Chapter 662: The Great Demon King (2 in 1)
Felix walked slowly into the castle.
The girl must be Dumbledore’s long-dead younger sister, Ariana, right? He had used the Resurrection Stone to recall the projection from his memory … However, does the Resurrection Stone have such a powerful effect?
Felix pondered, he could see soul shimmer with this special pair of eyes, in other words, did Dumbledore use his power to give a hint of soul qualities to the memory projection, or did he share a part of his soul and the two are now in a lose-lose situation?
But one thing is certain, Dumbledore’s understanding of the realm of the soul is completely beyond his own.
The state of his soul at this point is simply terrifyingly robust.
Felix had the feeling that Dumbledore could break away from reality at any moment and open a portal to send away all the ghosts cooped up inside Hogwarts castle. Just like Helena had back then.
The legend of the Deathly Hallows flowed slowly in his mind. He had learned the names of the three Peverell brothers from Luna, and Felix preferred to think of the three men as magically powerful wizards who had each taken a different magical path and left behind three treasures that represented them as individuals.
The treasures that contain their own understanding of magic. Like Felix’s Book of Rune, it is likely that if someone had got hold of it a thousand years later, they probably would likely to follow the same path as him.
It is also possible that one of the Peverell brothers was an extremely skilled alchemist, and that this alchemist created these powerful magical items based on the different characteristics of the three brothers. Under this possibility, Felix believed that the highly skilled alchemist would be someone between the second and third, as the oldest was positioned closer to a warrior in the lore.
If this were true, the magical attainments of that alchemist would be amazing, not only knowing a great deal about the soul, but he would also have to juggle wand crafting and alchemy … It is pretty daunting, but not impossible.
But alas, history did not leave much about them. Gee, what a waste of time!
As for the ‘mission’ Dumbledore spoke of, Felix scoffed at it.
…
The next day was overcast and cloudy as the young wizards made their way through the castle in the drizzle.
At the end of the first class in the morning, Felix came to the staff room and Professor McGonagall couldn’t wait to hand over a newspaper.
“The list of people who successfully transformed into Animagus from our lesson has been publicized.” She said with a broad smile.
Felix took it up and took a closer look; it mentioned the list of people who could be classified as Animagus, and the newspaper congratulated enthusiastically, in an exaggerated way, on the fact that the number of Animagus in this century had reached double figures, and in addition to that, four of them from the list are all currently students.
In fact, there have been seven registered Animagus in this century, nine counting Rita Skeeter and Sirius. If you add Peter Pettigrew and the undisclosed James Potter, the real number has long been well over ten, though the newspapers have deliberately omitted Peter Pettigrew’s existence.
“That fast?”
“Well, it isn’t that fast, it’s almost been a month.” Professor McGonagall said with a spring in her step, a frown stretching across her face, “The three students are starting to make a name for themselves in the Advanced classes – Granger has always been number one, so she isn’t that obvious yet, but Abbott and Malfoy are improving by leaps and bounds. I’ve also given Longbottom an extra copy of my study notes, and he will be taking this year’s Transfiguration Ordinary Wizard level exam, so I’m sure he’ll be able to keep up with the progress.”
Felix’s mind became clear; Draco had been on a roll lately, with a large donation of fifty thousand gold galleons from the Malfoy family ahead of him, an event that had caused quite a stir. With his father Lucius taking the money to open the way for him, in addition to Lucius’ speech at the conference, had caused a number of media outlets to dial up the buzz.
There have been some newspapers (Felix guessed that Lucius had secretly stuffed them with money) showing interest in the Malfoy family’s heir recently, and a closer inspection did reveal quite a few things worthy of coverage: a full member of the Dark Force Defence League (due to the contribution of collaborating on the development of the Bright Fire-making spell), a rival of Harry Potter and his best friend at school ( there is a suspicion of glorification), with no small ambition (healer dreams), and a freshly emerged Animagus.
Draco is so full of ambition that he has a peacock embroidered on his chest at some point and walks around the school all day.
Of the original batch of seven who qualified, Harry was the first to feel the throbbing of the Animagus, but also the first to fail; of the remaining six people, only four had successfully practised the Animagus, and they were all in Harry’s year, and to be more precise, they are all members of the Frontline Lookout Club who have mastered the Patronus Charm.
On the contrary, the remaining two seventh years – Vergil and Jamilyn – were still struggling, both to keep up with reciting the spell incantation in the morning and evening, and also to learn Patronus magic. This was the advice given to them by Professor McGonagall.
“Such a pain in the arse.” Ron said.
“If you count from the time we mastered the Patronus Charm, we are the slow ones.” Hermione said sensibly, “The Professor has said that Animagus is like a step-by-step tedious magical ritual, the fruit of previous generations seized by coincidence.”
“Can anyone really come up with such tedious steps?” Harry asked in disbelief, he couldn’t think of anyone who would do something like shoving a mandrake leaf into their mouth for a month unless that person was dumbed down by some magic spell.
“All the steps aren’t set in stone at once, and you can’t just assume by default that the other person is a student like you.” Hermione said perkily, “Professor Sprout has taught in class that mandrake leaf has great medicinal value and that it is an essential component of most antidotes, so we can imagine a scenario where they needed to be kept in the mouth for a month or two.”
“Some ancient isolated wizard who was specialized in Transfiguration and Potions – the two disciplines that play an extremely important role in the study of Animagus – who for some reason or by coincidence, during the full moon, picks Mandrake leaf and stuffed a leaf into his mouth incidentally, probably to detoxify the poison or something … Anyway, after a few days, he noticed an unknown change in the mandrake and used his knowledge in Potions to start his research.”
“Still sounds like a lot of hassle …,” Harry muttered. Ron nodded his head in agreement.
“If you study magic more deeply, you can sense the subtle changes, which is the equivalent of a signal that most wizards have followed, before those laws of magic were discovered, wizards simply relayed on their senses and gut feeling.” Hermione said.
Ron muttered something that sounded like a ‘divination lesson’ and Hermione raised her eyebrows.
“Pay attention!” Sprout said sternly, standing in front of a rowan tree that was over twelve feet tall, “We’re going to learn about the Wiggentree for today, and it’s a very interesting lesson.”
The three of them hurriedly stopped talking, Sprout had said this to more than just them, and out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught a glimpse of Draco Malfoy putting a newspaper away and puffing out his chest, making the peacock pattern on his chest shirt even more prominent.
I wonder if his tastes have changed recently? Harry thought to himself, though he didn’t dare voice it out, as this conclusion was something he had observed from Hermione, who was extraordinarily fond of the peas on the dinning table these days.
Harry knew that Hermione had been practising her Animagus Transfiguration very diligently in recent times.
During this time, the four students who had managed to successfully become Animagus had spent a weekend in Professor McGonagall’s office, where they had practised their transformation and recovery skills intensively. After that, they were asked to spend a certain amount of time each week on this and repeatedly experience the transformation process.
Harry found it more or less similar to what Sirius had done by turning into a large dog and wandering around the school grounds once a month when he was at school.
But to his and Ron’s bewilderment, they had never found out where Hermione practiced her transformation, nor were her roommates Lavender and Parvati aware of it; it would mean that Hermione had never practiced the spell in her dorm room. At this point, Sprout moved the Wiggentree that was behind her to the front to allow the students to see it more clearly.
“… The Wiggentree is a magical rowan tree that will protect those who touch its trunk from the attacks of dark creatures. The processed material of the Wiggentree is therefore widely used in many defensive items, their wood and leaves can be used to make amulets, defensive accessories, carved vigilance charms, and so on, they have a slow growth cycle and the bark is relatively smooth in the seedling stage, so they are also good as ornamental plants. Its bark is also used to make Wiggenweld Potion.”
Professor Sprout asked the students to come closer and observe. Behind her, in addition to a large Wiggentree with rough bark, there are also two smaller ones, planted in pots, lush and rather pleasing to look at.
“You can touch it, it is not dangerous, unless you are a dark creature in disguise.” She said aloud, “But be careful when you run into it in the wild, there may be a group of Tree Protecting Bowtruckles living in that tree.”
Harry reached out and placed his hand on the trunk of the large Wiggentree, probably because there were no dementors or Inferius around, he didn’t feel any difference, the branches of the Wiggentree made a rustling sound, and he tilted his head up, trying to find a fruit or two amongst the dense branches.
“Ouch – Professor Sprout, it hit me!” Lavender Brown suddenly shouted, jerking her hand back.
“My dear, I think it may be because your thoughts are too complicated; Wiggentree has similar properties to the wands made from them, with exceptional defensive qualities and a preference for the clear-headed and pure-hearted people.” Professor Sprout said.
Not far in the distance, Draco Malfoy grinned, his chest straightened up.
“That’s weird, I thought he would take a hit too.” Ron said regretfully as Professor Sprout asked the students to take the barrels and mix a suitable fertilizer for the Wiggentree.
“I think it might be because I’ve learned Animagus. Weasley.” Draco Malfoy arrived from behind carrying a small barrel and bumped Ron on the shoulder, and looked back with a smug grin as he passed them.
Ron opened his mouth to retort, but Harry held him back.
“Don’t fall for it, he’s dying for us to fight him.” Harry said calmly, “Malfoy, we will be finishing the first step in two more days in time, and with a bit of luck we’ll be Animagus by the end of the Easter break.”
“That’s right.” Ron said defensively as he snapped to attention.
“I’ll be waiting,” Draco said condescendingly, narrowing his eyes, “I can give you a few pointers if you don’t understand something. That is if you don’t suddenly faint.” He said those words to Harry.
“If you knew what Harry had done, you’d wet your trousers, Malfoy.” Ron said loudly. Draco slowly approached in a threatening manner and was just about to say something when Professor Sprout approached, glancing at them suspiciously, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“Get a grip, then. You’re behind the schedule.” She pointed out sternly.
So they hurried to the corner of the greenhouse, where various piles of fertilizer, mainly magical creatures’ droppings, were stacked in separate categories, and the students picked out the right materials with a disgusted look on their faces using a levitation charm, then left quickly.
As they queued, Ron suddenly asked Hermione, “Your dream is still to become a Minister of Magic, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong?” Hermione asked, in confusion.
“Then you should definitely work hard and get promoted early to kick him out of the Ministry of Magic.”
“Don’t be angry, Ron, and since the newspaper says he’s going to be a Healer in the future, I don’t think he’ll back out easily, even if it’s just to save his honour.” Hermione said.
“I don’t think so,” Ron said with certainty, “I bet his dad would definitely give him an idle position to work in the Ministry, like a consultant or something … How about this, you can make a law saying that all the Ministry of Magic titular must commute to work on time …”
He spoke up with gusto as Draco returned with the materials, and gave him a smug glance. To that Draco just patted himself on the chest, the peacock symbol on his chest suddenly shook in Ron’s eyes as he strutted away.
Ron muttered that thing looked like a fried pheasant, and Justin behind them wasn’t too happy to hear that as his Patronus is a pheasant. But his good friend Ernie Macmillan said Justin’s favourite food is a chicken leg and the two got into a scuffle.
Sprout, who had rushed over, gave Hufflepuff and the Gryffindors a five-point deduction.
“Get a grip!” She shouted again.
“Oh no!” Hermione suddenly called out when it was Harry’s and their turn.
“What’s wrong?” Harry asked in a whisper, he had to hold his breath, the smell around him was just too bad.
“My wand is missing!” Hermione said, Harry and Ron inhaled sharply, their eyes widening incredulously, “No, it’s not what you think, I think I know where I dropped it.”
She looked odd as she pulled a small wooden stick out of her pocket, at first glance it looked similar to a wand, but combined with what she had said earlier, Harry noticed the difference.
“An exclusive wand?”
“Valen’s.” Hermione said briefly.
“Oh-” Ron trailed off for a long while. Hermione’s face flushed.
“I, um, it was Valen who invited me, she was very interested in Animagus, and I thought … it does get a bit boring to transform alone, so I thought I might as well follow Valen for a walk outside the castle … Looking at everything from an animal’s point of view, some of the accustomed scenery has actually became quite fascinating, and Valen is an expert in this area.”
“No need to explain, Hermione,” Ron said with a big grin, “Sirius has also managed to make friends with Crookshanks, maybe this is an invisible application of the Animagus, I should have thought of that … ”
In the end, Harry used his own wand to help Hermione pick out the right materials, Hermione had wanted to try it herself with the exclusive wand but was stopped by Harry, this is not the right time, in case Hermione made a mistake and left all sorts of fertilizer flying around.
One by one the students returned to a large, spacious workbench and began to mix the fertilizer, “Take one part of the soil from rotting melons and one part of manure from a Mooncalf … Gosh, this smells is really something!” In no time, the smell in the greenhouse became more and more overwhelming.
The Bubble-Head Charm came in handy at this time.
“I don’t advise you to use the spell, because the smell is equally an important part to judge the good and bad manure, but of course, it is not necessary, so if you really can’t stand it …,” Professor Sprout said in a dry tone.
But only Neville didn’t use the Bubble-Head Charm, and when he had disposed of his share of the manure he looked like he was on the verge of passing out.
“It’s perfect, Mr. Longbottom.” Professor Sprout said with satisfaction.
“Professor, Professor? Can I get out, go out to get some fresh air?” Neville asked, holding his breath, his face turned to an unnatural shade of red.
“Oh, of course,” Professor Sprout said understandingly, and Neville immediately ran towards the door, “Plus, ten extra points for Gryffindor.” She shouted, expecting other students to follow suit, but the students lowered their heads and hid behind the fishbowl-shaped spell, silently dealing with the slimy mess in their little barrel.
Immediately after class, Hermione disappeared.
Harry knew that Hermione must have gone to get her own wand back, Professor McGonagall had asked them to keep it properly tucked away during the transformation, as wands could not be transformed together like clothes, not just wands, but any item that had anything to do with magic.
So presumably before the process of transformation began, Hermione must have given her wand to Valen for safekeeping and asked her to keep it hidden in her pocket, and then after turning into a beaver the two little creatures slowly wandered around close to the castle walls …
Ancient Rune Office.
“Miss Granger?” Felix asked, somewhat surprised, “Is there something urgent?”
Hermione panted, holding out a finger, “Yes, sorry Professor, I’m looking for Valen.”
“Umm..”
Felix turned his head, how odd. Niffler, that was in the midst of drawing on parchment, looked up and blinked, pointing at herself in confusion. Hermione waved at her, which meant “Yes, that’s you.”
Valen jumped down from the sofa and came over without a fuss. Hermione picked her up with a hug.
“Sorry, Professor, we’ll be right back.”
After a short while, Valen came back alone. She had her little hands behind her back, and she shook her head for a while. Hermione was so careless, that she would have to make fun of her the next time they met, but not now, her size was completely out of the equation.
“What was she looking for you for?” Felix asked curiously.
Valen shook her head in a huff, she couldn’t talk about it, she couldn’t let the Great Demon King know about her quest to secure an ally.
“Is she your new animal friend?” Felix asked thoughtfully.
“Kee!?”
“I didn’t peek at your diary,” Felix curled his lips, “you were the one who was talking in your sleep at night and talking about uniting and defeating the Great Demon King … And how did Grindelwald provoke you? ”
Valen stared at him, a little dumbfounded.
—————
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