Chapter 268: Chapter 268: Hermes, Honestly Chicken [bonus]

Cuthbert snorted from the sidelines. Alex’s shoulders shook once before he clamped a hand over his mouth.

A muscle twitched near Hermes’s eye. He remembered the last time Regulus had asked him that question.

He hadn’t even opened his mouth to answer before a stone spike shot up from beneath his feet and pressed against his throat. His wand never made it halfway up.

Hermes cleared his throat. "Straight fight."

Regulus raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

Hermes faltered.

"Like... a proper wizard’s duel." He frowned. "Formal. We bow, then we start."

"You said the same thing last time," Cuthbert offered from behind.

Hermes glared at him.

Cuthbert ducked his head, pulling a face.

Alex murmured, "That’s not right. Last time he said it after getting hit."

The muscle near Hermes’s eye twitched again.

Regulus watched that expression, mouth curving a fraction. He waited a beat. "Anything else?"

Hermes was quiet for a moment. "Can you not use whatever you did just now?"

That thing with the dummy’s head. He hadn’t understood what happened, but he was confident his own skull wasn’t any sturdier.

Cuthbert burst out laughing, one hand landing on Alex’s shoulder, his whole body tilting sideways.

Alex didn’t laugh out loud, but his shoulders shook harder.

Regulus laughed too.

Hermes was usually all gloom and distance. Few words, arm’s length from everyone.

The brooding boy. Famous for it in Slytherin.

Even with Cuthbert and Alex, he rarely started conversations. But they’d been together long enough now, all of them orbiting Regulus, that when someone tossed him a thread, he’d catch it.

That last request, though, had a certain candid cowardice to it. Openly, honestly chicken.

But Regulus understood. For someone like Hermes to say that, the person had to have earned genuine respect. Otherwise, with his temperament, he’d sooner stand there and take the hit than open his mouth.

He nodded. "Fine."

Then he said nothing more, watching him.

Hermes glanced away, then back.

Silence held.

He knew they were laughing at him. Cuthbert and Alex were one thing, but Regulus too, subtle as it was. He’d seen it.

He decided to pretend he hadn’t. What else could he do?

He didn’t want to eat that hit.

His expression stayed exactly as it was, brow slightly furrowed, as if nothing had happened. "That thing from last time... eight spells fired at once... don’t use that either."

Cuthbert muttered something under his breath. Alex elbowed him.

Regulus nodded again. "Sure."

Hermes fell silent once more.

He thought it over carefully. With those two off the table, what remained should be ordinary spells.

But ordinary spells in Regulus’s hands stopped being ordinary.

He considered asking for more restrictions, decided that would cross a line even he couldn’t justify, and lifted his head. "That’s all."

Regulus said nothing and walked toward the center of the training floor. Hermes followed.

Cuthbert sprang from the bench, grabbed Alex by the arm, and dragged him to a spot along the wall. They crouched down, eyes bright.

"Here we go."

Ten meters between them.

Hermes drew a deep breath, right hand gripping his wand, tip pointed down. He raised it to his chest, tip skyward, and dipped into a slight bow.

Regulus lifted his wand and returned it.

Hermes knew his own progress. His spells hit harder than before, his casting speed had climbed. Incantations that once required the full phrase now left his wand with a few quick movements of his lips.

He wanted Regulus to see.

He also wanted to see whether three months of training had given him any clearer measure of the gap.

Regulus stood across from him, wand hanging at his side, stance relaxed.

His expression looked serious enough, but Hermes knew that was courtesy.

He didn’t let it bother him. His wand came up, lips moving fast.

A dark red curse shot from the tip, aimed straight at Regulus’s chest.

Nearly twice the speed of three months ago. The beam was denser, edges barely bleeding energy at all.

At the same time, his left hand was already positioned for a follow-up. Whichever way Regulus dodged, the second spell would be there.

Regulus stepped to one side. The dark red beam grazed past his shoulder.

The second spell was already airborne. Disarming Charm, aimed at Regulus’s left flank, cutting off his movement.

Regulus angled right, feet pivoting with him. The charm sailed past his ribs and struck the far wall, bursting into a spray of red sparks.

Hermes pressed on. Third spell. Fourth.

Side-Shift Spell.

Flames rolled through the space where Regulus had been standing a heartbeat before, scorching nothing but air.

A muscle near Hermes’s eye jumped. What kind of movement was that?

No time to analyze. His wand lashed three times in rapid succession, three curses firing simultaneously at Regulus’s center, left, and right.

Regulus’s feet moved again. Sprint Spell this time.

Straight-line acceleration, fast enough to leave an afterimage, threading the gaps between all three spells and appearing on Hermes’s right flank.

Hermes reacted fast. His wand was already turning, and a dark green mist spread from the tip, blanketing three meters around Regulus.

Regulus switched to the Swiftness Spell, kicked his speed up, and glided back five meters, slipping out from the edge of the fog. Not a thread of his robe touched it.

Cuthbert crouched by the wall, mouth hanging open.

"Did you see that?" He poked Alex.

Alex’s eyes hadn’t left the floor. "I saw."

"That thing he did, where he vanished, what spell was that?"

Alex shook his head.

Cuthbert thought about it, then declared with full confidence, "Apparition."

Alex turned to him. "Apparition? At Hogwarts?"

Cuthbert blinked, then waved a hand. "Modified, obviously. The Blacks have family secrets."

Alex turned back to the training floor. He didn’t respond.

He couldn’t make sense of what he’d seen, but he knew Cuthbert couldn’t either, and everything Cuthbert had just said sounded wrong. Made up on the spot, most likely.

He didn’t call him out.

On the training floor, Hermes launched three more dark spells.

All three fired almost simultaneously.

Regulus shifted left, clearing the dark beam, then Sprint Spell surged through his legs and he threaded the gap between the blade and the tendrils.

Hermes stopped. Didn’t fire again. He can’t hit him. What’s the point?

Regulus stood a few paces away, breathing steady, robe unwrinkled.

That was enough.

Hermes had made clear progress over three months. More power, faster casting, and real tactical thinking.

Among young wizards even a few years older, he’d rank near the top.

But it wasn’t enough. More work needed doing.

Regulus raised his wand.

Hermes threw up Protego on instinct. A silver barrier spread before him, twice as thick as three months ago, its edges barely wavering.

Regulus flicked his wand tip.

Impediment Jinx. Turquoise flash from the tip, moving at a speed several notches above anything Hermes had managed. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The jinx slammed into Protego. The barrier shuddered violently. It held.

Hermes exhaled.

Then the second one came. Same jinx, same flash, same spot.

The barrier shattered.

Before he could react, the third was already in his face.

He threw himself sideways. His body had barely cleared the spot when the jinx grazed his shoulder, tearing a gash in his robe.

He hadn’t found his footing when the fourth arrived, aimed at where his feet were about to land.

Hermes wrenched his body mid-stride, one foot slipping. He nearly fell. The jinx passed along his flank, catching his robe, shredding a patch of fabric.

He stumbled two steps, swung his wand toward Regulus, tried to return fire.

But the next spell was already there. No opening given.

Fifth... Sixth... Seventh... One after another, all Impediment Jinxes.

Turquoise flashes filled the training floor in an unbroken stream, but none struck him directly. They hit in front of him, behind him, to his left, to his right, herding him toward wherever Regulus wanted him to be.

Hermes started running.

He didn’t want to run. But standing still meant getting hit.

Protego was gone. No time to recast. Every jinx landed precisely in the gap between his spells.

The moment he began to raise his wand, the next one arrived, forcing him to dodge, forcing him to move, denying him any window to cast.

He ran with a furrowed brow, ran with clenched teeth, ran with his mouth open and gasping, footsteps growing heavier, breathing growing ragged.

Regulus hadn’t moved his feet once. A turn of the wrist, a point of the tip, and another Impediment Jinx sailed out.

Hermes dodged left, dodged right, dove forward, rolled sideways.

Cuthbert had gone quiet.

He crouched by the wall, eyes locked on the chain of flashes, head tracking Hermes’s movement.

Alex stood beside him, gaze just as fixed.

"Can you make sense of it?" Cuthbert’s voice came out dry.

Alex shook his head.

"Me neither." This time, Cuthbert admitted it honestly.

On the floor, Regulus stopped. Hermes bent at the waist, hands braced on his knees, sucking air in heavy gulps.

Sweat ran from his forehead and dripped onto the floor. His robe was a crumpled mess, barely a patch left intact.

He raised his head and looked at Regulus.

Regulus stood in the same spot, wand at his side, expression neutral.

Something churned inside Hermes.

He’d thought his progress was fast enough. Those dark curses, every one of them capable of killing.

But Regulus hadn’t even struck back at first. He’d only dodged, and Hermes still couldn’t land a hit.

When Regulus did return fire, it was the Impediment Jinx. One of the most basic spells in existence. Nothing special about it. And those few jinxes had stripped him of any chance to cast.

He’d never seen anything like it.

He knew what Regulus was telling him. Dark magic could be as powerful as it liked. If it didn’t connect, it meant nothing.

A basic spell was still a basic spell. Used well, your opponent didn’t get to fight back. Even running was only possible because Regulus allowed it.

Hermes straightened up, hands leaving his knees. His breathing was still rough, but steadier than a moment ago.

He walked toward the bench.

Cuthbert and Alex pushed off the wall and fell in behind.

The four of them sat back down.

Regulus rested his wand on his thigh. Said nothing.

Hermes sat beside him, head bowed, hands on his knees.

Silence for a while.

"If you’re in that situation again," Regulus said, "what do you do?"

Hermes didn’t answer. He knew the question was for him, but he didn’t have an answer.

If the opponent was faster, cast faster, if every spell landed in the exact gap that shut him down, leaving zero chance to fire back, what could he do?

Nothing came to mind.

Regulus turned to Cuthbert and Alex. "You two were watching. What did you see?"

Cuthbert jumped in first. "You were too fast. Hermes couldn’t keep up."

Regulus neither nodded nor shook his head.

Alex thought about it. Nothing came. He dropped his gaze and kept thinking.

Regulus didn’t press. He turned back to Hermes. "Think it over on your own. When you’ve figured it out, tell me at the next session."

Hermes nodded.

Regulus stood, rolling his shoulders. "All right. Let’s go. Dinner."

The four of them headed for the exit. Regulus in front, Hermes behind him, Alex and Cuthbert trailing at the back.

Cuthbert took a few steps, then turned his head. "Regulus, that thing he did, vanishing and reappearing, what spell was that?"

Regulus glanced at him. "Side-Shift Spell."

Cuthbert choked. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.

Alex laughed out loud from behind. Even Hermes’s mouth twitched upward, just a little.

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