Just then, Professor Slughorn seemed to have noticed something, came over to Bellatrix, glanced at the potion in the cauldron, and said gently, “Black The Handmaiden, you need to focus a bit more, otherwise you’ll easily hurt yourself.”
Bellatrix did not argue, simply nodding in acknowledgement.
In the subsequent steps, she did not get distracted, and thus made no mistakes.
Fortunately, in this batch of people, there were none of those ‘gifted’ players whose mere touch of a potion would cause an explosion.
When the Professor finally inspected the results, the potion from Bellatrix’s group, although not the best, ranked among the top few.
In the days that followed, Bellatrix attended Professor Flitwick’s Charms, Professor Sprout’s Herbology, and Professor McGonagall’s Transfiguration classes in turn.
First of all, one thing that had to be said was that the three of them were currently very young; although their magic strength was already beginning to show and they could even be considered outstanding among their peers, their teaching abilities left something to be improved.
Of course, they were far stronger than Bellatrix.
Saying their teaching abilities were lacking was because they were truly too young; even, from what Bellatrix saw, Professor McGonagall was several times rendered unable to clearly state what needed to be done due to the students’ jokes.
Come to think of it, the young lady who guided them at the start of term was Professor McGonagall.
This caught Bellatrix off guard for a moment.
After all, in the story of Harry Potter, Professor McGonagall had always been that serious, stern yet affectionate elderly lady image, whereas now, she looked to be only in her early thirties.
Professor Flitwick was the same.
As a champion of several dueling tournaments, he was very proficient in casting Charms, but sometimes, he wasn’t quite able to teach them using the simplest methods.
Such a scene frequently occurred: “You all see clearly the path of my wand movement, follow it like this, and you need a bit more rhythm, listen closely to the emphasis in my tone…”
Yet some clumsy young Wizards always managed to pull off hilarious farces that left people unable to keep a straight face.
As if uncoordinated in hands and feet, they would imitate Professor Flitwick by striking a posture with a huge arc, and then even trip themselves up right on the spot.
Therefore, by the end of a class, Professor Flitwick even had to cast the Levitation Charm time and time again to prevent the students from giving themselves a concussion by falling in his class.
Come to think of it, Professor Sprout still felt the most like her movie counterpart, gently telling the precautions to the magical plants in the same way, except lacking a bit of composure when facing mischievous students.
When students were scratched by dittany, she would anxiously come over to inspect the wound, and after checking it, she would gently comfort the somewhat dejected young Wizards.
After a period of study, Bellatrix was very satisfied with her study life.
There were always some Gryffindor fools coming looking for trouble occasionally.
Bellatrix had thought that the antagonism between Slytherin and Gryffindor was a default product under Dumbledore’s vigilance after Lord Voldemort came to power.
But she hadn’t expected that this antagonism had existed for a long time already, and even constituted a tradition.
In every year at Hogwarts, one seemed to be able to see the figures of Slytherin and Gryffindor arguing, while Ravenclaw always walked past indifferently, and the little badgers of Hufflepuff hid not far away whispering gossip.
And upon learning that Bellatrix had become the representative figure of this year’s Slytherin, Gryffindors wanting to prove themselves constantly came looking for her in an endless stream.
Fortunately, the current form still remained within normal student activities, and even their way of picking faults was to openly block the entrance of the Great Hall and challenge Bellatrix to a duel.
In truth, with just those few Charms they had mastered, it was at best prank-level proficiency.
But they kept coming in waves, which seriously delayed Bellatrix’s progress in exploring the path of magic.
So she decisively found an opportunity and invited everyone who challenged her to the lawn by the Black Lake.
As a result, this news quickly spread throughout the entirety of Hogwarts.
Perhaps because the term had just started not long ago, everyone was quite free, resulting in a large crowd gathering around the lawn.
Not only were there some upperclassmen, but even Professor Flitwick, who adored Wizard duels, ran over as well.
But this could also be considered gaining the school’s approval, right?
Soon, the crowd began to bustle with excitement.
“Black is here, Black is here.”
The crowd began to make way for a pathway, and Bellatrix speechlessly passed through the crowd, then stood right in the center.
She even saw Rodolphus standing off to the side, excitedly saying to her, “Bellatrix! Take them down! Teach them a lesson.”
Bellatrix couldn’t understand where this group of upperclassmen found the time to watch such a boring game.
If it were her, she would never waste time like this.
Then, the Gryffindor challengers also arrived in the arena.
However, unlike Bellatrix’s calm expression, their faces were flushed red one by one, not knowing whether it was from nervousness or excitement.
“Who’s going first?” Bellatrix’s somewhat detached and cold voice rang out in the open air.
“I’ll go!”
“I will.”
Then the few of them looked at each other in dismay, followed by a low-voiced argument.
“Let me go, you only know a few Charms, what are you coming up for.”
“Better be me, I certainly don’t want to carry the bad reputation of a gauntlet match.”
The few argued for a long time without a result, and in the end, they used rock-paper-scissors to select the first boy to step up.
He was a round-faced boy wearing glasses.
As soon as he stepped out, he had a look of complete victory in his grasp.
Professor Flitwick also stepped out to act as the referee.
Just as he shouted the starting slogan, Bellatrix’s incantation for a Charm sounded almost simultaneously.
“Densaugeo!”
As the magic struck the boy, his front teeth suddenly grew large.
Because of this, he couldn’t even utter a complete Charm, and collapsed to the ground.
Although this was also Bellatrix’s first time participating in such a duel, that book at home clearly explained how to maximize one’s advantage in a duel.
The first point was to restrict the opponent; many Charms had this kind of effect, and the one she used most smoothly was this jinx.
Therefore, upon hearing the start, she directly cast the Charm on the fly.
Unexpectedly, the effect was outstanding.
Seeing that her opponent had lost the ability to resist, she also quietly breathed a sigh of relief, her nervous emotions relaxing quite a bit.
Although she intended to resolve these annoying matters all at once, dueling was, after all, a first time.
Now it seemed she had done pretty well at least.
Seeing Bellatrix win, Flitwick also uttered the counter-spell to remove the abnormal state from the boy.
This time the boy’s face flushed red, full of unconvinced resentment, “It’s just that I was careless for a moment, next time…”
Before he finished speaking, he walked away amidst the jeers and laughter of the surrounding people.