Chapter 26 - Protego (1/2)
”Lessons are going to be extremely simple,” Professor McGonagall said. ”There will be 3 sections. The first section will be my group. The second section will be Professor Flitwick's group while the third section will be Professor Snape's group. All three of us will be teaching different spells. If you pass a test that shows you mastered the spell, you'll move on to the next section. After all the students pass the test from one section, that professor will move on to a new spell. In short, it will be a rotation and once you complete the round once, you'll move on to completely new or enhanced versions of dueling spells. Does everybody understand?”
Everyone nodded.
”Excellent. Everyone please stand up and go to the center. Please spread out a bit,” Professor McGonagall said.
Everybody started moving and went to the center. Everybody was around 5 feet apart from each other.
”Good. Now today's first lesson is the spell Protego. It is also known as the Shield Charm and is one of the most important spells that anyone can learn for dueling. It creates an invisible shield that reflects spells and even physical objects. There are many variations to the Shield Charm and some are even powerful dark arts. We will be teaching some of the more advanced Shield Charms later on. Now do not think that this is an easy spell. There are many ȧduŀts in the Ministry of Magic that cannot even make a functional Shield Charm. This shows just how difficult the Shield Charm may be. However, all four of us here determined that instead of offensive spells, defensive spells come first and Protego is the most fundamental. Now, there are going to be some here that are going to spend months just learning this spell. For those that do move on, I hope that you can help those that can't. Especially the Captains. Even if you are still working on the spell, you must help your fellow students when they need the help,”
After her speech, Professor McGonagall started teaching the steps of the charm. It was quite simple as the hand movement was just a vertical line. After 5 minutes passed, she was done with explaining.
”That is all for the Shield Charm. If you feel that you are ready, please come to any of us Professors as no one has officially moved to the next section yet,” Professor McGonagall said.
Chris started to practice. He felt that his incantations was perfect and his wand movement was good enough considering the requirement is only a vertical line, but the shield wouldn't be formed properly. However, even after constant casting, the Shield Charm wouldn't appear as a learned spell.
'No wonder there are so many people in the Ministry that can't do this. This spell would be pretty difficult to cast if you had no practice on it. Since it's still the peaceful times, there's no way most members would continue to practice,' Chris thought.
Throughout the entire day, Chris tried to make a proper shield, but the System wouldn't register it as a spell that he knows how to cast.
'Damn it! This spell is much harder than I thought it'd be,' Chris thought. 'I thought even if I can't make a shield within 30 minutes, it wouldn't take more than an hour and even now I'm stills struggling!'
Professors McGonagall. Snape, Flitwick, and Sprout all walked around in the room looking for anything to fix.
Soon an hour passed without anything happening.
'Well I guess I have to practice it in the Practice Room to complete it, but I probably won't get EXP or Magical Power since it's not even level 1 yet,' Chris thought.
”Alright students, that will be it for today,” Professor McGonagall said. ”Practice the spell whenever you can and when I see the first and second years on Monday and the third years on Tuesday, I expect some improvement. Captains stay after for a bit. Dismissed!”
Chris, Katie, and the third year captain, Cedric stood at the same spot while everyone left.
Once everyone left, Professor McGonagall called all three to her.
”So now you three have one favor,” Professor McGonagall said. ”Would you like to use it now?”
The three shook their head.
”Alright then. If you have a favor you want to use, come to one of the Professors here,” Professor McGonagall said.
”Yes Professor,” All three of them said at the same time.
”Alright then you're dismissed. Mr. Diggory, your Shield Charm was extremely close to being satisfactory. I hope to see a wonderful shield next Tuesday,” Professor McGonagall said. ”Miss Bell, your shield was about 60% there while Mr. Evergreen's shield was about halfway from what I observed. On next Monday, I hope that you and Mr. Evergreen are at where Mr. Diggory is right now especially you Mr. Evergreen since you have the ability to learn Reducto,”