failed…
Ivan, however, was not too upset, as he had long ago discovered that as he grew stronger, gaining Legend Points became more difficult.
For example, when he was in his first year of school, he was able to obtain Legend Points by killing a troll. Now, he might not even be able to obtain them by killing ten.
After all, while it would be surprising for a fledgling to kill a troll, it would not be unusual for the famous wizard Ivan-Huls to defeat a few.
"Let go… let go of me!"
As Ivan pondered this, there was a commotion at the entrance to the Room of Requirement, and he turned to see George and Fred approaching, carrying Malfoy.
"George? Fred? I thought you had the day off. What are you doing here?" Yvonne looked at them in surprise, then turned her attention to Draco Malfoy, who was still struggling. "And why did you bring Malfoy here?"
George smirked, his arm tightening around Malfoy as he explained, "Fred and I were passing through on the eighth floor when we saw this fellow creeping around. He must have wanted to find out where we were meeting and tell Umbridge…"
"So, we got him," Fred added.
"But if you brought him in, wouldn't that expose the Room of Requirement?" Yvonne asked, looking at them in exasperation.
"Don't worry," Fred said, waving his hand dismissively. "We can erase his memory with a little charm."
"But we've never been very good at the Memory Charm. We might have beaten him into a fool…" George said regretfully, but he looked eager.
"No, you can't do this to me, I wasn't sent by Umbridge… let go of me!" Malfoy was so frightened by what they were saying that he began to scream and struggle even more violently.
The young wizards training nearby heard the commotion and gathered around.
Seeing that the drama was escalating, Ivan intervened. "All right, George, let him go. Malfoy wasn't lying. He was probably just looking for me."
George and Fred looked at each other, and although they were suspicious of Ivan's claims, they obeyed and let go of Malfoy.
Malfoy scrambled to his feet, straightening his torn robes and glaring angrily at them.
The Weasleys ignored Malfoy's angry glare, gesturing with their wands as if expecting him to resist.
"Did you send me those two packages, Malfoy?" Ivan asked suddenly.
Ivan's words drew Malfoy's attention away from George and the others, and he looked at Ivan, who nodded, then said hesitantly, "You… you knew?"
"They're both written in your handwriting… aren't they?" Yvonne asked, waving two pieces of paper from the pocket of her wizarding robe.
Ivan was suspicious when he heard that the person who sent the package was a Slytherin.
It just so happened that when he accompanied Moody on his investigation last year, he examined the handwriting of many people, including Malfoy.