Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 181 Malfoy's Hint
The towering, snow-white building sits amidst rows of shops, its bronze doors gleaming from daily polishing. Standing before the doors are strangely-looking fairy waiters. These waiters have dark, grayish-green faces, like moles burrowing in the ground, with pointed goatees and cunning expressions and eyes.

Each fairy wore a scarlet uniform with gold trim, the buttons made of different metals: bronze, silver, and gold.

The young professor entered through the first door of the Wizarding Bank, where there were also silver doors inscribed with Gringotts' warnings:

"...Thief, you have been warned."

Beware that what you attract will not be treasure, but retribution.

Melvin completely ignored the warning, carrying the wire cage containing the rats, disregarding the bows of the two goblin waiters, and casually walked into the room. He headed towards the counter and said to one of the leisurely goblins:
"Hello, I would like to deposit some Galleons into the vault, Melvin Levent's vault."

"Do you have your keys, sir?"

“I brought it…” Melvin handed the vault key to it for inspection. Just as the fairy was about to call an idle waiter to lead the way, he suddenly interrupted, “Can I specify the pull ring to lead the way? It was this service I used last time I came here.”

The fairy looked at him with surprise: "Of course, I'll find him right now to take you to the underground vault... pull the tab!"

Half a minute later, the short-statured Rapunzel strode up from behind. He glanced at Melvin, his bat-wing-like ears fluttering slightly: "Professor, please come with me."

Open the door to the underground vault and step into the narrow stone corridor.

Pull-ring stood beside the railway tracks, not immediately whistling to summon the cart, but looking at Melvin with difficulty: "Professor, are you also going to store this mouse in the vault?"

Melvin glanced down and chuckled, "Sorry, I forgot I brought a mouse with me."

“If it’s not for storage, you can leave it here for now and take it with you on your return trip. A fairy will take good care of it.” Pull-ring had a polite smile on his face, revealing a row of sharp little teeth, which looked slightly sinister.

"Listen to you."

Seeing the rat cage placed in the corner, I loosened the pull ring slightly, gave a whistle, and a small cart came along the railway track, clattering along.

The rat, Spotted, huddled in its cage, watched them get on the trolley and disappear at the end of the tracks, its round eyes gleaming.

"squeak……"

The process was the same as last time: we boarded a small cart and headed deep underground, the creaking of the rails echoing through the earth as we passed through an underground lake dotted with stalactites. Since this was a regular customer opening the vault as usual, there was no anti-theft waterfall inspection, and we proceeded smoothly into the underground tunnels, stopping in front of the deepest vault doors.

While the door was being opened by the pull ring, Melvin glanced back. The old fire dragon was curled up in a cave, its cloudy eyes half-open and half-closed, some of its scales missing, making it look like a bald dog.

“Didn’t you say you were going to add a sphinx?” Melvin asked.

“You mean the Sphinx?” Without turning his head, he tapped the key on the stone wall to reveal the keyhole, and then carefully opened the vault wall. “That’s too precious. The Egyptian Ministry of Magic recently listed it as a rare and protected animal. Gringotts can’t find a qualified Guardian Beast to train in a short time, so we have to put it on hold for now.”

The vault doors opened, and the fairy turned around, bowing slightly as she said, "Please rest assured, no one dares to offend Gringotts, your treasure is absolutely safe."

Melvin remained noncommittal and entered the vault. It was quiet inside, the air rather stuffy, carrying a faint earthy smell. In the center of the room, a small mountain of Galleons, previously stored there, gleamed brightly.

"This is the Gallon stored this time. Would you like to take a count?" Melvin carried a small linen bag, shook it twice, and the gold coins jingled.

“No, Professor, this vault belongs to you, and the Galleons here are yours too. Gringotts is only responsible for its protection and guarding.”

Despite what he said, when he saw the huge amount of Galleons lying on the ground, he still showed a sincere smile, as if he was happy for gold that did not belong to him.

Melvin smiled faintly, understanding that the fairy had lowered her guard, and asked casually:
“Easter is approaching, and I plan to take a long trip during the holidays. However, the business needs someone to look after it. If I can't be there, how can the others access this batch of Galleons?”

“That’s simple. If you’ve given the instructions beforehand, just have the wizard bring the vault key when the time comes.”

"What if it's an emergency and there were no prior instructions?"

“This is rather troublesome. You will need to write a letter yourself, preferably stating that this is your intention and verifying the identity of the agent.”

"I see."

Melvin nodded. The Galen had finished emptying the vault. He circled the vault twice and casually asked, "Does Gringotts often encounter situations like this?"

“Occasionally, some customers will have this need.” The pull ring’s eyes were glued to Galon, staring at him intently.

"If, and I mean if, some clients are still alive, but are unable to return here due to health reasons, and are also unable to write a power of attorney to prove their identity, how should they retrieve the items from their vault?"

“You need to prepare the vault key, and the agent needs to prove their identity. They should at least be a relative of the vault owner, or have a permit from the Ministry of Magic…” Pull-Pull scratched his head, feeling that the client’s question was a bit strange, but he didn’t think too much about it. “That’s all I know. If there are other situations, you’ll need to check with the manager.”

"I understand……"

Melvin looked thoughtful.

……

Hogwarts, Gryffindor common room.

The fire in the fireplace was burning brightly, and a small mirror with a flickering image on it was placed not far in front of it.

The young wizards sat cross-legged on the carpet, staring intently at the floating images, their eyes unblinking, reflecting the light and shadow.

In the mirror, a magnificent lion-like creature, comparable in size to a giant, crouches behind the jungle. It has a long scorpion tail with sharp spikes that gleam with a cold, menacing light.

The scene shifts, and this magical creature has a face that resembles a human's.

The shocking scene made some of the younger students gasp, and some girls even screamed. They looked away in fright, but were reluctant to leave, so they squinted and continued to watch out of the corner of their eyes.

"Some amazing things are happening in the Serengeti plains of Tanzania, where days of storms have provided the animals with a good living space."

"A proud female lion-headed scorpion-tailed beast stood tall. It was a skilled hunter and an expert in magical defense, capable of resisting almost all known spells. Any creature stung by its tail sting would die instantly, more deadly than sea serpents, eight-eyed spiders, or even basilisks."

"At the same time, it is also a great mother, nursing and nourishing the cubs of the human-headed lion-bodied scorpion-tailed beast is an extremely painful thing..."

These are amazing wild animals. Unlike the dull and boring text and pictures in the book, the biological habits and characteristics of those animals that were taught in class are presented in a profound and intuitive way. It is about the survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle, but it is not just about one beast hunting another.

After the hunt, the story explores the bonds between wild animals from a perspective never before imagined, highlighting the stark contrast between bloodshed and tenderness, creating a powerful emotional impact. The teenage wizards, still relatively innocent, had never seen anything like it before. The boys were captivated by the agile hunting figures, unable to look away, while the girls were moved by the mother-and-calves bond, their noses tingling, seemingly forgetting their earlier fear.

A group of students gained a different understanding of this 5X-level dangerous magical creature.

Even Percy, who always followed the rules, felt that George and Fred had done the right thing this time. It was good that they had pleaded with Professor McGonagall to allow them to sit in front of the fireplace and watch the show from then on.

Harry had watched television at the Dursleys' house, but he was also captivated by this unique program, staying by the fireplace and even holding in his bladder when he needed to use the toilet.

A chill suddenly swept over Nick, who was nearly headless. The ghostly head drooped from the ceiling, and he stared into the mirror, whispering without turning his head:

"Harry, Harry..."

“I almost…” Harry paused, “Nick, what can I do for you?”

"Someone wants to talk to you in the abandoned classroom downstairs."

"Who?"

"The Slytherin kid, the one with the platinum blonde hair!"

"Malfoy...it should be Dobby's business, right?" Harry frowned slightly.

He admitted defeat to save face for Malfoy, and promised to release Dobby—all of which were agreed upon in the dueling class. What else is there to discuss? Has something gone wrong? Or has Dobby already been rescued?

Unable to come up with an answer, Harry glanced around and tugged at the sleeves of his friends on either side:
"Ron, Hermione, come out with me for a second... Ron, Ron, Ron!"

Lost in grief over the loss of his cub, Ron was startled by a loud shout that rang in his ears. Before he could complain, he was dragged out of the projection area and pulled behind an empty sofa.

He muttered, "What are you doing? This is just getting interesting!"

Harry lowered his voice and explained, "Malfoy asked me to come downstairs to talk, but I'm not sure what we'll talk about. You guys come with me."

"Could it be that Malfoy is going to break the contract and wants to get revenge, so he's ambushing you in the classroom with his two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, planning to gang up on you?" Ron never hesitated to speculate about Malfoy with the utmost malice.

Harry hesitated for a moment upon hearing this: "Surely...no way?"

“He’s not that stupid. Besides, we’d better hurry, it’s almost dinner time,” Hermione said.

"Who can say for sure?"

Ron glanced reluctantly at the mirror, but still felt that his friend's safety was more important. He quickly followed the two and, taking advantage of everyone's attention being on the mirror, quietly slipped out of the common room and went downstairs to the abandoned classroom Nick had mentioned.

Crabbe and Goyle were absent; only Malfoy stood by the classroom window, gazing idly into the distance.

“Weasley, Granger…”

Draco was somewhat puzzled. Seeing the three men's wary gazes, he seemed to guess their thoughts and gave a disdainful sneer.

Harry and the others pretended not to understand his expression: "Do you need something from us?"

"There was a slight mishap with the house-elf..." Draco said softly to Harry, too lazy to argue, while helplessly spreading his hands.

Originally just a lowly house-elf, he wrote a letter to his mother Narcissa, intending to ask her to release Dobby. However, he did not expect that Dobby's ownership was in the hands of his father Lucius. Although others could also order him around, his father was the true master.

“I can’t get my father to release a house-elf outright, just like I can’t convince him to throw away hundreds of Galleons.”

Draco paused briefly, feeling that the analogy wasn't quite right, and that the latter was achievable. He shook his head: "If you're not in a hurry, you can wait until I go home for summer vacation and then figure something out, or wait until I inherit the Malfoy family. At that time, I will keep my promise and release Dobby."

Hermione's brows furrowed tightly.

"You just want to cheat, don't you?" Ron questioned.

“The Malfoy family has always been very reputable in business.” Draco raised his chin, looking at them with pride. “If you really can’t wait, you can find your own way. I can cooperate with you.”

……

A few minutes later, the three left the abandoned classroom, discussing their conversation.

“What can we do?” Ron said indignantly. “He just doesn’t want to keep his promise!”

Hermione frowned slightly, already having figured it out: "Dobby mentioned in the school infirmary last time that house-elves can only be freed when their owners dress them up."

"But Mr. Malfoy was very careful; he didn't even give Dobby a pair of socks."

Harry sorted through his thoughts, looked up and met Hermione's gaze, and a sudden inspiration flashed through his mind, "This is the plan Malfoy had us come up with. He's hinting that as long as Mr. Malfoy gives Dobby clothes, even just a sock!"

Ron scratched his head, his expression full of doubt.

"But we don't even have a chance to see him..."

Ron muttered to himself, then caught a glimpse of the corner of the stairs. His eyes widened in shock, and he exclaimed excitedly, "Spotty! I see Spotty!"

In the corner, a gray mouse lay quietly, dozing with its eyes half-closed. It was thinner than before, but still had some bald patches on its body. Most importantly, it was missing a toe!
"Banban! My Banban! You're still alive!"

Ron rushed over with ecstatic joy, but his movements were gentle as he gently cradled the gray rat in his palm and carefully lifted it up: "I knew it, I knew it! You've lived in our house for twelve years, how could you die so easily? Even the basilisk couldn't do anything to you!"

The mouse, Spotted, opened its eyes, seemingly moved by the long-awaited reunion, and affectionately nuzzled its nose against his.

"..."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and fell silent.

The ugly gray mouse was being affectionate with its friend; the scene was a little... indescribable.

(End of this chapter)