A Little Incident Outside the Great Hall

"Very good! Ten points to Ravenclaw!"

Flitwick had been listening from the side for a while and could not help applauding Manus's understanding and ideas.

"An excellent idea. In fact, this is precisely the key needed for more advanced fields of spellwork. However, I would not recommend beginners learn it; the threshold for casting this way is far too high."

Flitwick said that last sentence while looking at Bellows, who hurriedly nodded.

Professor, you're worrying too much. Don't learn things as casually as Manus? Did I really need to wait until third year to figure that out? I simply can't learn it at all.

Class was over soon enough. In their very first lesson, there were not many students who could master the Cheering Charm well enough to make their classmates happy. Among Ravenclaw's group of four boys, only Quirinus had succeeded besides Manus.

Although the effect was not especially obvious, Jasper's uncontrollable laughter after repeated castings showed that Quirinus's spell had worked.

"That's really strange. I clearly didn't feel happy before."

Jasper was deeply puzzled by this. Even when he laughed, he did not feel happy at all; he simply could not stop himself from laughing.

"That means you have no interest whatsoever in the happiness Quirinus created. All he can project onto you is the reaction of happiness, without the matching feelings and emotions."

The four of them arrived at the Great Hall and discovered an unusually sparse patch within the crowd by one of its side doors.

At this hour, a glance outside the Great Hall should have shown scattered yet plentiful students heading toward it from every direction. Yet now, there was an empty area...

Another fight?

*Fighting outside the Great Hall at this hour? Were they not hungry, or did they have no morning classes