Chapter 180: Sectumsempra!
Chapter 180: Sectumsempra!
"What were you guys talking about just now?" Hermione placed the book in her hands with a thud on the table in the Great Hall, then gave Ron a look, indicating he should move over so she could sit next to Ivan.
"We were saying how interesting the stories Professor Lockhart tells in class!" Ivan said casually as he cut a piece of steak.
"That's not a story, but something that really happened", Hermione corrected, then added excitedly, "I didn't know Professor Lockhart had so many dangerous experiences before he befriended a werewolf wizard!"
Maybe he hadn't made them up yet, Ivan thought to himself, but he didn't intend to argue with Hermione. Convincing a crazed fan was just too difficult.
Besides, whether Lockhart would survive this year was still uncertain, so he really didn't care.
During the meal, Hermione kept talking about Lockhart's books. Ivan pretended to listen intently, but his gaze was fixed on a brown hair that had fallen on Hermione's shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Hermione noticed Ivan staring at her and tilted her head, looking at him with confusion.
"Don't move for a moment!" Ivan said suddenly, then reached out his hand.
As Hermione watched Ivan's fingers get closer to her face, she suddenly felt a bit nervous, but soon realized he had only lightly brushed the hair from her shoulder and then pulled his hand back.
Hermione gave Ivan a suspicious look.
"It's nothing, just some dust!" Ivan smiled and quietly held the brown hair in his palm.
After lunch, Ivan found an excuse to decline Harry's request to join them and went alone to the tapestry on the eighth floor of the castle. He walked back and forth three times, then thought to himself:
I need a room where I can both brew Potions and practice combat!
The next second, when Ivan opened his eyes, a smooth door was embedded in the wall, as if it had been there all along.
Ivan, who was already familiar with the process, pushed the door open and entered. His expression became quite peculiar.
The Room of Requirement was clearly divided into two distinct sections, as if two separate spaces had been forcibly joined together.
On the left was a large training area, lavishly decorated, with a pile of training dummies and obstacles at the far end.
On the right were numerous bottles and jars, along with a Cauldron.
Tweezers, knives, and other tools for handling Potion ingredients were also provided.
This made the entire room look quite strange, but Ivan had to admit that the Room of Requirement had indeed met his requirements.
After a moment's thought, Ivan walked over to the Cauldron on the right, opened the cabinet storing the Potion ingredients, and found that the Room of Requirement had thoughtfully brought over the few remaining Potion ingredients he had.
Flipping through the Advanced Potion-Making book he had with him, Ivan found a few tips for brewing the Polyjuice Potion on one of the pages.
The Polyjuice Potion was not a Potion that sixth-year students needed to learn, but Snape's textbook was more than just a record of the textbook knowledge; it was more like a research notebook on Potion-making and spell theory.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have included self-created spells like Sectumsempra.
Leech juice, African tree snake skin fragments...
Ivan took out the Potion ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion and processed them according to the instructions, then placed them in the Cauldron. He stirred them evenly with his wand, and the syrupy liquid began to bubble and froth.
If Professor Snape's notes are accurate, the brewing time for the Polyjuice Potion will be significantly shortened, and it will only take a few days before the Potion is ready to drink.
Fifteen minutes passed in a flash. After completing all the steps, Ivan set the Potion aside, allowing it to settle in the Cauldron on its own.
During the remaining time, Ivan didn't idle. He entered the training area and prepared to test the power of the new spell he had learned.
"Sectumsempra!" Ivan waved his wand and cast the spell at the dummy in front of him.
There were no dazzling magical beams.
Invisible and intangible magical waves surged out along the direction of the wand, like invisible blades slicing through the air.
Ivan only saw the wooden dummy tremble slightly from a distance, with deep cuts appearing on its right chest.
After a closer inspection, Ivan discovered that the power of the Sectumsempra spell far exceeded his expectations. The wounds were blocked by a strange magical force.
When Ivan tried to heal the wounds with a healing spell, it had no effect.
If not for the limited number of people who knew about it and Professor Snape's specialized counter-curse to heal the wounds, the Sectumsempra spell might have been classified as an Unforgivable Curse.
The most crucial point was that he had just learned the spell and there was still a lot of room for improvement.
With this in mind, Ivan began practicing, repeatedly waving his wand.
The dummies lined up in front and on both sides were shattered, with one dummy being dismembered into wooden pieces every few minutes.
The practice continued for several days. By Friday evening, Ivan realized that his Sectumsempra spell had unconsciously reached level three.
The power of the spell had increased dramatically. After using the six-hour enhancement rune sequence, it could easily decapitate a whole row of practice dummies!
If used on a wizard, Ivan felt a chill just thinking about it. The straight-line damage was more terrifying than the thunderous explosions he had used before, though it was slightly less effective in terms of area.
Such a powerful spell would pierce through even the strongest protective charms, causing instant dismemberment!
"Unfortunately, it would be better if there were a counter-curse recorded here", Ivan flipped through the pages of Advanced Potion-Making, but found no counter-curse for the Sectumsempra spell.
This meant that the spell could only be used in life-or-death situations.
After all, the wounds caused by Sectumsempra could not be healed, and using it casually could lead to irreversible consequences.
After practicing for a while and destroying all the targets in the Room of Requirement, Ivan's magical energy was depleted. He then turned his attention to the brewed Polyjuice Potion.
Over the past few days, while exploring most of the places on the Marauder's Map that he hadn't visited, Ivan found that the exploration Quest progress bar had stalled at sixty percent.
Apart from dangerous and mysterious places like the Chamber of Secrets, the only places he could go were the common rooms and dormitories of the three major houses!
This was the reason he had worked hard to brew the Polyjuice Potion.
(End of Chapter)
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