Hogwarts 1991

Chapter 99 The day before

And as Christmas approaches, he has to prepare Christmas gifts for his family, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

For example, the gift for the two Weasley brothers was an American-style civilian gas mask (letting McGuffin’s father, Mr. Longman, buy it), although McGuffin didn’t know whether the gas mask would have any effect on the smell of big dung eggs, especially their two powerful versions of big dung eggs.

The day before Christmas is Christmas Eve for Muggles.

After lunch that day, Ron helped McGuffin mail gifts to the Albert family in the owl shed, all kinds of magical food and gadgets from the wizarding world, such as Mars popping candy, moving Hogwarts pictures, chocolate frogs...

"McGuffin, why have you turned into Hermione these two days, why have you been hanging out in the library all day..." Ron looked around and saw that there was no one around, only various owls flying around above the ceiling, and said, "Didn't you find out about the Philosopher's Stone and Nick Mailer? Why are you still going there..."

McGuffin felt bitter when he thought about it. After so many days, he didn't even see a ghost of the blood curse. He couldn't tell these big mouths about it and ask them to help him find it?
——Then it would be better to tell Voldemort directly that he already knew about the curse he had cast on himself.

"It's... punishment..." McGuffin mumbled. "Professor Quirrell has given me a lot of work to do."

"Professor Quirrell punishing students...Is this impossible!?"

"No...it's some kind of homework...Harry is still waiting for us with Professor Kettleburn?"

McGuffin quickly turned Ron's attention elsewhere.

"Garon and Xi Ke can pick them up from the professor today!" Ron said.

After McGuffin wrapped the last gift and watched the owl take it away, he hurriedly pulled Ron to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"Well, where is Professor Kettleburn's house?..." McGuffin and Ron looked at the half of the house in front of them.

The outside of the lawn is full of blasted ruins, broken chairs, rotten stools, and various pieces of wood scattered on the ground.

Hagrid and Harry were out there with a man at his command, capturing many different kinds of fantastic animals.

There were even salamanders scurrying among the fires caused by the explosion, sweeping their tails and causing a little spark, which was about to set the rest of the house on fire.

Even so, the man shouted loudly again, "Don't put out the flames, or these salamanders will die..."

The man's face was dark and dark, and the only remaining arm was leaning on a long wooden crutch. Even the leg was only half left, and the lower leg was a copper prosthetic leg, which allowed him to "come and go freely" in this disaster-like scene, commanding all over the venue with great arrogance.

This is Sylvanus Kettleburn, Professor of the Protection of Fantastic Beasts at Hogwarts.

After at least 62 incidents like his Hogwarts probation period, he was now left with only one arm and half a leg.

This shows how reckless this professor is by nature.

It's hard to say that Rubeus Hagrid's unique, dangerously distorted view of fantastical animals (the more dangerous, the scarier, the more interesting and cute) was not influenced by this professor.

Especially the love of dragons - Rubeus Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn are exactly the same, exactly the same.

(Even if this reckless professor had one leg in the belly of a dragon, he still couldn't quench his love for the monster. He still regularly attends the dragon sanctuary after his retirement)

Ron's eyeballs were about to fall out. "Father also told me that Professor Kettleburn is much more stable now. Is this called stability?"

"Garon and Xi Ke...are not buried in that pile of broken houses, are they!?" McGuffin was a little worried, and then he felt that he had wasted his feelings in vain.

The two little guys were running around in the ruins, constantly stuffing anything shiny into their belly pockets.

These two guys found a shiny metal trophy on a tattered shelf, and they each grabbed one side and stuffed it into their small pockets.

——It’s a ghost to be able to stuff it in, at least the size should be corresponding!
McGuffin was laughed stupidly, and took out his wand to levitate the two little guys, and grabbed one by the neck with each hand.

Then McGuffin and Ron got involved.

It took a long time to help Professor Kettleburn clean up the mess—to reassure all the magical animals and bring them back to their original habitat in the Forbidden Forest.

Almost all the houses of Hogwarts professors who protect magical animals are located near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and all their magical animals for teaching either live in separate sheds, or they are placed near the professor's house.

"Professor, what the hell is going on here? Did you cast the Expansion Curse on the Ash Snake again..."

After Hagrid threw the last salamander into a bonfire specially lit by the MacGuffin on the other side, he finally made room to ask Professor Kettleburn.

There is a precedent for this - when this professor was at Hogwarts when he was still in the time of Armando Dippet, he had a particularly big accident.

When rehearsing the pantomime "Fountain of Luck", he vainly tried to cast an expansion spell on the fire ash snake, using it as a huge earthworm in the play. As a result, the explosion caused an accident for the boss, causing the school hospital to be overcrowded, and even the head of a Hogwarts professor was multiplied several times during the accident, and it took several months before it was recovered.

At that time, the accident caused an uproar among the teachers and parents of the students at Hogwarts, and Hagrid was very impressed.

This incident almost caused Professor Kettleburn to be expelled directly.

No wonder he asked so directly.

"No! No, Hagrid, let me tell you... I may have discovered a new magical species..." Kettleburn tugged at his blackened beard with excitement.

"I heard from Slevinley in the second-hand store that he has access to manticores... You know my genius idea, and now it can finally be realized... After spending a lot of money, I came into contact with this monster. I used 300 salamanders to breed with this manticore, and as expected, I got a magic egg containing a new species..."

McGuffin listened to this passage in horror—it could almost be regarded as the ultimate death operation like putting nitroglycerin in a pressure cooker.

But Hagrid actually listened with longing.

"It's a pity that something went wrong in the last step. For some reason, it couldn't hatch. In the end, I simply put the conditions required for the hatching of dragon eggs into the fire to smoke..."

Isn't this finally - blow up the house to the sky!

When McGuffin vomited, someone came out of the Forbidden Forest.

It's Professor Quirrell.

It's time for the Forbidden Forest to be closed today...

MB!

"Did you take this as a passing thing? One after another, there is no end to it. It has been closed for almost two weeks..."

……

The trees grew thicker, and McGuffin walked behind Quirrell.

They go too deep.

In the past two days, McGuffin had a deep understanding. It was almost dark, and the sun could not be seen in this secluded forest.

Even in winter, the dense branches and leaves of the trees here can completely block it from light.

Quirrell led McGuffin to a certain open space deep in the Forbidden Forest and stayed there.

In the past few days, I don't know what Quirrell was thinking about when he was looking for unicorns, and he even took time to teach McGuffin privately.

"In the last class, I told you that the essence of magic is that wizards rely on magic power to respond to their own will and thoughts, and use this to change the state, nature and structure of things... All potion spells, whether intentional or unintentional, are created by relying on this magic theory, which led to the emergence of modern magic..."

"Today... is the last class. I will tell you the most essential difference between modern magic and ancient magic... But don't rush to be happy... Regarding the content of this class, you must hand in a paper no less than ten inches in the rest of this vacation..."

"Let me first show you what ancient magic looks like...?"

As he spoke, Quirrell waved his wand to emit a black flame, which was unpredictable under his command.

After a while, it turned into a snake-like spread in mid-air,...it turned into a dragon spewing flames, and turned into a skull swallowing snakes—the symbol of a Death Eater.

Quirrell stared at the pattern obsessively.

It was a long time before he continued today's lesson, "Albert, do you know the essential difference between modern magic and ancient magic?"

"...Combined with the content described in the previous section, you should know..."

McGuffin paused, recalling that Quirrell had given him all kinds of knowledge about magic theory and information about ancient magic found in the library in the past few days.

(This is mainly to find out whether there is a blood curse among the ancient spells, but unfortunately there is no description at all).

"Ancient magic is more dangerous, uncontrolled, and powerful... while modern magic is easier to control, precise, and easier to learn..." McGuffin tried to conclude.

Quirrell sneered, "Are you reading the official textbook of the British Ministry of Magic? Albert! Use your brain... contact me with what I have taught you in the past two days..."

Looking at Quirrell's face, McGuffin carefully tried to conclude, "Is it because the ancient wizards and modern wizards have different wills and thoughts in their hearts when they cast spells, which lead to different magical reactions, and finally lead to different magical results?"

"Soul out of the body!"

Before McGuffin finished speaking, Quirrell suddenly cast the Imperius Curse and directly directed McGuffin to hit a beech tree.

Fortunately, the [Occlumency Technique] at the critical moment made him react. He leaned over on one side and staggered a few steps before he managed to stand still.

"Hmph, Occlumency!" Quirrell curled his lips in disgust.

Immediately afterwards, he cast another happy spell on McGuffin, the effect of this spell on [Occlumency] was almost only enough to make the corners of McGuffin's mouth slightly curl up.

"Albert, have you seen it? This is the power of ancient spells. The Imperius Curse's casting method is to turn your thoughts into the thoughts of the manipulated person. This is close to the casting method of ancient magic... The spells usually cast in ancient magic are unclear and vague... Of course, its power can naturally be deepened with the use of will and imagination..."

"But the modern spell of Happiness Curse has a clear direction. It wants to make the caster feel happy and satisfied. There is no room for improvement at all, and there is no mysterious beauty of magic at all. This is a spell that an idiot can learn... a poor and weak spell..."

Quirrell explained the source of ancient spells to McGuffin. Among ancient wizards, there were no divisions such as transformation classes and potion classes.
"If there is one, at that time, alchemy was divided according to pure talent, divination astrologers, druids, priests who serve gods..."

——At that time, the non-talented people could not learn magic, the non-noble people could not touch magic, and only the people who were close to gods could touch magic.

"Whether it's an ancient Egyptian priest, an ancient Roman alchemist in Eurasia, a fortuneteller in Athens, or an ancient oriental alchemist... At that time, wizards could call wind and rain, try to live forever, stay young, move mountains and open seas, and forge incredible miracles..."

Quirrell waved his gestures excitedly and said to McGuffin.

"Then why is it difficult for us to learn those ancient magics now?"

Without waiting for McGuffin to answer, he continued to answer by himself.

"Because there are too many idiots learning magic... What incompetent people in the Ministry of Magic are constantly simplifying magic and want more people to learn magic..."

Quirrell's voice was full of hatred and pain. He held his wand tightly and waved it in the air, "Those guys who only have broomsticks and golden balls flying around in their minds are not worthy of learning magic at all..."

"What is magic? Magic is inexplicable, inconceivable, and what you wish to achieve. It is a miracle that God has given us to achieve that those poor Muggles will never be able to achieve in their lifetime..."

"Magic should achieve miracles that Muggles will never be able to achieve, and should reach the limit that we can touch. As wizards, we have the responsibility and the obligation to advance the research of magic to an unprecedented level... instead of letting some idiots tarnish the sanctity of magic..."

"McGuffin, don't you think those incompetent people, such as your friends... the little wizards of the Weasley family are not worthy of learning magic at all? They don't cherish their talents at all, and for example, Longbottom and Seamus, who failed to cast such a simple spell... It's a disgrace to wizards... The current generation of wizards is not as good as one generation...We must limit it, McGuffin..."

When the topic is becoming more and more dangerous.

There was a sound of squawking in the forest, which was clear and sweet.

A white figure passed through the forest like a white light.

Quirrell immediately took the wand and rushed towards the direction where the white shadow passed.

After being thrown down, McGuffin looked at the same forest all around him.

Fuck! !

"Let's see when we get back, if we can try to get Harry to shake hands with Quirrell."

——McGuffin, he must kill this turtle in advance!
(End of this chapter)