Dueling Club

The naive House-elf never doubted Adam’s words and let him take Dobby away with ease. Adam then openly used an Illusion Card to bring Dobby to the Room of Requirement.

"Wake up~"

He tapped the oak barrel with the Wand of Darkness. Dobby poked his head out, his eyes lighting up.

It had woken up on the way, but the Lock Card had kept it trapped inside the barrel. Now that it could come out, did that mean—?!

Yet the next moment, Dobby remained where it was.

"Don’t bother trying. The seal’s range has merely expanded from the oak barrel to this room."

After thinking for a few seconds, Dobby crawled out of the barrel and gave Adam a trembling bow.

"Honored sir, may Dobby ask why you wanted to see him?"

"That diary is in my hands now."

Adam looked at Dobby and got straight to the point, taking out the diary with only four pages left. At the sight of it, Dobby’s bulb-like eyes widened even further.

"So you no longer need to protect Harry Potter."

Adam’s feelings were a little complicated as he said this, since Dobby’s protection had only produced the opposite effect so far.

"Oh, heavens! Harry Potter has been saved!"

Dobby jumped up and down excitedly, then suddenly began crying out.

"Dobby does not need to disobey his master anymore! Bad Dobby! Dobby is an unworthy House-elf!"

As it spoke, Dobby slammed its head violently against the floor.

Adam froze. Only then did he remember that Dobby’s eventual freedom had actually come about through a rather accidental chain of events. Under the current circumstances, Old Malfoy probably would not come to Hogwarts… In other words, Dobby would have to keep working for the Malfoy family for nothing.

But it did not seem like much of a problem. Adam had never planned to liberate oppressed people around the world, much less House-elves, and he had no particular thoughts about Dobby.

Dobby was indeed brave, and it had indeed protected Harry when it sacrificed itself, but to be honest, Adam did not like it.

Its obsession with Harry came entirely from Harry’s story as the Boy Who Lived. It had betrayed the master it served for the image of someone in a story, and after that betrayal, it had merely gone about protecting the imagined savior in what it believed was the best way. Adam found that somewhat absurd.

There was no denying that Dobby and Harry would later form a deep friendship, but at this point, Dobby was practically like an obsessive fan determined to protect its own older brother.

Once Dobby had calmed down, Adam told it to find Harry and explain everything it had done before letting it go. If Harry thought it necessary, he could figure out a way to free Dobby himself.

As for learning House-elf magic, there were plenty of House-elves at Hogwarts, and they even lived right next to the Hufflepuff dormitories. Adam was sure they would be happy to help him.

Now that Dobby had been dealt with, there were finally no more abnormal security risks in the castle, and Adam and the others’ school life returned to normal.

Adam spent half a month thoroughly studying the Deboning Curse Lockhart had stumbled upon, then converted it into a spell-array version.

This magic had some overlap with the Erase Card, except it was far more targeted. With delicious food tempting him, Adam’s research progressed faster than ever before.

This spell could no longer simply be called the Deboning Curse. It could remove bones, scales, shrimp veins, snail shells, fruit pits, rotten leaves, solids suspended in liquids, and anything else the caster considered an "impurity."

Yes, the effect of this magic was also highly subjective. For example, Adam could decide while casting that cartilage was not an impurity, and it would remain behind—the same went for fish heads and tail fins, so deboned fish would not turn into some bizarre shape that ruined one’s appetite.

When Uther saw the spell, he could only call it brilliant. Klon kept praising it as ingenious. Bernard immediately got a plate of roasted chicken legs from the kitchen.

"Try it already!"

Adam reached out and brushed his hand over the chicken leg. Every bone vanished, but the cartilaginous parts at the ends remained.

"Adam, this spell alone could put you in the history books!"

Klon said excitedly as he gnawed on a chicken leg.

"Braised carp!"

Eugene was excited too. He loved braising food, but the bright red color made picking out fish bones extremely troublesome. Before, he could only make do with braised hairtail fish, but now he could finally eat without restraint.

Adam, too, was filled with inspiration as he considered what new dishes to make next.

Just before Hufflepuff could welcome a wave of celebration, Lockhart jumped out to stir up trouble again.

Perhaps he was dissatisfied that the castle had remained peaceful for so long and he was no longer everyone’s focus. Or perhaps Adam had been too busy researching spells to pay attention to him, giving him newfound confidence. In any case, Lockhart still went ahead and created that Dueling Club.

What Adam found even harder to believe was that Professor Dumbledore had actually agreed to it—he would not believe it even if Harry were beaten to death that the old headmaster did not know Hogwarts was safe now!

The headmaster’s control over the entire castle was terrifying. Portraits, ghosts, even the House-elves—these were all the headmaster’s eyes and ears, not to mention the various protective magics that might have other functions as well.

Then why was Professor Dumbledore still allowing Lockhart to fool around like this?

With that question in mind, Adam followed the crowd to the so-called Dueling Club.

It was called a Dueling Club, but in truth, they had merely rearranged the Great Hall. The long tables belonging to the four houses had been moved away, and an extravagant dueling platform had been built in the middle. It did look somewhat official, though with all the floral decorations, it resembled a stage more than anything else.

At that eagerly anticipated moment, Gilderoy Lockhart stepped onto the stage.

He wore a purplish-red robe that glittered beneath the light of hundreds of floating candles. Professor Snape stood beside him, his expression so gloomy that Adam was reminded of the time he had drawn Harry in a lottery.

Lockhart practically skipped all the way to the center of the stage. He waved for everyone to quiet down, then shouted loudly.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear my voice? Ah! Excellent!"

Lockhart wore his trademark smile.

"Professor Dumbledore has permitted me to establish this little Dueling Club, to thoroughly train you all in case one day you need to defend yourselves, using the methods I have employed countless times to protect myself—if you wish to know more, please consult my published works."

After advertising his books, Lockhart raised a hand and gestured toward Professor Snape beside him.

"Allow me to introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. I invited him to help guide you all. In addition, he recommended a junior assistant to me, though he refused to tell me anything more—what an interesting little surprise, isn’t it?"