Chapter 509 Mentoring

Black's old mansion.

Penelope introduced the 'Future World' company's defense arrangement to Harry and the group in the living room.

"Because we have to do business, the sword castle can not be hidden with a spell-like here, its protection is closer to Hogwarts, and when the Thief's Downfall and Anti-Spell series research is done it will become much better. In addition, every employee in the company should possess the most basic self-protection ability, and Professor Hap selected the Stunning spell and Shield Charm for that purpose."

"No Disarming Charm?" Harry muttered with some regret.

"Maybe he thought it would be safer to knock out." Penelope herself is not very certain about that, "There are also some other valuable spells - such as bright fire-making spell, apparition, disillusionment charm, runic shield charm, and other charms, but not everyone can grasp these advanced content easily, so it will take some time to fully spread."

Then, Penelope proposed to play a dueling game.

They went to the training room in the second basement, which is a little more spacious than the fifth floor one, and they don't have to worry about making noise.

"Who will come first?" Penelope stood confidently in the center of the room.

"Sounds like you're planning to fight with all of us on a turn." Fred said, rubbing his nose and sounding a little disinterested.

"It's mentoring." Penelope corrected seriously, "I've learned every one of those spells that I mentioned."

"I see a bit of Percy in her," Harry heard Ron muttering to Neville, "I should have thought of that, why can she stand that workaholic Percy? Because they're the same type of person."

Harry grinned, and out of the corner of his eye he seemed to see Ginny staring at him across the room, and when he looked over, she had tilted her head away. Harry instantly remembered the kiss last night, it should be a kiss, he thought uncertainly.

"Harry - Harry!"

He snapped back. The rest of the group had retreated to the edge of the black stone wall, and Penelope watched him with eager eyes. He subconsciously gripped his wand tighter.

"Oh, Harry's lost in thought, this isn't good - I'll be the judge!" Fred first muttered in a whisper and then said with gusto in the next second. "Three - two - one, go!"

"Proteg--"

"Bang!"

A red light hit Penelope on the chest, instantly knocking her off her feet, her whole body fell solidly on the mat, and the wand in her hand slid through a beautiful arc and landed in Harry's hand.

Penelope struggled to brace herself from the cushion, with an incredulous expression.

Harry also was somewhat surprised by his own spell casting speed, which seemed to be a lot faster, but he suspected it might be an illusion.

"Mate, better restrain yourself," whispered Ron, as he approached him, "or Percy will come charging down to get his revenge on you."

"I didn't use my full strength--" Harry explained in a whisper.

"One more time, I just got ahead of myself." Penelope said unconvincingly.

"So, round one, Harry wins; round two, ready-" Fred did his duty.

This time Penelope lasted a lot longer, Harry did not dare to use the disarming charm, but he found an opportunity to use a Jelly-Legs Jinx, and Penelope fell hard and could not get up from the ground.

The crowd rushed around. Hermione cast the counter curse and then took out the anti-swelling potion - Penelope is now puffy and sore, and everyone held back their laughter.

"You have fully mastered the Nonverbal spell?" Penelope asked sullenly.

"It's improved a lot lately." Harry said with a smile, he is finally sure that it was not an illusion, he originally could only cast a few of his best dueling spells silently, but today his skills are surprisingly good.

Could it be that Voldemort's influence caused this again? His heart clouded with gloom.

"It won't leave a mark, right?" Fred asked worriedly, "I mean if that woman (mom) finds out -"

Harry sucked in a cold breath and forgot whatever he had thought before.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything." Penelope shrugged, "I mean, my skills are not as good as yours."

Harry's good opinion of Penelope increased greatly.

Next, Harry and Hermione dueled, hurling spells from the tips of their wands and dashing around the training room. Almost a half-minute passed, and except for the sound of the spell hitting the wall, neither of the two spoke.

"They know each other so well that sometimes they know what spell the other is going to use by their feelings alone." Ron explained, "But Harry is really in good shape today, you know he can't beat Hermione in silent spell casting."

"And you can do what they do?" Fred and George scrutinized Ron.

"That's for sure - not even close." Ron said under his breath as he saw their eager expressions.

"Look, Hermione's about to use the combination magic, the one Professor Flitwick used, oh, what's that?" His eyes widened as he looked unexpectedly at the sudden change in the situation on the field.

Somehow, from Hermione's beaded pouch, a series of palm-sized chestnut wood pieces flew out. These pieces of chestnut wood flashed red, with scorching runic circuits, and under Hermione's precise control, it surrounded Harry.

Harry felt uneasy and instantly cast a runic shield charm with a 'flow' rune, as an invisible spherical barrier rippled with light green water wrapped around him. He looked up, Hermione stretched her neck to look, and after confirming he is ready, she slashed her wand downward.

Chestnut pieces exploded around him at the same time, turning into a dazzling ball of fire.

Harry felt dizzy, the explosion did not hurt him, but the loud noise made him a bit overwhelmed.

"What kind of magic is this?" When the fire died down, he couldn't help but ask, "It looks a bit like a runic circuit."

"You're right," Hermione said cheerfully, "but it's an unstable runic circuit that should be avoided at all costs, but if you control it properly--" she made an explosion gesture.

"Turning a failed runic circuit into an offensive attack?" Harry mulled over the fact that such an approach is not simple or at least requires a great deal of magic manipulation.

"How did you come up with that?" Ron, who is standing at the side, couldn't help but ask.

"Well - haven't I been reading a lot of materials about runes lately? While reviewing my learning experience of ancient runes, it occurred to me that the professor showed me this in the very first lesson." Hermione said with a smile, her eyes curved into two crescent moons, the success of her new move put her in a very good mood.

"I think he may have simply been demonstrating an example of a mistake at the time." Ron told the truth in a heartbeat.

Next was Neville and Ginny's turn. Neville seemed to have the concept of defensive counterattack tactic burned into his bones and hardly made a single mistake. Ginny tried multiple spells in turn and couldn't find a single flaw, not to mention that she is not good at dueling in the first place, and only knows how to stand still and release a spell mindlessly. She huffed and puffed and used her best Bat-Bogey Hex, only to be knocked down easily by Neville when he seized the opportunity.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

Ginny shook her head and stood up on her own.

"You guys have changed so much," Fred said genuinely, "even I have an itchy hand."

"When was the last time we had a serious duel?" George asked in a pretentious tone.

"If you don't count the time you cast a Hair-Thickening Charm on me yesterday to test the protective cap, I think it was a dueling match during last school year. We got knocked out at the same time, remember?" Fred said with a straight face.

"The time we beat each other with Dungbombs?" George remembered it too.

"But it sucked so much when we were fighting, it was like looking in the mirror." Fred said reluctantly, they didn't really spend much time on dueling, but the mere fact that the two of them fought on a daily basis made them a lot better than the average person.

"You're right, it's better to look for someone else--" George replied, and then the two turned to Ron in unison.

...

Ron was beaten badly.

"You actually lasted a long time," Harry helped him up off the floor, "but Fred and George were just so well-matched, it was like they could switch minds."

"I assumed it was two vs. two," Ron said, rubbing his shoulder, "but they turned out to be more shameless than I thought, and hiss~ it's definitely swollen."

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