However, after spending a few days around him, everyone gradually got to know Professor Alex better.
When teaching students from
For different years, Alex tailored his lessons to fit their abilities.
Hermione took the time to summarize his teaching approach.
For first and second years, who generally had weaker physiques and less spellcasting skill, Alex was quite patient.
Their lessons covered similar material, but second years moved through it much faster.
In their very first class, the second years learned about delayed training methods, along with balance and reaction exercises.
The balance training involved walking across beams and stakes in the number one training room, but these weren't ordinary beams; they actually moved during practice.
The second years had to carefully navigate these unstable platforms to improve their balance.
Reaction training had them dodging through rows of sandbag phalanxes in the reaction room, which often left them with bruised faces and noses.
Harry thought they were struggling quite a bit.
Meanwhile, third to fifth years faced much tougher challenges, gradually being introduced to tactical training.
Similar to the younger students, the fourth and fifth years advanced at a quicker pace than the third years.
Percy mentioned that in the fifth year's first class, they not only practiced basic spellcasting stances, target shooting, and parrying, but also added footwork and moving target drills.
In fact, the fifth years soon had to cast spells while moving, a skill that was more demanding than what George and the others had experienced.
For the sixth and seventh years, the training was even more intense, sometimes involving the use of corpses for practice.
On top of that, Alex taught them first aid, detoxification, tracking, and investigation techniques.
Hermione noted that the theory classes seemed much richer for the upper years, though Alex didn't focus as much on physical training for the sixth and seventh years compared to the younger students.
As a group of young wizards made their way to the central courtyard for their flying lesson, Harry glanced curiously at Hermione.
"Do you think our next tactical training course will cover what the first class of second-year students learn?"
Hermione nodded confidently.
"Yes! The Tactical Training course is new at Hogwarts. I think the professor will stick to the scheduled content for us first-years. For the older students, the material is probably more condensed, and this difference only gets clearer as you move up in grade."
Ron scratched his head, looking puzzled.
"But isn't the professor worried that senior students might struggle? Like Percy, he has to learn twice as much as George in one class."
Neville agreed, adding, "Yeah, and since fifth years still have to take the OWL exams, their workload is already heavy. I wonder how it will be with tactical training OWLs."
Hermione shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but I heard Professor Wilson set the OWL standards for tactical training himself. He probably has a plan."
Ron, still skeptical, chimed in, "He teaches the class and acts as the invigilator? Isn't that too much power?
What if he cheats to help some students?"
Harry rolled his eyes.
"That's unlikely. Haven't you noticed how strict the professor is with everyone?"
Hermione nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. I think he'll keep the standards high, maybe even tougher. Percy's been practicing nonstop these past two days, running between the playground and the shooting range. He looks exhausted."
Over time, the young wizards had given nicknames to the various training rooms on the playground.
The younger students often trained in Room No. 1, which they called the Exercise Room, while Room No. 6 was known as the Batting Room.
Originally, they considered calling it the Gun Room, but it felt odd, so they settled on Batting Room instead.
"Who got that study freak thinking about collecting twelve certificates like Bill? Oh no, now it's thirteen," Ron muttered, curling his lips in frustration before turning to Hermione.
"You don't seriously want to be like him, do you? Mr. Know-It-All?"
Hermione shot Ron a cold glance and then gave him a sharp punch on the arm.
"Nobody thinks you're dumb just because you don't speak up! Besides, I think Percy's ideas aren't bad, at least he has goals. You're all brothers, and none of you seem to want to learn from him."
"That hurts!" Ron rubbed his arm, wincing.
"Who wants to be like him, working themselves to exhaustion? And why do you suddenly look so strong?"
Hermione looked down at her right hand, puzzled.
After a moment, she realized she did feel physically stronger than before.
"That's because yesterday's dinner was a full meal of Riem beef," Neville chimed in.
"Eating magical creature meat for the first few times really boosts your strength, and our daily exercise helps us absorb it. So it's normal to see a jump in physical fitness."
"Magical creature meat? Now that you mention it, last night's dinner did seem different," Ron exclaimed.
"Neville, you seem to know a lot about magical creature meat! And you actually know how it works?"
Harry, hearing this for the first time, realized that last night's meal was pretty special.
"Well, I used to eat it at Uncle Wilson's," Neville said with a smile, clearly not making a big deal of it.
"He'd sometimes explain how these special ingredients affect people."
"Do you eat it often?"
Hermione and Harry exchanged envious looks.
Coming from Muggle families, they'd never had magical creature meat before, which probably made the effects even stronger for them.
"Potter!"
Suddenly, a familiar but irritating voice interrupted.
They turned to see Malfoy standing nearby.
"What? What are you doing here? You actually came over to talk to us?" Ron asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.
"Hmph, I didn't come here to argue with you today," Malfoy replied with a smirk.
Malfoy gave Ron a smug look before turning to everyone else with a serious expression.
"Have you heard about the boat at the foot of the mountain?"
Harry suddenly realized what Malfoy meant.
Since the opening ceremony, everyone had noticed a capsized three-masted boat resting in the Black Lake.
The freshmen quickly recognized it as the same boat that had burst through the sea of clouds during that thunderstorm.
After asking around, they also learned that the boat belonged to Alex, which naturally sparked everyone's curiosity.
But because the boat was docked by the mountain and everyone was wiped out from drills, no one had the chance to check it out yet.
Strangely, ever since the ship arrived in the Black Lake, odd things had been happening at Hogwarts at night.
There were rumors of beautiful singing coming from the direction of the ship, and some students even claimed to have seen mysterious figures appearing on it from a distance.
"Not bad," Malfoy said with a smug grin.
"That ship is right above our common room, so we can clearly see its underside. Guess what happened on it last night?"
Ron's eyes widened with curiosity.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I stayed up late and noticed a golden light shining from some legendary artifact on the ship!" Malfoy said excitedly.
"Since you opened the legendary item from the blind box, you should know what I'm talking about."
"Legendary artifact?" Harry and Ron exchanged excited glances but quickly composed themselves.
"So, what? It was just glowing? That's Professor Wilson's boat, right? I heard the legendary artifacts were originally his creations, so some light showing up doesn't seem unusual."
"No, that's not it!" Malfoy shook his head triumphantly.
"I saw someone on the boat last night, but it wasn't the professor. It was the person who gave the legendary item to someone on the shore, I'm absolutely sure of it!"
"Really?" Ron asked, clearly intrigued.
Ron looked at Malfoy eagerly but couldn't help feeling a bit skeptical.
"You're not lying, are you? It seems like too much of a coincidence that you just happened to run into it."
Malfoy blushed with excitement and then lowered his voice on purpose.
"I'm telling the truth! Because I recognized the person who got the legendary item!"
Harry and the others leaned in, trusting Malfoy's expression.
"Who is it?"
Malfoy glanced around cautiously, making sure no one else could hear, before whispering, "It's Gemma Farley, the seventh-year prefect in our house."
He added mysteriously, "After what I saw last night, I was so excited I stayed up late in the common room. That's when I saw Sister Farley coming back from outside.
She was definitely carrying something extra, a brooch with a really unique shape."
Hermione gave him a doubtful look.
"Maybe it's just some decoration she got from someone else. Aren't you overthinking this?"
"I'm serious, Potter!" Malfoy insisted firmly.
"Legendary items are visible to the naked eye. Those of us who own them know exactly what that feels like!"
When Malfoy mentioned the pendant, Harry couldn't help but nod in approval.
Although it looked like an ordinary pendant on the outside, it gave off a unique aura that made it stand out from other decorations.
Still, Harry wasn't sure what Malfoy was trying to say.
"But what does that mean?" he asked, puzzled.
Malfoy, imagining Harry's confused expression, explained, "Those who visit that ship might be rewarded with legendary items!"
Everyone else immediately exchanged looks, as if they thought Malfoy was joking.
"Are you serious? It's not that easy to get legendary items," Ron scoffed.
"Maybe the professor gave that item to Sister Farley."
He even reached out, as if to check Malfoy's head for a fever.