Mobley only sat down in a daze after receiving a harsh lesson from Professor Lore. Seeing his blank expression, Xiwen nearly thought some mage from Kamar-Taj had secretly knocked his soul out of his body...
Given the young wizards' indescribably poor grasp of spells, Professor Lore ultimately slowed the pace of his teaching and devoted this lesson to practicing the Spark Charm as well. He also ordered that anyone who failed to meet the requirements before class ended would receive detention for an entire week!
Even Xiwen and the others who had already mastered the Spark Charm were not left idle in this Defense Against the Dark Arts class. The professor accused them of failing to supervise their classmates' practice properly and tasked them with teaching the other young wizards the spell.
The young wizards suffered miserably through the entire class. Under Professor Lore's intimidation, however, they did not dare slack off and could only practice tremblingly. By the end of the lesson, their wand-waving arms were practically twitching.
Fortunately, under such pressure, every young wizard barely met Professor Lore's standards and successfully regained their freedom.
"See? You can learn it after all." After the bell rang, Professor Lore stood at the podium and watched the young wizards leave, muttering to himself. "Put more pressure on yourselves when you go back. This isn't a peaceful age anymore, so stop thinking only about having fun!"
Unable to slack off successfully during Defense Against the Dark Arts, Xiwen shrugged in dissatisfaction and followed his roommates out of the classroom.
What he did not notice was that, as he passed the podium, Professor Lore lightly raised his wand...
In the days that followed, Xiwen's life was no longer as overwhelming as it had been during the first week of term, but it remained