The next day, the entire castle lost the peace it had gained just a day ago.
Sirius Black appeared in the castle and attacked the Fat Lady at the door to the Gryffindor Tower.
Auden saw that Dumbledore was slightly frowning the next day. Just yesterday, he had spoken about how everything was safe, and within a day, the students of the castle were almost attacked by a prisoner who had escaped from Azkaban.
The Aurors from the Ministry were frustrated at the fact that Sirius had managed to bypass every security measure they had put in place to capture him. What pissed them off even more was the fact that they were unable to find out how Sirius had infiltrated the castle as well as escaped from it within that short period of time.
This incident also allowed Auden to figure out another matter. The castle did not, or rather, does not, care about anything as long as it did not directly affect Auden. So he cannot expect the castle to protect his friends while he is not there. So he needs to find out different ways to protect them.
Later that day, Auden checked whether the timeline was following the canon. He found out that Hagrid and his hippogriff were in trouble, like in canon, because of Malfoy. Harry also got his ominous prophecy from Divination class, and most of the student body was looking at him like a dead man walking.
Though the twins were always trying to cheer everyone up, the Dementors were releasing a sort of wave that was increasing the negativity of the student body.
Got to give it to the Aurors; their actions were currently the most dangerous element for the students staying at Hogwarts. All of their plans were directly or indirectly causing trouble for the students rather than the targets they were made for.
From the messages he was receiving from Amelia, he was able to find out that a majority of the Ministry were against the use of Dementors at Hogwarts. But the Minister was so afraid of Sirius that he made sure to use every member of the Aurors who was under his control to volunteer for this endeavour.
Well, he clearly had a reason to fear Sirius since, a decade ago, Peter Pettigrew had orchestrated his own death while killing a group of innocent Muggles in broad daylight. He had then framed Sirius for committing the crime while escaping as a rat to the Weasley family.
So, to the entire magical community, Sirius was a Death Eater who didn't hesitate to kill multiple Muggles on a public street just so he could kill one of James Potter's friends. Added to the fact that Sirius had never gone mad in Azkaban, Cornelius was deathly afraid of him, so he decided to use the full force of the Ministry to permanently eliminate that problem from the wizarding world.
But for now, Auden decided to focus on the battle he was about to participate in to test his battle skills against a modern wizard.
Flitwick had told Auden last year that he would be teaching Auden duelling in his second year since Auden had completed the entire Charms curriculum, spanning seven years, within a single year.
Flitwick made sure to prepare himself properly before starting a test match with Auden.
Auden was without a doubt the greatest genius he had ever seen in his entire career as a teacher. He was so proficient in charms and spellcasting that he could surpass an experienced adult wizard in spellcasting within a few hours of concentrated training.
So, when Auden told him that he had practised duelling during the summer vacation, Flitwick became extremely serious about facing him in battle. So, last night, he went through every warm-up exercise he used to do when he had a career as a duellist to make sure that he was completely prepared to face any sort of surprise that Auden would throw at him.
"All right, my boy, let's start." Since it was a private instruction, there was no one else to referee the match, so Flitwick took it upon himself to take over that role.
Flitwick decided to start the battle with a Protego to defend against Auden's first attack and get a feel for the intensity of Auden's attacks.
But the moment Auden manifested his wand in his hand, Flitwick was startled but excited. Normally, wizards put their wands in the holsters created by their wandmakers. But a few rare wizards used rituals to bind their wands to their bodies. Seeing Auden manifest the wand, Flitwick realised that Auden had completed one such ritual. And with his knowledge, Flitwick knew that such rituals were incredibly difficult to complete and extremely painful as well. So, most people opted out of having their wands become part of their own bodies.
'This kid will go far even without our guidance. But since he is under our tutelage, it is our duty as teachers to do our best to impart knowledge to help him grow into the best version of himself that he possibly can be,' he thought as he waited for the first strike to appear.
But the moment Auden waved his wand, his face immediately became blurred, and Flitwick felt like he was losing his balance the more he looked at his face.
'Impressive, an illusion spell that also messes with the balance of the person who stares at his face,' Flitwick thought as he raised his Occlumency shields to protect his mind. But even then, he was unable to see Auden's face or hear the sound of his voice.
All he could hear was a bunch of garbled sounds that made no sense.
'He layered the spell with multiple others. When did—'
But right at that moment, his instincts, which he had honed for years as a duellist, screamed at him to move, and he did so immediately, only to find that a spike had pierced the spot where he had stood moments ago.
Even though he had created a barrier to protect himself from spells, Auden had transfigured the ground itself to attack Flitwick.
A/N: Hope you like it.