Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 342 How dare you use my words against me!
Harry looked around at his bewildered classmates and spoke again.

"You might say, 'Ah, with Potter and Dumbledore around, Voldemort won't harm us, so why do we need to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts so diligently?'"

Upon hearing Voldemort's name, the students shuddered once again.

“But I must tell you that there is more than one dark wizard in this world than Voldemort,” Harry said in a deep voice. “Besides Voldemort, there are many other terrible dark wizards who lurk in the shadows and could endanger our lives at any time.”

"And the ultimate purpose of you learning Defense Against the Dark Arts is to resist these potential threats... so that you won't be at a loss when you encounter a dark wizard, unable to do anything, and can only surrender and wait for the dark wizard to take your lives."

Harry glanced again at his classmates who looked uneasy, and said, "I know you might think I'm exaggerating, but it's the truth. If the wizarding world were really as peaceful as the Ministry of Magic portrays it, then why would Azkaban exist?"

Harry's words made a lot of sense, and the students all fell into deep thought.

Yes, if the magical world is really peaceful and there is no need to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, then why are there so many dark wizards imprisoned in Azkaban for so many years, and why is the number increasing every year?

This is a false proposition in itself.

“So,” Harry said again, “if you want to learn some real Defense Against the Dark Arts, I can help you.”

"So, is that true?" asked the girl with a long braid trailing behind her, Susan Burns.

"What?" Harry asked.

"So—I heard you can use some spells that are absolutely forbidden by the Ministry of Magic?" Susan asked.

“Oh, I’m a good boy,” Harry said with a grin. “I’m a firm believer in rejecting spells that are absolutely forbidden by the Ministry of Magic—but I do occasionally use some harmless little curses.”

Upon hearing Harry's words, everyone present chuckled, but Hermione remained silent.

She groaned inwardly—Good heavens, what harmless little curses? Those things are so evil they make you want to turn green with rage!

“That’s fantastic, Harry!” said Lee Jordan, looking quite admiring. “I never knew you knew some harmless little curses! Like the Tarantella curse or something?”

“You don’t want to know,” Hermione quickly interrupted him. “We should get back to the main point of today’s conversation: learning how to protect ourselves from Voldemort’s Death Eaters—or, if you don’t want to believe that Voldemort has returned, you can think of it as protecting yourself from the Dark Wizard.”

“Well said!” Ernie McMillan shouted. “I personally think this is really important, probably more important than anything else we’re going to do this year, even the upcoming OWLs exams!”

He swept his gaze across the room with an air of authority, seemingly waiting for someone to loudly proclaim, "That won't do!" Seeing no one speak, he continued, "I personally find it extremely perplexing that the Ministry of Magic would send us such a useless teacher at such a crucial time. Clearly, they refuse to believe the Mystic has returned, yet the Ministry has sent us a teacher who goes to great lengths to prevent us from using defensive spells. I simply cannot understand their thinking. Are the higher-ups in the Ministry of Magic completely brainless?"

“I’ve heard about that,” Susan Burns said. “My aunt—Amelia Burns of the Ministry of Magic—told me in a letter that it’s because Umbridge, that pink toad, has some ridiculous ideas in his head that Dumbledore will use the students of the school as a secret army—and she told Fudge that Dumbledore will incite us to fight against the Ministry of Magic.”

Upon hearing this news, almost everyone was stunned, except for Lunalovgood.

She interjected, "Yes, that makes a lot of sense. In fact, Cornelius Fudge has his own secret army."

"What?" everyone present asked in unison, completely stunned by this unexpected situation.

Fudge actually has his own army?
What should I say?

People can't imagine things they haven't done, right?

“Yes, he has an army of Heliopas,” Luna said seriously.

“Impossible,” Hermione said bluntly.

“Absolutely true,” Luna said.

"What is Heliopa?" Neville asked, looking bewildered.

“They are fire spirits,” Luna said, her bulging eyes wide open, making her seem even more frantic than usual. “They are enormous creatures engulfed in flames, rushing across the land and burning everything in their path to ashes—”

“They don’t exist, Neville,” Hermione said sharply. “You know, she…”

At this point, Hermione suddenly stopped talking.

If she weren't the prefect, she would definitely have mocked Luna as a crazy girl—but now that she's the prefect of Gryffindor, her every word and action represents Gryffindor, so of course she can't just say whatever she wants.

“Oh, yes, it exists!” Luna retorted angrily.

"Excuse me, what evidence do you have?" Hermione asked sharply.

Luna retorted, "There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, and it's just because you're so ignorant that you need to stuff everything under your nose to know—"

“Cough…cough.” Ginny mimicked Professor Umbridge perfectly.

The group looked around in surprise, then burst into laughter.

“The butter in Merlin’s lunch…” Fred said, rubbing his eyes. “I thought Umbridge had come here, but it was Ginny who made the sound. I almost ran away.”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Ron said, hands on his hips. “If she dares to come here, Harry will definitely give her a good beating!”

"Maybe there will be other heroes," Fred said with a wicked grin. "Like, some unknown hero who can knock her unconscious and show her what's what?"

Upon hearing Fred's words, Ron lowered his head nervously.

“Yes, who is this hero?” George said with a smile.

“Alright,” Harry said in time, stopping the twins from continuing. “Now, what we need to do is check your learning progress—Fifth graders, get out of the pub now, pair up, and start now.”

Upon hearing this, the fifth-grade students all came out of the bar and lined up to wait.

Harry followed them out of the bar, stood at the front of the line, and watched them.

"The next thing I'm going to test is the Ironclad Charm," Harry said with a serious expression.

"Iron Armor Spell?"

Upon hearing Harry's words, the other students began to whisper among themselves.

They had certainly heard of the Ironclad Curse, but this was not something fifth graders should be learning.

“I must say,” Fred said, “that many Aurors can’t even use the full Ironclad Charm, so it seems the fifth-year curriculum is quite demanding.” “Yeah,” George chimed in, grinning.

The students had already paired up. Draco really wanted to be paired with Ron, but Ron ignored him and stood with Hermione instead. Frustrated, Draco had no choice but to return to the Slytherin group and find Pansy Parkinson to practice the Ironclad Charm.

“What we need to do next is not to test whether you can cast the Ironclad Charm completely,” Harry said seriously. “But to let you use the Ironclad Charm to resist curses in actual combat. I believe you should know that no matter how well you learn the Ironclad Charm in theory and in your usual practice, it is useless if you cannot use a complete Ironclad Charm in a real duel.”

“Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger!” Harry called out their names: “You two, show us first.”

Ron stepped out of the line with a serious expression and stood on the left and right sides of Hermione, respectively.

“I bet Hermione will win,” Fred said in a low voice.

“One Sickle,” George said. “I bet Ron will win.”

Over there, Harry was already standing between Ron and Hermione.

“Now,” he said, walking to the side, “Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from the fifth year will demonstrate their learning outcomes—I believe you can successfully apply the Ironclad Charm in actual combat. Alright, I declare the duel open—three, two, one!”

"Expelliarmus!"

The two raised their wands in unison and began to fire standard disarming spells at each other.

"I said! It's to test the results of learning the Ironclad Charm!" Harry reiterated, "not the results of learning the Disarming Charm—sorry, I forgot to remind you. Hermione, you go first, Ron, defend!"

Ron sighed and raised his wand.

What came first was Hermione's spell.

"Depulso (retreat the enemy three feet)!"

Ron struggled to conjure a rather immature suit of armor. He felt as if his internal organs were about to be shaken apart. He stumbled backward, his heel hitting a hole in the ground, and he nearly fell headfirst into the bushes beside him.

Across from her, Hermione's wand tip was emitting a dazzling burst of light.

"Petrify them all!" Her clear voice rang out, but it didn't sound so pleasant to Ron.

Ron instinctively sensed something was wrong. This time, he didn't choose to use the Ironclad Charm to withstand the curse head-on. Who knew what the effect of being hit by this curse would be, or whether he would be humiliated by Hermione? He quickly snatched food from a vicious dog nearby, barely dodging the curse.

He also fell into the bushes, and when he looked up, his face was still covered in leaves.

“That’s one way,” Harry explained at the opportune moment. “When you think your armor charm isn’t enough to deal with a flying spell, you should choose to dodge rather than take it head-on—there’s nothing shameful about it, and it’s never shameful to dodge in order to save your life.”

Before Ron could even catch his breath, Hermione's next attack was already underway.

With a deft flick of her wrist, her wand traced a beautiful arc in the air: "Stone, come!"

Several stones piled up not far away suddenly rose into the air, as if hurled by an invisible hand, and crashed down on Ron with a dull thud.

"Enough! Hermione! Stop right there!" Ron quickly dodged to the side. "Enough!"

"Enough of the battlefield!" Hermione's voice was firm and unwavering. She raised her wand again. "Stupefy!"

Seeing that dodging wasn't an option, Ron quickly raised his wand.

"Protego!"

A deep blue light rose up around Ron, and a magical armor appeared, blocking Hermione's spell.

Hermione unleashed two more spells, both of which were blocked by Ron's spells.

“Alright,” Harry said. “Pause—now…you’ll have a minute to catch your breath. Ron is on offense, Hermione is on defense.”

Ron put down his wand and gave Hermione a malicious smile.

Hermione stood still, serene and imposing, exuding an aura of authority.

"Three, two, one..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ron's spell shot out.

Hermione was caught off guard; she didn't have time to cast a shield and narrowly avoided Ron's spell.

"Haha, Hermione!" Ron said with a sly laugh, "Now it's my turn to attack—"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Hermione said angrily.

“There’s no ‘Shut up!’ on the battlefield,” Ron said, quoting Hermione.

Hermione looked at Ron with disbelief, her eyes clearly saying—you dare to use my words against me?
Immediately afterwards, Ron waved his wand, unleashing a crimson spell.

"Stupefy!"

"Protego!" Hermione used the Armor Charm to block the spell.

"Expelliarmus!"

The azure light flashed again, and the weapon that was meant to eliminate you was intercepted.

"Alright!" Harry stopped the duel in time, lest they get really worked up. "It seems Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have practiced their spells quite well. Now... let's give them a round of applause!"

The students applauded and cheered, celebrating the two students' success.

Students from other grades looked at the two of them with reverence. They couldn't understand why the two of them were so outstanding when they were also Hogwarts students.

This level of armored spell is something even most Aurors couldn't achieve, right?
The Weasley twins, however, were somewhat disappointed. They exchanged a glance and whispered, "It seems neither of us won—they tied."

"Now, let's change the lineup," Harry announced again. "Seimor Finnigan versus Neville Longbottom!"

(End of this chapter)