Hearing Allen's words, the wizards treated the Flobberworms and Devil's Snare in front of them with considerably more caution. No one wanted to have to return them dead to the professors after class, even if both professors were famously mild-tempered and easy to talk to.
For a spell that might save their lives at a crucial moment, even among the secretly divided two camps of Slytherin, the wizards from families at odds with Allen showed delighted expressions. They discussed it excitedly, as if they themselves had just cast Damage Transfer, and could hardly wait to reach out toward the prey in front of them and begin chanting the incantation.
Hermione had mastered the spell long ago, so almost as soon as they began, she earned another five points for Gryffindor. Luna, too, came back to herself after Allen rapped the desk a few times and completed the challenge, allowing Allen, who was somewhat biased toward Ravenclaw, to justifiably add five points to his own House as well.
Compared with those two witches, however, the other wizards were not doing nearly as well.
A small number of Training Class members and a few Purebloods, such as Draco himself, had actually learned this spell long ago. It was just that they had never tried controlling its effect before; they usually cast it with all their strength. Now, faced with such fragile targets, they found it rather hard to hold back—as a dark spell, this magic produced a certain pleasurable thrill in the caster when absorbing the vitality of another life. Although this only happened while the spell was in progress and faded once the spell was complete, without any addictive effect, it still left many wizards with less than firm willpower lacking the perseverance needed to control their strength while casting.
Compared