Noon, the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
The young wizards, fresh from their first lesson, were eating lunch while excitedly chatting about what they had seen and learned.
But as the saying goes, the same crescent moon shines over all lands, yet some families rejoice while others grieve.
Our protagonist, Ethan, was currently slumped on the bench, his eyes dull and lifeless as he stared blankly at the full plate of delicious food in front of him, refusing to move.
“What’s wrong with him?” Hermione looked in confusion at Ethan, who seemed to have lost all color and turned completely gray.
“Professor McGonagall kept him behind for remedial lessons and gave him extra homework,” Harry explained to Hermione while wiping his soot-blackened glasses with a napkin.
“He has to catch up on all the Transfiguration theory from first year to fourth year in one go,” Ron added indistinctly, gnawing on a chicken leg.
Beside them, Fred began counting on his fingers.
“Standard Transfiguration, Switching Spells, Animagus, Apparition, Interspecies Transfiguration.
One two-page parchment essay for each… Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Just reading through it all would take me days.”
“That’s what they call greater power, greater responsibility,” George chimed in, twisting the knife as he high-fived Fred.
“There’s such a good thing?” After hearing that, Hermione’s eyes shone green with overwhelming thirst for knowledge.
Harry/Ron/Fred/George: ??
Listen to yourself.
Is that something a human would say?
“This won’t do.” Neville nudged Ethan’s arm with his elbow.
“Ethan, you should at least eat something.
My grandma says bread is the staff of life.
You can’t go hungry.”
“Huh?
Oh…” Ethan’s limbs began moving stiffly, like machinery, as he dipped fries from his plate into tartar sauce and kept stuffing them into his mouth to chew.
“Sigh…” Everyone looked at Ethan, who still seemed to have lost all will to live, and could not help sighing.
What a sin.
Under the nourishment of fries and tartar sauce, a few sparks of life finally returned to Ethan’s eyes.
As if he had made some kind of decision, he quickly polished off everything on his plate.
“I’m going back to the dormitory to rest.
See you this afternoon in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom,” Ethan said to everyone while wiping his mouth.
“Ethan, are you… all right?” Ron asked cautiously.
“What do you mean, am I all right?
I’m perfectly normal.” Ethan looked puzzled.
“No, it’s more like you’re so normal that it looks abnormal.” Hermione frowned.
“Weren’t you just upset about the Transfiguration essays…”
“Oh, that.
I’ve already thought of a way to deal with it.” Ethan stood up, stepped over the bench, and prepared to return to the dormitory to rest.
Everyone: ??
That was quick.
Did you stop time, or did I miss something?
“No, Ethan, don’t force it.
This isn’t the kind of homework you can solve easily,” Fred hurriedly advised.
“Exactly.
If you really can’t write it, you can ask Percy.
He’s very good at Transfiguration,” George suggested.
“If you try to tough it out and fail to turn it in, Professor McGonagall will turn you into a human-shaped signboard and hang you by the classroom door as a warning.”
Ethan turned back and gave everyone a mysterious smile.
“Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever heard of padding the word count?”
…
Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of Hogwarts’s core subjects.
In this class, students learned how to defend themselves against all kinds of dark magic, including dark creatures, curses, hexes, jinxes, and a wide range of Dark spells.
A course packed with this much mystery had originally been something the whole class looked forward to.
It should have been, anyway.
But Professor Quirrell’s lesson was almost a complete joke.
The moment they entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, everyone covered their noses in unison.
“Good grief, where is all this garlic smell coming from?
Does Quirrell eat garlic with every meal?” Ethan pinched his nose, rolled his eyes, and complained.
“Supposedly it’s to drive away a Vampire he met in Romania.
He’s afraid that Vampire might come back and get him,” Ron said indistinctly, with a wad of paper stuffed into each nostril.
“Those paper wads look more effective than mine.
Got any more?
Give me some.”
“Sure, I’ve still got extra.
Harry, do you want any?”
“S-students, p-please stop talking.
We are about to b-begin class.
O-open your textbooks to…” Professor Quirrell had appeared behind the lectern at some point.
He gestured for everyone to be quiet, then began his Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with a stammer.
Only a few lines into class, Professor Quirrell’s lecture shifted from how to defend against dark magic creatures into boasting about himself.
He told them that the huge scarf wrapped around his head had been a gift from an African prince, given in thanks for helping the prince escape the harassment of a reanimated Zombie.
As for whether anyone truly believed that story, no one could say.
“Professor, how did you help him defeat the reanimated Zombie?” Seamus eagerly asked Professor Quirrell.
“I-I-I-I… I…” Professor Quirrell’s face instantly flushed bright red, and he mumbled vaguely before changing the subject to the weather.
“Sigh…” Sitting at the back of the classroom, Ethan sighed and said to Harry and Ron beside him, “What do we do?
I’m starting to feel like even I could teach this.”
“You don’t say.
I think I could teach better than him just by reading from the textbook.” In a rare moment of agreement with them, Hermione picked up the thread and complained about Quirrell too.
After finally enduring until class ended, Harry and the other first-years fled at once, leaving only Ethan behind to continue suffering the torment of the garlic smell.
“M-Mr.
Ethan, shall we b-begin the remedial lesson?” Professor Quirrell stammered.
“Ah, yes, Professor.
What exactly are we going to cover?” Ethan put on an awkward but polite professional smile.
“R-right.
We’ll start with the s-simplest one.
The Levitation Charm.
It is simple to cast and can t-temporarily lift an enemy into the air.
M-many people think its follow-up control is n-not strong, so they look down on learning such a b-basic Charm.
That is their m-mistake.” Professor Quirrell picked up his wand.
“I will d-demonstrate it for you first.”
“Levioso.”
The training dummy in the room immediately floated up.
“S-simple but effective, yes?”
After a short training session, Ethan had already mastered the spell and could make the dummy float freely in midair.
“V-very good.
You are p-progressing very quickly, M-Mr.
Ethan.” Professor Quirrell praised him, glancing at his pocket watch from time to time and looking deeply uneasy.
“Professor, if you have something to do, you can go first.
I can practice on my own.”
“V-very well, M-Mr.
Ethan.
I’ll t-take my leave, then.” As if granted amnesty, Professor Quirrell hurried out of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
“Who’s the teacher here, exactly?” Ethan sighed and waved his wand at the training dummy.
“Flipendo.”
The dummy somersaulted into the air, flying up and down under Ethan’s control.