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Chapter 985: Training in progress
🕑 Added 2024-01-06 04:59:00 +0000 UTC“Don’t mind her,” Cho muttered, looking at Evan apologetically, “She doesn’t really want to be here but I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that might upset Umbridge, you see — her mum works for the Ministry.”
"Oh!" Evan nodded. It was normal for Marietta to have such concerns.
Despite Evan repeatedly stating that their primary goal wasn't to overthrow the Ministry of Magic, many people were dissatisfied with Umbridge and the Ministry due to their actions at Hogwarts. There was a strong sentiment of resistance.
Moreover, due to their current position, it wasn't a matter of whether Evan was willing or not; Fudge, Umbridge, and the Ministry had already identified them as enemies, eager to arrest them and throw them into Azkaban.
In this case, the newly formed Dumbledore's short-term enemies were Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic.
If someone didn't want to participate, Evan had no intention of forcing them. He firmly believed that everyone had the same long-term goal, which was to fight Voldemort.
Even if not Voldemort, they still had to fight against evil gods. Those evil beings were the enemies of all life.
From this perspective, Evan hoped that all Hogwarts students would join Dumbledore's Army.
"My parents have forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge too. They wrote a letter to warn me," said Cho, drawing herself up proudly. "But I believe in what you and Harry said, I believe in the Headmaster's speech last term. You-Know-Who has returned, and we can't pretend he hasn't. We must face the facts, and if necessary, take up arms. Also, if they think I’m not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happened to Cedric…”
She broke off, looking rather confused. She felt that she could fight, but if her opponent was Voldemort, she seemed to be overestimating her abilities.
Just talking about it was a frightening and somewhat absurd thing.
How could a Hogwarts student fight against the most evil Dark Lord in history?!
"Cho, what you said is very good. If we do our best, we can resist Voldemort. Only through constant practice will we become stronger," Evan encouraged her. "Although we are weak now and not his match, if we persist in practicing, we’ll gradually become stronger.”
"Well, I believe in you!" Cho said hurriedly, and added, "Because of Cedric."
She seemed to be troubled by Cedric turning into a vampire. Evan didn't know how to tell her, how to comfort her. Could he tell her that Cedric was supposed to die, and now becoming a vampire was actually a blessing in disguise?
"What happened that day?" Cho asked softly.
"Actually, Harry and I didn't see the whole process. Cedric was taken away after he was knocked down!" said Evan. "Then we learned about his transfer to the United States from the headmaster, along with a letter he wrote to both of us.”
"Where’s that letter?" Cho asked eagerly.
"With Harry, you can talk to Harry about what happened before he was taken away. Cedric was brave and wanted to protect us both from Voldemort."
"My father said that vampires are no different from us except that they need to drink blood regularly." Luna's voice sounded behind Evan, obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. "Also, my father is very supportive of any anti- Ministry action! He’s always saying he’d believe anything of Fudge, I mean, the number of goblins Fudge has had assassinated! And of course he uses the Department of Mysteries to develop terrible poisons, which he feeds secretly to anybody who disagrees with him. So, he supports Dumbledore and you!"
"Say thank you to Mr. Lovegood for me!" Evan said, raising his wand and making a noise, attracting everyone's attention. "Alright, I just checked your practice. Everyone is working hard, and you've basically mastered the Disarming Charm. However, there might be some issues with the combinations, so I'm going to reorganize the groups now.”
Evan shuffled everyone around, pairing someone who had completely mastered the Disarming Charm with someone who was still not proficient in its use. He assigned Harry to assist Cho, Hermione with Colin, Fred with Zacharias, George with Michael, and as for Neville, Evan took charge of him.
After the reshuffling, the efficiency noticeably improved.
Especially in the duels between Fred and Zacharias, George and Michael, it seemed like they were really dueling, both sides eager to knock each other's wands away. Although Fred and George had the upper hand, the other two showed rapid progress.
Neville also made rapid progress. As long as he overcame his psychological obstacles, he quickly mastered the Charm.
It was only Harry and Cho who seemed to have suddenly become clumsy.
Time passed quickly, and when it was ten minutes to ten , Evan stopped the training, leaving many wanting more.
"The time is up, everyone performed very well today!" said Evan. "I hope you continue practicing after you go back. By the next training session, everyone should have mastered the Disarming Charm, and we can move on to the next spell. Hmm, about the date for the next meeting, how about this Saturday night at the same time?"
"The earlier the better. No matter how many times we practice, I have time!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.
Before coming here, many people had more or less doubts, but now all these doubts were gone!
It felt really good to actually learn a spell and feel your own strength improve; especially since Hogwarts had never had this kind of practical learning before, and the previous attempts at dueling clubs all ended without much success.
"No, the Quidditch season’s about to start, we need team practices too!" Angelina said hurriedly.
"Then let's set it at the same time next week for the time being, and make sure to train at least once a week," said Evan. "Later, each of you think about it, and list your available evenings to Hermione, so we can determine the meeting time."
The first activity of Dumbledore's Army ended perfectly. When Evan and Hermione tallied up everyone's available times, they realized that the main constraint came from the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, particularly Angelina, who wished to practice every day.
Evan negotiated with Angelina and asked her to adjust the Quidditch training time as far forward as possible.
In this way, all members of Dumbledore's Army could be guaranteed to be active twice a week, on Tuesday and Saturday nights.
During the second training, Evan taught everyone to practice the Shield Charm.
As an entry-level defensive spell, the Shield Charm was slightly more challenging than the Disarming Charm but highly practical and widely used.
The incantation for the Shield Charm was "Protego," which could create a magical shield to deflect or dissipate objects or spells, protecting the caster and a certain area around them. However, due to its low level, its effectiveness in defending against many Dark spells was limited.
