How Dare You Use My Words Against Me!

Harry looked around at his classmates who seemed to understand him, and then spoke again.

"Perhaps you'll say, 'With Potter Dumbledore around, Voldemort won't harm us, so why do we need to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts so diligently?'"

Upon hearing Voldemort's name, the students shuddered once again.

"But I must tell you that there is more than one Dark Wizard in this world than Voldemort," Harry said in a deep voice. "Besides Voldemort, there are many other terrible Dark Wizard who lurk in the shadows and could threaten our lives at any time."

"And the ultimate purpose of you learning Defense Against the Dark Arts is to resist these potential threats—so that you won't be at a loss when you encounter Dark Wizard, unable to do anything, and forced to surrender and wait for the Dark Wizard to take your lives."

Harry glanced again at his classmates, who were clearly distressed, and said, "I know you might think I'm exaggerating, but it's the truth. If the Magical World were really as peaceful as the Ministry of Magic portrays it, then why would Azkaban exist?"

Harry's words made a lot of sense, and the students all fell into deep thought.

Yes, if the Magical World is really peaceful and there is no need to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, then why are there so many Dark Wizard imprisoned in Azkaban for so many years, and why is the number increasing every year?

This is a false proposition in itself.

"So," Harry began again, "If you want to learn some real Defense Against the Dark Arts, I can help you." "So, is that true?" asked the girl with a long braid trailing behind her, Harry Susan Bones.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I heard that you can use some Charms that are absolutely forbidden by the Ministry of Magic?" Susan asked.

"Oh, I'm a good boy," Harry said with a grin. "I firmly reject Charms that are absolutely forbidden by the Ministry of Magic —but I do occasionally use some Harmless Minor Curses."

Upon hearing Harry's words, everyone present chuckled, except for Hermione.

She kept groaning in her heart—Oh God, what Harmless Minor Curses? Those things are so evil they make you want to turn green with rage!

"That's fantastic, Harry!" said Lee Jordan, looking quite admiring. "I never knew you knew some Harmless Minor Curses! Like the Tarantella Dance Minor Curses, perhaps?"

"You don't want to know," Hermione quickly interrupted him. "We should get back to the main point of today's conversation. We're talking about learning some skills to protect ourselves from Voldemort's Death Eater —or, of course, if you don't want to believe that Voldemort has returned, you can think of it as protecting yourself from the Dark Wizard."

"Well said!" Ernie Macmillan shouted. "I personally think this is really important, probably more important than anything else we're going to do this year, even the upcoming O. W. Ls exams!"

He swept his gaze across the room with an air of authority, seemingly waiting for someone to shout, "That won't do!" Seeing no one speak, he continued, "I personally find it extremely perplexing that the Ministry of Magic would send us such a useless teacher at such a crucial time. Clearly, they refuse to believe the Dark Lord has returned, yet the Ministry of Magic has sent us a teacher who goes to great lengths to prevent us from using defensive Charms. I simply cannot understand their thinking. Are the higher-ups at the Ministry of Magic completely brainless?"

"I've heard about that," Susan Bones said. "I heard it from my aunt— Amelia of the Ministry of Magic."

Lady. Bones told me in her letter that it was because Umbridge, that Pink Toad, had some absurd ideas in her head, thinking that Dumbledore would use the school's students as a secret army—she told Fudge that Dumbledore would incite us to fight against the Ministry of Magic.

Upon hearing this news, almost everyone was stunned, except for Luna Lovegood.

She interjected, "Yes, that makes a lot of sense. In fact, Cornelius Fudge has his own secret army."

"What?" Everyone present asked in unison, completely stunned by this unexpected situation.

Fudge actually has his own army?

How should I put it?

People can't imagine things they haven't done, right?

"Yes, he has an army of Heliopath," Luna said seriously.

"Impossible," Hermione said bluntly.

"Absolutely true," Luna said.

"What is Heliopath?" Neville asked, looking bewildered.

"They are fire Sprite," Luna said, her bulging eyes wide open, making her seem even more frenzied than usual. "They are enormous creatures engulfed in flames, rushing across the land and burning everything in their path to ashes."

"They don't exist, Neville," Hermione said sharply. "You know she—"

At this point, Hermione suddenly stopped talking.

If she weren't the Prefect, she would definitely have mocked Luna as a Loony —but now that she's the Prefect of Gryffindor, her every word and action represents Gryffindor, so of course she can't just say whatever she wants.

"Oh, yes, it exists!" Luna retorted angrily.

"Excuse me, what evidence do you have?" Hermione asked sharply.

Luna retorted, "There are plenty of eyewitness accounts. Just because you're so ignorant, you need to stuff everything under your nose before you'll understand."

"Ahem." Ginny mimicked Professor Umbridge perfectly.

The group looked around in surprise, then burst into laughter.

"The butter in Merlin's lunch," Fred said, rubbing his eyes. "I thought Umbridge had come here, but it was Ginny making the noise. I almost ran away."

"What's there to be afraid of?" Ron said, hands on his hips. "If she dares to come here, Harry will definitely give her a Levicorpus!"

"Maybe there will be other heroes," Fred said with a wicked grin. "Like, some unknown hero who can knock her Stunning Spell and teach her a lesson?"

Upon hearing Fred's words, Ron lowered his head nervously.

"Yes, who is this hero?" George said cheerfully.

"Alright," Harry said in time, stopping the Twins from continuing. "So, what we need to do next is check your learning progress—Fifth-year students, now get out of the pub, pair up, now, immediately."

Upon hearing this, the fifth-grade students all came out of the bar and lined up to wait.

Harry followed them out of the bar, stood at the front of the line, and watched them.

"The next thing I'm going to test is the Protego," Harry said with a serious expression.

"Protego?"

Upon hearing Harry's words, the other students began to whisper among themselves.

They had certainly heard of the Protego, but this was not Charms fifth graders should be learning.

"I must say," Fred said, "That many Auror are unable to use the full Protego, so it seems the fifth-year curriculum is exceptionally demanding."

"Yeah," George chimed in, grinning.

The students had already paired up, Draco really wanted to be paired with Ron, but Ron completely ignored him.

Instead, Draco stood with Hermione, and a helpless Draco had no choice but to return to the Slytherin group and find Pansy Parkinson to practice the Protego with.

"What we need to do next is not to test whether you can cast the Protego completely," Harry said seriously, "But to let you use the Protego to resist Charms in actual combat—I believe you should know that no matter how well you learn the Protego in theory and in your usual practice, it is useless if you cannot use a complete Protego in a real duel."

"Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger!" Harry called out their names. "You two, give us a demonstration first."

Ron stepped out of the line with a serious expression and stood on the left and right sides of Hermione, respectively.

"I bet Hermione will win," Fred said in a low voice.

"One Sickle," George said. "I bet Ron will win."

Over there, Harry was already standing between Ron and Hermione.

"Now," he said, walking to the side, "Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger from the fifth year will demonstrate their learning outcomes—I believe you can successfully apply the Protego in actual combat. Alright, I declare the duel begin—"

Two, one!

"Epelliarmus (Disarming Charm)!"

The two raised their wands in unison and began to fire standard Disarming Charm at each other.

"I said! It's to test our mastery of the Protego!" Harry reiterated, "Not the Disarming Charm —sorry, I forgot to remind you. Hermione, you go first, Ron, defend!"

Ron sighed and raised his wand.

What came first was Hermione's spell.

"Depulso (Pushing Charm)!"

Ron struggled to conjure a rather immature suit of armor. He felt as if his internal organs were about to be shaken apart. He retreated erratically, his heel plunging into a ditch in the ground, nearly tumbling headfirst into the bushes beside him.

Across from her, Hermione's wand tip was emitting a dazzling burst of light.

"Full Body-Bind!" Her clear voice rang out, but it didn't sound so pleasant to Ron.

Ron instinctively sensed something was wrong. This time, he didn't choose to use the Protego to withstand the curse head-on. Who knew what the effect of being hit by this Charms would be, or whether he would be humiliated by Hermione? He quickly snatched food from a vicious dog to the side, barely dodging the Charms.

He also fell into the bushes, and when he looked up, his face was still covered in leaves.

"That's one way too," Harry explained at the opportune moment. "When you think your Protego isn't enough to deal with a flying Charms, you should choose to dodge instead of taking it head-on—there's nothing shameful about that, and it's never shameful to choose to dodge in order to save your life."

Before Ron could even catch his breath, Hermione's next attack was already underway.

With a deft flick of her wrist, her wand traced a beautiful arc in the air. "Conjured Stones!"

Several stones piled up not far away suddenly rose into the air, as if hurled by an invisible hand, and crashed down on Ron with a dull thud.

"Enough! Hermione! Stop right there!" Ron quickly dodged to the side. "Enough!"

"There's no 'enough' on the battlefield!" Hermione's voice was firm and unwavering. She raised her wand again. "Stupefy!"

(Stunning Spell!)

Seeing that dodging wasn't an option, Ron quickly raised his wand.

"Shield Charm!"

A deep blue light rose from around Ron, and a magical armor appeared, blocking Hermione's Charms.

Hermione unleashed two more Charms, both of which were blocked by Ron's Charms.

"Alright," Harry said, "Pause—now you have a minute to catch your breath. Ron is on offense, Hermione on defense."

Ron put down his wand and gave Hermione a malicious smile.

Hermione stood still, her posture profound and imposing, exuding an aura of authority.

"Three, two,

As soon as he finished speaking, Ron's Charms shot out.

Hermione was caught off guard; she didn't have time to cast a shield and narrowly avoided Ron's Charms.

"Haha, Hermione!" Ron chuckled. "Now it's my turn to attack—"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Hermione said angrily.

"There's no 'Shut up!' on the battlefield," Ron quoted Hermione.

Hermione looked at Ron with disbelief, her eyes clearly saying, "How dare you use my words against me?"

Immediately afterwards, Ron waved his wand and unleashed a crimson Charms.

"Stupefy (Stunning Spell)!"

"Shield Charm!" Hermione used the Protego to block the Charms.

"Epelliarmus (Disarming Charm)!"

The azure light flashed again, and the Disarming Charm was intercepted.

"Alright!" Harry stopped the duel in time, not wanting them to get really worked up. "It seems Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have practiced their Charms quite well. Now—let's give them a round of applause!"

The students applauded and cheered, celebrating the two students' success.

Students from other grades looked at the two of them with reverence. They couldn't understand why the two of them were so outstanding when they were also Hogwarts students.

This level of Protego is something even most Auror couldn't achieve, right?

The Weasley twins, however, were somewhat disappointed. They exchanged a glance and whispered, "Looks like neither of us won—they tied."

"Now for another pair," Harry announced again, "Seamus Finnegan versus Neville Longbottom!"