Support me and be 20 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
******
In comparison to Professor Flitwick's game-like challenges, Professor McGonagall's strict and rigorous approach was clearly superior. At least when setting up this challenge, she had considered sending students who didn't use their brains back home.
The animated suits of armor, transformed by her transfiguration spells, stood like soldiers—neat and imposing. After Harry stepped into the room, these animated statues rose one after another. The sound of their heavy footsteps created an overwhelming sense of solemnity; not every young wizard had the courage to face the twelve suits of armor directly.
A stone two-handed greatsword was planted in the ground by the leading soldier, and the sparks that flew were hard to believe—this sword was made of stone. If that massive sword, embedded three to four inches into the stone floor, were to strike a person, it wouldn't necessarily slice them in half, but breaking bones and tendons would be all too easy.
"It's not about brute force; it requires skillful application of transfiguration, breaking them down from the weaknesses you've identified, right?"
As the stone guardians halted, Harry understood the nature of this challenge.
Professor McGonagall employed a high-level transfiguration technique to animate these guardians. Typically, a transformed object is regarded as a whole, but the statues before him were not a single piece. Their weapons, armor, and bodies were all distinct entities. This was a special application of composite transfiguration, making the guardians resemble assembled figurines, with each part having its own connection points.
Professor McGonagall cleverly placed these connection points in different locations. As long as one could identify these vulnerable spots, it would be easy to dismantle the integrity of the entire statue.
However, if one failed to find these flaws, they faced a rock guardian weighing several hundred kilograms, wielding heavy weapons.
Harry was quite skeptical—given the typical spellcasting ability of a first-year wizard, whether he could even chip off some stone dust from the statue was questionable.
The leading statue took a step forward, while the other eleven guardians remained stationary, guarding the door to the next level. A duel arena about thirty meters wide and long materialized, with the stone guardian pointing its giant sword at Harry, seemingly inviting him to a one-on-one duel.
"Very well, as you wish."
With a weak levitation charm, enhanced perception spell, and a boost to his abilities, Harry decisively put away his wand and cracked his knuckles.
The intentionally weakened levitation charm reduced Harry's weight by about half. In this state, he could maximize his agility without entering a low-gravity-like condition, while the enhanced perception spell was the perfect buff for close combat.
"Then let's go!"
A figure as swift as a cheetah surged forward, and the stone guardian swung its stone greatsword, creating a whooshing wind. This sword, over one and a half meters long, perfectly exemplified the saying "an inch longer, an inch stronger." No one wanted to get within range of its attacks, much less be struck by such a massive weapon.
However, the figure was too fast and agile; Harry ducked under the sword and closed in on the stone guardian, grabbing its arm, throwing it over his shoulder, and performing a backdrop! He then clamped down on the stone arm, sharply bending it as they hit the ground!
With the sword-wielding right arm held tightly, Harry found that the combination of statues beneath him had yet to completely break apart.
The stone blade was disarmed; the stone greatsword, which weighed at least thirty kilograms, was difficult for Harry to wield for long. But if all he needed to do was raise it for a decapitation—
A stone head flew off, and the upper body of the stone guardian shattered as the sword pierced through its back. The remaining two legs, even if they could still move, were of no use now.
This violent dismantling occurred twelve times in just five minutes, as the door to the next level was forcefully smashed open by a knight's shield.
"Professor Grindelwald, what trouble have you caused me this time?"
After working up a light sweat, Harry completed his warm-up. The skin scratched by the stone had already healed; the spells worked exceptionally well on these minor injuries, even skipping the scabbing process. The slight skin break showed no signs of damage.
"Damn!"
As soon as Harry stepped into the next challenge, he couldn't help but curse. The bone-chilling cold and the feeling of joy being sucked away were all too familiar to him. As the warden of Azkaban, he felt like an unwanted burden, neglected by family and abandoned by friends. Having once been a pawn of Voldemort, Dementors were heavily discriminated against in the wizarding world. If it weren't for the fact that they made excellent prison guards and could serve as cruel executioners without needing food or pay, they would have been denied even the right to work at Azkaban.
However, in the eyes of some, Dementors were viewed as cheap yet useful teaching tools. With a plethora of Dementors residing beneath Azkaban, Grindelwald openly collected several hundred of them, bringing them back for demonstrations on how to disassemble Dementors using various spells whenever he had the chance.
These dark magical creatures were like "living dark magic." Although Grindelwald had turned Dark Arts Defense into a course on how to correctly use dark magic, mastering dark magic required a wizard to possess the ability to dismantle it in the first place.
Dementors became perfect demonstration subjects. With their repeated deaths, young wizards made rapid progress in understanding dark magic. Once they knew what dark magic was, they naturally became more aware of how to combat it.
Hogwarts students had grown accustomed to Dementors, at least not screaming at the sight of them. As the only first-year who had personally dismantled a Dementor, Harry felt he understood these creatures better than most.
But the Dementors before him were rather—
"I know you're going back to Durmstrang next semester, Professor!"
"But you can't just dump all the leftover Dementors here with me!"
At least twenty Dementors huddled together, their overlapping auras of despair were more than Harry could withstand, even with a few resistance points stacked up.
Just as he prepared to turn and flee—
"Boom!"
The heavy door slammed shut behind him. Grindelwald, who understood Harry's abilities better than most professors, hadn't given him an escape route.
"Please, be reasonable!"
Seeing the group of starving Dementors, their eyes red with hunger, rushing toward him, Harry shouted in despair. He could already picture Grindelwald, hands on his hips, laughing like an evil overlord, which only made sense as to why this guy wouldn't even bother trying to redeem himself. With the title of dark wizard hanging over his head, Grindelwald was certainly not doing anything to help.
"At least teach me the Patronus Charm in class!"
Grinding his teeth against the wave of despair, Harry vowed that once he got out of this situation, he would make Grindelwald suffer and dance on his grave for three whole days and nights without stopping!
(End of Chapter)