Professor Rankings

The young wizards discussed it with great enthusiasm. As first-years, they rarely had opportunities to use magic.

Even in the previous class, they had only been making light shine, which was far from satisfying for them.

But this lesson was different. Though they were still only producing light, hitting the glowing orbs gave them the thrill of battle.

In a sense, this was the closest the first-years had ever come to fighting.

In the corridor, Ron said to Harry with some frustration, "Did you hear that? Professor Fawley said I could have scored even higher."

"You did very well. It was just your wand holding you back." As the first to take the stage, Harry had practically watched every student perform.

In his opinion, even without his friendship bias, Ron had done better than most of the students.

"Forget it. My family doesn't have the money to buy me another wand." Ron awkwardly waved his wand, nearly poking Hermione as she passed beside them.

"Don't wave wands around in the corridor." Hermione frowned and glanced at the two of them. "Do you want points deducted?"

Ron glared back at her unhappily. "Oh, come on. Harry alone earned ten points for the house. Don't tell me you're jealous?"

"Jealous?" Hermione laughed angrily, puffing out her cheeks as she folded her arms and glared at him. "Harry's score wasn't even half of the professor's!"

Ron looked even more pleased, his face breaking into a grin.

"Harry managed nearly half a professor's score in his first year. Doesn't that just prove how amazing he is?"

"Hmph. I'd bet none of you saw the professor's spellcasting clearly. The light he produced wasn't ordinary light—it was a whole series of different spells!"

"That's impossible!"

Even Harry's eyes widened in disbelief, his suddenly raised voice especially noticeable in the corridor.

"What's impossible about it? I didn't recognize every spell he used, but the professor was casting magic from beginning to end. Not one of them was repeated!"

"So that means—" Ron was practically stunned.

"So that means the professor used 120 different spells!" Hermione said proudly, raising her chin.

Even as they walked back to the Great Hall, they continued discussing exactly how many spells Professor Fawley knew.

Hearing the discussion about Professor Fawley, the restless twins George and Fred eagerly joined in.

With them joining the conversation, along with the students from the lesson spreading the word, the entire Great Hall soon learned that Defence Against the Dark Arts had another new twist.

And there was a new Hogwarts mystery—just how many spells did Professor Fawley know?

The moment Twer entered the Great Hall, he was stopped by students.

"Professor, they say you know 120 spells. Is that true?" asked a blond boy with slicked-back hair.

After thinking for a moment, he realized that his performance in class had spread around.

"Mr. Malfoy, I've never counted how many spells I know. In fact, if you include some insignificant little spells, it's probably far more than 120."

The crowd instantly erupted into noise. Everyone marveled at this, and some students even claimed that he knew more spells than Dumbledore.

Twer had to raise his voice to drown out their clamorous discussion.

"I must emphasize this: knowing many spells does not mean you are powerful. In actual combat, we often use no more than ten spells."

"Mastering those ten spells is more useful than learning a hundred. As for Headmaster Dumbledore, I can guarantee that he knows far more than I do."

When it came to accumulated magical knowledge, probably only the long-lived Nicolas Flamel in the entire wizarding world could be compared to Dumbledore.

Only after Twer's explanation did the young wizards return to their seats, still wanting more. Yet their discussions about the professors did not stop.

Instead, they expanded!

They ranked all the professors except Dumbledore by strength, though the ranking was full of personal bias.

"I'd bet Professor Fawley is definitely first!" Ron declared with certainty.

Neville nodded in agreement, but Gryffindor's prefect, Percy Weasley, disagreed.

"I admit Professor Fawley is very strong, but hasn't he always demonstrated combat ability? If we're talking overall strength, Professor McGonagall is definitely stronger than Professor Fawley."

Penelope, beside him, was dissatisfied.

"If we're comparing strength, of course we compare combat ability. Are we supposed to compare teaching ability?" She gestured toward Professor Flitwick at the staff table. "Besides, our Head of House, Professor Flitwick, was once a dueling champion. If we're really ranking them, he might even be stronger than Professors Fawley and McGonagall!"

"Of course, I think Professor Fawley is still a little stronger than Professor McGonagall," she added.

Discussion alone naturally led nowhere. There was no standard for measuring them, nor any examples to prove their claims. In the end, no one could convince anyone else.

Unless they could witness a real contest with their own eyes.

As soon as night fell, an unbelievable yet widely welcomed piece of news suddenly spread among the students—

Professor Flitwick was going to duel Professor Fawley!

After Penelope carefully verified it, Professor Flitwick happily confirmed the news.

After dinner, he planned to have a friendly spar with Twer.

Twer, standing nearby, smiled and nodded as well.

It had begun after he sat down, when he and Professor Flitwick started discussing the lesson—

"You have to understand them, Twer," Professor Flitwick said reassuringly. "Students' understanding of magic will always be somewhat skewed."

"Actually, I emphasized in class over and over that proficiency mattered more than the magic itself, but they still preferred spells that were powerful and flashy."

After saying that, he shook his head helplessly.

"I understand. Back when I was a student, I was always pursuing all kinds of spells. The more profound and unfathomable a spell was, the more interested I became in it." Tver, in turn, consoled Professor Flitwick.

That piqued the professor's interest. "I've seen how well you use standard magic. You don't seem like you were that kind of student. How did you correct yourself?"

"Not until I watched the upper-year students fight."

Professor Flitwick understood at once, but Professor McGonagall looked thoroughly puzzled.

"Your upper-year students actually fought?"

Before Tver could speak, Professor Flitwick explained for him.

"Durmstrang has a dueling tradition. Every year holds an internal dueling tournament, and at the end of the school year, there is an inter-year grand final to determine the overall champion."

He then looked at Tver.

"With your ability, you must have won at least two or three championships, right?"

"Actually, I won seven year championships and four overall championships."

Now even professors like Professor McGonagall, who had not known before, understood just how impressive Tver's status as Durmstrang's finest graduate truly was.

From the moment he enrolled, he had been unbeatable among his peers. From his fourth year onward, he had been unbeatable throughout the entire school—a crushing advantage on a completely different level!