Even after Sirius announced the start of the game, the students remained somewhat dazed.
Previous competitions like this had always been between students. There might have been differences in strength, but generally speaking, no one was completely helpless.
Now, however, this was their first time facing such an uneven contest, and for a moment, they had no idea what they were supposed to do.
Looking at the sleepy-eyed Tver, the students somehow thought of a certain well-known nickname for the professor, one everyone knew but no one dared say aloud.
What they had not expected was that Tver, looking at the huge crowd of students, would also end up standing there scratching his head.
Why were there so many people in the sixth-year advanced class?!
According to the rules, the sixth- and seventh-year advanced classes were attended by students from all four houses together, but in practice, there were usually fewer students than in normal classes shared by two houses. That gave the professor plenty of energy and time to make the lessons more difficult.
But thanks to a certain Hogwarts Top Ten professor, far more students had qualified for the advanced class this year than expected.
One could even say that at Hogwarts, students who could not get into the Defence Against the Dark Arts advanced class had become the minority.
The problem was that with this many students, unless Tver used some large-scale spell, taking them all down one by one would keep him busy until nightfall at the earliest.
He only wanted to use these students to test the Elder Wand. He did not actually want to work himself to death!
Hm?
Tver's eyes lit up. He glanced at Sirius, who was watching with great interest as the students rushed into the forest in a flustered, bewildered mess.
"Sirius, why don't we have a competition between us too?"
"Oh? What kind of competition?" Sirius immediately became interested.
If it was a contest of strength, he definitely would not agree. But if it had something to do with these students, then as someone who believed he got along wonderfully with them, he would never admit defeat easily.
Tver waved a hand grandly and pointed at the students.
"Of course, we'll see which of us can take down more students!"
Hearing this, Harry, whose mind had felt like mush a moment ago, suddenly became completely awake.
They had actually become props in a competition between the professors?!
"Come on, Harry. This is basically a chase, so moving quickly is very important." Hermione tugged at Harry's sleeve.
She had immediately grasped the key point of the competition. If Harry had not been acting so strangely, she would have already been running ahead.
"Oh, right."
Harry hesitated, but in the end, he decided not to tell the other students this "terrible news."
Only, once they entered the gloomy, dark forest, he realized he did not even have the chance to talk to the others.
"Where did everyone go?" Ron asked curiously.
After they had walked forward for a while, they looked around and only then noticed that the classmates who had originally been moving beside them had suddenly disappeared, as if swallowed by the sea of trees.
"It should be the professor's magic. He used something similar in George and the others' class before, only that was thick fog, not this pitch-black darkness."
Hermione frowned as she observed their surroundings. Although the two seemed to have the same effect, for some reason, she felt that this heavy, ink-like darkness kept sending out an oppressive feeling, making it hard for her to breathe before the game had even truly begun.
"No, this isn't ordinary magic!"
Like Hermione, Harry noticed the problem at once, but he expressed it through magic.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Harry quickly raised his wand. Because he was too rushed, he only released a bright, pure beam of light.
But that was enough to repel the Dementor that had lunged at them.
The Dementor that had rushed out of the thick darkness was still in a clawing, menacing pose, but under the impact of that light, it flew backward even faster than it had come.
"A Dementor? The professor threw Dementors into the forest?!" Ron's voice warped with fright, but fortunately, he had already instinctively gripped his wand and pointed it at the place where the Dementor had disappeared.
"Dementors aren't that easy to knock back. It should be Professor Fawley's strange magic," Hermione analyzed smoothly.
According to the information she had gathered, the professor possessed an extremely powerful ability to peer into people's hearts and influence their senses.
Combined with his superb Transfiguration, he could probably create as many weakened Dementors like this as he wanted. He could make them as frightening as he wanted!
Hm?
Hermione felt as if she had just summarized something rather terrifying.
She shook her head, throwing those chaotic thoughts aside, then continued observing their surroundings.
Only...
"In this pitch-black environment, how are we supposed to judge direction? What if we walk right into the professor's wand?!"
All three of them thought of this serious problem at the same time.
As D.A. members, they had basically all mastered the Patronus Charm. If the attackers were only weakened Dementors, they were not worried.
But Professor Fawley and Sirius, hiding in the darkness, were their greatest opponents!
Harry and Ron skillfully turned their pleading gazes toward Hermione, but this time, even Hermione did not have a good solution.
"According to the rules, the trophy is deep in the forest. But these trees have probably been enchanted..."
Hermione tried to mark the trunk of the tree beside her, but in less than a second, the scratch repaired itself automatically.
"So, if we move through this dark environment, then if we're lucky, we'll find the trophy. If we're unlucky, we'll run into the professor's magic instead..."
Before Hermione could finish, a voice that grated terribly on their ears interrupted her.
"Impossible. The professor would never plan a competition that relies purely on luck!"
Despite sounding so confident, Draco still approached them cautiously.
Although this was a contest between the professors and the students, he was well aware of what he looked like in Harry's group's eyes. Getting hit with a Stunning Spell full of personal grudges would be perfectly normal.
Neville and Michael Corner behind him, however, were not on guard against Harry and the others. Instead, they nervously watched the surrounding darkness, as if something might leap out of it at any moment.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
The game mattered more, so he had no time to bicker. Of course, he still gripped his wand carefully and kept a certain distance from Draco.
"Exactly what I said." Draco sounded confident.
"Do you still remember what the two professors said before the game started?"
"Professor Fawley said the trophy was in the center of the Arena, while Black said, when he announced the start of the game, that it was deep in the forest."
"You should know, the center of the Arena isn't deep in the forest."
To make the lesson easier to run, the Arena had only been expanded to half its usual range this time. In other words, if they judged it by the original Arena, the center would be somewhere just inside the forest's edge.
"You mean one of them lied, or one of them let something slip?" Hermione rubbed her chin in thought.
In truth, in this dark environment, both statements were possible.
If the trophy was deep in the forest, then although it was farther away, they only needed to keep charging forward.
But if it was near the edge of the forest, then although the distance was shorter, their chances of running into a professor would rise sharply.
But no matter which choice they made, what they needed was not to weigh the pros and cons, but...
"Exactly." Draco grinned smugly. "So what we urgently need to figure out now is which professor's words we can trust!"