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"Professor, may I ask if someone technically outside the Duelling Club can be officially chosen as an assistant?" Lily, who was standing in the front row of the crowd, raised her hand high and quietly squeezed Mary's hand for encouragement.
Professor Flitwick nodded his small head enthusiastically. "Yes, Miss Evans! Any student present may be selected."
The reaction of the Little Wizards below the stage instantly became even more enthusiastic. The Great Hall buzzed with tactical planning.
The Professors allowed a brief window of time for the Little Wizards to formally sign up using the club's enchanted parchment. Meanwhile, the students quickly fell into heated, whispered discussions: who to team up with, which specific Charms to prepare, whether to come up with a synchronized firing strategy...
At exactly seven o'clock, the glowing golden quill floating in the air suddenly rose high, dipped itself in invisible ink, and quickly wrote down the name of the first participant tonight on the massive score sheet—
"Benedict Shafiq, Ravenclaw"
"Ah..." Shafiq was completely stunned for three seconds, blinking at the banner.
He usually vastly preferred to be the grand finale, carefully analyzing the weaknesses of a challenge. But today he had to go first completely blind?
How could he possibly summarize others' failed experiences to logically improve his own tactical strategy now?!
Shafiq took a deep, nervous breath and looked around the crowded hall.
His Ravenclaw classmates either looked at him with intense, pressuring anticipation or quietly, guiltily averted their gaze, as if terrified of being called upon to fail with him on the very first try.
Under the heavily focused gazes of the entire school, Shafiq hesitated for a long moment. Then, driven by desperation and a tactical desire to win, he suddenly shouted directly at the black-haired boy standing calmly near the edge of the stage:
"Hey, Regulus! Would you be my assistant?"
Whoa—
A massive commotion instantly erupted below the stage. Whispers spread like wildfire.
A proud sixth-year Ravenclaw prefect actually chose a second-year Slytherin?
Only Sirius and Severus exchanged regretful, annoyed glances—Regulus, the ultimate support player, had been snatched away first.
"Alright." Regulus smiled slightly, his CEO persona seamlessly slipping into place. He stood up calmly, flipped his hawthorn wand smoothly into his hand, and walked forward, his black cloak swirling with handsome, confident lines.
"Come on, Benny! Let's set the high score."
Cheers and playful jeers rose one after another from the rival houses. Shafiq jumped onto the stage feeling slightly nervous, wiping sweaty palms on his robes. Regulus, however, smiled warmly and nodded at him, looking completely, professionally unaffected by the pressure.
Regulus's emotional management and sheer confidence truly impressed him, Shafiq thought, steadying his breathing. I have to logically work harder myself.
"A highly brave choice, Mr. Shafiq!" Professor Flitwick said with a bright smile, looking proudly at his two favorite students. "Here I absolutely must explain for fairness: Although Mr. Black participated in the initial conceptualization of the project direction, the final magical design and complex debugging were completely completed by Professor McGonagall and me. He mathematically does not know the specific combat details or movement patterns."
Regulus bowed deeply and respectfully to the considerate Charms Professor.
Professor Flitwick waved his wand again, and the previous half of the giant chessboard fully unfolded with a heavy grinding sound, extending entirely to their boots.
"You must stand strictly in the designated 'King' and 'Queen' positions here. Remember the core rule: stepping back out of your square automatically means you are physically eliminated."
Shafiq quickly stood in the Queen's position on the left without hesitation, leaving the King's position on the right for Regulus.
"I'll count to three—" Flitwick announced, raising his wand like a starter's pistol.
"1!" "2!" "3—Begin!"
The sixteen massive white "target pieces" resting in the two rows at the far end of the chessboard activated instantly. Their stone joints ground together loudly as they began rapidly advancing forward with terrifyingly blank, carved expressions. Their sheer speed caused many spectators to gasp in shock.
The alchemical filter bracelet securely fastened on Regulus's wrist immediately sparked with bright warning light, violently triggered by the massive fluctuation of ambient magical energy on the board.
So incredibly fast!
The base movement speed of the heavy stone target pieces was actually mathematically vastly faster than Regulus had initially expected. At this aggressive rate, all the pieces would probably aggressively move entirely across the board to push them out in strictly less than thirty seconds!
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!" Shafiq showed excellent physical reaction ability and dueling training, flawlessly casting three distinct Charms in one single breath. Red, blue, and white sparks splashed violently against the surface of the charging target pieces.
Two short, bulky "Troll pawns" in the front row froze completely on the spot, magically turned transparent, then disappeared, seamlessly reappearing at the far edge of the stage, successfully eliminated.
Deafening cheers erupted from the Ravenclaws below the stage.
Shafiq's mouth curved up in a proud smirk, but his wand hand didn't stop—he was undeniably an excellent student in Charms.
However, the second row of target pieces was mathematically not so easy to deal with.
Shafiq's next Stunner flew straight towards a tall Troll piece wearing carved stone shoes. Just as the spell was precisely about to hit its chest, the piece suddenly, fluidly moved its massive bulk slightly to the left, perfectly, actively avoiding his Charm.
Another rapid Charm hit a different Troll piece solidly on a massive stone shield it carried. Before Shafiq could even mentally celebrate the hit, he horrifiedly found that the Charm mathematically seemed to have absolutely no physical effect on this specific defensive piece—
No, its movement speed logically seemed to have only slowed down a tiny bit.
"The pieces behind the pawns are much tougher!" Shafiq's heart tightened in panic, and he shouted a warning at Regulus, but the physical rhythm of his rapid Charm casting simply couldn't speed up any further.
Regulus, standing calmly beside him, naturally also rapidly caught these complex movement patterns with his gamer instincts. His lips moved in a blur of incantations, his hawthorn wand did not stop moving at all, and precise Charms shot out consecutively like rapid-fire bullets.
"Benny, actively aim directly for the head! The shields cover the torso!" Regulus called out a sharp tactical reminder.
"Okay! You logically can safely leave the left flank entirely to me!" Shafiq immediately responded, trusting the younger boy's call.
The enchanted quill rapidly updated the floating scores, scratching so incredibly fast that the audience physically couldn't read the numbers clearly.
"Beautiful shot!" "So incredibly cool!"
A massive, unified cheer suddenly came directly from the watching crowd. It mathematically turned out that three highly precise, consecutive Charms rapidly fired from Regulus had flawlessly, successfully hit the face of the same repeatedly dodging target piece. Unable to evade the barrage, that piece finally disappeared from the chessboard.
"Did you logically see that clearly? So incredibly fast! How on earth did he magically do it?!" "Ah—Regulus Black, I absolutely love you!"
A sudden, loud burst of amused laughter came entirely from the older girls in the crowd.
"Only four elite pieces left!" Shafiq roared, sweat dripping down his pale face.
The remaining four massive "elite pieces" continued their highly complex, fancy footwork with blank expressions, aggressively pressing closer step by heavily weighted step. The two massive Troll pieces in the middle wore a heavy crown and a queen's tiara respectively, while the other two flanking pieces were strangely mounted on stone wheels, moving incredibly fast.
Shafiq's and Regulus's Charms hit repeatedly, sparks flying everywhere, but the heavily armored pieces mathematically seemed unresponsive to basic damage, still rapidly, relentlessly approaching their squares.
The expressionless, terrifying white face of the King stone Troll piece was now looming incredibly close at hand, casting a massive shadow. The very next step, it was mathematically estimated, would violently push them physically out of their designated squares. Shafiq panicked, his survival instinct screaming, and he couldn't help but actively want to step back half a step to save himself from being crushed—
Fortunately, our current score is definitely mathematically not shameful, he thought desperately, preparing to forfeit.
A master Professor is indeed a highly creative Professor, Regulus thought, his grey eyes narrowing. Seeing that the massive opposing King piece had absolutely already aggressively entered the square he was firmly standing in, he didn't panic.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Regulus absolutely did not flinch, planting his boots firmly and loudly, confidently shouting his absolute most proficient, heavily practiced spell.
Whoosh!
The massive, heavily crowned stone Troll was violently, suddenly pulled straight up into the air by an unseen, highly powerful magical force. With its leader suspended helplessly, the complex magic linking the set broke, and the other three remaining pieces also completely stopped moving, frozen in place.
Professor McGonagall violently stood up from her seat, the sheer, undeniable surprise in her strict eyes even greater than when she mathematically saw Regulus successfully Apparate earlier that day.
The whole audience was dead silent—
Shafiq's back foot was currently hovering exactly just about to physically step entirely out of the square.
"Ben Shafiq and Reg Black — Final Score: 96"
A massive line of glowing golden words triumphantly appeared at the very top of the scoreboard.
Incredibly warm, deafening applause violently erupted below the stage. Some students cheered excitedly, throwing their hats, while others were simply, utterly speechless at the tactical display.
Shafiq excitedly, overwhelmingly gave Regulus a massive, crushing hug.
...
The next eager group of older students was clearly, aggressively trying to directly imitate Regulus's winning strategy. As soon as they frantically cleared a few low-level pawns blocking the way, they immediately, collectively cast a highly powered Levitation Charm directly on the distant King piece.
However, their standard Levitation Charm mathematically had absolutely no physical effect on the heavy King piece, which actively wasted a massive amount of valuable time. In the end, this panicked group only successfully cleared five low-scoring pawn pieces before being violently pushed off the board.
Various chaotic situations occurred frequently on the stage as the night went on. Absolutely all the Little Wizards were eventually, physically pushed completely off the board by the relentless target pieces, and absolutely no other group logically could successfully reach the massive height of the first group's score.
Benny Shafiq proudly glanced at his and Regulus's names glowing on the top of the list from time to time, becoming mathematically vastly more satisfied the more he actively looked at it.
"Benny, incredibly well done. This specific round of testing was really bloody hard..." His Ravenclaw classmate Arnold violently rubbed his bruised lower back and limped down from the stage, sincerely praising him.
Shafiq puffed out his chest, even vastly more satisfied.
...
Next, James Potter was officially chosen by the quill. Just as Sirius was actively talking to Regulus, James confidently, directly pulled Remus beside him up onto the stage.
The two Gryffindors worked together seamlessly, utilizing brute force and speed, and achieved a highly respectable, solid score of eight kills before being overwhelmed.
Finally, when the name "Sirius Black" glowed brightly on the parchment, Sirius suddenly realized a problem—
His good Gryffindor friends from his house had absolutely all already had their turn on the board.
Should he logically choose James again?
His grey gaze slowly, calculatingly swept entirely through the massive crowd, and mathematically happened to perfectly meet the dark, intense eyes of another familiar black-haired Little Wizard.
It was the highly eager, fiercely competitive Severus Snape.
Thinking back, the highly tense scene of their violent first meeting on the Hogwarts Express, when they absolutely didn't get along, mathematically seemed logically like something from an entirely different past life.
Just exactly as Regulus wisely said—the past is fundamentally just a sunk cost. Absolutely don't legally plan the complex future based strictly on the unchangeable past.
Severus had logically always been a wizard of absolutely outstanding, lethal talent, and mathematically now he was actively even his brother's good friend, a highly loyal tactical partner in successfully causing trouble together.
These CEO-like thoughts quickly flashed entirely through Sirius's aristocratic mind.
"Severus," Sirius called out loudly, his voice echoing over the crowd, "would you be my assistant?"
A tactical combination of a pureblood Gryffindor and a Slytherin?!
The Little Wizards all immediately looked over in pure surprise.
Severus tightened his pale grip firmly on his wand. He gave a sharp, confident nod, and a highly subtle hint of a dangerous, eager smile quickly flashed in his dark eyes.
... ...