Suddenly, recalling something, William looked down and happened to see this scene. He was about to curl his lips but realized it seemed somewhat unethical, so he could only sigh, wave his wand, and a strong gust of wind appeared out of nowhere, wrapping all the gases together, crashing towards the culprit who was about to turn and flee—
"Polluting the environment, that's an extra penalty."
With that, the whirlwind of dungbombs swirled Fred and George around until they were dizzy, and both fell to the ground, reeking all over.
The dungbomb wasn't thrown by me, you must have caught the wrong person... George just wanted to retort, but the stench lingering around his nose and mouth stopped him, and he knelt on the side of the road along with Fred, dry heaving for a while...
Then, after finishing dry heaving, the two turned their heads and glanced at each other, and then continued to lower their heads and vomit, the green bile mixed with the pumpkin pie from dinner splattering on their robes.
"Good, the selection is over, for some reason, the students whose names I call, stay behind—"
Due to being too enthusiastic when taking action, William forgot to hold back, resulting in too few people left after ten minutes. He could only cough twice and shamelessly changed the rules, adding some senior students who clearly had enough strength but were kicked to the roadside by him due to their boldness to the list.
Meanwhile, the one-on-one selection was coming to an end too. Harry, who was the first to take the stage, had long eliminated Cho Chang. Cedric and Neville, who followed him, also defeated their opponents. Now, Professor Flitwick returned to the stage and quickly and sharply announced—
"The last group, Ron Weasley against Draco Malfoy."
After faithfully announcing the matchup, the little old man bounced off the stage, eager to end this selection quickly and go back to study the dream-controlling magic William mentioned. Although William said this spell required some special talent, he was still very confident in his charms—
Moreover, the research direction mentioned by William was a field he had never considered before.
The stimulation from various aspects left him itching with anticipation.
"Go ahead, Ron."
Harry raised his hand, patted the boy's shoulder, and encouraged him in a low voice.
"Okay..."
Ron took a deep breath, looking at Draco, who had already jumped onto the dueling platform and was now staring at him with a mocking expression, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"Ready, pauper? Or... are you scared?"
Malfoy's voice was as pretentious as ever. Ron thought that after they stole the opponent's ring, he wouldn't have time to collect any more, but he didn't expect Draco to still find a ring before the end...
So...
Will he win?
No, definitely win.
A confident smile suddenly spread across Ron's face. Facing Malfoy's fully taunting expression, he walked onto the dueling platform decisively, planning to give a good beating...
...
...
Defeated, utterly defeated.
Everything happened in a flash. When both sides raised their wands, Ron was still imagining the scene of himself defeating Malfoy. But in the next second after the countdown ended, a lightning-fast red charm directly hit his chest, and the fourteen-inch long willow wand flew up, drawing a beautiful arc in the air—
"Professor, you should announce the result now."
Malfoy's sarcastic voice rang out, lazily calling out to Professor Flitwick, who seemed a bit dazed.
"Oh, right, I announce that Draco Malfoy wins."
Still amazed at how fast his wish for it to end came true, Flitwick blinked, then sharply announced again. After doing all this, he looked at William, who had finished selecting people and was walking over, with a look of inquiry in his eyes.
"Since that's the case—"
William nodded, showing no reaction to Ron, who was still in a daze on the dueling platform. Of course, he knew that Ron was Harry's good friend, an important supporting character—but what did that have to do with him? He was there to choose based on grades and combat power, not to push the plot along.
Actually, William had thought before that, as this book's protagonist, Harry's talent was among the best in all of Hogwarts. Many charms were taught to him only a few times before he learned and mastered them easily, slower than William but still considered a genius—
So logically, the protagonist's teammates should have some merit, right?
This was also why William let Harry bring two people to the Room of Requirement earlier, to see if he could find any talented individuals with help from Harry's protagonist aura, but in the end, he only found Hermione...
Due to limited previous interactions, William didn't actually know what was special about her. Initially, he thought she was just a diligent student, a bit of a solitary character, but upon discovering she used a Time Turner to split a day into two, he was astounded—
The time difference is not something an ordinary person can handle, to say the least; this girl is seriously hard-working...
Even though he disliked such diligence in his previous life, William decided to lend a hand—so, with his "encouragement," Hermione had recently been trying to turn one day into three.
However, it seemed like the original trio was missing one member—but William didn't mind, with a flick of his wand, the little wizards who failed in the duel were directly transported away from the scene. Then a light glowed in his palm, and eighteen blue rings gently floated up, landing on the remaining little wizards on the scene except for the three who had already acquired rings.
"Alright, these are your certificates to participate in the Duel Club—"
Seeing the group of little wizards scrutinizing the rings in their hands with fascination, William's face wore a gentle smile, and then he dismissed the crowd. After all, it was getting late; they had wasted quite a bit of time exploring freely earlier, and it was almost curfew time at the castle.
After explaining the location and time of future gatherings would be notified later, William watched this group of people leave the classroom.
"So, there's really no chance for me... um, to use the ancient magic you mentioned?"
Now that the fifth classroom was back to its original state with only William and Flitwick left, William had put away the Magic Rune Stone he used to expand the space. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Flitwick suddenly stepped forward and stopped him, his tone carrying some undisguised regret and hope.
"Unfortunately, you really can't—"
William shook his head, not hiding anything from Professor Flitwick. Their long association had let him see through Professor Flitwick's character completely, and moreover, ancient magic wasn't some sort of lifeline. Though it sounded like a type of magic that everyone in ancient times knew, it wasn't that simple at all—
Still the same point, to learn ancient magic, you must have talent!
Honestly, he still hadn't figured out how Little Tom managed to use ancient magic to develop the Dream Spell. Excluding the possibility that the opponent inherently had the talent, the only other explanation left was that he unwittingly learned it while absorbing the magic power left on Ginny to strengthen his core—
This explanation was barely reasonable, but it brought about another issue, that Harry, who devoured Little Tom's entire soul, should have it too...
Wait a minute, amidst his racing thoughts, William's eyes suddenly brightened. He no longer paid attention to Flitwick, who was still chattering away, said goodbye, then quickly left the classroom, heading towards the Slytherin Dungeon—
"Oh, well, maybe I should research it myself—"
Although turned down by William, Flitwick didn't lose hope. Watching the boy's departing silhouette, the old man sighed, but in his mind, he began calculating—he'd actually already drafted a plan. William had cast that Dream Spell multiple times in front of him before, and now he seemed to feel he was touching the threshold.
The old man muttered to himself as he left the room, and the once dark classroom returned to silence.