Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ Elias waited patiently until the students’ emotions settled.
Then he spoke again.
“Let us return to the question I asked at the beginning.
Why was Magical Close-Quarters Defense created?” This time, no one raised a hand.
Every student watched him, waiting for what he would say next.
“Before I came to Hogwarts,” Elias continued, “one thing everyone told me was that Hogwarts is the safest place in the world.
I do not doubt that.
One of the greatest wizards alive has protected you very well.” Many students looked proud at that and straightened in place.
Elias paused, then went on.
“But once, Kaer Morhen was like Hogwarts.
We, too, were protected by some of the strongest witchers in the world.
In the end, it still could not escape destruction.” Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the other students listened closely.
They realized he was trying to teach them something important.
“Many times, I have wondered something.
If the students of Kaer Morhen had trained harder, could they have defeated their attackers or protected themselves when danger came?
Could they have stood and fought instead of falling before their enemies, begging to be spared, or crying out for their mentors to save them?” His voice grew firmer.
“One day, when danger comes for you, will you put your hopes in shouting for Headmaster Dumbledore or your professors to protect you?
Or will you rely on your own strength, protect yourselves, and even defeat your enemies?” The students stared at him.
“Magical Close-Quarters Defense exists so that, when you face danger in the future, you will have the ability to protect yourselves.
Remember this: it is better to build your own strength than to place all your hope in someone else’s protection.” His speech ended.
The students broke into fervent applause.
Their faces were flushed with excitement.
For the first time, many of them understood that they should not simply rely on Dumbledore and the Hogwarts professors.
Only their own strength could truly protect them.
That was why Elias had spoken at such length.
Too many young witches and wizards had died in the final Battle of Hogwarts.
Dumbledore had trusted the prophecy too deeply, and in that war, every other student in the castle had become background to Harry’s struggle.
Elias sincerely hoped to awaken some sense of self-reliance in them.
Even a little more strength might give someone one more chance to survive.
The speech struck the hot-blooded second-years exactly where Elias intended.
The rest of the lesson proceeded with surprising ease.
He issued four weighted sandbags to each student and had them tie the weights to their arms and legs.
Then he ordered them to run three laps around the Quidditch pitch.
This would become the warm-up for every Magical Close-Quarters Defense class, and all students would be required to wear the weights.
Because they lacked regular exercise, many students were panting by the end of the run.
Thanks to Elias’s speech, however, not one of them complained.
Then the real lesson began: close-quarters combat.
Elias first demonstrated the basic techniques and methods of witcher boxing.
As someone who had once sparred with Geralt, a man capable of beating a bear bare-handed, Elias knew a great deal about fistfighting.
To his surprise, students from wizarding families were extremely interested in something so close to Muggle sport.
After studying his demonstration with serious attention, they were allowed to practice against the training dummies already arranged across the pitch.
Elias moved among them, correcting their posture and technique.
Malfoy was particularly excited.
Elias’s speech had stirred him up.
The moment the order to practice was given, he copied Elias’s boxing stance and punched the dummy in front of him.
Unfortunately, the dummy had a mechanism built into it.
After being struck, it returned the blow with force, hammering Malfoy on his carefully combed blond head.
Malfoy was stunned.
The sight sent the other students into laughter.
Seeing Malfoy’s face flush, Elias humorously reminded everyone that the training dummies would not simply stand there and let themselves be hit.
They had rather bad tempers.
Then he began personally correcting Malfoy’s boxing technique.
Malfoy, who understood the value of individual instruction, quickly suppressed his embarrassment and began learning seriously.
Soon the Quidditch pitch filled with the dull thuds of striking and counterstriking, along with the occasional cry from a student.
Elias had designed the dummies carefully.
They caused enough pain to teach a lesson but not enough to injure.
Students with the restless energy of adolescence soon began to enjoy the challenge.
When class ended, many were reluctant to stop.
Most surprising of all, Malfoy’s and Ron’s dummies both burst into dazzling fireworks above their heads.
It was one of Elias’s special designs: each dummy recorded effective strikes, and at the end of class, the highest scorer’s dummy released sparks.
Elias was a little surprised by the tie.
Malfoy taking first place was understandable after personal instruction.
Ron’s score, however, was unexpected even to Ron himself.
Under everyone’s gaze, Ron’s face quickly reddened.
Malfoy, by contrast, accepted the admiring looks of the Slytherins with open satisfaction.
Elias praised both boys highly and awarded twenty points each to Gryffindor and Slytherin.
Ron recovered at once.
He began enjoying the praise and compliments from the Gryffindors around him with great delight.
After class, the students removed the sandbags from their arms and legs as if receiving a reprieve.
None had complained aloud, but the weight had clearly been difficult.
Even so, their excitement outweighed their physical exhaustion.
They said polite goodbyes to Elias and left the Quidditch pitch in cheerful groups.
Professor Vale’s story and speech quickly spread through the entire school.
Hogwarts entered a new wave of discussion about him.
As for the monster-hunting stories he had told while caught up in the mood of class, rumor soon turned them into Professor Vale single-handedly killing three dragons.
At dinner in the Great Hall, Elias noticed more and more male students looking at him with admiration.
Older girls kept stealing glances at him; whenever he looked back, they flushed and turned away, pretending to be busy.
More than a few young witches huddled into little circles, pointed at him, and then burst into inexplicable high-pitched laughter.
Lockhart, by comparison, was having a harder time.
As Elias’s reputation grew, Lockhart’s repeated failures in class cost him more and more supporters.
Even among his most devoted admirers, doubts occasionally appeared.
That made the look Lockhart gave Elias increasingly complicated.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.