Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
Chapter 15: An Advance Demonstration
Professor Walker stood in front of the class. "Whoever can give me a more in-depth explanation as to why the Protego is incapable of blocking dark curses… will earn ten points for their house."
There were a lot of murmurs around the classroom, but no one raised their hand.
"No one?" the professor asked again. She wasn't really surprised that no one knew. This was not something that would usually be covered until their last year.
"The basic Protego Charm is only designed to stop magical attacks, but emotions can transform a magical spell into something different."
All eyes turned to James Potter.
"Sorry, I was supposed to raise my hand, right?" He waved his hand around.
The professor glanced at him. "Mister Potter surprises me again… perhaps the rumors I heard about you were wrong after all."
James could already guess what those rumors were. The Marauders had already begun to build their reputation as rule-breakers.
"But if you want those points, you will need to elaborate a bit further than that," the professor added.
James shrugged before standing up and moving the palm of his right hand so it would face upward.
A small particle of blue light appeared on top of it. "This is a simple Disarming Charm."
"Wait… how are you doing that?" Sirius was staring at the spell floating on top of James's palm.
They had yet to learn about doing magic without the use of their wands or without speaking the magical formula out loud.
The eyes of Professor Walker narrowed. She understood better than the students the difficulty of what James was doing. This went beyond wandless magic... he was holding a spell in place and not firing it out.
That required a tremendous amount of control over one's magic. Even the most veteran wizards would need complete focus to do this much.
James was not aware of this. After spending decades in his tower, instructing dozens of individuals who would go on to become the most powerful wizards and witches in the nation… his understanding of what could be considered normal had become a bit twisted.
To him, this little demonstration was nothing to be impressed about. He was only using it as a visual aid for his explanation, as he had done hundreds of times before.
Ignoring the classroom's reaction, he continued. "This charm is classified as 'normal magic' because, in order to work, it does not require anything else than pure magic, the wand movement, and the chant. The Protego is capable of stopping any magic such as this one… but, if we add an emotion to it…"
The spark of blue light in James's hand grew in size, and its color shifted to a pure white.
The sphere of white light began to emit a gentle aura that seemed to calm everyone down.
"What is that magic?" Lily stared at James with shock and curiosity.
"The Patronus Charm…" the professor responded. Her eyes were fixated on the sphere of light in James's hand. Not only this was a very advanced piece of magic, but she had no idea how he had transformed one spell into a different one.
"A formless version, yes," James nodded. "Like dark curses, this is a charm that has been imbued with emotions...just positive ones. Its use is to combat dark creatures; it is specifically effective against Dementors. But that's not important right now. The point is… that the Protego Charm would be unable to completely block something . Only emotions can stop other emotions. If you want to protect yourself from dark curses, you would need a protective charm that is also charged with some positive emotion that could negate that negative one."
As he finished his explanation, the sphere of white light vanished without a trace.
The classroom stood in silence for almost a minute after that.
"Did I get the points?" James asked the professor.
"T-Twenty points to Gryffindor…" Professor Walker said while staring at James like he had grown a second head.
"Wait… are you saying that it's possible to block dark curses like the Unforgivables? The books stated very clearly that they are impossible to stop with magic shields," Lily recovered from her shock and was able to process the information from James's explanation.
"There are theories about what Mister Potter talked about. But no one has been able to create such magic for now," the professor responded.
James glanced at Lily for a moment. She was the reason he knew for sure that such a thing was possible.
In a different life, that girl had manifested a protective spell capable of defending her child against the darkest of curses.
"What… like a shield based on love?, how cheesy can you be, Potter?." Bellatrix said with a mocking tone.
Several of the Slytherin students began to laugh.
"It's just a theory for now. But the rest of Mister Potter's explanation has been very accurate," the professor said.
Bella turned to look at James. "Maybe Potter can give us a demonstration. I offer myself as a volunteer to curse him."
James's eyes met hers. "As the professor said, it's just theoretical. And I couldn't create a shield based on an emotion I don't care for." His tone came out more bitter than he intended.
He couldn't help but be reminded of Ginny and her betrayal when 'love' was mentioned.
He had loved her deeply, and he paid a heavy price for it. After all these years, he still remembered everything as if it had happened yesterday.
Bellatrix was taken aback by his sharp response. She was expecting him to say something stupid to her.
"James?..." Remus was looking at him with concern. There was something off in his friend's expression.
"Alright…" The professor clapped her hands. "We've had enough theory. It is time to get some practice. Get your wands ready, come to the front, and form a line."
As the group stood up, James was approached by his friends.
"Have you been doing extra studying during the summer?" Peter asked him.
"Yes, I was also wondering when you learned wandless magic. I heard that's only explained in the sixth year, and most students can't even cast a wandless Lumos before graduation," Remus had always been the most studious of the group, so he understood better just how advanced the magic used by James had been.
"Hey, forget about that," Sirius wrapped his arm around James. "Something more important has happened." He made a gesture with his head toward the other side of the classroom.
James turned his head and noticed Lily staring at him.
When she saw him turning to her, she quickly picked up her wand and went to the front of the class.
"That fancy demonstration of yours worked out. She's been staring at you a lot. Looks like you found a way to earn Lily's interest," Sirius said with a wide smile.
James wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
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