Chapter 630

When Harry walked out, he was still dizzy, as if his consciousness was still stuck in Professor Bagshot’s office. They sat on the soft couch and talked about their understanding of magic, amidst the reflection from the crimson, swaying fire in the fireplace.

Professor Bagshot’s theoretical knowledge is very vast. His theories were very comprehensive, without being overly verbose, and his personal knowledge was always clearly presented with some subtle demonstration. By contrast, Harry felt like he was speaking incoherently and his mind was muddled.

This thought frustrated him since he had also taught a number of students spells in the Frontline Lookout Club.

Harry couldn’t help but compare the professors he had come into contact with in Defence Against Dark Arts Class.

In his first and second year, he had come across Quirrell and Lockhart, but he hadn’t been able to learn much useful knowledge from either of them.

At the time Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort and probably spent all his time plotting how to grab the Philosopher’s Stone and was in no mood to teach the class. Because it was rumoured that his theoretical knowledge was quite solid, and there is a certain degree of credibility in that claim, as Harry experienced the curse that Quirrell had cast on his flying broom; of course, it is also possible that Quirrell’s mind was being impaired, as evidenced by the fact that he was always talking out of turn and acting nervously in class.

Harry was paranoid for a while when he first learned that he is a Horcrux, suspecting that he would grow the same face as Quirrell on the back of his head.

And the other one – Lockhart – is good at nothing but Memory Charm and is currently locked up and suffering in Azkaban. But Harry had to admit that if he had to compare the level of energy in the classroom, Lockhart was definitely superior, because instead of stammering, he read the text aloud and presented it vividly with full of emotion, which alone made him much better than Quirrell, who couldn’t even speak properly.

Harry impartially thought that watching Lockhart jump up and down was quite a stress reliever when he didn’t make him act as a substitute for some of the more abnormal characters.

Harry’s real formal education in the Defence Against the Dark Arts probably began when Professor Damocles Belby was appointed ( not counting the Dueling Club).

Professor Belby is a master of potions and has developed the famous Wolfsbane potion. To a certain extent, his preference is quite opposite to Snape’s. Although Professor Belby had personally said that he was there just to fill in the void, Harry still found his series of defence lessons based around the Forbidden Forest very useful.

In the third year, the students welcomed Professor Lupin. It is not certain if there was extra personal emotion mixed in, but Harry thought he is the best professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts he had ever met, Remus was mild-mannered and friendly towards all his students, and because of his hidden identity as a werewolf, Lupin had been exposed to and tackled many difficult dark creatures and dark magic. “I am a part of them.” Lupin said bitterly at one point, a notion that Harry strongly disagreed with. On the grounds that many of the students still missed him dearly – it was the fourth year at the time, and they were tormented by Moody’s teaching methods – and that “there’s no doubt that Professor Hap saved a fortune on advertisement by asking you to come over here!”

Harry’s impression of Professor Moody is quite complicated, as he knew that part of his admiration and yearning to become a great famous Auror was in fact due to the teaching of the Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. who was disguised at that time. Still, he decided not to take the bull by the horns, as at least he had learned a lot about how to deal with dark wizards from him, and it was absolutely credible.

The professor for the last year’s class was Sirius (in recent contact, Sirius had said he had seen Rita Skeeter on Muggle TV broadcasting the news about mad cow disease). Harry guessed that Sirius might also have had a special mission when he was a professor – such as training students to deal with sudden crises and actual combat under the threat of the shadow of war. The students in Harry’s year generally felt more at ease in their O.W.Ls practical exams.

Professor Bagshot, on the other hand – Harry had a sinking feeling in his heart, probably because he had once been an Acolyte – held no small amount of animosity, or rather, ‘differential treatment’, towards Muggles. Harry thought about the speech he had seen today, and it was clear that Grindelwald considered wizards and muggles to be two different species, and both of them had a competitive relationship.

But isn’t there a Statue of Secrecy?

A voice in Harry’s head asked himself, ‘What if the Statue of Secrecy ceases to function?’ He couldn’t think of a solution at all, and it made his heart heavy. A sudden cold breeze hit his face with snowflakes, and Harry raised his eyes to find the windows in the corridor left open.

He walked over to the window, some tiny ice crystals glistened on the window frame, and his fingers felt cold and prickly, he understood that winter had arrived – “What are you doing?” Filch abruptly appeared, holding a glowing, exclusive wand in his hand.

“Closing the window.” Harry said.

“The lights are about to be extinguished, and you’re still hanging around the castle, I suspect you …” Filch spoke in a cold, threatening tone, as Mrs. Norris hid under the shadow of her master, rubbing comfortably against Filch’s trouser leg.

“So it’s not curfew time yet?” Harry blurted out, “Thanks for the reminder!” He strode away, the sound of Filch’s ragged breath came from behind him, and then he heard Filch chant an incantation in a low voice and the window slammed shut.

Some relationships are difficult to improve. Harry thought to himself as he climbed the stairs. Then he thought of Draco Malfoy, they were not destined to be friends, there were too many grudges in between them unless there was something irresistible that would force them together – like group work in the classroom.

The thought that in two more years, after graduation, the two would probably not see each other for the rest of their lives caused Harry to feel a twinge of melancholy. In his mind, Hogwarts was the first place he felt at home.

The next day, at the great hall table.

“So, Professor Bagshot didn’t penalize you at all, and discussed magic with you?” Ron’s tone was laced with a bit of jealousy.

“Yeah.” Harry said as he took the time to tell Ron and Hermione about their experience last night (but omitted the acolyte part) while he was sipping his porridge.

“Well, he’s not that ungrateful.” Ron said as he smacked his lips, feeling much more favourably towards Professor Bagshot, even Hermione was slightly surprised, “But why did he want you to have a detention?”

“There are indeed quite a few problems in my essay.” Harry said with a shrug.

He couldn’t think of any reason he could give for Professor Bagshot, and he certainly didn’t want to reveal that the Professor had once been an Acolyte; that was all in the past, wasn’t it? Announcing it would only put Professor Bagshot in an awkward position, and he associated it with Remus’ werewolf status, after Remus had confessed to them, it didn’t take that long for him to hand in his resignation.

“By the way, Hermione,” Harry asked, pretending to be casual, “how much do you know about Grindelwald?”

Even though he had tried his best to downplay it, Hermione sucked in a deep breath, “Why do you suddenly want to ask about this?” “Er, because … when I was eating chocolate frogs in Professor Bagshot’s office yesterday-” “And he also treated you to a snack? ” Ron asked, as he interrupted. “-Yeah, and I drew a Dumbledore card, you know, we know a lot about Nicolas Flamel, but we don’t know much about Grindelwald’s past.”

Hermione frowned lightly and seemed to be thinking hard.

“Harry, there’s very little data available on Grindelwald’s past in terms of books, oh, it’s not that he hasn’t been mentioned, I mean, there’s very little about the man as a person, his childhood, his upbringing, all those … parts about him, as if he became a well-known figure all of a sudden, inciting riots and disrupting the local order, as well as causing all sorts of sensational and violent incidents, all of which are documented in books such as Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century …”

Hermione rambled on but stopped when she saw the look on Harry’s face.

“What’s wrong?” She asked worriedly.

“Is there any record of his speech?” Harry asked in a light tone, trying to keep the point of his words from being too obvious, as if it was just a spur-of-the-moment curiosity, “I think that he would be quite a charismatic man, after all, he could pull together an army of wizards of that scale …”

Hermione shook her head as she whispered, “I don’t know.”

“So all we know is that he was a powerful dark wizard, instigator, and – he used the Deathly Hallows symbol as his logo.” Ron concluded, “Sounds like a tough opponent, luckily he was defeated by Dumbledore.”

With that, he went back to deal with the omelette and sausages on his plate, clearly not taking this matter to heart. Harry didn’t want to draw attention to himself, so for the next two days, he simply took the opportunity to check the reference books as he stood by the library shelves, looking for the few books Hermione had mentioned and skimming through them quickly.

From the point of view of those books, Grindelwald was a very bad man, a great enemy who had damaged the cornerstone of stability in the wizarding world.

On Thursday evening, Harry inadvertently spotted Luna walking across the field, dressed in a new outfit, and he suddenly realized that it was almost the weekend, and he hadn’t given Luna an answer. Ron and Hermione took opposite attitudes on this matter.

“Why do we have to go to the smelly sewers?” Ron’s face scrunched up as he said, “Not to mention going into the girl’s lavatory – I never want to deal with Myrtle again.”

“You don’t have to go.” Hermione said.

“Let Ginny go alone? Mum would kill me if she knew.” Ron shouted.

Yes, that’s right, the content of their discussion had changed. The question of whether or not to teach Luna the Parseltongue had changed to whether or not to take the time to accompany them on a search in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry didn’t want to go from the bottom of his heart because this adventure is doomed to lead anywhere, with the real Resurrection Stone being worn in Dumbledore’s hand!

“… You have no idea how much training you’ve been putting us through lately, Peakes and Coote are privately calling you a tyrant,” Ron said to Harry, whose jaw dropped, “Yeah,” Ron said with an understanding nod, “Thankfully Katie Bell enlightened them on how Wood tortured the players when he was still around, and you are a lot better compared to him.”

“Maybe I should add some more training, so they don’t have time to talk rubbish.” Harry said through clenched teeth.

Ron shrank his neck.

“Let’s find a night and go and get back quickly.” Harry said with some finality and Hermione raised her eyebrows, “If I understand you correctly, you want a night out-” “Yeah,” Harry said with a ‘you have finally know’ look, “it’s not the first time anyway, and it’s not that dangerous. I can’t afford to delay two days of Quidditch practice on the weekend.” He said emphatically.

“I think it’s fine,” Ron said, “I don’t want to sneak into the girls’ lavatory during the day either. I’m a prefect now. It’d be hilarious if something went wrong.”

Harry also thought about the possibility of being discovered by Mafalda and her bee (as some people called the young wizard who worked part-time at the Wall of Mystery tabloid) and his mind instantly drew up a sensational headline, ‘The Odd Fetish of a Gryffindor Prefect and Quidditch Team Captain’, and a chill ran through his body as his mind became even firmer.

“It’s tomorrow night!”

Harry broke the news to Ginny later in the evening, and the next day at breakfast Luna came running over to thank him joyfully, nearly spilling the beans and scaring Harry into using the Langlock jinx. Luna stammered and was dragged away by Ginny with her mouth clenched.

After breakfast, they went to their Ancient Rune class, which has now entered a new phase.

“The progress is slightly faster than I expected,” Felix said, “It might have something to do with a few mass detentions …” The students below stared blankly at their professor. “… We’re going to learn something new today.”

He suddenly stopped talking and his eyes roamed around the classroom, “Who didn’t come to class?”

The students began to look around and Pansy Parkinson raised her hand.

“Professor, Daphne has taken a leave of absence and is now in the hospital wing.”

“And the reason?”

“It’s said that she mistook scurvy powder for parsley powder and added it to her food by mistake, which has caused symptoms like mild meningitis.” Pansy said as she sat with Blaise Zabini, and the two were sitting very close to each other.

“That is, a headache and a slight disturbance in consciousness …” Felix said, and Pansy froze a little, why did he describe the symptoms all over again?

“That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes.”

But it’s not just the misuse of scurvy grass that could be the cause of this symptom. It could also be a Confundus Charm and an Obliviate spell, Felix thought to himself.

What a coincidence.

Generally speaking, the after-effects of a Confundus Charm are very mild and don’t even cause much of a reaction if they only interfere with the person’s consciousness for a second or two, but if they were placed under the spell’s control for a more extended period of time – Barty Crouch Sr., for example, had been under the influence of the Confundus and Memory Charm for too long that he ended up delirious and had to be professionally treated.

A figure surfaced in Felix’s mind, the acolyte who had arrived after learning about Grindelwald’s escape, Nicole Noel. Felix had previously suspected that she might be the true owner of Bondy the house elf and therefore had not questioned her ability to contact Grindelwald, but now it seemed that she should have used Daphne Greengrass to deliver the message.

Whether that was the case or not, he could it find out by visiting the hospital wing after class.

It also reminded Felix that the Acolytes were not harmless little bunnies, they were once a well-organized and well-divided group and were far from being measured by the dimension of ‘force’. The same thought appeared in Harry’s mind, and he knew even more than Felix – he had witnessed Daphne meeting with a strange woman and receiving a gift box that had ended up in Professor Bagshot’s office.

It was just that Harry had thought at the time that the old woman in the trench coat might have been one of Daphne’s elders. He looked at Professor Hap, he ought to know something, right? But the professor had already started his lecture.

“… I’m glad to see that most of you have mastered the art of allowing a practical magic rune to manifest without a wand, and have gained some flexibility in casting spells as a result, but that’s not the point,” Felix said, “Individual ancient runes are not very impressive both in terms of power, and adaptability, and there are better spells to replace them.”

“Next you will be introduced to an important practical element of ancient runes, a kind of technique derived from the rune circuit. Is anyone willing to cooperate with a demonstration? There are extra points-”

Several arms went up.

“Anthony Goldstein.” Felix called out the name of a Ravenclaw boy.

Goldstein stepped forward with some nervousness.

With a wave of Felix’s hand, a dozen rune symbols appeared out of thin air, and they were closely connected with each other. “Try to catch it.” Felix said encouragingly, and Goldstein held out his hand – the students at the foot of the podium held their breath as they watched closely – and his fingertips touched the tightly bound chain of rune circuit.

The chain of rune circuit seemed to be drawn by Goldstein, and voluntarily blended into his skin, burrowing down his fingers. Goldstein was startled, rolled his sleeve up, and was surprised to find the chain of rune circuit branded into the skin of his wrist as if it was some kind of mark.

Goldstein blinked.

“Professor? This is …”

He was a little worried that it wouldn’t go off his wrist, but in the next second he found his body becoming lighter, and with just a tiptoe, his whole body flew in the direction of Professor Hap, who dodged out of the way, and he bolted straight for the window.

“Don’t use too much force.” Felix warned him.

“What?” Goldstein asked as he scrambled to hold his hand on the wall, only to have his whole body bounce in the opposite direction as if he weighed nothing and then he was caught by a hand when he brushed up against Professor Hap.

Goldstein’s feet landed back on the ground.

“Try again.” He heard the professor say to him.

Goldstein took a breath with excitement, “I seem to have gotten the hang of it.” His current state is a bit like being under a Levitation Charm, but he did not completely lose control of his movements.

He stood still for a moment and jumped gently. The next second, he found himself jumping throughout the middle of the room, and his head brushed against the ceiling. He couldn’t help but laugh out loud as the students below him looked very small, and each of them stared at him with bemused eyes.

He landed lightly like a feather from the air and had time to greet his good friends one by one.

Felix grabbed his wrist to keep him on his feet, and when he took his hand away, Goldstein noticed that the magic runes on his wrist were gone and his whole body seemed so heavy that he almost sat on the ground.

“You can go back now, Mr. Goldstein. Ravenclaw plus ten points.”

“A rune circuit that reduces the weight of an object.” Felix said with satisfaction, “It’s normally used on rune artefacts, but why can’t it be used on