Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 290 Vaughn: Professor, you love Harry too much!

Vaughn deliberately kept her by Hermione's side. Fruit Tea was the size of a small leopard, and because of her cat-raccoon bloodline, her fur had some magical resistance, so she could easily fight some young wizards.

Most importantly, she had Fox's feathers hidden in the small cloth pocket on her chest.

If danger arises, just light it, and Fox will arrive in the blink of an eye. Fox is also happy to help, as it has long coveted the magic potion in Fruit Tea's pocket.

Hermione knelt down and stroked Fruit Tea's fur: "Take me to Vaughn, okay?"

Guoguocha blinked her amber eyes, called out softly, and went downstairs first, with Hermione quickly following.

The two returned to the underground classroom, not the one Nick had borrowed, but the one where they usually had Potions class.

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In the chilly air, Hermione saw Snape's office, not far away, still lit, with firelight peeking through the crack in the door.

Faintly, one could hear voices inside: "—Catching Peeves is useless, Professor. It's bound by a Secrecy Charm and can't say anything. As elves, we can't invade its brain—it doesn't even have that organ!"

"That won't work. What about Crevy?"

"Professor, do you want me to kidnap a first-year student and then, regardless of his life and safety, invade his mind?"

'

Boom!

The sound of something breaking in the office startled Hermione, who quickly covered her mouth. She maintained her Disillusionment Charm and tiptoed to the half-open door, peering inside.

Guoguocha sniffed lightly, using the scent to accurately squeeze to her side, and peered through the crack in the door just like her.

The office was brightly lit, and in the blazing firelight of the fireplace, Hermione saw a crystal bottle used to hold potions shatter on the floor.

Beside him stood Snape, his body trembling with rapid breathing: "This won't work, that won't work, what the hell are you all plotting? Are you waiting for that thing to capture Potter, just like it did with Crevy, to crawl into Potter's head and control him, before the time is right?"

On his other side, Hermione saw Vaughn's back to the door, his shadow stretched long by the flickering firelight.

He paced back and forth in the firelight, his shadow appearing somber and eerie.

Hermione heard him sigh: "Albus and I didn't mean to hide it from you, in fact, we really need help—but your condition leaves us no choice, Professor. You lose your composure whenever Harry is involved."

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

Snape growled.

This was the first time Hermione had ever heard the usually cold and sharp-tongued Potions Professor display such intense emotions.

She even panicked: "I'm very rational. Precisely because I'm rational, I want to get rid of those damn problems with him as soon as possible, instead of acting like you guys—"

Before he could finish speaking, Vaughn interrupted him: "Whether it's rationality or emotional, you know it in your heart. I observed you many times last semester, Professor. You never dared to look Harry in the eye. You love him, and you hate him. You have both goodwill and malice towards him, wishing him dead."

"Of course you care about him, but your conflicting emotions have clouded your judgment. You, who once conveyed the prophecy of fate to Tom, should be the one who understands the power of fate best."

"But look at what you've done since the start of the school year! You've been causing trouble all along. There's no doubt you care about Harry's situation, but the hatred in your heart makes you not want to see him. So you've repeatedly and violently intervened, trying to destroy the diary, trying to solve everything once and for all, because subconsciously you don't want to be tormented by conflicting emotions anymore—how can Albus and I trust you in this state?"

"6

'

Hermione covered her mouth tightly.

Just as it was the first time she had seen Professor Snape possess such rich emotions, it was also the first time she had seen Vaughn's sharp and ruthless side.

In his presence, Professor Snape appeared so vulnerable, slumped at the table, speechless.

Their roles seemed to have been reversed as a result. She saw Vaughn pat Professor Snape on the shoulder and say earnestly, "I'm taking Peeves with me. It can't stay here for too long, otherwise, the diary will get suspicious. Albus and I are trying to figure out what it's up to. We can't alert it now."

It was then that Hermione noticed Peeves was also in the office—

The poor fellow was under some kind of spell and was completely frozen in place. Even when it tried to make its body ethereal, it couldn't escape the spell's influence.

Now it's like a solidified bubble, illuminated by the firelight, suspended in mid-air, bobbing up and down.

Vaughn drew his wand and shook it. Peeves "Balloon" slowly fell, tethered to the wand which had transformed into a rope, and was pulled to his side.

Snape did not stop him, and stared blankly as Vaughn led Peeves away.

Just as Vaughn was about to leave, he suddenly asked, "What do you want from me before you tell me your plans?"

Without hesitation, Vaughn replied, "Stay calm and don't let your emotions control you."

"—How do you determine if I'm being swayed by my emotions?"

Vaughn chuckled: "It's simple. It's about behavior. For example, you can try looking Harry in the eye and smoothing things over with him. Once you succeed, you can join the Savior Protection Plan."

Having said that, Vaughn didn't linger any longer and led Peeves away from the basement.

He walked all the way to the first-floor corridor, restored the deformed wand, removed the spell from Peeves, and then cast a powerful Confusion Charm on it.

Peeves has no brain, and its memories exist in a way completely different from those of living beings. Even with Vaughn's mastery of memory magic, he cannot extract or modify its memories.

But the Confusion Spell is an exception.

This seemingly simple spell, if mastered sufficiently, can affect almost any objective entity, regardless of whether it is alive or not.

Confused and disoriented by the Confusion Charm, Peeves left in a daze.

Only after it disappeared around the corner of the corridor did Vaughn, who had remained silent the whole time, look behind him and say to the empty space, "Hermione, why aren't you resting?"

As he inquired.

The air rippled like water, and then Hermione, embracing Fruit Tea's enormous body, revealed herself after dispelling the Disillusionment Charm.

As soon as it revealed itself, Hermione managed to hold it tightly to her chest, but its bottom dragged directly onto the fruit tea on the ground. It then forcefully broke free from Hermione's embrace and ran to Vaughn's feet, meowing loudly.

The girl was clearly uncomfortable with the tightness around her neck.

Vaughn stroked her fur comfortingly, then looked at Hermione, who hadn't spoken: "You heard everything?"

"Hmm—" She hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What was that diary Harry lost?"

As soon as she finished speaking, seeing Vaughn's hesitant expression, she immediately said, "Of course, if it's inconvenient to say, then—"

"It's okay." Vaughn shook his head and gently pulled her into his arms.

Hermione's eyes widened; Vaughn rarely showed her such affection.

She had once asked him, trying to suppress her shyness, and he jokingly replied that she was too young. How could he feel guilty when she was almost a year older than him?

So after confirming her relationship with Vaughn, Hermione always had a feeling of insecurity.

To his relief, Vaughn seemed to genuinely feel that girls his age were "too young," and despite frequently mingling with girls from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, he never engaged in any intimate behavior with them.

This is also why she doesn't hate those girls, but is always jealous of Professor Rozier —

Lost in a daze, Hermione suddenly realized that Vaughn had grown taller than her, and his once slender frame had become broad.

She was a head taller than me at this time last year.

But what Hermione found strange was that, despite her competitive nature, she didn't find this unacceptable or anxiety-inducing.

She listened quietly as he said, "What exactly is a diary? It goes back a long time—"

The night grew deeper.

The rain continued in Hogwarts Valley, and the night air felt like winter was approaching. The rain falling from the clouds brought the chill of the North Sea, and the wind blowing from the Forbidden Forest became biting.

They left the castle and came to the high covered bridge overlooking the courtyard and the Black Lake.

Even when it's still dark, you can see the snow-capped mountains reflecting the faint light of the sky, and distant lightning occasionally flashes by. You can't hear any thunder; all you can see is the surging waves of the Black Lake.

And amidst the howling wind, the Forbidden Forest swayed like ocean waves, its fallen leaves scattering across the ground in the rain.

The howling wind whipped Hermione's chestnut hair into a mess, but she didn't care to fix it. She simply held Vaughn's arm and listened to him tell her things that she, Harry, and Ron knew nothing about.

Voldemort, Tom Riddle, the tearing of souls, Horcruxes—and even the truth of what happened 12 years ago that Harry has been searching for, and fate!

"—The diary that Harry lost was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It contained the soul that split off when Voldemort was 17 years old. At that time, he had not yet gone mad and his actions were still relatively logical and had a clear purpose."

Hermione didn't know what to say.

In less than an hour, her brain received too much information, and she didn't even have time to sort it out properly. She could only let those chaotic things drift in her increasingly muddled consciousness.

She barely came to her senses when Vaughn mentioned the diary.

She hesitated before speaking, "Is this what you were talking about with Professor Snape in his office? You and Dumbledore were letting the diary run wild—"

"Well, Dumbledore and I wanted to see what he was going to do, and on the other hand, we were also forced by fate to do so."

"destiny----?"

"Yes—remember what I just said? More than ten years ago, when Voldemort's power was at its zenith, a prophet deciphered a prophecy of fate, predicting that a child born in July 1980 would become Voldemort's mortal enemy."

"So Voldemort ordered the Death Eaters to kill all children born in July. You could say that prophecy and Voldemort's order were the beginning of all the subsequent disasters. Hermione, why do you think Voldemort gave such an order?"

Because he's a bad guy!

Hermione instinctively wanted to say that.

But she looked up at Vaughn, who was gazing intently at the night sky, and ignored the fact that she thought the answer was too naive.

Because of Quirinus Quirrell's incident last semester, she specifically looked up information about Voldemort, even though the current magical literature mainly relies on "The History of Magic," newspapers from that time, and the notes of many wizards—the evaluations of him mostly focus on describing how evil and tyrannical that mysterious man was.

But upon closer reflection, how could the actions of such a legendary wizard, who single-handedly stirred up the entire English wizarding world and whose influence even covered most of Europe, be explained by simple labels?

How can one believe a proverb to be true simply because they hear it?

How could a ruler not consider how many families would be pushed to the opposite side by the slaughter of children?

Voldemort was indeed a villain, but that doesn't mean he was stupid.

Drawing on her limited knowledge, Hermione swallowed back the words she was about to say and asked, "Why?"

To her surprise, Vaughn didn't give her a definite answer: "I'd like to know why too."

Withdrawing his gaze from the distance, Vaughn looked down and smoothed Hermione's wind-blown hair. "I want to ask him why he seemed to have suddenly lost his mind. I want to ask him what he would choose if given another chance—I want to know whether the decision he made was based on his own thinking, or—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

But after the connection, Hermione had a vague understanding that, in Vaughn's eyes, he cared more about using the remnant soul of Voldemort hidden inside the diary to verify the so-called "fate" than the Horcrux function of the diary!

So, what exactly is that thing that makes Vaughn so concerned?

After hesitating for a moment, she didn't ask the question, because she could tell that Vaughn's tone was quite confused when he talked about fate.

This was unusual; in her memory, Vaughn always seemed to have everything under control.

Vaughn didn't say anything more, but advised her: "You can listen to the topic of fate, but don't be too curious about it. For now, the best way to deal with it is to pretend it doesn't exist."

Hermione nodded obediently.

She had only just learned from Vaughn's account that the real reason Professor Snape and Professor Rozier fought last time was because Snape wanted to interfere with Harry's union with the diary, and was then punished by so-called fate.

She was very self-aware; even a powerful wizard like Professor Snape had his hair "shaved" in his fight with Professor Rozier due to a backlash.

If it were her, she would probably have her head "shaved" off!

Without dwelling on it too much—she'd heard too much tonight and needed time to process it all—Hermione still asked Vaughn another question that concerned her: "Can't I tell Harry what you've told me?"

"Not for now." Vaughn shook his head. "His mind is not mature enough. Knowing too much is not a good thing. It's hard to say what kind of impact it will have on him if he takes on those burdens too early."

Makes sense.

If Harry knew that his parents died because of him—and Hermione knew Harry as she did him, he would surely be consumed by guilt and remorse.

Those negative emotions can be overwhelming, and once Harry gets caught in a cycle of self-blame, he can't break free.

Then, his impulsive personality would become the most unstable powder keg.

Thinking about it, Hermione had a bit of a headache. She had to think of a way to hide what she had heard today, at least in front of Harry, she had to pretend that she knew nothing.

"I regret coming out today."

Hermione hugged Vaughn's arm, pouting in annoyance.

Vaughn chuckled: "Actually, I was going to tell you these things sooner or later. I have a lot of things to do myself and can't focus my energy on Harry. You can help me keep an eye on him."

"—You're making me feel like a snitch."

In traditional European thought, the term "informer" is a rather derogatory one, a consequence of the negative influence of the informing culture that has been passed down from Roman times.

Even now, well-intentioned "whistleblowing" and whistleblowing are still considered "inhuman."

The little girl was somewhat resistant, even though she had done similar acts of informing or espionage many times before.

She complained about being annoyed and dissatisfied, but actually, Hermione was very happy tonight.

On one hand, Vaughn revealing his "secrets" to her is a wonderful feeling of being trusted by her lover, and it also gives Hermione the joy of feeling that she and Vaughn are fighting for the same goal and keeping the secret together.

The only regrettable thing is that this secret doesn't belong to her and Vaughn alone.

And there's also the super-bright third wheel, Dumbledore—

On the other hand, tonight was also one of the few times she and Vaughn had been alone together in months, even as they walked on the covered bridge, the cold wind howling through the archway.

Trust and love made Hermione ignore the cold, but her body couldn't withstand the cold wind.

After sitting on the bridge for a while, the girl started sneezing.

To prevent her from catching a cold, Vaughn forced her to return home, even though Hermione was very reluctant.

He wouldn't have taken her to the covered bridge if he hadn't been worried about the safety of talking inside the castle.

The saying "walls have ears" is just a metaphor in other places, but in Hogwarts Castle, which is full of ghosts, paintings, and armor, there are real "ears" on the walls of the corridors and rooms.

Arriving at the Gryffindor Tower, Vaughn woke up the fat lady who was sleeping soundly in the painting. Amid her impatient grumbling, Vaughn watched as the reluctant Hermione slipped into the passageway. After confirming with Fruit Tea that she was resting, he returned to the Tretlin Dungeon.

He was a little disappointed today.

The diary did not open the secret room during the Halloween dinner. Colin Crevy, who is known to have been controlled by the diary, and another sixth-grade student were both present at the dinner.

The reason why the other party has not taken action is currently unclear.

It's probably because we're not ready yet.

It's also possible that because Professor Snape didn't appear at the dinner party tonight, and his diary didn't know what had happened, he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself to avoid causing trouble, and went to the Ghost Party with Harry and the others.

Also at the party, because Peeves and Harry had a fight, Harry learned that Peeves might know the whereabouts of the diary, so he captured it.

If Vaughn hadn't arrived in time, who knows how Snape would have tormented it!

As one of the Death Eaters most trusted by the Dark Lord, Snape was not lacking in curses and spells that could be effective against elves.

"I feel like I'm becoming a nanny."

Vaughn thought helplessly.

But there was no other way. Dumbledore was currently traveling all over the world for his potions exchange program, and according to the principle of equivalent exchange, he had to take care of the castle and Harry for the other party.

Of course, Vaughn didn't have the patience to keep an eye on Harry's every move. Tonight, he "provoked" Professor Snape by telling Hermione about Horcruxes, destiny, and other things, which was also his way of finding an ally for himself.

"I prefer studying my magic to monitoring people and taking care of children."

Waving his wand to light the fireplace, Vaughn did not rest in the rising orange-red flames, but sat at his desk and opened his diary.

Vaughn did not keep a diary; what he did record in his diary were his plans for the future.

It's another type of schedule, based on a one-week time cycle, planning what work to do within that cycle and the direction of magic research.

Of all the cycles so far, the one with the most records is naturally the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical course.

Neither the students nor the instructors, Isabella and the instructor, had any relevant experience with this course, nor were there any case studies available for reference.

Everything requires exploration and continuous iteration.

After reading the diary for a while, Vaughn beckoned, and a silver plate on the desk suddenly stretched out its legs and ran over with a thud. It squatted down next to the diary and handed Vaughn the quill pen and ink that were placed on the plate.

"Record!"

At Vaughn's command, the quill jumped up, automatically dipped in ink, and landed on the journal.

"In the next few cycles, the reform of practical courses should prioritize the iteration of reward and punishment mechanisms. There need to be some interesting and practical items as rewards for completing practical tasks to enhance students' enthusiasm."

"The task system also needs optimization. I previously referenced the task boards and scrolling menus in online games, but in practice, they proved to be too idealistic and a rigid copy. Reality is not a game, and forcibly trying to resemble a game has led to many problems. In fact, the online game model is not the problem; the problem lies in the lack of technical means. To realize my idea, we need a highly graphical, portable device similar to a PD or smartphone as the client, and a highly intelligent task center as the server."

The quill pen flew across the paper, writing quickly and finishing in no time.

It "humanly" raised its pen tip, waiting for its owner to continue dictating, but after waiting for a while, it still hadn't finished, and the quill pen shook its feathers in confusion.

Sitting at the table, looking at the handwriting in his notebook, Vaughn fell into deep thought.

"—I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I think about it, what's limiting my creativity is actually technical limitations. All my ideas and creativity are based on the technologically advanced society I lived in before, which is why they're so incompatible with the primitive and backward state of the magic world."

It wasn't that he hadn't noticed it before. A few years ago, he had consciously funded the twins' alchemy research under the guise of investment, guiding their research direction.

Last year, arrangements were made early on for the twins to solve the problem of the magic field interfering with the electric field.

But perhaps due to differences in perspectives and knowledge, the twins often struggle to understand what the "product" they want actually looks like.

This has resulted in their development progress being less than ideal.