Grindelwald, of course, understood the hidden meaning in Ellinor's answer.

The healing rune "?", the second rune in the ancient runic magic alphabet.

He was the one who taught it to Ellinor in Nurmengard Castle, but aside from what he taught, this half-Veela had developed another use: strengthening her own power.

If the Avada Kedavra curse was the ultimate killing curse on the soul level, then the runic magic symbol "?" completed by Ellinor was definitely at the very top of the magic in the physical realm.

However, from Grindelwald's current perspective, neither of these could be considered the most powerful magic.

"I'm sorry... close, but not quite right."

Grindelwald shrugged, looking at Ellinor with a meaningful expression.

"You'll gradually understand that power has many forms of expression. Destruction is just the easiest one to remember, but definitely not the most powerful. That's what Voldemort still doesn't understand—"

"So, you're not going to say that the most powerful magic is love, are you?"

Ellinor curled her lip, subconsciously turned her head, and gave Dumbledore, who was sitting at the back of the classroom, a strange look.

If she remembered correctly, Dumbledore in the original story was quite enthusiastic about instilling similar ideas, wanting to turn this batch of young wizards into "warriors of love" to fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

And on this point, Grindelwald, who later died at the hands of Voldemort, happened to mock the same words.

"Love? Of course not... what are you thinking about all day long?!"

Grindelwald's mouth twitched, and he shook his head speechlessly, revealing the answer directly.

"Self-defense, or more commonly, survival—that's the most essential and most powerful source of magic for a wizard."

After a few seconds of pause, the old wizard glanced around at the mostly clueless first-year students, sighed helplessly, and spread his hands to further explain.

"Everyone here can recall... I believe it shouldn't be too difficult for you, after all, you are far from starting to become forgetful. Think carefully, under what circumstances did each of you first exhibit the power of magic?"

In this world, a wizard's emotions largely determine the form in which magic is expressed.

The teaching goal of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not to teach students how to increase their power, but to teach them how to reasonably restrain and guide the magic power within them to accurately achieve the effect they want.

Therefore, before entering the school, almost all young wizards had already demonstrated some magical abilities.

Most of them appeared in emotionally charged situations, anger, sadness, joy, frustration... these emotions can trigger magic surges, but usually, the emotion most prone to causing magic to go out of control in young wizards is only one—the oldest and most powerful emotion in humans, fear.

Ellinor glanced at Grindelwald thoughtfully, she had almost guessed the theme of this old wizard's class.

However, in her original assumption, the first Dark Lord seemed to be more aggressive. It seems that the years spent in Nurmengard Castle had left some changes in this old man.

"I think, you should all have remembered the scene of releasing magic unintentionally for the first time, right?"

Grindelwald looked at the students in the classroom with a gentle expression, smiling as he said.

"That's right! Protecting oneself is the instinct of all living beings. In the following time, I will not teach you any powerful spells, but rather let you learn to effectively use your magic power to protect yourselves."

This statement seems a bit familiar...

Ellinor frowned, a vague sense of unease flashing in her heart.

Although so far, Grindelwald's teaching content has not had too many challenges, especially after completing that series of teaching projections of light and sound illusions, he actually circled back to the "Defense" stage again.

Apart from the teaching content not being closely related to the textbook, even Albus Dumbledore could not find fault in this series of logic—after all, Grindelwald himself was a top wizard proficient in defensive arts, and his "Protego" was enough to resist the siege of dozens of Aurors.

"But, Professor Apocalis, we can't master the Shield Charm yet, can we?"

Ellinor raised her hand, looking at Grindelwald with confusion, "That's a third-year spell, wouldn't it be too early to start learning it now..."

"Oh, Miss Kaslana, I'm glad you can preview the knowledge of the higher grades in advance."

Grindelwald grinned and answered quickly without hesitation.

"But I don't remember saying before that I would expect you to master high-level magic abilities in advance. In fact, the Shield Charm is just the most mature and easy-to-use of many defensive arts, but definitely not the fastest."

"Before learning to counterattack flexibly, I think we should start practicing from some more basic places."

Grindelwald tapped the blackboard, and two simple spells appeared on the blackboard in front of the classroom.

"Impact and protection, these are the two most basic ways to use magic. You don't need any complicated spells, you just need to find a way to make your magic flow, either forward to stimulate, or block in front of you."

"Next, we will play a game to help you understand and familiarize yourself with these two forms."

Grindelwald drew out his wand, his eyes flashing with bright colors, and casually tapped in the air.

As the wand passed, each young wizard had a bright magical spot on their body, but half of the people had blue light and shadow, and the other half had red light and shadow.

At the same time, a faint square light curtain appeared in the center of the classroom.

"Depending on the color, some people will enter the light curtain, and others will release spells outside—don't worry, no matter what spells you release, they will automatically turn into the most basic magic impact when they pass through the light curtain."

"The magic spot on the person who is hit will automatically go out. After one side is completely wiped out, the other side enters the light curtain."

"A friendly reminder, the impact of the spell will be slightly strengthened when passing through the light curtain... try not to get hit. Of course, it doesn't matter if you get hit, your body will remember this feeling, and it won't hurt so much next time."

"Finally, the winner will be determined according to the length of time each side persists. The losing side needs to submit a paper on protective magic before the next class, with a length of no less than two feet."

Sure enough! Waiting here!

The first step to learning magical combat is to learn to take a beating? What a familiar demon king style...

But... there's really no novelty, isn't it just a magical version of dodgeball.

Ellinor lowered her head and glanced at the bright red spot on her body, curling her lips speechlessly.

According to this grouping, whichever side she is on represents which side...

"By the way, Professor Albus Dumbledore, as a special student, you also need to participate in this teaching process—as for the grouping, let me see, the blue side is fine."

Ellinor: ???

Dumbledore: ???