Chapter 121
“You want us to deal with this thing? What if we get hurt?” A young wizard with platinum blonde hair asked.
“You are?”
“Draco, Draco Malfoy.” He trailed off, inserting his last name.
But Belby just nodded, “I’ve heard of the Malfoy. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching from the sidelines.” Then he added, “Of course, if you get hurt, don’t worry, the damage caused by the red cap is very manageable.”
He winked towards the silent young wizards below, “I have specially brewed up a batch of healing potions, all of which are rare and finest products on the market …”
Draco looked at the new professor’s expression of “if you get hurt, you’ve made a fortune”, his already pale face turned even paler.
“The red cap is agile when hunting, will suddenly shift and roll to avoid the counterattack of the prey, we can use the Banishing Charm against it, correspondingly, Full Body-Bind Curse, Freezing Charm, Trip Jinx, Dancing jinx, Tickling Charm, Jelly-Legs Curse can be used, except for dark magic, I do not have any specific requirements.”
“Little wizards, let me see what you can do!” Belby said with great passion.
“Professor, is disarming charm allowed?” A young wizard asked.
Belby looked at him with an odd expression and said, “If you know it, of course, you can. But that’s not a spell you can master at your age …”
“Professor, I learned it in dueling class.” The young light teal-haired wizard said confidently.
The other young wizards took two steps back; Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan were known as two of the biggest mishap makers in the classroom, one accident-prone in Potions class, the other deviant in Charms class – what bizarre mishaps could happen from his spells, even Professor Flitwick wouldn’t be able to tell.
“Very well, you’re called Seamus Finnigan, right? Please come forward.”
Belby unlocked the cage, and he quietly softened the red cap’s nails with a softening charm.
In the expectant eyes of the young wizards, Seamus shouted out the incantation of the Disarming Charm –
“Expelliarmus!”
” Thumb!”
Seamus’ wand made a dull sound, like a muffled winter thunder coming from the distant sky. From the tip of his wand ejected a series of sparks, accompanied by trails of black smoke, sweeping wildly.
The young wizards quickly scrambled into a corner, and Seamus’ wand paused, but the sparks ignited the red hair on the red cap’s head.
Belby hurriedly cast out “extingu” to extinguish the fire, he turned his head to look at Seamus: “Uh … not exactly a successful attempt, your disarming charm is not proficient– -You will find that using an unskilled spell to cope with danger is a very stupid thing to do in actual combat. Do you know any other spells, a Trip Jinx? Very well, but you should try it on the table first …”
This time there is no problem, Seamus successfully used the Trip Jinx to knock off the red cap.
Of course, this may have been linked to the fact that the red cap was afraid to come forward, and the red hair on top of its head got mostly burned.
Belby wiped his sweat at the scene.
Next, the young wizards lined up in a long line and following Belby’s instructions went up one by one to challenge it.
Since Belby didn’t forbid them from using their little self-taught vile jinx, it made the little wizards collectively take a leap in strength, and most of the people in front of the line completed the task with a Trip Jinx –
Dean Thomas’ Jelly-Legs Curse, which caused the Red Cap to suddenly fall to the ground, paralysed.
Draco Malfoy’s Tickling Charm, which made the Red Cap laugh wildly.
Pansy Parkinson’s Knockback Jinx, which sent the Red Cap tumbling backward, unable to approach her.
Hermione Granger’s freezing charm freezing the Red Cap in place, with only a pair of small eyes constantly flickering.
Ron’s Full Body-Bind Curse has made the red cap’s legs tied together, like a rock falling on the floor.
Harry’s disarming charm directly knocked the red cap far away, unable to get up for a while.
Halfway through, the two red caps refused to attack, but when Belby took out a tube of dark red, blood-like potion and pointed at the little wizards, they became very excited.
After that, the little wizards got beaten up pretty badly –
The red caps showed their aggressiveness and hunting expertise in the next round of trials, flexibly moving with their forelimbs and making intimidating noises with their mouths, which made the young wizards hesitate to face them.
For the young wizards, once they hesitate and become timid, they will not play well.
For example, Neville Longbottom, after several failed attempts to recite a spell, started to run around the classroom, causing the Slytherin students to laugh, and soon he was cornered, with the red cap scratching his thighs with its softened nails – “Fight back!
“Fight back! Neville Longbottom, you need to fight back, in whatever way you can.” Professor Belby said loudly from the side.
Neville gathered his courage and grabbed the red cap’s claw and threw it away.
The young wizards in the audience watched as the small, dwarfed Red Cap flew halfway across the classroom in midair and finally caught by Belby with a Levitation charm.
Neville seemed to have opened up new horizons to them.
“Very good! Have you seen it? The red cap is not that strong … When you are cornered, instead of cowering in fear, you should fight back.”
The taller Crabbe also wanted to replicate this process, and he threw a straight punch, wanting to simply knock out the red cap. But the Red Cap nimbly dodged and tripped him from behind instead –
The red cap jumped on Crabbe’s chest and tried to claw his face and eyes.
“What did I say? Don’t duck, show some courage … The red caps don’t have a physical advantage, they win by being sneaky and nimble.” Belby said encouragingly.
But Crabbe let out an exaggerated scream, and he kept screaming until Belby pulled the red cap away with a spell.
Draco couldn’t resist slapping him: “Don’t be stupid, you don’t have any injuries on your face!”
…
When the lesson was over, Belby relieved that he had the foresight to soften the red cap’s nails with a spell in advance, or else half of the young wizards would have been put to rest.
Although he could indeed cure them, in the first class, to put a group of students down, it is really not good to be mentioned.
He concluded the class with the young wizards: “How many of you noticed that the Red Cap’s nails were under a softening charm?”
A handful of arms rose up.
“It shouldn’t be…” Belby shook his head, “All of you should have realized it after Longbottom’s accident, he didn’t have half a scratch on him!”
The young wizards also felt embarrassed, but they really didn’t notice it at the time.
“Observation of details, judgment over the situation, these are things you need to carefully consider … Well, the assignment this time is to write a minimum of eight-inch parchment based on this lesson, discussing your own strengths and weaknesses.”