A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

The day before Valentine's Day, Hogwarts was filled with a restless, youthful energy, and the whole school came alive.

Among the young wizards, various tips for confessing one's feelings began to circulate, from the method and location of confession—under mistletoe being the most popular choice—to what clothes to wear when confessing, all of which were compiled into a set of sayings.

There was even a sudden outbreak of substandard love potions, and several professors had to put a few students in solitary confinement to stop the trend.

So the young wizards' attention shifted to the star students of each house, and they started discussing which wizard was more handsome and which witch was more beautiful...

Some of the more popular ones even have dedicated admirers. For example, Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff was already very popular, and his talent displayed in several dueling classes quickly spread his fame to other grades and houses.

Harry has been somewhat troubled lately. With the double boost of his savior aura and the school's special contribution award, his fame remains consistently high. Especially after the Basilisk's corpse was displayed at the school, everyone's fear of the Basilisk has correspondingly transformed into awe for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

But this awe was more evident in Harry, because he was the only one who displayed exceptional combat talent—his disarming charm even surpassed that of many older students.

This earned him a group of admirers.

"Harry, there are a few girls staring at you over there. Can't you do something about it?" Hermione said irritably.

Harry looked at the group of young witches in the corner of the library with a sense of helplessness. They were quite bold, staring straight at him, and when he looked over, they hid their faces behind the books and giggled.

Ginny was doing her homework not far away, occasionally glancing at Harry while flipping through her book.

Before long, Harry's troubles were resolved by himself; Mrs. Pince, the librarian, waved her wand and chased away all the noisy girls.

He breathed a long sigh of relief.

Ron was somewhat envious, because the people who liked listening to his stories were mostly boys, and the stories were gradually losing their popularity.

As the three of them left the library, they began to discuss the new professor.

"I wonder what the new professor will be like. I hope it's not another Lockhart or Quirrell..." Ron said with lingering fear, as those two had left him with a huge psychological scar.

"I can learn something from dueling class too." Harry didn't seem to care much; dueling class was his favorite course this year, but unfortunately it was only twice a month.

"Harry, Duel Class and Defense Against the Dark Arts are different. Defense Against the Dark Arts teaches you to defend against danger, while fighting is just one way to defend against danger," Hermione said. "Actually, Snape's theory is quite in line with the requirements of Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Ron stared at her in shock, as if she had said something outrageous.

"Oh, don't say that, I'm just giving an objective evaluation," Hermione said.

Harry didn't speak; his objection wasn't to Snape's views on dueling, but to Snape himself.

On this point, the two were quite in sync: he disliked Snape, and Snape disliked him.

So he changed the subject, saying, "Any rumors about the new professor? Let's not talk about the dwarfs..."

As they were talking, a dwarf walked past them with a gloomy face—they had brought their entire troupe of twelve after Dumbledore had agreed to their Valentine's Day performance.

These short, green-skinned children walking around the school became a unique sight this February.

Harry was very glad that they didn't usually wear golden wings and carry harps.

The three watched the dwarf disappear from sight, and Hermione answered his earlier question: "The new professor is called Damocles Belby. He's a potions master who just received the Order of Merlin's Medal for inventing the Wolfsbane Potion."

"Potion Master? Wolfsbane Potion?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"The Order of Merlin? Lockhart's show-off stuff?" Ron said with disgust.

The little witch first told Harry, "Wolfsbane is a new potion invented this year that allows werewolves to remain conscious during their transformation under the full moon—" Then she looked at Ron, "Professor Belby received a second-class medal, which is different from Lockhart's."

Harry nodded.

"How do you know so much?" Ron asked curiously.

"I heard it from Professor Hyp; he and the new professor are good friends, and it was he who recommended the new professor to Dumbledore," the little witch said.

Ron clicked his tongue. "Then why did he recommend his friend? I mean... the curse?"

Hermione shook her head; she couldn't understand Professor Hyp's actions either.

Privately, she actually thought Professor Hyp had made a mistake. But she still countered Ron, saying, "The new professor is only teaching for half a semester. I think he probably doesn't think it's very dangerous." She said this without much conviction.

Ron muttered, "That's dangerous too."

Their questions were somewhat answered in the evening in the common room.

Ginny said somewhat awkwardly, "Luna's mother died in a magical accident. She told me that if you want to research something new, you're bound to encounter all sorts of dangers..."

"...Unless you do nothing at all."

Ancient magic script office.

Felix sorted through his spoils, having spent the weekend dividing the basilisk's materials with Snape.

Other professors weren't very interested, except for Kettleburn and Hagrid, who came to see it a few times.

Professor Kettleburn's attitude was the purest; he said with a regretful look, "If we could keep it... I mean, we would have to be fully prepared."

Given the professor's exaggerated experiences, Felix was highly skeptical.

Hagrid's attitude was more complicated. He stroked the basilisk's scales with his large hand and said with a hint of sadness, "I was fired because of it. My father had just passed away not long before, and he loved me so much... It was a dark time."

He wiped his tears with a dirty handkerchief and told Felix about his sorrows.

But before Felix could think of anything to comfort him, Hagrid quickly composed himself, looking at the basilisk's fangs and empty eyes, and said, "What a fascinating creature, isn't it?"

……

What lay before Felix was a green snakeskin and its separated scales, along with a dozen or so venomous fangs.

These are all the results of processing—originally, the scales of snake skin cannot be peeled off, just like most snakes. The so-called scales are actually the product of the snake's surface skin and keratin buildup.

But with the help of magic, nothing was a problem; he easily separated the scales from the snakeskin.

The basilisk possesses extremely high magic resistance, comparable to that of a fire dragon. Even a physical spell hitting its thick scales might only create a shallow dent.

He considered making a close-fitting soft armor out of snakeskin, so that ordinary spells would have no effect on him.

As for the scales, Felix hasn't figured out what to do with them yet—they're incredibly magically inert.

He could only hope that Professor Snape could discover a use for the basilisk scales, preferably turning them into rare potion ingredients.