days at Hogwarts

Chapter 567 News from the Elder Wand
"Homework, twelve-inch-long paper on the properties of moonstone and its uses in medicine, due Thursday, get out of class dismissed!"

Snape's eyes swept over the group of students who were pale with fear because of their homework, and a hint of joy appeared on the corners of his mouth. When he walked out of the classroom, he glanced at Loren, his deep eyes full of meaning.

Loren:…

He thought about it for a while and decided that this probably didn't mean for him to go find him after turning off the lights at night. After all, Snape definitely hadn't read some classic oriental mythology novel... Shaking off the messy thoughts in his mind, he pushed the textbook on the table in front of Hermione and hurriedly followed him out.

After jogging a few steps out of the classroom, he saw the aloof Professor Snape walking slowly towards the corner of the underground corridor. His steps were even slower than a lame retired Auror, and he was obviously waiting for him to catch up.

Loren complained in his heart, then quickly followed and politely greeted him, "Professor Snape, long time no see. Did you have a good summer vacation?"

Snape had been paying attention to the footsteps behind him quietly from the beginning. When he heard the childish greeting, he couldn't help but pause for a moment. He felt that this sentence was too harsh, and said coldly: "If I remember correctly, the last time we met was at Black's house a week ago. Or did Crouch's forgetfulness spell make you lose your brain?"

Loren's expression remained unchanged. He understood that this was a professor's unique concern and couldn't help but smile: "No, professor, this is just a normal greeting."

"Mr. Morgan, who is so powerful, still needs to greet me, the professor of Potions?"

Snape glanced at him sideways, his tone cold and slightly mocking, "Mr. Morgan fully demonstrated his advanced Transfiguration skills by facing two ruthless Death Eaters head-on and easily defeating and capturing two dark wizards..."

"Thank you Professor Snape for your compliment..." Loren blurted out the words subconsciously, but he quickly reacted and said seriously, "I mean, it's all thanks to Professor Snape's teaching."

"Really?" Snape's pace gradually quickened. "Then come to my office. I have prepared extracurricular tutoring for you!"

Loren's face was full of embarrassment: "It's not convenient now, Professor, it's almost lunch time."

"The house-elves will deliver lunch to the office." Snape strode ahead with an expressionless face.

"..."

The Slytherin headmaster was so enthusiastic that Loren couldn't refuse and reluctantly followed him into the office.

This underground office is still so dim. The wooden shelves on both sides of the room are filled with specimens of various animals and plants. The lifelike faces and lifeless postures interweave to create an eerie and silent atmosphere, as if the things in the jars will open their eyes at any time and stare at the people in the room.

This is not really a good environment for dining, but the professor's special lunch makes up for it.

The marbled steak was fried until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with an aroma of oil everywhere. The meat was firm without fascia, and juice would overflow when you took a bite. The mushroom soup just out of the pot was even more fragrant and had a rich flavor. As for the vegetable salad, it was just so-so. Loren had never been very fond of it.

Snape didn't dwell on the summer vacation. While the house-elves were serving the food, he told them not to get in touch with Death Eaters too much. When Loren had almost finished eating, he was still slowly cutting the steak and casually said:
"Can you get full marks in Potions in the OWLs exam next June?"

"Uh……"

Loren swallowed the last piece of steak, thought for a moment, and nodded, not saying too much: "If there are no unexpected situations, it should be fine."

"Contingencies or not, you will have to take my advanced potions class next year."

"Uh……"

Loren scooped a cherry tomato from the salad bowl, put it in his mouth and took a bite. The sweet and sour juice dispelled the greasiness of the steak. At the same time, he silently complained in his heart: It’s okay to take the Potions Advanced Class in the sixth grade, but I’m not sure if it’s yours.

If he remembered correctly, when Umbridge retired from the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor next year, there was really no one to apply for the position, so Dumbledore finally decided to let Snape rotate internally and rehire the retired Horace Slughorn as the professor of Potions...

He calmly withdrew his gaze and nodded heavily: "Okay, professor, no problem, professor."

"Bring your girlfriend with you as well. You should give her more tutoring this year. It would be best if she gets full marks in the exam as well."

"I'll tell Hermione."

"Ok?"

"Yes Professor, no problem Professor."

"Hmm..." Snape chewed slowly, with a slight nasal sound at the end. Although students' OWLs test scores were not counted as teacher performance, having two more full-mark students could also highlight his high teaching level and make him look good in front of other professors and colleagues in the potion field. "And the famous Harry Potter, supervise him to complete his homework carefully and ensure that he can successfully enter the advanced potions class next year."

"Yes Professor, no problem Professor."

Loren agreed readily. Anyway, Professor Slughorn would accept the Potions course. According to the old professor's enthusiasm for stamp collecting, even if Harry failed Potions, he could still enter the advanced Potions class.

"Use your name to urge him not to let it be known that this was my intention."

"understood……"

Loren glanced at Snape. There was only a small piece of steak left on the plate. After a few seconds of hesitation, he asked, "Professor, how is your research on the resurrection potion going?"

“Progress is slow.”

Snape's tone was flat and vague, and he seemed unwilling to talk too much about this matter. "You are still just a student now. Do what a student should do and don't get involved in the messy affairs of adult wizards."

Loren chewed the sweet and sour cherry tomatoes silently, with a calm face: "Professor, you know me. I always abide by the school rules and am a good student who abides by the rules."

Snape did not refute, probably because he believed it, and continued to remind: "Try not to hang around Hogsmeade on weekends. Go to Madam Puddifoot's Tea House for dates. Don't go to bars, especially the Hog's Head. If you see any suspicious wizards, try to stay away from them..."

Loren didn't expect Snape to give such detailed instructions. He was stunned for a moment and couldn't help asking, "What happened?"

“It hasn’t happened yet, but it may happen soon.”

Snape paused for a moment, thinking that Loren was the man chosen by Dumbledore, who was able to deal with two senior Death Eaters on his own and was proficient in the brain occupation technique, so he decided to say a few more words to make it clear to prevent this kid from checking it out of curiosity. "The mysterious man has realized that there is a problem with his wand, and has been planning to replace it with a more powerful wand, the legendary Elder Wand! Not long ago, he got the clue of the Elder Wand and ordered the Death Eaters to mobilize financial and material resources to search for it. Many dark wizards disguised themselves and hid in Hogsmeade for the generous rewards." "The Elder Wand..."

Loren repeated it with a strange expression, raised his eyebrows and asked tentatively: "What does Dumbledore think about this? There will be Hogsmeade Week in October. As the headmaster of Hogwarts, how does he plan to deal with these Death Eaters and Dark wizards?"

"He said he wanted to discuss it with Professor McGonagall..."

Snape shook his head. "You just need to know the general situation of these things. As I said before, your current responsibility is to prepare for the exam in June next year. Leave other matters to adult wizards."

"Okay, Professor..."

Realizing that Dumbledore had not revealed the true information about the Elder Wand to Snape, Loren did not continue to ask questions. He discussed some potion topics appropriately and talked about the teaching content and club activities of this school year. When it was almost time for the afternoon class, Loren left the Potions Office.

……

"What did I talk to Professor Snape about?"

Facing the two people's questioning, Loren was helpless, sighed and spread his hands, "What else can we talk about? He said something about the good students tutoring the poor students, and told me to urge you to study potions well and complete your potions homework on time..."

They were walking on a landing, passing portraits of wizards, on their way to the North Tower for Divination. Hermione was not with them as she was taking Ancient Runes instead of Divination.

Harry was furious when his friend so ruthlessly implied that he was a bad student. He waved his wand and shouted that he wanted to duel with him.

"Duel?" Loren knocked on a portrait of a knight on the wall. "Sir Cadogan, Harry wants to duel with you."

Sir Cadogan immediately drew his sword and swung it at Harry fiercely: "Come on, let's have a fair fight, a duel between knights!"

"I'm not... I didn't..." Harry couldn't hold back his expression any longer and quickened his pace to run away in embarrassment.

"Come back, you fleeing coward! Do not retreat, fight me!" Sir Cadogan shouted in a muffled voice from behind his mask, but Harry just kept going forward. Sir Cadogan wanted to chase him, so he jumped into an adjacent painting and was entangled by a fierce-looking wolfhound in the portrait.

Follow the winding stairs up all the way to the top of the North Tower, climb up a silver ladder and pass through the trap door above your head to enter Sybill Trelawney's classroom.

"Hello, students. Welcome back to the Divination class. I have been following your fortunes throughout the summer..."

Professor Trelawney chanted in that vague and dreamy voice. She was still skinny, wearing black-framed glasses that covered half of her face, wrapped in a thick shawl, with all kinds of ornaments hanging on her body, and was forced to sit in front of the stove.

The weak fire gave off an unpleasant odor of spices, and the lamp covered with a drape made the whole room very dim.

After sitting for less than ten minutes, the little wizards became sleepy, their eyelids began to droop, and their heads nodded on the table.

Divination class is a course that many young wizards love and hate. They love it because the homework and exams are easy and they don't need to use their brains. They can get high scores by making up some bad luck. They hate it because of Professor Trelawney's unique teaching style. She is used to using terrifying curses to wake up students when they are drowsy...

Loren opened this semester's divination textbook, "A Guide to Dream Interpretation" compiled by Inigo Inmag, a thick tome.

Although it is unclear what specific outstanding contributions this wizard Inmag has made, after Loren spent twenty minutes reading the introduction, he was convinced that he was an amazing wizard. A "Guide to Dream Interpretation" not only provides relevant theoretical knowledge, but also has the ability to guide people to practice.

"As expected of a wizard who can publish a book..."

Loren nodded in admiration, then nodded again, repeated the above actions, and soon closed his eyes and fell into a dreamlike trance.

I don't know how much time had passed, but when Loren came to his senses again, the divination class had ended, and he could hear Ron mumbling and complaining about his homework.

"Goodness, it's only Monday and we already have so much homework? Binns wants us to write a foot-and-a-half-long paper on the Giant Wars; Snape wants a foot-long paper on the uses of moonstones; and now Trelawney wants us to write down our dreams for a month! Fred and George said this Overwatch year was going to be hard, and it seems to be, isn't it? That Umbridge woman had better stop giving us -"

On the way back to the main building of the castle, Harry walked on the outside, carefully avoiding the frame where Sir Cadogan might appear. Ron walked beside him, and not far in front was Hermione, who had just finished ancient runes class, and Loren, who was yawning.

"Heh..." Loren yawned again and said lazily, "I have History of Magic in the morning and Divination in the afternoon. I'm sure I'll suffer from insomnia when I go back tonight."

"I don't think so. You sleep better than some animals." Hermione replied casually.

"I suspect you are insulting me."

"How could that be? This is a compliment..." Hermione asked softly while checking the house number. "According to the information revealed by Professor Snape, the old wand in the fairy tale actually exists? Is there really a wand in the world that is powerful enough to defeat the god of death?"

"Don't think I don't know you're trying to change the subject." Loren shook his shoulder and bumped her. "Since the invisibility cloak is real, why is it surprising that an elder wand appeared?"

"But the invisibility cloak is not as powerful as the legend says. It can't hide from the pursuit of the god of death, or even from some wizards with keen perception."

"The Elder Wand cannot always bring victory to its master."

"..."

Hermione's face wrinkled up as she fell into deep thought.

When they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, they found Professor Umbridge already sitting behind the podium.

She was wearing the same fuzzy pink cardigan she had worn the night before, with the same black velvet bow on top of her head. The strong sense of déjà vu was so vivid that every student had the same image in their mind—

A large fly foolishly landed on a larger toad.

(End of this chapter)