The troll seemingly took Ron's yelling as a form of welcome.
Its shoulders sank as it opened its great mouth to let out a roar.
Ron could even smell the foul stench of the troll's breath, which was unbearable.
Before they could react, the troll took the initiative to attack.
After roaring, the troll began to charge toward the crowd with heavy, powerful strides.
"Impedimenta!"
Cedric, living up to the training he'd received at Harry's hand amidst flashes of emerald green light, was the first to react. He aimed directly at the troll and cast an Impediment Jinx.
The Impediment Jinx hit the armored troll, but it only caused a momentary delay.
This type of troll had been armed with special armor by the goblins under Ranrok's command, granting it a strong immunity to curses.
Of course, strong as the armor was, it was not immune to the Killing Curse.
But the problem was, these students currently studying at Hogwarts would certainly not use a spell as strictly forbidden and extreme as the Killing Curse.
After all, not everyone was Harry, possessing the buffs of the Sorcerer's Stone and Ancient Magic, capable of casting various spells without requiring any emotional component.
"Do something!" Cedric roared back, casting the Impediment Jinx on the troll again.
The others finally snapped out of their daze. They weren't exactly afraid of trolls, but a creature over four meters tall possessed an oppressive presence, and the fact that it was wearing armor certainly drew one's attention.
"Use a blasting spell on him, Seamus!" Hermione shouted. She raised her wand and joined Cedric in casting Impedimenta on the troll, occasionally throwing out a Disarming Charm.
But the troll did not seem to fear the Disarming Charm. With a wave of the club in its hand, it blocked the spell; the charm posed absolutely no threat to its weapon.
Seamus had his spell ready by this time. He had naturally noticed the troll's ridiculously high resistance to magic—this magical creature already had skin with ultra-strong resistance, and now it was wearing a suit of specially made armor...
Fortunately, Seamus was quick-witted. He didn't choose to blast the troll's body, but instead aimed his spell at the ground in front of it.
Environmental destruction proved very useful. As strong as the troll's magical resistance was, its walnut-sized brain wasn't quite sufficient.
In its view, the little beams of light shot by the tiny people waving little sticks didn't have much effect on it, so it didn't pay them much mind.
However, as it continued to walk forward, it stepped into empty air, planting its foot right into the pit Seamus had blasted open.
Its forward momentum was momentarily stalled; it stumbled and nearly fell to the ground.
"Now!" Cedric shouted. "Reducto!"
The curse hit the troll on its forehead, knocking its head back.
The others followed suit, using the spells they were best at.
Ginny also raised her wand. After brewing her magic for a moment, she aimed straight for the troll's head with a Blasting Curse.
"Reducto!"
A dazzling beam of light appeared, hitting the troll's head with pinpoint accuracy.
With a bang, the troll's head was blasted to smithereens.
The headless corpse swayed before crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.
Seeing the troll fall, the crowd couldn't help but look at Ginny as if they had witnessed a miracle.
"Ginny, that was..." Hermione asked, her eyes glowing.
"It seems Ginny's future boyfriend better watch out," the twins laughed. "Look at that, such a powerful Reducto. I really doubt he'd last a single round against Ginny..."
"If I were dueling Ginny..." Cedric grinned. "I definitely wouldn't dare use a Shield Charm to tank her Blasting Curse—Merlin's beard, that was too scary... simply too scary..."
Ginny also recovered from her shock. She actually knew she had a bit of talent for the Blasting Curse, but she hadn't expected its power to be quite this great.
"Is this a natural-born master of the Blasting Curse?" Cho Chang was astonished and a little envious. "Truly strong..."
"It looks like they are victorious," Ludo Bagman announced from the high platform. "Let me see—the one who delivered the final blow to the troll was Miss Ginny Weasley. Let us congratulate her... the power of her Blasting Curse is truly extraordinary."
"I said a long time ago that Ginny has considerable talent," Mrs. Weasley clapped her hands from the sidelines.
"Well done! That's my Beater!" Mr. Weasley also stood on the high platform, cheering as he applauded.
Mr. Bagman waited a moment before speaking again: "Alright, you have defeated the first enemy. Next... even stronger enemies await you... Of course, it's nothing new; the trolls you face will go from one to two!"
Ron grimaced.
"I really hoped we could rest a bit, but it seems that's a luxury," he shrugged. "But it's still much better than spiders."
"That is true," Cedric said, panting. "If it were Acromantulas, I would rather turn around and leave right now—if we go by this difficulty scaling, we would definitely face an overwhelming swarm of Acromantulas."
Ron looked up, and just imagining that scene made him feel too tired to love.
"I'm tired, just destroy it all," he sighed. "I really hope I never encounter such a situation in my life."
The fulfilling holidays always passed quickly, though the students of the dueling hut didn't think so.
During the summer trials, they faced magical creatures including, but not limited to, trolls, dragons, Erumpents, Nundus, and Thunderbirds.
Some were team trials, while others were conducted individually.
What impressed them most was that Harry actually managed to get a Chimera for them to fight together.
This creature was a very bloodthirsty and violent magical beast native to Greece. It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.
The Ministry of Magic classified it as XXXXX—of course, classifying it as a 5X magical beast wasn't because its power level was merely 5X, but because 5X was the highest classification available.
Unlike dragons, there was only one record in history of a wizard successfully killing a Chimera, and that wizard later died from exhaustion after falling off his winged horse.
The famous Caerphilly Catapults Quidditch player, "Dangerous" Dai Llewellyn, was killed by a Chimera while vacationing in Greece.
Even giving it their all, the students only managed to fight the Chimera to a draw, and that was only because the Chimera got bored and let them go.
"I don't want to meet a Chimera ever again in my life," Ron summarized angrily after the match.
"We won't have much chance to meet a Chimera again anyway," Hermione answered, completely exhausted.
Soon, the day to start school arrived.
They set off from the Isle of Wight and arrived at King's Cross Station.
Harry didn't forget to bring Annie along; now that Cassandra and Poppy had graduated, Annie was the only one left of his friends from a hundred years ago.
"New year, lots of new books to buy, but I've already bought them all for you," Sirius chuckled. "Now, we need to pass through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters—same as always, don't attract the Muggles' attention."
"What I don't understand is, is departing from King's Cross Station some kind of mandatory ritual?" Harry asked, puzzled. "Why can't we just take a carriage directly back to school?"
"Oh, it's the rule," Sirius scratched his head and said. "As for exactly why, I don't know either. Just treat it as part of the magical sense of ritual at Hogwarts."
"Then how did people return to school before there were trains?" Ron asked a soul-searching question.
"You talk too much!" Mrs. Weasley shoved Ron into the platform wall. "Next, Ginny—"
They passed through the wall one after another and arrived at the familiar platform.
Ron remained sitting on the ground; it seemed that being shoved by his own mother just now was truly something he hadn't expected.
They hadn't exchanged more than a few words on the platform when the whistle sounded, reminding everyone to board.
The students standing on the platform began to hurriedly board the train.
"Hurry up, hurry up," Mrs. Weasley said distractedly, hugging them all haphazardly. "Get on the train quickly, and remember to write if anything happens—especially you, Ronald. I don't want to go the whole semester without receiving a letter from you—until you complain about your Christmas present!"
"I know, Mum!" Ron sighed.
None of them carried luggage; it was all packed in Harry's purse.
Cedric and the other older students returned to their respective circles, especially the Weasley twins, who started looking for Lee Jordan the moment they got on the train.
Good brothers with such similar bad tastes were hard to find even with a lantern.
"Let's go," Ginny turned back to Annie. "If we hurry, we can still save seats for them."
"Oh, okay," Annie answered softly, squeezing into the carriage with Ginny.
They squeezed through for a while and finally found a compartment large enough to hold them all.
Just then, Ron, pulling Hermione along, squeezed over from behind.
"Hey, Ginny," he panted. "Oh, Annie... everywhere is full, I can't find a seat!"
"What are you talking about?" Ginny turned her head, glanced into the compartment behind her, and said, "There's still room in here, only Loony Lovegood is inside—"
"Huh? Is that okay?" Ron was a little afraid. He felt Luna was a bit nutty, just like Dumbledore—though not the same kind of nutty.
"Don't be silly," Ginny laughed. "She's fine."
She slid the door open and pulled Annie into the compartment.
Ron, Hermione, and Harry followed them in.
"Hello, Luna," Ginny said. "Can we take these seats?"
The girl sitting by the window looked up.
She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look.
There was a distinct air of eccentricity about the girl. Perhaps it was because, for safety's sake, she had actually tucked her wand behind her left ear, or because she was wearing a necklace made of Butterbeer corks, or because she was reading a magazine upside down.
Her gaze swept over Ginny and landed on Annie.
"Mm," she nodded in response.
"Thanks," Ginny smiled at her.
They sat down in the compartment. Luna watched them from over her upside-down magazine.
The name of the magazine was The Quibbler.
She didn't seem to need to blink as often as normal people, and she just kept staring at Annie.
Annie felt a little creeped out by her stare. She didn't know if she should say something; after all, with someone staring at her like that, wouldn't it be rude not to say something?
"You are Ginny, I know that."
Luna spoke in a dreamy, ethereal voice. She turned her head to look at Hermione, Ron, and Harry, calling out their names respectively.
"So, what about you?" Luna looked at Annie again. "I don't seem to have seen you at Hogwarts. Are you a transfer student entering Hogwarts this year?"
"How did you know?" Annie asked curiously.
"You don't look like a first year, because you're definitely over eleven," Luna analyzed in her airy voice. "And almost every year Hogwarts has transfer students coming in. I think... since you're already on the train, you must be a Hogwarts transfer student, right?"
"You're very clever," Annie said sincerely. "Are you a Ravenclaw?"
"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Luna said in a singsong voice. "You have many Wrackspurts, Annie... many Wrackspurts."
"Wrackspurts?" Annie asked in confusion, looking around but seeing nothing.
"Don't mind her," Ginny whispered in Annie's ear. "There's no such thing as Wrackspurts—"
Luna sighed lightly, raised the upside-down magazine high to cover her face, and fell silent.
"What exactly is a Wrackspurt?" Annie was somewhat curious, and she looked at Hermione.
After spending so many days together, Annie knew that Hermione knew a little bit about everything.
In her view, Hermione would definitely know about something like Wrackspurts.
"Oh, they're invisible creatures, like gnats or flies, that float into people's ears and make their brains go fuzzy," Hermione extended her hand and tapped her temple with a curved index finger. "Luna believes such things exist, but who can say for sure? After all, no one has proven they don't exist, right?"
"If you look at it from that angle, then Wrackspurts probably do exist." Ron pulled a bottle of Muggle soda from his pocket, twisted it open, and took a sip. "But I still think Muggle drinks have more of a kick—what is this stuff? Oh... Fanta, apple flavor. I like Fanta."
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