If Not You, Then Who?

Malfoy felt even happier than he had after eating tonight's dessert. He proudly tilted up his little chin, but the next second, he froze.

"Please note that our Mr. Troll is coming toward you. So if you don't want to be flattened by it, deal with it as quickly as possible."

Tver stepped aside, allowing the troll to lumber slowly toward the ten first-year students.

Though it moved slowly, the tremors caused by each of the troll's footsteps were anything but slow. Instead, they made the students' hearts quiver.

Harry swallowed and fired the first bolt of light, trying to remain calm.

It struck the troll squarely on the head, but only made it shake its head.

"Hitting its head is useless. The troll's head may be a weak point, but your spells aren't powerful enough to hurt it there. Your target should be its eyes."

But with Harry's example, the young wizards hurriedly fired their own spells. The troll tilted its head slightly, and three red bolts brushed past it.

The troll also realized that these little things were trying to attack its head.

"Trolls are stupid, but they're not completely brainless. They won't just stand there and let you attack them!"

This was the first time the first-year students had practiced actual combat. Before this, they had only attacked light spheres that could not fight back. Now that they suddenly faced such a massive opponent, they panicked completely.

Still, they were the ten best students. After several failures, they managed to hit the troll's eye when it had covered half the distance.

Blinded by the bright flash and struck by the force of the spell, the troll immediately clutched its eye and howled. But before it could howl for long, Tver froze it again.

"Very good. Mr. Malfoy successfully hit the troll's eye. Five points to Slytherin!"

Following the same pattern, Tver guided students from the different years in turn.

The second-year students did not know many spells. Under his instructions, they slowed the troll in stages and attacked its brain and eyes, finally knocking it unconscious when it was only an arm's length away.

The third-year students had it much harder. They knew the most spells, but they were also closer to the troll.

The stench alone made them miserable. If the troll had not been under a Slowing Charm and moving so slowly, they would have been wiped out long ago.

Even so, several students triggered the protective magic.

This made everyone realize just how extraordinary these badges were. After all, even their wizarding parents might not be able to cast a complete Shield Charm!

Their gazes toward the badges immediately turned fervent. Those who already had one could barely put it down, yet they were afraid of handling it too much and damaging it.

"Very good. Use the Disarming Charm to knock away the club, then use the Hover Charm and Pressure Charm to control it and attack the troll's head. Well done."

As an aside, this solution had been suggested by Ron, who was watching from the sidelines.

As the third-years finally dealt with the troll, the lesson was more or less drawing to a close.

"Now then, let us invite Mr. Percy Weasley of Gryffindor to demonstrate how to deal with a troll in its complete state."

Percy took a deep breath before slowly walking over.

"Are you ready, Percy?"

"I'm ready."

Tver woke the troll and removed the Slowing Charm from it at the same time, then handed the stage over to Percy.

The moment he entered a combat state, Percy's gaze became sharp.

Using the same Impediment Jinx, Percy targeted the troll's leg joints. Not only did this effectively slow its movements, it even made its knees buckle, nearly forcing it to kneel.

But once the troll was no longer slowed, it could block spells by swinging its arms, so Percy's attacks were no longer as effective as those of the previous students.

Realizing this, Percy stopped attacking its head and aimed for the troll's armpits instead!

The students, unable to understand why, burst into laughter, thinking Percy was desperately trying anything he could.

But Tver's eyes narrowed as he began to take this prefect seriously.

Armpits were actually a shared weakness among humanoid creatures. They contained abundant nerves and blood vessels controlling the upper limbs, as well as important lymphatic tissue.

They were also protected only by delicate skin. Attacking there might not produce especially spectacular results, but it would certainly be more effective than attacking the troll's thick thighs and body muscles.

Not many wizards knew this. Just like wizards who were good at mathematics, studying such things had very little effect on magic.

No matter how Percy had learned it, being able to make use of it was enough for Tver to see him in a new light.

Hogwarts really had too many precious students!

After adding another name to the little notebook in his mind, Tver finally called a halt to Percy's assault, lest he truly break the troll's arm.

"All right, Mr. Weasley. If you keep going, the sight won't be something young wizards should see."

Percy was not as observant as Tver, but he also realized that his attacks had unknowingly pushed the troll to its limit. He promptly lowered his wand.

The young wizards, however, were somewhat disappointed.

They might not understand the point of attacking the armpits, but Percy's fighting style possessed a smooth, flowing beauty that perfectly matched the students' fantasies of themselves.

They could not learn Professor Fawley's style, but surely they could learn Percy's!

"All right. Many thanks to Percy for bringing us the final lesson of today's class: an Impediment Jinx is more effective when aimed at joints than at any other part of the body. That is how to get the greatest benefit from a spell."

"You can also think about which other spells can be used to achieve the greatest possible effect. This is not homework, merely something to consider."

"Now then, tonight's lesson is over. Please follow Percy back to your common rooms in an orderly manner."

"Professor, what are we going to do with this troll?" one of the young wizards who had just taken part in the fight asked, still wanting more.

"Of course, they were for Professor Quirrell. He likes things that give off a smell, doesn't he?" Tver said with a wicked grin, winking.

The students immediately burst into laughter and left the dungeon.

Only then did the professors gather around.

"That was a truly wonderful lesson. Students from different years were all given different material. It's hard to believe that someone as young as you already possesses such a wealth of knowledge."

Professor McGonagall sighed with admiration. At the same age, though her grades had been excellent, her practical experience had lagged far behind. Much of her knowledge could only be recited from the books.

As for tailoring instruction to each student's aptitude like Tver did, she had only come to understand that after teaching for several years.

"You flatter me," Tver said, casting a disgusted glance at the troll. "Besides, tonight's lesson already went beyond the curriculum. I don't know how much the students will actually learn."

Normally, creatures like trolls were only taught in the fourth year, but opportunities like this were hard to come by.

He did not even know where trolls lived, yet Quirrell had managed to find one. Naturally, there was no reason not to put it to use.

And while tonight's lesson had ostensibly been meant to buy Quirrell time by drawing some of the professors' attention away so he could try his luck with the defenses inside—

In reality, it was meant to make Quirrell even more suspicious!

A troll getting into the castle on Halloween Eve was one thing, but a professor who had been unconscious waking up and then vanishing without a trace?

Who else were they supposed to suspect if not him?