A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Harry said to Hermione, "Besides, we can't even be sure if the monster is a snake, right? Maybe what I heard that day was just the babbling of a passing snake, even Professor Hyp admits that. You've been searching the library for so many days, and you haven't found any corresponding snakes, have you?"

Hermione was speechless. The closest description she found was of a creature called the Basilisk, whose gaze was deadly, but it could not petrify people.

Ron finally tried to smooth things over, saying, "Let's brew the compound decoction as soon as possible and ask Malfoy for clarification."

"And that little elf named Dobby is also very strange."

……

In the new week, in addition to comforting the young wizards in class, Felix also gave them a special reminder: "Don't trust any talking magical creation unless you can see where its brain is hidden."

“Professor, are you talking about the Sorting Hat?” asked one of the twins, Fred.

“No, it has stood the test of a thousand years, and we can trust it,” Felix said seriously. “But some other things, like those things you find by chance in the library’s mezzanine or in an abandoned old broom shed, you should be very careful if you find that you can talk to them.”

"They may be extremely dangerous creations of dark magic."

"I could give you hundreds of similar examples..."

For the rest of the class, Felix used real-life cases from various countries to constantly intimidate these unreliable young wizards, and judging from their expressions, he had achieved his goal.

As evening fell, when the twins told the story they had heard to everyone, everyone listened with rapt attention.

“I never imagined Professor Hyp was so knowledgeable,” Fred and George said to Ron as they walked to a corner of the lounge.

He winked and gestured to Ginny, who was looking dejected, "Ginny, I still have a lot of stories to tell. If you want to hear them, I..."

“No need!” Ginny said curtly.

The twins exchanged a glance and began to perform in an exaggerated manner, imitating a hapless man who found a black magic book and whose eyes were now permanently attached to it.

Ginny trembled as she listened.

"Alright, stop scaring Ginny," Hermione said, taking the little girl's hand reassuringly. "The professor will protect us, as long as we don't get too curious..."

Ginny nodded.

The next day at noon, Ginny secretly glanced around, left the group, and went to a secluded place. She took out a black notebook from her bag and threw it forcefully.

After their afternoon potions class, the trio quietly went to the abandoned washroom to brew Polyjuice Potion.

"Everything is going well so far," Hermione announced happily, glancing at the color of the potion.

“Wait.” Harry looked toward a corner of the bathroom where there seemed to be something, but it was too dark for him to see clearly.

Just as I was about to get closer, I suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.

The three looked at each other in horror—"Who's there?" Harry shouted.

The footsteps quickly disappeared.

Harry gritted his teeth, opened the door and chased after him. After a while, he returned.

“It’s Malfoy!” he said through gritted teeth. “He must have come with us.”

"Did he notice...?"

"I don't know."

"But it's no longer safe here."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione agreed to change locations, and this time they chose an abandoned classroom in the basement.

"This place is very remote."

The three were very satisfied with the new location.

In the evening, a young wizard quietly slipped away to the place where Harry and his friends had been brewing potions. After a slight hesitation, he entered the girls' restroom.

After a while, he came out and left quickly, something tucked inside his robe.

Chapter 45 Guest Appearance as a Psychologist

As the Creepy incident unfolded, the young wizards at Hogwarts revealed an extremely unreliable side, secretly exchanging amulets, exorcism items, and other toys for self-protection behind their teachers' backs.

During this time, this practice quickly became popular in the school, and Neville Longbottom bought a stinking onion, a sharp amethyst, and a rotting newt tail.

As a result, the other boys in Gryffindor told him that he was not actually in danger: he was of pure blood and therefore would not be attacked.

“They went after Filch first,” Neville said, his round face filled with fear. “Everyone knows I’m pretty much a dud.”

The professors had to repeatedly emphasize in class that these things were completely useless. Among them, Felix, with his good reputation and gentle attitude, gained many fans among the young wizards.

Many younger students even came seeking psychological guidance.

“Professor, can I talk to you?” A curly-haired Hufflepuff boy stopped him as he was patrolling the corridor.

“Of course.” Felix sighed inwardly. This was the fourth one this week. Fame was a burden.

The two arrived at a pillar. The young wizard seemed a little reserved, but Felix had a very high "approval rate" among the young wizards, which quickly calmed him down.

“Professor, I’m having some trouble.” Felix gestured for him to continue. “My name is Justin Finley, and I come from a Muggle family…”

Felix understood.

"...When I received the acceptance letter, I wasn't sure if I wanted to come to Hogwarts. But, well, you know, I was originally going to Eton College, which is where my father graduated from."

Felix agreed, saying, "I've heard of this school; it's quite famous in the Muggle world."

“Yes, that’s right.” Justin’s interest was piqued. “But I was more curious about magic, so I convinced them to let me attend Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall’s performance terrified them.”

Felix nodded. Hogwarts has a long-standing tradition of visiting new students from Muggle families.

But the expression on a Muggle's face when they first encounter magic from a materialistic perspective must be quite amusing.

Justin continued, "A lot has happened this year, the situation is difficult... Everyone is very panicked, and many people are writing letters home."

"Your parents must be worried about you too, right? Did they ask you to take a break from school?" Felix asked.

“No, no, Professor,” Justin said quickly, “I didn’t tell my family. I believe Hogwarts will continue, Professor. I love magic! I, I’m just a little scared. There are a lot of rumors that… Harry, Harry is the heir to Slytherin!”

“Most of the rumors are unreliable,” Felix said calmly. “Do you believe this claim?”

"I'm not sure either. Logically speaking, well, Professor, you know the word 'logic,' right? Great, logically speaking, they're just in the wrong place, but I don't know much about magic..."

"Don't worry, it's not him. I can assure you of that. The professors are knowledgeable enough to distinguish between facts and rumors."

Justin visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Any other questions?"

"Also, Professor, I heard you're also a Muggle? And sorted into Slytherin?"

"Yes."

"You must have suffered a lot of trouble from people, right? And you retaliated fiercely against them?"

"Ah, you could say that, albeit reluctantly."

Justin's expression brightened. "Professor, many young wizards, especially those from Muggle families, idolize you! You're their idol!"

? ?

Am I going to become an idol for commoner wizards?

"Professor, everyone wants to be as brave as you..."

After seeing off the initially shy but quickly talkative young wizard, Felix was still somewhat surprised. After a while, he chuckled softly. This feeling... wasn't bad at all.

As December arrived, thanks to the professors' tireless efforts, the young wizards finally abandoned their unreliable amulets and turned to more practical gadgets, such as spyglasses that could detect potential dangers in advance.

It was once fashionable among girls to carry a small mirror with them and check their appearance at every corner, but this practice was quickly abandoned, and few people were able to stick to it.

Felix's Devil Vines, which he had been cultivating for a long time, had grown strong and were ready to be used.

And the branches of the Whomping Willow, after more than a month of diligent magical watering, are imbued with Felix's own magic, making their surface shimmer and still maintain a sufficiently vigorous vitality.

Felix tested the effect, and he drew his wand, "Shrink quickly!" The seven or eight-meter-long branch shrank rapidly, turning into a long snake in the blink of an eye.

"It's still a bit too thick."

He continued to cast spells, and the branch grew smaller and smaller, but the process became increasingly difficult. Fortunately, the branch was imbued with his magic and did not reject him. With the help of techniques from several ancient books, he successfully transformed it into a turquoise, flexible rope.

Without taking a break, he quickly inscribed dense magical runes on the surface to maintain the magic's effect.

"It looks pretty good!"

However, he then encountered a problem.

According to his idea, he would use the thin rope of the willow branch as a framework, weave unicorn hair into it, and form a small pouch-like thing.

But he got stuck on the first step: how to weave them together in the right way?

"I know that, I learned to knit sweaters with my mom!"

Finally, his assistant came to the rescue, with Hermione offering seven knitting schemes that impressed Felix.

After three days of hard work, the little witch completed her task admirably. With Professor Hyp's permission, she even used the leftover scraps to weave herself a small beaded pouch.

The beads were also readily available; Hermione made them from a block of chestnut wood she used to practice runes.

The reason for using beads as embellishments was that there wasn't enough material available, so she had to make a compromise.

The final, unfinished products were an elegant men's wallet for Felix and a beaded pouch for Hermione.

"The remaining work is to inscribe the magic rune circuit, make the Devil Network move, and make it mistakenly believe that it is still growing... There is also debugging, which will probably take one or two weeks."

"When danger comes, you can use magic to activate the Devil Vines to launch an attack."

“Of course,” Felix explained, “your beaded pouch isn’t made of good enough material and might not be able to hold too many devil vine branches.”

“This is enough for me,” Hermione said happily. “Professor, can I construct the runes myself?”

“You can’t do that right now, but you can help me out.”

……

On Thursday afternoon, a small group of people gathered around the bulletin board, reading the text on a piece of parchment that had just been nailed up.

The top few words shone brightly, constantly drawing people's attention. That was—

Duel Club.

Chapter 46 Poor Professor Hyp