"Well done, Ron, you seem to have mastered the Obscurus spell, but I should warn you that when you use it, it usually diminishes the power of the wizarding charm, so in a real duel, only the unexpected will do the best…"
On Friday, in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, Ivan looked at Ron, who had just won a winning streak and was so happy that he could barely contain himself.
"All right, I'll keep an eye out," Ron said nonchalantly. He was so excited about his victory that he eagerly asked, "Who's my next opponent?"
"Now, go and spar with Malfoy." Ivan turned his head to look at the other side of the dueling platform. Malfoy had been hit by Harry's Disarming Charm and was now rolling on the floor, his face a frightening black…
Ivan was not surprised at the outcome of the duel; Harry had always been very talented in the art of Defence, otherwise he would not have been able to escape Lord Voldemort so many times.
Malfoy, by contrast, had mastered many advanced Dark Magic spells, but was severely inexperienced in combat, and it was not unusual for him to be beaten.
"Well done, Harry, now it's my turn to thrash him!" Ron whistled excitedly as he took Harry's place in the ring.
"You'll know you've picked the wrong man, Weasley!" Malfoy exclaimed, glaring at Ron.
Ron, who had won two matches in a row, was confident, while Malfoy, who had been holding his breath after Harry's defeat, became more cautious and cast several protective spells on himself.
Ron took this caution as a sign of cowardice and taunted him.
Ron, however, soon paid the price for his complacency — within half a minute of the battle starting, he was struck by a spell cast by Malfoy, and for several minutes, he was seen tap-dancing in front of a crowd of lesser wizards…
The afternoon passed quickly, and at ten minutes past five, Ivan announced the end of the day's duelling classes, with Gryffindor winning, with Hermione being the most impressive of the bunch, having defeated several seventh year students in a row.
The young wizards seemed to have had enough, while Ron was brooding over his earlier defeat, believing that he had been too careless and wanting to fight again.
Ivan waited for the students in the Great Hall to disperse, then turned to the young witch and said with a smile, "Congratulations, Hermione, on winning the Duelling Cup."
"All thanks to you, Professor…" Hermione replied teasingly.
Ivan, however, took the bait and said, "Well, that's true. Have you figured out how to thank me?"
Taken by surprise, Hermione froze, then glanced around sheepishly. When no one was looking, she tiptoed over and kissed Ivan on the cheek.
Is that it? Is that it? Ivan looked disappointed.
Hermione gave Ivan a disapproving look. He had already kissed her, what more did he want…
The two of them bickered in the Great Hall for a while before returning to the lounge together.
"There's been another Muggle attack, what's the matter with the wizarding world now?" Hermione sighed, flicking through the latest edition of the Daily Prophet.
Yvonne took the paper and read it curiously. The headlines were of a gruesome incident in which a deranged wizard somehow managed to get out onto the streets of Paris and cast a Blasting Charm on the most crowded area, killing dozens of Muggles.
From the pictures on the page, the scene was appalling.
"Is there a lot of this going on?" Yvonne asked, frowning as she realized the gravity of the situation.
"All things considered, this is the ninth vicious incident this month, but it's all over France and Northern Europe," Hermione replied hesitantly.
"France again…" Ivan muttered to himself, so it seemed likely Grindelwald was involved.
Yvonne couldn't imagine why he would do that. Was he trying to make the existence of wizards public?
If that were the case, more people would be sent to Muggle territory to cause disturbances…
Nine vicious incidents in January were still manageable for the Ministry of Magic.
While Ivan was lost in his thoughts, the door to the lounge was flung open and Ivan, his thoughts interrupted, looked over in annoyance. It was the North American Chief Constable, Conal, whom he had not seen for a long time, and a few nervous Aurors.
The young wizards in the lounge stared curiously at the intruders. Conal didn't have time to explain. He lowered his cap and approached Ivan.
"Sir Harls, may I speak to you privately for a moment? I have important news about the man…"
At this point, Connor gave Hermione an off-centre look, as if he did not want their conversation to be overheard.
"Of course!" Ivan nodded, and after a few words of comfort to Hermione, he took Connor to his office.
Ivan waved his wand to close the door and cast a voice-proofing charm before speaking. "You may speak now, Director Connor!"
"Over the past month or so, you must have been briefed on all the attacks in France, don't you, Harles?" Connor asked solemnly.
"Ah… yes, I've read in the papers that there have been nine vicious incidents!" said Ivan sheepishly, rubbing his nose.
Considering that North America and Britain would report important events to him, Ivan did not pay much attention to what was happening in the wizarding world these days.
"That's just what's been reported, to be precise, as thirteen targeted attacks!" Conal corrected him. "Not only that, but we've received word that Grindelwald is in pursuit of potion masters, and several people have gone missing in the past few days, including Horace Slughorn, your British potion master."
"Have you figured out why he's after them?" Ivan asked solemnly.
"We don't know yet. If the timing hadn't been so coincidental, we wouldn't have been so sure Grindelwald did it," Connor said with a resigned sigh.
The International Confederation of Wizards had sent quite a few informants to France, but Grindelwald was simply too difficult to deal with. He managed to get two Aurors to defect, making it impossible for many of their operations to proceed.