Chapter 646 A fulfilling vacation
More than twenty students lined up in a long queue to the courtyard. The temperature outside was freezing cold, but there was no wind. The students exhaled white air and looked up at the bright and clear moon in the sky.
"Full moon." Ron muttered.
Needless to say, Harry knew that he was thinking of Lupin, and he could
n't help missing him. At this time, Lupin should have taken the wolfsbane potion and hid himself in a secret place. Harry knew that he didn't want anyone to see his transformation.
"...Starting from the full moon and ending at the next full moon, if you fail in the middle, you must start over. I don't want you to joke with your health." Professor McGonagall said loudly, pausing majestically for a moment, "Everyone come up to receive the mandrake leaves."
The students stepped forward one by one, then retreated to the side and whispered excitedly. There was nothing in front of Harry, so he stepped forward. Professor McGonagall nodded at him and handed him a green leaf. Harry took it and watched it emit a faint glow in the moonlight.
Just as Harry was about to leave, he suddenly felt someone poking him. He looked up and saw Professor Hep holding Valen in his arms, who was holding a stack of parchment in his arms. "Precautions, and recipes," Felix reminded him.
Harry took the parchment from Valen, walked aside, and read the words on it with the help of the light of his wand.
He already knew most of the content, but there were a few items marked in red ink. He read the third item: For the next month, their dining location will be changed to Classroom 11 on the first floor of the castle, and there will be special house elves to prepare food for them.
Harry's heart sank.
Ernie Macmillan once made a bad joke, saying that when his uncle tried to learn the Animagus Transfiguration, in order to avoid swallowing Mandrake leaves when eating, he inserted a funnel into his throat every time he ate to take liquid food. Ernie described it vividly, and as a result, a group of people couldn't stand being surrounded by him, so he admitted that the story was made up, and his uncle did want to learn Animagus, but he gave up after only one week.
"Check it after you get it. The edge of the Mandrake blade will emit white light during a full moon, similar to the sap grass... OK, if everything is ok, put it in your mouth." Professor McGonagall gave the order.
Harry checked it again and again, and after confirming that it was correct, he put the Mandrake blade in his mouth. He felt a bitter taste in his mouth after just enjoying the Christmas dinner. He saw Draco frowning and looking away.
Sirius told him about the recent situation of the Malfoy family the night before. In short, it was a mixed bag, because of the mid-term betrayal, he avoided being liquidated like his "despicable friends", and also won over a group of remaining pure-blood families, and still retained influence; but this also aroused the resentment of some former Death Eater allies, such as the Crabbe and Goyle families.
Sirius also cited an example from a few weeks ago.
Lucius Malfoy, who had been keeping a low profile after the war, suddenly stood up to be interviewed by the Daily Prophet and talked about the dangers and contributions he made when he was undercover - "Some newspapers said that Potter, Weasley and Granger used the Ouroboros Ring to seek help in the cemetery that night... In fact, it is not entirely accurate, because I also risked my life to inform Mr. Happ at the time, but because of the heavy responsibility, I could not make my achievements public to the outside world..."
"The Ministry of Magic has been counting merits recently," Sirius explained, "He wants to operate an Order of Merlin for the Malfoy family, but he is wasting his time. What he has done is only enough to avoid jail..." He said vaguely: "Snape may get a big reward. Now we all know where he got the information..."
After hearing these words, Harry suddenly realized, and instantly understood why Professor Slughorn's former student - Elder Worpple, who wrote "Blood Brothers: My Life Among Vampires" - had been pestering Snape at the dinner party. He obviously wanted to write a book based on Snape's experience, but Snape refused with a cold face.
...
In the dormitory, Harry looked at Ron and Neville with a shrewd face.
"What should I do?" he shouted in dissatisfaction.
"At least you don't snore." Ron said irritably, he closed his eyes, with a generous expression, "Hurry up, I finally made up my mind." Harry
looked at him, and then at Neville, who was so nervous that he couldn't speak.
"Okay."
The flashes of petrification spell and stunning spell appeared alternately. Ron and Neville fell stiffly on the ground. Harry used the floating spell to move them to the bed, covered them with a quilt, and got into the warm and comfortable bed. The cold wind was whistling outside the window, and Harry felt cold in his heart.
He hesitated for a long time whether to cast a stunning spell on himself. After all, not everyone has the courage to face two stiff bodies and still sleep peacefully. He tossed and turned on the bed for a long time, and finally took out a roll of magic tape from under Ron's bed and sealed his mouth.
During the whole process, Harry forced himself not to look at Ron's stiff face in the moonlight. He climbed back into bed, staring at the ceiling and counting numbers. He didn't know how long it had been - but it must have been the second half of the night - sleepiness came over him, and he fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up, he used his tongue to feel that the mandrake leaves were still there, but the bitterness in his mouth was stronger, as if it had seeped into his teeth, but his mood was generally happy. He couldn't wait to wake up Ron and Neville and share his method with them .
"That's great, I'm a little confident." Ron said with his neck stiff, "But there is a problem, I seem to have a stiff neck..."
In the next few days, Felix didn't pay much attention to these students.
He himself was also very busy - Tom Riddle in classroom 7 had graduated for two years, but he still couldn't master the Patronus Charm. However, Riddle recently got inspiration from Peeves. He obtained a plausible Patronus by quietly collecting the emotions of students in the school.
Felix was happy to see it happen, which meant that Riddle could not leave the school anymore.
Felix also found from Snape the information about how he and Damocles Belby improved the wolfsbane potion, so that he could have a good understanding of werewolves. Snape generously gave him some werewolf blood and hair.
"You will find that the view of some scholars: 'werewolfs are just beasts in human skin' is not an exaggeration. Their bloodline is completely tainted."
Felix shrugged. "It may scare you to say it, but compared to me, werewolves are normal."
Of course, Snape didn't believe it, as can be seen from his hypocritical proposal to study 'him'. Felix sneered at this and classified his former dean as a 'stupid wizard' in his heart...
"You should practice your acceptance speech more! Lupin said that the promotion of magic televisions is not satisfactory. Most wizard families still rely on magic radios to listen to the broadcast of the awarding ceremony. They will regard the unnecessary pauses in your speech as stuttering."
"Think about it, it would be unprofitable to be questioned about your teaching level by students' parents because of this problem..."
Felix's kindness did not bring him any good return. Instead, he was turned away for several days. The former Potions professor and current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor refused to talk to him and always put on a cold face every time they met. When Felix asked other professors for advice, only Dumbledore expressed sympathy.
"Severus is indeed taciturn. For the sake of the image of Hogwarts--" When he said this, Professor McGonagall and Grindelwald stared at him expressionlessly. "--At least persuade him to change his clothes and hairstyle."
Felix didn't know how Dumbledore did it, but anyway, on the day of the awarding ceremony, although Snape was still wearing black, it was not the unchanging wizard robe for thousands of years. Instead, he changed into a suit with a high-collared white shirt inside.
Snape was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. "For his second undercover adventure, bringing a steady stream of intelligence advantages to the justice side." Ms. Bones announced loudly. Harry followed closely behind, also with a first-class medal. The reason for his award was directly related to the fall of Voldemort. Although no one knew the details, Dumbledore and Felix Heppe testified and no one raised any questions.
Of course, Ron and Hermione did not win any awards. They still held the Order of Merlin, second-class medal for courage.
"It's all because the war ended too quickly," Ron muttered.
"Oh, shut up!" Hermione shrieked.
Because a mandrake leaf was stuffed in his mouth, Harry's speech was particularly refined, and because of the special diet these days, he was in a trance. When he came down, Ron and Hermione heard someone next to him whispering, "This kid doesn't look very smart. Is he still under the influence of the Cruciatus Curse?"
His words made a group of wizards who didn't know the truth blow their noses emotionally.
That night, the Ministry of Magic held a grand dinner, but Harry left early in frustration and went back to eat his tasteless dinner - cheese jelly cut into small pieces and vegetable meatballs made with a special process, which were said to be nutritious and would give people a strong sense of fullness after swallowing.
The most important thing was that the entire dining process was compressed to less than one minute, which fully reduced the possibility of various accidents.
This caused the students to lose a lot of fun.
And because of the sharp lack of entertainment methods - Harry was surprised to find that he had finished all his homework in less than a week, and had nothing to do for the rest of the days until the start of school, when Professor Hepple seemed to finally remember them and gathered them together.
"How many people are still here now?" Felix asked.
A bunch of arms were raised, and Harry turned around and found that there were quite a few people. "Fifteen people, not bad." Felix nodded and said, "It seems that the exercises in the previous two weeks are indeed useful. Today, I asked you to come here to summarize, um... give full play to the collective wisdom."
The students - including those who failed, all stared at Professor Hepple.
Felix raised the parchment in his hand, "Do you remember the form you filled out in the duel class starting from the second grade? Of course, the duel class is now only available in the second to fourth grades, which happens to be staggered with the first-year flying class and the fifth-year OWLs exam, and it is merged with the content of the spell assessment..."
"This records everyone's learning speed, preferences, learning methods, etc. Now that four years have passed, the accumulated data fills up a wall of cabinets."
"There is no doubt that it is an undiscovered treasure trove."
Felix vowed.
"You should have experienced group discussions. We use a similar method. Speak out the problems you find difficult and think about solutions together."
The students looked at each other, but after thinking carefully, it was indeed a good idea. After a long while, a student finally took the initiative to stand up and mentioned that he was depressed and drowsy all day.
The surrounding students kept nodding, and they had the same symptoms.
"Yeah, you can't do anything that makes people happy, you can't eat well, you can't sleep well, and you can't even talk loudly." A Ravenclaw girl said in a shrill voice, "It's a nightmare."
The other students looked at Felix.
"Don't look at me, I said, let you discuss it on your own." He said with a straight face.
"How about using potions? For example, joy potion?" Ron suggested.
"Oh, no," Ernie said disappointedly: "I asked Professor McGonagall, she said that potions have a chance to contaminate the leaves of the mandrake."
Everyone began to think divergently, and the answers they gave became increasingly outrageous, but Felix did not mean to stop it. Instead, he asked Hermione to record everything on the side. In the end, it was Neville who came up with a solution.
"I-uh, I tried a method," Neville whispered, clenching his teeth tightly, for fear that the mandrake leaves would fall off when he spoke, "Use the Daydream Charm."
"Daydream Charm? What is that?" asked a student.
"Hey! I know-" Ron shouted excitedly.
"The daydream spell can create a real dream. I just thought of it yesterday... Anyway, I talked a lot in there, and I felt much better when I came out." Neville introduced his experience.
"Talking to yourself? What did you say?"
"Uh... reciting the Herbology textbook loudly." Neville said reluctantly, and everyone laughed, but when Professor Hepp encouraged him to try it on other people, everyone immediately changed their minds.
Felix also experienced it personally.
After Neville chanted the spell, he found himself on the top of a peak in the mountains surrounding Hogwarts Castle. It was empty and silent all around. From his professional point of view, this dream still had many flaws, but at least -
he tried to shout twice, and the sound could be transmitted far away, and the echo effect was also quite good, which really played a good role in venting emotions.
The discussion continued. Harry also raised his own question. He hoped to speak loudly and safely. You know, he is the captain of the team. Whether he is explaining tactics or correcting players who make mistakes in flying, he can't avoid shouting at the top of his voice.
But to his surprise, he got feedback on his problem almost immediately.
"Use the Amplification Charm—" said Hermione, who was recording.
"Cover your mouth with a scarf!" said Susan Bones.
"Put the two together," Ron suggested.
Harry's eyes lit up. The other students' eyes also lit up. This method seemed better. They were ready to go back and try it.
Of course, the discussion process was not all smooth sailing. On the question of "how to curb the bitterness of mandrake", because there were too many methods, it led to the issue of preference for food taste, and the students quarreled fiercely.
One of them accidentally sprayed out a Mandrake leaf while shouting. Everyone was stunned. The whole place was silent. Even the student stared at the leaf on the ground in a daze, as if he couldn't believe his own stupidity.
"Ahem - Perkin just gave us a wrong demonstration." Felix said uncomfortably: "This reminds us to stay calm in the next period of time...
I personally recommend wearing a calming amulet. Just let it play a minimal role." He added.