#273 - Self-study

“I, I just wanted to…” Joey’s face turned pale under Anduin’s gaze, and he stammered, unable to finish his sentence.

“This is favoritism, this is indulgence! If you continue like this, who will respect you?”

Anduin approached Joey, pointing to the students of the same year beside him. “If someone violates the rules, but doesn’t need to be punished for various reasons, or has their punishment delayed…”

“Then, for those classmates around you who strictly abide by the rules, this is the greatest injustice! If I grant your request, how can I face these disciplined companions beside you?”

Hearing these words, Joey couldn’t help but awkwardly glance around at the others. When he saw everyone silently lowering their heads, his face flushed with shame. But Anduin wasn’t finished speaking.

“Take Mona, from your year, for example. From the moment she left her dormitory this morning, she has been strict with herself, dressing neatly, behaving with proper dining etiquette, arriving at least 10 minutes early for class, and always greeting faculty and staff. Whenever she is with fellow students, she strictly adheres to the standard ‘two abreast, three in a row’ formation.”

Anduin spoke as he moved closer to Joey, finally whispering in his ear, “In my opinion, she wants to be a true Slytherin more than you do.”

Although Anduin didn’t shout this out loud, in the quiet environment, it still had a deafening effect.

This filled the rule-abiding young wizards present with strength and honor. The prefect had been quietly watching them all along. These self-disciplined wizards couldn’t help but proudly puff out their chests.

Mona, who had been praised by Anduin, was even more excited and shy, her face flushed red. She had simply listened and followed instructions, but she hadn't expected the prefect to give her such high praise.

In stark contrast to her, Joey’s face was almost buried in his chest, and he could only squeeze out, “I’m sorry, Prefect, I was wrong.”

Lumen, who was next to him, also mustered his courage and said, “It’s my fault, it has nothing to do with Joey. I’m willing to accept the punishment, I deserve it.”

“Having this awareness proves you can still be saved, and your physical condition does make it difficult to continue the punishment.” Anduin nodded to Lumen.

Hearing Anduin’s words, Lumen’s heart was filled with hope again. He thought the other party was preparing to make an exception and looked at him with excitement, until he saw Anduin take out a bottle of potion from his pocket.

“This is a painkiller. Your arm is much stronger than you think. The feeling of being unable to hold on is due to muscle pain. Drink a little painkiller, and without the pain, there will naturally be no problem.”

Anduin expressionlessly used a dropper to feed the other party a few drops of painkiller, then turned and returned to the stone steps, leaving Lumen in a mess in the wind.

This scene made the surrounding people swallow hard. This was too brutal! He would rather feed him painkillers than let him not finish all the punishments.

Subsequently, the little snakes of Slytherin once again witnessed Anduin’s extremely strict push-up punishment, until everyone was done.

Lumen, who had taken the painkiller, barely managed to complete the punishment, which showed that the potion was still very effective.

At this time, a large area of the stone steps was almost soaked with the sweat of the punished.

“Continue, next item.” Anduin expressionlessly flipped through the record board in his hand. “Those who did not follow the standard formation include…”

Anduin once again expressionlessly read out a list of those who violated the rules, but this time Lumen breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t on the list this time. He was really scared, even though he had taken the painkiller, he now felt that both his arms were not his own, and he had no strength at all.

The little wizards below also saw what it meant to be strict to the extreme. They just watched Anduin read a list, call them up to do push-ups, and then continue to the next item, the next wave.

And each item of punishment was like a review of the disciplinary regulations, making everyone remember the rules more deeply.

Finally, the announcement and punishment of violations came to an end. More than a third of the little wizards below had made mistakes on the first day and paid the price for it.

“Among all the grades today, only the seventh-year students had no violations. Students in all other grades have made mistakes. Please pay attention to the corresponding grade leaders.”

“And each of your violations will not only incur punishment, but will also deduct the corresponding grade points. The grade points are reset every month, and the first and last place each month will have ‘surprises’ waiting for you.”

“Your performance today was really bad. I hope you won’t let me see this kind of situation again. In the future, the usual practice is to announce the scores and violators at the weekly meeting. This time, considering that you are first-time offenders, only 30 push-ups have been arranged as punishment. In the future, the punishment will be increased to 50 times. I hope you will behave yourselves.”

“And today’s disciplinary report time was too long, wasting study time, so today’s study time will be postponed by two hours, and the study group activities will be canceled and postponed by one day.” Anduin issued the follow-up arrangements in a few words.

Then he announced the start of self-study. Because Anduin punished too many people, it took more than an hour, so it could only be postponed.

During this self-study period, the subject representatives of each subject became active and found those students with poor grades in the corresponding subjects to tutor them according to the report cards assigned to them by Anduin.

Anduin himself was the subject representative for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes, and he quickly took on the role.

And Anduin as a subject representative was different from Anduin as the prefect of the academy.

Compared to Anduin standing on the stone platform and giving orders, he showed majesty, solemnity, coldness, and ruthlessness.

When tutoring those students, one could feel calmness, gentleness, and patience. Even the little wizards who had just been punished by him would be treated equally during self-study time.

Especially when a little wizard plucked up the courage to ask a question and received his calm, detailed, and methodical answer, their understanding of Anduin deepened.

“When casting the Knockback Jinx, in addition to the gestures and spells, the most important thing is to have a firm determination in your heart to drive away and repel the target. Otherwise, the spell you cast will be as weak as it was during your exam last year. This is actually the core technique of most attack or defense spells.” Anduin explained to a little wizard who came to ask for advice.