Harry Potter and the Burnt Badger

"do not know……"

"Idiot, I don't know why you are taking the divination class. The third eye is the 'second sight'. It is the most advanced talent in prophecy and divination. It is said that only those with the third eye can truly see through the future and understand everything."

"so smart?"

"Of course I chose the divination class because it seemed the easiest..."

"Is she really that powerful? I can't tell at all."

"Are there any great professors at Hogwarts?"

"emmmm...Professor Quirrell?"

"..."

As soon as Professor Trelawney's words came out, the classroom immediately became buzzing with noise, but Professor Trelawney seemed completely unfazed, and she didn't know if she didn't hear clearly those words that questioned her. , or really don’t care at all.In short, after she waited quietly for a while, she finally cleared her throat and continued to say in her erratic, slightly unclear voice (which made her previous clearing of her throat completely meaningless): " Ahem - since you have chosen the divination class, I think you all should at least understand some things."

"First of all, I must warn everyone that Divination is the most difficult course among all the courses at Hogwarts, because Divination has extremely strict requirements on talent." She paused and even puffed out her chest. , as if she wanted to tell everyone how rare her third eye is in this way. "If you don't have the talent for divination, this course will have almost no meaning for you to learn. Because for divination, just relying on You can’t learn anything from books.”

As she said that, she suddenly turned her head and looked at a Ravenclaw girl sitting in the first row. She looked at her with a slight pity and said: "Oh, my dear, if I were you , I will definitely pay special attention to my textbooks to prevent them from suffering any unreasonable disaster today."

The Ravenclaw girl moved back without leaving a trace, while protecting her textbook with her hands.Just then, there was a sudden "crackling" sound from the fireplace, which startled her again.

"As I just said -" Professor Trelawney raised her head again "- books can play a very small role in the divination class. This is because books cannot help us see. The future. But, tea can.”

She curled her knuckles and tapped the teapot on the table. "So, throughout the first semester [Note 1], our main focus will be on learning how to interpret tea leaves. If everything goes well, then we will I will start learning how to read palms and how to use crystal balls for divination step by step.”

"Unfortunately, this year is destined to be a crisis-ridden school year. Before the Christmas vacation, we will say goodbye to a classmate forever; in the spring, our courses will be forced to delay some progress."

Moon held the book on divination and thought, here she comes, here she comes, and sure enough, Professor Trelawney has to predict the death of a classmate in class every school year.

Unlike Moon, the other students in the class were silent. This time no one was whispering to each other anymore - everyone was shocked by Trelawney's bold prediction.

Throughout the next class, Professor Trelawney made several more predictions, and there was no doubt that they were all negative.For example, she first predicted that Slytherin's Ignaz Baker would catch a bad cold in October, and then predicted that Hufflepuff's Louisa Petty would encounter some bad luck tomorrow. Son.Before get out of class ended, she finally focused on Moon, and based on Moon's tea leaves, she figured out that he would be plotted by a short man in the remaining months of this year.

However, what Moon himself read in the tea leaves was that there were no disturbances during this period and everything was peaceful.

To be honest, Moon didn't really regret that he took the divination class. After all, he wanted to take the divination class as an excuse so that he could openly tell Professor Trelawney's prophecy in the future—— In this way, he wouldn't have to worry about Professor Dumbledore's purpose of continuing to hide it from him. Although this kind of thing would most likely not happen, insurance still had to be provided.

If it comes to his ability to predict, he himself is much more reliable than Professor Trelawney.

But he did feel that he had made some miscalculations, because he originally planned to touch fish and read his own books in the divination class, but firstly, the lighting environment in the classroom did not allow it, and secondly, Professor Trelawney particularly liked to go everywhere. walk around……

A concubine can't do it...

I still have to think about something that can help me catch a fish in the divination class.

If I had known earlier, I would have dragged Violet over to take the divination class together, which might have been more interesting.

Moon thought so, and the results soon proved that classes with Violet would indeed be a lot more interesting.

On Wednesday afternoon, they took the Care of Magical Creatures class together. There were many more people taking this class than Divination, and Violet and Gal were also there. The only pity was that the professor in the class was not Hai. It was Professor Sylvanus Kettleburn, an old professor whose whole body was covered with prosthetics and who only had one good arm and half a good leg.

"Ha! Come here! What are you little guys worried about? It won't bite you, and I won't bite you. Come here!" Professor Kettleburn waved his good and flexible arms to signal everyone to come over. While shouting: "I'm just a disabled old man, and it's just an ordinary fire crab."

"Ordinary fire crabs, they really don't bite, they just spit fire from their butts." Fred and George said in unison, successfully dissuading those who were really interested in the beautiful shells of fire crabs. A girl who wants to get closer.

Professor Kettleburn was immediately so angry that he stared at his beard and shook his wooden prosthetic hand vigorously. "Don't you just stand behind it?!"

As a result, probably because the movement was too large, the fire crab made a wrong judgment. So the next second, a flame spurted out from the tail of the fire crab, almost destroying Professor Kettleburn's prosthetic leg. It's lit.

This is unfortunate news, but it is also good news. The unfortunate thing is that Professor Kettleburn has scrapped another pair of trousers. I say "good" because after the fire crab breathed fire, everyone really slowly moved closer to it. ——Maybe it’s because Gal moved first, or maybe he thought... the fire crab wouldn’t spray again soon.

-

[Note 1] The "first semester" here does not refer to the entire third grade. The third grade is an entire academic year. The so-called "first semester" taught by Professor Trelawney is actually only a part of this academic year.

Chapter 30 Questions

In the next few days, all the third-grade wizards who had taken the Divination course and the Care of Magical Creatures course were discussing these two courses non-stop: about the professor, interesting things and anecdotes in the class (anecdotes mainly refer to Professor Trelawney's third eye and several prophecies), about what troubles will arise in the future of these two courses.

In comparison, the situation of the other elective courses is much better:

Most of the people in the Muggle Studies class are deserting. Most of the young wizards from wizarding families find this class useless, while those who come from Muggle families or mixed-blood families and already know the Muggle world find this class useless. What I learned in class was backward and failed, because part of it was simply wizards' misunderstandings about Muggles.

Everyone had a great time learning the Arithmetic Divination class. After hearing about what happened in the Divination class, quite a few young wizards firmly believed that the Arithmetic Divination class was definitely more reliable than the Divination class.

Finally, there is the ancient runes class - nine out of ten young wizards who take this class really want to learn something in this class, and their professor, Bathsheda Barblin Women do have real talents and knowledge, so few people will discuss its content. At most, they can chat with each other about their own understandings, exchange notes and so on.

In any case, after a few days of classroom time, the little wizards at Hogwarts finally got back on track and started their daily study life step by step.

Of course, for many people, this is definitely not good news.

On Friday afternoon, when Garr walked out of the History of Magic classroom with heavy steps (not quite awake yet), he finally couldn't hold it back and once again lamented the third grade course "Oh my God." … If I can’t survive, there will be almost no rest time for a whole week. I have all classes in the morning, all classes in the afternoon, and a lot of homework on Saturday and Sunday. How can I survive...”

Arlin rubbed his eyelids and muttered: "Then go to Professor Kettleburn and ask for a fire crab hug. Then you won't have to go to class for the next week."

"..." Gal lowered his head dejectedly, and then quickly looked at Munn and Cedric with a hopeful gaze. Munn and Cedric looked helpless for a while.

"Help, Moon! Cedric! I'm really going to die without your support."

What else could Moon and Cedric say?We could only nod together.

To be honest, the amount of homework is indeed a bit excessive. In the first week of school, there are homeworks for Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions. And there is a lot of homework for any of the three courses, let alone Added up.In the past, they could at least use their spare time to write, but this year... they have almost no spare time. Even Gal and others who only chose two electives only have one class free time on Wednesday morning. .

Moon, in particular, was obligated to "lend them their homework to copy". After all, everyone had to be busy with the school newspaper on the weekend.

"Long live!" Gal instantly became more energetic. He rushed forward and hugged Munn and Cedric. Looking at their excited expressions, he probably wanted to kiss Munn and Cedric on their faces—— Fortunately, he didn't, because Demi, Violet and the four girls from the dormitory were nearby.

Then again, even if they still have a lot of homework to do on the weekend, at least they have two full days without having to get up early to go to class, which is some comfort to the little wizards.Therefore, when we arrived at the auditorium and saw the table full of food, everyone still smiled and happily ate while chatting about class matters and weekend arrangements.

After dinner, Moon returned to the dormitory with everyone. Before sitting down for a while, he took his bag and went straight to the principal's office.

Today was Friday, and he had no rest at night. He had to report to Professor Dumbledore.

From nine in the morning to nine in the evening, there was only a short break during meal time and between classes. When Moon stood in front of the gargoyle at the door of the principal's office, he suddenly couldn't help but think, did this count for him? Have you become a different kind of 996 social animal?

"..." My mood suddenly became bleak.

"Ahem, caramel pudding."

The gargoyle stood up in response and jumped to the side, revealing the spiral staircase behind it.

Moon sighed, rubbed his hair vigorously, and then strode up the stairs to the principal's office.

The door was unlocked and slightly open.

Before Moon knocked on the door, Professor Dumbledore's voice came from the door, "Ah, Moon, it's you, just come in."

Munn responded and pushed the door open, only to find that the old man was dressed very formally - a beautiful white robe with gold pendants, clean and stylish black boots, and even a rare hat on his head. A serious wizard's hat.

"Ha, don't get me wrong. I just came back and haven't had time to change my clothes yet." Professor Dumbledore flicked his finger, and the chair opposite his desk pulled out on its own. "Sit down first. I'm very tired today." Damn it, I traveled to three or four places in one afternoon and met a lot of people. Let me take a breath and let’s talk about business again.”

He took off his hat and hung it aside, then wiped his hands with a towel on the shelf beside him, then sat down opposite Moon and snapped his fingers.

Two drinks appeared in response, one in the old man's hand and one in Moon's hand.

"You seem to have a lot of questions you want to ask me." Professor Dumbledore took a sip of some unknown drink in the cup, with a satisfied smile on his face. "Tell me?"

"Well, I really have two things to ask you. One is a serious matter, and the other... is a rather boring question." Moon blinked. "I'll ask the boring one first - at the opening dinner. You didn't introduce Professor Greengrass, I've been quite curious about this for the past few days."

"Because Professor Greengrass doesn't want me to introduce him." Professor Dumbledore lightly shrugged cheerfully, "It's that simple. As for the reason, I think it's probably because he hasn't been written back into the family tree by the Greengrass family. , so I think it will be a little awkward no matter how I introduce it. Ah, let me guess, your serious question should be to ask me why I want Professor Snape to take you to learn real dark magic?"

Moon nodded.

"The answer to this question is also very simple, Moon." The old man looked at Moon and smiled slyly. "I thought about it carefully. Even if I don't let Professor Snape teach you black magic, wouldn't you go there yourself? Have you learned it?"

Chapter 31 Dumbledore’s Little Classroom

Facing Professor Dumbledore's question, Moon didn't even need to think about it and thought: Hey, you're right!

This is indeed the case. Even if Professor Dumbledore disagrees, Moon will still find some safest possible ways to learn dark magic in private - there is no need for anything else, but the fire is indeed what he has coveted for a long time.

When Professor Dumbledore asked this question, Moon roughly understood his thinking.Since you can learn it no matter what, you might as well let Professor Snape teach you directly. That way, you can at least ensure safety.

"Of course, in addition to this, I have some other small reasons, which I hope to explain to you before we start our study." Seeing Moon's look of understanding, Professor Dumbledore He continued: "First, I hope to tell you in this way that after experiencing these things in the past two years, we should at least have this level of trust between us. In other words, I have not I don’t think you could go astray due to black magic.”

"As for number two, I have to mention a Hogwarts graduate."

As he spoke, Professor Dumbledore opened the drawer, pulled out a photo from it, and handed it to Moon.

Moon looked down and found that the photo was quite old, even a little yellowed, and there were gaps at the edges caused by varying degrees of fading.The background of the photo looks like an ordinary small building. A handsome boy is standing by the stair railing at the entrance of the building, staring at the camera expressionlessly.

It is worth mentioning that this photo is a "Muggle photo", that is, the kind that cannot move.

"He is Tom Riddle - today's Voldemort." The old man's smile contained a bit of self-deprecation. "Many people say that he is a 'born bad boy', and I cannot completely deny this statement. If you had seen Lord Voldemort when he was a student at Hogwarts, maybe you would have felt the same way."

"He is different from you, Moon, worlds apart, even though you both have extraordinary talents, good looks, and overwhelming popularity. Ah, yes, Moon, Tom went to school at Hogwarts He was very likable at the time, and many people had a good impression of him. But that was just his disguise. If you ask me, Tom is really the kind of person who is born with evil intentions."

"But even today, sometimes when I think of Tom, I still can't help but think, if things had been different back then, if I could go back in time, bring him to Hogwarts again, and give him a better life. Would more care and attention make everything different?”

"Love, Moon, love is the most powerful force in the world. Even Voldemort at his peak was defeated by the power of love. This is the reason why I can't help but think about it - even if it's like Can a person like Tom be guided on the right path with love before he is fully grown?"

Moon looked away from the photo and looked directly into the old man's eyes. "You want to say that you think your education method was wrong? That's why you want to give me something different?"

"Ha, Moon, of course I do, but I have to admit that this is the maximum I can do right now." The old man said frankly: "And even if I have enough trust in you, I think I will still do it. I can't help but pay more attention to you - at my age, Moon, it's not that easy to change something deeply rooted."

"Well..." Moon picked up the drink and took another sip, then put down the cup and said seriously: "Actually, you are right. If you could have given Voldemort more care back then, maybe he would have been able to embark on the right path. . But, to be honest, I don’t have any expectations.”

"With your personality, more care means more attention. And according to you, Voldemort is a person who has been willing to pretend since he was a child and is malicious to others. For such a person, your I am afraid that caring and attention may be more terrifying to him than letting him completely let himself go. Because he will only resist and resist the attention, and consider it as a distrust of him, which will give rise to a more serious rebellious psychology."

"It is possible that someone can make Voldemort take a completely opposite life path, but that person will not be you, and in my personal opinion, you do not have this responsibility. The reason why Voldemort became the new Dark Lord is because of himself , rather than how you treated him back then. Unless you abused him and treated him with malice, the blame cannot fall on you anyway - well, 'this blame' means 'problem' 'The root of it', this is my own bit of...a little mouth habit."

Moon scratched his head and accidentally recited the verbal expression from his previous life.

A smile appeared on Professor Dumbledore's face again. He looked at Moon and shook his head gently, "You are right, Moon, but don't worry, I will not let myself get hurt by this kind of thing. Qiu, it’s just...when I think about it, I feel a little emotional."

"Okay, now that we've finished talking, I think we should officially start our course. Ah, before that I have a little question - what do you want to learn from me?"

"...?" Moon looked at the ridicule in Professor Dumbledore's eyes, and his mind was filled with questions for a while.

"Don't you have any ideas?" The old man raised his eyebrows slightly. "I thought you would say you wanted to learn some spells, tips on transfiguration, and the like."

"I don't have any ideas." Moon said bluntly: "Just watch and teach me. I will learn whatever you teach me."

Professor Dumbledore burst into laughter. "To be honest, this answer is a bit unexpected, but if you think about it carefully, it does seem like something you would say. So, in that case... I will give you some tutoring first. Let’s take your History of Magic course. As far as I know, you didn’t seem to like listening to lectures when you took History of Magic.”

"That's actually because I've read all the textbooks on the History of Magic. Anyway, what Professor Binns taught is what's in the textbooks." Moon pursed his lips and muttered: "Are you usually so boring? Peeping at students All come to class.”

"I don't need to peep." Professor Dumbledore blinked, and then took out a thick tome from the nearby bookshelf with a finger. "Our first lesson, I think, is Let me first tell you about the decaying moths you have dealt with..."

Chapter 32 Decay Swarm Moth

The Decay Moths, a well-known dark wizard association, was founded by Forrest Dempsey, a well-known astronomer, ancient magician, and a current second-year Slytherin student at Hogwarts, Randall Dempsey. Pusey's biological father.

As a secret society of dark wizards with enough "notoriety", the Decay Moths are one of the few "young people" among them. They were established not long ago, and are even older than Professor Dumbledore if they were doubled in age. The Rot Group Moth is the senior member of the dark wizard association.But this does not mean that the Decay Moth is weak. On the contrary, at the beginning of its creation, the Decay Moth once became a huge scourge in the British magical world.

The reason lies in Forest Dempsey.

"As far as I know, you have fought against Forrest Dempsey. To be honest, for a young wizard of your age, this kind of record is almost an exaggeration." Professor Dumbledore said with a smile: "Based on this alone, coupled with your identity and background, the Auror Office will definitely rush to get you. Of course, this is not the focus of today. The point I want to say is that you should have seen those weird things about him. magic, right?"

"Yes, that kind of terrifying dark green poisonous mist, and the outrageous large scale powder that pours out from the tip of the wand and can reflect part of the magic." Munn nodded and replied.

"Yes, the rotworm curse, and the moth powder curse. Plus a secret moth curse that even I have only heard of. This is the basis for Forest Dempsey to create the decay group moth. , and it is also the main reason why the Decay Swarm Moth has become a huge scourge to the British wizarding world." Professor Dumbledore used his wand to lightly draw in the air, and in an instant, a dark green six-winged moth logo appeared on the screen. In front of grace.

A moth with six wings is already very strange, but the weird points about this moth are far more than that: from top to bottom, the first pair of wings is completely rotten, and there are even obvious holes in some places. ; the second pair of wings is quite twisted and intertwined with various colors, and there are some tiny dots floating outside the wings on the edges; the third pair of wings at the bottom is a very beautiful jade white, and also It exudes a slight fluorescence—it looks like the most normal pair of wings.

"We just said that Forest Dempsey is a very well-known ancient magician - that is, an ancient rune writer. He is very knowledgeable in this field and has published many works. Unfortunately, What's more, after his identity as the leader of the Dark Wizards' Association was confirmed, these books were all taken off the shelves." Professor Dumbledore said sadly: "And these three spells are what Forrest Dempsey was studying in ancient times. It was created when the runes were written.”

"Unlike many dark wizard societies that are too self-conscious about magic, Forest Dempsey shared these three spells with the dark wizards of the Decay Moth when he founded the Decay Moth. With the help of Powerful spells have an unspeakable allure to dark wizards. Dempsey used this trick to recruit a large number of dark wizards to the Decay Moth, including some who had already gained notoriety. In addition, I don’t know who Dempsey is. By what method, during the time when he was in charge of the Decay Moths, no one in the Decay Moths rebelled, which also resulted in Forest Dempsey being able to remain hidden behind the scenes until much later. He was arrested by chance.”

"It was only after it was confirmed that he had been arrested that the Decay Moths finally changed their leader and began to hide their capabilities and bide their time, no longer bragging about wreaking havoc and killing people."

At this point, Professor Dumbledore suddenly stopped talking and looked at Moon, "How are you? Did you think of anything?"

Moon nodded thoughtfully, "After Forrest Dempsey escaped from prison this time, there was no sign that he had such strong control over the Decay Moths. Even he himself wanted to Committed himself to become a Death Eater under Voldemort. Those who helped him escape from prison were Voldemort's people, and those who helped him attack St. Mungo's were also Voldemort's people. On the contrary, there were only a few dark wizards from the Decay Moth from the beginning to the end. Just one..."

"That's right, Moon, that's it." Professor Dumbledore's eyes showed a bit of excitement. He suddenly stood up and started pacing in the room. "After that battle, I couldn't help but think about it for a long time. , just thinking about this matter - it's so strange, why was Dempsey able to single-handedly control the Decay Moths at their peak, but when he left Azkaban and made a comeback, this control ability disappeared again Can’t you see it at all?”

The old man waved his wand again, conjuring a small Dark Mark pattern in the air [Note 1] "I dare say that if Voldemort really comes back, the Death Eaters who once gathered under his command will not be around for long. They will all come back to work for him. And even if Dempsey's control over the Decay Moths is somewhat different from Voldemort's control over the Death Eaters, there won't be only two or three big cats and kittens coming back to look for him. ?”

Moon thought for a few seconds, and then said with a slight hesitation: "I think it may be because Forest Dempsey was rescued by Voldemort's henchmen and quickly became a Death Eater. . Perhaps in this case, the dark wizards of the Decay Moths who already have new leaders do not want to join the ranks of Death Eaters with him, so most of them turned their backs on him."

"Or..." Moon looked at Professor Dumbledore, and happened to see the professor's encouraging eyes.

So he went on to say another idea that was also very possible, but completely without any basis: "Could it be that Forest Dempsey actually used some means to control the dark wizard of the Decay Moths? But because of many years of experience in Azkaban, this method has failed. So it is naturally impossible for those dark wizards who were controlled by him back then to welcome him back and let themselves be controlled by others again? "

"Very good, Moon, very good. Your idea coincides with mine." The old man smiled and nodded, waving his hand to scatter the two patterns in the air, and replaced them with the names of three spells: Rotworm Curse, Moth powder spell, secret moth spell.

"So, I took advantage of the summer vacation to do some research, and I really gained something."

As he spoke, Professor Dumbledore controlled the three spells with his fingers so that they were arranged in order from top to bottom like the wings of the moth symbol.