The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

Harry lay upright on the bed, breathing heavily as if he had been running. He woke up from a very vivid dream, his hands pressed tightly to his face.

Under his fingers, the lightning-shaped scar burned with pain, as if someone had just pressed a white-hot metal wire against his skin...

Bright white light shone into the Gryffindor common room from the window. Harry had not slept well last night, and the strong light made his eyes sting slightly.

He put his hands on his face and rubbed them violently. Harry looked like he was going to rub his hands into his own head. The pressure caused by being pressed hard made his breathing easier, and the slight pain made him feel clearer.

"Let me look for it..." Loren sat opposite Harry, holding a large book in one hand and turning the pages with the other hand, making a clattering sound when the parchment pages were turned.

Hermione and Loren sat in a row, and Ron sat next to Harry, staring at him with worried eyes.

"That's it!" Loren spread the book flat on the table. "According to your description, the logo you see should be the school emblem of Ilvermorny."

Harry put down the hand that was rubbing his face, exhaled, and looked at the patterns in the book: "Huge birds like eagles, water snakes with long horns, cats and leopards, goblins... yes, that's it."

Harry pointed at the badge composed of four animals, his mind filled with doubts: "Yes, but I have never seen this thing before. I have only heard the name Ilvermorny before, so why do I dream of Ilvermorny. "

"It's not just that, Harry." Hermione buried her little head and read out the following introductory text, "Look here - Ilvermorny is located on the top of Mount Greylock, and is endowed with a variety of powerful protective magics. It becomes visible only when it is surrounded. Its main entrance is flanked by marble statues of its founders, Aesop Searle and James Stewart. The four animals symbolize their four colleges."

"Your dreams are completely realistic, they are not just imaginary dreams."

"But these are all things I didn't know about before." Harry's voice was a little panicked.

Loren looked at him with a serious expression: "Harry, don't you understand? That's not a dream."

It's not a dream, it's real...

Harry once again covered his cheeks with his hands and rubbed them vigorously, trying to eliminate the uneasiness and pressure in his heart. He tried to recall the scene in his dream last night.

Everything is so realistic... Wormtail came out of Azkaban, and he controlled Crabbe... The potion prepared with the blood of the unicorn and the venom of the basilisk gave Voldemort the body of a baby.

When he thought of that person, Harry felt as if a piece of ice had slipped into his stomach, and the scar on his forehead was tingling, interrupting Harry's memory. He raised his head and said firmly: "I have to tell Dumbledore this!"

"No, not now!" Ron held him back and lowered his voice.

"How are you going to describe your dream to Dumbledore, Harry?" Ron said worriedly, "You are witnessing everything from Voldemort's perspective, which will put you in a difficult position. How long has your Parselmouth gone? ?Don’t forget, Colin and Justin are still in the school hospital.”

"Are we going to hide this?" Hermione asked.

Although Ron was indeed helping Harry and didn't want Harry to fall into a situation where he would be pitied again... but sometimes teammates held him back, and misunderstandings occurred like this.

Loren pursed his lips and smiled softly: "I think Dumbledore will keep our secrets. He deserves our trust, doesn't he?"

After a pause, he asked seriously, "Speaking of this, Harry, have you learned the Occlumency you learned during the holidays?"

Harry scratched his head in shame: "This..."

Half an hour later, the principal's office.

Various shapes of silverware rotated and emitted small streams of white smoke. Portraits of past principals were hung on the wall, and they carefully eavesdropped on the conversations of the people below.

Dumbledore, wearing crescent-shaped glasses and a gray robe, sat inside the desk, and four young wizards sat outside.

Harry tried his best to recall everything in the dream, trying to convey everything he saw and heard to Dumbledore. Hermione and Dumbledore listened attentively, as did Loren and Ron as they turned the butter cookies on the table.

After listening to Harry's story, Dumbledore asked the same question as Loren: "Harry, how are you doing with your Occlumency?"

"Professor, why are you and Loren so concerned about Occlumency?"

Hermione was led by Loren to practice Occlumency during the holidays and was very curious about this issue.

Harry echoed: "I also want to know. Sirius said this is a very remote magic, specially used to prevent the mind from being invaded by outsiders."

"Um--"

Dumbledore pondered for a moment and considered his words, "I think you all know that Voldemort is difficult to kill. And on that night many years ago, Harry defeated him, which established a mysterious connection between Harry and Voldemort. "

This old bee took a detour. He didn't lie, but selectively told part of the truth.

Loren stopped stuffing the biscuits into his mouth. It seemed that Dumbledore still had reservations. He did not dare to tell Harry the whole truth.

Tsk! Better than that Rita.

"I noticed some signs. Every time I come into contact with something related to Voldemort, it will react." Harry touched the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, "But what does this have to do with Occlumency?"

Dumbledore looked at him gently: "Harry, you can enter Voldemort's perspective through this connection. Similarly, if he detects the passage between you, he can also enter your mind along the passage."

"This...this..." Harry felt as if he had fallen into the ice hole of the Black Lake for an instant, his whole body was chilled, and his heart was filled with chills.

Loren patted his shoulder and comforted him in time: "This is why you are asked to practice Occlumency."

These words were like the tentacles of a giant squid, pulling Harry out of the deep water and making him feel like he could breathe fresh air.

After a while, Harry came back to his senses and smiled a little bitterly: "I tried it during the holidays. It was harder than I thought. Sirius couldn't even teach me."

"Harry, Severus is an expert in Occlumency. If you need help, you can ask him for help. Severus will not refuse you."

…

When they walked out of the principal's office in a daze and returned to the Gryffindor common room, Ron suddenly came to his senses and shouted in disbelief:

"We talked about Occlumency for a long time and nothing else?"

"Where's Crabbe? Where's Wormtail? Where's Voldemort's new body?"

Hermione thought thoughtfully and said in an unpredictable tone: "Before we went to find Principal Dumbledore, he seemed to already know a lot of things."

Loren looked at the little witch suspiciously. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that Hermione's eyes kept drifting towards him.

Did I get cookie crumbs stuck to my face?

…

Hogsmeade is more lively than usual on weekends, with the Honeydukes Candy Shop always crowded with customers, Zuko’s Magical Joke Shop full of screams and laughter, and Mrs. Puddieff’s Teahouse full of pink bubbles...

Except for bookstores, no one wants to waste time in bookstores. After all, the school library is usually boring. There are not many customers anyway, the bookstore owner always stays in the back room of the store, and the clerk doesn't know where to hide and be lazy.

The location of the bookstore is not good. In the past, almost no one passed by this alley. But today, a strange customer got into a remote alley.

Her hair was styled into delicate, stiff, weird curls, which looked particularly awkward when paired with her big-jawed face. She wore a pair of jewel-encrusted glasses and clutched a crocodile leather handbag with her fat fingers. Her nails were two inches long and painted red.

Rita Skeeter found a corner where it was hard for anyone to notice and took out a letter from her crocodile leather handbag.

The content of the letter is very concise:

Ms. Rita Skeeter:

I am very sorry to inform you that in order to maintain the school's daily teaching order, I would like to reject your visit request on behalf of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I wish you a happy life.

Vice Principal: Minerva McGonagall

Her long, colorful nails scratched the letter paper and made a harsh sound. After tearing the letter paper into pieces, Rita, who had vented her anger, showed a proud smile and said to herself:

"Professor McGonagall forgot to refuse a visit from a little beetle, even though I didn't apply in advance..."

A few seconds later, an inconspicuous little beetle flew out of a remote alley. It flapped its wings and flew towards the castle next to the village at the speed of an ordinary beetle...

On the second floor of the castle, this is a small study located next to the corridor on the second floor. There is a burning fireplace. The Quidditch field can be seen outside the window. A hidden door leads to a room with a ground made of gravel. Paved bedroom.

"Professor McGonagall, what do you want from me?" Sirius pushed the door in from the corridor and turned sideways, not wanting Professor McGonagall to see the bruise on his left eye.

"Sirius, we are colleagues now, you can call me by my name -" Professor McGonagall, who was immersed in reviewing documents, raised her head, as if catching a naughty student who was disobedient. She saw what Sirius was covering up at a glance.

Professor McGonagall asked helplessly: "Did you have a conflict with Severus again?"

"He doesn't think I'm worthy of being a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I don't like him either, so I just want to give it a try." Sirius curled his lips and sat down opposite Professor McGonagall, "I didn't suffer either. Give him a few hard blows."

Professor McGonagall didn't quite believe it. After all, Severus had never had any scars on his face.

"Are you going to keep fighting? Don't forget that you are professors!" Professor McGonagall said with a headache, "You should set a good example for the students!"

Sirius nodded with deep understanding: "Don't worry, I have made an appointment with him for a public duel, it will be in the next dueling class."

Professor McGonagall felt even more troubled, and she chose not to dwell on this topic any further:

"Sirius, I'm looking for you about the Animagus teaching class. I want to talk to you about how the three of you were able to complete the Animagus course on your own without anyone's guidance. ceremony, and it was all successful?”

Although Professor McGonagall is also an Animagus herself, she has always been good at transformation. The Animagus practice process is more like talent at work.

Professor McGonagall was unsure whether her experience had universal value.

Speaking of the glorious deeds of that year, Sirius's eyes lit up, and he looked proud and a little childish. He took out the potion he carried with him and took a sip, recalling the events of that year with great interest.

"I think you all know, Professor McGonagall, that our friend Remus Lupin has a little furry habit, and he has to hide in the Shrieking Shack for a while every month. We were in second year At that time, we discovered his little secret, and although he didn’t say it, we all knew that he cared about it.”

At this point, Sirius laughed and cursed, "He still wants to pretend in front of us. His acting skills are very poor."

Professor McGonagall nodded, Lupin's matter was no secret to her. After all, it was Dumbledore's idea to let Lupine spend the full-moon night in the Shrieking Shack.

"In order to support Remus, we began to secretly learn the magic of being able to transform into animals at will, which is the Animagus. We wanted to accompany Remus safely during his transformation and control him."

"That's what I thought at first, but something changed later." A malicious light flashed in Sirius's eyes, and he smiled mischievously, "The transformed werewolf has no sense. In order to prevent Remus from harming other people, In order to prevent him from hurting himself. In the beginning, James and I would beat him up every full moon, while Peter Pettigrew was watching."

"Sorry, it's too far." Sirius came back to his senses and sighed apologetically.

"Our learning process was not smooth. It took us three full years to understand the convoluted principles of human body deformation. The control of two heartbeats, the control of animal emotions, body adaptation, self-awareness... it's a mess. A lot of stuff." Sirius spread his hands.

"These are all things that must be mastered in the learning process. It is not surprising." Professor McGonagall carefully analyzed every word in his sentence, "I want to know why you are all successful and how do you do it?"

"You and James are among the most talented students. I can reluctantly attribute your success to talent. But what about Peter Pettigrew?" Professor McGonagall asked, "His talent is not outstanding and his grades are average. You How did you teach him?"

As a high-level transformation magic, Animagus is beyond imagination. There were only seven Animagus registered in the entire twentieth century. Professor McGonagall could not imagine how they could learn it on their own and all of them succeeded.

"I don't know, Professor." Sirius' eyes were blank, "Although he was indeed the slowest one, he still succeeded."

For the next hour, Professor McGonagall asked them carefully about the process of learning the Animagus. Starting with a mandrake in your mouth, brewing the potion on a full moon, taking out the potion on a stormy night...

In the end, Professor McGonagall keenly grasped a detail: "You mean, you have watched the werewolf's transformation process many times?"