Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 132 Detective Game
After listening to a series of conversations, the three of them soon saw the scene displayed in the mirror.

A group of professors sat in an environment very similar to the side hall of the auditorium, but the furnishings were slightly different. Candlelight flickered on the crystal chandeliers, and various gold, silver and bronze objects shone with metallic luster. There was a round table in the center of the room, and adult wizards dressed as professors sat around it.

Harry looked at the wizard sitting in the main seat. The person sitting there was not Dumbledore with silver hair and beard, but a skinny and shriveled old wizard with only a few strands of white hair on his bald head. He was wearing an old-fashioned black wizard robe. He had no strength to speak and looked old and weak.

He had been to the principal's office several times, where portraits of past principals hung on the walls. The portraits were blurrier than the real images and had been appropriately beautified, but their image characteristics were very prominent, allowing Harry to recognize them at a glance.

"It's Principal Armando Dippet!" he exclaimed.

"The former headmaster of Hogwarts, he had a very good reputation during his tenure, but died of dragon pox in 1971 at the age of 334." Hermione quickly recalled the records in the school history and looked aside, somewhat incredulously. "That person next to him is... a young Dumbledore!"

Harry and Ron's eyes moved to the wizard next to the main seat. He was tall and slender, with a reddish-brown beard and hair that had not yet turned completely white. He wore half-moon glasses on his hooked nose, and behind the lenses were his iconic blue eyes, bright and gentle.

The meeting scene in the mirror continues, and this time the voices of the conversation can be matched with specific people.

"Young Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Kettleburn... they were discussing some dangerous magical creature. What does this have to do with Hagrid?"

The three of them, with similar doubts, huddled in front of the mirror, unwilling to miss any useful information.

"Principal Dippet, the truth is not as simple as we expected. Tom Riddle..." The young Dumbledore paused, a complex and incomprehensible look in his blue eyes. "We all know that the girl did not die from the fangs of the Acromantula."

"I already told you."

The aging Armando Dippet sighed and spoke weakly, “We believe that Rubeus is not the murderer, but it is an undeniable fact that Tom saw him feeding the giant acromantula.

"We can't prove that the Acromantula is the murderer, nor can we prove that the Acromantula has nothing to do with Myrtle's death. The girl's parents will be coming to the school tomorrow, along with the Aurors. We must give them an explanation."

Dumbledore frowned slightly and was about to say something else, but Headmaster Dippet interrupted him with a wave of his hand: "He is still a child. He will not be thrown into Azkaban as a criminal. The punishment for violating school rules is expulsion. The punishment for illegally keeping dangerous animals is the breaking of the wand by the Ministry of Magic."

Dumbledore looked at the old headmaster's frail appearance with a gloomy look in his eyes.

Silver mist surged in the mirror, and the picture was swallowed by the vortex of mist. When it condensed again, it turned into a blurry teaching video.

Hermione glanced at the two dazed boys, then stepped forward to fiddle with the mirror, shaking and slapping it. After trying several times, she realized that no matter how she tried, there was only the instructional video. In the end, she could only shake her head:
"I can't turn it back. I can't find the memory in the mirror."

The three of them exchanged glances and sat down to sort out the information they had just received.

"From what we just said, an accident happened when Hagrid was at school. Myrtle died, but she didn't have any injuries. While the Ministry of Magic and the school were investigating, a student named Tom Riddle discovered that Hagrid was raising a giant acromantula." Hermione frowned and said softly, "So Hagrid was expelled and his wand was broken."

"No wonder Hagrid always hides his wand in his little pink umbrella..." Ron muttered. This was a secret they had known for a long time.

But they never figured out why, and those who knew about it were very taboo about it. Every time it was mentioned, Hagrid would cough loudly to clear his throat, clumsily pretend to be deaf and dumb, and act like a rogue until the subject was changed.

"It was Dumbledore!" Harry added. "Dumbledore knew Hagrid was innocent, so he helped him avoid punishment, repaired his wand, and hired him as gamekeeper at the school."

"I seem to remember..." Hermione muttered to herself, "Professor Lewinter mentioned this matter vaguely when we sent Norbert away last year."

Harry and Ron looked thoughtful. The corner by the Black Lake became quiet. For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the wind blowing across the surface of the lake.

The development of the matter was not complicated. The mirror revealed enough information. After sorting it out, many of the professor and Hagrid's past words and deeds matched up.

"Hagrid must be innocent!" Harry said loudly with a firm expression, "We must help Hagrid find out the truth and restore his reputation!"

Hermione glanced at him nonchalantly, but had no objection to his decision to overestimate his own abilities. She also wanted to give it a try.

"Who knows..."

Ron raised his hand to object, feeling rather unsure, and could only mutter, "Didn't Principal Dippet say Hagrid wasn't the murderer, but the Acromantula wasn't. Maybe it was the Acromantula who did it without Hagrid's knowledge?"

Seeing the two friends lost in thought, he continued, "And aren't you curious about the anomaly of the shadow mirror? Why did a good teaching video suddenly turn into a professor's conversation from decades ago? Was this an accident, or was it arranged by the professor?"

Harry hesitated when he heard this, he was not sure.

In the end, Hermione made the final decision. "We can put this last question on hold for now. We'll go back to the castle and ask Professor Lewynter later. Now we need to find Hagrid and ask him if it was the Acromantula that killed Myrtle."

The three of them quickly got up, put the mirror into their backpacks, patted their butts, and strode towards the Forbidden Forest Lodge.

……

Dinner time, auditorium, guest of honor seats.

Most of the professors were present for dinner. Headmaster Dumbledore sat at the head table, knife and fork in both hands, slowly carving a piece of fried pork chop. The other professors spoke cheerfully, discussing recent anecdotes.

"I heard you're planning on joining the drama club, Melvin. That's great!"

Professor Kettleburn's raspy, cheerful laughter could be heard across half the auditorium. "Because of an accident, many teachers and students are prejudiced against me. They always feel that I burned down the drama club, and they've suffered decades of injustice. I never expected to see the drama club re-formed before I retire. This is so exciting!"

"Prejudice?" said Snape flatly. "Isn't that the truth?"

Kettleburn took a sip of whiskey and shook his head in rebuttal, "I must clarify. I did use a fire ash snake as a prop when I performed the pantomime 'The Fountain of Good Luck', but the real cause of the fire was that the fire ash snake happened to be laying eggs. The two leading girls were fighting each other, and Professor Beery was caught up in the fight, which frightened the prop and its snake eggs ignited the floor."

"It set half the Great Hall on fire," Professor McGonagall corrected.

"Okay, okay, half the auditorium!" Kettleburn muttered. "Anyway, this is an accident caused by many coincidences. I'm just one of them. The collapse of the drama club can't be blamed on me."

What followed was a feeble and feeble excuse, something like using a fire ash snake as a prop was a thoughtful move, and if the lead actor hadn't frightened the snake, the atmosphere at the dinner table would have been exceptionally cheerful.

Dumbledore glanced at the Gryffindor table and found it somewhat amusing to see the trio who had been staring at the head table since dinner began.

He turned to look at the young professor who was having dinner and asked in confusion, "Melvin, I'm a little curious, why did you entrust the rehearsal of the play to two children who are not very good at this kind of thing?"

“Only a few people are born good at something, and what I need is not the result, but the process. When they work towards a goal, the rewards in the process are often much greater.” Melvin swallowed the sausage. “Marieta and Neville are both a bit dull. It’s the long-term pressure from their parents’ heavy expectations. Pressure without proper guidance will wear down the outstanding parts of their personalities. I’m trying to guide the pressure.”

“Storms make flowers grow better than fair weather.”

Dumbledore said something with a hint of meaning, then suddenly changed the subject and mentioned something else: "Melvin, I heard that you asked Filius and the others for Hagrid's memory of the case. My brain is not yet covered with honey, and I still have some useful information..."

Melvin glanced at him suspiciously, wondering if the principal had extracted some information from the crown, but the old principal smiled kindly and there was nothing unusual about him.

He paused for a moment and nodded: "I will make good use of these memories."

……

At the Gryffindor table, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ate slowly while discussing the information they had just obtained in the Forbidden Forest Lodge.

"Hagrid said his Aragog was a good boy. Is that credible?" Ron asked with a frown, obviously skeptical.

Harry thought for a moment and nodded slowly. "It should be believable. Hagrid poured all the whiskey in his room into him. He was so drunk that he could hardly stand. He couldn't tell a lie even if he wanted to."

In the afternoon, I went to the Forbidden Forest Hut to ask about what happened that year. Hagrid avoided the topic as before and tried to fool people by changing the subject. Fortunately, Hermione was smart enough to pour whiskey into his broth while he wasn't paying attention, and he drank it all in a daze.

The three of them also got the answers they wanted.

"What if the Acromantula committed the crime without Hagrid's knowledge?"

"..."

While the two men were still arguing, the professors at the main guest table had almost finished their meal and were leaving one after another.

Hermione quickly stood up and pulled the two of them up: "We'll talk about this later. Let's go ask Professor Lewynter about the shadow mirror first."

The three of them ran through the aisle between the long tables, out of the auditorium, and stopped him at the stairs.

"Professor Lewynter! Professor!"

Melvin stopped where he was and waited for the three of them to jog over to him. "I remember the tutoring was on the weekend, right? Can't you wait now?"

"It's not about tutoring." Hermione breathed a little quickly. "Professor, we saw a strange image in the mirror this afternoon. It was completely different from the teaching video, but we couldn't find it later. Is this a hidden Easter egg?"

It is the clue of a detective game and the opening act of the drama club.

Melvin answered silently in his heart, but said aloud: "What exactly is this strange picture?"

Hermione began to recall the details, and Harry and Ron supplemented them, recounting almost the entire conversation. "It was a meeting with Dumbledore when he was young. It should have been shortly after Myrtle was attacked. Hagrid was discovered by a student to be raising an Acromantula... The final punishment was breaking his wand and expulsion."

Melvin pretended to think seriously, and after a moment's silence, he solemnly coaxed, "There are many magical things in Hogwarts Castle, but this anomaly should perhaps be explained by the principles of Muggle science."

The three of them blinked.

"The anomaly with the mirror may be related to upgrades. The new generation of mirrors has the ability to receive signals, similar to radios and televisions."

Melvin explained seriously, "Harry and Hermione should understand that sometimes electrical devices can receive unexpected frequencies. It's said that someone even received a distress signal from a fishing boat across the Atlantic Ocean several months ago. This anomaly could be that the mirror has received other memories."

"I understand!" Ron raised his hand cheerfully, and the fat sleeping rat in his pocket turned over. "We have a radio at home. My mother uses it to listen to Celestina, and when George, Fred, and my father mess around, they always get Muggle stations."

Hermione and Harry didn't quite believe it at first, but after hearing what Ron said, they felt it made sense.

Wizarding things cannot be viewed with ordinary eyes, and it is normal for them to be a little strange.

Looking at the mysterious professor, Hermione hurriedly asked, "So, if we want to investigate the truth and restore Hagrid's reputation, how can we see more footage?"

"The mirror anomaly was a random event, and I don't know how to trigger it." Melvin frowned slightly. "Also, this matter is very difficult. Even Dumbledore couldn't prove Hagrid's innocence back then, so there may not be direct evidence in the castle."

"We want to give it a try!" the three said solemnly.

"Then I wish you good luck."

Watching Professor Lewinter's back as he walked up the stairs, the three children standing there felt a little confused. They felt that they had heard a lot of news, but none of it was helpful in finding out the truth.

……

Late at night, in the Muggle Studies office.

The window was half-open, and the cool evening breeze blew slowly into the room. The parchment on the table was fluttering, the open ink bottle exuded a faint fragrance, and ink marks floated on the open diary.

Melvin and his close pen pal are experiencing a crisis of trust:
"Tom, when I was looking through the materials related to the Chamber of Secrets, I found some past events. The Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, and the student who exposed Hagrid's taming of dangerous animals was you, Tom Riddle."

"Yes, I also received a special contribution award for this."

Melvin paused, seeming very hesitant. "But it was you who actually opened the Chamber of Secrets, right?"

The diary was silent for a long time: "How did you find out?"

"Hagrid's brain is no different from a troll's. With just a few bottles of whiskey, he spilled everything..." Melvin did his best to project the extreme and apathetic nature of someone steeped in the dark arts. "Compared to Rubeus Hagrid, you, another outstanding Slytherin graduate, who's proficient in the dark arts and familiar with the intricacies of the Chamber of Secrets, are more like the heir of Slytherin."

No new ink appeared on the surface of the page. Senior Riddle was lost in thought.

Melvin continued, "Now, tell me what is inside the secret room and how to open it."

(End of this chapter)