Walking Like Flying
As June arrived, the atmosphere in the castle became tense and exciting once again.
With exam week approaching, everyone is studying hard for the exams, while also looking forward to the third competition that will be held on the last day of the exams.
The exams were scheduled to end on the Third Task, and Ron and Hermione, who should have been using the time to study, instead spent a lot of time helping Harry prepare.
"Don't worry," Hermione said nonchalantly when Harry pointed this out to them and said he could practice on his own for a while. "At least we can get a high score in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It's impossible to find so many spells in class."
"This is great training for us to become Auror later," Ron said excitedly, testing an Impediment Jinx on a wasp buzzing into the room, which suddenly stopped it in mid-air.
"Don't worry!" Harry said confidently. "I'm very confident we can win this time. Don't forget, I was the highest scorer in the Second Task, and Professor Moody said that we passed the tests of giant animals and magical obstacles in our first year. I can say I'm very experienced in these kinds of obstacle courses—"
"This advantage..." Harry paused for a second, a triumphant smile spreading across his face, "I don't believe that Malfoy has it." He clenched his fist and waved it in the air, "I will prove to everyone that I am the true Champion of Hogwarts!"
Harry practices spells whenever he has free time.
Professor McGonagall often found Harry, Hermione, and Ron practicing around the school, so she allowed them to use the Transfiguration classroom during lunchtime.
Harry quickly mastered the Impediment Jinx, which could stop attackers; the Reducto, which could destroy solid obstacles; and the Four-Point Spell that Hermione discovered, which allowed him to point his wand due north so he could determine whether he was going the right way in a maze.
As for the Shield Charm, he had already mastered it during Defense Against the Dark Arts, and with Moody giving him private lessons, he was even able to cast it instantly. At this moment, he was full of ambition and high spirits, already looking forward to the Third Task, indulging in the fantasy of standing on Skylar Malfoy's head and raising the Goblet of Goblet of Fire high.
Hermione, seeing Harry's delighted expression, wanted to remind him that Skylar's abilities far surpassed these, but she forcibly swallowed the words back.
She couldn't bear to shatter Harry's fantasy.
Since the day Hermione nearly clashed with Draco in the Care of Magical Creatures this semester, Hermione has changed a lot, becoming more considerate and empathetic than before. She can understand Harry's difficulties; ever since Harry enrolled, he has been the center of attention.
From the "Boy Who Lived" to the "Quidditch Ace Seeker," and then the hero who won the House Cup in his first year, he was surrounded by one halo after another. Even in Professor Snape's Potions, where he hated him the most, he was still the focus of attention for the professor and his classmates. No matter how much Snape mocked him, it was still better than those extras who were treated as invisible.
But everything changed starting in second grade.
A dazzling new star has emerged in Slytherin House. His arrival is both sudden and unexpected, and he happens to be a student in the same year as Harry —one moment he's the Merlin Tournament champion, the next he's the hero who slew the Basilisk, then he's a bestselling author, and he's also exceptionally handsome. He even openly humiliated Harry twice, in the Dueling Club and the Slytherin Common Room. Harry's aura shattered instantly.
Harry went from being a celebrated young hero to an obscure nobody; who could bear such a contrast?
Therefore, Hermione simply couldn't bring herself to utter a single word that would dampen Harry's current ambitions.
Her eyes darted around, and she said, "Harry, you've been practicing really well. I think your chances of winning are pretty good—" She pulled out a list she had prepared, crossing off the spells they had already learned, "Look at all the spells you've learned! I bet many sixth-year students don't even know as many spells as you..."
"Come look!" Ron said, standing by the window and looking down at the field. "What's Malfoy doing?"
Harry and Hermione hurried over to see what was happening, and there stood Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle under the shade of a tree. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be on lookout duty, both grinning foolishly. Malfoy was speaking with his hand over his mouth.
"It looks like he's using a walkie-talkie," Harry said curiously.
"Impossible," Hermione said. "I told you, that stuff doesn't work at Hogwarts. Come on, Harry." She said lightly, turning away from the window and walking to the middle of the room. "Let's practice some new spells, this time the Blasting Curse, so you can blast through obstacles in the maze, how about it?"
"Huh?" A bead of cold sweat the size of a bean trickled down Ron's forehead.
The camera then shifts to Skylar's side.
Skylar was leisurely flipping through the Dark Arts book he had inherited from Ella Cottage in a secluded corner of the common room, where no one dared to disturb him. Indeed, Dark Arts was no longer the area of magic he wanted to focus on, but that didn't stop him from deepening his understanding of Dark Arts. After all, "knowing" was not the same as "mastering" or "being able to use" it, but even using it without understanding it would allow him to gain a better understanding of the methods of dark wizards and to be more knowledgeable about them.
Of course, to do this, you first need to be strong enough yourself; otherwise, even if you know the enemy's methods, you won't be able to stop them.
Skylar's strength is absolutely formidable. In this world, there might be wizards who could defeat him, but there certainly wouldn't be many; and there definitely wouldn't be anyone who could crush him and leave him utterly defenseless!
His main gains this semester were Professor McGonagall's * The Secrets of Human Transfiguration * and Dumbledore's * Abatair Transfiguration *, from which he learned the trump card "Amphimagus". His later gains included Snape's magical research notes, the Nott Family's * Compendium of Alchemical Locks *, China Zhang Family's * Illusory Clone *, Luna's mother Pandora's Spell Notes, Slytherin's Parseltongue, and Eleanor's * the Fifth Element *.
The day he masters "Illusory Clone" and "Unsupported Flight" before his 15th birthday, he can be said to have achieved perfect enlightenment.
In other words, these books no longer held any value for him to continue his studies.
Before he received the new inheritance, he had nothing better to do than take out the Dark Arts books he had collected in the past and study them one by one. These books were all obtained from Chamber of Secrets Malfoy Manor, Black's old house, and Ella Cottage Chamber of Secrets. He had skimmed through them before, but had never seriously studied their contents.
The House of Malfoy possessed "Dark Potions" and "Fallen Creatures"; the House of Black possessed "Secrets of the Darkest Art" and "Forbidden Transfiguration"; and at Ella Cottage, he inherited "Secrets in the Shadows" and "The Curse of Bone Attachment".
What he was holding now was the "Curse of Bone Attachment," which recorded all sorts of terrible curses: some that attach themselves to objects and kill the person who touches them instantly, some that cast curses on a name from a distance, some that steal someone's flesh and hair to cast curses, and some that cast curses on someone's bloodline.
Just then, his watch on his right hand suddenly vibrated. He glanced at the watch face; the hands, engraved with the name "Draco Malfoy," began to spin and then stopped. Skylar smiled contentedly.
The pointer that has been set points to "conspiracy and scheming".
It's likely that Draco has already contacted Rita Skeeter and is gathering material for his next scathing piece about Harry.
Skylar rose and left the common room, quickly making his way from the basement to the main hall. In the blink of an eye, he appeared at the castle gates. Several young wizards politely nodded and greeted him along the way, but no one noticed that his feet were actually about an inch off the ground; they never actually touched the earth.
He can fly!
Skylar's Unsupported Flight was so advanced that he could control it with Silencio, flying silently and constantly, making flying no different from walking.
The purpose of doing this was certainly not to show off to the readers. Besides improving his efficiency in daily movement and replacing physical exertion with magic, it would also allow him to adapt to the posture and energy exertion of flight more quickly. You see, if daily movement is equivalent to flight, his dodging and agility skills would reach an even higher level.
[Skylar's self-created flight technique - "Walking Like Flying" - is complete!]