Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 304 The First Lesson in Dark Magic (6K)

"Therefore, we can see that real change often stems from cross-disciplinary thinking!"

Just like my colleague, your great Professor Li Wei, who combined rigorous academic spirit with a love for education and genius alchemical skills to create the Bible, an invention destined to be recorded in history!
I dare say that when future generations look back on the history of this era, Li Wei's name will shine as brightly as the four great masters of Hogwarts!

Amidst the proud and shining gazes of the young wizards, Slughorn concluded today's history of magic lesson with satisfaction.

After class, he took the "meditation cushion" that he had just scavenged that day, which was said to be used by Eastern Qi cultivators, and a bunch of blue flowers with yellow centers, and whistled as he headed to Li Wei's office.

Good afternoon, Professor Li Wei!

Slughorn opened the door, and his red tie, embroidered with a golden phoenix, gleamed in the sunlight.

"Hello, Slughorn."

Li Wei had only been back in his office a short time when Slughorn caught him red-handed.

"How about we go out for a meal together?"

Slughorn placed the flowers on the table—Barton casually took them and divided them into several vases, placing them around the room.

"of course."

Levi did not refuse—this was not the first time Slughorn had contacted him this week.

This guy would come knocking on my door at an irregular frequency, but each time he did it perfectly, leaving before Li Wei got annoyed.

It must be said that the other party's broad vision and grasp of the organizational structure of the magical world are indeed quite good as entertainment—in fact, it even seems a bit luxurious.

Although the two assistants didn't say it outright, Levi could tell that they enjoyed listening to Slughorn—while his magic might only be considered first-rate, his social skills were truly top-notch.

“Professor Li Wei, I heard you like Chinese culture—that makes sense, after all, you are Chinese.”

Slughorn opened the gift box in his hand and showed it to Levi.

"Ta-da! Magic futon, said to be used by Eastern Qi practitioners, I think it would suit you."

Li Wei's lips twitched. He pushed away Slughorn's hand, stood up from his desk, and said:
"Slughorn—"

"Call me Horace, shall I?"

"Horace—thank you for the gift, but I don't think I need it—if you insist, how about helping us find the Golden Cup?"

"Of course—I've already started making connections, don't worry, things will be looking promising in a while."

Horace patted his chest in assurance and followed Levi to the canteen.

After a while, he said naturally again:

"By the way—Li Wei, I heard that the Magic Network Management Division needs manpower?"
I happen to know a few good young people. Their families may not be extremely prominent, but they are definitely smart, hardworking, and have clean backgrounds. Their parents are both members of my club; I know them inside and out!

"As you know, the Magic Network Division was only recently established, and signal base stations are not yet widespread, so we don't need that many people—I can only leave one position open for you."

"That's enough—my friend, I will never make things difficult for you."

Horace's eyes lit up, thinking he had another topic to talk about, and his mustache twitched.

Along the way, he made sure to chat with Joeville and Camille, taking care of every detail.

When they arrived at the Great Hall, Sirius and Snape were already seated in their places.

Ever since their seats were taken once, the two of them have been like NPCs that refresh on time, waiting on either side in advance every time it's mealtime.

Upon seeing Horace, both of them looked somewhat smug, but they forced themselves to endure it.

As for the students, they just felt that the new professor of the history of magic was really capable, having entered Professor Levi's circle so quickly.

In early March, Li Wei officially began teaching dark magic to older students.

Not many students met his requirements, after all, they had been studying with Li Wei for less than two years, and the older students' foundation was not good enough to meet his requirements.

After Li Wei did the math, he found that there were only about twenty students in the three grades who met the standard, and the higher the grade, the fewer students met the standard.

Moreover, some of them had taken on long-term off-campus internships and were unable to attend classes.

Li Wei simply pulled students from all three grades into one classroom to teach them black magic.

Because it was somewhat experimental in nature, he didn't plan to make a big fuss, but simply squeezed out a long two-hour lecture from his limited weekdays.

Nevertheless, all the senior students took this very seriously, with some even worrying so much that they couldn't sleep well the next day.

In the chat group, the keyword 'dark magic' kept flashing. As it got later and later, they had no choice but to ask their roommate to cast a sleeping spell on them.
Levi also chose a different location for the classroom where he taught Dark Magic—on Snape's advice, he chose the deepest part of the cellar as the classroom.

As a result, the students' mental pressure began to accumulate further during the time they spent heading to the classroom before class started.
The classroom had no windows; the only sources of light were the glowing runes embedded in the walls and the magic crystals floating on the ceiling.

The four walls were covered with layers of protective runes, and the magical patterns of different colors flowed slowly like living things.

Fourteen senior students who had mastered the Guardian Charm sat in a circular arrangement of seats. No one spoke, and the atmosphere was so heavy it was almost palpable; even their breathing was deliberately suppressed.

"Click."

The heavy oak door was pushed open and then closed again.

Li Wei walked into the classroom, followed by Snape, who was also dressed in a solemn black robe.

"good afternoon."

When they saw that it was a joint class taught by two professors, the students' hearts jumped and their bodies trembled—but they themselves couldn't tell whether it was from anxiety or anticipation.

Good afternoon, Professor!

One student's greeting was unusually high-pitched, and everyone heard it, but no one wanted to laugh.

Before we begin, I'll double-check one last time:
Each of you is aware of the contents of the magical contract you signed and has passed the Guardian God materialization test and psychological assessment.

If anyone has any doubts at this moment, they may leave now; no record will be left.

No one moved.

But some people trembled even more noticeably.

Snape watched this scene with a hint of disdain in his eyes—his students back then had all enthusiastically embraced dark magic, unlike the students of today who were so weak.
Faced with overwhelming power, it's not that we shouldn't take any initiative or be proactive.

Snape's gaze lingered on Cedric, a look of interest in his eyes—he knew Cedric was one of Levi's students who received special attention.

Another one is Potter—it's a pity that the kid isn't here right now, otherwise Snape would really like to see him trembling with fear.

"Look at the state of you all."

Snape's voice rang out calmly, without any mockery, like a cold March wind blowing into the students' sleeves—a little chilly, but also invigorating.

“Fear—trembling—everyone’s pupils are wide open—you don’t look like you’re learning dark magic, but rather like you’re waiting for death in the face of dark magic.”

He walked and talked, stopping in front of a Ravenclaw student.

"Davis, I remember your father worked in the Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters and dealt with quite a few messes of dark magic damage?"
Haven't you ever seen the expressions on the faces of those driven to the brink of collapse by the Crucifixion?

"No—Professor—I know—"

Davis responded with trembling lips.

But after he finished speaking, he found that his trembling had miraculously subsided.

"Hmph! Then what do you have to be afraid of?"

Snape flipped his cloak, strode back to the center of the classroom, and addressed the students:
"When I was in school, those who were really interested in dark magic didn't tremble like they were under a shivering spell on the first day of class."

We will research, experiment, and debate which curse is more powerful and effective—and of course, some people have paid the price for it.

But look at you now.

Sitting in the most secure classroom in all of Hogwarts, with two professors monitoring you in real time, the power of the spells is weakened to the point that they can't even kill a fluffy creature—yet you don't even dare to breathe loudly.

"What do you think dark magic is?" Snape suddenly raised his voice. "Is it a monster in fairy tales that bites? A wild beast that must be chained with ten chains?"

The students were speechless once again.

Li Wei stepped forward at the opportune moment and said:
"This is the first lesson we're going to teach you—dark magic is no different from other magic; it's just a branch of magic, a tool."

Your fears do not stem from the tools themselves, but from the unknown—the unknown about dark magic, the unknown about your own weaknesses, the unknown about what would happen if the magic got out of control.

He waved his wand, and the black walls around the classroom suddenly became transparent—the dark blue light of the Black Lake shone through the transparent walls, rippling in the stone chamber.

The ripples in the deep water cast shimmering light and shadow, which intertwined with the light of the protective runes, creating a strange and beautiful effect.

The suffocating tension that surrounded most students quietly dissolved in this sudden expansive view.

Levi and Snape both observed this phenomenon and nodded. Next, they moved the podium aside, facing each other at a distance of one meter.

"Today we're going to teach you the simplest evil curse—you'll all pair up and each of you will personally cast the spell, just like we did, and experience what it feels like to be under a curse."

Before the students could gasp in surprise, Li Wei continued:

"Don't worry, this classroom is enchanted, and your magical power will be reduced to the minimum—and it's a harmless curse that many of you probably used on other students when you were in the lower grades, right?"

Without giving the students much time to think, Li Wei asked:
"Can someone tell me what determines the strength of a curse?"

Cedric was the first to raise his hand—Levy gestured for him to stand up.

"One: Clearly negative intentions."

It's not a vague thought or idea, but a specific and full-blown malice—for example, I want my opponent to feel excruciating pain.

Second: The stability of magic.

It's not true that the stronger the emotions, the better. If you lack control over the spell, strong negative emotions can cause the spell to go out of control and fail to achieve the desired effect.

Third: the precision of malice.

Not all evil intentions can be effectively transformed; different types of black magic require corresponding different malicious tendencies.

“Very good, Hufflepuff adds five points for Cedric’s accurate answer.”

Li Wei nodded in satisfaction, while Snape, standing to the side, seemed somewhat displeased—it was one thing for the Slytherin students not to be able to answer the question, but some of them actually showed expressions of sudden realization after Cedric's explanation. What a bunch of idiots!

"So now you understand the three important factors regarding the power of dark magic."

Can someone tell me the difference between learning dark magic and learning regular magic?

After some thought, many students raised their hands this time. Li Wei pointed to the student who had been specifically 'intimidated' by Snape earlier—"Davis."

"Therefore, in addition to the most conventional spells and wand trajectories, learning black magic requires improving the caster's malice intensity and precision, as well as the stability of their own magical power."

The stability of magic is a common feature of both, but the difference between regular magic and black magic is that if we want to increase the power of regular magic, we need to follow the conclusions of the five casting phases taught to us.

"So, to improve dark magic, we only need to focus on increasing malice, is that right?"

"good."

Li Wei nodded, affirming his idea, but did not add any more points—this conclusion was actually easy to draw, and if a student who had been influenced by him for two years did not even understand this, he would feel disappointed.

But soon, more students raised their hands.

Li Wei gestured for him to speak.

“But Professor—” the student looked at Levi with a strange expression, “Since the power of black magic is not innate, why do we still bother to study it?”
What I mean is, instead of trying to cultivate our malice to become evil wizards, we can spend our time on regular magic studies, right?
It can make us wizards as powerful as you, can't it?

All the other students who raised their hands nodded—they thought the same way. If the difference in power between dark magic and regular magic was only due to the different directions of study, then why should they study the criticized dark magic?

Then, they saw Professor Li Wei, who was usually taciturn, break into a rare, happy smile.

"Yes—if you study according to my theory, you don't really need to learn black magic—especially to master it, which is a thankless task."

Snape, standing to the side, had a stern face and clearly did not agree with Levi's statement, but he did not rush to speak—Levi was surprised that he could hold back.
"But you yourselves have seen your previous performance—we may not focus our efforts on dark magic, but that doesn't mean we can be completely ignorant about it."

I taught you black magic not to make you powerful wizards, but simply to eliminate your ignorance of black magic and the fear that comes with it.

Of course, besides that, there's also my own little personal bias—I never thought that wizards who study dark magic are more powerful than white wizards.

I also don't believe that a white wizard should fall to a black wizard of inferior skill simply because of the unknown.

Li Wei's voice was earnest and sincere, and all the students stared at him intently, their eyes fixed on him.

"You might even argue that wizards who study black magic are a group of weaklings—because they cannot make progress on the conventional path of magic, so they have no choice but to sell their souls and take a crooked path."

Just like you were thinking—you could become a strong person by learning normal magic, but instead you choose to learn dark magic that twists your soul. Isn't that a foolish and unnecessary act?
Therefore, when you have achieved your goals, I hope that when you encounter a dark wizard, you will not be intimidated by the fearsome reputation of dark magic, but will instead calmly judge in your hearts—this is just a mediocre student who can't even master the normal magic system.

"Puch-"

Some students chuckled.

The laughter seemed contagious, and everyone's tense emotions completely relaxed.

Levi turned to Snape and said:
"Professor Snape, you seemed to disagree with some of my points. Why don't you state your opinion?"

He looked at the students and said sarcastically:

"Professor Snape's mastery of dark magic ranks among the top ten in the entire wizarding world. He even created an extremely difficult form of dark magic during his student days. I think you will be able to learn it by next year's course."

"WOW!!!"

The students all stared at Snape in astonishment, their eyes filled with admiration—but given Levi's earlier statement that only the weak who couldn't learn orthodox magic would turn to dark magic, there was a subtle undertone to their exclamations.
"Li Wei, your insults are really sophisticated!"

Snape's face twitched, and after thinking it over, he decided not to argue with Levi.
Well, although the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Snape was very good at calming himself down—he couldn't hear the subtle nuances in the students' exclamations at all.

He knew that Livy's recognition of his mastery of dark magic had astonished the students, and that was enough.
"Yes, I did spend a negligible amount of time studying dark magic during my student years—it wasn't difficult, and I mastered everything easily."

Therefore, I need to correct some fallacies in Professor Li Wei's views.

Enjoying the students' admiring gazes, Snape straightened his robes and said leisurely:
"According to your theory, it seems that learning conventional magic and dark magic wastes the same amount of time and energy, and the degree of improvement is also quite similar—this is completely wrong."

I don't want you to be overly fearful of black magic, but I also don't want you to underestimate it.

Professor Levi said that dark magic is magic learned by the weak. Snape paused for a moment, and many images suddenly flashed through his mind.

Lily's attempts to persuade him, their arguments, his stubbornness, and his deep-seated regret afterwards.
"In a sense, he is right."

Snape's expression became hesitant—if it weren't for this occasion, if there weren't a group of students watching him, he suspected that his expression would have already spiraled out of control.

Admitting past mistakes was not easy for him. He never expected to be so shocked in this situation, so unexpectedly.

It was just like a wizard taking a normal flight on his flying broomstick, only to be caught off guard and crash head-on into a giant metal object that Muggles were researching and building.

Huff. Snape took a deep breath without making a sound.

Before the students could get confused, he continued:

"However, this absolutely does not mean that black magic is a completely cumbersome form of magic."

On the contrary, it is evil, powerful, mysterious, precise, rapidly improving, and indestructible—

Instead of the complicated process of mastering the five stages of Levi's spellcasting, in the process of learning black magic, you only need to focus on cultivating your evil intentions—and practice them!
Experience this cruelty and the power to control others in practice—when a white wizard encounters a black wizard of equal age, the outcome is often a crushing defeat!

A green light suddenly appeared in Snape's hand, making his face look somewhat like an evil devil.

The students truly felt this pressure.

But Cedric, as Levi's student, still forced himself to speak up to save face:

"But justice will ultimately prevail over evil—just like the two most powerful wizards in the magical world, both of them are white wizards, right?"

Snape glanced at Cedric but said nothing—although he admired dark magic, this was a classroom, and he didn't want to instill the idea that dark magic was more powerful in his students.

After all, these fools are not very bright. If they really go astray because of their greed for strength, they will cause trouble for Li Wei in the future.

“Not bad, Cedric.” Levi nodded at him, quite pleased with his intervention at this moment.

"I can give you a clear answer: if you only have three years to learn normal magic and dark magic respectively, then in a duel, the one who masters dark magic will most likely be the winner."

“But—” Levi raised his voice and continued, “that is on the premise that your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is mediocre.”

Amidst the students' anticipation, Li Wei openly revealed his immense self-confidence for the first time:
“If you follow me and learn from me, no matter how many years it takes—justice will surely triumph over evil.”

At that moment, under the students' gaze, Li Wei seemed to radiate a warm light.

"Dark magic is powerful, but its weaknesses are also very obvious—my goal for the school year is to teach all of you how to deal with this extreme spell and defeat it!"

"Yes, Professor Li Wei!"

Amid the students' enthusiastic response, Snape merely pursed his lips and remained silent.

Oh well, this guy has the bigger fists anyway, and I'm no match for him—whatever he says goes.

Why bother arguing with someone who lives in the light and firmly believes they can illuminate everyone?

Snape's tightly pursed lips curled into a subtle smile. The dark blue ripples of the Black Lake rippled across his pale face, reflecting his faint smile like a pearl in the deep sea seeing the light of day for the first time.

Quiet and beautiful.

(End of this chapter)