The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Seeing that Ryze didn't seem interested in the flying broomstick, the others stopped trying to persuade him.

At the same time, they also breathed a slight sigh of relief.

More than ten days into the semester, they finally discovered what Ryze wasn't good at.

Even if this "not good at" is still the average level of a normal wizard.

But Ryze's effortless scoring in all subjects except potions these days has unconsciously raised their expectations and demands of him.

Since there were no classes in the afternoon, Reese suggested that the students in their dorm go to the Room of Requirement to practice together, and the suggestion was unanimously approved.

After all, they have classes every day since the weekend and haven't had time to go to the Room of Requirement again. Now that Ritz has brought it up, they naturally have no objections.

After a quick meal, the group made their way to the top floor of Hogwarts Castle and entered the secluded passageway.

During this process, Anthony also tried to greet Sir Cadogan at the corner of the stairs.

It turned out that the other person was currently engrossed in their own imagined "battle," charging towards the rice paddies in the distance of the painting, completely unaware of the situation outside.

“Professor Babling is right, Sir Cadogan certainly has mental problems,” Terry commented.

Then Ryze stood under the Banaba tapestry again and conjured a place where they could practice magic.

"Wow, this time it's a bronze door, that's so cool!"

Anthony pushed open the door and saw a large classroom with torches lit.

The classroom had several large cushions, several bookshelves on the left, and a lot of miscellaneous items and magical props on the right.

"Look over there, there are so many books on there!" He pointed towards the bookshelf, then rushed over to look at the titles.

"There are at least a hundred different books here, including 'Common Spells and Antidotes,' 'Collection of Self-Defense Spells,' and 'Duel Rules'... Merlin's Beard, look! This book has very detailed notes!"

"I think these books alone could keep us studying for several years!"

Chapter 49: Wizard Duel

The young wizards spent almost half an afternoon just studying the things in this room.

This room is indeed suitable for practicing magic. The cabinet on the right not only contains various magical items that they will learn in the future, but also more than a dozen sets of defensive gear and several magical dummies used as targets.

Therefore, they then spent a long time practicing first-year regular spells and some dueling magic on these dummies.

Under Reese's guidance, they made rapid progress.

It wasn't until they started to feel hungry that they realized they had been in this windowless room for quite some time.

Terry took out his pocket watch and realized it was already 6:30. If he didn't hurry to the auditorium, dinner would be over.

The young wizards tidied up the room briefly, and then each took a book to take back to their bedroom to study at their leisure.

“I feel like if we practice a few more times, we should be able to try dueling each other. If we have that room, I feel like we might both have a chance to break through the first round in next year’s dueling tournament,” Anthony was still savoring the fiery feeling of the last cutting spell he had cast as they approached the auditorium.

For most young wizards, feeling a noticeable improvement while practicing spells is a great boost to their motivation.

They were already planning to go to that room together again to practice dueling magic next time.

Upon arriving at the auditorium, Reese gestured to her roommates not to discuss these things yet.

The next moment, Hermione appeared at the entrance of the Great Hall.

"I think I just heard you guys talking about duels... Good heavens, are you guys going to do something dangerous like those two?"

Hermione looked somewhat irritable, which made her already messy hair look even more disheveled.

Rizz quickly recalled the plot and interrupted Hermione: "Hermione, we were just discussing the Wizarding Tournament next year. We're planning to sign up to experience the atmosphere of the tournament and are practicing dueling spells for it."

“It’s not dangerous. Professor Flitwick will be taking the other Hogwarts students who want to participate in the dueling tournament with them. If you’re interested in the tournament and will be 12 years old before Easter next year, you can go to Professor Flitwick to register.”

When Hermione heard Ritz mention the "Wizards' Tournament" and Professor Flitwick's name, she knew she had misunderstood.

She tried to explain to Ritz with some embarrassment.

Ryze waved his hand: "Alright, we've been practicing all afternoon and haven't eaten yet. Hermione, if you don't have anything else to do, we'll go eat now."

Hermione only realized she did have something to discuss with Ritz after watching him and the others walk into the Great Hall.

She quickly caught up with him and whispered urgently to Reese, "It's Malfoy! Malfoy is challenging Harry to a duel tonight. If they get caught, they might get expelled!"

She briefly explained what happened.

Harry and Malfoy had a disagreement during flight class, and Malfoy challenged Harry to a wizarding duel at dinner.

"I hope you can ask Malfoy to stop this duel. Everyone knows Malfoy doesn't dare to mess with you right now. If you go to him, he will definitely agree to cancel the duel!"

"A duel?" Anthony perked up immediately. "When? Where? Just the two of them? Are there referees and assistants? If they don't have a referee, I just read the dueling rules this afternoon, I can help out as a referee!"

Hermione hesitated for a moment.

Why is this Ravenclaw student so enthusiastic about dueling?

"Aren't you worried about getting caught?"

Michael, who was well-informed, said that as long as they didn't get caught, it would be fine.

“Nighttime outings are a Hogwarts tradition, and even Hufflepuffs are no exception. You probably didn’t know that hungry Hufflepuff students would sneak off to the Great Hall’s dining hall at night to find something to eat.”

Rizzi added, "Hogwarts doesn't expel students for staying out at night. I asked Hagrid, and if you get caught, you usually only lose 20-50 points, and then you get put in solitary confinement by Felch or Hagrid."

"So you can relax a bit. It's not a big deal. A duel between two young wizards won't cause much of a commotion. Think about what Malfoy did last week. He had Crabbe punch me. But to be honest, at this age, the spells of young wizards are probably not as effective as punches."

But clearly, Hermione was focused on the 50 points Rizz mentioned and didn't listen to what he said after that.

She only earned Gryffindor less than 20 points this week. If Harry and the others are caught, won't Gryffindor's points drop by a lot?

She unconsciously kneaded her wizard robes with her hands, appearing quite conflicted.

Rizzi turned to Anthony: "Draco Malfoy has challenged Harry Potter to a wizarding duel. If I were to stop this duel now, what would happen to me?"

Anthony answered without hesitation: "Wizard duels symbolize the honor of wizards. If it is a legitimate wizard duel, trying to stop it is interfering with someone else's acquisition of honor, which will be protested and criticized by the Wizards' Duel Federation, and both duelists may hold a grudge against you for it."

"Although a duel between two first-year wizards isn't very interesting or proper, considering that Malfoy is a pure-blood wizard and Slytherin values ​​honor, if you forcibly stop it, it might provoke the dissatisfaction of the upperclassmen in Slytherin, as well as the Malfoy family's animosity towards you... well, Gryffindor probably won't thank you either."

Anthony looked at Hermione: "If you really want to stop this, don't let Rhett Butler get involved. He doesn't want to be associated with the Malfoy family anymore, and the Malfoys might not give him any face."

"You should just report this to Professor McGonagall. The professors will definitely be able to stop the duel. However, you'll have to bear the hatred from Slytherin and the misunderstanding within Gryffindor yourself."

Seeing Hermione's face turn pale, Rhys told his roommates to go to the Great Hall for dinner first, and then said to Hermione, "Anthony is right. If Malfoy doesn't bother me, I really don't want to have any more contact with him... Of course, I wouldn't mind if I could get him a little bit of bad luck."

"However, I think what you need to care about right now is not reporting the duel to the professor, as that will not do you any good in the slightest."

“You know Malfoy just came out of solitary confinement, so he should know very well that he shouldn’t cause any more trouble lately, or rather, Slytherin can’t afford to lose points because of him.”

"At the same time, I think most of his not-so-good brain is filled with petty tricks that are not presentable in public. He may not have even thought about pure-blood honor from beginning to end. He just wanted to deduct a lot of points from Harry and Gryffindor."

"Don't you realize that if they actually do that, it would be a pretty good public opinion opportunity for Gryffindor?"

"If I were you, I would be back in the Gryffindor common room right now to prepare."

Chapter 50: Hagrid, the Eternal God

If Rhett really wanted to ruin Malfoy's reputation, he could have gone straight to the Gryffindor prefects and made a big scene.

If Percy Weasley doesn't dare to do it, then go find another female prefect.

Moreover, having been suppressed by Slytherin for six or seven years, what senior Gryffindor student doesn't want to give Slytherin a good beating now?

That evening, the prefects took Harry and the others to the prize room. The prefects had the authority to patrol at night, so even if they were seen with a few junior wizards, they could explain it away.

If Malfoy shows up, it means the duel invitation was not formal enough and violated school rules, so they should reschedule a formal duel.

Hogwarts prohibits private duels, but the school has a small dueling club with only about ten members, managed by Professor Flitwick, and Hogwarts also has a dedicated dueling arena.

As long as you join the dueling club, you can engage in simple duels under the guise of dueling practice. Anthony had already inquired about these things. Having the prefects act as referees is perfectly in accordance with the rules. Joining the club doesn't take much effort, and it's a good opportunity to revive Hogwarts' dueling glory.

After that, we can figure out a way to give Harry Potter a chance to fight, and everyone can do it based on their own abilities. With Harry Potter's dueling talent and his dissatisfaction with Slytherin, beating Malfoy, who is a first-year student and cannot use evil spells, shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, the probability of Malfoy coming to the duel tonight is much lower than the probability of Ryze getting a Gold Infusion, Prism Infusion, Chaos Infusion, and then Pandora's Box in his previous life when he played in the Soul Arena.

At that point, with the prefects as witnesses, Gryffindor could naturally make a big fuss about it, proudly spreading the news that Slytherin feared to duel Gryffindor and would rather lose their honor than keep the challenge.

The point isn't Malfoy and Harry Potter, and we don't even need to mention their names. We just need to elevate the discussion to the point where Slytherins are afraid of Gryffindor, and the Slytherins will naturally try to find out who the other is.

By then, given Slytherin's emphasis on honor, Malfoy, who had repeatedly embarrassed Slytherin, would probably have to write home that very night to apply for a transfer to Durmstrang.

However, Rizz didn't intend to make a big deal out of it, so he simply reminded Hermione to see if she could use this opportunity to salvage some of her reputation in Gryffindor.

Reese's reminder made Hermione's eyes widen: "You mean Malfoy is deliberately plotting against Harry and the others? Slytherins are indeed cunning. As for a public opinion attack... I think I know what to do!"

After thinking for a moment, she thanked Rhett Butler, her expression noticeably more relaxed than before, and then hurriedly left towards the Gryffindor common room.

I don't know what the other party will do in the end.

Just wait patiently for tomorrow morning's news.

When Ryze returned to the Great Hall, Michael quickly gathered around curiously: "Ryze, you're not still having second thoughts, are you?"

"Although Granger's face is indeed quite cute, her personality is terrible, and she likes to meddle in other people's business. Even if you are the only one in the whole grade who can surpass her in terms of grades, I still suggest that you keep your distance from her, so that you don't get dragged into troublesome things that have nothing to do with her like you did today."

Ryze sat down, drank a bowl of meat soup, and then shook his head to explain.

"Although I know that Malfoy is definitely up to something, I've said before that as long as he doesn't come looking for trouble, I'm too lazy to bother with his affairs."

"Besides, he probably wouldn't be dueling tonight anyway... If he really wanted to duel Harry properly, he could just find a secluded place; there's no need to set the time so late... Duel in the prize room at midnight? I can't believe he even thought of that. Doesn't that mean he's definitely going to pull some tricks? Even if he does go, he'll probably prepare a lot of methods that wouldn't be used in a normal duel."

Anthony, who had been saying he wanted to be a referee, paused for a moment when he heard this, then understood what Reiz meant after thinking for a moment.

He looked somewhat angry.

"Doesn't that Malfoy pride himself on being a 'pure-blood noble'? If he even uses wizard duels as a tool for scheming, then he has absolutely no shame!"

Ryze waved his hand: "Ever since he got Crabbe to do it last week, we shouldn't have expected him to have any aristocratic manners."

"Alright, I've already warned the Gryffindors. The rest is up to them. There's no need for us to get involved."

Terry gave Rizzi a thumbs-up.

“Indeed, you are very insightful. You saw through Malfoy’s thoughts at a glance. Let Gryffindor and Slytherin make their own way. We Ravenclaw will just watch the show from the sidelines.”

After a few people muttered a few words about Malfoy's lack of honor, they stopped talking about it.

Instead of discussing these things, we should eat a few more bites of food and go back to our studies.

The next morning, when Rhett arrived at the Great Hall, everything seemed calm, except that there were indeed some younger wizards from Gryffindor pointing at the Slytherin square table and whispering to each other.

After a while, Hermione, whose hair looked even messier than before, plopped down next to him. Michael patted Anthony and Terry, and the group immediately perked up their ears and pretended not to care to listen to what Hermione was saying.

Hermione's first words weren't about Malfoy, but rather she was complaining to him about how Dumbledore could put such dangerous things in Hogwarts.

"You mean Lou Williams?" Ryze was somewhat surprised that they had run into Lou Williams last night, but he still slowly swallowed the food in his mouth, interrupting Hermione's rant.

"Who...who is Lu Wei?"

"It's that cute little guy in the right-hand corridor on the fourth floor that Principal Dumbledore warned us not to go to when school started. Didn't you go to the prize display room on the fourth floor yesterday? It can't be anything else that could elicit such a reaction from you."

Hermione's gaze towards Ryze suddenly turned strange.

What does "cute little guy" mean?

What's so cute about that three-headed dog that's as tall as the ceiling when it's squatting?

"When will you—"

"You might not know this, but Hagrid's first job every morning is to deliver food to Lou Williams and shovel his poop. Thanks to Hagrid, I'm now quite familiar with Lou Williams' favorite foods and what plants his saliva and poop can promote growth on."

It's him again, Hagrid, Hagrid is the eternal God!

Actually, Ryze didn't mean to trick Hagrid into revealing information, but the problem was that he would just start a conversation with any random topic, and then Hagrid would just blurt out everything in the conversation. What could he do?

All he could do was try to impress Hagrid with his love for magical creatures, hoping he would be shown the world.

So he successfully unlocked the achievement of feeding the three-headed dog with Hagrid. Luckily, Hagrid saw his small size and didn't make him help scoop the poop.

Moreover, the Cerberus truly lives up to its reputation as a magical creature guarding the gates of the underworld in Greek legend; its curse energy is extremely high. If it ever fails to fully absorb its energy, humming music for ten minutes would be more than enough.

No wonder even a Potions Master like Snape had to be crippled for a while after being bitten by someone.

"Actually, this is not a secret. In fact, during the first week of school, many older students had already secretly gone there to take a look."

He paused, then asked Hermione, "So, what happened last night?"

Chapter 51: Dumbledore's Arrangements?

Hermione finally began to recount what had happened the previous night.

After being reminded that Malfoy might be cheating, she went back to the common room and found Harry and Ron, bringing up the possibility.

Of course, Ron and Harry didn't believe Hermione at first because of their prejudice against her.