When Professor McGonagall stopped talking, Felix noticed Snape’s expression suddenly became strange, as he tried his best to display a careless attitude and said lightly, “We have to take them seriously, with all those dark magic …”
He loosened his grip and let the parchment slip from his fingertips.
“Magic that needs constant hidden dangerous emotions, are eternal, elusive, unpredictable, ever-changing and will surpass everyone’s expectations … If the students of Hogwarts are unprepared for this, when the need arises, they will act like a bunch of headless flies.”
“When the need arises!” Moody repeated loudly, pointing his nose that is missing a piece of flesh at Snape, “Need to face, or need to use? What do you think I’ve been doing for the last two months?”
Snape and Moody stared at each other.
After a moment of silence, Flitwick interjected uncomfortably, “I think we all agree on one thing, and that is that we would never teach dark magic to students–”
Snape glanced at him.
“You’re right.”
“Exactly,” said Flitwick as if he had received some kind of encouragement, somewhat cheered up: “But we can’t let the students pretend that it is invisible either; Dark magic is quite a vast category of magic, and at certain times, in certain scenarios, they are even more superior.”
Professor McGonagall said impatiently, “You’re confusing me, Filius, do you agree with Ilvermorny’s suggestion or not?”
Felix suddenly said, “Professor Flitwick should be thinking what I’m thinking – that we should accept Ilvermorny’s proposal. They have only two intentions, one is to test the ability of Hogwarts’ reserve champions before the other three schools arrive.”
“It’s not just them, all five schools will do the same thing. By referring to the information from previous matches, you will find that there were many instances where two weaker sides were united against the stronger ones. What’s more, now that there are five schools and the number of champions has increased to three, the situation has become more complex and volatile. Therefore, each school would like to know where they stand and make it easier to develop a strategy.”
The professors nodded their heads in agreement to his words.
“What about Ilvermorny’s second intention?”
“Of course, it’s to practice Dark Magic using this opportunity.” Felix said, “Ilvermorny is not as repulsive to dark magic as we are, but I would like to remind you all that the name of the course they teach is still Defense Against the Dark Arts, not Dark Magic!”
“That means their students probably won’t know most of the Dark Magic on this list.”
“What you mean, Felix, do you mean that we can find out which Dark Magic Ilvermorny has chosen through the sparring between students?” Professor McGonagall asked. Moody’s fake eyes kept rolling, looking as if he had been thinking rapidly.
“That’s right,” Felix glanced at the parchment in his hand, “there are about fifty dark magics here, with a wide variety and focus. Students from schools other than Durmstrang won’t possibly have mastered them all, and the best strategy now would be to select the useful ones from it, while a Traditional school like Beauxbatons might even refuse to use dark magic, just like Hogwarts.”
McGonagall frowned and pondered: “Of the five schools, Beauxbatons’s attitude towards dark magic is indeed similar to Hogwarts’s system, and the possibility of what you mentioned exists. As for the remaining three … Durmstrang needless to say, their students must have mastered at least half of the dark magic on the list, Ilvermorny will be selective, the only uncertainty is Uagadou …”
“Do you have any opinion regarding Uagadou?”
Felix shook his head lightly, “I don’t know much about them, some of the information I got is based on hearsay and can’t be relied upon.”
McGonagall glanced up at the other professors before making her decision. “Then I will agree with Ilvermorny’s request, Filius, Felix, Professor Moody,” she looked at the crowd, “Can we find alternative spells to replace some effects of the dark magic in this list.”
“Sure.” Flitwick said pointedly, “For example, the corrosive type of dark magics in here can be replaced with a Softening Charm that can soften the scaled carapace of magical creatures, or hard stones.”
” It can be.” Moody said gruffly.
“I have no problem with that either,” Felix said, “Also, we can switch our thinking – it doesn’t have to be an imitation, we can also find ways to prevent it, like ‘blood trace’, if the students have a way to prevent tracing, they can completely avoid this layer of danger in advance.”
…
After the meeting, the professors dispersed.
Felix dragged Snape, to Flitwick’s office as a guest. Flitwick brought some cookies and tea, then they ate and sipped as they analysed a large part of the dark magic on the list.
Of the three, Flitwick is the master of spells, very knowledgeable, the spells he mastered are not restricted by dark magic and other categories, while for Snape it is just simply his favourite, this point was vaguely reflected in his previous speech at the meeting, which showed his inclination towards dark magic.
As for Felix, he also had spent some time mastering dark magic back then, but in terms of quantity, it could not beat the other two in any way.
In fact, his philosophy was very similar to Ilvermorny’s – pick only the right ones.
The Fiendfyre Curse is a standard potent dark magic, nevertheless, it is still one of his best spells. Its power had reached a certain limit, except for the shield charm, which could hopefully surpass that level, the others were at most comparable to it.
The following weekend, the Hogwarts prep champions gathered in a vacant field between the Quidditch Pitch and the Forbidden Forest, which had been temporarily established as a practice ground. Students from both schools would be sparring and practicing their magic here.
But this had little to do with Harry and the rest.
Professor McGonagall forbade them from participating; she just assembled a dozen candidates from the sixth and seventh years, without paying any attention to them.
“Why we weren’t called!” Ron said grumblingly.
“Because we’re not considered as Preparatory Champions to begin with, and we have no experience in dealing with dark magic other than what Professor Moody has taught us.!” Hermione said loudly, reminding the group of dumb students around her.
“Who cares,” Ron muttered, “just find Professor Hap’s memory in classroom seven and choose Black Market level – where you’ll meet a room full of dark wizards – and it will always end with a messy fight every time. ”
Harry and Ron were not the only two who were upset.
Neville, the Weasley twins, Susan Bones, and Eddie Carmichael all showed up, hiding in the bushes because they aren’t old enough to be able to do more than watching the upperclassmen sparring with Ilvermorny’s preparatory champions, and there are also professors from both schools available as a coach for champions.
“You guys look like little abandoned Chiwawa.” A long-drawn-out voice emerged from behind them.
Harry, with a pang of weariness in his heart, turned his head to glare at Draco Malfoy and got surprised. Not by seeing him accompanied by his two followers, Crabbe and Goyle. But there are two other people together with Malfoy, they are the Greengrass sisters.
In a way, Astoria is more famous as a little sister, especially when her hobby is strolling around the Black Lake on a big snake mount.
Harry didn’t talk to them, but Hermione did. Amazingly, she barely counted as a friend, or rather, a rival of Daphne Greengrass? Anyway, Harry couldn’t figure it out, because when the two met, they would quarrel, but they never really would fight.
And Hermione’s opinion of Astoria is, a little girl spoiled by her family, childish at heart. The only thing that could be called a plus is that she has no prejudice against wizards of muggle origin.
“Granger, I’m going to represent my sister and duel you!” Astoria pointed at Hermione and shouted at the top of her voice.
But her anger was immediately subdued when Daphne patted her head.
“What are you doing here, Malfoy?” Harry said with a scowl.
“Don’t treat me like I am here for the same reason as you,” Draco taunted, “If I wanted to see it, I’d go and see it openly, without hiding here like a bunch of aggrieved babies …”
But he stopped talking as everyone’s eyes spewed anger, with a few already drawing their wands and looking at him unkindly.
“Let’s go,” said Draco Malfoy, “To greet my Ilvermorny friends!” He led the Slytherin students towards the vacant land with a swagger.
” I have a good relationship with Victor, and the Graves family is well established in the American magical community …” His smug voice drifted far away and drilled into their ears, tickling their hearts.
The rest of them looked at each other, and Fred suddenly said, “We know Ilvermorny students, too.”
“That’s right.” Harry immediately echoed.
“So …” Ron looked at the crowd eagerly.
“Let’s go and see?” Fred said tentatively.
“Good idea.” George replied without thinking.
After a moment of silence, their group walked with a measured step toward the practice ground.
———–
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