Hexes

The day after the attack.

After morning Transfiguration class, Lynn went to Professor Foxx's office.

"What brings you to see me today?"

Professor Foxx seemed to be very busy, scribbling away on a sheet of parchment with a quill.

Lynn pulled over a chair and sat down, asking doubtfully,

"Professor, aren't you worried about the rumors going around the school?"

Professor Foxx stopped writing. He rolled up the parchment covered in characters Lynn did not recognize and put it in a bookcase beside him.

He folded his hands together, his usual smile still on his face.

"Rumors? They tell it so vividly that even I feel like I was the one who did it. Why didn't you believe them?"

"Everyone says you did it." Lynn poured himself a cup of black tea from the teapot on the desk and took a small sip.

"But I have my own judgment. I don't think you're the kind of person they say you are."

The smile on Foxx's face deepened. He seemed somewhat touched, his delighted eyes nearly narrowing into slits.

"Having your own judgment is a good thing, but smart people do not remain unwaveringly convinced of their own judgment forever. The rumors among the students won't affect me, but you need to be careful lately as well. Minerva asked me to examine that student too. The attacker's methods were very skilled; they should be an experienced user of Dark spells. The purpose of this attack is unclear, so we cannot rule out the possibility of a second one."

Lynn had not intended to let down his guard in the first place. But besides the rumors among the students, there was another reason he had come to see Professor Foxx today.

He took the book with the pure black cover from his robe pocket and placed it on the desk.

Professor Foxx looked somewhat puzzled. "What? Did you encounter a curse you found difficult to master?"

Lynn blinked. "No, Professor. I've learned all the spells in this book, so I'm returning it to you."

Professor Foxx looked utterly astonished. His eyes, which had been narrowed into slits, widened round.

The curses recorded in The Book of Curses were not particularly difficult to learn, but they were certainly more difficult than the spells in first-year textbooks.

Including the day he had given Lynn the book, only two days had passed. He simply could not believe that Lynn had mastered all nine curses in the book in such a short time.

But from what he knew, Lynn was not someone who liked to boast.

So Professor Foxx rose from his chair, intending to test him personally.

After casting a Shield Charm on himself, he gestured to Lynn.

"Then let me assess the results of your learning. Come, try using a Banishing Charm on me."

Lynn did not act immediately. Instead, he looked at him suspiciously.

"Professor, your Shield Charm won't reflect my spell back at me, will it?"

Professor Foxx laughed. "Don't worry. The Shield Charm I cast isn't that strong. At most, it'll only cancel out your spell."

Only after hearing that did Lynn feel at ease enough to raise his wand.

"Loosen and Release."

A bright red beam shot from Lynn's wand and struck the Shield Charm two centimeters in front of Professor Foxx.

Lynn's Banishing Charm immediately dispersed completely, while Professor Foxx's Shield Charm only rippled faintly.

Lynn was somewhat dissatisfied with the effect of his spell. He had not fantasized about breaking a professor's Shield Charm, but it had been neutralized far too easily.

Professor Foxx's eyes, however, were full of delight, and he nodded in praise.

"Your pronunciation is accurate, your movements are steady and swift, and the effect is excellent as well. If I didn't know you had never come into contact with Dark spells before, I'd think you were a Dark wizard."

Lynn considered Professor Foxx's words and somehow felt that his praise sounded a little off.

However, Professor Foxx seemed to have become interested. He removed the Shield Charm from himself and said to Lynn,

"Continue. Use a Repelling Charm on me."

Lynn hesitated again. He felt that Professor Foxx might have suffered internal injuries from the impact earlier and that something was now wrong with his head.

"Are you sure, Professor?"

Professor Foxx waved a hand. "I'm absolutely sure. Come on, Lynn. Let me feel the power of your spell."

Since he had said so, Lynn no longer hesitated. He waved his wand and fluently recited the incantation.

"Repel at Full Speed."

The curse struck Professor Foxx squarely in the chest. He grunted, then staggered backward several steps before stopping only when his back hit the wall.

His face had reddened slightly, but he looked exceptionally excited.

"I'm even more certain now that my original choice was right!" Professor Foxx shouted without even thinking to catch his breath.

"When it comes to Dark spells, you're a genius!"

Now, Lynn could finally make a fairly certain guess as to what level his seven points of Dark magic talent represented.

To be called a genius by a wizard like Professor Foxx, a professional researcher of Dark magic, meant he should rank among the very best in the entire wizarding world.

"Then, Professor, what should I learn next?" Hogwarts students really did have it easy. If he did not find some magic to study on his own, Lynn would not even know what to do every day.

Professor Foxx calmed himself down, sat back in his chair, and only spoke after finishing the black tea in his cup.

"One step at a time. No matter how great your talent is, you still need to build up from the basics. Now that you've learned all the curses in The Book of Curses, we can begin practicing hexes."

"Hexes?" Lynn repeated the word Professor Foxx had used.

"That's right, hexes. They are also a type of Dark spell. Of the three levels of Dark spells, hexes can cause moderate inconvenience or harm to people. They are stronger than curses, but weaker than jinxes, and they are equally difficult to learn."

Lynn was eager to give it a try. He had a strong desire to learn more different spells. It was like the card-drawing games he had played in his previous life—whether a card was strong was one thing, but he had to have it in his collection.

"Then what book should I read this time?"

Professor Foxx shook his head and said seriously,

"You might be able to learn curses on your own just by reading, and even if something goes wrong midway, it won't cause any serious problems. But hexes are different. These spells are already somewhat dangerous. If something goes wrong while you're learning them on your own, it could threaten the safety of both you and the people around you. So until you have completely mastered them, you may only practice hexes when I am present."