A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

"Oh, I see." His two friends looked enlightened.

Felix felt an urge to laugh. He finished the pie in a few bites and arrived at the Ancient Magic Runes classroom early to look through his class schedule for the year.

Among the third-year wizards, no more than ten people actually didn't choose his class, which inexplicably made his elective course a required course.

Professor McGonagall spent a considerable amount of time incorporating ancient runes into the curriculum.

Finally, the ancient magic runes for third graders were scheduled for the last period of class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and half an hour later than the normal end of get out of class.

Soon, the seventh-grade students arrived one after another.

Percy, Penelope, Wood, Jeffrey, and that Ravenclaw girl who preferred holding a little skull during last year's Rune Practice...

Among these people, Felix spotted someone who shouldn't have been there—Marcus Flint.

He graduated this June, but now he's back in the ancient magic script class. There's only one reason: he repeated a year.

Last school year, he failed both of his advanced courses—Fantastic Beasts Protection and Ancient Runes—not even passing one. This was a disgrace to purebloods, and his father pulled some strings with the school board to have him repeat a year.

“Professor…” The tall and burly Marcus saw Felix beckoning to him, his face scrunched up, and he practically shuffled over to him step by step.

Everyone else was watching the spectacle, especially Oliver Wood, who was beaming with excitement. He and Marcus were complete enemies; they were the captains of the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams, respectively, and had clashed frequently in private.

“You…” Felix looked at Marcus, momentarily speechless. What could he say? After all, his runes grades were better than his Magical Creatures Conservation grades, which at least showed that he put more effort into his own class.

If I hadn't relaxed the course selection requirements last year, would Marcus have been able to graduate smoothly with only one course?

Felix had no idea about this conjecture.

He rummaged around under the podium and pulled out a piece of parchment, handing it to Marcus. "This is the parchment you used for answering questions. I didn't erase your information; all the wrong answers from before are still there."

Marcus took it, muttering something as if he wanted to say thank you, but choked on his saliva.

“Go ahead, I’ll check on you regularly, and if your grades don’t meet the requirements, I’ll stop all your activities—” Felix looked at him calmly, “including Quidditch.”

“Yes, Professor,” Marcus said with a worried expression.

Conversely, Wood, as if celebrating an early holiday, whistled loudly.

Felix glanced at him: "You too, Wood. You're treated the same as Flint."

And so a second sour face appeared in the classroom.

The students nearby chuckled.

Soon, class officially began. Felix looked at the students below the stage: "You had a relatively easy time last academic year, and I am happy to let you experience the mysteries of ancient runes."

The male and female wizards below the stage had serious expressions; usually, such statements are followed by a "but".

“But this is your last year at Hogwarts—Wood, don’t look at Flint and laugh—I’ll go on, you’re facing the final wizarding exams, and I don’t need to tell you how important those exams are.”

"Next, I will explain our study plan for this academic year in detail..."

During the Q&A session at the end of the course, Penelope Crivat raised her hand and asked, "Professor, will we have any more rune practice this year?"

“Yes, Professor. Last year we smashed the little skeleton, chased away the black crows, defeated the magical golems, and cracked the devil's web trap. We finally collected all four keys. But there are still so many places we haven't explored,” the Ravenclaw girl next to her said, counting on her fingers.

Slytherin prefect Jeffrey calmly offered his suggestion: "Professor, I think we can decide the candidates for Rune Practice based on their grades."

Wood immediately glared at him, and even Marcus's expression seemed off.

Felix thought for a moment, "Here's what we'll do: I'll open that classroom on weekends for interested students to explore. But don't expect too much from it in class."

The class ended abruptly, and the students filed out.

“Professor Hyp?” Percy stood in front of Felix.

"Is there something you need, Weasley?"

Percy said hesitantly, "Yes, my brothers... Fred and George, they're in fifth grade today."

Felix waited quietly for what would follow.

“Well, this is a crucial year, you know, the OWLs exams… The family hopes they can focus more on their studies and get a couple more certifications.”

“Weasley, you can be more direct.”

Percy's breath hitched, and he mustered his courage to say, "I... I've heard that you strongly support their mischievous behavior, and it's getting worse... I hope you can talk some sense into them."

Felix looked at him and said softly, "Weasley, perhaps you hope I won't offer them any help?"

Percy said with difficulty, "I have that idea."

The empty classroom was silent. Felix tapped his fingertips on the desk, making a series of tapping sounds.

After a long pause, Felix looked up. "I can't make decisions for them, Weasley."

"You should know that even without my help, they'll still be focused on this. I can't exactly tie them up, or... cast a confusion spell on them, can I?"

Percy was pale and his lips were trembling.

“However, I do have a solution,” Felix said slowly.

"What is it?"

"You join them."

“You’re kidding!” Percy’s eyes widened. “I don’t even respect their pranks…”

"No, I don't mean you have to follow along with them in their research. I mean, understand them. Understand what they're doing, what they're researching, where they spend their time, and why they're so enthusiastic about it. When you know everything about them, you'll always find the right approach..."

Felix looked at him: "I heard you're planning to apply to the Ministry of Magic? That could be a worthwhile experience; you could write a paper on it."

Percy left, seemingly lost in thought.

On the other side, Harry looked furious, and Hermione chased after him in small steps.

"Harry, I didn't mean to hide it from you."

"Hermione, you already knew my father knew Professor Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew! You knew everything, but you didn't tell me a thing. Let me tell you—wait, where are they, Hermione?"

As Harry turned around in the corridor, he wanted to say a few more words, but Hermione had magically disappeared.

He and Ron looked at each other in bewilderment. Just then, Hermione arrived from another side road, stuffing a thin gold chain into her chest.

Hermione, I haven't finished yet—

Hermione said impatiently, "What are you saying? We're going to be late for Transfiguration class. Hurry up."

She hurried forward, but after taking a dozen steps, she realized they were still standing there, and said with a serious expression, "What are you waiting for!"

Chapter 186 Pro-Era

Hermione's strange behavior startled Harry, and he couldn't maintain his composure.

He was unsure whether to continue throwing a tantrum, but that might make him seem unreasonable.

Ron took the opportunity to put his arm around Harry's shoulder: "Harry, let's talk about it over dinner. Hermione was right about one thing—we are going to be late."

During the Transfiguration class, Harry was completely distracted. He was still wondering where Hermione had gotten the information from. Maybe it was Professor Hyp? But the age didn't match.

He was thinking so deeply that he completely ignored the frequent glances directed at him by others.

Just last class, when Divination professor Sybil Trelawney was interpreting the shape of his tea leaves, she gave all the young wizards a death omen that terrified them—a large, black dog that roamed the graveyard like a ghost.

Her words deeply disturbed Harry, who had seen the large black dog, a symbol of death, more than once—from the cover of the book "Omens of Death" in the bookstore to what he saw in the shadows of Magnolia Crescent Street on the day he ran away from home.

After the Divination class ended hastily, Hermione, in an attempt to refute Trelawney's point of view, inadvertently let slip some information to Harry, such as that she already knew some things about his father but had kept quiet about it.

That's the real reason Harry was angry.

At noon, the young wizards bustled into the Great Hall for lunch. Harry took some sausages and fried tomatoes, but he didn't feel like eating much, as if he was too full of all sorts of worries.

Hermione pushed him towards a small dish of dipping sauce. "Harry, you heard what Professor McGonagall said too. Trelawney predicts the death of a student every year; it's her way of welcoming new students."

But Ron said worriedly, "You didn't see a big black dog wandering around anywhere else, did you, Harry?"

Harry's stomach suddenly clenched. "No, I saw it," he said, "the night I left the Dursleys."

Ron dropped his fork on the ground and looked terrified.

But Harry was more concerned with other things. He looked at Hermione and said curtly, "You haven't told me about my father yet."

“Oh, uh…” Hermione looked away somewhat flusteredly. “Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Remember when Professor Hyp put us in solitary confinement?”

“Of course, it happened last school year.” Harry racked his brains for a memory. “We suspected Professor Hyp was involved in the Chamber of Secrets attack, so we followed him into the Forbidden Forest, and we got caught. We got ten points deducted, plus a full weekend of detention.” He added, “With Malfoy.”

He didn't know what this had to do with his father.

Hermione looked at him: "It's about our detention, Harry. Professor Hyp brought us a stack of old documents from Professor McGonagall that we copied down—it was about a list of students who had broken the rules and the corresponding punishments."

Harry recalled more details, including how Malfoy kept nagging him while he was copying down the information.

But he quickly realized the key point in Hermione's words, and his eyes widened: "You saw my father's name on it!"

“Not just Harry,” Hermione said. “All four of them were there. I mean, the names I saw were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew—”

"So that's why you were so surprised when you heard Professor Lupin's full name! You already knew all along." Harry finally understood something, which made him hungry again. He picked up a sausage and started eating it. But his eyes remained fixed on Hermione.

“That’s right,” Hermione said. “In fact, it’s possible that the part I copied was from those years… Anyway, I saw quite a lot of prohibited records.”

Harry stammered, "You mean, my father he..."

Hermione said softly, “Similar to twins, but perhaps a bit more lively.” She chose her words carefully. “Your father’s name is often mixed up with Sirius Black, and occasionally with two other people. This suggests—”

“They’re friends! And my father is clearly closer to Sirius Black!” Harry slammed his fist on the table.

He recalled overhearing the Weasleys' conversation on the eve of the start of the school year. He didn't actually feel much fear when he learned that Sirius Black's escape target was him.

The fugitive killed thirteen people with a single spell, so he should have been afraid, but Hogwarts was the safest place, with Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Hyp, who was on good terms with him.

The only thing he couldn't understand was that Mr. Weasley had a private conversation with him the next day, just before he boarded the train. During the conversation, Mr. Weasley made him promise to swear he wouldn't go looking for Black…

Why would he go looking for someone who wants to kill him?

But now everything is clear: Blake and his father were good friends, they broke the law together, wandered around the castle together, and explored the Forbidden Forest together...

It's hard to imagine that these two people would become enemies.

'Yeah, he's a Death Eater. War drives people crazy. Think of Voldemort!' Harry said to himself.

Ron stared at the two of them in disbelief, especially Hermione, who had been in confinement for almost ten months! She had kept the secret to herself without letting a word slip.

Hermione looked at Harry in agreement: “I think so too, and…” she continued in one breath: “And I also saw Severus Snape’s name, and there are seven or eight records of them fighting each other—your father and Snape.”

Harry was stunned, and he involuntarily looked towards the teachers' table.