“You were born into a wizarding family, you should have been exposed to magic since childhood, can you show me?”
Hermione was both excited and afraid about the upcoming Hogwarts life.
She had always been a top student, never had any problems in her studies, which had cultivated her strong competitive spirit.
The only time she was defeated was at the hands of Ethan. Now, through her hard work over this period, Hermione believed that if they competed again, she would definitely not be worse than Ethan.
But when it came to magic, Hermione had no confidence. It was still difficult to learn magic without a teacher. Over the summer, Hermione had only learned three spells: the Lumos Charm, the Alohomora Charm, and the Reparo Charm.
Therefore, she was worried that she would not be able to keep up with Hogwarts' teaching pace and be left far behind by those who grew up in wizarding families, becoming what is known as a "bad student".
Now, since she had the chance, she wanted to see what level the children from wizarding families were at, so that she could plan for her future studies.
“This…”
Neville stammered, unable to speak, not knowing how to answer.
He had seen magic, and he saw it every day, but casting it, sorry, he really couldn't do it.
Poof!
Ethan couldn't help but laugh out loud. Hermione pressed on, Neville cowered, unable to say a word.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing to laugh at!”
Ethan spread his hands, looking innocent.
“Let me show you what magic is.”
Cassandra stepped forward. Although she didn't think much of Neville, nor of Hermione, a Muggle-born witch, she didn't even want to have too much communication.
But in the end, Cassandra was still an eleven-year-old child, it was common to flaunt her strengths and show them off, in order to attract attention.
Under the gaze of the three, Cassandra gracefully drew her wand and pointed it in mid-air.
“Incendio!”
With the words falling, a hot orange flame erupted from the tip of the wand, forming a small vortex in mid-air that lingered.
Cassandra, having done all this, looked arrogantly in Ethan's direction.
In her opinion, only Ethan could make her look twice.
Ethan should be a half-blood wizard, after all, the pureblood wizarding families in Britain, she knew them all.
She had never heard of the surname Adrian.
Plus, Ethan's purchase of books last time, costing over a hundred Galleons at once, didn't fit the characteristics of a Muggle family.
Eliminating all the wrong answers, then there was only one possibility left.
“This is the Incendio spell, I've tried it so many times, but I haven't been successful.”
Hermione stood up abruptly, her eyes fixed on Cassandra's Incendio spell.
Sure enough, the students from wizarding families had already surpassed me in terms of progress.
Ignoring the excited Hermione, Cassandra continued to stare at Ethan, and said earnestly:
“What magic have you learned during this time?”
It was because of Ethan that she had bought extra higher-year textbooks and had been studying hard during this time, in order to surpass Ethan, to become the brightest star of Slytherin, even Hogwarts.
She just didn't know how Ethan's talent was. Hard work and diligence could make her pay attention, but if his talent wasn't there, he wasn't qualified to be her opponent at all.
“Incendio!”
The same magic came out from Ethan's hand, even the size of the flame vortex was the same as Cassandra's.
Although Ethan hadn't delved into the Incendio spell much during this period, wasn't this something you could learn just by looking at it?
Plus, with his good magical control ability and thicker magic than ordinary young wizards, Ethan could easily achieve this step.
Even if the proficiency of the Incendio spell might not be as high as Cassandra's, it could achieve the same effect.
“Ethan, you can too?”
Hermione's eyes widened, feeling a little unbelievable.
Although she had lost to Ethan before, this was a new track in terms of magic, and she hadn't expected to lose again.
And the corners of Cassandra's mouth curled slightly, only this way would it be interesting. If Ethan was a talentless mediocrity, it would be really boring.
Immediately, Cassandra swung her wand in her hand, the flames in mid-air seemed to come alive, transforming into a fiery serpent and rushing towards Ethan, as if to swallow Ethan's flames in one gulp.
She wanted to tell Ethan in this way that she was the best.
But reality is often cruel. At the moment the two Incendio spells touched, Cassandra's started to collapse.
Because they were in the carriage, both of them didn't dare to expand the fire. In the end, Cassandra could only watch as Ethan's flames reached about thirty centimeters in front of her before dissipating.
Although it was flames in form, it ultimately relied on magic. Now there was no fuel, it wasn't an Unforgivable Curse like Fiendfyre, the inextinguishable flame born from the emotions of destruction.
In the end, it came down to the manipulation of the Incendio spell and magic power.
“Ethan, we're both Muggle-born, and we haven't been exposed to magic before, how did you do it?”
It's not shameful to ask when you don't know, Hermione could only admit that in both the wizarding world and the Muggle world, she was inferior to Ethan.
“We geniuses are just like that!”
Ethan said with a smug look on his face.
“You must have some learning techniques, teach me!”
In order not to be a bad student, in order to be able to graduate successfully from Hogwarts, Hermione decided to go all out.
She was also considered a genius in the Muggle world!
Why can't she do it!
Hermione could only tell herself that this was just because she hadn't been taught, she hadn't mastered the wizarding way of learning.
“Wait, you said he was Muggle-born?”
Cassandra interrupted their conversation, looking at Ethan in some disbelief.
“Yes, I know him.”
Hermione nodded affirmatively.
“I lost this competition, but the venue is not right. I'll be the one who wins next time.”
As the pride of her family, the genius in other people's mouths, Cassandra didn't believe she was inferior to Ethan. If they could have a fair competition, victory would definitely be hers.