"Ah!"
Quirrell could no longer maintain the spell. Hit by Leonardo's Disarming Charm, the wand in his hand immediately flew out.
But Quirrell paid no attention to his wand. At this moment, he could only kneel on the floor, holding his head with both hands, crying out in agony.
After ending the spell confrontation, the mad laughter in his mind gradually became lighter but still continued to linger. Sometimes like needle pricks, sometimes like knife cuts, torturing Quirrell's nerves.
Looking at Quirrell lying motionless on the ground, gradually falling silent, Leo's heart sank.
What was this situation? Was this the effect of the wand's mutation just now?
He'd heard a burst of snickering laughter, just like when he first obtained the wand, only relatively clearer. But Quirrell's reaction was too extreme—as if he'd been severely beaten.
Why wasn't he moving or making sounds anymore? It couldn't be—he hadn't killed the professor, had he?
It was just an Expelliarmus spell, not Avada Kedavra. What was this—a teaching accident?
"Professor Quirrell, are you injured? I'll take you to the hospital wing, or I'll call Professor Snape—he's very good with potions. Actually, I'll just call Headmaster Dumbledore. He's even more—"
"No need!"
Quirrell sprang up at once, his pale face covered with fading veins and sweat, struggling to force out a painful smile. "I'm fine. Nothing's wrong. This tutoring session will end here."
After Leonardo left the office, several minutes passed. Quirrell was still kneeling on the floor.
"I'm sorry, Master. I shouldn't have disturbed your rest."
"What just happened?"
Voldemort surprisingly wasn't angry but instead asked Quirrell very seriously. After Quirrell recounted what had just occurred, including Leo's obviously abnormal magical power and the sudden, terrifyingly strange laughter during the duel, he waited.
After a long silence, Voldemort finally spoke. "Master the Dark Magic I gave you as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more accidents may occur."
"Yes, my master."
After leaving Quirrell's office, Leo headed straight for the Headmaster's office. Along the way, he was also thinking about what had just happened.
After his wand showed abnormality, Quirrell had obviously become very pained. So it was basically confirmed to be the wand's influence.
The wand... Leonardo looked at the silver-black wand in his hand.
Different wands, based on different core and body materials, would combine to produce different characteristics. And through this period of casting spells, he'd gradually figured out this wand's properties.
First was the wand body—perhaps because of the Loki spruce wood's ever-changing qualities, the wand had very strong inclusiveness for spells. At least among the spells he'd currently cast, when magical power flowed through the wand, there was no sense of obstruction—it was very smooth.
Unlike some wands that would reject flashy, brilliant magic or repel curses.
Additionally, Leo had also discovered one point—the more times the same spell was released, the smoother the magical power output through the wand. That should be the Sphinx spine feather as the wand core taking effect.
He'd specifically observed that as the number of spell castings increased, the phantom silver runes on the wand's surface were also becoming increasingly complex, becoming more intricate and dazzling to the eye.
But the source of the huge impact on Quirrell was... Leonardo thought of it—when initially selecting a wand, this wand had actively come to him. It should have sensed the Loki Faceless on his body and produced an almost fundamental attraction.
So during this period of adjustment, with prolonged contact with him, had the wand also gained some additional special properties?
Based on the performance just now, the abnormality appeared after sustained magical bombardment. Perhaps he could try again? But who should he use to verify...
Walking along, Leo arrived at the Headmaster's office door. Guarding the entrance was a stone gargoyle.
"Password."
A hollow voice came from the gargoyle's mouth.
Leonardo paused—yes, before entering the Headmaster's office, one needed to answer the correct password for the gargoyle to let them pass. Last time, he'd been brought directly to the office by the phoenix Fawkes without going through this process.
Dumbledore seemed to like using sweets as passwords. He couldn't try them all one by one, could he?
Just as Leo was pondering, suddenly, a mass of crimson flames appeared out of thin air beside him. Then a red bird flew out from within.
"Fawkes?"
Leonardo extended his arm, and Fawkes naturally perched on it.
"Did you come out to find me?"
As if understanding his words, Fawkes nodded very humanly while nuzzling Leo's hair. The next second, flames enveloped both person and bird.
As the flames dispersed, no one remained before the gargoyle. The air was quiet for a while.
A buzzing sound came from the gargoyle's mouth again. "Tch, what a boring job."
Inside the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore sat by the table, which already held several plates of Chocolate Frogs, Cockroach Clusters, Ice Mice...
"Good afternoon, Leonardo."
"Good afternoon, Headmaster Dumbledore."
Leo sat down across from Dumbledore. After greetings, both tacitly stopped talking.
Dumbledore studied Leonardo with those bright eyes, occasionally revealing a gleam from behind his half-moon spectacles. He was checking whether there were traces of Dark Magic curses affecting the boy.
Finding no problems, Dumbledore nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Have you experienced any interesting school life these past few days?"
Hearing Dumbledore's question, Leo quickly reviewed everything. Teaching Harry Potions, walking the dog in the Forbidden Forest, playing with Acromantulas, dealing with a three-headed dog, chatting with centaurs...
He'd done quite a bit, and it was all quite interesting. Well, there really wasn't much he could say.
"I studied Potions with classmates and planted some vegetables in Hagrid's garden."
Dumbledore chuckled and stroked his beard. He'd long known from Hagrid that Leonardo was helping Harry learn Potions. This kind of bond with friends and helpful spirit made Dumbledore very gratified.
Especially for exceptionally talented children like Leo, it was often difficult to integrate into groups—this wasn't necessarily arrogant superiority, but purely that with their qualifications, it was very hard to understand and empathize with others.
But since Leonardo was willing to care for his classmates' studies, it showed he wasn't that kind of "lofty" genius but rather could get along harmoniously with people.
Thinking of their previous conversation about Dark Magic and Leo's attitude and understanding of it, Dumbledore felt even more at ease.
"That sounds very fulfilling. By the way, you just finished tutoring with Professor Quirrell—how did it feel?"
Leonardo thought about it—it was normal tutoring, then they'd sparred a bit. Although the result had a small hiccup, he'd still gained a lot.
"Very good. Honestly, if Professor Quirrell could show that level when there are many people, he might be a very popular teacher."