A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

Chapter 118: Discussions

On the day before Valentine's Day, a restless youthful energy pervaded Hogwarts, bringing the entire school to life.

Among the young wizarding community, various techniques for confession were being passed around. From the preferred methods of confession, like beneath the mistletoe, to what attire to wear during confessions, a comprehensive set of advice was compiled.

There was even a sudden influx of low-quality love potions, prompting several professors to firmly shut down a few students and thus put an end to this trend.

As a result, the focus of the young wizards shifted to the star students of each house. They began discussing which wizard was the most dashing and which witch was the most beautiful...

Some particularly popular individuals even gained devoted admirers, like Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff. He was already quite popular, and his talents displayed in several dueling classes quickly spread his fame to other years and houses.

Harry had been feeling a bit troubled recently. With the combined aura of a savior and the recognition of his special contributions to the school, his fame remained consistently high. Especially after displaying the corpse of the serpent during school, the fear of the serpent transformed into a deep respect for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

However, this reverence was even more noticeable with Harry. He was the only one who exhibited such remarkable combat talent, his Disarming Charm even surpassing that of many older students.

This earned him a group of admirers.

"Harry, a few girls over there are looking at you again. Can't you do something about it?" Hermione said irritably.

Harry looked at a bunch of younger witch students in a corner of the library, feeling quite helpless. Their behavior was quite audacious as they stared at him directly. Whenever he glanced their way, they hid their faces behind books and giggled.

Ginny, not far away, was working on her homework, occasionally stealing glances at Harry while flipping through her book.

It didn't take long for Harry's problem to be resolved on its own. Madam Pince, the librarian, waved her wand and chased away these disruptive young witches.

He heaved a sigh of relief.

Ron, on the other hand, was somewhat envious. The ones who loved hearing his stories were all boys, and the enthusiasm for his tales was gradually waning.

As the three exited the library, they began discussing the new professor.

"I wonder what the new professor is like. Hopefully not someone like Lockhart or Quirrell..." Ron said with a shudder, clearly haunted by the memories those two left him.

"I've learned a lot from the dueling classes," Harry said nonchalantly. His favorite class this year was undoubtedly Defense Against the Dark Arts, though it was a pity that it only happened twice a month.

"Harry, Dueling class is different from Defense Against the Dark Arts. The latter teaches you to resist danger, while dueling is just one way of doing so," Hermione said. "Actually, Snape's theories align quite well with the requirements of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Ron stared at her in shock, as if she had just uttered something astonishingly unconventional.

"Oh, come on, I'm just giving an objective assessment," Hermione said.

Harry remained silent. His objection wasn't to Snape's view on dueling, but to Snape himself.

On this point, the two of them understood each other quite well. He didn't like Snape, and Snape didn't like him either.

So, he changed the subject, saying, "Any rumors about the new professor? Let's avoid the topic of the dwarves..."

As they spoke, a disgruntled dwarf passed by them with a scowl on his face. Ever since Dumbledore approved the dwarves' Valentine's Day performance, they had brought the entire team to Hogwarts – twelve in total.

These green-skinned dwarves moved around the school, becoming the unique sight of February this year.

Harry was quite relieved that they didn't have the habit of wearing golden wings and playing harps in their everyday attire.

The trio watched as the dwarves disappeared from view. Hermione responded to Harry's previous question, "The new professor's name is Damocles Belby. He's a potions master and has just been awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Class, for inventing the Wolfsbane Potion."

"Potions master? Wolfsbane Potion?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"Order of Merlin? That thing Lockhart bragged about?" Ron added with disgust.

The young witch first addressed Harry, "The Wolfsbane Potion is a newly invented potion this year. It allows werewolves to maintain their sanity during a full moon transformation." Then she turned to Ron, "Professor Belby received a Second Class Order, which is quite different from Lockhart's."

Harry nodded in understanding.

"How do you know all this?" Ron asked curiously.

"I heard from Professor Harp. He's good friends with the new professor and even recommended him to Dumbledore," the young witch explained.

Ron muttered, "Why would he recommend his own friend? I mean... the curse?"

Hermione shook her head; even she couldn't fathom Professor Harp's actions.

Privately, she thought Professor Harp's judgment might have been flawed. But she countered Ron, saying, "The new professor is only covering half the term's classes. I suppose he may not see it as too dangerous." She wasn't entirely confident in her response.

Ron grumbled, "Still sounds dangerous."

It wasn't until the evening, during a break in the common room, that they received some semblance of an answer to their questions.

Ginny spoke somewhat awkwardly, "Luna's mother died in a magical accident. She told me that if you want to research something new, you're bound to encounter all sorts of dangers..."

"...unless you do nothing at all."

Ancient Runes classroom.

Felix Harp was sorting through his findings. Over the weekend, he had shared the serpent creature's materials with Snape.

The other professors were not particularly interested, except for Professor Burbage and Hagrid, who had come to see a few times.

Professor Burbage's reaction was the most genuine. She looked regretful and said, "If only we could have kept it alive... I mean, prepared better."

Given this professor's exaggerated history, Felix was quite skeptical.

Hagrid's attitude was more complex. His large hand touched the scales of the serpent creature, and he said with a hint of sadness, "I was expelled because of it, not long after my dad passed away. He loved me so much... those were dark days."

He wiped his tears with a dirty handkerchief, sharing his sorrow with Felix.

However, before Felix could find comforting words, Hagrid adjusted his tone on his own. He looked at the serpent creature's venomous fangs and its empty eyes and said, "Charming creatures, aren't they?"

...

Laid out before Felix were shimmering green serpent skin and the scales separated from it, along with a dozen venomous fangs.

These were the results of his processing. Originally, the scales on the serpent skin couldn't be peeled off, just like with most snakes. What was referred to as scales were actually the snake's superficial skin and accumulated keratin.

Yet, under the influence of magic, nothing was impossible. Felix easily separated the scales from the skin.

Serpent creatures had extremely high magical resistance, comparable to that of a Hungarian Horntail dragon. Even if a spell hit their thick scales, it might only leave a shallow dent.

He was considering using the serpent skin to craft a close-fitting armor. That way, ordinary spells wouldn't affect him at all.

As for the scales, Felix hadn't decided how to handle them yet – magical inertness posed a challenge.

He could only hope that Professor Snape would discover a use for serpent creature scales, preferably transforming them into rare potion ingredients.

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