"Really? We can actually go?!" Upon receiving Rhys's sudden invitation, both Daphne and Astoria were in a state of disbelief.
"But… Professor White only invited you..." Once her initial excitement passed, Astoria still felt a bit uneasy.
"It's fine. Just come along," Rhys said confidently. He knew his old friend far too well—she would never complain about having more people come to enjoy her cooking.
Unlike the three of them, who were now fully immersed in anticipation of the upcoming dinner, the other students in the Great Hall were more focused on what Professor White had said in class yesterday.
The topic of Dark Magic was always highly sensitive.
Even the professors at the staff table were no exception.
As soon as Helga Hufflepuff sat down, all eyes turned to her. It was Professor Sprout who spoke first. She had a very favorable opinion of this elderly witch who excelled at food magic and naturally didn't want to see her embroiled in controversy.
"Professor White, I heard a rumor that you said in class we should study Dark Magic... That must be a misunderstanding, right?"
What shocked Sprout was that Professor White actually nodded and openly admitted to this "accusation."
This left the kindhearted Hufflepuff witch visibly unsettled. With a serious expression, she said to Helga, "Perhaps the laws were different in your era, but nowadays, Dark Magic is strictly prohibited."
In the modern wizarding world, Dark Magic had become a taboo subject. Among the world's reputable magical schools, only Durmstrang was openly lenient about Dark Magic.
Opposing Dark Magic was the politically correct stance in today's magical society. Helga's and Rhys's actions were nothing short of bold—but because Helga had drawn most of the attention, hardly anyone noticed the role Rhys had played in stirring up this controversy.
"In my time, many wizards had concerns about Dark Magic—I did too." Helga's next words left every professor silent. Pomona had offered her two very obvious ways to step back, yet Professor White stubbornly refused to take either of them. Now things were truly troublesome.
They were certain that once this news got out, it would inevitably cause a huge uproar. Never mind that many students' parents had once been Death Eaters obsessed with Dark Magic—those would be the first to jump out and distance themselves.
"But from what I've learned, Aurors in the Ministry of Magic were once authorized to use the Unforgivable Curses. So it seems to me that understanding Dark Magic is still necessary."
Helga's statement left the other professors struggling to argue back. It was then that Dumbledore, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
"Miss Smith, in your era, the three Unforgivable Curses weren't exactly widespread yet, were they?"
Helga nodded. In her view, aside from the Imperius Curse, the other two were honestly a bit underwhelming. The Cruciatus Curse was purely a tool for torture with no practical application—if you wanted to extract confessions, there were far better spells for it.
As for the Killing Curse, its instant-death effect sounded impressive, but to Helga, it was frankly laughable.
A spell with no tracking, no guidance, and one that could be dodged just by moving—was that really worthy of being called an Unforgivable Curse? The spells her old friend Salazar Slytherin had invented were far more "unforgivable" than Avada Kedavra.
In the era she lived in, practicality was everything. Spells as flashy yet ineffective as those would never have caught on.
"That explains it," Dumbledore nodded. "The three Unforgivable Curses require strong negative emotions to cast. For example, the Cruciatus Curse can only work if the caster genuinely desires to inflict pain and derives pleasure from the target's suffering. Casting such spells frequently can cause severe damage to a person's soul."
Helga Hufflepuff: "…"
Good grief. Why do the dark wizards of this era like using spells that are not only ineffective but also come with massive side effects?
Couldn't they learn from Salazar—use magic that's both powerful and has minimal backlash?
For the first time, Helga truly felt the chasm between eras.
Before entering Hogwarts, she had done some research on the modern wizarding world. But how could the books available on the market possibly contain detailed instructions on casting the Unforgivable Curses?
Her understanding of them had been limited to just their names and effects. Her old friend Rhys knew a bit more than she did, having at least seen the Killing Curse firsthand.
"Miss Smith, your views are indeed a bit extreme," Dumbledore finally gave a vague, diplomatic conclusion, "but letting the children learn about Dark Magic does have its merits."
The troubles Hogwarts had faced in recent years had given Dumbledore a sense of crisis as well. So he decided to slightly relax the restrictions around Dark Magic—for emergencies, if nothing else.
What Dumbledore didn't say out loud was that, to some extent, he actually agreed with White's views.
Having lived for over a hundred years, Dumbledore had seen far more than most. He was well aware of the gap between wizards of the 1940s and those of the present day. In just half a century, the combat abilities of wizards had deteriorated dramatically.
It seemed everyone now preferred to focus their energy on domestic spells—but no amount of Cleaning Charms could stop a dark wizard.
If you wanted to fight dark wizards, you had to understand Dark Magic.
Continuing to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts without touching on actual dark magic, as had been the practice for the past few years, was simply no longer viable.
That was precisely why he hadn't stopped Professor White.
Dumbledore's gaze swept across Helga's face, and a realization quietly surfaced in his mind: In Professor White's eyes, we must seem terribly regressed too… I wonder what the magical world was really like centuries ago…
Just when the other professors thought the matter had been settled, Smith White opened her mouth again. In a tone filled with confusion, she asked, "If the negative side effects of these three spells are so severe… why do dark wizards still use them? In terms of power, they don't even seem that impressive—aside from the Imperius Curse."
Her question left every professor completely stumped.
After thinking it over for a while, they all arrived at a shared conclusion: Because they're dark wizards. Isn't it normal for them to use evil spells?
Helga Hufflepuff: ???
She couldn't wrap her head around this logic at all. Why on earth would dark wizards willingly use such inefficient spells?
Are they stupid or something?
Her gaze flicked to Rhys, happily enjoying his breakfast down at the student table, and then something clicked.
In Helga's mind, her old friend Salazar Slytherin could absolutely be considered a dark wizard—but he and the so-called dark wizards of this era were entirely different species. Apart from the label, they had absolutely nothing in common.
Modern dark wizards studied the Unforgivable Curses simply because they were evil enough. Raw power was just an afterthought.
Her earlier suspicion had been entirely correct: modern dark wizards really were mentally defective—in the most literal sense.
Realizing this, Helga fell silent. Then she let out a long, heavy sigh. I never imagined that even the dark wizards of the magical world would have declined this badly after a thousand years…
_______
Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon: HornyFBI