HP North Star's Radiance

Harry taught them the Ironclad Charm in fifth grade, so Neville knew that the spell had a rebound effect, but not everyone could use it effectively—but people like Praris and Harry certainly could.

Fortune's wheel keeps turning, but it turns a little too fast.

The next second it was Neville's turn to dodge his own petrification curse.

"Tsk!" This gentle approach clearly didn't please Amicus. "Where's the Cruciatus Curse? Is this lesson just for you to play house?"

As soon as Amicus finished speaking, Praris played along with one of her old tricks: "Sandstorm."

Yellow sand and gravel swirled up from the classroom floor, enveloping Neville in it.

Neville had never seen anything like this before, but he simply closed his eyes. Since he couldn't see it, Praris probably couldn't either, which was fair.

Praris was right in front of him; Na'Vi only needed to keep his direction and attack the other side.

But Neville was unaware that Praris on the other side had cast a silent spell on him: "Estoff!"

Praris could see it, and he could see it very clearly.

"Except your weapons!"

Praris's disarming charm struck Neville's hand precisely, knocking his wand away instantly.

Neville was taken aback, unable to understand how Praris could cross the sands and hit him—a question Alecto also wanted to ask, and unfortunately they had something in common!

Beneath the yellow sand, he didn't know the location of his wand, and since he didn't know any wandless magic, he was temporarily unable to continue fighting.

"The wind sweeps away the clouds!"

To Neville's surprise, Praris blew the sand away himself, revealing Neville inside.

Neville ran quickly toward the wand that had fallen to the ground, but no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun Praris's spell.

Just as he bent down to pick up the wand, Neville heard Praris shout in a cold, merciless voice, "Crucible!"

"what--"

It wasn't Neville's voice, but the voice of the students watching. Some of them screamed, while others covered their eyes in distress.

In Neville's eyes, time suddenly slowed down. He had never been tormented by the Cruciatus Curse, but he had imagined what it would feel like countless times.

Neville imagined what kind of inhuman torture his parents had endured to drive them insane and turn them into the people he saw in St. Mungo's.

The night Barty Crouch Jr. demonstrated the Crucifixion in class, Neville had nightmares all night.

He dreamt that the spider was struggling under Little Barty's wand. Soon after, the spider's face transformed into his mother, Alice—and he awoke from his dream, drenched in sweat.

Neville's eyes widened as he turned to look in Praris's direction. Before the Cruciatus Curse's light even touched Neville, he hunched over, seemingly sharing the same feeling as his parents had experienced over a decade ago.

But when the Cruciatus Curse's light struck Neville, his eyes widened even more.

With Prince's powerful magic, he could torment a Silver Arrow Frog to death in seconds in the previous class, and the Ironclad Charm he cast a dozen seconds ago could reflect his spells... but this Cruciatus Curse did not cause Neville the pain he had imagined.

In fact, he managed his pain very well. He was in a lot of pain, but not to the point of being severely tormented.

"I have to admit that Prince got an 'O' in Charms. She knows a lot of spells, sometimes even ones I've never seen before, and she can figure out counterspells in a very short time," Hermione said frankly. "Her control over spells is extremely precise; she can achieve the desired effect without expending any extra effort."

Ginny said, "Hermione said Prince can be trusted."

In a flash, in just a second or two, Neville was certain that Praris wasn't incapable of torturing him. On the contrary, this was exactly the effect she wanted.

Neville quickly bent over, screamed loudly, and trembled violently as if he were being tormented by something.

The Cruciatus Curse lasted only five or six seconds before Praris stopped and looked at Amicus: "Professor, how do you think of the effect?"

Neville curled up on the ground like a shrimp, growling in pain. He never imagined he was such a good actor. To be honest, he really had his parents to thank for it.

From beginning to end, Neville didn't have a single other thought for a second. When Hermione and Ginny's words echoed in his mind, his instinctive reaction was to cooperate with Prader.

Chapter 228 Hiding

The Sorting Hat once warned students that Hogwarts students must unite in the face of crisis.

Neville didn't know Prader, but he had absolute trust in Hermione. He didn't understand why this Slytherin girl had shown cruelty before softening her heart towards him. But he knew that such precise control over Dark Magic was no easy feat.

The Gryffindor students rushed towards Neville, calling his name all at once: "Neville! Are you alright?", "Can you hear me?", "Could you take him to the infirmary?"...

"Tsk." Praris made a disgusted sound. "His willpower is a little weaker than I thought."

The Gryffindors all turned around and glared at Praris with resentment.

“Did I say something wrong?” Praris displayed an “academic” cruelty, as if she were actually testing a spell. “Professor Carlo said that learning Defense Against the Dark Arts requires a firm will to resist dark magic.”

“Excellent!” Amicus Caro said approvingly. “In the process of learning Defense Against the Dark Arts, the most important thing is to abandon all your weak thoughts, whether it is casting the Cruciatus Curse or enduring the spell.”

The Gryffindors surrounded Neville, shielding him behind them. Seamus, like an enraged lion, his eyes blazing with fury, roared, "Prince! You vile, despicable, shameless, and vile snake! You've finally shown your true colors! You and your spineless boyfriend are a perfect match of venomous creatures! Filthy Slytherin!"

Several Gryffindor girls nearly couldn't hold Seamus back, and Parvati cried out anxiously, "She's not important! Seamus! Neville is more important!"

Seeing Seamus's furious expression, the Slytherins, not to be outdone, sprang into action, standing opposite the Gryffindors, each with a contemptuous expression on their face.

In this tense atmosphere, Draco hesitated for a moment, then silently moved his feet, obscuring a quarter of Praris.

Praris frowned and said to Draco, "Get out of the way, move aside."

"He called me a coward!" Draco said, sounding both defensive and complaining. He seemed to be trying to prove himself by standing in front of Praris.

Praris once again shooed him away with her eyes: "That's called being flexible—go over there and keep an eye on Pansy!"

Draco thought for a second, then was convinced. He silently moved sideways and stood next to Pansy, who was standing with her hands on her hips, verbally provoking him.

Crabbe, unaware of what happened next, said sarcastically, "Ah—I'm a little confused, who exactly is the coward who can't withstand the Cruciatus Curse?"

While the Slytherins and Gryffindors were exchanging barbs, Praris lowered his eyes, took two steps back to Amycus Caro's side, and whispered, "Professor Caro, the Cruciatus Curse seems much harder to control than I thought. After all, my last subject was a frog, and now it's a human..."

“No.” Amicus shook his head with satisfaction. “I’m very satisfied. This is your first time doing this, and to have achieved this level is already—quite impressive.”

Even his colleagues often struggled with black magic at first—falling into depravity takes time.

Praris nodded humbly: "I still need to learn. You made me understand the power of will. But in terms of control... I can drive someone unconscious in no time. It seems I need to spend more time studying."

“However,” Praris looked up at Gryffindor and said hesitantly, “I didn’t expect Longbottom’s will to be so weak. He hasn’t woken up yet. What a waste.”

“Professor Carlo!” Prareas said, as if suddenly remembering something, leaning close to his ear, “Won’t this affect Professor Snape’s management?”

"You've softened your heart?" Amicus asked, somewhat displeased. "Prince, this is not a good sign. Softening your heart will make you fragile and cause you to lose your strength."

“To be soft on a Gryffindor? If others heard that, I would lose face!” Praris scoffed, then quickly lowered his voice and said, “But Professor, Longbottom is a pureblood.”

Amicus's eyes darted around.

Seeing the situation, Prarese continued, "I think we should get him to the infirmary first to avoid a classroom incident. Otherwise, I'll get scolded by Principal Snape, and you'll have more trouble too, which isn't worth it."

"As for the rest... there's plenty of time, isn't there?"

Amycus was reminded by Praris that his task was not simply to torture one or a few students, but to instill the theory of bloodline, destroy the students' moral bottom line and compassion, and cultivate more ruthless new followers for the Dark Lord, and so on.

Killing a pure-blood Longbottom would only bring temporary pleasure, but it would affect the true mission of the Carol siblings and lead to more rebellion.

—They might even be falsely accused by Snape of sabotaging the establishment of the new government and new order.

"Shut up, all of you!" Amicus raised his wand, sending several beams of green light into the sky, and shouted, "What kind of behavior is this! Huh? Look at you! If you can't even endure this much pain, then you don't deserve to stay at Hogwarts!"

The audience was silent.

"waste!"

Amycus spat and walked up to the Gryffindors. The Gryffindor students stood protectively in front of Neville, their brows furrowed, standing in neat rows, glaring defiantly at him.

"Get out of the way!" Amicus said coldly. "Stupid girl, unless you want to learn a lesson too! Or—do you want this kid to die here? Then I won't stop you!"

After saying that, Amicus walked through the Gryffindors and dragged Neville toward the infirmary.

Before leaving, Amycus didn't forget to leave homework, making the students stay and continue practicing the Cruciatus Mantra. He sternly warned everyone that any student who left the classroom before the end of get out of class would be locked up in solitary confinement.

Amicus left, but no one continued practicing the Cruciatus Mantra as he had instructed. The students stood in groups, looking warily at each other.

Among the students of Slytherin.

Pansy charged towards Praris like a bull. Draco followed behind her, shrugging at Praris to indicate that he couldn't do anything about Pansy.

"How are you, Pry?" Pansy looked at her anxiously. "I was so worried about you!"

Zabini's voice rang out slowly behind Pansy: "What's there to worry about? Are you afraid she'll beat someone to death?"

Zabini's words stunned Pansy. But upon closer reflection, she realized that it was indeed Longbottom, not Praris, who had been injured and taken to the school infirmary.

“That makes sense,” Pansy agreed.

Zabini said in an arrogant tone, "Prince, you did manage to teach Gryffindor a lesson, albeit barely."

“Brace, you should have realized how good Praris is a long time ago,” Pansy said with a silly grin. “It’s not too late now!”

Zabini gave a soft hum and walked away with his hands in his pockets.

“He’s always been like this,” Pansy said, turning to Praris. “Draco knows it too.”

Draco silently withdrew his gaze, hummed in agreement, and then slowly said, "I mean... did anyone really need to find out?"

Praris watched them talk silently, without saying a word. Draco seemed to sense something, glancing at her every now and then with suspicion.

Finally, get out of class ended, and the students rushed out. The Gryffindor students said as they walked that they were going to the infirmary to visit Neville.

Prareas swiftly passed them like the wind, followed closely by Pansy and Draco.

In the Gryffindor ranks, Seamus shouted, "Prince! You Death Eater intern! You regret not killing Neville like Snape killed Dumbledore!"

On the stairs, students emerging from other classrooms looked towards their group, whispering among themselves, "What's going on?"

Hearing this, Pansy's face turned red with anger, and she shouted back in a shrill voice, "So you're so righteous! Why don't you dare fight with Pray! I see you were pulled back so easily, are you really that easy to pull back or are you just pretending to be righteous!"

“I think!” Pansy said sarcastically, “you’re either too weak physically or too cowardly!”

The Slytherins around him burst into laughter and pointed at Seamus.

Seeing that Simo was about to be set on fire again, Praris said coldly, "No need to say more, Pansy, let's go!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Pansy quickly followed.

They left Seamus and the others behind and continued down the stairs to the first floor of the castle. As usual, the Slytherins would continue down until they reached the ground floor.

But Praris stopped and calmly said to Pansy, "I want to be alone. You go back first... and could you feed Frog for me while you're at it?"

Pansy agreed without hesitation. The silver arrow frog is an arrow frog with silver spots and green skin, and Pansy had always felt that its colors "matched" Slytherin.

"This is our Slytherin mascot!" Pansy held Frog up with both hands, thoroughly enjoying herself.