Professor Vampire.

Chapter 107: The wand that "blows up".

Dracula's cold, indifferent words left Ron feeling utterly desperate, despite his earlier optimism.

"Professor, please...ugh..." Ron said, retching and struggling, "Don't be so heartless, Professor...ugh—"

Just as Ron was about to vomit up another snot, Dracula frowned in disgust and quickly cast a spell—

"Silencing Charm (Mimble Wimble)."

This was a charm Dracula had used on Gilderoy Lockhart before and was quite effective in certain situations.

Under the effect of the charm, Ron's mouth immediately sealed shut, trapping the snot he was about to expel. It was stuck in his mouth, neither coming out nor going down.

Ron frantically gestured with his hands, his eyes red, looking at Dracula as if he were on the verge of tears.

Dracula flicked the snot off his shoe, then used several cleaning spells to make the shoe clean again. Seeing Ron's embarrassed state, he finally allowed himself a satisfied smirk.

"Professor, please help Ron!" Harry urged desperately.

He and Hermione, frantic as if they were embers escaping a fire, circled around Ron, unable to do anything to ease his suffering.

"Professor!" Hermione shouted, "Look at Ron's face—it's turning red! If you don't lift the spell soon, he might suffocate on the snot!"

Dracula glanced at Ron, noting his flushed face, realizing that another snot might soon come from his stomach.

If another plump snot appeared while Ron's mouth was still closed, it would block his throat and esophagus, and it was not impossible for Ron to choke.

"Ah, what a shame." Dracula, slightly disappointed, shrugged.

He snapped his fingers, and a universal counter-spell silently covered Ron, instantly removing both the snot charm and the Silencing Charm.

"Cough, cough..."

After the spell was lifted, Ron immediately opened his mouth and began retching, coughing uncontrollably.

"Ah—so disgusting, I felt like two snot were wriggling in my mouth and throat!" he said indignantly, "Why can't I vomit them out now? Did I accidentally digest them?!"

Ron stared wide-eyed at Harry and Hermione in shock.

"Think about it. The snot you vomited were magical substances; they naturally dissipated after the magic was lifted," Dracula said casually.

Hearing Dracula's voice, Ron turned his astonished gaze toward him.

"Professor, how could you make me keep my mouth shut at such a critical moment? That's so unkind!" he exclaimed, his face flushed as he complained.

"Oh? Is it unkind of me?" Dracula's lips curled into a sinister smile.

Ron shivered.

"Ah... Professor, you misunderstood. That's not what I meant..." Ron's angry and aggrieved feelings quickly subsided, and he forced a conciliatory smile, "I meant... your method was very kind! I know you were using it to train my perseverance!"

"I understand now. In the future, when facing dark wizards or dark creatures, every time I think of today's experience, I'll never fall into deeper despair, and I'll always have greater courage to face danger!"

As he spoke, Ron gradually raised his head and puffed out his chest, his demeanor becoming more resolute. It might not convince Dracula, but at least it convinced himself...

"Well, if you need it, next time I can let you swallow a few more snot," Dracula said with interest, looking at the proud Ron. "If that's not enough, I could even modify the snot charm to something more challenging."

"Instead of snot, how about cockroaches? If you think that's still not enough, spiders aren't out of the question either."

Ron, who had been pretending to be calm, suddenly shivered at the mention of "spiders," his face turning pale with fear.

"Professor Dracula, please stop scaring Ron. He's terrified of spiders," Hermione said, her lips pursed in a serious tone as she tried to calm the unfeeling Dracula.

But Ron didn't seem to appreciate the help.

"Who...who's afraid of spiders?" Ron said, feeling embarrassed as he retorted, "How could a grown man like me be afraid of spiders?!"

"Then tell me, who jumped three feet into the air when the giant spider appeared at the entrance to the Great Hall last Halloween?" Hermione countered, "Everyone saw it—you were clinging to Harry's neck until he carried you into the hall!"

"You, you, you..." Ron pointed at Hermione, stammering for a while without being able to provide a proper defense.

"Ron, why don't you just admit it? You're indeed afraid of spiders," Harry said, looking at the fuming Hermione and the aggrieved Ron, and decided to mediate with a conciliatory tone.

Upon hearing his friend's conclusion, Ron's shoulders slumped, and he deflated.

Dracula watched the debate among the three with interest, patiently waiting for them to finish before addressing an issue.

"If you're done discussing, how about introducing the situation to me?" he asked. "The snot charm seemed quite effective. Who placed such a harsh curse on the Weasley family? Was it one of your Slytherin rivals?"

"No, Professor. It was Ron himself who cast the spell," Harry said with a chuckle.

Ron's face stiffened, and he silently lowered his head, his shoulders sagging further.

"Ron himself?" Dracula looked at Ron in surprise. "You can be that harsh on yourself? I didn't expect you to be so tough, Weasley."

"No, no, actually, it was Ron's wand that malfunctioned, Professor," Hermione added cheerfully. She was quite pleased to see Ron getting into trouble. "Ron originally intended to use the snot charm on that annoying Draco Malfoy, but his spell came out of the end of his wand!"

"Really?" Dracula's interest was piqued. He turned to Ron, who was still slumped. "Weasley, can I see your wand?"

Dracula had already noticed Ron's wand was problematic during the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts class. However, he had always been indifferent to wands, so he hadn't paid much attention to it.

But today he unexpectedly learned that Ron's wand could cast spells in reverse, directly causing the Slug-Vomiting Charm to hit Ron himself!

Dracula immediately thought that such a unique wand had considerable potential.

For example, when encountering a dark wizard, a poor little wizard could first pull out a wand that only cast spells in reverse, trick the opponent into using a disarming spell to take away their wand, and then lead the opponent to use the newly acquired wand for attacks...

Then, the dark wizard would receive a surprise—being hit by their own spell without any defense!

Thinking of this, Dracula instinctively curled his lips into a wicked smile.

Ron shivered a bit upon seeing Dracula's smile.

"Of course, Professor, I've had enough of this wand!" he hurriedly took the wand out of his pocket and handed it to Dracula. "This wand originally belonged to Charlie. Later, Charlie bought a new wand, and Mom gave me this old one."

"Mom thought it would save seven Galleons on the wand cost. She certainly didn't expect that I'd break it after only a year..."

Harry sympathetically patted Ron on the shoulder.

Dracula didn't care about Ron's backstory with the wand. He was only interested in the wand's ability to cast spells in reverse.

As soon as he took the wand from Ron, Dracula felt it begin to tremble slightly in his hand.

This sensation was similar to when he had first tested the unicorn tail-hair wand at Ollivanders, except this wand's struggle was much weaker, possibly because it was damaged.

"Unicorn tail-hair core?" Dracula asked casually.

"Yes, that's right. I heard from Charlie that the core is unicorn tail-hair, the material is holly wood, and the length is 12 inches," Ron's eyes brightened as he introduced it in detail. "Professor, do you know about wands? Can you help me fix it?"

A glimmer of hope rose in his heart—

If Professor Dracula could fix his wand, he wouldn't have to tell Mrs. Weasley about the damage and might avoid a good scolding.

"I don't know much. I'm not interested in wands."

Dracula's indifferent response extinguished the hope Ron had just felt. Ron slumped his shoulders again.

Dracula looked at the wand in his hand that was still struggling and trembling. He thought for a moment and then suppressed the dark power inside him, channeling only the purest magic into his right hand.

His right hand began to emit a soft glow, the pale skin becoming as smooth and lustrous as white jade.

The wand's trembling gradually ceased and it calmed down, no longer resisting Dracula's touch, resting quietly in his hand.

Dracula's face showed a satisfied smile as he gently lifted his hand.

"Lumos."

A beam of white light appeared at the wand's tip, quite normal, except for occasional small sparks coming from the wand's body, reminding everyone present that this was a defective wand.

"Is the magic power not strong enough?"

Dracula furrowed his brow slightly and then recited the enhanced version of the wand-lighting spell—

"Lumos Solemn!"

The wand's body sparkled with unprecedented large sparks, and then a dazzling beam of light suddenly shot out from the wand's end, illuminating the area in front of Hagrid's hut, almost blinding the three young wizards.

"Ah ah ah—Who am I, where am I?" Ron's voice came from the bright light.

"I can't see anything!" Harry panicked, "Professor, what did you do?!"

"Harry, Ron, quiet down!" Hermione shouted, "We should be grateful that Professor Dracula is using a lighting spell for the experiment and not some offensive curse!"

"What's happening outside?" Hagrid's rough voice came slowly from inside the hut, asking in shock, "Harry, is that you? I think I just heard your voice!"

In the midst of the blinding light, Dracula's crimson eyes shone with interest as he looked at the wand in his hand.

He could feel that when his pure magic passed through Ron's wand and reached the middle of the wand, it encountered a significant obstruction.

If a basic wand-lighting spell, which consumes little magic, was used, some of Dracula's magic would be diminished by the wand and manifest as sparks on the wand's surface, while the remaining magic would overcome the obstruction and achieve its original purpose, casting the spell.

However, using the highest-level version of the wand-lighting spell, which requires a large amount of magic, meant that the excess magic accumulated and had difficulty passing through the wand's central obstruction. Consequently, the magic would get stuck at the obstruction, continuously accumulating and eventually causing an explosion!

This situation was somewhat similar to the bursting of a Muggle firearm, both powerful and unexpected.

But the difference was that after a Muggle gun barrel burst, the firearm was completely destroyed and unusable; whereas Ron's wand, after its "barrel burst," expelled the original magic from the wand's end, allowing for repeated use.

This was also why Ron could perform the powerful Slug-Vomiting Charm.

Understanding the principle of the wand's end emitting spells, Dracula happily curled his lips and, amidst the panicked voices of the three young wizards and Hagrid, lightly snapped his fingers.

"Nox."

This was the wand-extinguishing spell, the counter-charm to the lighting spell.

The bright light abruptly vanished, and the area in front of Hagrid's hut returned to its usual vibrant appearance.

"Thank you for the wand, Ron. It gave me some inspiration," Dracula said, returning the wand to Ron with a smile, "Well... how about this: Since you two have had double assignments for the past two weeks, I can cancel them for you."

Dracula was in a great mood, smiling as he nodded to Hagrid, then picked up a cage covered with a black cloth from the doorway of Hagrid's hut and left.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, both showing incredulous and extremely delighted smiles.

The next moment, they both jumped up in unison—

"Yay!"

Seeing their reaction, Hermione curled her lip in dissatisfaction and turned her gaze to Hagrid.

"Hagrid, what was in the cage that Professor Dracula took from the doorway?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, that," Hagrid yawned, rubbing his eyes which had been dazzled by the bright light, and said casually, "Professor Dracula called me up early this morning, and we went into the Forbidden Forest to catch some interesting creatures."

"I don't know what he did with that cage, but he at least caught a dozen different magical creatures, like Hippogriffs and Grindylows... I guess Professor Dracula might be planning to bring those creatures to class."

"Oh, and by the way, Professor Dracula mentioned that he wouldn't be assigning homework for the first half of the month."

Harry and Ron's excited cheers suddenly quieted down.