Chapter 290: Professors Becoming Stricter
Professor Moody's response method was to deal with it from the perspective of the weak.
This was certainly no problem.
Sean's issue wasn't with this.
His issue was that when Sean had just used the Blasting Curse and Professor Moody chose to dodge, this didn't constitute a duel according to the panel's judgement, so naturally there was no determination of a draw or anything like that.
Sean had roughly figured out a pattern for the panel's judgements, but the panel always came up with new tricks. Every time Sean wanted to exploit a bug, the panel would make his calculations come to nothing.
"Bulstrode, once more. Blasting Curse."
"Yes, Professor."
Having received Sean's confirmation, Moody again said to the others: "Next, I'll demonstrate for everyone how to use magic to deal with the Blasting Curse when you can't dodge.
Come on, Bulstrode!"
"Confringo!"
"Aguamenti!"
A curtain of water sprayed from Moody's wand, blocking in front of him like a shield.
The blue light of Sean's Blasting Curse hit the water curtain and disappeared silently like fire entering water, completely dissolving into nothing.
The Blasting Curse couldn't affect gases and liquids, and Moody's use of the Water-Making Spell precisely utilised this characteristic, very simply neutralising the danger brought by the Blasting Curse.
Of course, to some degree, if you had a fire hydrant and sprayed water directly, you could achieve the same effect.
The Water-Making Spell was a very simple charm that basically all first and second-year Hogwarts students could master, so for fourth-year students, there was no situation where they couldn't use the Water-Making Spell.
If fourth-year students couldn't even use the Water-Making Spell, then there really was no need to learn any response methods. Dropping out and leaving the magical world early would be safest.
Glancing at the panel, he found there was still no reaction.
Sean frowned slightly, thought briefly, then said to Moody: "Professor Moody, may I try?"
"Bulstrode? You mean, I use the Blasting Curse to attack you?"
"That's right, I'd also like to try."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, Professor Moody."
Hearing Sean's words, Professor Moody's magical eye spun around before finally settling on Sean.
Though Moody was mad, he still had some sense of propriety.
He didn't launch any sudden attacks but instead stepped back slightly and performed a duelling bow with Sean, giving him ample preparation time.
Seeing this, Sean didn't delay either. He also bowed, then held his wand ready for action.
"Confringo!"
"Aguamenti!"
When an expert makes a move, you immediately know if they have skill.
Sean was very clear that Moody hadn't used his full strength, but even so, his speed reached quite an astonishing level. His wand-waving speed and spell-casting speed both reached top tier. Sean had to give his all to barely keep up with Moody's restrained speed.
Poof!
Moody's Blasting Curse was neutralised under Sean's Water-Making Spell.
However, unlike how Sean's Blasting Curse had silently disappeared in Moody's water curtain, Moody's Blasting Curse ultimately still blasted a gap in the water curtain summoned by Sean's spell. Obviously, regarding mastery of the Blasting Curse, according to the panel's classification, Moody had reached at least LV4 level.
"Quite impressive casting speed. It seems Lupin's evaluation of you was still somewhat low." As his words fell, Moody turned his head to look at the others, but Sean felt that Moody's gaze seemed to still be on him. Thinking of the magical eye's effect, Sean roughly guessed that Moody was still observing him.
The magical eye was still observing Sean on one side, while Moody said to the students below: "Record what I taught you today. Although I don't like written instruction, sometimes written material will deepen your memory. Write it down, then write a paper about your understanding of the Blasting Curse and give it to me. Understood?"
"Understood, Professor."
"Understood."
"Very good. Then, class dismissed!"
The moment Moody said class was dismissed, the bell rang.
Just then, Moody turned to look at Sean, who was preparing to return to his desk to pack up, and said: "Bulstrode, you don't need to write the assignment. Such things are useless to you."
After a moment's pause, Sean nodded slightly to Moody: "Thank you, Professor."
"Good, it's what you deserve."
After saying this simple sentence, Moody turned and left.
Watching Moody leave, Sean also received a notification from the panel. As expected, the panel determined it was a draw.
[Duel Concluded!]
[Conditions Met: Draw Against Magical Opponent.]
[System Commencing Reduced Ability Extraction from Defeated Target: Alastor Moody.]
[Ability extraction count reduced due to draw result.]
[Extracting...]
Sean felt a controlled burst of heat flow through his wand arm, like molten fire being carefully channelled and contained within his magical core.
[Extraction Complete!]
[New Curse Acquired: Fire Curse LV3]
Level 3 Fire Curse. Neither good nor bad.
For the current Sean, it was indeed an improvement, but not a large one.
Sean didn't feel any regret about this. There were still many Defence Against the Dark Arts classes this semester, enough for Sean to extract abilities bit by bit.
Moody's Defence Against the Dark Arts class was different from previous ones, even faintly surpassing last year's Professor Lupin's classes. It was very popular with students, including Blaise.
Sean also welcomed Moody's classes and thought they were very good. But there was one thing that made Sean feel puzzled. According to his memory, Moody's first class should have been teaching the Unforgivable Curses, but today Moody hadn't even mentioned them. Sean didn't know if this change was something he had brought about.
This made Sean even more wary of Moody.
After Defence Against the Dark Arts came Charms.
This year, Professor Flitwick had changed from his usual kind demeanour and became increasingly strict.
After all, the O.W.L. exams were next year. Although it seemed like there was still a year, in reality, for an exam that could determine one's entire life, a year really wasn't long. And it wasn't just Charms Professor Flitwick. Transfiguration Professor McGonagall was the same.
Even at this year's first Fir Club meeting, Sean had done some additional test papers that Professor McGonagall brought, confirming that Sean's Transfiguration didn't need much of her worry, before continuing to maintain Sean's privilege of not needing to attend Transfiguration classes.
As for Potions class...
Well.
In Potions class, Snape completely ignored Sean, letting him read other Potions textbooks.
Although they had considerable complaints about the special treatment Sean received, no one dared to actually protest. First, they knew this was Potions class with Snape teaching, and second, Sean's level in Potions was sufficient to be a professor, so naturally he didn't need to worry about improving his Potions grades like they did.