[Additional Magical Signature Detected...]
[System Commencing Secondary Ability Extraction from Parasitic Soul Fragment.]
[Extracting...]
A cold, calculating presence brushed against Sean's consciousness for just an instant—brilliant, ruthless, and utterly alien—before vanishing completely.
[Extraction Complete!]
[New Talent Acquired: Skilled Casting LV2]
Hm?
How is there still more?
Ah, that's right. Harry has a small fragment of Voldemort's soul inside him, equivalent to a miniature Horcrux. So after I dueled with Harry, that soul fragment gave me Voldemort's ability, while this latter talent is what Harry gave me!
Most of the talents Sean had obtained so far were LV1 talents. This Skilled Casting that Harry gave Sean was an extremely rare LV2 talent. Skilled Casting allowed Sean to get the hang of magic faster when using it, succeed more easily, and master and become proficient with magic more quickly.
Simply put, he learned fast and gained experience fast too.
Skilled Casting was Sean's biggest surprise.
But currently, what was most useful to Sean was actually Parseltongue.
Unlike Harry's half-understood Parseltongue that came from the influence of Voldemort's soul fragment and couldn't unleash its power, seeming more like instinct, Sean's Parseltongue came from Voldemort's soul fragment through dueling, and he could completely control this LV3 Parseltongue.
However, Sean wasn't sure if he could control the Basilisk.
After all, the reason Voldemort could control the Basilisk was firstly because of Parseltongue, and secondly because of his bloodline from Salazar Slytherin. Although Sean had mastered Parseltongue, he wasn't a descendant of Slytherin's bloodline, so he probably couldn't control the Basilisk. He'd still have to deal with it the hard way.
Taking the wand Sean handed back to him, Harry showed no signs of dejection. Instead, with a hint of admiration, he said to Sean, "Sean, your strength really does exceed mine by quite a bit. It looks like I need to work harder too."
Unlike Sean, Harry didn't have something like a system panel, nor did he have something like Gavin's notes. He was actually not much different from ordinary students, learning magic entirely from teachers. However, what Harry was best at happened to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, and in his seven years at Hogwarts, he had very few qualified Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.
First year's Quirrell and second year's Lockhart were basically useless. It wasn't until third year's Lupin arrived that Harry's abilities truly made significant progress, surpassing most young wizards his age. Fourth year's Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Moody, though he had ulterior motives, did teach Harry some real things in order to maintain his disguise. It was precisely these two years of instruction that allowed Harry to truly grow, even later teaching others Defense Against the Dark Arts content, showing his talent was genuinely excellent and very much worth keeping in the dueling club to properly milk for benefits.
Without realizing it, Sean had already started treating the dueling club as his own private territory...
"Alright, alright, I believe everyone now knows how to use the Disarming Charm, right? So now, everyone find your own partner, and we'll practice here.
Of course, the Disarming Charm! Only the Disarming Charm, everyone must remember that.
So now, practice begins!"
At this point, Sean and Harry had already come down from the dueling platform.
Sean paired with Blaise, and after hearing Lockhart's words, Sean began instructing Blaise on using the Disarming Charm.
On the other side, Harry had originally wanted to pair with Ron, but he had long been targeted by Malfoy. After receiving Lockhart's command, Malfoy eagerly rushed over, taunting while beginning to duel with Harry.
Their duel completely departed from the scope of the Disarming Charm. Many minor hexes shot from their wands, and the two took turns performing backward somersaults with their bottoms hitting the ground, falling repeatedly while completely ignoring Lockhart's loud shouting. The spells they used also gradually departed from the practice scope.
Malfoy was hit by one of Harry's spells, flipping backward in a complete circle before landing hard on his bottom, making him grimace in pain.
Gritting his teeth hard, Malfoy got up and looked at Harry, directly waving his wand to cast a dark magic spell.
"Serpensortia!"
Malfoy's wand tip seemed to explode, and simultaneously a pitch-black king cobra shot out from his wand tip, raising its head and flicking its tongue as it slithered toward Harry, whose face showed terror.
"Potter, don't be afraid, and don't move. I'll get rid of it."
Snape lazily walked toward Harry's direction. Looking at Harry in his somewhat embarrassing situation, a barely visible smile appeared on his face. Clearly, Snape was very pleased to see Harry in a predicament. He would certainly protect Harry from death, but he was also happy to see Harry suffer—the former because of Lily, the latter because of James.
"Let me handle this!"
Just then, Lockhart shouted and stepped forward, drawing his wand and pointing it at the snake.
"Alarte Ascendare!"
A white light shot from Lockhart's wand and hit the snake. The snake flew high into the air, writhing in mid-air, then fell back down with a thud, landing not far in front of Harry.
At this point, the snake was clearly enraged. It raised its head high, constantly flicking its tongue as it rapidly slithered toward Harry.
Seeing this pitch-black king cobra approaching, Harry ignored Snape, who had already drawn his wand and was preparing to cast a spell. As if by instinct, he stepped forward and spoke to the black king cobra: "Back off! Back off!"
At this moment, everyone present looked at Harry with either surprise or fear, because except for Sean, who could understand that Harry was telling the snake to back off, everyone else heard only the low, hoarse hissing sound coming from Harry's mouth—that snake-like hissing.
Parseltongue!
In that instant, anyone who knew about Parseltongue realized what Harry had just done.
From the previous attacks, everyone already knew they were carried out by Slytherin's heir, and it was common knowledge that Slytherin's heir could speak Parseltongue. Now seeing Harry demonstrate Parseltongue, naturally everyone connected Harry with Slytherin's heir. Especially since Harry had been present at both previous attacks, this deepened his suspicious status. For a moment, everyone stepped back, but they weren't avoiding the king cobra—they were avoiding Harry, avoiding this Slytherin heir who could use Parseltongue!
Snape stepped forward. His gaze toward Harry was very complex, but soon these emotions disappeared into his unfathomable eyes. He waved his wand lightly, and a flame shot from Snape's wand tip, directly turning the snake to ash.
(TL NOTE: Unfortunately, my LOTR: Playing Minecraft in Middle-earth book was mistakenly flagged as spam on Webnovel and removed. I'll re-upload it under a different title by tomorrow at the latest. Thank you for your patience!)