Magic Clash

"Merlin! Mr. Wickens, did you do all this?"

Professor Flitwick first examined Li Wei anxiously. Only after discovering that he was uninjured did he let out a sigh of relief.

But immediately afterward, he realized that Ravenclaw Academy's points, which had only just started to recover thanks to Li Wei's outstanding performance, would probably be wiped out completely!

At that moment, Professor Flitwick's small body experienced what true heartbreak felt like!

It hurt! It hurt so much!

He could only barely console himself: It was fine as long as Li Wei was all right. It was fine as long as Li Wei was all right!

"How dare you... you bunch of useless idiots!"

Professor Snape's expression was even colder than ice. He glanced at Li Wei as though looking at something filthy, then turned his gaze away in disgust.

He raised his head and looked at the Slytherins floating all over the sky, crying out to the professors for help. Furious at their incompetence, he cursed before brandishing his wand and casting:

"Finite Incantatem! Arresto Momentum!"

Li Wei's Levitation Charm and all the other binding spells were dispelled. Arresto Momentum also caused the young wizards floating in the air to descend slowly.

But what Professor Snape had never expected was that the Slytherins, the instant their feet touched the ground and before they could steady themselves, fell through it with a splash.

A wave of foul stench rushed at them!

It turned out that the Transfiguration Li Wei had cast earlier had turned the ground beneath the courtyard into a swamp filled with reeking mud and water.

Naturally, the young Slytherins could not keep their footing when they landed and could only fall in.

Because the wands were too light, they floated above the courtyard, making the signs of Transfiguration impossible to notice.

Professor Snape's Finite Incantatem had only focused on dispelling Li Wei's Levitation Charm and the Stupefy, Petrificus Totalus, and Incarcerous spells binding the young wizards.

Having been outmaneuvered by a mere student, Snape's sallow, pale face darkened completely.

He was already thinking about how, after Deputy Headmistress McGonagall handed down punishment, he would thoroughly deal with Li Wei, that disgusting little brat, as well as the stupid useless trash from his own House!

"Get out! Clean yourselves up!"

With a wave of his wand, Snape hauled the young Slytherins and their wands out of the swamp and tossed them onto a safe patch of courtyard.

"You had better explain yourself clearly!"

With a sweep of his robes, Snape drifted aside like a bat.

He had originally intended to deduct a hundred points from Li Wei and send him straight to detention. But when he saw Professor McGonagall preparing to speak, he merely left behind those cold words and stepped aside.

Professor McGonagall walked over, followed by Anthony and Michael, the two of them exchanging meaningful looks behind her.

With a wave of her wand, she dispelled the swamp Li Wei had created and chanted:

"Scourgify! Whirlwind Sweep!"

Only after barely clearing the foul odor from the Slytherins' clothes did Professor McGonagall allow them to come closer.

She gave Li Wei a complicated look.

When Li Wei had cast a spell to clean the Sorting Hat, she had already known he was not a quiet, well-behaved young wizard. But she had never expected him to cause even more trouble than the Weasley Twins!

"Professor Flitwick, Mr. Goldstein, and Mr. Konar have already told Professor Snape and me what started this."

Professor McGonagall's expression was exceedingly stern. Her voice seemed icy and devoid of emotion as she questioned Malfoy:

"Mr. Draco Malfoy, why did you deliberately cast a spell during Charms class to summon a bison and attack Mr. Lee Wickens?"

Of course, she also knew that magical effects caused by mispronounced spells were difficult to judge as deliberate or accidental. But she simply wanted to test Malfoy.

Malfoy might have been nasty, but that did not mean he was stupid. He immediately insisted, looking utterly wronged as he said:

"Professor, I didn't do it on purpose. It was just a mistake!"

"And Professor Flitwick has already punished me!"

"It was Lee Wickens who refused to let it go!

He thought I attacked him with magic in class, so after class, he blocked our path and retaliated against us!

Hogwarts is terrifying! I'm going to tell my father!"

Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together more tightly and warned Malfoy, "We can discuss writing to old Mr. Malfoy later."

"Everyone here can cast a simple spell like the Levitation Charm. If you had not deliberately tried multiple times, how could you have happened to summon a bison?"

"I hope you are not lying! Magic has plenty of ways to make you reveal the truth!"

Malfoy was immediately frightened by Professor McGonagall. Stammering and trembling, he could not help looking toward his godfather—Severus Snape.

"What are you looking at me for? I'll deal with you later!"

Professor Snape snapped at Malfoy impatiently. Yet he did not let Malfoy continue explaining what had happened in class. Instead, he turned his attention directly toward Li Wei, who stood beside them as though nothing had happened.

"Mr. Lee Wickens," Snape said, enunciating Li Wei's name one word at a time in an icy tone.

His hollow black eyes seemed to be using Legilimency to read Li Wei's thoughts as he asked in an almost coercive manner:

"Can you explain why, after Draco Malfoy had already been punished by Professor Flitwick, you still attacked your fellow students within the school?"

"And where did the other Slytherin students offend you, you proud Ravenclaw, that you dealt them such a harsh hand and subjected them to such cruel humiliation?"

"Are you dissatisfied with Slytherin House? Are you relying on the little magic you have learned to freely indulge your tyranny?"

Before Li Wei could answer, Snape's grave accusations made Professor Flitwick interject:

"Severus, how can you speak of my student like that?"

"I can guarantee that Li Wei only acted on impulse because he thought he had been attacked..."

Professor Flitwick now deeply regretted handling Malfoy so gently in class.

If he had known, he would have sent him to detention after class. Then none of this would have happened!

But before he could finish defending Li Wei, Li Wei interrupted him.

"Head of House, there is no need to worry. I can explain!"

Li Wei put away the book in his hand. His expression was calm, and his tone unhurried, as though he were describing something that had nothing to do with him.

"After you punished Mr. Malfoy for what happened in class, Head of House, I had already forgiven him."

He lied effortlessly, without even the slightest change in his tone.

"But after class, I encountered Draco Malfoy and the other Slytherin students again in this courtyard."

Only lies mixed with truth could be believed.

"They were laughing loudly and discussing how amusing it was that a 'Mudblood' like me had been startled by a bison!"

"A 'Mudblood' like me should get out of Hogwarts!"

Li Wei said Mudblood again and again as though he were not talking about himself.

But the moment those two sentences left his mouth, every professor's expression changed. They all fixed Malfoy and his lackeys with the harshest stares.

Li Wei was not finished yet. He still had a killing blow waiting for Malfoy and the others:

"I was shocked then, and I was furious, because there are many young wizards in the school with backgrounds like mine."

"Were they also supposed to be driven out of the school, just as Malfoy said?"

"Especially since I once read an old wizard's diary in Diagon Alley. It recorded this:

Driving all Muggle-born young wizards out of Hogwarts was the position of the Death Eaters during Voldemort's reign of terror!"

"I admit that I was afraid. I was terrified!"

"But the justice and courage in my heart would not allow me to be terrified, would not allow me to be afraid!"

"So I challenged Malfoy!

I wanted him to prove that what he said was correct—prove the noble bloodline of so-called Pure-Blood Wizards, prove that so-called Mudbloods should get out of Hogwarts, prove that all non-pure-blood wizards deserved to die!

Was it truly right or not!"

"If I lost, then Malfoy was right, and I deserved to die beneath the wand of a Pure-Blood Wizard like him!"

"But if I won, then Malfoy, his lackeys, and every Slytherin who agreed with his beliefs would have to swallow every word he had said!"

"Fortunately, I won, Professors!"

"I believe I won with pride and honor!"

"The facts prove that Voldemort was wrong, the Death Eaters were wrong, and the words Malfoy and the others said, the views they agreed with, were all wrong as well!"

"All wizards should be equal, no matter how ordinary their origins may be!"

"And my magic is not tyranny. My magic is the language with which I defend my origins! It is the roar I raise for young wizards with the same origins as mine!"

The magical clash was over. Political correctness had locked Li Wei's health bar in place. At that moment, Li Wei was invincible!