"Professor Dracula is really here?" Lee Jordan was a little surprised. "I thought he was ready to abandon us."
"I knew it!" George jumped up excitedly and high-fived Fred. "I knew that Professor Dracula had bet with us that he could teach us until graduation. He must be reluctant to part with those dozens of gold Galleons!"
"Sure enough, we are the biggest contributors to Professor Dracula's stay!" Fred also said happily.
Lee Jordan looked at the Weiss twins with contempt, took a few steps to the side, and acted as if he didn't know these two shameless guys...
As the first Duel Club gathering since the start of the new semester, the auditorium was packed with people.
No matter whether it is the young wizards in the lower grades or the senior graduating students, none of them have practiced dueling in the dueling club for two months, and now they all miss it a little.
They spontaneously gathered around the dueling stage in the center of the auditorium, looking up at Professor Dracula, whose lectures they had not heard for a long time, their eyes filled with eagerness.
In the Hogwarts clock tower, the melodious bells slowly rang.
As the bell rang to signal the club's opening, Dracula raised his hands and gently pressed them down.
The noisy discussions, laughter, and voices gradually stopped, and after a moment, the auditorium became completely silent.
"It's nice to meet you, dear students."
Dracula's mellow voice sounded in the center of the auditorium, but it seemed to echo in every corner of the auditorium, so that the little wizard could hear it clearly no matter how far away he was standing.
"You probably know that I was away for more than a month before the Christmas holiday," he said softly. "Maybe some people will be wondering what I was doing there."
"I also know that some people may wonder if I am bored and ready to abandon you."
Dracula smiled and looked at the little wizards below the duel stage with a gentle expression.
Looking at Dracula's gentle gaze, Lee Jordan and many other young wizards lowered their heads.
They fell into deep self-blame, thinking that they should not have doubted their professor like this and should have had faith in Professor Dracula.
However, Dracula's next words caught them off guard.
"Yes, I'm just bored and I just want to abandon you!" he said happily.
Lee Jordan and other little wizards: "???"
Does Professor Dracula really have to be so direct
"Professor, why are you leaving?"
"Professor, what will happen to Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts after you're gone?"
"professor… "
The quiet hall became noisy again. The young wizards were in an uproar and asked Professor Dracula one by one why he wanted to leave Hogwarts. Some of the young wizards who liked Dracula very much cried and begged the professor not to abandon them.
During the more than one year that Dracula taught at Hogwarts, he sometimes deviated from the textbooks, catching students off guard; sometimes he was unwilling to mark homework and give exams, which made many top students dissatisfied; sometimes he took students through devilish training, which made people extremely painful...
But no one can deny that Dracula is indeed a professor of very high standard, and a good professor who does not favor any one college because there is no division between colleges.
Moreover, Dracula was the first professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts to be re-elected.
If he really left Hogwarts out of boredom, who knows what kind of idiot Dumbledore would hire as the next Defense Against the Dark Arts professor? What if he hired the next Quirrell
So no matter what grade the students were in, no one wanted Dracula to leave Hogwarts, except for those pampered little wizards who hated the devilish training.
Dracula stood on the dueling stage, looking at the shocked, incredible and resistant expressions of the little wizards below, listening to the voices of retention and persuasion, and a gentle smile slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Everyone, please be quiet for a moment." He chuckled, "I still have something else to say."
Dracula's voice rang in the ears of every student present, interrupting the noise in the auditorium.
The little wizards looked up at Dracula's smiling face and slowly quieted down, wanting to hear what else Professor Dracula had to say.
"In fact, last semester, when there was still more than a month left before the end of the semester, I did feel a little bored." Dracula waited until the auditorium was completely quiet before he slowly spoke, "So I took a vacation and went to see an old friend. In the process, I also met some new friends."
"I actually gained a lot from this holiday, and discovered a lot of interesting things. It is much more interesting than the boring life of teaching in Hogwarts every day," he said frankly.
When the young wizards in the audience heard this, they all showed worried expressions, fearing that Dracula would say something like he would not continue teaching in the future.
"But those interesting things don't happen every day." Dracula changed the subject, "It may only take two or three days for us to encounter something really interesting."
"The rest of the time will still be decades of boring life, not even as interesting as watching you guys playing around in Hogwarts."
The young wizards in the auditorium were confused at first, but then they understood the subtext of Dracula's words and showed expressions of surprise and joy.
"Yes, in a lively school like Hogwarts, there are new faces every year and new surprises every day. There are always some little wizards who can make my eyes light up..." Dracula laughed, "Of course, there are also some who make my eyes dark."
The little wizards smiled knowingly.
Lee Jordan poked the arms of his two twin roommates and asked them in a low voice if they were the ones who made Professor Dracula's eyes go dark.
Fred and George refuted his "ridiculous" remarks with righteous indignation.
"Besides that, I discovered some new things today." Dracula shook his head with a smile, looked at the reactions of the young wizards below the stage, and continued, "In fact, no matter how long we live, there are always some things we have never understood."
"So, teaching you lessons while studying on my own is the best life I can think of for myself."
Dracula's speech was not long, but every word expressed his true thoughts.
It was rare for him to have a genuine conversation with someone like he did today, let alone speak his heart out to such a large group of little wizards.
The experience during this period did give Dracula some new ideas.
First, there was the meeting with Andros. Andros would rather spend his entire life, even his afterlife, in the secret realm on the top of Mount Olympus, just to block the despicable Herbo's chance to do evil and seal him tightly.
This touched Dracula a little.
Later, Newt told him in Dracula's castle what happened during the Global Wizarding War decades ago, and also showed his passion for magical creatures in front of Dracula.
Newt is almost a hundred years old, but he is still sincere towards all magical creatures. When he carefully records the characteristics of magical creatures in his leather notebook, his expression is really like a child carefully observing ants moving.
This also brought some slight emotion to Dracula.
In the end, Flamel analyzed the similarities between the black auras of the Obscurus and Herpo, and together they came to the conclusion that all dark magic had a common source.
This incident made Dracula realize that even though he had lived for more than a thousand years, there were still some things he had never understood.
So when you are bored, can't you find something more meaningful to do? Can't you find the source of all the dark energy while you are bored
The conclusions that Dracula and Flamel came to together also made him unsure whether there was anything else wrong with black magic and dark energy.
If something goes wrong one day with the dark magic that comes from the same source, and the students of Hogwarts know nothing about this form of magic, then they are likely to suffer losses in such matters.
Dracula couldn't accept that his students had no knowledge of the dark arts.
"We are not learning how to duel today." A smile appeared in his eyes, and he looked at the young wizards who were always giving him clear eyes. "I want to give you a temporary open class on Defense Against the Dark Arts. Do you want to listen?"
The young wizards in the audience were a little surprised at first, and then they breathed a sigh of relief.
It has been a long time since I last had Professor Dracula's devilish training. If I directly resume the training intensity today, I'm afraid I'll end up with soreness all over my body. It is indeed more comfortable to switch to the open class of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Then, the little wizards said in unison—
“I want to listen!”
"Okay." Dracula's mouth curled up a wicked smile, "In that case, today I want to tell you... what is black magic!"
"Can anyone tell me what black magic is?"
At this time, the young wizards in the audience had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter. They were all looking at Dracula on the duel stage, and the top students even raised their hands high.
"Ms. Granger, please tell me."
Dracula pointed at the little witch with messy hair and her hands raised high in the audience.
"Dark Arts, also known as Dark Magic, refers primarily to any type of magic used to harm, control, or even kill people and creatures. Most people who practice Dark Arts are evil, and wizards who practice Dark Arts are called Dark Wizards."
Hermione recited the definition of dark magic from the textbook very fluently.
"Well said." Dracula praised, "The definition of black magic is indeed that simple. In a broad sense, black magic refers to any magic that may be detrimental to other wizards."
"If we define the scope of black magic in this way, then the common magic with control ability we see will be classified as black magic, such as the Stunning Spell, the Petrifying Spell, the Binding Spell, etc."
"But we also know that these magics with certain control abilities are exactly what you must learn during school. So, will you be called a dark wizard just because you have mastered a stunning spell or a petrifying spell?"
Dracula looked at Cedric of Hufflepuff and said teasingly, "Diggory, I know you are quite good at stunning spells, so do you admit that you are a dark wizard?"
There was a burst of joyful laughter from the Hufflepuff crowd.
Cedric smiled and pushed away his roommate who was teasing him, and said loudly to Dracula: "Professor, I absolutely refuse to admit that I am a dark wizard!"
He often came to Dracula's office to ask him various questions, and now they were very familiar with each other, so Dracula's sudden teasing did not make him feel embarrassed at all.
"In fact, not only you will not admit that you are dark wizards, other wizards in the magic world are also unwilling to admit it." Dracula smiled and continued, "So later on, wizards had a stricter classification of dark magic—"
"I've told everyone in the duel club that black magic is divided into Jinx, Hex, and the most vicious curse, Curse."
"Spells in these categories are capable of causing real harm to witches and wizards, so there is usually no objection to their classification as dark magic."
"As for control magic such as the Stunning Spell, the Disarming Spell, and the Petrifying Spell, they were later called defensive magic by wizards. These spells will not cause harm to others, but can also eliminate the opponent's combat effectiveness."
"Therefore, most control magic is usually removed from the category of black magic," said Dracula.
The little wizards looked thoughtful.
In fact, Dracula had already subtly explained this knowledge in the previous duel club meeting, and most of it was quickly absorbed and understood by the students present.
So all this knowledge is just an appetizer, the real show is yet to come.
"The dueling club has been held so many times, you may have already understood how to duel and how to defend against your opponent's spells." Dracula chuckled.
"But under the restrictions of the professors, you can only use the defensive magic I just introduced to you in the duel. You haven't learned enough knowledge to deal with the real black magic - very little!" Dracula continued, "So, today I am going to let you experience how black wizards use magic."
The little wizards in the audience immediately became interested.
"What? Professor Dracula is going to demonstrate the Dark Arts to us?" Ron guessed happily. "Hermione, how do you think Professor Dracula's Dark Arts will perform?"
"Um... I don't think it can be used better than a dark wizard, right?" Hermione whispered, "After all, although Professor Dracula is not very serious, he is still a decent wizard after all."
"Cough cough..." Harry coughed violently a few times.
"What's wrong with you, Harry?" Ron turned his head and looked at his best friend next to him, "Don't you agree with what Hermione said?"
"No, I just choked on my saliva," Harry said quickly.
Because Harry and Riddle had always maintained a good relationship and often went to Riddle's assistant to take Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, he also heard some things about Dracula from Riddle.
Harry remembered what Riddle had said to him -
If Dracula's dark magic level is second in the wizarding world, then even Voldemort would not dare to say that he is first...
He glanced at Hermione and Ron who were still kept in the dark, and smiled helplessly.
"Okay, let's get back to the topic." Dracula put his hands together, and the chaotic auditorium gradually quieted down. "Before I show you how a dark wizard casts a spell, I will first tell you why I am doing this-"
"Spells come in many forms, with different powers and casting methods. Theoretically, I only need to teach you the spells to break common spells, that's all."
Dracula did not tell the real reason that made him decide to explain the black magic, but explained it to the little wizards from another perspective.
"Logically speaking, there are many students here who are less than sixth grade. You are still far from adulthood. I shouldn't tell you what illegal dark magic looks like because you are too young to deal with the dark wizards' spellcasting methods."
"But in my opinion, no matter what grade you are in, it is always good to know more. The sooner you understand the dark arts you have to deal with, the better. If you have never seen something, how can you protect yourself from it?"
"Remember, if a dark wizard wants to cast a dark spell on you, he will not tell you his intention in advance. Dark wizards will never cast a spell on you frankly, fairly, or politely."
"Therefore, you must be prepared to deal with dark magic!"
Dracula's eyes swept across the entire auditorium, looking deeply into the expressions of each young wizard, hoping to see the importance in their eyes.
"Next, it's time for the part you're most concerned about... I will show you the most evil black magic, I hope you'll watch carefully." He said in a deep voice.
"These magics may make you feel uncomfortable, but please don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."
Dracula snapped his fingers.
A handsome young man with black hair suddenly appeared on the dueling stage and stood in front of Dracula.
"Huh? What's going on?"
Riddle, who had just been in the teaching assistant's office, was startled by the sudden change of scene before him, so he quickly pulled out his wand and pointed around with a pale face.
The next moment, he found that this was the auditorium he was familiar with. There were many little wizards around who were laughing and appreciating his funny performance.
Only then did Riddle realize that this was the scene of the duel club, and Dracula was looking at him with a happy smile on his face.
"Professor Dracula?" Riddle looked at Dracula in confusion and silently put away his wand. "Is there something you want me to do suddenly? Do you need me to cooperate with you in a duel demonstration?"
"I do need your cooperation." Dracula smiled evilly, "But I'm not going to demonstrate a duel. I need you to be a model."
Looking at Dracula's evil smile, Riddle suddenly felt something was wrong and turned around and wanted to escape.
But the next moment, Dracula's voice rang in his ears -
"Imperio."
…
…