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The sheer, adrenaline-fueled excitement surrounding the Dueling Club's internal, highly secretive activities spread like absolute wildfire across the castle—
Dozens more little wizards with absolutely nothing better to do on a Saturday morning aggressively crowded around the thick oak doors of the requisitioned Dueling Club classroom. Many of these students simply couldn't find an official club member to successfully invite them inside, so they simply, desperately crowded tightly at the doorway, craning their necks and looking on with eager, burning curiosity.
Seeing this massive, slightly dangerous bottleneck of students, Professor McGonagall stepped out of the room. With a stern sigh and a complex swish of her wand, she simply conjured several massive, highly polished silver mirrors. Utilizing a highly complex, mathematical matrix of mutual reflection between the enchanted mirrors, she flawlessly arranged a high-definition "live broadcast" of the dueling stage directly out into the crowded corridor so the uninvited students could safely watch.
The heavy mirrors conjured by the Transfiguration Professor were truly, exceptionally, impossibly clear! The exact angles of hanging and placement were also mathematically perfect, capturing every single angle of the stage. It was undeniably the brilliant work of a perfectionist geometry master.
Professor McGonagall is absolutely mighty and undeniably impressive! Regulus thought, looking at the floating mirrors.
Back inside the hall, standing proudly on a high wooden platform, Professor Flitwick passionately concluded the final duel of the morning brackets.
"Today, every single one of you did absolutely wonderfully on those platforms. Your reflexes are sharp, and your courage is commendable! You are the very future of our magical world—and I am profoundly proud of you!" Flitwick squeaked, wiping a tear from his eye. "Please take good care of the enchanted parchment currently in your hands; it will automatically continue to record your dynamic Elo points and heavily update your future match schedules."
With that final instruction, Professor Flitwick casually waved his short wand. The twelve heavy wooden dueling platforms instantly rose from the ground and stacked themselves neatly against the far stone wall. Then, the massive granite long table that had previously been resting against the back wall magically floated and was pushed directly into the exact center of the open classroom.
"However, besides simply violently dueling each other," Professor Flitwick beamed, his eyes sparkling. "The Dueling Club student committee has also meticulously arranged some other highly fun, practical magical activities for you to test your raw power. As the highly anticipated 'Fourth Ranked Event' of the morning, absolutely everyone is welcome to step up and safely experience the challenge."
The eyes of every single little wizard present uniformly, intensely focused on the ten mysterious objects of various geological shapes and colors currently resting on the granite long table. Whispers broke out as they wildly speculated on what exactly these dense things were for.
"This time, our fun activity is: The Severing Charm Raw Power Level Test!" Professor Flitwick introduced with massive excitement, practically bouncing on his heels. "This is a highly advanced, practical application of the foundational content from my very first-year Charms Class curriculum!"
"In front of you on the table, lined up strictly from left to right, are—"
The broadly smiling Professor Flitwick shrilly read out a long string of highly specific, Muggle geological terms that instantly left the vast majority of the pureblood little wizards completely, utterly confused—
"Talc." The Little Wizards: …??
"Gypsum." "Calcite." "Iron." The Little Wizards: Ah! Okay, we finally recognize that one. (Nodding)
"Apatite." "Moonstone." "Quartz." "Spinel." "Stishovite." "And finally... solid, uncut Diamond."
After listening to this highly dense string of Muggle geological and mineralogical terms, more than half of the traditionally educated pureblood little wizards were practically "academically defeated," leaving them staring at the rocks utterly bewildered.
"Our Fourth-Ranked Activity is incredibly simple: Use a standard Severing Charm to violently cut the physical objects in front of you. You must attempt to carve the specified, deep magical marks directly onto their surface to earn the corresponding mathematical Elo points. From left to right, the physical density and magical resistance of the material gradually, massively increases, and the points awarded increase incrementally!"
"Do absolutely not underestimate the raw power of the Severing Charm!" Professor Flitwick smiled spiritedly. He could practically foresee the glorious, administrative scene of his Charms Class becoming the most popular, highly respected subject throughout the entire school. "Although it is technically basic content learned in the first year! But when you actively use it in combat—you will quickly know that manipulating different mental details and raw magical output leads to vastly, terrifyingly different physical effects!"
As soon as this highly addictive, visual testing method—which was exactly like the classic "Raw Power Testing Stones" that have heavily dominated the "Chinese Qi Dian Fantasy Webnovel Section" for decades, remaining perpetually popular simply because it is the absolute most suitable trope for arrogant face-slapping and fulfilling basic human desires for validation—was introduced, it immediately, violently ignited the competitive interest of the little wizards. They began discussing the rocks highly heatedly among themselves.
"It's structured exactly like this: from here to the end of the table, these physical materials get molecularly harder and vastly harder to crack, and it naturally becomes increasingly difficult to physically leave a magical mark on the surface using standard force," the brilliant, academically gifted Lily Evans, always highly skilled at summarizing logic, quietly explained the mechanics to her confused friend Mary.
Sirius and James exchanged a highly knowing, wicked smile. Sirius and Regulus had actively, illegally done highly similar, violent structural density tests on materials at Grimmauld Place all summer, and Sirius had naturally shared the underlying magical theory with his Gryffindor friends.
Regulus, currently standing near the back, was already mentally predicting the exact, highly profitable physical activities the Dueling Club would aggressively introduce later in the term. He was going to implement all the brilliant, destructive ideas he and Sirius had fantasized about together over the summer—such as extreme high-temperature flame tests melting different metals, using wands to aggressively control large boulders for target practice games, physically carving massive ice sculptures with freezing spells, high-speed popping of reinforced magical bubbles, using the Levitation Charm to violently uproot fully grown Whomping Willows... and so on. The tactical training list was endless.
Regulus, who vastly preferred to keep his terrifying, world-breaking achievements completely hidden in the dark, enthusiastically clapped his hands in the crowd, giving Professor Flitwick a massive, highly supportive response.
For me, as the CEO, Regulus analyzed practically, the absolute biggest administrative advantage of such stationary, object-based testing projects was that they could be completely, safely carried out by the students without requiring constant, exhausting teacher supervision.
Nobody logically wanted Professor Flitwick and Professor Stokke to be physically overworked; they were already incredibly busy men.
I absolutely need to aggressively find a political way to promote heavily paid, student-led positions like 'Teaching Assistants' at Hogwarts to recruit more free labor to run the club for me, Regulus mused, his dark eyes calculating.
After all, sustainable sheep shearing is the absolute best kind of wool.
Due to vastly too many overly eager people signing up simultaneously through the glowing "SMS" Developing Paper, the queue for the cutting competition ultimately, automatically adopted a randomized lottery system. All the club's little wizards held their glowing parchments tightly in their sweating hands, anxiously anticipating the magical information summoning them to step up to the table.
"Severus Snape—Successfully breached Mohs Scale Level Six! Awarded points for Level Six!"
After loudly announcing the impressive score, the seventh-year Slytherin prefect, Filius, who was supervising the table nearby, completely couldn't help but feel a terrifying trace of deep, internal nervousness... Merlin's beard... exactly how are these scrawny, lower-year students so incredibly, terrifyingly fierce with their wands?! I'm absolutely going to have to practice diligently when I get back to the dorms just to avoid humiliation...
Fortunately, as a trusted prefect and an official member of the Dueling Club's steering committee, Regulus had quietly given Filius a private, highly detailed theoretical heads-up regarding the density of the rocks beforehand... otherwise, the seventh-year might have been incredibly, publicly embarrassed by a second-year today. A profound trace of deep, highly loyal gratitude towards the young Black heir emerged firmly in the prefect's heart.
Several other older prefects standing nearby had the exact same, highly terrified thought.
"Severus, that was absolutely excellent!"
As completely expected of the brilliant, dark mind of Snape, the future terrifying inventor of the lethal Sectumsempra curse! Regulus vigorously, loudly applauded Severus Snape from the crowd, wholeheartedly, publicly providing massive emotional and social support.
Actively making your highly useful friends feel happy and validated; that is undeniably one of the primary, tactical purposes of speaking.
Severus walked stiffly back to Regulus's side. He wore a slightly proud, highly dignified expression, completely unable to suppress the small, genuinely triumphant smirk playing at the corner of his pale mouth. Ha, Severus gloated internally. That arrogant idiot Potter only managed to score a miserable level four, only barely able to scratch a pathetic, shallow triangle onto the surface of the iron.
"Well, to be fair, I honestly haven't actively practiced the Severing Charm in a very long time," the Ravenclaw prefect loudly, nervously attempted to save face verbally before stepping up to participate. The older boy ultimately achieved a score of six, matching Severus, which was certainly not bad for a seventh-year.
Severus happily looked across the hall towards Lily, and the brilliant little sun, Lily Evans, was also beaming and actively applauding for him.
See? Regulus thought, analyzing Severus's reaction. Wasn't that public display of raw magical strength the absolute best way to slap a bully in the face?
The massive, enduring popularity of classic webnovel tropes like "Dou Qi Stage Nine" and "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" makes absolute, psychological sense in reality.
Regulus looked around the hall. However... wait a minute.
Shouldn't there be a highly arrogant, completely simple-minded, short-sighted cannon-fodder villain violently stepping out of the crowd to publicly challenge me right about now? Regulus wondered, waiting for the dramatic trope to drop.
But... absolutely nothing happened. Even the burly Rabastan Lestrange, whom he had repeatedly, directly, and aggressively provoked in the common room, remained standing quietly in the back, showing absolutely no reaction or desire to challenge him.
Ah, Regulus realized. They're actually not utterly stupid! They saw what I did to Sirius on the platform.
Wait a minute... If everyone is completely terrified of me and no one dares to challenge me... Could it be that I am actually the terrifying, overpowered villain of this story?
Hehe. Well, Regulus actually hadn't formally signed himself up for the cutting test at all. A true game developer never actively participates in the public beta test of the game he designed himself.
"Next up on the docket: Sirius Black."
The elder Black brother confidently stepped up to the granite table. He stopped briefly at stage five (Quartz), but he did not leave the stage after passing it. Instead, under everyone's highly surprised, whispering gaze, he casually walked all the way down the table to the uncut, solid diamond resting on the far right.
Could it actually be...? The crowd gasped.
"Professor, please allow me to attempt the final level." Sirius said incredibly politely to Professor Flitwick, completely dropping his usual Gryffindor arrogance and seemingly displaying a deeply calm aura that entirely transcended petty winning or losing.
After eagerly receiving the Professor's nodded approval, for a long, tense moment, all the little wizards on the field seemed to completely hold their breath, violently anticipating his next move—
The substantial, fist-sized diamond sitting in front of him, although entirely uncut and currently appearing dull and gray, absolutely anyone could easily understand its staggering potential financial value.
Sirius gazed down at the hardest natural substance on earth deeply and steadily. It was as if absolutely only two physical objects currently existed in the entire world—him, and this diamond.
His intensely serious, devastatingly handsome gaze seemed to possess a physical magic of its own. If a Hogwarts girl were to be looked upon by such an intense, profound, "a look that lasts ten thousand years" gaze, she would likely be completely, hopelessly captivated for life.
Sirius hyper-focused his magical core and held his breath.
Absolute willpower is the true, raw manifestation of magical strength!
Of course, sheer willpower alone is absolutely not enough to break a diamond. What gave Sirius the edge were the countless, exhausting, highly illegal Transfiguration and Alchemy practices he and Regulus had actively done together in the basement over the summer... actively transfiguring lumps of coal into diamonds under Uncle Al's instruction. Sirius was already intimately, molecularly familiar with the exact carbon structure of the thing called diamond—
"Diffindo!"
As the sharp, commanding sound of the incantation fell, there was a blinding flash of silver light. The heavy diamond suddenly violently shattered under the pressure. After a sharp, incredibly crisp cracking sound echoed through the hall, the massive diamond—now with one entire, flawless side perfectly, smoothly cut—began to brilliantly shine with the soft, cold, and utterly dazzling blue light that had been hidden entirely beneath its rough exterior.
"Absolutely excellent! Flawless execution, Mr. Black!" Professor Flitwick practically leapt onto his chair and applauded wildly. Even the incredibly strict Professor McGonagall nodded her head in deep, visible satisfaction with a proud smile.
The girls in the audience naturally erupted into plenty of deafening cheers, swoons, and massive applause.
Sirius looked over his shoulder. Regulus smiled slightly, gave his brother a highly approving thumbs-up, and then casually walked over to the table. James and Lily also pushed through the crowd and came over together to congratulate him.
After a loud, chaotic round of Gryffindor praise, Severus Snape—standing slightly apart from the lions—unexpectedly spoke directly to Sirius.
"You... your underlying understanding of carbon structure is very impressive," Severus admitted stiffly. His dark eyes flashed with a deep, burning unwillingness to concede defeat, but he respected the raw magical feat.
The highly happy Regulus couldn't help but affectionately throw his arm around Severus's tense shoulder.
Sirius shrugged off the massive praise. His deeply relaxed, effortlessly cool demeanor was suddenly exactly identical to Regulus's corporate CEO persona. Under the intense, eager gaze of absolutely everyone standing nearby, Sirius said casually:
"Thank you, Snape. But actually, Regulus was the one who mathematically taught me how to do it over the summer."
Instantly, all sorts of wide-eyed, highly intense gazes immediately turned and violently converged directly onto Regulus: absolute admiration, deep surprise, intense envy, sheer worship, and burning jealousy...
Well. Don't say it aloud, Regulus smiled softly, rubbing his nose to hide his smugness. But this feeling of being the secret, overpowered boss behind the curtain is really, genuinely good.