From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 207 The Backbone of the Order of the Phoenix
Harry saw a skinny ankle from under the curtain of the hospital bed.

"That's definitely a ghoul!" Ron said confidently. He was in good spirits today, as if he had never been stung by a poisonous tentacle. "There's one living in the attic of my house! Harry knows it!"

"I thought it would just knock on the water pipes or something..." Harry glanced at the sauce on Ron's mouth and the half-eaten steak on his plate, and began to wonder how his good friend could express himself clearly while chewing so much.

"That's a patient!" Hermione pointed this out. "Ghouls should be handed over to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor or the Care of Magical Creatures professor for treatment, not placed in the hospital wing."

"But we have just met the new Professor Lupin, haven't we?" Ron took a big sip of cream of mushroom soup. "Maybe he was the one who convinced Madam Pomfrey to allow him to place the ghouls here."

"So this is our Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching material on Friday?" Harry looked at the poor ankle again, and began to wonder if it could withstand a Disarming Charm from him.

"It's very likely." Ron nodded and stuffed another piece of toast into his mouth. "I just don't know if the new professor will continue the Dueling Club. Remember? Lockhart said he would start one. Even though he's a big liar, practical courses are always more interesting than theoretical courses."

"I think you'd better not think about ghouls and the dueling club." Madam Pomfrey's words came from the head nurse's office next to the ward. "If you don't pay attention to rest, I'm afraid you won't be able to catch up with any classes this week!"

Ron shrank back, but soon realized what Madam Pomfrey had said, and looked hesitantly at the half-eaten bread in his hand.

"Ron!" Hermione was incredulous. She didn't understand why anyone wouldn't like the feeling of knowledge entering their brain.

"You need to keep quiet in the ward! You only have fifteen minutes of visiting time, and it's already five minutes overdue!" Madam Pomfrey's voice came again.

"Okay! We'll leave soon! Sorry! Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione apologized reflexively, then glared at her two friends, asking them to lower their voices.

"Never mind." Ron threw the last piece of bread into his mouth and then shrank back into the striped quilt on the bed.

The voice that came from under the quilt was muffled: "I think I'll sleep until tomorrow morning! No need to bring me dinner! By the way, thank you for the Transfiguration handout, Hermione!"

"What!" Hermione stood up angrily, "You plan to prolong your hospital stay by skipping dinner? This is a shameful fraud! Madam Pomfrey will not allow it!"

"No loud noises are allowed in the ward, remember?" Ron laughed while hiding under the quilt.

"Hmph!" Hermione pulled her neatly arranged lecture notes out from under Ron's pillow and used them to hit the obvious bulge in the quilt a few times. "I must have been crazy to think you would study hard! Let's go, Harry!"

Harry obediently put away the plates on the bedside table and followed Hermione obediently.

As the two of them walked out the door, they ran into Lupin, who was carrying a pile of plates.

"Good afternoon, Professor Lupin." Hermione greeted politely, and after a slight pause, she asked about the Defense Against the Dark Arts course. "May I ask what you will teach on Friday? If we follow the syllabus, perhaps we should learn some counter-spells for common evil curses? For example, the Crunching Curse? ... To be honest, ghouls are still too advanced for us... or is it a course content for senior years?"

"No, Miss Granger." Lupin smiled gently, "Professor Victor's syllabus is perfect. I do plan to teach you some practical counter-spells. But I still have to remind you that the person lying in the school hospital is not a ghoul, but an ordinary patient."

"Oh." Hermione blushed, "I will prepare well, Professor Lupin!"

----

Hermione's prediction turned out to be correct, and Madam Pomfrey did not allow Ron to stay in the ward until Friday.

In fact, he was discharged on Thursday morning. Madam Pomfrey gave the reason that the long sleep had helped Ron to regain his strength, and then she stared at him sternly until he drank all the special bitter tonic potion before letting him go.

There was Potions class on Thursday, and Ron was in a very bad mood when he saw Snape, not to mention that he was deducted five points.

"Hey, man! Why are you so quiet today?" Ron complained to Harry as soon as the bell rang. "I got more points deducted than you today. It's weird!"

Hermione, who was walking beside them, rolled her eyes and said, "You are so slow, Mr. Ronald Weasley. Harry has stopped talking back to Professor Snape since the Christmas holidays. He must have realized how important Potions is to us! If you were half as aware as he is, this year's House Cup would definitely belong to Gryffindor."

"Please, Hermione, don't call me that..." Ron begged, a shiver running down his spine.

Ron had been humbled like this since this morning, because he found that he needed Hermione's Transfiguration handouts to complete his paper. Professor McGonagall, who was always known for her strictness, would not allow anyone to not hand in Transfiguration homework.

Hermione was unmoved. She had already made up her mind to make Ron suffer.

So Ron had to turn his gun around and stared at Harry with an expression that said, "You actually betrayed our revolutionary friendship." "After Snape did so many excessive things to you, you actually planned to learn from Hermione and be a good student? Are you really the brave and fearless Harry I know?"

"This... this is a very complicated matter, Ron," Harry said helplessly.

He couldn't possibly tell his two friends that the reason he changed his mind about Snape was because Snape risked his life to save him once. Moreover, Dumbledore strictly required that this matter could not be revealed to anyone.

Harry thought of Dumbledore's promise again, the promise to tell him the truth. The last time he entered the headmaster's office, he saw Ron's rat Scabbers turned into an old, fat, bald man, and that man turned out to be the murderer who killed Harry's parents.

So the original opportunity to tell the truth was interrupted. Dumbledore was too busy with Peter Pettigrew's affairs, and the time for Harry to learn everything was postponed again.

"Then just keep it short." Ron was still trying to find out what caused Harry to change.

Harry didn't like the feeling of hiding something from his friend, but he didn't intend to break his agreement with Dumbledore.

Fortunately, Hermione was always considerate. She didn't embarrass Harry for long before she stopped Ron: "No matter what the reason for Harry's change, it's a good thing for Gryffindor. At least we will be deducted fewer points in Potions class."

"Not really," Ron objected, "because Neville and I have been deducted more points." "So you should try harder to perform better...right? Mr. Weasley?"

Standing behind the three people was the dark figure of Snape. The cellar where the Potions classroom was located and the corridor outside it were both the professor's territory, so it was not surprising that he appeared here.

The iron triangle turned around quickly and tried to huddle together, as if each other's body temperature could dispel the coldness emanating from Snape.

"I think so... Professor Snape!" squeaked Hermione.

"I'm sorry, maybe I should be asking Mr. Weasley?" Snape's polite words always frightened his students, and Harry clearly felt Ron, who was sitting on his left, tremble violently.

Ron had just mustered up the courage to answer Snape's question when he was stopped by Snape in a sighing tone: "...For talking about the professor behind his back, Gryffindor will deduct five points. Pay attention next time, all of you."

Ron was visibly weakened, just like when he had just woken up in the school hospital.

"As for you, Potter." Snape's lifeless eyes fixed on Harry's face. "Your detention will begin next Thursday evening, once a week until the end of the term, in the Potions classroom."

Ron took a deep breath, he had contributed his part to global warming. He hadn't expected that he was the one who talked about Snape the most, but Harry would be detained for a semester because of it.

"Sir?" Harry didn't get angry, but asked in a low voice, "I don't remember when I violated such a serious school rule?"

"It would be better if you refuse." There was no expression on Snape's face, as if he was just joking.

"Next Thursday night, until the end of this semester, the location is the Potions classroom, I remember it, sir." Harry repeated the time and place, "I promise to be there on time."

"Very good, Potter, let's see what you can do." Snape's eyebrows were locked together, and his voice was almost squeezed out from his teeth. For him, he would rather Harry refuse. He really didn't have the patience to teach a second-year student brain block, not to mention that Harry and his father were just a pair of molds.

When Snape left with his black cloak, Ron immediately looked at Harry with a sad look: "Detention once a week until the end of the term? You are a real warrior, Harry."

"Don't say such terrible things, Ron." Hermione patted Harry's shoulder comfortingly, "Maybe it's just remedial lessons? Professor Snape is a recognized master of potions. You must not waste time in detention. You must learn something!"

----

"So, you have moved the basilisk away from the Chamber of Secrets?" Dumbledore was in a very happy mood because Ivy had just told him that magical creatures would no longer appear in the castle for no reason.

After turning the Room of Requirement into a page and adding it to the Grimoire of Destruction, the first thing Ivy did was to trick the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets into his magical animal ranch and set up a separate cave for it. As the largest basilisk in the world, and most likely the only basilisk, it was bred by Slytherin himself, so it obviously has a very high research value.

"Yes, I also brought back a house-elf from the Room of Requirement more than a hundred years ago. His name is Diego, and he belongs to the Weasley family." Ivy looked at the candy plate on Dumbledore's desk. There was a kind of Muggle candy in it, chocolate-filled candy, also called toffee.

"Professor Matilda Weasley's house-elf?" Dumbledore twisted a toffee into his mouth. "What does he plan to do?"

"We signed a contract. After he helps me train a qualified house-elf butler, he will return to the Weasley family." Ivy also picked up a toffee and used it to tease the Phoenix Spark standing on his shoulder. However, this aloof guy was not interested in the candy at all and didn't even make a sound.

"That's great, Ivy. I can see that you respect good helpers of wizards." Dumbledore's mouth curled into a big smile because of the toffee. "I also have good news to share with you. The trial of Peter Pettigrew will be held this Saturday. Fudge is very concerned about this. In order to let Sirius Black come forward to correct Peter Pettigrew, he even signed a special parole order. It is said that this was learned from the Muggle Prime Minister!"

"Sirius Black?" Ivy raised an eyebrow. "Is he in Hogwarts now?"

"Yes, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has brought him back from Azkaban," said Dumbledore. "He is now lying in the school hospital. Voldemort's minions are being reduced bit by bit by us, and the forces against evil are also being strengthened bit by bit. Remus and Sirius are both good people who can be trusted."

Dumbledore's words are full of water.

As far as Ivy knew, Dumbledore had suspected a traitor among the four Marauders long before he learned of the prophecy during the interview with the Divination professor at the Hog's Head.

Remus Lupin, a werewolf, and Sirius Black, a member of an old pure-blood family, both had reasons to be suspected. So, to be on the safe side, Dumbledore persuaded the Potters to use the Fidelius Charm to hide their residence, and even proposed that he be their secret keeper.

But James Potter, who always put brotherhood first, was obviously willing to trust his brothers, so he rejected Dumbledore's proposal and chose a secret-keeper from the other three robbers.

At that time, Sirius and Remus were wary of each other, and no one noticed Peter Pettigrew who only hid behind others.

Therefore, after Sirius's flash of inspiration, Harry successfully lost his parents and became an orphan for twelve years.

Lupin began a twelve-year wandering life, while Sirius spent twelve years in prison in a daze.

Only Peter Pettigrew, who was adopted by the Weasley family, lived a happy life with delicious food and spicy drinks.

During these twelve years, Dumbledore did not try to find out the truth, did not try to persuade the self-exiled Lupin, and did not try to re-promote the trial of Sirius. It just passed by in obscurity.

Ivy had long known that Dumbledore was not a saint and that he had his own weaknesses.

Otherwise, Ivy would not have cooperated with him. People with weaknesses are obviously easier to control.

Ivy smiled noncommittally: "I believe they are the backbone of the fight against Voldemort. How about introducing them to me before I meet them?"

(End of this chapter)