Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 202 Fishing in Troubled Waters

After the two professors finished their "exhibition match," it was time for the teaching session.

Professor Flitwick first conjured a wooden figure holding a stick, and then demonstrated to the students how to use the Disarming Charm.

"A very practical self-defense spell, and simple enough." Flitwick summoned another blackboard and wrote down the key points of casting the disarming spell on it.

Professor Flitwick's explanation of the key points of the Disarming Charm drifted into his ears, but Rice was recalling the history of the Disarming Charm.

He had read modern magical textbooks and knew that wizarding historians still debated the origin of the Disarming Charm. Some believed it was invented by Merlin, while others said the spell was already widely used in 11th-century Madagascar. According to Miranda Goshak, author of *The Book of Spells*, the Disarming Charm was invented by a witch named Elizabeth Smakirin, based on her use of the spell in a dueling tournament in 1379.

Rice prefers the last one.

In his time, there were no spells like the "Disarming Charm" because such spells were considered too useless by wizards at the time—why bother disarming the enemy? If you want to capture prisoners, why not use magic like the Petrify Charm?

The origin stories of Madagascar and Merlin are not very reliable. In the 11th century, Madagascar was still in a state of primeval forest, and there were not many wizards settling on the island. Even if there were, they were just a very few hermits. How could it be widely used? Moreover, in such a harsh living environment, spells would only be more practical. A useless spell like the Disarming Charm could not have become widely popular.

The latter is even less likely. Merlin was already a legendary magician when Rice and his friends were young. If he really invented the disarming spell and it was passed down to later generations, then Rice and his friends would have heard of it.

There is a very small possibility that Merlin invented this spell and then created a labyrinthine secret realm, placing the spellbook in the labyrinth's treasure chest as a "clearance" reward.

If that's really the case, then Rice can only be described as someone who's bored out of his mind.

However, it would be incorrect to say that there was absolutely no "disarming" magic in that era. There were types of magic such as "magic that makes weapons fall" and "magic that makes enemy weapons fly away," both of which could have evolved into the disarming spells of later times.

Many court magicians liked to use "weapon-dropping magic" to check if visitors were carrying weapons. "Weapon-flying magic" was even more violent; as long as you could "convince" yourself that a part of the opponent was a "weapon," then this magic could knock the opponent's "weapon" away.

For example, if you firmly believe that your opponent's fist is a weapon, then this spell will cut off their fist. But it's still pretty useless, because if your spell can hit the enemy, wouldn't it be better to use a more powerful spell?

Incidentally, there's a long-standing rumor in Slytherin that Merlin once studied there, but Rhys thinks it's a hoax. It's quite possible that a student named Merlin studied there, and then, centuries later, when the Slytherin students were looking through past student rosters, they mistakenly assumed Merlin had actually graduated from Slytherin.

While Rais was lost in thought, Professor Flitwick had already begun demonstrating the Disarming Charm to the students.

"Disarm you!"

The wooden stick flew out of the wooden figure's hand, and the wooden figure was also knocked to the ground.

Judging from the effect of the disarming spell, Rice was certain that this spell was likely a combination of multiple spells, and he saw the shadows of many spells on it.

Now that the principles have been explained and the demonstrations have been done, it's time for the practical application.

Professor Flitwick gestured for the students to spread out in the Great Hall, then with a wave of his wand conjured up an equal number of wooden roly-poly toys, each holding a wooden stick about the size of his wand.

Flitwick also put a lot of thought into the selection of teaching aids. He originally wanted the students to team up in pairs, but considering the true level of the "little trolls," he quickly abandoned the idea—you can never underestimate the destructive power of little wizards.

He then discovered that the roly-poly toy was a really good thing. Even if the spell went astray, the roly-poly toy was difficult to knock away or over, and it could effectively control the scene and prevent it from becoming too chaotic.

"Okay, listen to me count to three, one, two, three—" After each student found their own roly-poly toy, Flitwick announced the start of the practice.

As soon as he finished speaking, shouts of "Expelliarmus!" rang out in the auditorium, and wooden sticks flew everywhere. Clearly, many young wizards had mastered this simple spell. However, some people's casting accuracy was obviously poor; the spells that missed either hit other people's roly-poly toys or accidentally injured classmates standing in front.

Rice yawned and pretended to use a "Disarming Charm" to knock the wooden stick out of the roly-poly toy's hand. Professor Flitwick's roly-poly toy also had a very clever little design: the stick was attached to the bottom with an elastic rope, so the stick would fly back to the wooden doll's hand, making it easy for the young wizards to cast spells again.

Just as Rice was idly observing the spellcasting abilities of the young wizards, he suddenly sensed something unusual. He instinctively turned to the side, and a red light grazed past his clothes, hitting the roly-poly toy diagonally in front of him, causing it to stumble.

Rice looked in the direction of the spell and saw that Malfoy, who was standing behind him, seemed to be very interested in the Hogwarts floor.

Rice raised an eyebrow, then turned his head back to continue practicing the disarming spell, as if everything that had just happened was an accident.

Malfoy narrowed his eyes: Rice had been careless, and his golden opportunity had arrived! Rice had been lucky enough to dodge the disarming spell earlier, but he wouldn't miss this time.

Malfoy glanced at Marcus standing beside him, and Marcus understood immediately. Together with Malfoy, they aimed at Rice's back, but the tip of his staff was slightly off-center, which would block Rice's "movement".

Daphne, who was not far away, saw all of this, and a glint flashed in her eyes: she also quietly turned her wand around.

Rice seemed completely unaware of the two men's ulterior motives.

"Weapon to eliminate you!"

Two beams of red light shot towards Rice from the left and right, but the spells miraculously vanished just before they touched his back. Immediately afterward, the two disarming spells reappeared, but flew back in the direction they came from, knocking both Malfoy and Marcus away. At the same time, a spell struck Malfoy at a tricky angle.

After landing heavily on the ground, Malfoy felt a churning in his stomach. He struggled to sit up, turned to his side, and then burped out a huge slug.

The surrounding young wizards jumped aside, their faces showing disgust.

Seeing this, Daphne smiled happily.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The first update is here, the next one will be coming soon.

Do you think the girl in the photo would look more like Daphne, Astoria, or something else if she had silver hair?

(End of this chapter)