A week had passed since the start of term, and the former newcomers had more or less become accustomed to life at Hogwarts.
However, the students were still endlessly discussing the mysterious Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
On one hand, she truly was not very old, yet she possessed a breadth of knowledge the students could scarcely imagine. No matter what sort of dangerous creature or dark magic was involved, she could explain it all with confidence and clarity. Quite a few students admired her for that. Of course, there were still troublemakers, but even they did not dare act up in front of Airi. The reason was simple: whenever they did anything, Airi would look at them as if they were already dead.
No matter how formidable those students might have been, they were still students. How could they endure that kind of killing intent? Having nightmares afterward was considered lucky. Quite a few could not bear it on the spot and simply collapsed or fainted.
On the other hand, Airi behaved very differently from many wizards. She never called ordinary people Muggles like other wizards did. Instead, she always used the terms "ordinary people" and "wizards." This was quite popular among children born to Muggle families. Naturally, children from certain pure-blood wizarding families were very dissatisfied with this, but none of them had the nerve to risk their lives by protesting to Airi...
The reason was simple. If they dared provoke Airi, it would not just mean losing points. Airi also used a punishment method Hogwarts teachers had never employed before: running laps!
That was right. If anyone shouted in her class, disrupted order, or broke the rules, not only would their house lose points, they themselves would have to run laps around Hogwarts—of course, to keep