Shire had just finished speaking.
Everyone paused for a moment.
Then, Malfoy's face turned blood red with anger.
His head buzzed.
He looked at Shire as if he wanted to devour him.
"You!"
"How dare you?!"
Shire sneered.
"You dared to slander the bloodline of the Sprout family. What do I have to be afraid of?"
Malfoy gritted his teeth, ready to explode.
But before he could unleash another sharp retort,
the Young Wizards around them finally processed what Shire had said.
Then, they burst into laughter.
After the crowd had laughed for a while,
Crabbe and Goyle, who had been completely clueless until then,
suddenly seemed to be electrified.
They began laughing uncontrollably.
"Malfoy!"
"Shire means he's your father! Hahaha!"
Their loud, braying laughter echoed down the corridor,
attracting countless curious and puzzled glances.
Malfoy's expression turned murderous.
He glared furiously at Crabbe and Goyle.
"Shut up!"
"And stop laughing!"
But even with their faces flushed red,
Crabbe and Goyle couldn't stop their honking laughter.
Just as Malfoy was about to pull out his wand—
A sharp voice echoed down the corridor.
"It's almost time for class."
"What are you all doing blocking the hallway?"
"Professor, I can't even get into the classroom."
Professor Flitwick's arrival
finally suppressed the brewing conflict.
The crowd dispersed.
Malfoy, red-faced and humiliated,
shot Shire a venomous glare and spoke in a low voice filled with malice.
"Today, Slytherin and Hufflepuff have Charms class together."
"Just you wait. I already found out—"
"Giants have brute strength, but half-Giants can't master the Levitation Charm."
"I'll be watching you. No matter how well you hide it, you'll be exposed."
"And when that happens, you'll be thrown out of Hogwarts."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot—there's another half-Giant on the grounds. Maybe you two can go cuddle for warmth!"
With a smug expression, Malfoy strode into the Charms classroom.
Shire was left with a puzzled expression.
To be honest, he didn't understand where Malfoy got his confidence.
The Levitation Charm?
He had already learned it last night from the Half-Blood Prince's textbook.
His mastery had reached the Bronze Level.
Forget it.
Trying to understand Malfoy's logic
would mean sinking to his level.
Better to just ignore him.
Instead of wasting time on an arrogant brat,
it was much better to focus on learning.
Arguing only made you stupid.
Studying increased your knowledge.
Not long after,
Shire and the Young Wizards entered the Charms classroom and sat down.
The class bell rang.
Professor Flitwick smiled as he began the lesson.
"For a while now, we've been studying Lumos and other basic spells."
"I know children your age are eager to learn something new."
"You may have heard that before Halloween, the Gryffindors already started learning the Levitation Charm."
"So starting today, you will learn how to make objects float."
All the students' eyes lit up.
Without a doubt,
The Levitation Charm was much cooler than Lumos.
Most students' Lumos spells weren't even as bright as a flashlight.
But Levitation—that was true magic!
No tricks. No gadgets.
Even though it was the first class of the morning,
no one was sleepy anymore.
Professor Flitwick nodded in satisfaction.
Then he began his lecture.
"Let's begin with the history of the Levitation Charm."
"We'll talk about its importance, and the notable moments in magical history where it was used."
"We'll also discuss the wizards who contributed to its development."
"And of course," he added with a twinkle in his eye, "at the end of class, we'll do some preliminary practice."
The students groaned softly at having to start with theory.
But soon, Professor Flitwick's humorous delivery had them completely engaged.
A flicker of emotion passed through Shire's eyes.
He hadn't truly appreciated Professor Flitwick's teaching before.
But now he could feel it.
Flitwick didn't just teach spells.
He told stories—vivid, memorable stories—
and wove complex magical theory into them.
Even the slower students could remember everything.
He was a true master of Charms,
making difficult things feel easy.
It was a level far beyond that of Snape,
who had written the Half-Blood Prince's notes.
If Snape had taught these ordinary students,
probably none of them would have understood.
And Snape would've exploded in frustration!
As Shire listened,
he mentally reviewed his understanding.
The principle of the Levitation Charm became clearer.
"It's different from Levicorpus," Shire mused.
"Levicorpus creates an upward pull, hoisting the target into the air."
"But the Levitation Charm… it makes the object lighter—as light as a feather—allowing it to float."
Then inspiration struck.
"My Levicorpus is already at Silver Level," Shire thought.
"But my magical power is still limited, so it can't lift very heavy things."
"What if I first cast the Levitation Charm to reduce an object's weight?"
"That would indirectly reduce the strain on Levicorpus."
"An object that I could previously only lift a few feet—"
"might now be launched sky-high!"
Then an even more brilliant idea occurred to him.
"What if I combine the Levitation Charm, Levicorpus, and gravity?"
"Lift the enemy lightly into the air…"
"…then cancel the Levitation Charm so they regain their original weight—"
"…and crash to the ground."
"With a hit like that, even an iron block would shatter!"
"But the idea has flaws. The enemy must be hit by two spells. That's too complicated."
"Why go to such trouble to defeat a weak enemy?"
"A swing of my baseball bat might be more efficient!"
So Shire began mentally simplifying the process.
Simplify it again.
Then again.
Complete the effect in one step.
He thought for a long time, brows tightly furrowed.
Eventually, he relaxed.
It felt like trying to solve the last math problem on a college entrance exam.
Everyone knew it was amazing if you solved it—
but the truth was, he couldn't. Not yet.
"Forget it," he muttered to himself.
"This isn't something I can manage right now."
"I'll try again later."
He decisively chose to let it go.
His foundation wasn't in Charms, after all,
but in cultivating magical plants.
There was no need to get obsessed with something beyond his specialty.
As he sank into thought,
Malfoy had been watching him.
Seeing Shire's deeply contemplative face,
Malfoy's eyes gleamed with excitement.
"See?!" he thought.
"Shire really is a half-Giant! He's obviously struggling to understand the Levitation Charm!"
"If he weren't a half-Giant with poor magic control, why would he find this lecture so hard?"
Finally, he had a chance to trample Shire beneath his feet!
Shire suddenly sensed Malfoy's burning stare.
He looked confused.
At that moment—
Whack!
A piece of chalk hit Malfoy square in the face.
"Malfoy," Professor Flitwick said sternly,
"Is the blackboard over there?"
The class erupted in laughter.
Malfoy's face flushed crimson as he clenched his fists.
Why was everything going wrong today?!
Flitwick cleared his throat and returned to the lesson.
"All right, that's enough theory for now."
"But there's one last thing I want to emphasize."
"Most people know Wizard Baruffio—"
"who mispronounced a spell and caused a buffalo to sit on his chest."
"But he wasn't the inventor of the Levitation Charm."
"That honor belongs to Sir Eerber."
"He got the idea from an extremely rare magical plant—the Eerbo Tree."
Professor Flitwick raised a small transparent bottle.
Inside floated a tiny, bizarre tree—upside-down, as if it were growing from the air itself.
"This," he said proudly, "is the Eerbo Tree."
"The inspiration for the Levitation Charm."
"Back then it was rare. Now, it's almost extinct."
"I got one during my travels and kept it ever since."
"Professor Sprout has asked me for it many times," he chuckled,
"but I've never agreed."
"However… if someone can master the Levitation Charm first in today's class—"
"I will give this precious Eerbo Tree to them."
At those words,
everyone's gaze locked onto the Eerbo Tree.
When Shire saw it,
his breath caught.
This reward—?!
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