Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 226 Hermione's Somber Mood

Saturday afternoon, Duel Club activity room.

Hermione is taking a deep breath.

She'd been incredibly busy for the past three weeks—in order to achieve the 12'0" feat Percy had once accomplished, she'd enrolled in five elective courses in one go—many of which had scheduling conflicts, so Professor McGonagall had to apply for a time converter for her.

Despite her busy schedule, the weekly duel club event remains her top priority.

Whether influenced by Professor Li Wei or by the prevailing dueling culture on campus, Hermione is increasingly focusing on applying theory to practice.

She used to simply enjoy learning, but now she realizes that this enjoyment can also help her become a stronger person.

She no longer wanted to be just a witch with "a little bit of cleverness," but rather someone as wise and brave as Professor Levi.

She has already secured first place in the "Basic Question Bank" section of the practice question guide, and the title is firmly in her hands—she has the highest accuracy rate among those who have answered the most questions.

Now, she seeks to transform knowledge—which means to advance in terms of military strength.

Harry, who knows nothing, is Hermione's target!
She and Harry have had their share of wins and losses, but Hermione knows that's because Harry hasn't been playing at his best—once Harry enters a state of focused concentration, he behaves completely differently—and she can't beat that Harry, not even once.

Hermione—do you realize how serious you look right now?

Ron stood aside and watched, his expression somewhat annoyed.

Hermione glared at Ron, ignored him, and instead spoke to Harry:

“You need to be serious today, Harry.”

“I’m very diligent every day, Hermione—by the way, what have you been busy with lately? We’ve noticed you’re spending less and less time with us.”

"Busy with classes and homework."

Hermione offered a brief explanation—Professor McGonagall had warned her not to reveal the existence of the Time-Turner to anyone else.

But this explanation clearly failed to convince Harry and Ron.

"Okay, let's get started."

Harry pursed his lips, making his expression unreadable.

"Three—two—one"

As Ron finished counting down, Hermione moved first.

The attack began with a feint using 'Quick Imprisonment', followed by a silent 'Legs Freeze' attempt to bind Harry's legs.

However, in the face of her feint, Harry simply shifted his body slightly, his movement displaying an indescribable coordination—the feint's spell grazed a corner of his body.

While Hermione focused on the second spell, he decisively swung his wand.

"Except your weapons!"

As the incantation was cast, a condensed red light arrived first, attacking Hermione at a speed she couldn't even perceive.

"Snapped!"

Hermione felt a sudden numbness in her wrist, and her wand flew out of her hand, tracing an arc before being caught steadily by Harry.

The activity room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in gasps and applause.

Ron's mouth was wide enough to fit a chocolate frog.

Today, Hermione suffered another crushing defeat—she realized with despair that while she and Harry were both working hard, Harry was progressing much, much faster than her!
Why? How could Harry's magic have improved so much in just one day?
This isn't magic at all!
"Merlin's beard, Harry, what did you eat today?" Ron came running over, yelling at Harry's performance, completely ignoring Hermione's thoughts.

Harry smiled at Ron and handed Hermione's wand back to her.

"Okay—well done." Hermione pursed her lips, quickly adjusting her mindset.

“Your performance is starting to feel a bit unfamiliar to me—is there a trick to it, Harry, that you could teach me?”

"Well—it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that it's a bit hard to describe."

Harry scratched his head.

The three of them stepped down from the dueling arena, and Harry recounted what had happened the day before.

Hermione and Ron immediately showed expressions of surprise and envy.

"You mean, Professor Levi took you out of the school, and he even taught you how to use Apparition—"

Ron was interrupted by Hermione halfway through his sentence.

"—So you're so amazing today because you experienced Apparition yesterday, which improved your understanding of magic?"

“No.” Harry shook his head, looking at the new batch of classmates entering the dueling arena in the distance, his eyes somewhat unfocused, and said, “It’s what happened afterward—the ability to manifest a follower only requires a certain level of magical control, and I believe you can do it too.”

Although Ron didn't think he could do it, he didn't say anything at this moment.

"Professor Levi took me to see Sirius Black—something bad had happened to him recently."

Amidst the rising and falling chants of spells, Harry recounted his vigil for Regulus the previous day.

Hermione slowly covered her mouth. "Oh my god."

"So Sirius hasn't shown up for the past two days because his brother got into trouble—"

Ron stared wide-eyed, then quickly covered his mouth after realizing he had said the wrong thing.

But soon, he voiced the question that had been on Hermione's mind:
"But what does this have to do with your rapid improvement in strength? Did Professor Li Wei show you another trick later?"

Hermione thought the same thing—and on this one point, she was genuinely a little jealous of Harry—why did Professor Levy always give Harry preferential treatment from time to time?

For example, the spell Harry used called "Instant Step" was clearly taught to him by Professor Levy—and this time, Professor Levy directly took Harry away from the school.
Even earlier, there was the incident with the Basilisk, where Harry and Professor Levi faced the Basilisk together. Although that incident was an accident, with so many coincidences coming together, Hermione couldn't help but suspect that something was amiss.

She was clearly a third-year member of the study group, and she was Professor Li Wei's most promising student—Professor Li Wei told her this himself, so how could he be lying to her?

"No—it's during the vigil."

Harry shook his head.

"However, I do have some connection with Professor Levi—when he Apparated me, I felt Professor Levi's magic."
Stable, powerful, precise—you know what I mean, just like he's always demonstrated.

While keeping vigil for Regulus, in that quiet environment, I heard Sirius talking about Regulus. I thought to myself, lying there is someone who could have been my family.
I suddenly felt that my magic had become more stable than ever before—at that moment I thought of the magic I had felt from Professor Levi, and subconsciously moved in that direction.

"Hmm—I can't quite describe the specific feeling, but after killing the basilisk last time, I actually had a similar feeling—magic suddenly became much more docile to me."

Ron stared blankly at Harry.

Hermione frowned, trying to find some kind of pattern in it.

(End of this chapter)