Defence Against the Dark Arts

Ron and Harry accepted the tutoring and finally managed to finish their homework with great difficulty.

Watching the two leave, Vizet fell into thought.

No wonder Hagrid had seemed unusually nervous when he mentioned Fluffy earlier.

It seemed that Fluffy had become the guardian of the Trapdoor, helping to guard some treasure obtained from Gringotts.

Why am I thinking so much about this? He changed his mind and chuckled softly. This had nothing to do with him.

Before long, another faint voice rang out.

"Did you let Harry and Ron copy your homework? That's wrong! We're definitely going to lose points again!"

Hermione hugged a thick book to her chest, her speech still astonishingly rapid, her brows filled with suspicion.

Vizet raised his head. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw everything just now..." Hermione pointed behind her, toward her "private" corner. "Ron and Harry brought their homework over. They must have come to borrow yours."

"So where is my homework?" Vizet asked softly, spreading his hands to display Metamorphic Transfiguration Theory.

Hermione was rendered speechless for a moment. Her ear roots instantly turned red, and she stammered, "I'm sorry... I didn't know..."

Vizet replied calmly, "They completed the homework themselves. I only helped answer some of their questions. It's as simple as that."

He now somewhat understood why Ron and Harry sounded dissatisfied whenever they mentioned Hermione.

With such an outspoken and impulsive personality, she was truly difficult for others to accept.

"But that's exactly what I told them!" Hermione said indignantly. "I told them that if they copied their homework, they would definitely be caught and lose points!"

"Then I also told them... if there was anything they didn't understand, they could come ask me. It was all explained in class, so why didn't they take proper notes?"

Vizet suddenly found it rather amusing. "You said all of that?"

"Mm!" Hermione nodded. "All of it!"

Vizet continued asking, "Do you think they were happy to hear you say that?"

"Why wouldn't they be..." Hermione hesitated. "They should be, right...? I was only trying to help them..."

"Hmm..." Vizet furrowed his brows. "Actually, I saw your Transfiguration last time—the Match to Needle spell..."

"You were too greedy. You thought you could complete the Transfiguration in a short time, just like I did. Do you think you have that ability?"

Hermione's body trembled, and her eyes reddened slightly. "You..."

"Don't you understand yet?" Vizet smiled faintly. "What I just said was merely an imitation of what you said to Ron and the others."

"No one likes being lectured. They're even less willing to have someone order them around in a condescending tone or criticize their shortcomings."

"I know you're trying to help them, but if you want them to accept your advice, you can't just criticize them."

"It's nearly time. I'll be going first." He ignored Hermione, who stood frozen in place, picked up Metamorphic Transfiguration Theory and the Notebook, and left the library.

With plenty of time on the weekend, he planned to continue exploring this magnificent castle and uncover more Ancient Magic Power.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was an extremely important subject. Its content included encountering various Dark Magic creatures and learning about the hexes, Poison Curses, and other curses related to Dark Magic.

The course also covered quite a few offensive spells and taught Wizards how they should fight.

In addition, the course itself was a popular topic of conversation. For the past forty or fifty years, no professor had taught it for more than a year.

Even Ravenclaw Students would solemnly declare, "I'm afraid the course itself has been cursed!"

Finding a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor every year had already become Dumbledore's greatest difficulty.

For that reason, the teaching standards of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professors varied wildly.

As for Quirrell, who was currently in charge of Defence Against the Dark Arts, the students' opinions of him were generally poor.

First of all, Quirrell's appearance was strange. He wore a Purple Turban that gave off a Garlic Smell.

During class, the students had to endure the Garlic Smell that seemed to be everywhere.

Secondly, there was the content of Quirrell's lessons. He would stammer through the textbook, then stammer through an explanation, adding only a little extra information and offering no genuine practical content.

The experience was hardly pleasant. Quite a few students called it "a substitute for History of Magic" and openly caught up on their sleep during class.

"Snot Curse! This... this is an ancient form of magic..." Quirrell began stammering through his lesson again.

"After the... the Wizarding World War... the improved Snot Curse returned... re... returned to the textbook!"

The most dangerous form of Dark Magic was the curse, and the Snot Curse happened to be one.

Yet according to Quirrell's explanation, the spell's effect was very simple—it made its victim suffer from an excessive runny nose, as though they had caught a severe cold.

The Snot Curse's name and description were both ordinary. Combined with Quirrell's stammering voice, this caused at least half the students to start nodding off.

Even the Ravenclaw Students could not hold on any longer. They simply took out the homework Snape had assigned yesterday and began writing furiously.

Vizet always finished the homework assigned in class on the same day.

Combined with his extensive experience in History of Magic lessons, this allowed him to painstakingly organize the lecture's contents and absorb a small amount of knowledge.

Piecing together the halting lecture content like a jigsaw puzzle was also a kind of fun for him.

The Snot Curse was not as simple as he had imagined.

According to Quirrell's explanation, the spell had undergone several modifications. Especially after the Wizarding World War, its power had been drastically reduced.

"Professor Quirrell!" Vizet raised his hand. "May I ask if you know how powerful this magic was originally?"

His clear, ringing voice instantly roused the students in class. They looked around groggily, searching for whoever had spoken.

"Oh..." Quirrell seemed to awaken from a dream as well. "Mr. Lovegood, why... why would you think that?"

Vizet said, "Because this is a curse. As one of the most dangerous types of Dark Magic, shouldn't it do more than merely cause nasal congestion?"

"Heh heh... You've been... been listening very carefully!" Quirrell laughed, a look of relief appearing in his eyes.

Among all the students who were distracted, Vizet, who was listening carefully, taking notes, and thinking things through, stood out so clearly.

Quirrell continued, "The reason this magic... is ancient is that its inspiration came from disease or... or plague! A plague capable of causing death!"

"In other words... the spell's original effect was that it could... could be used to kill people! It was a Killing Curse!"

"A Killing Curse?" Any magic related to death naturally drew the attention of the students present.