Ch 12 Homework? Part-2

"You didn't think it would this easy for you to get away after disrespecting your teacher," Beth asked while tilting her head, "Did you?"

"I told you already," Sirius replied defiantly, "It wasn't intentional,"

"I don't care about that," She shrugged uncaringly, "But don't worry too much, I was going to give you your wand anyway. I only kept it in case you reacted... Unexpectedly,"

"Here!" she said and threw the wand toward Sirius who caught it reflexively.

"Now, I am sure you learned it when you were a kid, but let me revise it for you, Anyway, 'When you make a mistake, you get an appropriate punishment so that you don't repeat the mistake,'" She said evenly, "So let me tell you your punishment— there is a ward around the clearing created by yours truly, that traps you from leaving this place in addition to protecting you from the poisonous plants all around you,"

"Unfortunately for you, I happened to not use a Wardstone while creating it," She said and a wicked smile appeared on her face, "That means that the ward wasn't made to last, and in fact, it's shrinking as we speak. So if you don't escape from here in time, the poison in the air would make this your tomb, which is not too bad if you ask me, as not a lot of people get a beautiful place like this as their resting place,"

"But don't worry too much, I am not as cruel as to leave you without any help," She said benevolently before waving her wand in a familiar motion, and suddenly three books came flying through the air before falling in front of Sirius, "You have, I would say—two days, I think... before the ward shrinks to a null. And your only way to salvation is the three books in front of you,"

"Now, if you read book number 1," She said while pointing to the leftmost book in front of him, "and understand its contents to an appropriate level you should be able to decipher the ward I placed around you which should also enable you to recreate a similar one, prolonging your stay here,"

"And if you survive long enough to read book number 2, and are smart enough to decipher its content, you should be able to find the hidden ward that I left inside this clearing, which has a small portkey inside that should take you straight to my house,"

"A-And what about book 3?" Sirius asked while gulping.

"Oh, that one is a muggle self-help book, I once saw inside a store. I heard from someone it's supposed to help you if you start losing all your motivation and start getting depressed and suicidal,"

"You're joking right," Sirius asked with a forced smile.

"Who knows," Beth shrugged innocently, before waving airily and walking away from Sirius, "Now, I left my knitting mid-way, so enjoy your stay here, and if you're hungry—" She turned back and looked toward Sirius seriously, "Eat Some Grass!"

She went away while whistling a merry tune, and before long Sirius was left alone with three books and a wand while surrounded by plants on all sides that looked more and more ominous as the seconds ticked.

...

"Let's see how good you are," Sirius mumbled a few minutes after Beth went away while looking at the place where he thought the ward line was.

The first thing Sirius decided to do before anything else was, check the strength of the ward keeping him trapped here, so he raised his wand toward the barrier and immediately began bombarding it, starting with one of his least destructive spells.

"BOMBARDA"

Not much seem to have happened as the moment the spell reached the ward line a transparent blue shield appeared and the power of the spell spread over it evenly, before it vanished.

Of course, Sirius never expected that to work he just wanted to set the baseline and see where the ward line was exactly.

So after he took an optimal distance, Sirius took a deep breath and then started flooding the shield with all the destructive spells he had learned.

*boom*boOM*BADOOOM*

He slowly started pouring more and more magic into the spells which simultaneously increased their destructiveness. But the shield kept on absorbing them easily and, at last when he used his most powerful spell, it bend just a little but the moment he stopped, the barrier went back to its pristine condition without a scratch.

From that Sirius was able to conclude that most of the top wizards like the hit-wizards and Aurors would be helpless before this ward.

"Let's see if you can take some real heat," Sirius said with a smirk on his face, as he was really happy to let loose for once without worrying about breaking anything.

Deciding to up the ante Sirius transformed into his half-grim form, which enhanced almost all his physical attributes including magical strength, without changing him too much physically.

After he got adjusted to his new form, Sirius centered himself, and raising his wand he immediately shouted the incantation of his most powerful spell, and almost instantly a thick stream of blue light rushed out of his wand and impacted the shield with a loud bang.

There was a difference immediately noticeable compared to the previous impacts, as this time the shield seem to have actually turned inward at the point of impact, and it actually looked like he was making a progress.

*Shoo**Shoo**Shoo*

Sirius kept the continuous stream of the beam from his wand going for a while and before long the shield started to make a whining sound as if it was on the verge of tearing, so he immediately cut off his magic, as he didn't actually want to remove the ward yet.

"She's damn good," Sirius said while breathing a bit heavily.

While he was reluctant to admit it, Sirius couldn't deny that Beth was really an expert as even though he was not even a novice in the matter of wards, he still knew that it was very hard—almost impossible to create a ward this good in such a short amount of time if you're not at the top of the field.

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For those who can't wait: pat reon.c om/lazywizard