The end of term

The term was drawing to a close, and even in the Wizarding World, students had to scramble to prepare for their upcoming finals.

Eli and the others had barely seen Hermione Granger for days. Apparently, she had been holed up in the library, revising like mad. From the look of things, she would settle for nothing less than first place.

Eli was hardly taking it easy, either. Between managing the potion factory's affairs, he had to study and organize the contents of the Esoteric Codex Slytherin had given him.

The Esoteric Codex recorded a vast number of spells, all of them immensely powerful examples of ancient magic.

Ancient wizards had been rather different from their modern counterparts.

In ancient times, wizards had often fought large-scale wars against other magical races, and even against Muggles who possessed no magic at all.

War magic had emerged as a result.

These war spells had very distinctive traits: they were extraordinarily powerful, usually required multiple casters, and involved lengthy incantations.

Some even required the support of magic arrays.

Knowledge of magic arrays had been lost for many years. Few wizards had any interest in studying them, mainly because there was simply no use for them.

In the modern era, the rise of Muggles and the establishment of magical governments and various laws had put an end to large-scale wars.

As a result, wizards had shifted from lengthy incantations to quick, small-scale spells.

Magic like this was fast and convenient. It might have been less powerful, but it suited the modern world well.

That was why, in the final battle at Hogwarts in the films, Voldemort had brought his gang of followers to trash the place and mostly just hurled spells into it. There had been no sign of any large-scale magic arrays.

Only the