Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 291 Helga's Defense Against the Dark Magic

After the divination lesson, it was time for Hufflepuff's Defense Against the Dark Arts.

When Rice entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, he found Hufflepuff already waiting for the students.

"Oh, Mr. Lint, Miss Greengrass!" Hufflepuff smiled when he saw that the first people to enter the classroom were his acquaintances.

"Come on, sit here." Seeing Rice walking towards the corner of the classroom, Helga spoke up decisively, gesturing for the two of them to sit directly opposite the podium.

"If you don't want to, then I'll set up a seat on each side of the stage, one on each side, which will be just right." Hufflepuff's eyes were full of kindness, but the words that came out of his mouth sent chills down Rice's spine.

Rice had a bad feeling: Hufflepuff was definitely up to no good! Otherwise, why would they sit in the front?

He silently braced himself and secretly prepared for battle.

The students arrived one after another at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Because of the Hufflepuff's amazing performance at the opening banquet, the students were extremely curious about the professor, so they arrived very quickly, and not a single person was late—the classroom was already full five minutes before class started.

Interestingly, the attendees weren't just students from the class roster; there were also some young wizards who weren't in class. They were eager to hear Professor White's Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Calling Rice to the front row seemed somewhat redundant, as the enthusiastic students had already filled all the seats.

Who could refuse a lecture from a professor from hundreds of years ago? And she can even conjure up drinks for everyone to enjoy.

Hufflepuff glanced at the sea of ​​heads below and immediately abandoned the idea of ​​taking attendance. Once the bell rang, she began the lesson.

"Let me introduce myself." Hufflepuff wrote his pseudonym on the blackboard behind him: "I'm Smith White, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. You all should know me."

The students nodded in agreement. After all, they had all drunk the beverages provided by Professor White.

"I am a person from hundreds of years ago. At first, I thought Professor Dumbledore would give me a job as a head chef in the kitchen, but I ended up becoming the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts—Principal Dumbledore seems to be a bit desperate."

The students in the audience laughed.

"It's true, because I really don't understand what Defense Against the Dark Arts is. Can someone explain its definition to me?"

The students provided Hufflepuff with the definition of Defense Against the Dark Arts, which is the most basic knowledge that can be found even by simply looking at the textbook.

Defense Against the Dark Arts is a discipline that teaches students how to resist all types of dark magic, including dark magical creatures, dark spells, and duels.

"I see." Hufflepuff made a somewhat exaggerated expression of sudden realization.

"Can someone explain to me what dark magic is?" Hufflepuff turned her gaze to Rice, who was sitting directly opposite her.

"You're the one, Mr. Lint. Explain to me what black magic is."

Rice: ...

Helga Hufflepuff, you did it on purpose!

Hufflepuff, you really love making a scene, don't you? But that suits me just the way it is.

After carefully assessing the risks, and feeling that Hogwarts wouldn't expel him for his words, Rice stood up decisively.

Hufflepuff: Hehehe.

Rice: Now it's my turn to speak, isn't it?

Hufflepuff: Go ahead and speak.

After exchanging glances with Helga, Rice spoke.

Before Rice spoke, the students in the classroom all thought it was an easy question, because there was a standard definition of dark magic. But Rice, of course, wouldn't answer that way.

"Black magic is a branch of magic."

This seemingly obvious statement made nearly half of the students look up at Rice: there was something more to his words!

"If I had to define it, it would be magic that causes enormous or irreversible damage to a person's body and mind."

Upon hearing this, the other half of the students also looked up: Rice's definition of black magic seemed to differ from the mainstream view...

Hufflepuff gave her a knowing look, and like a straight man, she picked up the conversation: "So, do you think we should study dark magic?"

In the current magical world, there is actually only one answer to this question: it shouldn't be. It's like political correctness, and Kles is not someone who would be held hostage by political correctness.

He straightened his back and answered loudly, "Of course I will learn."

Students from other colleges: ...

Slytherin students: ?

Almost everyone was shocked by Rice. Students outside Slytherin thought Rice had gone mad. How could he publicly advocate learning Dark Magic? The Slytherin students, on the other hand, thought: "Dude, can't we just discuss this in our own house's common room behind closed doors? Even if something is true, it shouldn't be spread around!"

What shocked everyone even more was that Professor White, who had listened to Rice's entire statement, didn't utter a single word of rebuttal, seemingly acknowledging Rice's words!

"Tell me why." Hufflepuff's smile didn't diminish at all; in fact, it widened.

"To contend with dark magic, we must understand it. More importantly, many dark spells are incredibly powerful. If we are held back by the name of dark magic, how can we contend with dark wizards who are well-versed in it? More than ten years ago, during the Wizarding Wars, the Ministry of Magic authorized Aurors to use the Unforgivable Curse. This is irrefutable proof that we should learn dark magic. To contend with dark wizards, we must understand dark magic better than they do."

Rice didn't care about the terrible reputation of dark magic at all. In his view, it was just a kind of magic. Apart from a very few spells that twisted one's personality, whether other dark spells were evil depended entirely on the character of the user.

Aurors use dark magic to kill dark wizards, but does that mean they are evil just because they use dark magic? Dark magic is a weapon, and we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater just because it's too powerful or cruel.

The classroom fell silent. The students were all thinking about what Rice had said. Their education from childhood told them that they should stand up and refute Rice at this moment, but Rice thought about what he said carefully and it seemed to make a lot of sense.

Hufflepuff applauded Rice twice with satisfaction.

She wanted to use Rice's words to say these things. After gaining a deep understanding of the current magical world, she felt that modern wizards seemed to have gone a bit too far.

Not studying black magic in depth does not mean putting it aside!

You still need to learn black magic, otherwise how will you know how to deal with it?

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 second update will be a little later.

(End of this chapter)