Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 286 Contents of the second stage

Harry did expect that this class would be a little different, but he found that he still underestimated Professor Highmore's originality?

"Ah?" He asked blankly, "Professor, what did you say? Did I hear wrong?"

Toby frowned, dissatisfied with Harry's appearance.

"I thought you were ready." He said sternly, "Is this your attitude? Tell me, Mr. Potter, what is the first rule of archaeology?!"

"Yes, yes." Harry racked his brains subconsciously, but he didn't know what the first one was.

"Tsk tsk tsk." Toby's face was full of disappointment, which made Harry even more flustered.

This is how to do ah.

Harry didn't want to mess with Professor Highmore in the first place, either, but what the hell was that all about.

"Professor, I."

"Forget it, Mr. Potter." Toby interrupted: "We'd better start with the simple one. See that armor?"

Harry had already noticed the armor in the corner, and he knew that it was specially designed to hold that particular humanoid devil.

"I see, Professor." Harry nodded honestly, making it sound like some kind of eyesight test.

At the same time, he was also a little apprehensive, wouldn't the professor let him eat the devil in this armor?
This is also very difficult to accept.

Fortunately, Toby did not make such an "unreasonable" request.

"past."

Toby ordered: "Put on its helmet, you don't need to be fully armed, just wear a helmet."

This is much easier to accept.

Harry walked to the armor as quickly as possible, so as not to upset Professor Highmore again.

The armor obviously also heard Toby's orders, and it might make people feel better to refer to its "head" as a helmet.

It took off its own helmet, revealing the smooth section underneath, held the helmet in both hands, and handed it to Harry.

But Harry hesitated and didn't take it.

He widened his eyes, and saw the dark thing inside the helmet, spinning restlessly, like a whirlpool that would never stop.

Harry knew full well that this was the devil trapped in the armor, which had now been transferred into the helmet.

"What's the matter?" Toby's tone had become impatient: "Are you worried, afraid? Or are you going to wait for Severus to rescue you like the last confrontation?"

In the previous crazy version of the duel, Harry, Cedric, Toby, and Snape were divided into two teams to see who could capture the temporarily released devil first.

At that time, Harry was terribly frightened by the devil who attacked with tricks.

He had thought that nothing would happen to him, after all he had personally faced dementors on the train back in school, and even chased one away with a devil.In the end, he was still unlucky in front of another devil.

In the end, it was Snape who rescued him suddenly, using the devil that Snape had learned in advance.Until now, Harry didn't know what the devil looked like, and he had no impression at all.

But the feeling of being rescued is not at all pleasant.

Who made him Snape—Harry's least favorite professor, who had been deliberately making trouble for him.

Under Toby's words, Harry was immediately aroused, he closed his eyes tightly, and put the helmet on his head with a cruel heart.

At this moment, the whole world fell silent.

Harry closed his eyes and waited for a while. The bad situation he expected didn't happen, and he didn't fall into the horrible hallucination like last time.

At this moment, an unexpected voice sounded.

"Harry Potter?"

This is the sound of the Sorting Hat.

"How could this be?" Harry asked in confusion, "Is it really you, Mr. Sorting Hat?"

"Of course it can't be wrong." The Sorting Hat replied, "Do you know where we are now, child? I just remember that I slept for a long time, and when I woke up, I couldn't see or hear anything. .”

This is really bad.

Didn't Professor Highmore kidnap the Sorting Hat?
"Hammer? Is that the Toby Highmore I know?" The Sorting Hat seemed to be able to hear Harry's inner voice, and it suddenly yelled, "Hey, Toby! Don't do this! Is this a joke? ? Don’t delay my time to create a new song, otherwise what will the freshmen do next year.”

"Don't make a fuss, I just gave you a new look." Toby's voice appeared in Harry's mind, and he said, "You're getting old, you have to wash it. Don't worry, wait a minute." I'll let you go back after that."

"New shape?" The Sorting Hat asked curiously, "What have you turned me into? Is there a mirror? Don't mess around. No matter what, I'm still a Gryffindor hat."

"It'll be all right," Toby said.

Harry felt that he couldn't close his eyes and wait any longer. He quietly opened a slit, wanting to know more about his current situation, but just a glance almost made him faint from fright.

"Professor!" He said in shock, "Why did you become a snake again?"

Through the gap in the armor, Harry saw with his own eyes a large snake that looked very creepy in Toby's original position.

"Oh?" Toby asked curiously, "Do I have horns on my head? Is there a gemstone on my forehead?"

"There are horns, but no gems." Harry replied subconsciously.

"It seems that this is different." Toby turned his head and glanced in another direction: "Not all the things in Mason's door can be brought out, which is a pity, otherwise I would have two Gryffindors The sword."

Harry also looked towards the Mason Door, and saw that it was the same, rotten and unchanged.

"Aren't we inside the Mason Gate?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Of course not." Toby said, with a vivid expression on the snake's face: "If it is not absolutely necessary, I don't want to get into it when it is not mature. The last time can only be regarded as an exception. This time There’s no other way, otherwise how would you figure out what you’re going to learn next.”

"But you..." Harry asked puzzled, "how on earth did you become a snake again?"

"Because I've been researching on the Mason Gate, I have to gain something." Toby said simply: "The interesting thing is that there are some interesting connections between the devil and the Mason Gate as a guarantee for safe entry, more The results of the research still need to continue to study—let’s not mention this matter—”

"Yeah." The Sorting Hat interrupted: "I think you should put aside the irrelevant things first. What should I do? Where is Dumbledore? Why didn't he come to me?"

Yeah, where's Dumbledore?

Harry suddenly remembered that Professor Highmore asked himself to keep it a secret from the headmaster, but why did he involve the Sorting Hat now? It usually stays in the headmaster's office.

"The principal is out."

For some reason, Harry always felt that Professor Highmore seemed very relaxed when he said this sentence.

"I guess it will take a long time to come back." Toby continued: "It will take a while."

"What about the celebration?" The Sorting Hat asked again: "Dumbledore will be there then."

"Don't worry." Toby said with a smile, the corners of the snake's face curled up: "The principal will come back in time."

The real situation is that even for Dumbledore, it is not so easy for him to break into Nurmengard without authorization, so he will make more preparations in advance, and it is estimated that he will be busy for a long time.

So Toby secretly took the sorting hat.

"Okay, enough of your questions, let's start today's lesson." Toby said decisively.

Harry listened quietly, and he noticed that the Sorting Hat didn't continue to interrupt, and he didn't know if it was because it knew it couldn't ask the headmaster for help, or because it was curious itself.

Just when Harry had this thought, the Sorting Hat had already begun to answer him.

"Toby has always been cautious." It said: "After your so-called course is over, I will definitely be erased by him-in fact, he tried to do this when he was in school, and wanted to try it out Affecting a thinking hat is almost a success."

"My God." Harry exclaimed.

"No way." The Sorting Hat said helplessly: "Dumbledore locked him in too many confinement, and finally let him relax once, which gave him a chance to succeed. But it's also interesting to say, he just intends to ask Just a question from me—you must be curious, right. Now I can tell you who made him do bad things secretly behind Dumbledore’s back—that’s what he asked me at the time, why did he deceive him, only Slytherin was right for him. What can I say in the end? He planned on erasing this memory of mine, so would you mind asking me that?"

"Aside from Slytherin, what other house do second years do?"

Harry really didn't know about it, he only knew that Professor Highmore belonged to Slytherin, but he never knew that he had only one choice as Slytherin.

At this time, Toby, who hadn't interrupted all this time, suddenly interrupted and said, "There's no other way. He hesitated between his decisions. We all make mistakes sometimes, don't we? So it's not too bad this time, Harry—"

He suddenly changed his tone and started calling Harry by his first name again.

"You should remember the purpose of my final exam last term, right?"

"Yes, Professor." Harry said immediately: "The Patronus Charm, only students who have initially met the requirements for the Patronus Charm are eligible to learn ritual magic. In addition to this, there are magic circle items, which can replace the more dangerous Scepter."

"That's it." Harry saw the tip of Toby's tail stand up, pointed to his head and said, "It's the same reason, the course you are going to study next is very dangerous, so I will ask the Sorting Hat Come on, keep it on your head, it helps keep you awake."

"Do you call that [please]?" the Sorting Hat said dissatisfied.

"You're already here anyway." Toby said indifferently.

Harry only felt that the dark door was getting closer and closer to him.

"So what do I need to do next?" he asked nervously.

"Summon out your devil first." Toby said simply.

Don't eat it. Don't eat it.
While praying silently in his heart, Harry took out the clarinet from his pocket, while listening to the Sorting Hat's chanting: "Eat? Eat what? Are you going to eat yourself?"

Help yourself stay awake, well, it seems to be helpful.

Under the playing of Parseltongue, the Rune Snake finally appeared, and there was still a lightning scar engraved on its rightmost head, which made Harry feel quite heavy-now he finally understood that it was not the influence of Voldemort, but his own.

"I've said it long ago." The Sorting Hat said, "Slytherin House will help you to glory."

Harry said nothing.

He saw Professor Highmore sized up the rune snake, and then Toby's tail hooked up, and a dark glimmer appeared on it, and he grabbed the snake's head with lightning scars directly, and pulled it in front of Harry. , the other two snake heads were far away from Toby, and they were very uncomfortable and frightened.

"See clearly?" Toby asked suddenly.

"What?" Harry froze for a moment, thinking about not eating the devil.

"Only one snake head with a lightning scar," Toby's snake-face continued. "None of the other two heads—do you know what that means?"

Harry froze for a longer time - he seemed to have ignored this point all the time, only concerned about whether it was evil, but forgot about the appearance of the other two snake heads.

"I said it a long time ago." Toby said slowly: "This is an extremely rare opportunity to help you recognize yourself—but now it seems that you still ignore too many things. Haven't you found out yet? , Harry, even if you have to say it, you are only one-third evil."

"Since you don't want to eat it, there is only one way left for us - let the other two snake heads work for you."

"Do it now, Harry."

Cold sweat broke out on Harry's forehead. He looked back and forth at Professor Highmore several times, but found that the other party had no intention of taking back the order.

"The choice is yours," Toby said, staring at him.

The Sorting Hat was also whispering in Harry's ear: "It's really a unique class, are you really determined to listen to him? I think there is one thing that must remind you-you do have a choice, but Toby No, he can only be sorted into Slytherin. Unlike you, he still has a chance to enter Gryffindor. So, are you really going to listen to him?"

Harry took several deep breaths.

Of course he had a choice, but at the same time, he seemed to understand why Cedric was so obsessed with autocasting wands.

Because everything else becomes irrelevant compared to what really matters.

Harry really hopes that one day, he can resurrect his parents too.

He opened his mouth and let out a cold hissing sound from inside, like a poisonous snake talking.

Almost at the same time, the left and middle heads of the Rune snake attacked the critic on the right - it was under the influence of Harry's command and was too scared to move.

More terrible things are also happening at the same time.

"Don't touch Harry! Don't touch Harry! Please—I'll do anything—"

"Get out of the way - out of the way, woman -"

"Harry!"

A lot of people are calling his name, with the Sorting Hat, Professor Highmore, and Mom
Finally, Harry saw a bright light in front of his eyes, which stabbed him so hard that he couldn't open his eyes, but he couldn't help but look directly at it, it felt like a warm hug.

After the line of sight gradually became clear.

"Yeah." Al gasped, patting his face with his little paw.

"Mr. Al. Al." Harry was drenched in cold sweat. He quickly got up and found that the helmet had been taken off and was held in his hands by the armor beside him. Professor Highmore was helping it to reattach to his neck. superior.

"You're awake." Toby patted Armor's head, he turned his head and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Feeling." Harry was stunned suddenly. He stared straight at the rune snake that hadn't dispersed yet. It only had two heads left, and it looked very miserable.

For a split second, Harry thought he had seen his parents.

"Professor, I seem to remember." Harry murmured, "I remember everything Voldemort, he killed my father first, then my mother, she begged for my mercy but he just didn't Ken let us go."

Toby was silent for a while, and Al silently helped Harry wipe away tears, which flowed out completely unconsciously.

After a long time, Toby sighed and said.

"As I said earlier, this is a choice you make yourself."

(End of this chapter)