On the platform at the front, Professor Lupin and Professor Flitwick were demonstrating how to use Protective Charms flexibly against magic that would normally require a Shield Charm.
Enthusiastic applause from the young wizards below interrupted Harry and the others' discussion.
Afterward, Lupin suggested that everyone practise with one another. Of course, by everyone, he meant students in their third year and above. The first- and second-year students had yet to master offensive spells that could simulate area-of-effect magic.
"Hi, Hermione." Harry and the others were just about to say something more when a voice cut in.
They turned their heads and saw that it was Cormac McLaggen.
Harry and the others had noticed him approaching and had already shifted the conversation to something a little less sensitive. Yet, for whatever reason, the fellow had come over to join them anyway.
"Did you need something, McLaggen?" Hermione frowned. McLaggen was tall and quite fair and clean-cut. Harry and Ron had jokingly called him a budget Cedric.
But compared with Cedric, who blushed at the slightest thing, McLaggen, a Gryffindor, clearly had a thicker skin.
Right now, for instance, he was gazing intently at Hermione. "Want to practise together? Professor Lupin and Professor Flitwick explained it really well, didn't they?"
"I don't think there's any need." Hermione shook her head. "I have a fairly good grasp of the Shield Charm. I don't think I need to learn tricks for briefly substituting a Protective Charm for it."
Although the Shield Charm appeared in the fifth-year Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks, students were not required to master it while at school. It was an item on the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test.
McLaggen paused slightly, immediately remembering that the young lady he wanted to invite was a highly skilled young witch