The Black Mansion.

Penelope introduced the defense arrangement of Future World to Harry and the others in the living room.

"Because we have to do business, the Sword Castle cannot be hidden with spells like here. Its defense is closer to Hogwarts. It will be much better when the anti-thief waterfall and anti-spell series are developed. In addition, every employee in the company must master the most basic self-protection ability. Professor Hepp chose the Stunning Spell and the Armoring Spell."

"No Disarming Spell?" Harry said with some regret.

"Maybe he thinks it's safer to knock people out." Penelope said uncertainly, "There are some useful spells - such as the Bright Fire Spell, the Apparition Spell, the Disillusionment Spell, the Rune Armoring Spell and other magic, but not everyone can master these advanced contents. It will take time to fully deploy them."

Then, Penelope suggested playing a duel game.

They came to the training room on the second floor of the basement. The space here is larger than the fifth floor, and there is no need to worry about disturbing others.

"Who will go first?" Penelope stood confidently in the middle of the room.

"It sounds like you are going to have a round-robin battle with us." Fred touched his nose and said with a slightly malicious tone.

"It's guidance," Penelope corrected seriously, "I learned all the magic above."

"I see the shadow of Percy in her," Harry heard Ron mutter to Neville, "I should have thought of it earlier, why can she tolerate Percy, a workaholic? Because they are the same type of people."

Harry grinned, and from the corner of his eye he seemed to see Ginny staring at him through the cushions. When he looked over, she had turned her head away. Harry suddenly remembered the kiss last night. It should be a kiss, he thought uncertainly.

"Harry-Harry!"

He came back to his senses. Everyone else retreated to the edge of the black stone wall, and Penelope was looking at him eagerly. He subconsciously clenched his wand.

"Oh, Harry is distracted, this is not good-I will be the referee!" Fred muttered softly at first, and said excitedly the next second. "Three-two-one, go!"

"Armor shield--"

"Bang!"

A red light hit Penelope's chest, knocking her away in an instant. She fell hard on the cushion, and the wand in her hand slid in a graceful arc and fell into Harry's hand.

Penelope struggled to support her body from the cushion, with an incredible look on her face.

Harry himself was a little surprised. His casting speed seemed to be faster, but he suspected that it might be an illusion.

"Brother, you'd better hold back a little," Ron came over and whispered, "Otherwise Percy will rush down to seek revenge on you."

"I didn't use my full strength--" Harry explained in a low voice.

"Let's do it again. I was too careless just now." Penelope said unconvinced.

"Then, in the first round, Harry wins; in the second round, get ready--" Fred performed his duties.

This time Penelope lasted much longer. Harry did not dare to use the disarming spell again, but found an opportunity to use the limp leg spell. Penelope fell hard and fell to the ground and couldn't get up.

Everyone quickly surrounded her. Hermione chanted the counter-curse, then took out the swelling-reducing potion. Penelope's nose and face were swollen at the moment, and everyone else tried hard not to laugh.

"Have you completely mastered silent casting?" Penelope asked sullenly.

"I've made great progress recently." Harry said embarrassedly. He finally confirmed that it was not an illusion just now. He could only cast the few duel spells he was best at silently, but today he felt surprisingly good.

Could it be the influence of Voldemort on him again? A haze covered his heart.

"Will it leave no trace?" Fred asked worriedly, "I mean, if my mother knew about it-"

Harry took a breath and had no idea.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Penelope shrugged, "I'm not as good as you."

Harry's liking for Penelope increased greatly.

Next, Harry and Hermione competed, shooting out spells from the tips of their wands and wielding them in the training room. Almost half a minute passed, and except for the sound of spells hitting the wall, neither of them spoke.

"They know each other so well that sometimes they can tell what spell the other is going to cast just by feeling it," Ron explained. "But Harry is in really good shape today. You know, he can't compare to Hermione in silent casting."

"Can you do what they do?" Fred and George looked at Ron carefully.

"Of course - it's still a little short of that." Ron gasped when he saw their eager expressions.

"Look, Hermione is about to use combined magic, the one that Professor Flitwick advocates. Oh, what is that?" He opened his eyes wide and looked at the sudden change in the situation on the field in surprise.

At some point, a series of palm-sized chestnut wood chips flew out of Hermione's beaded bag. These chestnut wood chips flashed red and hot magic runes. Under Hermione's precise control, they surrounded Harry.

Harry suddenly felt something was wrong. He instantly released a high-level armor spell, and the 'flowing' magic runes merged into the magic barrier. The invisible spherical barrier rippled with light green water waves, wrapping him inside. He looked up and saw Hermione craning her neck to look around. Seeing that he was ready, he swung his wand downward.

The chestnut wood chips exploded around him at the same time, turning into dazzling balls of fire.

Harry felt dizzy and his eyes were pierced by the explosion. The explosion did not hurt him, but the huge noise was a bit overwhelming.

"What kind of magic is this?" He couldn't help asking when the flames disappeared. "It looks a bit like a rune circuit."

"You're right," Hermione said happily, "but it's an unstable rune circuit, which should be avoided as much as possible, but if you control it properly-" She made an explosion gesture.

"Turning a failed rune circuit into an offensive method?" Harry pondered. This method was not simple, at least it required a very high level of control over magic.

"How did you think of it?" Ron beside him couldn't help asking.

"Well-I've been reading a lot of rune materials recently. When I was reviewing my experience of learning ancient runes, I suddenly remembered that the professor pointed me in the direction in the first class." Hermione said with a smile, her eyes completed two crescents, and the success of the new trick made her feel very good.

"I think he was simply demonstrating a wrong example at the time." Ron said the truth.

Next came Neville and Ginny. Neville seemed to have the idea of ​​counterattack ingrained in him. He could hardly find any faults. Ginny tried several spells in turn, but could not find any flaws. Moreover, she was not good at dueling. She just stood there and released spells all at once. She angrily used her best Bat Curse, but Neville seized the opportunity and easily knocked her down.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

Ginny shook her head and got up by herself.

"You have changed a lot," Fred said sincerely, "even I am itching to fight."

"When was the last time we had a serious fight?" George pretended to be steady.

"If you don't count the time you used the experimental protective cap to cast the Long Hair Curse on me yesterday, I think it should be the duel competition last school year. We were both eliminated, remember?" Fred said seriously.

"The time we used dung eggs to fight each other?" George also remembered.

"But our fight is so boring, it's like looking in the mirror." Fred said reluctantly. In fact, they didn't spend too much time on duels, but just the daily fights between the two of them made them much stronger than ordinary people.

"You're right, it's better to change someone--" George replied, and then they both looked at Ron.

...

Ron was beaten badly.

"Actually, you held on for a long time," Harry helped him up from the ground, "but Fred and George are so tacitly in sync, it's like they can clone themselves."

"I thought it was two against two," Ron said, rubbing his shoulders, "but they were even more shameless than I thought. Hiss~ It must be swollen now."