— — — — — —
At first, Laos allowed the students to challenge him purely to prove he wasn't another useless pushover like the last two DADA professors. It was the quickest way to establish his authority.
But gradually, things started to change.
He realized the skill level of Hogwarts students was far lower than he'd imagined. Take the seventh-years, for example—he could hardly believe they were about to graduate. Most fifth-years at Ilvermorny were stronger than them.
So Laos started enjoying the thrill of "bullying the weak."
And the best part? After he crushed them, these students didn't look down on him—they looked at him with wide-eyed admiration, as if he'd just done something incredible. That made it even harder for him to stop.
Unfortunately, today's young wizards were behaving themselves—calm, cautious, and offering him no chance to show off in front of an audience.
Laos glanced again at Tom.
Honestly, the person he most wanted to see step forward was Tom Riddle. He was itching to test the skills of the Dark Wizard's personal protégé.
But one look at Tom's steady, unshakable expression told him his plan wasn't going to work.
It wasn't just Laos who was hoping—several Slytherins clearly wanted to see Tom in action. But Tom had no interest in grabbing the spotlight for no reason.
In the end, Laos broke the silence with a clap of his hands. "Alright, since everyone's so cooperative, let's start the actual lesson."
"I'll introduce myself first. I'm Laos Wilkinson from Ilvermorny's Horned Serpent House. Speaking of which, Ilvermorny and Hogwarts share a deep connection—its original four-house system was based directly on yours. Anyone know the details?"
A few students raised their hands. Laos called on Susan.
Susan stood and replied, "Ilvermorny's founder was Isolt Sayre, who had the blood of the Gaunt family—so she was a descendant of Slytherin. She never attended Hogwarts, which was her lifelong regret. When she founded Ilvermorny, she modeled its house system after Hogwarts."
"Very good. Hufflepuff gets five points." Laos smiled. "I like your points system."
"Do you know which Hogwarts house Horned Serpent is most like?"
Susan shook her head. The books in the library didn't go into that, and she'd already said everything she knew.
"Slytherin?" Malfoy guessed cautiously—purely based on the bloodline connection.
Laos shook his head. "Partly right, but not exactly. Horned Serpent represents both cunning and wisdom, so it sits somewhere between Slytherin and Ravenclaw."
"Actually, a lot of you have qualities from more than one house—you just don't pay attention to it. Who says a loyal person can't be shrewd? Or that someone with ambition can't also be kind? Don't let your house's stereotype box you in."
Tom looked at him in surprise.
When they'd first met, Laos had struck him as… unreliable. After all, it was hard to take seriously a man who would literally sleep with someone's ugly wife just for revenge.
But these words? This was solid gold—worth remembering for life.
After the short introduction, Laos moved on."So, tell me—when it comes to Defense Against the Dark Arts, what's the very first spell a wizard should learn?"
The class immediately buzzed with answers.
"Stupefy!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"No way, it's Expelliarmus—disarming is the key!"
"I think it's the Impediment Jinx, because it's simple and—"
Everyone had their own opinion. Laos just smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and waited until the chatter died down.
"You all make fair points—that's your freedom. But at Ilvermorny, this question has one clear answer: the Shield Charm."
The students hadn't expected that. They'd been talking about offensive spells, completely forgetting about Protego.
Someone protested, "But that's a fourth- or fifth-year spell, isn't it?"
Despite being one of the most basic defensive spells, the Shield Charm was actually harder than it looked—plenty of Ministry employees couldn't cast it properly.
"That's just how Hogwarts arranges its curriculum."
With a flick of his wand, Laos filled the blackboard with dense writing—everything from the incantation to detailed casting techniques.
"At Ilvermorny, every student's first DADA lesson starts with the Shield Charm. Even if they have zero magical foundation, they're expected to memorize both the spell and the technique. And our version isn't exactly the same as yours—it's been modified into an American variant, tuned for physical threats, especially impacts."
Tom's eyebrow twitched. He was already starting to guess where this was going.
"In America," Laos continued, "wizards face a lot of dangers—not just Dark wizards, but dangerous magical creatures, and sometimes even our own spells. But the most dangerous threat of all comes from Muggles."
"You've heard of guns, right?"
The Muggle-borns and half-bloods nodded immediately, but many pure-bloods looked utterly lost.
Laos waved his wand, and a curtain dropped from above the blackboard. The windows sealed shut, dimming the room.
A beam of light suddenly hit the curtain, and the students noticed a strange machine tucked in the corner.
Tom recognized it instantly—a hand-cranked projector.
Electronics didn't work inside Hogwarts, but mechanical devices were fine—as long as you replaced the lamp with a magical light source.
Laos stepped up to the projector and turned the crank. Images began to flicker onto the curtain.
"Firearms are one of the Muggles' greatest inventions—and one of their most evil. With them, they've slaughtered billions of their own kind. Ah—sorry, maybe I'm overestimating your math skills. That's like… the population of a hundred thousand Hogwarts. Got the picture now?"
"On top of guns, Muggles have created all sorts of large-scale killing machines. But those don't really threaten us much—the Ministry has an entire department keeping tabs on those weapons, ready to warn local wizards to evacuate if needed."
"It's only guns that put us on truly equal footing with Muggles when we're caught off guard."
"That's impossible!" Malfoy burst out. "We have magic! What do they have?"
Laos gave him a sideways glance. "You know the Shield Charm?"
"Me?" Malfoy's face turned bright red. He stammered for a few seconds before muttering, "I'll… learn it eventually."
"You know nonverbal magic? Fast nonverbal magic? Do you know the speed of a bullet?"
He kept firing off questions until Malfoy fell silent, then continued, "Exactly. If you can cast a Shield Charm quickly and well, you can block most regular firearms just fine."
The images on the curtain changed. A man with a pistol fired repeatedly at a wizard; the bullets ricocheted wildly off a glowing shield.
"But when the weapon is a high-powered sniper rifle, or armor-piercing rounds, a normal Shield Charm won't cut it."
The next slide showed a wizard's shield shattering—the bullet whistled past him and hit the target behind.
"In my country, there's an average of 1.2 guns per person, and many of them are extremely powerful. And it's a very free country—gunfights break out every day. I've seen it happen more times than the number of students in your whole class."
He gave a dark chuckle. "Once, in a single day, I witnessed twelve separate gang shootouts. In some of them… one shot, and someone was gone."
"That means any Muggle you pass on the street could be carrying something that could kill you instantly. In that kind of world, isn't the Shield Charm the first spell you should be learning?"
The pure-blood students sat frozen, faces pale, breathing shallow. They'd never imagined the Muggle world could be this dangerous.
Slide after slide flashed across the curtain—scenes of gunfights, blood spraying—until the last one: a wizard falling, struck dead by a bullet. The classroom was silent.
Laos rolled the curtain up and unlatched the windows. Warm sunlight spilled in, and the students' tension finally eased a little.
"Britain might be safer, but that doesn't mean you're untouchable," Laos went on. "Potter mentioned his uncle once aimed a hunting rifle at Hagrid. So—are you going to learn this Shield Charm, designed specifically to counter Muggle firearms, or not?"
Every student nodded frantically.
For the sake of their own lives, this was non-negotiable.
"Good," Laos said, pleased. He launched into his explanation of the specialized Shield Charm.
It was probably the most attentive they'd ever been in a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. The sound of quills scratching across parchment didn't stop until they'd recorded every last detail. Then Laos set them to practice while he sipped tea, keeping one eye discreetly on Tom.
A second later, his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
"Deflectus Ballistica," Tom murmured, a faint brass-colored light flashing over his skin before vanishing almost instantly.
It hadn't disappeared—it was simply invisible, lying dormant on his skin. It worked much like the passive spells Andros had taught him: the moment a bullet approached, it would activate and curve the shot's trajectory.
It was more for absorbing kinetic force than blocking magic—less effective against magical attacks like Stunners or Shield Charms—but it was still incredibly practical.
Most wizards couldn't react to bullets in time; with this, you'd get a vital fraction of a second to respond. And unless you were taken out in a surprise shot, even the most elite soldier wouldn't stand a chance against a wizard.
"Is this really his first time?"
Tom was calm, but Laos was reeling.
Making a specialized Shield Charm cling invisibly to your skin took serious mastery. He'd started learning this charm in his first year and hadn't managed that effect until fourth year—and even then, he'd been one of the fastest in his class.
Tom had nailed it on his first try?
Had he learned it before?
Laos guessed wrong. This was indeed Tom's first time seeing the specialized Shield Charm. But Grindelwald's training was already paying off—once you understood the underlying principles of a type of magic, learning its variants became much faster.
That was magical intuition. Later on, the real challenge wouldn't be learning new spells, but refining them to a level others couldn't even imagine.
Before long, the bell rang.
As the students reluctantly gathered their things, Laos called out, "Starting next class, we'll be back on track with the normal syllabus. I'll be teaching you how to deal with pixies. But don't slack off on the Shield Charm—once a month I'll dedicate a lesson to checking your progress."
Then he turned to Tom. "Mr. Riddle, I hear from Professor Dumbledore that you have your own thoughts on Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Care to join me in my office to talk?"
Tom knew it was just an excuse, but nodded.
The others headed downstairs for lunch while Tom followed Laos into the adjoining office.
The moment the door shut, Tom's appearance began to shift.
"Holy Shit!" Laos spun around and nearly fell over. "Michael?!"
"Laos." Tom smiled faintly. "Didn't expect we'd meet again. Compared to how you looked that day in the woods, you're in much better shape now."
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