King of Lightning [HP FANFIC]

Thus, after Anduin arranged with Hagrid to return over the weekend, he left Hagrid's hut and made his way back to Hogwarts Castle.

As Anduin crossed Clock Tower Square, he heard a crackling sound coming from the direction of the Astronomy Tower.

Anduin thought to himself, 'It seems these two groups have clashed. I wonder how Charles is doing and whether he's involved. But I have no intention of running over there to get caught up in it right now. If I go, I might be treated as an enemy by both sides'.

With that thought, he smirked faintly, stopped paying attention to the commotion at the Astronomy Tower, and headed straight to the Slytherin common room.

Upon returning to his dormitory, Anduin felt invigorated. It seemed that magical creatures like the tebo also had a strengthening effect on the body. He couldn't help but feel pleased and performed a set of Tai Chi movements in his room to aid digestion.

After finishing his exercises, he resumed his study plan. However, he first opened his Potions textbook. He intended to spend some time studying Potions alongside his Charms practice to see if he could master the brewing of practical potions and perhaps even recover some funds by making and selling them.

Meanwhile, up in the Astronomy Tower, Gryffindor and Slytherin had launched into an all-out fight, marking the end of peace at Hogwarts.

The next morning, after his usual run, Anduin entered the Great Hall. The moment he stepped in, he noticed that the atmosphere was unusually tense. There were significantly fewer students at the Gryffindor and Slytherin long tables. Normally, at this hour, the Great Hall would be at least seventy to eighty percent full, if not completely packed, but now the number of Gryffindor and Slytherin students was visibly lower than those of the other two houses.

Many of those who were present were glaring daggers at each other, as if ready to fight at any moment. Anduin also spotted Charles at the Gryffindor table, sitting calmly as if nothing had happened. When Charles noticed Anduin entering, he gave him a slight nod.

"Oh my goodness, Anduin, did you hear something big happened at the Academy yesterday? I've got firsthand news, do you want to hear it?" The moment she sat down, Vivian leaned toward Anduin with a conspiratorial air, her posture practically screaming, "Ask me!"

"I don't know, and I don't want to know. You don't have to tell me," Anduin replied calmly, glancing at Vivian. He thought to himself, "Not only do I know what happened, I even heard the uproar last night . . . but what does it have to do with me?"

"Anduin, you really are no fun," Vivian said, visibly deflating as Anduin remained unfazed. Yet she couldn't hold back and blurted out all the details she had gathered—silencing her would have been harder than stopping a stampede of centaurs.

"Yesterday, our house —don't ask me how— caught wind that Gryffindor was planning a nighttime gathering at the Astronomy Tower. So, a bunch of the pure-blood families banded together, planning to give Gryffindor a nasty surprise.

Originally, they intended to toss a few dungbombs during Gryffindor's meeting, then hit them with a couple of jinxes, and finally block the entrance to the tower. That way, the Gryffindor lot would probably be disgusted to death," Vivian said animatedly, as if she had been there herself.

"But guess what? The moment their group snuck into the Astronomy Tower, they were caught by the Gryffindors. What was supposed to be a prank turned into an all-out brawl between the two houses. I heard several students from both sides ended up injured. Later, when they saw Professor McGonagall and Filch rushing over, they scattered and ran. In the end, only a few managed to get away; most of those involved were caught. The injured were sent to the infirmary, and the others are said to be confined for one or two months", Vivian added with a gleeful expression, making one wonder if she wasn't secretly cheering for Slytherin.

Vivian then nodded toward Vanessa and said, "Gryffindor and Slytherin were both docked at least a hundred points each. Vanessa is absolutely livid. It's only been two months since the school year began, and we're already in this mess. This semester, the House Cup probably has nothing to do with us again".

Hearing all this, Anduin found himself quite impressed with Vivian's ability to gather information, she had uncovered the details with remarkable clarity. At the same time, he felt nothing but contempt for these weaklings. 'Sneaking around at night just to cause trouble over a prank? Pathetic. They're just a bunch of kids with no vision. I really don't need to waste my time on these young wizards'.

With that thought, he stopped paying attention to the farce.

Before long, it was time for another Charms Club meeting. Anduin arrived early at the meeting hall. On the bottom shelf of the bookcase behind the podium, he indeed found a copy of Theory of Magical Defense. He pulled out the book, tucked it away, found a seat, and opened it. Inside, several parchment sheets were filled with handwritten notes. He also noticed many annotations by Lily, suggesting the book had once belonged to her.

He flipped through it briefly and found that it mainly covered defensive spells and counter-curses against the Dark Arts. It even detailed how to develop a counter-curse for a specific spell. However, there was a significant amount of content involving Ancient Runes—something Anduin currently couldn't decipher.

'Ancient Runes is a third-year elective. Looks like I'll need to find a way to study it ahead of time'. Anduin thought, planning his next steps.

Soon after, the Charms Club meeting began, and Anduin refocused his attention on the gathering.

It quickly became clear that, no matter the subject, achieving tangible results wasn't easy. During the discussion session, no one had made significant breakthroughs. Professor Flitwick, as the supervising professor, merely answered some of the more difficult questions. However, Senior Quirrell —who had previously developed the Amplifying Charm— seemed to be making rapid progress. His current focus was on the development of soundwave spells. In his latest demonstration of the Amplifying Charm, he managed to make everyone in the room hear the paintings outside chatting after casting it. Though still quite noisy, it was a remarkable improvement in terms of sound penetration.

Anduin remained an invisible observer in the Charms Club, watching and listening without offering any opinions. The other seniors assumed Flitwick was simply indulging this new student, allowing him to watch and learn. None of them expected Anduin to truly understand what was being discussed.

Anduin, however, found the experience enjoyable. Senior Quirrell's research into the Amplifying Charm greatly broadened his horizons and even gave him fresh ideas for developing new spells of his own.

Developing a new spell requires an enormous amount of time for magical symbol research. This process also heavily involves Ancient Runes. To create a new spell, one must first prepare a foundational magical symbol, much like how an artist prepares a blank canvas.

Then, application-based magical symbols are layered onto the foundation, forming various complex combinations. Throughout this process, one must carefully consider the stability between symbols. Some combinations —like "water" and "fire"— can cause repulsive reactions. While merging them isn't inherently impossible, casting a spell using such an unstable symbol structure would almost certainly lead to an explosion.