Harry thought he might have underestimated the complexity of learning magic.
Periods three and four on Thursday morning were Charms class with Ravenclaw.
Objectively speaking, the tiny but amiable Professor Flitwick's teaching style was relaxed and interesting. However, he also made Harry fully realize the difficulty of learning magic.
It was definitely not what he had imagined during the summer holidays—that just by waving an arm and moving his lips, all sorts of magical things would happen.
Before that, you had to take a lot of boring notes and repeatedly practice various basic spellcasting movements.
Take his first Charms lesson for example—Professor Flitwick didn't even teach them a single interesting spell. He just had them repeatedly practice one movement: a swish of the arm and a flick of the wrist.
Compared to this, the novelty and fun brought by Professor Delfino's unconventional teaching method in the first two periods seemed more like unrestrained and eclectic magic!
However, first-year students only had Defense Against the Dark Arts once a week.
They would have to wait a whole week for the next lesson!
This made Harry extremely frustrated...
And throughout the day, with Charms in the morning and History of Magic in the afternoon, his good friend Ron kept chattering and boasting to the students around him about how he delivered the final blow to kill Malfoy, which deepened Harry's frustration.
He couldn't wait to try flying a broomstick—the feeling of riding a broomstick across the sky and fighting others made his blood boil just thinking about it!
Of course, before next week's Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, he also had to master the methods to deal with Nogtails and Red Caps in advance—relying solely on the thirty or forty minutes of self-study in class wouldn't be enough; he had to practice beforehand!
This thought was so strong that Harry relied on it completely to stay awake through the ghost professor's history class...
He didn't even have much appetite for dinner. After grabbing two sandwiches from the Great Hall in a hurry, he and Ron asked for directions to the library, intending to find books that could help him improve.
The thin librarian, Madam Pince, whose eyes were as sharp as a falcon's, severely scolded them for the commotion they caused while "snatching books" with two young wizards from Hufflepuff!
But this still didn't dampen Harry and Ron's enthusiasm.
"The library is indeed not suitable for practice, Harry!"
Ron rubbed his nose, grimacing (he had accidentally taken a punch while snatching books).
"Let's go to the common room... as long as we watch out for the prefects—oh, I mean Percy, the others won't interfere!"
"But I'm worried... can we successfully learn magic just by self-study?"
Harry panted, carrying both his and Ron's schoolbags.
"You know I grew up among Muggles, Ron. I have no foundation at all."
"Don't worry, Harry, everyone is about the same."
Harry's question did make Ron hesitate for a moment, but he quickly adjusted his mood and said in high spirits:
"Oh, Ron Weasley from Gryffindor killed Draco Malfoy from Slytherin... An unprecedented wonderful moment... You must remind me to write a letter tonight to tell Mum and Dad about this... Can I borrow your Hedwig, Harry?"
The two boys chatted excitedly all the way, looking forward to joining forces in the next Protect the Captain match to crush everyone and win precious 20 house points for Gryffindor, until they entered the Gryffindor common room.
As soon as they stepped into the round room hung with scarlet tapestries, Harry sensed a subtle anger permeating the anxious air.
Snippets of conversation couldn't reconstruct the whole picture. Harry's emerald eyes swept across the room and saw Parvati speaking heatedly to Neville on a sofa by the fireplace... The expression on Neville's face was complex—looking both relieved and a bit sad.
"That's weird!"
Harry heard Ron say in an odd tone, looking in another direction.
"See that, Harry? Fred and George seem to be arguing... Oh, although they're always rowdy, they have a good relationship. I've never seen them argue... Shall we go take a look?"
So, Harry temporarily put aside his doubts and followed Ron towards a chest of drawers against the wall.
"What's wrong?"
Ron blinked his confused eyes, looking at his twin brothers.
"You two finally fell out?"
"Oh, when did you learn to be a busybody?"
The twins immediately stopped bickering. Fred glanced sideways at Ron.
"Maybe the taste of fame made him forget himself!"
George immediately followed with a tease.
"Oh, George, it seems after Prefect Percy, the Weasley family has produced another figure who brings glory to the ancestors?"
"Agreed, Fred. Maybe we should ask little Ronnie for an autograph before he becomes famous?"
The twins took turns speaking, giving Ron absolutely no chance to interject. In just a few sentences, they made Ron's face turn completely red.
But Harry knew the twins were just teasing and meant no harm, so he just stood aside, smiling at Ron's embarrassment.
"What's wrong with you two?"
Ron shouted angrily at them.
"Why are you targeting me!"
Perhaps realizing Ron was really getting a bit angry, Fred and George stopped teasing.
"Don't mention it—"
Fred sighed and said.
"We lost face big time."
"What happened?"
Harry asked on behalf of Ron, who was sulking silently.
"We had a match against Hufflepuff this afternoon—Professor Delfino's Protect the Captain... Sigh, Cedric Diggory really rubbed our faces in the dirt!"
George also said gloomily.
"Even in Quidditch matches, that pretty boy never took such advantage of us... Did you see the look Professor McGonagall gave me at the end, George?"
Fred said.
"It simply made me shudder!"
"Yeah—"
George nodded listlessly.
"She definitely thinks we embarrassed her... I think we'd better behave ourselves recently."
Oh!
From Fred and George's back-and-forth dialogue, Harry and Ron understood the whole story.
"You played Protect the Captain against Hufflepuff, and you two lost, didn't you?"
Ron's cheeks flushed again, trying hard to control himself so he wouldn't seem too smug.
"I wonder if you've heard—"
"Oh, even Hagrid's dog and the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest have heard, my dear little Ronnie—"
Fred rolled his eyes.
"You killed that Malfoy brat, right?"
"Cherish it—"
George curled his lips.
"Next time it's your turn to shine like this, you'll probably have to wait until your wedding."
Just as Ron was about to refute their views, Parvati and Neville ran over from the fireplace.
"Have you heard, Ron—and Harry?"
Parvati glared at them indignantly.
"What?"
Parvati's anger baffled Harry.
"Oh, so you haven't heard yet—"
Parvati said angrily.
"The news only spread after dinner. The school has ordered Professor Delfino to forbid us first-year students from participating in Protect the Captain matches!"
"What?!"
Harry and Ron shouted in unison.
"It's said because—Oh, Professor Delfino is here—"
Neville stared wide-eyed towards the portrait of the Fat Lady, where the thin Professor Delfino was stepping through the portrait hole.
"Maybe he's here to explain this."