Harry Potter and the Burnt Badger

Before the boy from Slytherin House could react, Professor Trelawney had already walked away from his table, explaining as he walked: "The question of magic, the question of power, decadence, failure .Oh, Patty, poor Patty, that rain wasn't all."

"You're about to be in trouble, kid."

The professor resumed his steps and finally stopped beside Louisa Petty. She patted Louisa's shoulder gently, as if to comfort Louisa.

It is conceivable that this kind of comfort will never have any effect.

"Monsters, ferocious and terrifying monsters will come to you, Petty, the black mist, the majestic heavy rain... these represent monsters full of magic and are a symbol of disaster! In fact, I'm afraid you will not be the only one to suffer. , there will be other people suffering, although it is not your fault - yes, child, this is not your fault, you are also a victim. And the boy who appeared at the end, a familiar yet strange person, this is not What a good sign, Patty, the strange guardian, that is the perpetrator."

Professor Trelawney's voice sounded like she was telling a ghost story, and several young wizards laughed in a low voice. Fortunately, Professor Trelawney had long been used to this situation. She leaned down and continued to rely on her Using the rigid and unclear prophecy knowledge in his belly, he interpreted "Petti! Be careful of the thin man in black! He will be the source of all evil invasions!"

Louisa shivered violently and nodded hurriedly.

In the corner of the classroom, Moon suddenly felt a throbbing in his heart.

He looked at the textbook in front of him in surprise, suddenly realized something, raised his hand and flipped through the book at random.

It was an illustration that took up a full page. A huge python coiled its body and spat out a long letter. Countless black shadows spread out from behind, occupying the entire page like claws.

Before Moon could think about it carefully, ahead, there was a sudden explosion on the table where Professor Trelawney's equipment was stacked - a crystal ball that had been placed there suddenly exploded for no apparent reason, and then, a The silver-handled knife flew up in a spin, drew a parabola in the air, and stabbed firmly into Louisa's table, even nailing Patty's scarf directly through it.

Moon wanted to stop him, but the throbbing in his heart forcefully suppressed his impulse. It was as if there was an invisible voice reminding him: Don't move, no one will be hurt. Look carefully, carefully. look.

Everyone was startled, especially Louisa, even though she was not next to her table just now and would not be hurt by the knife.The problem, however, was that Professor Trelawney had just said those horrifying words to her.Now that something unexpected happened, how could she remain calm?

The girl was so frightened that she screamed, and Professor Trelawney was also at a loss.She couldn't figure out why the crystal ball exploded, let alone why the knife flew over so coincidentally.This was very much like an omen, but Professor Trelawney received no message at all.

This made her worry about gains and losses for a while, and she even forgot to take care of the girl next to her in a daze.There was nothing she could do, she really wanted to know if this was a prompt from her third eye.

"professor!"

Fortunately, a voice immediately brought Professor Trelawney back from her aimless thoughts. She exhaled and quickly leaned down to check on Louisa's condition. "Child, are you okay?"

Louisa also calmed down a little. She quickly shook her head, timidly pulled out the knife that was nailed to the scarf, and then quickly threw the knife aside as if she was afraid of being burned by the thing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, students." Professor Trelawney comforted Louisa in a low voice, then stood up straight and said as calmly as possible: "I think it may be too hot in the room. There are some problems with the crystal ball that has been in use for a long time, so don’t worry. Well, I think that’s the end of today’s lesson.”

Normally, Professor Trelawney would have boasted about this accident, such as "She had foreseen this scene a long time ago" and "She knew Louisa Petty would be in danger." So much.

But now, she was eager to try to do a formal divination - there was no way, everything was too coincidental, and she had to be moved by it.

Maybe this is her chance, a chance to make a truly 100% accurate prediction instead of continuing to guess and speculate with those specious words.

The little wizards walked out of the classroom one by one. Moon lowered his head and put away his books, glanced at the thin knife mark on Louisa's desk, and chose to walk at the end.

Professor Trelawney, who had laid out the card array, had begun to eagerly turn over her cards. She didn't even notice that Moon, who was about to leave, stopped in his tracks and stopped at the spot she was about to turn over. on that card.

He also needs that card, the one that holds the information he needs.

The fingers that were so thin that their joints stood out turned over the first card.

"Devil...submission, slave of desire, ulterior motives..."

Professor Trelawney went to turn over the second card in her deck, and at this time, she was the only one left in the classroom.

Chapter No.17 Unicorns and Ghouls

In the end, this year’s school newspaper office only recruited one new person—a round number of 20 people.

The new little wizard is named Anthony Goldstein. He is in the same grade as Hesper and Quaid. He has just entered the second grade of school and is a Ravenclaw student.The little boy is young and has a good personality. He is not particularly outgoing, but he is not boring either. He has a bright mind. It is said that he is related to the famous magizoologist, Newt Scamander. . [Note 1]

However, judging from the few days of chatting with him when he agreed to his application, Anthony didn't seem to be very interested in magical animals.

There was no embarrassing incident about Professor Lockhart in Monday's school newspaper, which was obviously beyond everyone's expectations.However, no one came to ask Moon and others, because almost all the young wizards gave their own reasonable guesses after being surprised: they felt that it was probably Professor McGonagall who did not allow the relevant manuscripts to be released.

Think about it, unless it is published in the "Campus Gossip" section, how can such a manuscript, which will definitely affect the reputation of Professor Lockhart and the entire Hogwarts, appear openly in the school newspaper.

Everyone accepted this reason smoothly, and Lockhart, who had been hiding in the staff room for the past few days, was obviously relieved.

As long as there is no reward, everything is easy to say.

On Tuesday, after experiencing the torture of Potions class again, the young wizards who had taken the Care of Magical Creatures class shuffled outside the castle, muttering nothing but complaints.

"Oh my God, I think there is absolutely no hope for me to pass next year's OWLs." Milton grimaced. "No, to be precise, I think I may not even be able to pass this year's final exam."

"Not accurate enough, Milton." Gal patted Milton on the shoulder. "You didn't pass last year's Potions final exam. Don't forget, you only got a D (bad)."

It was obviously just a simple statement of facts, but it was like a sharp knife stabbing into Milton's chest accurately.

"And you didn't get very good marks in Care of Magical Creatures." Yaerin walked to the other side of Milton and raised his hand on Milton's shoulder. The professor is going to execute you a few more times."

Hearing the chat between the three of them, the people walking together laughed. There was even a Ravenclaw boy who had a good relationship with Milton who pretended to imitate Professor Kettleburn's words in the previous class:

"Haha - you can even draw the wrong shape of the Bowtruckle's fingers. You two are the only ones in the class! Especially you, Mr. Travers. If you hadn't seen the title, I would have thought you were drawing a broom head. !”

Milton was so angry that he wanted to go up and chase the Ravenclaw boy, but was stopped by Arlin and Garr who were laughing and laughing.

"Don't panic, Milton, maybe Professor Kettleburn will talk about something else in this class? Right~"

Milton wanted to say a few more words for himself, but before he could speak, the fussing calls of brothers Fred and George could be heard in the distance.Immediately afterwards, there was a large number of girls shouting - to be honest, the shouts were a bit too excited, so much so that it sounded a bit like Professor Kettleburn dragging the girl from two weeks ago. Gilderoy Lockhart is here to teach everyone, otherwise it would be difficult to explain why these girls are so excited.

However, when Violet and several of her roommates turned their heads first, they also started to exclaim.

In the center of the woodland where the class was taking place, Professor Kettleburn was panting and sitting next to a big stone. Beside him, a large three small four unicorns stood there quietly, paying attention to the surrounding situation. , while quietly eating the green grass on the ground.

The body of the adult unicorn is very tall and straight, and the muscle lines are very smooth. It has a pleasing beauty, and there is no trace of color or dirt on the whole body.If it stood still there, it would almost be mistaken for a pure white stone sculpture.The three smaller baby unicorns are not pure white, but have some golden light. They seem to be moving from infancy to adolescence, and they have not yet grown the sharp horns on their heads. .

No wonder these girls are getting more excited than the other. There are not many unicorns in the UK. It is even more difficult for little wizards like them who are still young and have no chance to travel around to see them. They can only read them from books. See the real face in the photos.Now that I have finally seen my true form, it would be weird not to scream.

In fact, if they didn't feel shy and embarrassed, I'm afraid many boys would start yelling along with me.

After the little wizards gathered around Professor Kettleburn one by one, Professor Kettleburn stood up straight, wandered to the middle of the open space, clapped his hands, "Quiet! Quiet! Okay, don't Look at these unicorns again. You will have a chance to see them later. Now, turn your eyes to me!"

"Come, before the class officially starts, can anyone tell me something related to unicorns - you, that Hufflepuff girl, Demi Noel, right, Miss Noel, please tell me."

Demi took a step forward and couldn't help but take another look at the unicorns. Then she suppressed her excitement and said: "A unicorn is a kind of horse that looks like a horse, but has a sharp horn on its forehead. Magical animals. They are very powerful and can discern people's hearts and distinguish between good and evil. They will only allow pure girls to approach them, while others will be avoided by them."

"Is there more? Very good, you can go back." Professor Kettleburn curled his lips. "It's very dreamy, Miss Noel, but it's too dreamy. Unicorns can't recognize people's hearts, and they can't distinguish good from evil. They Those who are welcome are not pure girls, but virgins. As for good and bad hearts, they cannot tell, otherwise they would not be killed by so many money-hungry hunters."

"Furthermore, unicorns are creatures with certain intelligence. If you get familiar with them and let them understand that you don't mean any harm, you can still deal with them, even if you are a wizard. So, is there anything else? ? Does anyone know anything else? Fox? Digory?"

Cedric glanced at Munn and saw that he had no intention of stepping forward yet, so he took the initiative to take a step forward. "Well, the unicorn's horn, blood and tail hair all have strong magical effects. Their The horns can detoxify, the tail hairs can be used as the core of the wand, and their blood, if you drink their blood, can bring people back to life. Also, the Ministry of Magic's classification of unicorns should be XXXX. "

Professor Kettleburn waved his hand again, gesturing for Cedric to return to the crowd, "Yes, basically everything is correct, but there is one thing - pay attention, although the blood of unicorns can indeed bring people back to life and regain their consciousness. Power. However, their innate holiness makes their blood carry a powerful curse. Anyone who attempts to use the blood of a unicorn to gain new life can only enjoy half of their life. As for the remaining half, they can only Sink in the terrifying curse. Therefore, never pay attention to the unicorn, it will only make people's lives miserable."

"Come on, is there anyone from other colleges who can stand up and say a few words?"

A Slytherin girl raised her hand, and then with Professor Kettleburn's nod, she said: "Unicorn cubs are not white, but pure gold. They will be around two years old." It turns silver when it is young, and begins to grow horns when it is four years old. It is not fully adult until it is seven years old, and its coat color will also change to snow white at that time."

"Excellent, absolutely correct. 10 points for Hufflepuff and 5 points for Slytherin." Professor Kettleburn clapped his hands. "Those two red-haired little bastards, if you dare to throw the things in your hands over , I will let you swim three times in the Black Lake - do what you say!"

The person who satisfies the three criteria of "two", "redhead" and "bastard" at the same time, no one needs to think about it to know that it must be Fred and George.Sure enough, the two of them were stuffing the things in their hands into their pockets with a playful smile.Although no one could see clearly what it was, there was no doubt that it was definitely not something fun.

And they both stopped laughing soon, because almost all the girls glared at them fiercely, which was even more powerful than Professor Kettleburn's intimidation.

"Next, the girls among you will be allowed to get close to the unicorns, say hello to them, and have some simple physical contact. For example, touching their foreheads and backs, and combing their manes. The boys will be in the first few sessions. We can only take a look at the class first and try to get closer to the unicorns with the help of the girls. If everything goes well, a few of you should be able to encounter these unicorns after three or five classes."

Hearing this, the girls suddenly became more excited, while a few boys sighed and complained that it was unfair, hoping to give it a try immediately - who can guarantee that no miracle will happen?

Professor Kettleburn paused his wooden prosthetic leg heavily on the ground, loudly stopped the shouting of the little wizards, and then said in a rough voice: "Listen! I haven't finished speaking yet! Don't Stupidly hold on to the storybook fantasies in your minds to get close to unicorns. Don’t forget, Mr. Diggory has already told you that unicorns are XXXX-level creatures in the Ministry of Magic’s danger classification. They are not velvet velvets that you can hold in your arms and be affectionate with!"

In fact, Class XXXX is not dangerous at all in the eyes of Professor Kettleburn. After all, this is a Wolf Mie who eagerly looks forward to leading a fire dragon over every day.If it were any other creature, Professor Kettleburn might not even bother to say a word.

But he just didn't like the love these children had for unicorns.

What’s the use of being beautiful!It can be used as food!Besides, unicorns are not as beautiful as dragons!

No vision!

Looking at the girls who immediately approached the unicorn excitedly as soon as they were "unsealed", Professor Kettleburn curled his lips, turned around and went back to lean on his big rock.

"We can only watch here helplessly..." Yaerlin tugged at his robe, rolled his eyes, stared at Munn and whispered: "Hey, Munn, didn't you give a few orders in class that day? A Cornish elf? I thought you might be able to..."

Moon pushed Yaerin away dumbfounded, and also lowered his voice, "Don't think about it, it's fine to watch him honestly. There is no need to do such eye-catching things in class."

Arlin's eyes suddenly widened. "You can really do it?!"

"It should be no problem. Even if the adult one can't do it, a few small ones can definitely do it." Moon waved his wand, cleared a clear space on the ground, and then sat down cross-legged. "But - I won't do it, so You don’t have to think about it.”

"Okay, you're right." Yaerlin also sat next to Moon and looked at the girls in front of him with envy. "If you show this hand here, it will definitely scare Professor Kettleburn." Jumped."

…………

Facts have proved that the power of unicorns is indeed powerful. During lunch, after the girls who had chosen the Care of Magical Creatures course mentioned that they had touched the fur of a unicorn today, those little wizards who had chosen other courses, The young wizards in the lower grades all became very excited, and even a few first- and second-year wizards immediately made decisions about their future elective courses.

Even in the astronomy class in the evening, there were still some people who kept muttering in low voices - which ended up irritating Professor Sinistra and making their already heavy homework today even worse.

Now, everyone is finally willing to put this issue behind them.

In the Transfiguration class on Wednesday afternoon, Professor McGonagall once again showed them how to turn a hedgehog into a pincushion and let everyone start trying.Moon and Cedric scored fifteen extra points for Hufflepuff as usual. One of them turned the hedgehog into a neat square pincushion without any hindrance, while the other, although not completely successful, turned the hedgehog into a neat square pincushion. The resulting pincushion still looks a bit irregular, but it can be considered 80% successful.

But after the extra points are over, what will start next is obviously one-on-one execution.

Having been taking Transfiguration classes for three years, these little Hufflepuff badgers are already familiar with Professor McGonagall's class routines.

"Miss Woodman, come, let me see your results."

Professor McGonagall's footsteps finally stopped next to Kelly Woodman, that elegant girl with short hair.

Kelly blushed slightly, sat up straight, then cleared her throat and waved her wand.

The hedgehog did not turn into a pincushion, but all the hair on its back drooped softly, as if it had transformed from a hedgehog into a weird long-haired mouse in an instant.

"Okay, it seems you need to practice more." Professor McGonagall nodded. "Pay attention to the hand waving the wand, and be more precise. Your waving trajectory is a bit too sharp."

Kelly humbly accepted Professor McGonagall's full criticism. Professor McGonagall was obviously very satisfied with this. She turned around, but before she could speak, she found Milton pointing his wand at the hedgehog.

No one could tell whether it was the hedgehog that puffed up into three sizes first, as if it had been pumped up, or Professor McGonagall's sigh that came out first.Anyway, these two things almost happened together.

"Mr. Travers, when you turn a hedgehog into a pincushion, you should think of a pincushion, not a balloon." Professor McGonagall waved her hand to "release" all the air from the hedgehog. Then he glared at Milton, "Not any other round thing."

Milton humbly accepted all of Professor McGonagall's criticisms, and then, in less than ten seconds, his hedgehog was inflated again.

Gal and Yaerlin thought of what Munn would occasionally say, "Accept with an open mind and never repent." They laughed so hard in front that they almost lost their breath.

But it turns out that smiling too much can lead to retribution.

In Thursday's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Sirius found a ghoul from nowhere. Garr probably didn't listen very carefully and only remembered what Sirius said: "A ghoul is not something." Dangerous creatures", as well as other little wizards' teasing about ghouls before class.

So while Sirius was answering the question of another girl in the class, he smiled and handed his hand to the moaning ghoul.

To be honest, the ghouls here are indeed not very dangerous - they have simple minds, and their limbs are not very developed. The most intimidating thing about them is probably their ugly faces.Moreover, they always eat spiders and moths as their staple food. They just like to throw things around and moan all day long. They will only yell when they encounter people. The only threat is to scare those who come near. .

But maybe Gal was too unlucky, and this ghoul just wanted a change of taste; maybe this ghoul, although simple-minded, still saw Gal's provocation.

In short, facing the fleshy little hand presented to him, the ghoul opened his mouth and bit it without any politeness.

In this way, Garr was sent to Madam Pomfrey and granted a one-night trip to the school hospital.

Although the ghoul's teeth are not sharp, and the bite force is not very strong, the bite may not be as painful as a big dog's bite.But the problem is that their mouths are full of fishy smell, and even their saliva seems to be a little green.When Gal tried to pull out his arm, he used too much force and accidentally scratched his skin on the ghoul's teeth.

The injury was not serious, but the subsequent infection caused his entire arm to become swollen almost as much as his thigh.

And the pain is quite intense.

He was too embarrassed to cry in front of Demi. As soon as Demi left, Gal immediately hugged Arlin and started howling like a wolf.The howling was so tragic that it made those who heard it sad and those who saw it shed tears.

Chapter 18 Sound

Fortunately, the wound bitten by the ghoul did not have much impact on Gal. Although he suffered in pain for a long time, Gal was able to come back to class with everyone just the next day. .

But the first lesson on Friday morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

It is conceivable that for almost the entire class, Gal was staring at the ghoul - and Sirius with regret.Of course, occasionally he would cast resentful glances at other students.

After all... no snowflake is innocent during an avalanche.

Yes, it is like that.

Finally, after a whole day of study, the little wizards happily returned to the common room in the evening, ready to embrace their hard-won weekend.None of the four people in Moon's dormitory went back. Cedric couldn't resist Arlin's request and took him and Garr to the Quidditch pitch to watch the selection ceremony of the Hufflepuff Quidditch Academy team. Moon Then he ran to the Owl Tower alone, preparing to order a few things by mail.

The Owl Tower in Hogwarts always exudes a peculiar smell. Although the house elves have come to clean it on time, the large number of owls here is so destructive that the house elves often have to work hard to clean it up. After a while it will become useless.It's usually fine, but at worst I'll have to clean it up every once in a while.But when it was time for dinner, the house elves obviously couldn't get away.

The tower is full of peculiar smell, and from time to time you can hear the strange cries of owls. It is no exaggeration to say that if two timid people who are not familiar with Hogwarts come up until late at night, I am afraid that they will be shocked. I was so scared that I cried.

All the way up the stone steps, before climbing too far, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from above.Moon looked up curiously, and happened to look into Harry's eyes, who was holding a large package.

"Hey, Moon, are you here to send a letter?"

"Yes." Moon agreed, turning sideways and making way for Harry to go downstairs.As a result, the owl above suddenly screamed loudly, just in time to wake up Munn.He slapped his forehead and grabbed Harry who was about to pass by him.

"and many more--"

"?" Harry turned around blankly, only to see Moon raise his finger and point upward.