"You've been learning dark magic!?" Ron exclaimed in horror.
"Dark magic theory actually. I haven't cast any of the stuff myself." I said with a shrug.
"That's the same thing!" Ron argued.
I shook my head "No, it isn't. What I have is the knowledge how to use the stuff, not the experience. It's like understanding that you could stab someone with a knife but never actually doing it. Besides DADA is SUPOSED to teach us about dark magic. You can't expect to be able to counter the stuff if you don't even understand it after all." I said calmly.
"Dark magic is evil though!" Ron insisted.
"Well duh. If it weren't why would it literally corrupt you to use it? Like I said though I learned the theory side of things but haven't used a lick of it myself." I said casually.
"You shouldn't learn dark magic at all, nobody should." Ron continued to argue.
"Put aside your prejudice for a moment and try to rub those brain cells of yours together here. You CAN'T fight against something you don't understand, not effectively at any rate. DADA is meant to teach us about dark magic and how to fight it. If it helps at all you can consider what I learned an advanced class on the matter. Ideals don't stop dark magic, counters do. Counters you won't know if you refuse to even study the subject you are countering." I explained in the most simple way I could.
"Well spoken. While I share the opinion that the world would be better without dark magic in it the reality makes it's study quite necessary." Flammel chimed in seriously.
"Anyways I believe you were heading over to Hagrid's to see Ark?" I said dropping the topic.
"Indeed. A creature so similar to a Phoenix yet not one at the same time. A curiosity to say the least. I was told it devours sulfur as well?" Flammel said eagerly as we peeled away from the trio.
"It does, my theory is that it somehow liquifies the sulfur and uses the resulting fluid as fuel for it's flames." I said as we walked the path down to Hagrid's hut.
"Fascinating." he said intrigued.
He asked a few other questions about the bird and I answered as best I could but was frank when I told him much of the creatures biology and function was unknown.-
Ark was sitting relaxed in the sunlight not far from Hagrid's hut and was impossible to miss. It's brightly colored feathers and constant dim flowing flaming body saw to this.
"Marvelous! Just standing close to this creature is enough to feel the heat from it's flames." Flammel said with twinkling eyes as he examined Ark from different angles.
His examination made the usually aloof bird uncomfortable but I kept it settled by scratching it's feathers in the way it liked.
"How are you not burning?" Flammel asked curiously after he attempted the same and got a slight burn on his finger tips for it.
"I am lightning, these flames don't burn nearly as hot as I do so how could they harm me?" I said with a chuckle.
"Oh, so you turning into lightning wasn't just temporary then? Incredible, truly just remarkable! How do you not constantly burn everything around you? What about storms? Are you stronger during them?" Flammel asked question after question about my powers but most of it I was honest and said I'd prefer not explaining since it was a trump card.
He was disappointed by this but understanding enough. I did throw him a bit of a bone though and told him everything that I wasn't worried about getting out. He was especially interested in my elementalization. I humored him and slowed it down a bit so he could actually see it and he ended up muttering to himself pretty much the rest of the day. I could understand really as it must have been a confusing bit of magic. At the very least I'd never heard of anything even remotely similar in this world. Then again anyone who attempted it probably ended up vanishing since they'd turn into pure energy and then scatter.-
Devil fruits naturally came with built in safeguards against that exact problem so the users wouldn't just eat the fruit and vanish as they were pulled apart. My theory was that the fruits somehow tied the energy to the soul in order to keep the fruit users together. This would explain why haki countered the fruit elementalization as it was someone else basically striking you with their soul. I hadn't actually done an in depth study on soul based magics though so this theory couldn't exactly be verified yet.-
At the final days meal before everyone went back home for the summer I watched and waited for Dumbledore to pull his little last minute point trick.
"Another year comes to a close at Hogwarts. Friendships were forged, knowledge gained and experiences had. But before we draw the curtains on this year I believe I have some last minute points to assign in light of the extraordinary circumstances recently. To Hermione Granger for the excellent use of knowledge and problem solving I award fifty points to Gryffindor. To Ronald Weasley for a chess game Hogwarts has not seen the like of before and the will to sacrifice another fifty points to Gryffindor. And to Harry Potter for the bravery to stand against the darkness even in the face of overwhelming odds yet another fifty points to Gryffindor." Dumbledore said at the podium causing an uproar as Gryffindor's points finally shot up past Ravenclaw that was sitting in first.
Dumbledore raised his hands however to silence the commotion much to the confusion of all the other students except the golden trio.
"And finally for protecting his fellow students from the shadows and standing in front of them when the time came unhesitantly I award Alexander Drake fifty points to Ravenclaw! With that said I believe the current decorations can remain how they are." He said and the great hall all collectively turned to stare at me in shock and awe.