aircannonsinc Chapter 262: New Regulations and New Professors
Chapter 262: New Regulations and New Professors
Chapter 262: New Regulations and New Professors
Picking up where we left off, Draco praised Voldemort's cult of Death Eaters for seeking truth, goodness, and beauty.
Upon hearing this, Harry slapped his knee and laughed loudly, "This is truly a wonder of the world! If Muggles heard Voldemort talking about truth, goodness, and beauty, they would surely think I was a murderer and arsonist."
Draco, a slight smile still on his face, said slowly and deliberately, "The opinions of Muggles are not important, as long as the wizards know who is right."
Harry ignored his smooth-talking remark, leaning forward slightly and asking sharply, "Since your father told you about the situation in the Polish wizarding world, did you also tell him everything about the British Isles?"
Draco shook his head vigorously upon hearing this. "Mr. Potter, I know what I can and cannot say."
Harry just stared at him silently for a long while before saying, "Are you really that clear?"
Draco didn't answer immediately. His expression shifted several times before he slowly shook his head and said, "I only know a little."
Harry laughed and said, "In that case, I'll explain things to you clearly, so you can be a wise person, how about that?"
Draco leaned forward, staring intently at Harry. "That would be perfect, Mr. Potter."
Harry was pleased to see how obedient he was, so he took out another talisman from his pocket and pushed it onto the table.
"Take this to your father and tell him that you obtained it from me, and that it is especially effective in driving away soul-devouring monsters."
These words were spoken casually, but to Draco they were like a thunderclap out of nowhere: his heart suddenly tightened, and only one thought kept replaying in his mind.
This time, it's really time to choose sides.
Draco remained silent for a moment before carefully tucking the talisman into his robes and burying it close to his skin. Without looking up, he said, "Don't worry, Mr. Potter, I know what to do."
"There's just one thing I want to confirm with you: how do I explain how I got my hands on this magical item?"
Harry chuckled and casually picked up a loose thread from the hem of his robe. He pulled out his wand, cast a spell, and the thread transformed into a phoenix emblem with crossed swords in his palm.
He pressed the badge onto the table and said, "Just say you've joined the Boxer Rebellion."
Draco stared at the sword and phoenix emblem, his heart pounding. He felt an irresistible urge, but forced himself not to take it, instead turning his gaze to Harry and saying, "Transfiguration will fail, Mr. Potter."
"I remember Professor McGonagall saying that a typical transfiguration spell can only last for about a week."
Harry laughed loudly, "You speak of ordinary transformation techniques, but you should know that my methods are not ordinary. Let alone seven days, even two months, my appearance will remain unchanged."
"Even if the real one disappears in the future, I will just make a new one for you."
These words were like a stone sealing the door, clearly extinguishing Draco's hopes of joining the group.
But this fellow was not about to let such an opportunity slip by. Ignoring all the previous roundabout exchanges, he leaned forward, pressed his neck, and asked urgently, "Mr. Potter, can't I really join the Boxers?"
"I can sever ties with my father; I can even publicly denounce him at Hogwarts!"
He spoke hastily, but Harry simply shook his head three times. "To join the lodge, there can be no dark wizards in the direct line for three generations. This is a rule I established myself; how can it be broken?"
"That Sirius Black, my godfather, do you think he ever joined the Boxer Rebellion?"
These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over his head. Draco knew there was no turning back, and his burning passion vanished instantly. He slumped back into his chair, letting out a long sigh.
"Okay, Mr. Potter, I understand."
Harry stood up and gave him a light tap on the shoulder. "After you send the letter, come find me in the Chamber of Secrets."
Having said that, he gathered all of Lucius's letters into his sleeve, turned around, and pushed open the door to leave.
After Harry left, Draco sat alone in the carriage, staring blankly at the sword and phoenix emblem on the table.
After about half a cup of tea's time, the door was suddenly pushed open a crack. First, an eye peeked through the crack for a moment before the door was pulled open.
Pansy slipped in and sat down next to Draco, asking softly, "Draco, what did you and Potter talk about?"
"Nothing much, just some random stuff."
Draco picked up the badge, waved it in front of Pansy, and grinned, "See? At least this semester, we can have a comfortable time."
Meanwhile, Harry, after leaving Draco, went straight back to his own carriage. As soon as he pulled open the sliding door, Hermione rushed up to him, asking, "Harry, are you alright?"
"Ron told me you went to see Malfoy."
Ron, who was chewing on a licorice stick with a copy of "How to Build Muscles" spread out on his lap, quickly put down the book upon hearing this and mumbled, "Did that guy tell the truth? If not, we can wait until we get back to school and beat him up."
Harry closed the door, casually sat down in the seat, and bowed, saying, "Elder sister and brother, please don't worry. Malfoy has already spilled everything out."
After speaking, he took out the stack of letters from Lucius from his sleeve and spread them all out on the table.
"I trouble you to examine this letter carefully, sister. Have you noticed anything unusual?"
Ron, curious, picked up a letter and saw that it was written by Lucius. His eyes lit up and he quickly tore it open to examine it.
Hermione remained silent, picked up a letter, and began to read it carefully with her eyes lowered.
Hermione read the letter slowly and carefully, savoring each word. It took her a quarter of an hour to finish reading it.
Ron, however, moved with lightning speed, reading ten lines at a glance, and in just a quarter of an hour he had flipped through more than a dozen letters.
The two watched for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Harry noticed that Hermione's brows furrowed in thought, and he guessed that she had figured something out.
Just as he was about to ask, Ron suddenly slapped his knee and exclaimed, "Ha! I see! There's something wrong with this letter!"
These words came out of nowhere, and both Harry and Hermione were taken aback, turning their eyes to him simultaneously.
Hermione pressed the letter to her lap, looking somewhat doubtful. "Are you really sure you figured out what the problem is, Ron?"
Ron smugly picked up a letter, clapping his hands loudly. "Let's put everything else aside and take a look at this letter."
"On the surface, this is just Lucius telling Draco to take care of the family and not let people who have business rivals with the Malfoys come to visit."
"But the problem is, why did he add something like, 'Don't drag your mother into business matters'? Isn't that abrupt?"
"If I'm not mistaken, old Malfoy isn't worried about those merchants and young Malfoy playing tricks on him; he's worried that they'll coerce or seduce his wife!"
Upon hearing this, both Harry and Hermione's eyelids twitched violently.
Seeing Ron talking incessantly, Hermione couldn't help but snap her fingers. With a soft "snap," Ron's lips were sealed shut by various gagging spells, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open them again.
A moment of silence fell over the carriage. Hermione stared at the letter in her hand and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this is a coded message, isn't it?"
"It seems that the first letter of each word can be used to spell a new word."
Upon hearing this, Harry clapped his hands in admiration, "Big sister, you have such keen insight! If Malfoy hadn't confessed himself, I would never have been able to figure out this intricacies."
He then recounted in detail his conversation with Draco from beginning to end.
After hearing this, Hermione lowered her eyes and pondered for a long time before suddenly raising her eyes and saying, "We should check Draco's reply."
"Who knows, he might have also passed on some important message to Lucius."
Harry laughed and said, "Don't worry, sister. I've already sent house-elves to keep an eye on Malfoy Manor. They've secretly copied all the correspondence, so we'll know the truth when we get back to Hogwarts."
Let's stop talking nonsense.
The group spent an hour or so on the train, until it was already dark, before the express train finally arrived at the Hogwarts station.
The students shoved and jostled their way off the bus. As soon as Harry stepped out of the station, he heard a cacophony of rattling bells, mixed with a woman's loud voice that sounded like a broken gong, crashing into his ears.
"First-year students!"
"First-year students, come over here!"
Harry looked in the direction of the sound and saw a woman standing on the shore of the Black Lake. Her short, gray hair stood on end, and she had a pipe dangling from her lips, looking quite carefree.
He said in surprise, "This woman looks completely unfamiliar; I've never seen her before."
"Given that Hagrid has been the one to greet the first-year students in previous years," Ron said definitively, "she is most likely Hagrid's successor."
"I guess she's a substitute professor for the Conservation of Magical Creatures class."
Mentioning Hagrid, Hermione sighed softly and said, "I really think it's inappropriate to send a half-giant to negotiate with giants. They'll just see Hagrid as an outsider, a traitor."
"And given Hagrid's current personality, I think he'll most likely fight the giants."
Harry reassured her, "Big sister, you're worrying too much. You should know that Maxim is also with Hagrid. That woman is shrewd and knows how to assess situations. With her there to mediate, I don't think anything serious will go wrong."
As the three talked, they boarded the Thestral carriage with a group of senior students and rode up through the mist, returning to the castle in no time.
After entering the main hall, everyone took their seats. Harry then snapped his fingers to summon the house-elf, instructing him to fetch a copy of Draco's reply.
The three of them then unfolded the letters one by one by the light of the long table lamp and examined them closely. Sure enough, there were secrets hidden between the lines, and the method of the secret messages was exactly the same as Lucius's.
The letter mostly contained trivial, everyday details, making no mention of matters concerning the British wizarding world or any major or minor issues at Hogwarts.
Harry examined the reply letter one by one, and only then did he feel a little relieved. He said, "This fellow is quite sensible; he didn't try to deceive me."
Hermione didn't rush to respond; instead, she took out her Death Journal from her bosom, dipped her pen in ink, and began to inquire about the details of the secret messages in Draco's letter.
After the diary returned a reply, she nodded and sighed, "Malfoy is indeed a clever man now."
Then her expression hardened. "However, Harry, I still don't recommend that you let your guard down, because Malfoy is acting strangely intelligently right now."
As they were talking, the side door suddenly burst open with a loud bang, and the woman who had been smoking a pipe earlier led a group of first-year students in.
The woman returned to the professor's chair, sitting in Hagrid's usual spot. Ron, seeing this, whispered, "See? What did I tell you? She must be the substitute professor for the Protection of Magical Creatures class."
Harry ignored this and instead glanced at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's seat, where an old woman in a striking pink robe and a bow in her hair was sitting.
This old woman had a face full of fat and a wide grin, looking just like a toad with bulging cheeks.
Harry, Fudge, and the other two recognized him; it was Umbridge. Fudge had sent this fellow to keep an eye on them when they went to the Department of Mysteries the last time.
Now that all the students had arrived, McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on a chair and began to call out the names of the new students.
"Mike Dean!"
Before the freshman could even move after the shout, the Sorting Hat opened its mouth and began to sing.
"The dangerous moment has arrived."
"Everyone should be ready now~"
"Although we have four colleges, we only have one school —"
The Sorting Hat's words were full of hidden meaning, clearly a veiled message urging everyone to unite against Voldemort. It sang for about half an incense stick's time before finally squeezing out the last line with a drawn-out tone.
Let us stand together by his side.
As soon as the singing ended, the hall erupted in thunderous applause.
Just as the echo faded, the Sorting Hat suddenly swayed in his chair and shouted toward the professors' table, "Let me add something: the lady from the Ministry of Magic—I mean Minister Fudge—"
Upon hearing this, the large auditorium fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a burst of laughter. Umbridge's face turned red and then pale, but he could only force a smile and join in the dry laughter of the crowd.
After this commotion, the atmosphere in the room became much more relaxed.
After all the new students had returned to their respective houses, Dumbledore rose to begin his lecture.
The old man first rattled off a string of newly established rules, such as "clothes should be changed and washed frequently" and "skin, hair, and nails should not be carelessly discarded," and so on.
The freshmen listened in bewilderment, not understanding what it meant.
The senior students, however, felt a tightness in their hearts and kept it in mind.
Who doesn't know that Voldemort has the ability to recreate his own body? If he were to obtain the items on his body and create a doppelganger that looks exactly the same, what would become of him?
Having finished explaining the rules, Dumbledore then continued, "Finally, fellow wizards, please allow me to mention the changes in professors this semester, which I think you will find very interesting."
"First is Professor Wilmina Grapland, who will be in charge of protecting the Magical Creatures class until Professor Hagrid returns."
The woman with a pipe and short, gray hair rose, bowed, and then sat down again.
"And there's Professor Dolores Umbridge, who teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts and is also a Senior Investigator at the Ministry of Magic."
Upon hearing the name of the Ministry of Magic, the students immediately stopped slapping each other.
Umbridge twitched his noodles a few times, then stood up, bowed, and said, "Please allow me to correct you, Professor Dumbledore. I also hold the positions of Director of the Muggle Registration Committee and Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Magic."
Dumbledore pretended not to hear and continued, "Finally, there's the assistant professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Mr. Helbo.
.