Chapter 6

The dummy was set to a lower Auror level.

Aurors are expected to be at Warlock Level and should be Adept in at least two subjects, and as you go up the ladder the expected skillset increases.

A junior auror is expected to be an expert in at least one subject and a senior auror needs to have reached an expert level in at least two and so on.

The Auror dummy or automation he set up was at an intern level, just the level you were expected to start as an Auror.

The Dummy immediately fired a red curse,

James waved his wand to call out "Protego"

A blue colored shield materialized in front of him blocking the spell,

He immediately cast an expelling charm which was ducked by his opponent, who in turn disillusioned itself and started casting stunners at high speed putting him in a tight spot,

James started randomly firing bombarda trying to pinpoint the exact location while simultaneously shielding himself, his opponent was firing and running to a different location by the time he had cast a shield and tried firing a spell his opponent would have fired a follow-up, James was getting tired out as his core level was only that of a wizard and his charms repertoire was not very good.

James immediately switched to his best, he immediately cast a wide area Transfiguration, he twirled his wand and transfigured the debris to white powder which he spread across the hall with a gesture of his wand,

He was able to find his opponent's footprint and was able to react better, the duel now no longer too one-sided.

The Dummy finds that it's no longer invisible to its opponent, so it immediately cancels its disillusionment charm and switches to offence.

James was able to match evenly, now with his opponent as it was just at the level of an intern auror and its skills were adept meanwhile he had touched the threshold of Magic by unlocking mysteries with expert level, which caused his mind to open up. 

His purpose of duel served, he immediately switched gears,

He called out "Avis" a bird conjuring charm generally taught at N.e.w.t level, but since he was already an expert he didn't find it very difficult to execute it, though all he could conjure were small birds. In the hands of a master, it would become something much more terrifying.

A flock of birds materialized in front of him and intercepted the curse shattering a few birds,

He twirled his wand and sent it hurling towards the dummy, he again made a quick movement transfiguring the birds midway to have sharp beaks and hurled it towards the dummy

While the dummy was trying to escape the onslaught by moving and waving its wand, he immediately started creating animals from the debris, all sorts of wild creatures came to life. There were lions, tigers, monkeys, snakes and even Elephants each with a small sliver of its behaviour and started moving towards the dummy.

This is the difference between an Adept and an Expert in the field of transfiguration, an adept at max can transfigure an animal and make it behave in a certain manner, if an adept tries transfiguring many it would certainly work but more magic power would be consumed but the transfigured items would behave in an automated manner with little to no movement without constant input.

An expert-level Transfiguration can instil certain basic rules, like always intercepting spells, moving slowly or aggressively etc. Anything complex will need a Master. But the main benefit of expert level is control and you can instil more behaviour in many transfigured items more easily.

The dummy had now won over the birds and trained its wand towards animals and called elemental fire, there were many types of fire in Magic. 

Regular fires which were transfigured to behave like a fire, would have average heat quality in them but not any other quality of fire like burning and purifying, 

But the Elemental fire spells would behave like the former along with severe heat and with a burning quality but still not comparable to magical fire,

Magical fire, on the other hand, was truly terrible, it needs a certain set of skill and control, but the power is very terrible, it would have all the above and a certain purifying effect based on the spell, and certain aspects would be maximised. Like the FIENDFYRE which minimised the purifying concept and maximised the burning concept, once touched it will burn even when no oxygen.

Elemental fire is good AOE and it nullifies the advantages of regular transfiguration.

But James was done playing around, he immediately cast a disillusionment charm on a snake and had it sneak around, while the dummy was concentrating on the transfigured animals he started raining down spells.

For the next few minutes stunners, petrifiers, and disarmers were indiscriminately thrown at the dummy, which was finding it difficult to handle the spells with the transfigured animals, the dummy needed to concentrate on the shield every few seconds as Protego protects against all normal spells and all it needs to is reinforce the shield and simultaneously handle the stampeding animals.

When the dummy was again reinforcing the shield, the snake hiding behind bit his ankles making the dummy fall and causing the remaining transfigured animals to swarm the fallen opponent, making the duel come to an end.

Huffing and puffing, James was elated. This was a very significant win for him, in the last 4 years of the same exercise he was never able to win against the dummy even once. Even though his core size had not increased, his skill increase was huge.

In all his previous duels he would have at most lasted a few seconds before losing the duel, but now he can win which is a great reassurance for the things he would need to do in the coming days.

With grief still lingering in his eyes, he started moving towards his dorm.

========= GREAT HALL POV =============

Once the doors closed after James, a pandemonium broke in the hall. 

"Goldstein, Did you see that!!" a boy in blue-themed robes shouted at his fellow student.

"Yes Corner, we all saw" replied another student at the Ravenclaw table.

"Well, it cannot be his mother, as the Gringotts rarely send mail as she is not the head of the house"

"Who do you think it is?" quipped Corner

There was silence as no one wanted to acknowledge the possible answer,

"Then, do you think it is regarding Charles Potter" another boy shouted excitedly

"Do you want to get us in trouble, Crouch? Shut up and don't speak so excitedly"

The boys were nervous and looked around, but there was no need to worry as this was the discussion going on in all the tables around.

Same time at the Slytherin table, a mouse-haired teenager was being mobbed by many students,

"Travis I saw you were not at the dorms yesterday, where were you?" asked a boy with black locks and blue eyes

"Greengrass mind your own business" quipped back Travis who was feeling uneasy.

He came back late at night,

Once his adrenaline wore off he was so frightened that he barely got enough sleep.

Skipping the breakfast would be met with suspicion, so he dragged himself to the Slytherin table hoping for a quiet day but the Gringotts letter ruined his plans and brought back his panic.

Travis was a known death eater, it was an open secret. There were a lot of DE in Slytherin, but Travis was very vocal about it.

Being the last son of the house of Travis, he was left to inherit nothing. His grades were not so great, he was not good at sports nor was he popular.

But he had a strong core, he entered into Warlock level post his owls when he received his first maturity and was accepted into the ranks of the Lord.

With dedication and determination, he made sure to complete the tasks assigned to him for Hogwarts, he rose in rank and he recently made it into the mid-level circle, and he also had got to meet the Lord in person recently.

Being a death eater was not just his secret, it was his identity.

Gryffindor table:

Unlike other house tables, there was stunned silence as the students were still trying to digest the news, as kids they had grown up hearing of the great Charles Potter and his adventures. There was a certain level of hero worship towards such a great figure that none were willing to accept.

"I heard it was an accident" a pudgy boy informed his friends.

"I don't see it in the prophet, James didn't know it, neither have aurors conducted an investigation. What is the basis of your absurd claim Macmillan?" barked Sirius.

Sirius was pissed.

Many angry stares found Daniel

"Oh I assure you it was an accident, I heard it recently. I am sure the Daily Prophet will say the same thing" Daniel preened with arrogance.

Frank stared at Damien with thoughts running in his mind.