The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

[To Loren Morgan:

I can imagine your eyes widening with surprise when you received this letter. After all, which wizard in the world would not be honored to receive a letter from the Dark Lord. Be lucky, kid, that you happen to have this honor.

Maybe you are confused about the paint seal on the envelope. Let me introduce it. This is a trivial pleasure in my long life. After more than ten years, I regained a humanoid body that I could fully control, and I didn't want to waste it in meaningless hiding. If the Ministry of Magic had not blocked this information, I think you would have guessed that Peter Pettigrew's body fell into my hands.

This is very interesting, isn't it... You once asked me for Wormtail, and I sent him to Hogwarts Castle as promised. What a surprise, you actually gave me such a surprising gift in return. I decided to do something interesting with it, and yes, I am currently writing in the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office in Ilvermorny.

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded by a descendant of Slytherin, perhaps following his will. Regrettably, the founder Aesop Thrall stole the snakewood wand kept by her aunt Gormley Gaunt, a direct blood descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and the external bloodline was twisted. In accordance with the will of the Gaunt family, Aesop Thel found a Muggle husband to share this honor with her.

Until now, it is only natural for me to inherit this honor and accept the gift from the ancestor. It has even gone so well that I began to suspect that all this was arranged by the great Slytherin through prophecy.

…

Please forgive me for involving many old things. In my opinion, only you, Loren Morgan, who is a descendant of Fairy Morgan, can understand the joy in my heart... In addition to bringing you the gratitude of the Dark Lord, this letter, I want to know What are the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes at Hogwarts teaching now? Ilvermorny is too heavily influenced by Muggles. The young wizards here are being pushed in the wrong direction. I have an obligation to point the way for them. The curriculum at Hogwarts is somewhat outdated under the influence of Dumbledore's old wizard, but it is worth learning from.

It must be noted that I completed the third-grade course by myself in my first year of school. In addition, it has been so long that I really can't remember what "common sense" I should teach these little wizards.

We'll see you soon and thank you again for your gift.

...]

After reading the letter, Loren frowned slightly.

Voldemort specifically mentioned the matter of Peter Pettigrew at the beginning of the chapter, and he was sure that Wormtail was made like that by him, without any intention of asking.

But this was just his test. If he didn't reply directly to this matter, Voldemort would think that he was avoiding it, and he would be even more convinced of this guess.

If he went out of his way to refute the matter, or claimed to have no knowledge of it, Voldemort could also guess and infer from the words in the reply...

In addition, it was vaguely mentioned later that he seemed to have some plot against Ilvermorny, and he asked for advice on the content of the Defense Against the Dark Arts in the lower grades, as well as the straightforward signature at the end of the letter, which all revealed a tentative meaning.

Loren slowly folded the letter and stuffed it into the yellowed envelope, trying to analyze Voldemort's thoughts in his mind.

Testing Wormtail...

Test whether he will tell Dumbledore and reveal his identity...

Test whether he will cooperate with Voldemort...

"These old silver coins are trouble..." Loren pouted and muttered, feeling a little tired from all the games and analyses.

"What did you say?" Hermione tilted her head and looked at him in confusion.

"Nothing..." Loren shook his head, thinking that only Old Silver Coin was suitable to deal with Old Silver Coin, "I have to go find Principal Dumbledore again."

…

"...It seems that Tom finally got his wish and became the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

Dumbledore finished reading the letter in a low voice, with a silver spectacle frame hanging on his crooked nose, and his azure eyes shining with a smile behind the lenses.

He looked up at Loren, pretending to be confused and asked: "Is my style really out of date? To be honest, I always feel that my mentality is still very young, and there is no generation gap between me and the little wizard in sixth grade... Hmm , maybe a little more than a few years, but at most they are young wizards who have just graduated."

"Young wizards who have just graduated will not have such a long white beard." Loren pointed it out bluntly and reminded him expressionlessly, "Let's think about how to deal with this letter. Should we ask Ilvermorny as soon as possible? Is there a warning from the school?”

"I think there's no need to be so anxious..."

Dumbledore put down the letter, slowly picked up the tea cup, blew on the hot air, and put it to his mouth to take a sip. Inside was a thick maple syrup hot drink: "Although Tom's soul is shattered, what is left in his mind belongs to human beings." There are not many of them left, but from his past behavior and this letter, we can still get a glimpse of some remaining humanity... although it seems to be something dirty and twisted."

"Sorry principal, Hogwarts does not offer courses on literary appreciation and code deciphering." Loren said quietly.

"Wonderful irony..." Dumbledore couldn't help laughing happily, and began to explain his thoughts in detail, "Voldemort is proud of the Slytherin bloodline, and he will not destroy the magic school founded by the descendants of Slytherin. He will probably transform the school in a way he thinks is better, maybe after he becomes the headmaster of Ilvermorny, maybe after he informs the wizarding world, but not now... so the teachers and students of Ilvermorny should still It’s considered safe.”

"On the contrary, if we expose his disguise now, it will be even more detrimental to us if he disappears into the shadows again. It will be detrimental to the teachers and students of Ilvermorny, and it will also be detrimental to you."

"Then how do I reply to him?" Loren asked.

"Well..." Dumbledore looked at the envelope on the desk and replied thoughtfully, "I think you can send him a copy of your Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook from first to third grade without replying, and nothing else. Needless to say."

"Is this okay?"

"That's enough..." Dumbledore's voice gradually softened, his speaking speed gradually slowed down, and his blue eyes grew deeper, "Don't worry, Loren, I will go see him in person during the summer vacation, very soon Already, soon..."

After Loren packed the textbooks from first to third grade and was about to go to the Owlery to deliver the express, Dumbledore took the initiative and added two more Muggle books to the package:

"Emile" - Rousseau

"The Republic" - Plato

…

January turned into February without realizing it. The ice and snow had completely melted, but the biting cold weather had not changed at all.

Weekend Potions Club classes.

Loren sat near the skylight in the underground classroom, shaking his quill and listening carefully to the lecture.

The air in the underground classroom was colder and biting than outside, and there was no fireplace in the classroom. This was a theoretical class, and they couldn't gather around the crucible to warm themselves up. Loren had the black scarf given by Hermione wrapped around his neck. It was soft and made him feel a lot warmer.

Outside the skylight is the dark and deep Black Lake. Loren still remembers that in the first grade, the little wizards of Gryffindor always expected that the fragile glass windows would suddenly shatter, and the cold Black Lake would pour down, drowning the evil ones. Underground classrooms, submerged evil Slytherin common room and dormitories.

But this dream has not been realized so far, and as the knowledge of magic increases, the hope of realizing it becomes increasingly slim.

"This is about the principle of interaction between magical potion materials..."

"After class, analyze an advanced magic potion in detail according to the content of this lesson, sort out the mechanism of magic power, and write a paper with a length of no less than five feet. In addition, continue to practice the step-by-step production process of the magic potion. Relevant knowledge about formula optimization and potion research and development.”

Professor Snape's voice was as calm as ever, with no fluctuation in volume, but it sounded inexplicably like an aria.

Although he was assigned a long paper assignment, Loren still felt in a good mood. The main reason was that he no longer had to brew wolfsbane potion and no longer had to be exposed to those weird and smelly things.

Probably because Dumbledore specifically told him that Professor Lupine was in a critical period of training Animagus, in order to prevent failure due to errors in the Wolfsbane potion, Professor Snape took over the work of brewing the Wolfsbane potion.

The little wizards were sitting in their seats sorting out today's notes. After Professor Snape put away his books and left the underground classroom, the other little wizards slowly got up. Loren and Hermione followed the crowd and walked up the stairs back to the first floor. , walking along the corridor, you can see the landscape of the courtyard. The bushes and some tall trees have given birth to young leaves and are nurturing new branches.

At the base of the wall where there is sufficient sunlight, several daffodils and unknown camellias have already bloomed.

The cold fragrance is light, but the little wizards can't help but stop.

"There's still some time until lunch. Instead of going back to the common room, how about we just stay in the courtyard for a while?" Loren turned to look at Hermione with interest.

"Well, let's go to that pavilion."

Hermione looked around and found a deserted spot.

Hermione wore the scarf given by Loren around her neck. The fluffy and thick red wool was knitted together. It was soft and soft and matched her fluffy curly hair. When she lowered her head, she could hide half of her face in the scarf. The top was thin and silky. The little fuzz made Hermione look a little soft.

The two sat down on a step and stretched their legs side by side. Loren leaned back to balance his body with his hands. Hermione leaned forward slightly and got closer to observe the first batch of daffodils in early spring.

It’s not a stunningly beautiful flower, but after watching the white snow for several months, suddenly seeing small flowers with strong vitality emerging from the ground makes people feel uncontrollably happy. The small bright yellow flowers poked their heads out from the low bushes, with little drops of water still remaining on the petals. The new branches and leaves were eye-catching green, no duller than the color of the flowers.

Loren has always been very patient with this kind of thing. Not only the flowers and plants, but also the small reptiles and moths on the flowers and plants can stay for a long time.

There are no small moths or small caterpillars at this season, but we can see a few snails that have not grown up, slowly moving the small house on their backs, their two antennae-like eyes swaying gently, and they will flash when they touch something. Squirming inside and shrinking.

I heard that if a snail's eyes are colorful, it is infected by parasites.

Loren looked closer and reached out to touch it lightly. The stimulated snail slowly retracted into its shell and stopped in place for a long time without moving.

Um……

It doesn't look like it's parasitized.

Loren examined the next snail's antennae with interest.

Hey, don’t mention it yet, this little thing is really weird.

If you touch its tentacles with leaves or grass branches, the snail will stop for a while and then start moving again. If you touch it with your hands, it will be as if the snail has settled in the same place and will never come out again.

Hermione looked at the delighted expression on his face and made sure that he could play like this until lunch time. She retracted her legs and took out the Transfiguration Notebook, and began to think about the dense notes.

Although she had consulted Professor McGonagall, it was still difficult to practice human body transformation. The most worrying thing was that there was no target for practice. She was not sure whether she could succeed without trying it.

What if Loren turns into a kitten uglier than Crookshanks.

Hermione looked at the big fool beside her who was obsessed with playing with the snail, and sighed helplessly.

I really don’t know how this person succeeded at that time. He had no goal of practicing.

Loren heard the sigh and turned his head quickly. Taking advantage of Hermione's worry about her notebook, he crept up behind Hermione and knelt down to take a look at what was written in her notebook.

"Human body transformation... Munchkin cat, ragdoll cat..."

Loren's eyes opened wider and wider as he thought about it, and he was a little stunned.

She actually wanted to use human body transformation to turn herself into a cat, one of those soft and cute kittens. Human body transformation, the kind that you can't change back on your own initiative!

The ice and snow had melted in early spring, but Loren had never felt so cold even in winter.

When Hermione turned around, she saw him pointing his index finger at her nose, trembling uncontrollably.

Loren reprimanded bitterly: "Okay, you Hermione Granger, you actually want to murder me?"

Hermione looked away and felt guilty for a few seconds. After realizing that she couldn't find a suitable excuse, she simply stopped pretending and straightened up confidently: "How can this be murder? I'm just learning the knowledge of human body deformation."

"Then you swear that you have never thought of turning me into a cat, and you will never do so in the future!"

"I don't!"

Hermione raised her neck, but the thick scarf covered her entire neck. This action didn't look impressive, but rather coquettish.

Loren quickly reached out and snatched the notebook from her arms, trying to stop Hermione's evil plan by hiding the notebook.

Hermione blinked: "You know, my memory is pretty good."

"..." Loren tightened his grip on the notebook and took a few deep breaths angrily.

Hermione's eyes rolled a few times, and she showed a gentle and friendly smile. She slowly came over, put her hands on his shoulders, and whispered: "Why don't we make a deal? Let's make an agreement, just like Mander." Like pulling grass."

Hermione's cheeks were slightly hot, but the temptation in front of her was too great. She tried her best to suppress the shame in her heart: "If you turn into a cat and play with me for a while every week, I will not continue to learn human transformation... What do you think? ?”

"You have a beautiful idea!" Loren glanced at her, "I would rather fight with you using transfiguration, and the loser would become a pet cat."

Hermione's eyes were flustered for a few times. If there was a duel, she felt that her chances of winning were very low.

"If you feel that the conditions are not satisfactory, then... let's change the agreement..." Hermione leaned into his ear, "Let's do this... like this... okay?"

"you swear!"

"I swear!"

Loren tried his best to purse his lips, but he still couldn't help but smile. He tried his best to tighten his expression to avoid letting Hermione see his happiness.