Chapter 636 After Halloween

The office door opened.

"Hello," Felix stared at Harry, Ron and Hermione expressionlessly. Harry and Ron took a step back in fear. "You're not sleeping so late...you wandered to the professor's office door at night...what do you want to see me for?" Behind them, Ginny rolled her eyes, her gaze kept jumping between them; Luna looked dazed.

Hearing the word "wandering at night", all the questions were stuck in her throat.

Hermione hid her fierce eyes, held Valen up, and whispered: "Oh, professor, we're here to return Valen to you...do you know where we found her? She ran so far away."

Felix blinked and muttered: "I'm surprised too, it's just a glass of water, and the little guy disappeared...thank you."

He stretched out his hand to take Valen, but Hermione pulled her hand back, leaving him empty. She held Valen, the big and the small stared at him at the same time, as if they were shocked that he could shirk his responsibility so completely. Valen fluttered in Hermione's arms excitedly, chirping and scolding him, looking heartbroken.

"What is Valen talking about?" Hermione asked knowingly.

"Thank you for sending her back." Felix glanced at the angry Sniff and said calmly.

Hermione puffed up her cheeks. The only one who could be so irritating was the professor himself. She put aside most of her worries, handed Valen to Felix, thought for a while and said, "Well... Professor? I have accumulated some questions about ancient magic runes recently. Can I come and ask you for help tomorrow?"

"... Don't come too early, I want to sleep in." Felix said dryly, so Hermione pretended to be obedient and retreated to the back without saying anything. He turned his attention to other people.

Harry and Ron shook their heads quickly. They were forcibly dragged here by Hermione. Although they also had questions, it was obviously not a good time to ask them. The sky was already covered with a gray-green glow. The sound of wind and wolf howling in the Forbidden Forest made them want to return to their warm and comfortable beds. They had to get up early tomorrow to train.

Ginny also waved her hand to show that she had no questions. Luna asked calmly: "Professor, does the Scimitar-Horned Snorkle really exist?"

Felix hesitated for a moment and said: "I can't give you an answer. Maybe it really exists in some corner of the world-" Luna's protruding eyes opened in surprise. "I thought so too! That's why I chose the Care of Magical Creatures course!"

"-Really, that's good. But you have to be mentally prepared. Not all searches have good results."

"Like the Resurrection Stone?" Luna asked.

"Yes," Felix said slowly, "but it's not quite the same. I promised to help you keep an eye on it. Remember?"

Luna smiled.

"Oh, yes! I remember." She said, "Maybe Firenze is right. When the time comes, it will appear by itself. Just like the things I lost." Ginny said with a straight face, "You didn't lose them at all. Someone deliberately hid them to tease you."

"You are right." Luna said slowly, "Good night, oh, good morning. I have to go back to sort out the letters between my father and me. My father sent two letters every week this year. I can't memorize them anymore. I can only pack them up first." She walked away in a daze.

Ron stared at her back.

"What letter?"

After sending them all away, Felix closed the door and turned around to see Valen jumping on the sofa, holding a feather pen in his hand and writing in the air. In the blink of an eye, he had written two lines, and there was no intention of stopping at all. It seemed that he was preparing a long speech.

Felix glanced at the word at the beginning, which was 'liar'. He walked over and grabbed Sniff with a smile, "Oh, what are you practicing calligraphy for? It's so late, go to bed, go to bed."

Valen looked at the accusation letter in despair. Getting farther and farther away from him. "Bang!" The bedroom door closed, and the magic lamp went out. Only a few lines of crooked words shone in the darkness, proving that the night was not peaceful.

The castle turned into a world of ice and snow. It snowed for two days in a row, and the grounds were covered with a thick layer of snow up to the knees.

Felix was wrapped in a quilt, lying lazily on the sofa. On the small table was a letter from Carlotta Pinkstone. In the letter, the 74-year-old activist warmly called him "my dear, unknown comrade-in-arms". Obviously, Carlotta thought that she could win Felix to her side. For this reason, she may have made up a lot of lessons in the past few days, and tried her best to mention his contributions to the magic world. Now she "eagerly hopes to meet him".

She also told Felix to be cautious, saying that she was "not very convenient at the moment" because the evil Ministry of Magic sent two people to monitor her, "one was clumsy and had an overly enthusiastic look; the other was cold and full of aristocratic hypocrisy and arrogance." Felix

thought for less than half a minute before picking up a quill and writing a short letter to Tonks, asking about her recent situation.

The owl brought a reply in less than half an hour.

Felix took out the map and searched for a while, and found the two names in the Three Broomsticks Pub in Hogsmeade Village. Surprisingly, he also saw Collins Foley, but he couldn't connect her with "aristocratic hypocrisy and arrogance". There

was a knock on the door.

Felix stared at the door with empty eyes. The door opened by itself, and Hermione jumped in happily. She came here the next day, on the pretext of asking for advice on how to use the Book of Runes. But Felix was waiting for her to ask about her experience of accidentally entering the Hogwarts campus in the forties that night.

"Please take a seat, Miss Granger."

Felix stood up, wrapped in a quilt, went to the bedroom to change clothes, and came back with two cups of hot cocoa. "Thank you," Hermione said, pointing to the letter on the table. "They were in Hogsmeade last weekend. Oh, sorry, I accidentally saw it when I was moving the table."

"Hogsmeade? Who are you talking about?"

"Tonks, Collins, and Carlotta Pinkstone," Hermione sipped her hot cocoa and squinted her eyes happily. "Ron ran into them in Hogsmeade village last weekend."

Felix nodded and didn't want to talk more.

"Professor," Hermione breathed softly, "if you don't plan to contact her, it's best to tell her directly."

"Now is not the time." Felix muttered.

He thought for a moment and said, "Write a reply letter for me, just say - well, I can't go against the Ministry of Magic, rules are important - yes, tell her that." Hermione quickly wrote a short message and handed it to him. Felix smiled, "Very good."

When the owl flew out of the window, Hermione said, "She will definitely not let it go."

Felix shrugged. "But that's for the future. Okay, Miss Granger, let's continue talking about the Book of Runes. Currently, there are only two people in the world who have it. The sample size is too small, so many conclusions can only be guessed first and then verified... Do you think it helps you a lot?"

Felix wanted to know the impact of the Book of Runes on "ordinary people", that is, those who are not masters of runes.

"I can't say for sure," Hermione thought seriously, "I have been busy filling in my understanding of runes for more than a month. The feedback you mentioned is very little, but I do feel that my control over ancient runes has become stronger... I just don't know if it's an illusion. Other students have also made great progress."

"How many ancient magics have you mastered?"

"Including the two taught in class, a total of five." Hermione stretched out a hand.

Felix fell into deep thought.

"You may not see the effect in the short term. When you look through the Rune Book in the future - I believe you will do this, if you suddenly have any strange ideas, don't suppress them, let your reason rest for a while, and let your inspiration take over. Maybe you will get unexpected gains."

"Yes, professor."

Near noon, Valen came out in a daze wrapped in a small blanket, which looked like a fur cloak. He walked over, called out weakly as a greeting, and then climbed onto the sofa. Hermione scratched Valen's chin.

"Harry and the others are training?" Felix asked. They were now talking about some topics that had nothing to do with Runes.

"Oh, yes." Hermione laughed, and couldn't stop laughing. "They are training very hard, Harry and Ron, and Ginny. Because the original Quidditch commentator Lee Jordan graduated this year, Luna is going to apply, no, she has been selected, she is the only candidate... Harry is scared."

Felix blinked and smiled. As we all know, Luna is a very special girl. No one knows what her hosting style is like. Since she is familiar with half of the Gryffindor players, Harry and his team are naturally the most affected.

"Professor? Ms. Bones recently gave me some information about the survival status of humanoids. I found that..."

...

The Halloween Eve party passed uneventfully. There was not much change from previous years, except that a student led a ten-foot-tall dragon into the hall, which scared a group of young wizards. Later, when people calmed down, they found that the student sneaked into the Transfiguration classroom and stole a batch of Transfiguration smoke purchased by Professor McGonagall.

The atmosphere was very warm at the time. Although the details of the fake dragon were a little rough, it still won a lot of applause in combination with the cheerful festive atmosphere. It was just because the effect was so good that even Professor McGonagall was alarmed. Since then, students have never seen that student at the dinner again.

"Fred and George have successors." Ron said with relief.

"I wonder which college students they are from," Hermione said in surprise, "I hope they're not Gryffindor."

"Not very likely," Harry said in a low voice, "when I came out I heard a group of students discussing the traditional activities of the 'Swear to Defend the School Rules' club in the common room, and someone mentioned a dragon..."

"What's that?"

"A dragon?"

"No, it's a 'traditional activity'." "

You mean that!" Ron interrupted excitedly, "No one knows whether it's true or not - but they say that Fred and George left an invisible rule before graduation, that every member must contribute to the perfection of the school rules, so -" "

In this way?" Hermione stared. "

Yeah, at least no one will parade around with a dragon next Halloween."

It snowed a few more times after Halloween, and now the snow outside the venue is several feet deep. Students would rather take a detour than pass through the vegetable garden, because the terrain there is uneven, and some short students can easily step on air and bury themselves.

The Halloween decorations had not completely disappeared. Occasionally, you could see a few escaped bats or pumpkin lanterns with small candles floating around in the corridors. The professors and students found it very interesting. No one paid any attention to them, and the candlelight in the pumpkin lanterns became more and more eerie.

"What bad luck, I'm in the same group with Malfoy again in this class." Ron said, staring at the candles that were emitting a pale green light. He couldn't wait to complain as soon as they came out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Harry looked at him with sympathy.

As the course content became more advanced, Professor Bagshot was no longer satisfied with small fights, but asked students to duel in pairs. However, the rules were a bit different: one party in the duel had to close their eyes to face the enemy. As for who would do this unpleasant job, it was decided by drawing lots. And Ron always drew the worst lot.

Few students could stay intact until the end of the class, and a large number of students spontaneously asked Harry and others for tips on the Human Shield Charm.

This spell could defend against conventional evil curses, and it did not need to be maintained deliberately, nor did it affect normal casting, so it was widely welcomed. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all very proficient in the Humanoid Armor Charm, and Neville, Seamus, Dean and other frontline lookout members could barely master it, so in theory, they were safe in class. But there are exceptions to everything, and Draco Malfoy was that exception.

After he spent a lot of time mastering the throwing spell, Ron had a hard time. Although the Humanoid Armor Charm can resist small firearms (according to Professor Bagshot, which is why he allows students to use this spell), it is obviously not resistant to falling and has no shock absorption effect. When Ron couldn't control himself and lifted the spell, he was greeted by a series of spells such as the Horns Curse, the Tickle Curse, and the Gibberish Curse. Of course, Draco Malfoy was not having a good time either, and Ron's counterattack was equally sharp.

But Draco didn't know when he mastered a fairly good healing spell, and he carried various potions with him, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of Ron's revenge, and he was indignant about it.

"If I let go..." During lunch, Ron described it while waving his arms vigorously, leaving a tacit pause, and the sausage on the fork was thrown far away and hit the table of Ravenclaw College.

"Are you going to treat him as an enemy?" Hermione said with her eyebrows tightly knitted.

Ron opened his mouth and stammered, "How could that be? I, ahem, I was joking." When Hermione got up and left, he whispered to Harry, "I really want to do that, I know a lot of spells, but unfortunately..."

They followed Hermione and came to the staff lounge next to the hall.

There were already quite a few students inside, Neville, Susan Bones, Blaise Zabini, Padma Patil, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and a dozen familiar faces that Harry couldn't name. They stood in the crowd and waited for a while, and Draco Malfoy pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing Harry and the others at the door, his face was a little gloomy.

There were four professors sitting in the staff room - five to be exact, but the ghost Professor Binns was automatically ignored by them - Professor McGonagall, Professor Happ, Professor Snape and Professor Bagshot.

Felix cleared his throat.

A huge wooden box landed in front of the students, with thick parchment bound inside.

"Animagus study materials, Sirius - Professor Black promised to give them to you, I hope you haven't forgotten his name... You have four days to preview these contents, and every Saturday morning for the next two months -"

"Professor!"

"Professor."

The voices of Harry and Draco Malfoy echoed in the staff room at the same time. They looked at each other and then immediately looked away.

"Any questions?"

"There's a Quidditch match this Saturday morning." Harry saw that Malfoy didn't say anything, so he said with a stiff upper lip.

"Okay, then we'll move it to 10 a.m. on Sunday. Gather here. Professor McGonagall and I will explain to you the tricks of practicing Animagus. We will start trying real transformation around the Christmas holiday, so you will have to stay in school this holiday." Felix said with a bit of trepidation, because when he was preparing for class, he had thought about transforming students into small animals to experience the feeling for himself. As a result, he was discovered by Professor McGonagall, who was worried, and criticized him harshly.

Although the process was not very good, the result was gratifying. Someone took the initiative to help share the work, and Felix had nothing to complain about.

The students were so excited that their eyes lit up. This was Animagus transformation! At least on the surface, only eight people in this century (including Rita Skeeter) have mastered it. If they can learn it, it will definitely be written about.

However, when they leaned over and took out the three-inch thick information from the wooden box, their faces began to turn pale and their bodies shook involuntarily. Professor McGonagall, who had originally had a serious expression, nodded with satisfaction. Nearly two-thirds of the content here was added at her strong request.

Well, Felix didn't raise any objections.