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The host of the Dueling Club had completely fainted.
So what should they do now?
Half the students looked in unison toward Snape and Flitwick.
The other half looked toward the disciplinary group led by Dudley.
At some unknown point, the disciplinary group had already gained a status in the students' hearts equal to that of the professors.
Snape and Flitwick looked at one another, then nodded toward Dudley.
Their meaning was obvious.
They wanted Dudley to preside over it.
Almost every professor at Hogwarts thought highly of Dudley.
"In that case..."
Dudley did not hesitate and began organizing things at once.
"Pair up and begin practice."
"Neville and Harry together."
"Ron and Draco together."
"Hermione and Pansy together."
"What happened just now does not count. Aside from simple dueling etiquette, nothing has been learned yet. Now, you will first demonstrate for everyone."
The students whose names were called stepped forward one after another and stood facing each other in pairs.
Even though there were older students present, Dudley still chose a clean sweep of second-years.
'He called me by my first name. He called me by my first name.'
Pansy was very happy, and her gaze unconsciously drifted toward Dudley.
Generally, only familiar people called one another by first names.
If they were not familiar, they would choose to use surnames instead.
Of course, if respect was being shown, one would add Mr., Miss, or a similar title after the surname.
"Ahem."
This made Hermione frown unconsciously, and she gave a light cough to express her dissatisfaction.
Pansy realized something and hurriedly said, "Honored Miss Granger, it is my pleasure to face you."
"Let me see what you can do."
Then the two bowed, raised their wands upright, and lifted them at the same time.
"Rictusempra!"
A beam of light shot from the tip of Pansy's wand.
A simple little jinx that could make a person laugh uncontrollably.
That was only natural.
Even if she had been born into a pure-blood family, she was still only a second-year student.
"Protego."
Hermione merely tapped lightly with her wand.
An invisible barrier appeared before her, blocking the small jinx Pansy had cast with extreme ease.
After seeing Alex use this spell, Hermione had specifically sought it out to study.
Unsurprisingly, she had mastered it very quickly.
Now she could already cast it normally.
"Again."
A simple little jinx naturally could not break through the Shield Charm's defense.
Hermione spoke to Pansy again.
"Tarantallegra!"
It was another small jinx, one that could make a person dance nonstop.
Unfortunately, this small jinx still could not break through the barrier created by Hermione's Shield Charm.
"Continue."
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Pansy cast many more spells in succession.
Without exception, after striking the barrier created by the Shield Charm, all of them vanished like stones sinking into the sea.
Just the Shield Charm alone was enough for Hermione to crush other students of the same year.
They simply could not break through it.
Not everyone possessed Hermione's ability to destroy a Shield Charm.
At least, students in the same year could not do it at this stage.
"I believe you have all seen clearly the power of the Shield Charm. It can resist most jinxes."
"Of course, resisting is not its only function. It can also rebound them."
Hermione had not activated that function.
Otherwise, Pansy would have had to laugh while dancing.
Her gaze shifted to the other pair.
"Expelliarmus!"
Malfoy cast the Disarming Charm at Ron without the slightest hesitation.
Ron took a hardened piece of dried fish from his pocket, tossed it upward, then pointed at it with his wand.
The dried fish immediately transformed into a shield in front of Ron.
Transfiguration.
Although Ron's Transfiguration was not as good as Hermione's, it was still solid.
The shield looked rough, but it still counted as cover.
At least, it had no problem blocking Malfoy's Disarming Charm.
This level of Transfiguration was at least third-year standard.
"Diffindo!"
Relying on the shield, Ron directly threw out a Severing Charm.
A red beam of light shot straight toward Malfoy.
"Protego!"
Hermione had taught the others this spell the first moment she learned it.
As a result, this spell had become standard equipment for the disciplinary group.
Malfoy cast the protective spell without the slightest hesitation and reflected the Severing Charm.
The way these two fought was nothing like Hermione's gentleness.
"Protego!"
Ron likewise activated a protective spell.
The rebounded spell struck it, stirring up ripples before disappearing.
Ron did not refuse to rebound it because he did not want to.
It was just that spells could generally only be rebounded once.
Otherwise, it would become like table tennis.
You bounce it once, I bounce it once, and it would never end.
The two of them often fought like this during practice.
As long as it would not kill them, they fought as hard as possible.
Although the exchange lasted only a few short rounds, it already opened the eyes of the watching students.
Even the older students could not help nodding.
If they went up, they truly might not be able to beat those two.
"Although the Disarming Charm is the spell wizards use most often in battle, it is not impossible to defend against."
Dudley's voice once again entered every student's ears.
He commented calmly on Ron and Malfoy's battle.
"The Shield Charm or Transfiguration can block it. If you are confident enough, you may also use Finite Incantatem, but that is relatively difficult, so I do not recommend it here."
Finite Incantatem was a general-purpose counter-spell.
It could undo many kinds of spells.
Simple little spells were one thing, but facing powerful spells required extremely high casting skill.
Not a single movement or detail could be wrong.
If used poorly, it could easily backfire.
"Of course, if you are agile enough, you can also dodge."
This was the simplest method.
No matter how powerful a spell was, if it did not hit, it had no meaning.
Unless the opponent's spell could track or lock onto you, ordinary spells were still easy to dodge as long as you were quick enough.
In theory, as long as one's footwork was flexible enough, even an ordinary person could kill a wizard.
"When fighting, do not worry about things like elegance or dignity. You only need to remember one point: how to defeat your opponent."
Dudley said this to all the students, emphasizing the sentence in particular.
Finally, on the third pair's side.
Red spells flashed against red spells again and again.
"Harry, do you have something on your mind?"
Neville took a handful of seeds from his pocket and hesitated over whether to scatter them.
Harry's offense looked no weaker than that of Ron and Malfoy's pair, but Neville, who was currently fighting him, could clearly feel that Harry was distracted.
With Harry's ability, he could easily use spells far beyond what he was currently casting.
What Harry was best at was Defense Against the Dark Arts.
At present, his progress in this course was being taught concurrently by Snape.
Hm.
Although the course was called Defense Against the Dark Arts, in reality every master of Defense Against the Dark Arts had terrifying attainments in the Dark Arts themselves.
First, you had to be a master of the Dark Arts.
Only then could you teach others how to defend against them.
If you did not understand them, how could you talk about defense?
The Disarming Charm and such were truly child's play.
Harry usually opened with jinxes.
His Sectumsempra was far smoother than Hermione's.
This scene happened to fall into Dudley's eyes.
It made him even more certain that Harry truly had something on his mind.
'It seems we need to have a proper talk.'
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