A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Felix nodded; that made sense. Eurya Edmund was a student leader in the Paris Incident; even if the Magical Congress of America didn't pursue the matter at the time, they would inevitably cause trouble later. But becoming a teaching assistant at Ivermony School solved many of those problems.

“But they still broke Julia’s wand,” Besni said bitterly.

Every time this matter is brought up, she gets furious.

Yuria said nonchalantly, "They only restrict me in these trivial matters."

Besni shrieked, "How can it be unimportant? It's so inconvenient not having a wand!"

Yuria shook his head slightly and looked at Felix: "Mr. Hyp, which subject do you think I teach?"

Felix thought for a moment: "That's all I can think of, Herbology... no," he saw Bethney about to interject, realized he was wrong, and his mind raced. Something that didn't require a wand but could be connected to him... he asked with certainty: "Muggle research?"

Besni looked at him in surprise.

“That’s right, but we call this course ‘Muggle Studies’ where we’re from—Muggle is short for non-magicians.” Yuria explained, “I was also in pain for a while after losing my wand, but I soon found that it affected me much less than I had expected… I can cast some simple spells without a wand.”

"On the contrary, I had more time to think. In the library, I saw Mr. Hep's works, which opened a window for me... Principal Fontana sheltered me, but he didn't expect me to teach students. I chose the direction of my research myself."

He said solemnly, "So, when I learned that the school would be participating in the competition, I immediately asked the principal to add my name to the delegation... I hope to ask you for advice in person!"

……

After they parted, Felix looked at Julia's retreating figure with some emotion. Although only a little over a year had passed, he had clearly grown a lot and was more organized in his work.

"Hmm, maybe I should suggest that Remus prioritize opening branches in the Americas."

Chapter 375 Integration

While waiting for the dinner to begin, Byers had already become friends with Neville, and consequently, had also become acquainted with Harry and his group.

“Yes, it’s very different,” he said, explaining the Sorting Ceremony in Ilfamony to the Gryffindor students. “I was shocked when I first saw it. There are statues of the two founders, Aesop Thale and James Stewart, on either side of the main gate of the castle. Beyond the main gate is a rotunda, where we take the Sorting Ceremony…”

He drew a circle on the table to represent the shape of the hall, and then added four small dots.

“See those?” Byers said, pointing to the dots. “Those are animal sculptures representing the four houses. The freshmen are standing in a circle against the wall, waiting for their names to be called. I was standing on the Gordy Knot, and I was terrified. All around me were faces as nervous as mine. If I looked up, I could see the upperclassmen and professors on the second-floor terrace—”

"What is the Gordi Knot?" Simo asked with great interest.

Byers showed him the golden knot on his robe: "This is it, the thing used to fasten the school robe. It's complicated, but it's a tradition at our school, and everyone has to know how to do it."

"Where was I? Oh, standing on the Gordi Knot, and then just waiting to see which magic statue would react... It felt like a year had passed, thankfully the Thunderbird statue responded to me," he said thankfully.

Harry empathized; he also had a long sorting process during his first year, but he was sorted into Gryffindor because the Sorting Hat strongly recommended that he go to Slytherin, which he insisted on disagreeing with.

He couldn't help but ask, "Has any freshman ever encountered a situation where two statues responded to him at the same time?"

“There should be,” Byers recalled. “But I’ve never encountered one; it’s very rare… The most famous example is Ms. Serafina Picqueri, who was sought after by all four houses, and it turned out she was worth it; she later became the president of the Magical Congress of the United States.”

"She did an excellent job during her tenure, but people remember her more for withstanding pressure and not banning gurgling liquor than for enacting the magic creature protection law..."

Hermione shrieked, "What is that for Derryfrance Dane's sake?"

Byers looked at her in surprise.

"Did I say something wrong?" Hermione asked in a low voice.

“No,” Byers said, “you must have seen this name in a book? Derryfron Dane?”

Hermione nodded and cautiously began, “The book says that Derryfrance Dane was one of the victims of the Salem witch trials in the seventeenth century, and her name later became a colloquial expression of surprise.”

Byers suppressed a laugh and said, "You're right, but that's a word my grandmother's generation used. The book you're reading must be quite old..."

Hermione blushed deeply.

The surrounding Gryffindor wizards laughed; it was a rare treat to see Miss Know-It-All make such a fool of herself.

After the laughter subsided, Ron asked curiously, "So... what exactly is this 'Giggle Liquor'?"

……

“Want some? A strong liquor, as old as the Magical Congress, every sip tastes like history,” asked Cormac Wilkinson, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in Ilvarmony, as he shook a large, burly bottle, the liquor inside making a gurgling sound.

Felix shook his head slightly: "I can't stand strong liquor."

“Young people don’t know what’s good for them…” Wilkinson muttered, turning his head. “And you, Professor Moody, want some? Just one bite will make you laugh out loud.”

Moody patted the curved bottle at his waist and said gruffly, "I only drink my own."

Professor Wilkinson's eyes lit up, and he leaned closer to ask, "What good thing is it?"

“It’s cheap liquor, I’m used to drinking it. I used to sneak a sip when I was an Auror spy,” Moody tapped his cane on the floor. “Professor Wilkinson, what do you think of my proposal?”

McGonagall, sitting two seats away, turned her head away, unable to bear watching. She still couldn't prevent it; Professor Moody's "unique teaching philosophy of Defense Against the Dark Arts" was exposed on the very first day, without even an extra day of buffer time.

“Oh, uh, well…” Wilkinson’s tone became ambiguous, “I didn’t expect Hogwarts’ teaching style to be so radical. I had heard some rumors before, but now it seems there was some misunderstanding…”

He downed a large gulp of strong liquor, his face suddenly flushed, and he burst into wild laughter. Then he began to loudly proclaim the glory of his ancestors, “Charlietie Wilkinson! One of the Twelve Aurors of America! She was my great-great-great-grandmother, one of only two who survived to old age…”

When the banquet ended, he was carried out of the castle by four goblins and followed the Iphamoni delegation toward the temporary camp at the Quidditch stadium.

Hogwarts students could still occasionally hear his drunken voice drifting through the black night—"Homage to Charity Wilkinson!", "Homage to Therdard Fontana!", "Homage to the Twelve Aurors!"

“He looks furious, that Principal Iphamoni,” Felix said sarcastically.

Principal Ifamoni is a very law-abiding person, but Professor Wilkinson's behavior today was somewhat embarrassing. Perhaps even more embarrassing was that the professor was carried away by the cold-faced goblins without any awareness, which was really contrary to the subject he teaches...

Professor McGonagall, whose expression had been serious the whole time, started to laugh.

But she immediately put on a serious face and said worriedly, "I'm worried that Professor Moody will cause trouble..."

Her fears came true.

At the start of the new week, Moody disregarded the feelings of the new student, Ephamoni, and used a malicious transfer spell in the seventh-grade class, grafting the students' noses onto plants, bottles, books, and all sorts of strange things.

He roared, “Some of you have been singled out and passed the test of fear… Yes, you think you’re so great… But to me, it’s all an illusion! Petty! We’re going to test the real thing, huh?”

His prosthetic eye darted around, staring at the students in the classroom, including the transfer students from Iphamoni.

Collins Foley covered his face, tears welling in his eyes, and frantically waved his wand. After a moment—

"boom!"

The spell's effect wore off, and Collins, clutching his perfectly healthy nose, finally felt a weight lifted from his shoulders.

“Well done!” Moody limped over. “See? That’s the effect I wanted. You need to learn how to transfer curses and how to break them. Slytherin, ten points!”

In the afternoon, Felix was looking through the roster in the ancient rune classroom.

"Why are two missing?"

He looked at Byers, who stammered, "They...they're not feeling well, they're lying in the camp..."

Felix understood; perhaps he was frightened by Moody's curse? But there was no need to skip his class.

“Alright, students,” he said, glancing around the room, “let’s begin class. Given all the exciting events this year, your attention is bound to be diverted… Let’s work hard and try to finish the year’s curriculum before the first project begins.”

The young wizards below didn't react much; their learning progress was always ahead of schedule. This "ahead of schedule" was relative to the assessment standards of the Ministry of Magic's Wizard Examinations Authority, which was responsible for organizing the students' .Ls and .Rank exams.

Since Professor Hyp joined the faculty, the young wizards' Ancient Runes grades have skyrocketed. Of the students who graduated at the end of June this year, all but one received the highest grade, Excellent (O).

In the professor's words, "The Ministry of Magic is too slow to react; they haven't caught on yet. But you can't keep expecting them to turn a blind eye. After all, a long string of 'excellent' is still quite conspicuous..."

"Perhaps one day they will remember this and go to Hogwarts to reassess the difficulty of the coursework and the assessment standards."

……

Ilfamoni's students looked around in astonishment. The Hogwarts students seemed to have no objection to Professor Hyp's words. This made them wonder if they had misheard; did he really intend to learn a whole year's worth of material in three months?

"Professor, do you know when the first competition will be held?" a student asked, raising his hand.

“It should be between late November and early December,” Felix said. “First, to give the Warriors enough time to prepare, and second, to avoid interfering with the Christmas ball. The timeframe I just mentioned pretty much meets these requirements.”

He gently tapped the table and pulled the students into the thinking classroom.

……

A week passed in the blink of an eye. Ifamoni's students were like a drop of water merging into the ocean; even the occasional ripples didn't cause any major trouble. At Friday's faculty meeting, Professor McGonagall dropped two bombshells.

"First thing, the Ministry of Magic has agreed on a list of dark magic that can be used 'reasonably' in the tournament." As he spoke, parchments floated towards the professors present.

Felix stared into thought at the long list of spells written in black ink.

"The second thing is that the delegation from Iphamoni asked us if it was possible for the prospective warriors from the two schools to spar and practice with each other, including to familiarize themselves with and resist the black magic mentioned above."

She said expressionlessly, "Let's discuss it together."

Chapter 376 Entrance

When Professor McGonagall stopped speaking, Felix noticed that Snape's expression suddenly became very strange. He tried his best to appear nonchalant and said lightly, "We have to take them seriously, that dark magic..."

He loosened his grip, letting the parchment slip from his fingertips.

"What lies hidden beneath dangerous emotions is elusive, unpredictable, and always takes everyone by surprise... If Hogwarts students are unprepared for this, they will find themselves just a bunch of headless flies when the time comes."

“When needed!” Moody repeated loudly. “Is it when we need to face it, or when we need to use it? What do you think I’ve been doing for the past two months?”

Snape and Moody stared at each other.

After a moment of silence, Flitwick interjected uneasily, "I think we all agree on one thing: we will never teach our students dark magic—"

Snape glanced at him.

You're right.

“That’s right,” Flitwick said, as if encouraged, “but we can’t let the students pretend they don’t see that dark magic is a very large category of magic, and in certain times and situations, it has an advantage.”

Professor McGonagall said impatiently, "You've confused me, Philius. Do you agree with Iphamoni's suggestion or not?"

Felix suddenly said, "Professor Flitwick probably thinks the same way I do—to accept Ilfamoni's proposal. They have two plans: one is to test Hogwarts' ability to prepare champions before the other three schools arrive."

"It's not just them; all five schools will do the same thing. Based on past competition information, there are options such as teaming up with the weaker side to fight against the stronger side. Moreover, there are now five schools, and the Warriors have increased to three, making the situation even more complex and unpredictable. Therefore, each school wants to know its own position in order to better formulate strategies."

The professors nodded, indicating their agreement with his statement.

"What about Iphamoni's second plan?"

“Of course, it’s intensive training in dark magic,” Felix said. “The Iphamonis aren’t as averse to dark magic as we are, but I must remind you, the course they teach is called Defense Against the Dark Arts, not Dark Magic!”

"This means that their students do not possess most of the dark magic on this list."

“You mean, Felix, we can find out which dark magic Iphamoni has chosen through student sparring?” Professor McGonagall asked. Moody’s prosthetic eye darted around, as if he were thinking rapidly.

“That’s right,” Felix glanced at the parchment in his hand. “There are about fifty dark spells in here, a wide variety, each with its own focus. It’s impossible for students from other schools, except Durmstrang, to master them all. The best strategy is to pick out the useful ones. And traditional schools like Beauxbatons might even refuse to use dark magic, just like Hogwarts.”