However.
The warmth of the Patronus and the aura of hope it exudes are felt very clearly.
"You can do better, focus your Patronus..." Gilderoy Grindelwald encouraged, his voice urgent, as if he wanted to witness Ian's Patronus before someone else could.
Yet.
"Professor Grindelwald."
Ian's face was incredibly flushed, yet his voice had a hint of helplessness.
"I think I'm already too happy, almost as if I'm on cloud nine... Perhaps you should give me something that would make me rich overnight to excite me further."
His magic wand continuously emitted a silver glow.
It was evident that what he said was true.
However, faced with Ian's "reasonable" request, the man posing as someone else frowned deeply. He looked at the silver mist that was about to fill the entire classroom and fell into a self-absorbed silence.
"It shouldn't be like this."
With his identity confirmed, Gilderoy Grindelwald did not correct Ian's address.
He frowned, as if he had stumbled onto a knowledge blind spot. The powerful energy of the Patronus Charm surged and throbbed in the classroom, attempting to invade the area where his Patronus hovered. This was clearly a situation where someone had completely mastered the Patronus Charm and had sufficient magic power.
Didn't you see the Dementors in the cage frantically clawing at the ground? Even though they couldn't actually dig into the earth below the cage, they were desperately trying to burrow into the ground to hide!
This kind of deterrence.
Even surpasses the Patronus Charm released by most wizards with corporeal Patronuses. Logically, such a large-scale Patronus Charm should have already formed a corporeal Patronus.
Why can't it take form?
Now it was Gilderoy Grindelwald's turn to be puzzled. He thought that the accumulation of his years of learning had far surpassed the past, yet reality made him realize there were still things he didn't understand.
Ian didn't understand either.
[Patronus Charm (Level 0) 49/50]
He had been training and learning this magic very smoothly, yet the progress stalled at the last critical step, as if he lacked something essential to cast this magic.
If it were according to the theory of this imposter professor.
Could it be because he doesn't have a Patronus?
"Why does everyone else have one and I don't!"
Ian's magic wand was continuously emitting a silver glow, filling the entire classroom. Amid the Dementors' wailing pleas for mercy, the silver glow even squeezed out of the windows and spread outside.
Yet.
They just wouldn't take form.
No matter how Ian controlled it, he could only compress them.
"Professor, where is my soulmate?"
He could only look eagerly at Gilderoy Grindelwald on the podium.
"..."
Gilderoy Grindelwald opened his mouth but had no idea what to say, utterly at a loss for words, his originally confident and composed expression now somewhat bewildered. Not completely dumbfounded, but like a math genius with full marks facing a global math competition.
"Yes indeed... Where is your soulmate?"
A man wild and free, capable of glimpsing destiny, ultimately not escaping the fate of becoming a broken record. He watched as the silver glow from Ian's wand was about to make the entire classroom pitch dark.
"Withdraw your magic, and I will help you find a solution to the problem." Gilderoy Grindelwald ultimately couldn't think of a possible factor.
"Okay, Professor."
Ian withdrew the magic.
All the silver mist began to dissipate.
With a wave of his wand, the ground returned to its original, mundane state, covering the Dementors' cage and restoring the podium to normalcy.
The classroom returned to normal.
"You are responsible for waking them up and telling them that I am disappointed with their performance this lesson. I hope next time at least two or three of them can persist until the end."
After saying this, Gilderoy Grindelwald wanted to head towards the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
"Huh?"
Ian was somewhat surprised.
He had thought that Gilderoy Grindelwald's atrocious method of teaching would be a one-off madness, yet from the sound of it, the other seemed to intend to continue masquerading as Lockhart as the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts? Could it be something that was truly approved by Dumbledore!
Will the identity of Gilderoy Grindelwald still exist for at least a year?
Just the thought of it felt awkward!
"Professor, maybe we need classes that aren't so stimulating..." Ian looked around at the classmates sprawled everywhere as if they had just survived a brutal kidney removal scene.
It was indeed a bit tragic.
"This is what a real Defense Against the Dark Arts class should be like. If you find it overly stimulating, it's only because in previous years, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers at this school were not qualified."
Stopping in his tracks, Gilderoy Grindelwald, wearing the face of a playboy writer, turned back and gently reminded Ian in a heartfelt tone.
"As I mentioned earlier, real-world dangers will not wait for you to grow. Defense Against the Dark Arts should enable you to gain hands-on experience amidst danger."
"At least at school, these children won't face real death. When they step into the cruel and perilous world outside the school, I believe most of them will be grateful to me."
"Including you as well."
Gilderoy Grindelwald's voice carried a kind of power that seemed to penetrate the human heart.