Pressure Curse

On the afternoon of Halloween Eve, Tewell hummed a tune as he walked towards the classroom.

He had triumphed over Percy in Wizard Chess last night, even managing to win all night long.

As a reward, the training dummies were postponed for a month to allow them to continue practicing.

It was customary to distribute a test paper to the students.

The first-year students had already learned quite a bit and were starting to get into the same rhythm as the second and third graders, solidifying their knowledge before class. Half an hour later, Tewell collected the test papers.

"I heard something while I was in the hall at noon; you started practicing the Levitation Charm in this morning's charm class, right?"

The students immediately responded excitedly.

This was the second formal spell they had learned, the first being the Lumos Charm.

With a wave of his wand, Tewell made forty pieces of parchment crumple up and then fly to each student.

"Well, first I need to check your proficiency with this spell. Do you see the parchment in front of you?"

"If you can levitate a feather, you can also levitate the parchment. Don't be discouraged; this is a necessary step for moving on to the next phase."

"I suppose you still remember the duel from over a month ago?"

"Once you all master the Levitation Charm, I will teach you an advanced application of this magic, making the ordinary become extraordinary!"

The students were not disappointed; instead, they were even more excited.

They clearly remembered every detail of that duel, well, not that clearly.

The duel was so fast, those who could see the main actions were considered good...

But some spectacular moments were repeatedly mentioned, making a deep impression on them.

Unexpected transfigurations, disarmament spells in the form of small birds, golden armor spells, and so on.

Most importantly, these spells were not particularly profound; by learning the advanced applications mentioned by the professor, they too could perform them!

Their faces were full of longing, wishing they could learn that magic right now.

However, a minute later, the students encountered their first setback.

Except for a few students, no one else could successfully levitate the parchment.

"This won't do," Tewell pretended to be disappointed and shook his head, "This isn't a charm class, there's no time to practice the Levitation Charm here."

"If everyone hasn't mastered it in ten minutes, I'll have to find another opportunity to teach this lesson later."

The young wizards instantly became anxious, and the few who had learned the spell quickly began to instruct their classmates.

The voices of "Wingardium Leviosa" were louder than before as they waved their wands with greater force.

A red light flashed, and Tewell quickly cast an iron armor spell, just in time to tightly wrap the red light inside it.

"Boom."

After a muffled sound, the armor spell gradually turned into white light and dissipated.

"Mr. Finnigan, you would do better if you could relax a bit more."

Tewell couldn't help but admire this explosive talent's ability; even a misfired spell had considerable power.

If he specialized in powerful magic, wouldn't he be a human cannon?

Ron, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.

Using an unsuitable wand and distracted by his argument with Hermione during the morning class, Ron couldn't even make the parchment twitch.

"It's 'Wingardium Leviosa,' not 'osa,' why can't you get it right?" Hermione was frustrated, her face puffing up.

Ron sulked, "I thought you weren't speaking to me."

"You think I want to talk to you?"

Hermione glanced at the professor's position,

"If it wasn't for the professor's lesson, I wouldn't waste my time teaching you!" "Well, thank you then."

Ron responded perfunctorily, but he realized that if he was the only one holding everyone back from learning advanced magic, he would be overwhelmed by the blame! Moreover, he wanted to learn that magic, so even if he was dissatisfied with Hermione's attitude, he had to follow along and learn.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Ron's piece of paper slowly floated into the air, making him so happy he couldn't find his bearings.

"Very good, the last student in the class has successfully mastered the Levitation Charm. Now, let's move on to the highlight of this lesson."

The students held their breath, their eyes fixed on him without blinking.

Tewell's wand was aimed at Ron's floating piece of paper—"Wingardium Leviosa"—the paper, as if slapped by a hand, quickly dropped and tightly clung to the table before instantly flattening out.

The crumpled piece of paper now looked as smooth as a shirt ironed by a mother, without a single wrinkle.

"See?" Tewell floated the piece of paper above everyone's heads, "By applying the opposite force, you can turn the Levitation Charm into a Pressing Charm."

Seeing this, they suddenly remembered a legend—the third-year students had been taught a magic spell that could pin a person to the ground, rendering them immobile.

So, was this the spell they were going to learn?!

The young wizards' faces showed eager anticipation as they stared at the perfectly flat piece of paper, their intense gazes nearly setting it on fire.

"Please note, the two spells are essentially the same: the same magic words, the same technique, and even the same magical output. The only difference is applying the opposite force."

"So you need to remember how you applied the force for the Levitation Charm, and then do the opposite."

The spell for the Levitation Charm echoed through the classroom again, but this time it was not so quickly successful.

"Don't rush, if you don't know how to release the force, just imagine yourself upside down—"

"Hey, hey, Mr. Longbottom, it's about imagining, not actually turning yourself upside down!"

Tewell chuckled as he watched the young wizards try various bizarre methods to reverse their power.

Ron "cleverly" switched hands, resulting in no magical output;

Harry, learning from experience, swung his wand downward, accidentally hitting his left hand and causing a bloodstain;

Padma Patil of Ravenclaw ingeniously reversed her wrist and, by a fluke, succeeded once.

"Congratulations, Miss Patil, for being the first successful student, but I don't recommend everyone do this as I don't want you to twist your arms and have me blamed by Madam Pomfrey."

The students chuckled, but their hands secretly twisted.

Although simple to learn, the Pressing Charm was still relatively easy compared to other advanced applications that change one spell into another.

However, easy is relative, and for first-year little wizards, this magic was considered the most challenging of their school year.

Hermione looked annoyed at Ron twisting his arm, "The professor said turning your wrist over doesn't work."

"But that's what Patil did, and since you're so great, show us the correct version!"

Ron felt like he had said these words earlier that morning, and a second later, he confirmed he indeed had.

Because Hermione once again proved him wrong, the piece of paper was pressed to the table and wouldn't even move with the wind, though it wasn't smoothed out like Tewell's.

"You... you try to completely flatten this piece of paper!" Ron turned his head away, stubbornly speaking.

Hermione immediately turned red with anger, "How could I possibly do that all at once!"

"So it's still no good..." Ron muttered softly.

As soon as the class ended, Hermione ran out of the classroom with her books, not even hearing Tewell's final words—

"If there's a chance, I'll find you an opponent to experience the feeling of combat."