Hogwarts: Starting with full Unforgivable Curses

"You've explained it to us from so many different angles. If I still can't understand, then I'm afraid I really need to consider enrolling in a speed-learning class, to experience what it's like to be a student again, and to brush up on my magic theory."

Sirius said, half-jokingly.

“We have plenty of time to prepare, no need to rush,” Dylan said calmly. “Actually, before officially promoting it to the Triwizard Tournament, we can conduct an experiment first—Mirage is not a particularly basic magic. A considerable number of our team members have never encountered this spell before, or even known of its existence. Using them as test subjects can simulate the situation of new students and test the feasibility of the plan.”

“I understand what you mean!” Lupin immediately reacted, his eyes lighting up. “Let’s try your method first—look at the instructions on the screen and try to enhance the mirage effect, then observe whether the image actually becomes clearer. If the experiment is successful, it means the plan is feasible. Next, we just need to further improve the content of the instructions, ensuring the language is more accessible and easier to understand, so that more people can understand the function of mirages, how to use the screen, and what they need to do.”

“That’s right, you used the word ‘understand’ very well.” Dylan nodded, his tone relaxed. “We don’t need everyone to be an expert on mirages, nor do we need them to master complex magical theories. We just need them to be able to read the written descriptions and understand the effects of their actions. That’s enough.”

He smiled and added, "As a wizard, sometimes it's okay to 'take it easy' and not have to rely on your own magic to handle everything. Learning to use the resources around you and letting the omnipresent magical energy, as well as the will and belief of the group, help us accomplish some seemingly complicated things is also a kind of wisdom."

Fred winked at Dylan with a mocking smile and said in an exaggerated tone, "Dylan, I advise you not to use the word 'lazy.' The 'lazy' you're talking about is completely different from what we understand as 'lazy'—we think of laziness as lying in the dorm sleeping or sneaking out to eat snacks. Your 'laziness' actually requires more brainpower; it's practically a disguised form of 'diligence'!"

“Yes!” George immediately nodded in agreement, deliberately emphasizing the word “lazy”. “The kind of ‘lazy’ you’re talking about is not only not easy, but it takes more effort than directly using magic to tough it out. How is that ‘lazy’ at all? We dare not learn your ‘lazy’ method.”

As Fred spoke, he suddenly turned to Neville beside him, nudged him lightly with his elbow, and asked in a teasing tone, "Neville, what do you think? Tell me, is the 'laziness' that Dylan talks about the same as the 'laziness' we usually talk about?"

“I think? Uh…” Neville was suddenly called on and panicked. He opened his mouth, his eyes subconsciously looking at Dylan, then at Fred and George. For a moment, he didn’t know how to answer and could only stand there awkwardly, his cheeks slightly flushed.

“See! I knew Neville thought so too!” George immediately shrugged, winked at Fred, and then turned to the crowd, deliberately “explaining” for Neville, “Let me guess what Neville means—he definitely agrees with our point of view, and thinks that Dylan’s ‘slacking off’ is not really slacking off at all, but is actually more tiring than doing real work, he’s just too embarrassed to say it!”

“That’s right! Look at Neville’s speechless expression, he’s silently protesting Dylan’s definition of ‘laziness’!” Fred chimed in, even giving Neville a knowing wink.

"No...that's not it!" Neville finally realized what was happening and stammered an explanation, his cheeks flushing even redder with anxiety. "I just...I just didn't expect to be asked this so suddenly, and I hadn't sorted out my thoughts yet. I wasn't protesting Dylan's statement..."

"Alright, alright, stop teasing Neville." Lupin smiled and tried to smooth things over as he watched the lively scene. "It's the weekend now. Instead of arguing about the definition of 'lazy,' let's talk about what you're planning to do this weekend—we'll soon find out whether you can truly 'lazy.'"

"Of course we have to have some fun!" Fred and George said in unison, their voices full of grievance. "You have no idea how many books we copied this week to organize the materials for the magic live stream! Those ancient books we borrowed from the library had such small and dense characters that our wrists almost broke from copying them. We have to relax properly this weekend!"

"Copying books?" Sirius's eyes lit up at the mention of this, his tone full of admiration. "Who came up with this idea? Copying down key information for easy reference later is brilliant! It eliminates the need to carry around heavy ancient books while allowing for easy access to important information. This method deserves to be promoted!"

"My heart aches!" Fred immediately clutched his chest, feigning a wounded expression. "Can't you understand the pain we endured copying this book? So many words, our fingers are aching from copying them, and you still praise this idea as brilliant? You have no compassion at all!"

“My heart aches too!” George mimicked Fred, clutching his chest and exclaiming dramatically, “Don’t you have any sympathy at all? We’ve been working so hard for the team, and you not only don’t care, but you even think it’s a good idea! It’s so hurtful to us!”

Seeing the two's exaggerated performance, everyone couldn't help but laugh, and the originally serious atmosphere instantly became relaxed.

Afterwards, everyone started sharing their weekend plans. Fred and George found out that Zoco's joke shop had recently launched a new batch of prank gadgets and planned to go to the store this weekend to buy them and study the principles behind them. Maybe they could even get some inspiration from them to improve the magic toys they had designed before.

Neville and Hannah had heard that west of Hogsmeade Village, after crossing the small wooden bridge, there was a herbal shop called "Magic Radish" that had recently introduced several rare magical plants from Africa. The two planned to visit the shop over the weekend to observe these unfamiliar magical plants up close and perhaps even learn some new herbal knowledge.

Upon hearing their plan, Sirius Black, who had already walked out of the Pighead Bar, suddenly stopped, turned around, and deliberately put on an angry expression as if he had been tricked. Pointing at the group, he said, "Well! You all said Dylan was 'pretending to be lazy,' but look at yourselves—this isn't a weekend of relaxation, it's clearly a change of scenery to continue studying and researching, even busier than at school!"

He looked at Fred, George, Neville, and Hannah, his tone tinged with accusation: "Fred and George are going to Zoco's Joke Shop to research prank props, which is about improving magical toys. Neville and Hannah are going to 'Magic Radish' to study African magical plants, which is about supplementing their herbalism knowledge—this isn't relaxation, it's clearly incorporating learning into your weekend activities! You're even better at disguising your 'laziness' than Dylan!" "Isn't this a good thing?" Lupin followed behind Sirius, smiling. "They're all still students, and they're actively combining their interests with learning, absorbing new knowledge while playing. That's a good thing, much better than wasting their weekends doing nothing."

“That’s right! We’re not deliberately learning; we’re just infected by your atmosphere!” Fred and George nodded immediately, not forgetting to shift the blame to Dylan. “Think about what the ‘Muggle Swordsmanship Guide’ said earlier about how important the environment is to a person—we’re influenced by this positive learning and exploration atmosphere in the team, which is why we unconsciously think about researching things on weekends. If you really want to blame someone, you have to blame Dylan. Who told him to always share all kinds of knowledge in the team and motivate everyone’s enthusiasm for learning?”

“We…we were definitely influenced by this atmosphere,” Neville whispered from the side, but he added fairly, “but you can’t blame Dylan. It’s this atmosphere that makes us feel that learning is a fun thing, so we are willing to spend time on weekends to learn new knowledge.”

Sirius stretched, his "angry" expression vanishing instantly, replaced by a relaxed look: "I don't care if you're influenced by the atmosphere or deliberately studying—I'm really planning to slack off this weekend and relax. Since we're all in Hogsmeade, it'll be a good opportunity to spend time with Harry; it's been a long time since we had a proper chat."

"Actually, you had already arranged to meet Harry in Hogsmeade Village, so you specially arranged this meeting here, right?" Lupin looked at Sirius, smiling as he exposed his "little scheme," his tone teasing. "Don't think we don't know that you specially adjusted the time and place of the meeting so that you could spend more time with Harry, and now you're pretending it was a last-minute decision. That's so dishonest."

"Oh, I see!" Fred and George immediately understood, their tone full of teasing. "We never expected our brave Sirius to be such a lovely godfather. He even went out of his way to arrange the meeting place just to be with Harry. It's so touching!"

Amid Fred and George's exaggerated laughter, Sirius's cheeks flushed slightly. He quickly waved his hands, making a gesture as if to shoo them away, and urged, "Go! Go! You guys hurry up and do your weekend plans. Stop teasing me here. If you don't leave, I'm going to use magic to get rid of you!" As he spoke, he deliberately raised his hand as if to cast a spell, which made everyone laugh even harder.

Dylan also has his own weekend plans—studying!
Meanwhile, after Dylan and the others left the Hog's Head, Aberforth Dumbledore picked up the rag and dirty glass again, slowly wiping the glass while repeatedly thinking about what had happened in the meeting.

He was so engrossed in his work that he didn't control the pressure in his hands. The glass, which was originally covered in stains, became cleaner and cleaner with each wipe, eventually restoring its original clear appearance, without a single water stain visible.

"That kid Dylan's research on war magic..." Aberforth suddenly slammed down his wine glass, the glass hitting the table with a dull thud. He frowned, his tone tinged with worry. "Albus must have known about it already, right? Otherwise, given that kid's cautious nature, he wouldn't have mentioned his ideas so openly in the meeting."

He pulled his wand from his pocket, his gaze falling on the clear glass, his eyes somewhat lost in thought. He had originally intended to just wipe the glass until it was "just usable," but now that it was so clean, it didn't fit his usual "unkempt" image.

He considered using magic to restore the cup to its previous dirty state, but after hesitating for a few seconds, he gave up the idea: Oh well, it's better to be clean, so I don't have to wipe it again next time.

Then, Aberforth waved his wand toward the second floor of the bar. A faint silver light flashed, and a neatly folded invisibility cloak floated down from the stairwell. As if it had come to life, it unfolded itself and gently draped itself over his body.

The invisibility cloak was made of soft and light material, and it weighed almost nothing when draped over his body, quickly covering his figure completely.

As an elder of Hogwarts, Aberforth Dumbledore naturally knew the "secrets" of Lupin, Sirius, and James in their youth, and also knew that there was a secret passage leading to Hogwarts Castle hidden behind the Shrieking Shack—a path that James and his friends had specially found to make it easier for them to go out.

However, he did not immediately set off for the secret passage, because he knew that in order to protect the secret passage from being discovered by outsiders, Albus had specially planted a "Hard-Beating Willow" near the entrance of the secret passage. As long as someone approached, the Hard-Beating Willow would swing its branches to attack, unless someone knew how to control it.

To avoid causing unnecessary trouble and to avoid being discovered by the people in the castle, Aberforth must first control the Whomping Willow before he can safely enter Hogwarts through the secret passage.

He gripped his wand, walked to the back door of the bar, pushed it open a crack, and waved it at the snow outside—the snow piled up near the entrance to the secret passage suddenly began to surge and converge, gradually forming a snow goat exactly like a real goat, with curved horns, thick limbs, and even the texture of its downy fur was clearly visible.

As soon as the snow goat took shape, the Man-Beating Willow not far away reacted immediately. The originally still trunk began to tremble violently, and the branches, like flexible whips, waved wildly in the air, making a "whooshing" sound. It was clear that it had noticed the "intruder" and was preparing to launch an attack.

Just as the willow branch was about to lash the snow goat, the goat suddenly stood upright, raised its front hooves, and precisely stepped on a raised knot at the base of the willow trunk—the key mechanism controlling the willow. (End of Chapter)