Five minutes later.
Every student now held a new item in their hands — a short bone knife.
The blade was grayish-white with natural grain, no longer than a palm, looking unrefined and even a bit rough.
“This is a bone nail.” Thorne stood in front of the podium explaining.
“More precisely, these were made from the leftover scraps when I crafted my own bone nail.” He paused, then added, “Since they’ve already been awakened, they count as finished products with a certain soul-absorbing effect.” The students looked down at the bone nails in their hands, eyes full of novelty and tension.
“It will be your most important partner when learning soul magic from now on.” Thorne’s tone was serious.
“It can help you obtain souls from living creatures.” “Now we start with the most basic.” “Chopping.” “Watch my demonstration.” As soon as he finished speaking, Thorne had the students stand and used magic to move the desks and chairs to the sides, clearing a large space.
Then he dragged a training dummy out from the corner and set it up in front of him.
The students had never seen anything like this and gathered around excitedly.
Compared to Potions class, which was always full of cold sarcasm, or Transfiguration, which was serious enough to make breathing difficult, this class was clearly much more “lively.” George Weasley rubbed the crude bone nail in his hand and leaned toward his brother, whispering, “The professor’s bone nail looks way cooler than ours.” Fred nodded in agreement.
“Ours feels like something bought from a secondhand shop… a troll toothpick.” Up front, Thorne had finished demonstrating the basic movements.
He turned around and glanced at the students.
“Got it?” Just then, a little earthworm scratched his head, looking at the bone nail in his hand, and muttered quietly, “Professor… aren’t we in a magic class?” Thorne turned back, looked at the kid, and smiled.
“Little guy.” “This is magic.” After speaking, he stepped back a few paces, held the bone nail horizontally in front of him, and slowly covered the hilt with his palm.
The next moment.
The students watched in shock as a layer of faint white light began to appear around Thorne’s body.
The air seemed to press down.
They only heard Thorne murmur softly: “Heavy Slash.” White light flashed!
Boom!!!
The dummy in front of him was instantly split in two, cleanly severed.
But something even more shocking happened.
On the floor beneath the dummy’s feet, a clear crack had appeared, the fissure running outward, even leaving faint marks on the ceiling.
The entire classroom fell into dead silence.
All the students were completely stunned.
After a long while.
George slowly nodded.
“Okay…” “I admit, that level of destructive power—” “Only magic could do that.” But Fred shook his head, his tone unusually serious: “No.” “This is probably dark magic.” Thorne was satisfied with the students’ reactions.
To be honest, the sword technique he had just demonstrated wasn’t strictly magic; it was more a combination of technique and the bone nail’s own power.
But it was more than enough to give these little guys a shock.
He clapped his hands and continued: “How about it?
This is just the most basic.” “There’s another move I paid eight hundred to learn back then.” Thorne’s tone was casual.
“Once your level is high enough, I’ll teach it to you.” As soon as he said this, the pair of red ants below almost raised their hands at the same time, extremely excited.
“Professor!
Does that mean you’ll teach us for free?!” Thorne nodded slightly.
George immediately turned to his brother with a serious expression: “Never thought going to school could make money.” “We have to master this skill.” Fred nodded vigorously, eyes full of determination.
“Good!
Starting now, study seriously!” “Once we learn it, we’ll go open a tutoring class!” Thorne’s mouth twitched hard.
They could calculate it that way too?
Still… if it got the students motivated, it wasn’t a bad thing.
Just then, the little earthworm who had asked earlier ran over and asked cautiously: “Professor, those sword techniques you demonstrated just now… when will you teach them to us?” Thorne raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?
That.” He thought for a moment.
“Probably after you’ve learned all the basic content.” “And I’ll say this in advance — sword techniques and soul magic don’t actually have much to do with each other.” “Even if you learn them, they might not be that useful.” The little earthworm shook his head decisively.
“Not important.” “I just think it’s cool.” “Cool is enough!” Thorne couldn’t help but laugh.
Seemed like quite a few little bugs thought the same way.
He didn’t bother dampening their enthusiasm and waved his hand: “Fine, then start practicing from the most basic.” “Chopping.” “—Fred!
Don’t chop your brother!” “Professor, I’m George!” “…” Thorne took a deep breath.
“You two little brats — when it’s time to learn ‘Charging Slash,’ you’ll have to pay a hundred Galleons each in tuition first!” “No way, Professor!!” Thorne couldn’t be bothered with these two live wires anymore and waved for the other students to each move a dummy to practice.
To increase practice effectiveness, he even prepared some Pheromone Caterpillars and used magic to throw them into the air, letting the students try chopping them.
At first, several girls clearly hesitated.
But the moment the first caterpillar was split open.
White light burst from the severed body and slowly dissipated in midair.
“Wow!” “So, so cool!” The previously hesitant students immediately joined in.
The atmosphere in the classroom instantly became lively.
While patrolling, Thorne explained: “What you’re seeing — that white substance — is soul.” “The reason it dissipates directly in the air is because your bodies don’t yet have the ability to store soul, so this happens.” He stopped and looked around at the students gradually getting into it, his tone becoming meaningful.
“If everyone’s progress is fast enough—” “We can move on early to the next important technique.” “Downward Slash.” — The first class, with the students’ unusually active cooperation, quickly approached its end.
At least in the basic movement of “chopping,” most students had already grasped the essentials.
Seeing this, Thorne was true to his word and didn’t keep them in suspense.
He began teaching the new technique right away.
Downward Slash.
The next second, the classroom was filled with cries of pain.
“Ow— Merlin’s shampoo!” “Professor, this is way too hard?!” “This isn’t even a move a human can do!” Almost every student was complaining bitterly.
To help them understand the essence of the movement, Thorne had specifically “borrowed” a batch of torture devices from Hogwarts’ caretaker Filch.
As for why Filch had these things, Thorne chose not to investigate.
The torture devices were covered in barbs.
Of course, under Thorne’s modifications, every barb had been padded with thick cushions.
But even so, the moment a bone nail struck them, it produced a strong recoil force.
As a result, most students failed to maintain balance and were sent flying, landing on the torture devices in various poses.
The scene was quite lively for a while.
Only near the end of class did someone finally successfully complete the full set of movements.
And they had crossed all the torture devices.
Thorne narrowed his eyes and walked over to that student with interest.
“Student, what’s your name?” The little earthworm scratched his head and answered nervously: “Uh… Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff.” “What’s wrong, Professor?” Thorne nodded, his tone a bit more serious.
“Nothing.” “I just think you have the potential to become a bone nail master.” Cedric froze, then looked flattered.
“R-Really, Professor?” “But I feel like… even if I study for a lifetime, I won’t be able to reach your level.” Thorne smiled, tone relaxed: “Don’t worry.” “As long as you stay alive and study with me for four years.” “Even if you’re not as strong as me, you won’t be far off.” As soon as he finished, two red figures immediately crowded over.
“Professor, Professor!
What about us?!” The Weasley twins squeezed in on either side of Thorne, their red foreheads almost bumping into him.
Thorne glanced at them sideways.
“You two?” “Hmm…” “Pretty much the same.” “Except — you have the potential to become crooked shop owners.” “Huh?
Why?!” “That’s way different from what you just said?!” Thorne smiled, meaningful.
“No.” “It’s really about the same.” — And so, Thorne’s first class ended in a rather pleasant, even enthusiastic atmosphere.
This “fierce” class content quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.
After all, this was a magic school.
Having students bring swords to class was already outrageous enough.
And which wizard hadn’t fantasized about holding a sword in one hand and a wand in the other?
Even if reason told them this kind of thing didn’t seem very useful in actual magical duels, it came down to one word — cool.
Cool was enough.
“Seriously enviable…” Ron muttered quietly, full of resentment.
“Why can’t I take that class?” Harry raised an eyebrow and glanced at him, tone still rational.
“Ron, that’s just showing off, and it’s pretty dangerous.
There’s a reason you have to wait until third year to choose it.” Ron shook his head, but his gaze unconsciously fell on his two older brothers not far away, eyes full of regret.
“Who said I’m envious of them showing off?” He sighed.
“Sigh… I missed a business opportunity…” The Weasley twins had already sprung into action.
They had set up a caterpillar ninja stall.
They started renting out their bone nails and also selling Pheromone Caterpillars for other students to experience chopping practice, even thoughtfully providing “on-site guidance.” Many students who hadn’t been able to enroll in the course gathered around, paying while lamenting that they were too late.
And this wave of enthusiasm clearly wasn’t stopping there.
While students were enthusiastically discussing Thorne’s course, the outside world had also begun paying attention to the soul magic he had demonstrated.
Especially its applications in the medical field.
After all, that kind of “simple and crude” treatment method was practically a direct challenge to the existing medical magic system.
In a sense, Thorne had even become a recent hot figure in the magical world.
Of course, he himself was temporarily unaware of all this.
Driven by various promotions and rumors, the makeup enrollment spots for Thorne’s course became extremely popular, especially among Gryffindor students, the numbers almost exaggerated.
This directly led to his new headache.
And so, that was why he now held a letter from Diagon Alley in his hand.