Chapter 594: Symbolic Punishment

As Caresius said, people who used black magic were not necessarily dark magicians.

Many decent wizards had more or less studied dark magic, and only on the basis of a thorough knowledge could they defend themselves accurately. This was the essence of the Defense Against the Dark Arts course at Hogwarts.

The lessons in the lower grades were not really self-evident. In the Defense Against the Dark Arts course, after passing the Ordinary Level Wizardry exam, students in the upper grades were required to read relevant books on dark magic for reference.

As for a veteran auror like Moody, he was a master of the Dark Arts.

He even knew more than many dark wizards, and only by knowing the enemy could he defeat his opponents. He didn't just need to recognize the Dark Arts; he needed to master them.

For a long time, restricted dark magic had been defined as a gray area in the wizarding world.

These magics were more lethal and unsuitable for most wizards to master and use. But they were not so evil in themselves; they did not distort the mind of the user or the essence of life.

The Ministry of Magic was wary of this type of magic and strictly controlled its use and random spread. However, they would not condemn someone to Azkaban just for having used it.

The most obvious examples were the Imperius Curse, legeremancy and the Dememorizing Charm. These were all common magic that acted on the human soul, and were classified as dark magic.

However, depending on the degree of damage, they were of a different nature.

The first was the Imperius Curse, which required evil thoughts to be used on someone's soul. This evil spell could numb the victim's mind, and whether there were good reasons or not, no one was to control another person's actions.

Therefore, it had been listed as one of the Unforgivable Curses, the most evil dark magic, completely forbidden.

As for legeremancy, this spell allows the caster to enter the victim's mind, allowing him to see memories, emotions and thoughts.

Dumbledore and Voldemort were masters of this magic. Care must be taken when speaking with them. If you are not careful, the secrets hidden in their minds could be known and clearly seen by them at any time.

This magic and Veritaserum were strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic, but Ivan was sure that Dumbledore did not take the Ministry of Magic's restrictions seriously and that he used it every time he spoke to him before mastering Occlumency.

Even after learning Occlumency, he had to be careful in every conversation, for fear of being discovered by him.

There were many secrets in Ivan's head, some of which he wanted the headmaster to know, and some of which he did not want to divulge.

That was also the main reason why he was unwilling to go to Dumbledore when something went wrong.

Of course, in many things, Dumbledore did not deal with them to hone Ivan and Harry's skills. For example, when the Basilisk was wreaking havoc in the castle, he must have known about the Chamber of Secrets, but in the end he only sent his own phoenix to help them.

Unlike the Imperius Curse, legeremancy did not influence the minds of the caster and the victim. This spell was not as evil, so it was not a completely forbidden black magic, but a restrictive black magic.

Not to mention Obliviate, its function was to make people lose their memory, either a specific memory or all memories. As this process was reversible through counter enchantment, the damage was minimal, and there was no restriction on it.

After passing the ordinary wizard level test, young wizards learned to use this enchantment in the Enchantments class.

Of course, the use of the dememorizing Enchantment on others must be under permission, otherwise they would be prosecuted.

One of the conditions for working in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes of the Ministry of Magic was to master the dememorizing Charm.

The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, the Obliviator Headquarters and the Muggle Excuses Committee were the three divisions of this Department, with the main responsibility of constantly changing the memories of Muggles and making them forget the magic they happened to see.

The use of restrictive black magic by two students could be considered a big problem or a small incident. Karkaroff knew that since there was no obvious damage, there would be no punishment, and he did not argue further.

Moreover, the root of the problem was that his student Krum had taught Ron the dark magic he used. If Ron was guilty, Krum couldn't get away with it and would be involved.

Everyone knew that Durmstrang had been teaching and encouraging students to learn dark magic, not just restrictive dark magic. Any investigation would be really unfavorable to them.

No one wanted to go any further. Professor McGonagall imposed no punishment on Ivan and Ron. She merely symbolically gave them a day's punishment and added 50 points to Ivan as a reward for his performance just now.

"The two spells you used were excellent, Mr. Mason. They saved a lot of people," said Professor McGonagall with a smile on her face.

These words coming out of her mouth were extravagant praise. Ivan noticed her right hand on his shoulder trembling slightly. He had performed well in Transfiguration class, but Professor McGonagall merely nodded her head each time she said, at best, "Not bad!" and rarely gave an "Excellent!" as a comment.

Of course, the points to be added were never small. That was Professor McGonagall's style.

"Especially the move to repel the dragon! As nice as it is direct, Ivan!". Sirius said happily as well.

Except for Snape, Professor McGonagall, Sirius and Caresius did not leave with the judges.

"Keep it up, Mason!" said Caresius, using Moody's tone.

He seemed very interested in Ivan's performance, and his magic eye danced in its socket.

The only one not so happy in the tent now was Ron, who seemed restless and not recovering from the shock.

In principle, the tournament was a good opportunity to help him regain his spirits.

Unfortunately, this happened suddenly, which immediately suppressed Ron's newfound courage and confidence. He was now worried about his use of dark magic.

"Well, Ron, don't take it to heart," Ivan said with a sigh and patted Ron's shoulder. "Don't worry about the spell you used. As Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall said, you just acted very well!"

"But I used dark magic?!" Ron turned to look at Ivan with strange eyes.

"That was a restricted spell; it's not forbidden," Ivan said, and merely explained to Ron, "In a word, believe me, there's nothing to this matter. You defeated the dragon and got the golden egg, and you got a good score. You should be happy."