Chương 47: Defensive Charms

Tyson's luck seemed to have run out for today. He searched the Charms section from top to bottom, even checking a few shelves that had absolutely no business containing what he was looking for, but found nothing remotely related to the Disillusionment Charm or any form of invisibility or concealment magic. Not even a passing mention. After another few minutes of fruitless searching, Tyson reluctantly accepted reality. Those books were probably locked behind the professor-slip wall too.

Tyson let out a frustrated grunt.

"Greatest magical school in the world, my ass." First Occlumency and now this. Honestly, Hogwarts had so many restrictions on knowledge that, for a second, Tyson felt like he'd wandered into some Chinese wuxia novel where every worthwhile martial-arts manual had been monopolised by the major clans. It completely threw off all his plans. Breaking into the Restricted Section without the Disillusionment Charm was impossible.

'…Well.' He scratched his cheek.

'Not exactly impossible.' Harry's Invisibility Cloak would work just as well, and he could always borrow it. But the catch was that Harry didn't receive it until Christmas, and that was still months away. There was no way he was waiting that long. Tyson stared blankly at the shelves before rubbing his face with a sigh.

'Seems like I can only ask the older Ravenclaws.' It was the only workable solution he could think of. Besides, none of them would question his objective. Among Ravenclaws, asking someone for obscure books wasn't suspicious. If anything, not asking for obscure books was. For now, though, his second objective was officially dead. That left him with only the third. Defensive magic. To be fair, his offensive arsenal was already pretty solid.

Somehow, the second-year textbook was absolutely packed with offensive charms. Tyson would even bet it had the third- and fourth-year books beaten in that department. Tickling Charm, Dancing Feet Spell, Freezing Charm (Glacius), and even the legendary Expelliarmus. They were all high-utility, low-expenditure spells. Then there was the general counter-spell: Finite Incantatem, which Tyson had already decided belonged to the ever-growing list of spells he wanted to master wandlessly.

His only blind spot was that he didn't know any defensive charms, and as far as Tyson knew, the only proper defensive spell in the entire Hogwarts curriculum was the Shield Charm, which students didn't learn until the sixth year. It was honestly a little bizarre. Hogwarts curriculum. Students learned to sever limbs and conjure scorching-hot flames in the first year but had to wait a full six fucking years to learn a single defensive charm.

While it might be attributed to the Shield Charm's difficulty, surely the entire magical world hadn't spent centuries developing exactly one defensive charm. There had to be something suitable for beginners. Guess he was about to find out. And damn… Did he find out. Tyson worked his way down the shelves, pulling out any book whose title sounded remotely promising. The next ten minutes explained exactly how Hogwarts managed to fill such a gigantic library. This novel's true home is a different platform.

Support the author by finding it there. Because most of the books were complete nonsense! One author somehow managed to spend an entire chapter defining the phrase "defensive magic." Tyson still wasn't entirely sure how. By the end of it, he'd learned that defensive magic was, in fact… Magic. Used. Defensively. Truly a groundbreaking discovery. Another book insisted true defence wasn't about blocking spells but understanding the philosophical intent behind the conflict.

When he flipped back to the title page to see which self-proclaimed messiah had so graciously decided to bless them lowly mortals with such profound wisdom, he found the author's name missing. He was about ninety percent sure this masterpiece had been commissioned by the Ministry. The next few books weren't much better. A few that were actually informative assumed the readers already knew the Shield Charm and then went on to yap for hundreds of pages discussing how to improve it.

It was just as useful to him as buying a pack of condoms despite not having a girlfriend. After almost half an hour of searching, one spine caught his attention. Defensive Magical Theory. Not exactly a creative title, but that was precisely what caught his attention. Books with boring titles were usually written by people who preferred getting to the point instead of trying to sound mysterious. He flipped to the table of contents. Theory. Spell interaction. Magical resistance. Practical applications.

Practical Defensive Charms— That was enough for Tyson to immediately tuck the book under his arm. After a few minutes of searching, he found another one that caught his attention. Dueling Strategies for Beginners.

"…Now we're talking." The title alone was enough to pique his interest. He skimmed the introduction and found that it seemed to focus on magical duels as a whole: positioning, timing, reading an opponent's wand movements, and choosing the right spell for the situation. Definitely useful. The book joined the first one beneath his arm.

'I think that's enough.' Tyson decided to stick with two books for now. They'd probably keep him busy for the next week.

'Not like I'm gonna stumble upon a defensive charm even if I continue looking.' The more shelves he searched, the more he realised defensive charms were surprisingly uncommon. Tyson hugged the two books against his chest and looked around for somewhere to sit. Fortunately, finding an empty table proved far easier than finding useful books. The library remained pleasantly quiet. A handful of Ravenclaws occupied the nearest tables, each completely absorbed in their own work.

Not one of them glanced up as Tyson walked past, completely absorbed in whatever they were reading. He found the expressions on their faces quite weird, though. Finding an empty table beside one of the tall windows, Tyson set the books down and flipped open Defensive Magical Theory. He flipped past the dry theory, deciding he could always come back later to bore himself, and skipped straight to the charms. There weren't many, to be fair. Only four.

The rest were just stronger variants of those same spells—Maxima versions, reinforced forms, and a few specialised tweaks. Nothing particularly groundbreaking. Hell, even those four could probably be considered elemental branches of the Shield Charm. The first spell was Ventus Scutum. Instead of conjuring a magical barrier, it created a dense wall of compressed wind capable of scattering smoke, poisonous gas, and lightweight projectiles like arrows, throwing knives, and darts. Against magical spells, however…

the book politely described its effectiveness as limited. The second was Aqua Aegis. It was basically the same, except water replaced the wind. At first glance, it sounded laughably unimpressive. Then Tyson reached the list of things it could block. Fire charms. Boiling oil. Acidic potions. Explosive chemical mixtures. It was essentially designed to deal with anything hot, corrosive, or otherwise unpleasant to have flying at your face.

'Yup. I can see how that would be useful.' The third charm was far more interesting than the previous two. Terra Clipeus. It basically summoned a circular slab of compacted earth about the size of a large buckler directly in front of the caster.

'Now that's a good damn spell.' Unlike the previous two, it could handle both magical and physical attacks reasonably well. And if the situation called for it, there was nothing stopping the caster from bashing someone with it or simply hurling the whole thing at them. The only downside was that it didn't float. After conjuring it, the caster actually had to grab it with their free hand, which meant sacrificing a good deal of mobility. Tyson could manage that.

He was easily the most jacked student in the whole castle. The charm was basically made for a stat monster like him. Then he reached the final spell and his eyes lit up. Protego Minor. Just as the name suggested, it was a smaller version of Protego. Not weaker in power, just smaller in coverage. Rather than conjuring a barrier large enough to cover the caster's entire body, it formed a compact shield around the wand arm, about the same size as Terra Clipeus.

The caster had to manually intercept incoming spells with it, either to block them or, with enough mastery, deflect them. The downside was obvious, but on the plus side, it ate up far less magic power. And according to the book, it had once been taught in several European magical schools before quietly disappearing from the British curriculum in favour of skipping straight to Protego. Tyson had no fucking idea why British wizards had decided that was a good idea.

Though he speculated it was another masterstroke of the Ministry.

'Protego Minor is a must. Terra Clipeus is definitely worth learning too. Ventus and Aqua can wait.' He only had so much time. He couldn't afford to burn it all on defensive charms. Having made his decision, Tyson put aside Defensive Magical Theory and reached for Basic Dueling Tactics. His fingers had barely brushed the cover when the chair beside him scraped softly across the stone floor. Someone sat down. Tyson looked up.

'Hermione?'