Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 447 The banquet is over
Inside the Burrow, everyone was still passing around Mike's report card.

This transcript can almost be said to be the best result in this OWLS exam. Everyone was amazed after seeing it, but after the amazement, they felt a little regretful.

Mike's elective courses were really bad. Ancient Magic Rune was okay, after all, it was a practical subject in alchemy, translation and archaeology, but Muggle Studies was too useless. Generally speaking, only students who wanted to get by would choose this course.

In their opinion, an outstanding student like Mike should take more useful courses, such as Arithmancy or Protection of Magical Creatures.

The former can be combined with other subjects to predict the general direction of many things, such as predicting the weather with astronomy, while the latter can help Mike, a Muggle-born wizard, to have a deeper understanding of the magical and extraordinary creatures in the wizarding world.

After discussion, everyone agreed that Mike must have been tricked when choosing elective courses, so he chose Muggle Studies. In order not to delay the future of Mike, a talented person, Dumbledore even suggested that if Mike was willing, he could let Mike change his elective courses and directly take the NEWT courses of Care of Magical Creatures or Divination.

Mike felt speechless about this.

He chose Muggle Studies just to slack off. Now that you're asking me to change the course, aren't you depriving me of the right to slack off?
Thinking of this, Mike immediately began to change the subject.

"Let's talk about this later." Mike said with a smile, "Principal Dumbledore, I heard from Harry that you hired a new Potions professor for us. Can you introduce this professor to us?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's attention immediately shifted from Mike to Dumbledore.

This is not surprising because the people present are either students or parents.

Dumbledore, who was being watched by everyone, smiled and shook his head, saying helplessly:

"Many of you here should know the professor Mori whom I invited. His name is Horace Slughorn."

Black and the others were all shocked when they heard this, and Mrs. Weasley even shouted in surprise:
"Merlin! It's Professor Slughorn. I remember he's retired."

"Yes, he has retired." Dumbledore said with a smile, "But considering the recent serious situation, I still invited him to teach, and he agreed very happily."

Dumbledore winked at Harry as he spoke. In fact, only the two of them knew how difficult it was to invite Professor Slughorn.

Ron, Hermione and others standing by were bewildered; they had never heard of this name before.

"Mother, do you know this Horace Slughorn?"

"Of course, he was once our Potions Professor."

"So what kind of professor is he? I mean, how does he compare to Snape?"

Listening to Ron's question, Mrs. Weasley was silent for a while, and then slowly said:
"Snape is a genius in potions, but Professor Slughorn should be no worse than him in terms of knowledge and teaching level. After all, he has been studying this field for a lifetime. And when it comes to dealing with people, Professor Slughorn is also more gentle. At least he won't target Gryffindor students like Snape did."

Ron's eyes flashed with joy, and he couldn't help cheering, because he could already foresee how enjoyable their Potions class next semester would be.

However, Ron obviously overlooked one problem, that is, his OWLS score in Potions was just passing, and Slughorn probably would not give him the opportunity to take the NEWT Potions class at all.

"Don't be too happy too soon." Seeing that her son was getting a little carried away, Mrs. Weasley added, "Although Professor Slughorn is better than Snape, he still has one biggest shortcoming, which is vanity and partiality."

"You're right, Morrie!" Black continued, "Professor Slughorn is very vain and likes to associate with celebrities, successful people, and important people. When we were still in Hogwarts, he often came to curry favor with James and me because we were the heirs of the Black and Potter families respectively, and we would definitely be big shots in the future. In addition, the student he valued most at the time was actually Lily, your mother, Harry. Your mother was arguably the most outstanding student in the entire Hogwarts at the time. No matter how difficult the spell was, she would always learn it once, and she would always get full marks in potions. At the time, Slughorn believed that she would definitely become a great and important person! But when it came to Lupin, he was not so enthusiastic."

Lupin raised his eyebrows and said excitedly:

"You call that not so enthusiastic? Merlin's beard. He didn't even look at me at that time. At first I thought he saw through my identity as a werewolf, but then I found that he looked down on everyone except you, the chosen ones. Then I understood that he looked down on me simply because I was a useless waste."

The more Lupin spoke, the more excited he became, and in the end his eyes even began to turn red. It was obvious that Professor Slughorn had left a great psychological shadow on him.

Seeing this, Tonks was unhappy. She glared at Black first, then comforted Lupin:
"Remus, you are the best in my eyes."

"Thank you dear."

Seeing the two people becoming affectionate again in the blink of an eye, Black and others all looked helpless. Only Harry kept his head down and remained silent, looking autistic.

Mike saw all of this. He smiled and said:

"You mean, this Professor Slughorn is a guy who really likes to be a famous teacher, right?"

Black and Lupin nodded. Mike's summary was very good. In fact, the reason why Slughorn was close to those students who were famous or might be famous in the future was just to get the title of "famous teacher" in the future to highlight his own greatness.

In fact, his behavior was indeed very effective. Over the years, Professor Slughorn has accumulated a lot of connections. Many celebrities in the wizarding world in Britain and even in the whole Europe maintain good relations with him. This makes him a benchmark figure in the potion industry even though his ability is not very good.

"Oh, if that's the case, then I can probably understand why he would become the Potions Professor at Hogwarts at such an old age." Mike said to Harry with a smile, "After all, we have a savior in this class. Harry, I'm afraid that Professor Slughorn will try his best to curry favor with you after school starts."

Mike's words gave Harry a slight shock.

He was not a fool. When he went with Dumbledore to negotiate with Slughorn's family, he saw that the other party really wanted to be his teacher, and for this reason he agreed to let Dumbledore go to Hogwarts as a professor.

But at first he did not take it to heart, because theoretically every professor at Hogwarts was his teacher, and as long as Slughorn arrived at Hogwarts, he would have achieved his goal.

But now, if things are really as Mike and the others said just now, then Slughorn will definitely give himself some special treatment when school starts.

For example... making an exception and allowing myself to take NWET-level Potions courses!

Thinking of this, Harry's eyes suddenly brightened, and the previous haze was swept away. But then, he suddenly thought of a question.

Harry frowned again, looked at Dumbledore who was smiling opposite him and asked:

"Headmaster Dumbledore, if Slughorn becomes our new Potions professor, what about Professor Snape?"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the attention of everyone present, especially Ron, who had been curious about Snape's whereabouts for a long time.

"Oh? Haha! You don't need to worry about this. Professor Snape has been placed very well." Dumbledore said with a smile, "He will get a long-awaited position, that is, the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"What? Dumbledore! You actually let that slug be Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!?" Black suddenly roared, "You will kill Harry by doing this! You know, that guy was a Death Eater before!"

Black was not the only one who was dissatisfied with this decision. Lupin and the Weasleys on the side did not react as strongly as Black, but judging from the frowns and silence, they must have had strong opinions on this matter.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and shook his head.
"Severus is the best choice."

"What are you kidding? Why can that snotty guy be Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor? Just because he used to be a Death Eater and knows a lot of dark magic?" Black's emotions became more and more agitated. He stood up from his chair and looked directly at Dumbledore. "No matter what your reasons were for always appointing that snotty Snape, you should know what period it is now, and what kind of person Snape is! He is a fence-sitter who may turn to Voldemort again later! I want you to fire Snape directly, do you understand? Dumbledore?"

"No, don't be like this, Sirius." Dumbledore said slowly, "You and I should know that Severus will never hurt Harry. After all..."

"Go to hell!"

Before Dumbledore could even finish his words, Sirius Black roared, then pulled the confused Harry and ran out of the restaurant, leaving behind Ron and Hermione who were also confused, and other people with unhappy expressions.

Today's protagonists had been taken away, so the birthday party naturally could not go on. Although the Weasleys tried their best to maintain a good atmosphere on the scene, the party ended soon after.

Lupin and Tonks left first. They obviously didn't quite understand Dumbledore's decision, but their gentle personalities prevented them from turning hostile like Black did. At the same time, they didn't treat their former boss Dumbledore well either.

Looking at Dumbledore's slightly hunched back in the sun, Mike felt a little touched.

He quickened his pace and followed, saying to the old man:

"Professor Dumbledore, I'll take you there."

The old man looked at Mike in surprise, then smiled and patted Mike on the shoulder, and continued walking outside the house.

……

In the Masonic villa area, Mike, wearing only a pair of beach shorts, was lying on a sun lounger beside the swimming pool, enjoying his rare leisure time.

There were not many days left before the start of the school year, and Harry's birthday party had been over for almost a week. Although Black strongly opposed Snape's appointment as the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, in the end he was no match for Dumbledore.

This was all within Mike's expectations. People like Black could not resist the decision made by Dumbledore at all. At best, they could only make a few lip service.

Shaking his head, Mike smiled, raised the wine glass beside him and took a sip, then he let out a long sigh of relief.

'This is how people live!'

Thinking of this, Mike lay back on the sun lounger and put on his sunglasses.

He decided to have a good rest today and not worry about anything.

Unfortunately, not long after Mike lay down, Benjamin came to Mike's villa.

Looking at Mike sitting leisurely on the sun lounger, Benjamin suddenly had an urge to hit him.

I have been through life and death during this period of time, working in the wind and rain every day to do the tasks assigned by Mike, and I am extremely busy, while Mike, the hands-off boss, is here leisurely enjoying a sunbath?
Benjamin's breathing began to become a little rapid, and his originally relaxed hands clenched into fists.

But after much hesitation, Benjamin gave up the urge to beat Mike.

You have to know that you are no longer a student. Since you graduated from Hogwarts, your social attributes have become that of a social person, and as a social person, you must stay rational!
"This is a blessing! This is a blessing! ……"

Benjamin kept hypnotizing himself deep in his heart, and finally succeeded in changing his expression from full of indignation to a cheerful one, and then he quickly approached Mike.

"Boss, I have already done what you asked me to do."

"Huh?" Mike was a little unhappy that his rest was disturbed. He lifted up his sunglasses, frowned at Benjamin with some dissatisfaction, and then slowly asked, "What did I tell you?"

Upon hearing this, the veins on Benjamin’s forehead suddenly popped up, but he still kept a smile on his face and said:
"It's about the negotiation with the Muggle government. Boss, have you forgotten?"

"Oh! That's it. What did they say?"

Looking at Mike who suddenly jumped up from the sun lounger, Benjamin nodded and said:
"The other party's attitude is quite respectful, but they want to arrange a meeting between you and the Prime Minister of Ying Country."

"King versus king?" Mike's mouth curled up, "Interesting."

(End of this chapter)