Kestrel gazed at the vast expanse of ice and snow before her, and at the Merpeople huffing on the reef, a brilliant smile spreading across her face.
"Fantastic!"
Without hesitation, she drew her wand and pointed it at the ground. Two ice skates instantly materialized on the soles of her shoes.
Cheering, Kestrel glided swiftly toward the reefs.
"Don't worry, I'm here to help you!"
She called out loudly, aiming her wand at the lake. A burst of magic surged forth like a spinning drill, boring a large hole in the ice.
"Go back in!" she said with a smile.
Several frightened Merpeople hurriedly slipped into the opening, the last of them—a Merperson elder—even poking her head back out to glance at Kestrel.
Kestrel remained completely unfazed by the surrounding astonishment and questioning. Her mind was fully absorbed in building the ice track.
Her wand danced through the air like a conductor's baton leading an invisible orchestra.
With crisp incantations and flashes of magical light, a winding and mischievous track quickly formed across the vast frozen lake.
The course began at the shore near the Castle, snaked and twisted, and finally vanished into the distance near several large bubbles trapped beneath the ice. The track was lined with "little surprises," all carefully designed by Kestrel:
"Tripping Ice Humps": Seemingly flat ice would suddenly bulge into small humps, enough to make anyone gliding at high speed instantly lose balance.
"Mist Jets": Crystalline ice pillars would abruptly spray dense white mist, completely obscuring the path ahead.
"Slippery Traps": Specific areas were enchanted with a Slippery Charm, making them feel like buttered floors—extremely difficult to maintain direction.
"Bottomless Ice Holes": Disguised patches of ice would suddenly crack open into holes just wide enough for one person to fall through (harmless, of course, but enough to get them soaked and disheveled).
"Swinging Ice Bridges": The only way across some ravines was via narrow ice bridges, which gently swayed to test balance.
The rules were simple: glide through the entire course and reach the finish line. But the real challenge—and fun—lay in the fact that students were encouraged to use magic to alter the course.
Competitors could wave their wands mid-glide, casting spells to either help themselves or sabotage others:
"Ice Rise!": Raised a slope in the path ahead, creating a chance to speed up.
"Smooth Track!": Flattened any "Tripping Ice Humps" or bumps on the route, making the glide smoother.
"Bridge Generation!": Instantly conjured a sturdy (though possibly slippery) ice bridge over gaps or shortcuts—perfect for bold racers.
"Lubricate Ice / Roughen Ice!": The trickster's move—cast "Lubricate" behind you to send pursuers tumbling, or "Roughen" in front of opponents to create a jagged, unstable path.
The Ultimate Challenge — "Stop and Stand Still"!
The students' final objective was to successfully cast "Stop and Stand Still" skill or "Impedimenta" before crossing the track boundary, using the immense magical friction to perform a safe—perhaps even stylish—emergency stop.
...
"Professor Lumina, what is this for?"
More and more curious students gathered at the edge of the Black Lake, craning their necks to watch Kestrel busily working on the ice, her wand constantly waving. They couldn't help but ask.
"Ha! This is brand-new teaching content!" Kestrel stopped, turned around, her face glowing with excitement, and answered loudly.
"Ice skating competition?" a student ventured.
"Of course not! This isn't just ordinary ice skating!"
Kestrel waved dramatically, as if sweeping away a boring idea.
She strode toward the students by the lake and tapped her throat lightly with her wand:
"Sonorus!"
Her voice instantly amplified, echoing powerfully in the cold air and across the ice:
"This is to test your ability to adapt on the fly," she declared earnestly. "Imagine this: in battle, if the enemy can't beat you and tries to run—what do you do?"
The students looked at each other. "Huh?"
"Stupid! Of course you chase them!"
Kestrel shouted, clearly exasperated, then switched tracks. "But on the flip side, if you're the one who can't win—what should you do?"
This time, the students were quick to catch on and replied in unison, "Run!"
"Wrong!" Kestrel immediately raised a finger and corrected them sharply, "That's called a 'strategic retreat'! Got it? Strategic retreat!"
With her hands on her hips and her chin slightly raised, she declared with righteous indignation, "Can blindly running save your life? Naive! The essence of retreat—sorry, of 'strategic retreat'—is learning to change the terrain beneath your feet!"
She began pacing back and forth, lecturing with flair, "Whether it's building bridges and paths for yourself to find a sliver of hope, or creating 'little surprises' for your pursuers to buy time—these are all survival skills on the battlefield! What we're doing today is a rehearsal for future duels!"
The students responded in half-comprehension: "Oh—!"
"I've created some 'skills' specifically for this game, and my magic will help you perform them without needing to understand the full concept behind them!" She waved her wand, and all the skill names appeared in the air like a hologram.
"Your goal is to use your mind and quick thinking to use the skills to your advantage while hindering others as well as focus on the magic flow while you use those spells! My friends and I called this type of teaching 'Reverse engineering'! Alright, you won't understand just by listening to theory."
Feeling she had explained enough, Kestrel waved her hand dismissively. Her eyes scanned the crowd like a searchlight before she casually pointed at over a dozen young Wizards. "You! You! You! You! You! And you few—yes, you! Don't try to hide, I mean you!"
She precisely picked out Hermione, who had been dragged over by Harry and Ron to watch the fun. "Don't just stand there, you dummy—go try the track! Practice makes perfect!"
Hermione looked bewildered but had no choice. Slowly and reluctantly, she stepped up to the starting line with the other unfortunate students who had been called out.
Kestrel quickly and concisely explained the key rules. Only after confirming everyone understood did she draw her wand again.
"Now, the starting method is a little special!" Kestrel smiled mischievously. "I'll give you all a little... push!"
With a graceful wave of her wand, a magical force struck the students from behind. Before they could even cry out, they were already hurtling forward like stones launched from a slingshot, whooshing across the ice.
The once-silent ice field instantly came alive, transformed into a massive, chaotic skating rink filled with startled screams and uncontrollable laughter.
At the same time, under the amazed gazes of the students, Kestrel lifted off the ground, transforming into a glowing red bird-shaped phantom and soaring above the track.
"Ah ah ah—splash!" A first-year Hufflepuff stepped right into a "Slippery Trap" at the starting point, spinning like a top. Ice chips flew into her face, causing an outburst of laughter from the sidelines.
Frantically casting a Cleaning Charm on herself, she scrambled back up and pressed forward.
"Watch my ice ramp—ouch!" a confident Gryffindor upperclassman shouted, casting "Ice Rise" to leap over an obstacle—
Unfortunately, the angle was too steep, and the "ice ramp" became an "ice wall." He slammed into it head-on, then slid across the ice like a squashed frog.
"Cross the bridge! Quickly, cross the bridge!" Two Ravenclaw students dashed toward a "Swinging Ice Bridge" at nearly the same time.
As the first stepped onto it, the second one grinned mischievously and cast "Lubricate Ice" on the surface behind them.
"Sliiiide—splat!"
Both of them, along with a few others trying to sneak across, slipped and collapsed into a tangled heap on the bridge.
"Impedimenta!… Wait, not here!"
A panicked Slytherin student misjudged the finish line and, in an attempt to brake, shakily cast "Impedimenta"—but it flew toward a competitor on a nearby track instead.
That poor student, who had been skating at full speed, suddenly felt as if she'd crashed into an invisible rubber wall. She was flung backward midair and landed in a ridiculous heap, drawing an even louder burst of laughter.
"Smooth! Smooth it out quickly!" someone shouted toward a bumpy area hidden by a "Mist Jet."
Their teammate cast "Smooth Ice" in a hurry, but the spell missed, sweeping over a nearby section instead—accidentally turning a smooth area into a jagged mess. Charging into it, the caster was jolted so violently her wand nearly flew from her hand, her curses drowned out by the roar of laughter.
The entire scene was like a lively magical version of "Ice Mario Kart," with the ice surface rising and falling under the influence of spells, and ice bridges appearing and vanishing like phantoms.
Competitors screamed as they sped across the ice, struggling to stay upright while frantically waving their wands like duelists—modifying their path, setting traps for others, or saving themselves from imminent disaster.
Above all the chaos, Kestrel—transformed into a swift, dark silhouette—circled low over the rink, observing the battle.
In one hand, she held a gleaming stopwatch; in the other, a scoreboard that updated in real time with a string of hilarious penalties: "Hit Ice Hump -1," "Friendly Fire -2," "Spectacular Fall +1."
One moment, she blew a sharp whistle for a student who barely avoided falling into a "Bottomless Ice Hole," and the next, she was mercilessly mocking some poor soul who faceplanted thanks to their own misfired spell.
~~~~~~~
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