Monday, March 14, 1972.
A month and a half had passed since the marauders began using the mysterious room as a base and practiced a large number of offensive and defensive charms. Performing duels against each other, either 1vs1, 2vs2, or all versus all.
Besides practicing, they also read in the rest area, where there were many books on the subject and comfortable sofas. The bad thing is that they would spend the whole night there, and the next day they would fall asleep in class.
Many professors like McGonagall or Antennae did not like at all that five students fell asleep in their class. For the first time, all marauders had a punishment at the same time.
The good thing was that they didn't lose house points, but they were warned that if they fell asleep in class again in addition to the punishment they would be penalized with house points. Five people losing points at the same time would be very bad news for Gryffindor.
So they had to stop practicing on weekdays and only do it on weekends, including Sunday, and hold off on Monday so as not to fall asleep in class.
The only one who kept practices on weekdays was James.
James in addition to practicing and improving on his defensive charms (Aeromanteo, Fumos among others), was dedicated to improving his already learned offensive charms.
He wanted to take them to a new level. For example, the Flipendo charm has a more powerful version which is: Flipendo Duo. This is twice as powerful as the normal one, knocking the target down with greater force. There was even Flipendo Tria and Flipendo Maxima.
Another charm that has a more powerful version is Lumos. Its advanced version is Lumos Maxima which produces a blinding flash of bright white light much more powerful than Lumos.
For a battle, it would serve to blind the opponent for a few seconds, although for this you must close your eyes. Which wouldn't do much good unless you have sunglasses.
For guidance and to know how to improve these charms this month he read a book entitled: Extreme Charms, written by the witch Violet Stitch. The charm Lumos Maxima is covered in chapter thirty-two, and the Flipendo duo in chapter thirty-five.
On the other hand, two Quidditch matches were played during this time: Gryffindor vs Slytherin. The most expected and the most tense match, since both houses have a great rivalry.
To the sadness of all Gryffindor was defeated by 190 to 90. Slytherin was losing by fifty points down, but their seeker managed to get ahead of Alex and catch the golden snitch. Many Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff said that the Slytherin student committed a foul, as he pushed Alex, but the referee did not call it.
This made James and the others have to put up with the constant taunts from Rabastan and the other Slytherin boys. Sirius already wanted to start a new prank or repeat the 100 dungbomb prank.
The Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw match ended with the Badgers winning. The match ended 180 to 50. The standings were like this:
[1° Slytherin: 370 points.
2° Gryffindor: 310 points.
3° Hufflepuff: 260 points.
4° Ravenclaw: 70 points]
There is still one game left, but there is little hope since Slytherin is facing one of the worst Ravenclaw in history, who in two games did not reach a hundred points.
No one believes they can beat Slytherin, who is a steamroller, as they beat a great Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, who is not playing badly at all.
James was currently alone in the training room late at night.
This is because it's a weekday, and there are classes tomorrow, so Sirius and the others don't want to stay in training all the time and go to class without sleep. Unlike James, they don't have the obsession to be practicing every day.
If it were up to James he would do the same as the marauders, but he knows that shortly he will face Voldemort and Voldemort in the Harry Potter novel will kill him for some unknown reason.
Unfortunately, he does not want to die at a young age, so he must become as powerful as possible.
The attacks by Voldemort's followers had already begun, it was not yet known who was behind it all, and it didn't escalate much, but little by little the attacks on Muggles were increasing, and at any moment they could change their focus, and start attacking wizards.
"Flipendo Duo!" shouted James, pointing at a magical dummy. From his wand came a red light at high speed.
The Flipendo Duo hit the dummy with impressive force, knocking it back more meters than the base Flipendo. The room filled with the sound of the blast of energy and the crackle of the dummy being pushed back by the force of the spell.
'I wonder how much pain it will cause...' thought James. He could feel the force of the charm was greater than normal and the dummy pushed back more meters, but he didn't know the damage it would cause to the object or person.
The base Flipendo felt like a heavy blow to the chest or like getting hit in the head with a frying pan or so the people who were hit described it.
'Like the hit of two frying pans...' thought James with a question mark on his face.
James knew that the base Flipendo and duo in terms of offensive magic was no big deal. The pain it caused was resistible. He was able to withstand two Flipendo throws from Sirius. In time he managed to knock Mulciber and Avery out thanks to them crashing hard into the wall.
Against a Death Eater, a dark wizard with experience and power, it won't be very effective, but for formal duels and use at Hogwarts it's fine. His real target was the Flipendo Tria.
This Flipendo did have a much more effective use in real battles, or so James thought since he never fought dark wizards.
The Flipendo Tria looked like a small tornado. According to the book when the hex is unleashed a swirl of bluish energy materializes from the tip of the wand, expanding and taking the shape of a small tornado. Its strength and power far surpasses its two predecessors, but that's not the best part.
The distinctive feature of this spell is its ability to keep the targets in the air for an extended period (the more mastery you have, the longer time) not only throws the targets but also keeps them suspended in the air as if they were trapped in a magical current.
In addition, the tornado can catch several targets at once. They will experience the physical impact of being thrown into the air with great force and will be trapped in the vortex, causing them to lose their wands and be knocked out in the process.
'This jinx will be very useful if I face several enemies at once' thought James as he read the book explaining the spell. Unlike Expelliarmus it will be able to encompass many people at once knock them out, and even trap them in the tornado without their wands.
Before going into the reading and practice of this new jinx, James looked at the clock and made an ugly expression. It was almost six in the morning. The dark circles under his eyes were visible. It had been several days where he had stayed up so late. And he had to wake up at 7:30 to go to breakfast and then to class.
Somehow, he managed to stay awake in class and not get grounded, but what he was hearing was minimal, and he was falling behind on his homework.
'I'd better sleep...' thought James as he made his way to a corner of the huge room. There was a very spacious double bed there, complete with Puddlemere United sheets.
As the room put everything he needed, James thought ¿Why not stay overnight here?
This way, he won't waste time going to the Gryffindor common room. This means more rest time, and every minute counts when you have less than two hours of sleep.
The fire from the torches went out magically, and James collapsed on the bed without even covering himself, falling fast asleep.