Chapter 242
Chapter 242
The center of the lounge has been cleared out to form an open space, and chairs and sofas have been moved over and arranged to form an irregular circle by the young wizards.
In the center of the circle, two golems fought a fierce duel.
The Fist of one of the golem emitted electric arcs and sparks, and a punch struck its opponent’s face, and that golem immediately stopped moving.
“Four to Two! The first one to make it to the finals is Angelina Johnson! Let’s cheer for her!” Fred, who acted as a referee, said, “At the same time, she will receive a coupon for the couple’s mirror and a chance to participate in the lootery drawing event …”
“It’s a lottery.” George next to him reminded him, and Fred rephrased it, “That’s right, the lottery.”
“So – the next game! Professor Hae… Haap?” Fred spotted Felix and waved his hand in a slight panic at George, who tacitly put away the parchment in front of him.
“You guys started to gamble now?” Felix stared at him.
“No, no.” Fred explained, “We’re promoting couples’ mirrors and trying to have a little fun in the process.”
Felix looked at him with a sceptical expression, and Fred swore, “Absolutely True, ask them if you don’t believe me.” The other young wizards nodded their heads.
“Okay, where’s Percy?” Felix didn’t press on.
“He’s not here, Professor, I guess he’s with Penelope,” Fred said without thinking. “I can point out a few places they’ve been dating.”
“Ahem, there’s no need for that.” Felix, whose heart ached on Percy’s behalf, raised his voice and said to the young wizards around him, “I’m here, in place of Professor McGonagall, to collect the names of those planned to stay in school for Christmas, so please come here and fill the form out, and tick the corresponding box …”
“Well, I’ll leave the forms here for now, I’ll pick it up this afternoon – if Professor McGonagall hasn’t got rid of her little problem by then.”
One by one, the young wizards gathered around.
Felix stood at one side and surveyed the Gryffindor common room, this is his first time here, the layout is different from Slytherin or Ravenclaw common room, with gold and red as the main colours, the shape is very much like a big circular living room.
The lounge has both soft armchairs and sofas, as well as small, sturdy solid wood chairs and tables, and bulletin boards with notices, posters, and messages written on them by the students themselves.
The most notable notices at present are about the Weasley twins’ couples mirror sales promo and news of Ravenclaw’s victory over Hufflepuff in Quidditch at the end of November.
Beneath that notice is a handwritten, encouraging line of sparkling text: “We still have a chance!”
The overall layout of the common room consisted of both a large open area and a space in the corner divided into separate compartments with dividers.
In addition to a huge fireplace that occupied an entire wall, the other three sides of the wall contained tapestries with a scarlet background, on which there are many images of well-known male and female wizards, in addition to some magical creatures.
Felix saw a majestic flaming lion that he thought resembled the one Professor McGonagall had shown in the dueling class.
‘Maybe it’s some kind of magical creature?’ He speculated in his mind.
“Professor,” Hermione approached him together with Harry and Ron after they had finished filling out their forms.
Felix looked at them with a smile, “I heard about your dueling self-study group, is it doing well?”
Harry could not help but scratch his head, ” Mostly the three of us will practice together, Dean, Seamus, and the rest will come over occasionally.”
Felix said, “Harry, I’ve read your dueling system thesis, it’s perfectly suitable for you, and when you can integrate it into every fight you have with ease, it means you’ve completely mastered what’s on the thesis.”
Ron said, “I think Harry right now–” Harry hurriedly dragged him back.
Felix looked at Ron and asked with a smile, “Are you trying to say that Harry has already mastered the dueling system structured in the thesis right now?” Seeing that the professor did not look angry, Ron nodded bravely.
This is Ron’s first-hand experience, without counting disarming charm, he could barely hold a few moves against Harry, even though he is able to cast the shield charm and stunning spell successfully.
However, against Harry’s maximum potency disarming charm, all his resistance is ineffective – his shield charm is like small cookies cracked in the middle, and his wand flew out, then he got knocked out, there is no second possibility.
In addition, Harry is able to change the trajectory of the disarming charm in a curve, and combined with the pace he learned in dueling class, he managed to break through his defences without any difficulty.
This also made Ron secretly anxious, even the food in the great hall did not taste that good anymore – he did not want to be left behind this far.
Felix thought about it and decided to test it, “Look at me, Harry.” His eyes turned silvery-white, and when Harry met his gaze, he froze for ten seconds or so, and stumbled abruptly to his feet, nearly falling down.
“Professor?” Ron caught Harry and looked at Felix in surprise, he almost thought the professor in front of him is Black in disguise.
He had thought so because they had done something similar last school year, sneaked into the Slytherin common room by using polyjuice potion, and tried to snoop information about the heir of the Chamber of Secrets from Malfoy.
They had previously discussed that if Black wanted to infiltrate Hogwarts’ castle, a polyjuice potion would be an excellent solution. But ultimately they concluded that this is unlikely, as Black would have to break through the sneakoscope defences at the castle gates.
“I’m fine,” Harry said under his breath, “Professor Hap, it’s – what is it -”
“A unique spell of mine, it’s not considered perfectly precise, but it’s fine for testing your progress,” Felix said.
Harry said with great reverence, “I dare to say that this magic is absolutely extraordinary, I can actually fight with you in the consciousness …”
Ron looked at him with a shocked face, what did Harry say, fighting in the consciousness? Is that what he thought of?
“Is it a thinking room, Professor?” Hermione asked speculatively, she had been practicing ancient runes in the Thinking Room before, and never tried to fight before.
“Well, it’s just somewhat like that, and frankly, I’ve been progressing rapidly in the field of memory magic lately and have discovered quite a few new and exciting skills that I haven’t had time to name yet.” Felix said.
He brushed off that topic and looked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, “As you can see from the test just now, Harry still hasn’t mastered the dueling system he developed proficiently, especially in all kinds of fine details, there are plenty of problems … In fact, Harry’s issue is also your issue.
From theory to practical, you need to step over more than one threshold, and turning it into an instinctive response without thinking will take even longer.”
He said with a serious expression, “For some people, it might take a lifetime.”
“Of course, all three of you are talented wizards, the only enemy you need to defeat is complacency, which will hold you back.”