Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 261 Toby and Snape
Harry stood anxiously at the door of the office, and Ron and Hermione also came along. They had decided to tell Professor Highmore what happened last night according to the results of divination, otherwise nothing good would happen.

For three full times, they had to take the initiative to tell Professor Haimo about the results of each divination, which did not reassure them.

The door of the office was slowly pushed open, and Harry couldn't wait to step forward and said, "Professor Highmore, we—Professor Lupine? So you're here too."

The person who opened the door was Lupine. Seeing Harry's reaction, he said with a smile, "It seems that I'm still not that popular compared to Toby. I'm probably going to fail this year's teacher recognition fair."

Harry opened his mouth, his expression becoming a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Professor Higher's voice came from the room in time: "Is that Harry? Just come in--and you two?"

Professor Haimer behind the desk cast his eyes on Ron and Hermione who followed, and his tone suddenly became less friendly: "Don't tell me it's because of what trouble you have caused, and now I think about it." Let me apologize, I have seen this lineup many times."

"No not exactly, Professor." Harry stammered, with a hesitant expression on his face.

"Is it because of me?" Lupine standing at the door said helplessly, "Okay, I'll go now—don't forget what I just told you, Toby."

Toby nodded, and after Lupine left, he saw curious expressions on the faces of the three of them.

"This has nothing to do with you." He frowned and said, his eyes became a lot more serious: "It's not convenient for Remus to know—is it because of the Horcrux?"

"No." Harry shook his head, he took another look at Hermione and Ron, and finally said: "Actually, it was because of Sirius, he appeared at Hogwarts last night, to be precise In the fireplace."

Sirius again?

Just now Remus finished telling that he saw Sirius when he was divining that he was killed, and it turned out that Sirius happened to appear at Hogwarts just last night?
Toby probably understood the way Sirius appeared—it was one of the functions of the Floo powder. It didn't need to go through the fireplace, just put his head into the magic fire.

After listening to Harry's story, Toby asked solemnly: "Does anyone else know about this?"

"It's just us," Hermione said cautiously, and neither Ron nor Harry said a word.

"What's the matter?" Toby asked, "Is there anything I don't know?"

All three knew that lying to Professor Highmore would lead to very serious consequences.This time it was still Harry, he said in a low voice without hesitation for too long: "At first we didn't intend to tell you, but we did divination three times, and found that if we concealed it, there would definitely be no good consequences—it was because Sirius was Has anyone found out? Will he be in danger?"

"You must have misunderstood." Toby said with a sneer, "Maybe he is not the only one who will be in danger—by the way, you will bring this thing with you in the future."

Then Harry saw the familiar scene again—Professor Highmore took off the head of a skeleton without hesitation, turned it into a pendant on a necklace, and then handed the skull necklace to him.

"The next time Sirius comes to see you, remember to let me know in time - this is very important, do you understand, Harry?"

Harry put the necklace away silently, and left with Ron and Hermione.

"What do you mean it's not just him?" In the corridor, Ron asked in a low voice, "Are there other people in danger?"

"I'm more worried about whether this method is feasible." Hermione said in fear, "Didn't you see the expression on Professor Highmore's face? It's almost the same as when he turned into a devil before. It's so cold and frightening."

"But we can only do this." Harry said, clutching the necklace hidden under his clothes, "This is the answer given to us by divination, and it has never been so consistent."

This is true.

The three of them once guessed the taste of the same bean together, but after trying many times, at most, only two of them guessed it right together, and they were never all right.

In the Ancient Magic Office, Toby was still staring at the direction where the three of Harry left.

"Sirius Black," he murmured, "is it you or someone else."
-
At Hogwarts, the activities of the teacher recognition meeting will continue for a long time.Almost all students now know what makes this year so different—not an interview, but a student giving a lecture to a professor.

This was a novelty, and Harry, the group of selected students, would often be mobbed and asked what lessons they taught the professors.

"That's Headmaster Dumbledore!"

Harry's number one fan, Colin Creevey, said what Harry had heard countless times, and asked with bright eyes: "Can you get me a copy of the headmaster's autograph? I want to show it to my brother." Look, he'll be in school next year."

"I—what?" Harry originally wanted to agree casually, but he couldn't do it after hearing it clearly: "We are in class, not a signing event."

In fact, it was Harry himself who didn't dare to make such a request to Headmaster Dumbledore. He felt that he hadn't gotten to know the headmaster that well.

Then, to Harry's surprise, in the special class that night, Principal Dumbledore cheerfully took out a note and wrote his own name on it in beautiful fonts.

"I think this will satisfy Mr. Creevey's brother." He said gently: "Of course, it might be better if it is signed on a chocolate frog card, but it must risk violating the "Secrecy Act" , Strictly speaking, his younger brother has not officially entered the magic world."

Harry put the note away in surprise, and he heard Headmaster Dumbledore continue, "So what are we going to learn today, Harry?"

"It's still a devil, okay?" Harry asked a little nervously, that's all he could really grasp.

"No problem." Dumbledore spoke very well.

Since Dumbledore told Harry the importance of "love" in the class some time ago, this class has returned to its original appearance-Harry still holds the position of professor, and Dumbledore seems to be a A simple and studious student, he never expresses rejection to Harry's subject.

Harry also asked several times, wanting to know when the so-called magic related to "love" could be taught to him.But Dumbledore's rhetoric is still the same old one, it has to wait for Harry to realize it himself, otherwise no one can really teach him.

Fortunately, at the same time, Professor Highmore's tutoring was also going on at the same time, which allowed Harry to learn a lot of new skills related to the devil, otherwise he really didn't know how to continue.

In the office, the rune snake turned from black smoke floated in the air. Under Harry's constant control, it made various difficult movements, especially the three heads were very flexible. This was taught by Professor Haimer. learned in training.

"Sometimes I have to fight Cedric."

Harry unknowingly told the story of his training process: "His devil badger is very powerful, faster than my rune snake, sometimes I have to use some unexpected means to beat him. As it is now—”

He played the tune again in Parseltongue, and the three heads of the rune snake spun around rapidly, almost turning into a small windmill, so fast that it was hard to see how many heads it had.

Dumbledore watched this scene with interest, but his eyes were a little dignified. He asked, "It looks extremely destructive. Will you and Mr. Diggory be injured during training?"

"Although there was—" Harry said wryly, "but it wasn't because of the other party's devil, but because of Professor Haimer. He has already increased the number of flame balls to three, and it is said that he will also add the golden snitch. Don't know what he's going to do."

How to catch a snitch covered in flames.

"I can't imagine that either," said Dumbledore.

Harry didn't realize that there was something wrong with Dumbledore's tone at all, he just asked curiously: "Then Headmaster, can you summon your own devil now?"

"About this matter——" Dumbledore said with a smile: "I'm afraid it will take a while, but you don't have to put any psychological burden on it. You can give me a failing test result. It will definitely be a completely novel experience."

Harry had never thought of doing this, his mouth opened wide in surprise, and he didn't close it for a long time.

After tonight's lessons were over, Harry left the office, leaving Dumbledore to sit by himself.

His expression is no longer so relaxed now.

Originally, he wanted to attract Toby's attention through Cedric, but he didn't expect Toby to focus on Harry, and he continued to intensify Harry's practice against the devil.

This is not such a good sign.

After a short silence, Dumbledore drew out his wand, and he conjured up a silver Patronus, a phoenix.

Phoenix flew out of the office in twos and all the way to the basement of the castle, found an office and got in.

Inside the room was Snape who was concocting the wolfsbane potion. This was not an easy job. Even a potion master needed a lot of time in advance to make the potion available to Lupine on the full moon.That's why Snape was so resistant to this. Every long configuration process was a kind of torture for him, full of resentment and dissatisfaction.

This kept him from raising his head when the phoenix appeared, completely treating Dumbledore's Patronus as air.

"I need your help, Severus."

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but Dumbledore's voice came out: "It's the same old question, Toby."

Snape listened silently for a while, and after Phoenix stopped talking, he said in a cold tone: "I've told you more than once, you shouldn't have let him come back in the first place!"

The phoenix didn't answer, its silvery light disappeared.
-
Office of Ancient Magic.

"Come in, who's coming to me at this late hour, Severus."

Toby, who was sitting behind the desk, stared up at Snape, then he lowered his head again, and asked in a flat tone, "What are you looking for? Is it for a salary increase?"

Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "I don't remember ever talking to you about it."

"It will be mentioned sooner or later." Toby said casually: "Who made you never rich. Do you know that archaeology is a very profitable business, let me get you Envious of countless times of gold—to be honest, I also longed for more gold when I was in school, but I never thought it would be so easy to come by. As long as you let go of yourself a little, it is very easy to do."

"If I'm not mistaken, you're blaming Dumbledore for restricting you too much?" Snape asked.

"It's about the same," Toby said without looking up, "who would like to be called to talk all the time."

The room was silent for a while, and Al was snoring slightly from the bedroom on the other side. He had already fallen asleep, and he had to continue to help rehearse "The Legend of Sirius" tomorrow.

Snape walked to the desk, and he looked down at the two things Toby was staring at - one was a piece of parchment, and the other was an old book, which looked very worn.

"What are these?" Snape asked.

"Some interesting things." Toby leaned back on the seat and said, "One of them was given to me by the principal, and the other was given to me by a student—want to try it?" He suddenly thought road.

Snape gave Toby a suspicious look, but Toby's eyes were hidden behind his hair, and he couldn't see anything.

He picked up the parchment and read it over and over again, but nothing was written on it.

"Reveal your true form!" Snape tapped the map vigorously.

As if writing with an invisible hand, the smooth surface of the map showed the writing.

"Moony greeted Professor Snape and begged him not to poke his ridiculously large nose into other people's business."

Snape froze, Toby poked his head curiously and laughed happily.

There is more behind.

"Mr. Prongs agrees with Moonface, and would add that Professor Snape is a wretch and an ugly wretch."

"Mr. Padfoot is here to express his surprise that such an idiot should become a professor."

"Mr. Wormtail taught Snape Doane and advised him to wash his hair, big mudball."

Snape was shaking with rage, and he said through his teeth, "If you're just trying to humiliate me—"

"Haven't you figured it out?" Toby suddenly interrupted, took the parchment from Snape, and said solemnly: "Professor Toby Highmore, I order you to reveal the hidden message! "

New writing appeared on the parchment.

"The black devil can actually become a professor? What happened, did Dumbledore get killed by him?"

"Look." Toby nodded the parchment with his finger and said, "Have you not figured out whose tone this is? There are not so many people who know my nickname, James Potter, it can only be he."

Snape stared at Toby for a moment, as if wondering if this was a farce of Toby's own making - not impossible.

"Do you believe in the soul?" Toby suddenly asked again: "What do you think your soul is like?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you." Snape said coldly.

"But I can tell you what my soul is like." Toby said undisturbed, he deliberately lowered his voice: "It's terrible, sometimes I even doubt it, it's already stronger than my body Die first."

Snape sneered: "It's much better than I imagined, at least your body is still alive."

"Okay." Toby clapped his hands, and he said happily: "Now we all know that you want to put me to death-then why are you looking for me tonight? Are you planning to have a life-and-death duel? "

"If there is a chance." Snape said tit-for-tat: "But unfortunately it's not tonight, I came to see you for something else—"

"Devil, I'm very interested in this magic. It's time to show your achievements in front of old classmates, Toby Highmore, so that I can see if your ideals are not so ridiculous."

Toby slowly restrained the smile on his face.

"Trust me." He said earnestly, "You don't want to learn this magic. What do you want to do? Immerse yourself in the pain of Lily's death all day long."

Snape stared at him silently, saying nothing.

Toby shook his head helplessly.

"It seems that you have already done so."

(End of this chapter)