HP: Azkaban's Outstanding Graduate

After Harry finished speaking, he immediately apologized silently to the kind gamekeeper in his heart.

"Hmph!" Hermione's curls seemed to flare up a little more. "Professor Greengrass taught us these two spells so that we would have plenty of time to learn! I want you to understand this immediately, right now, and thoroughly!"

She gave the two of them a stern look.

“Of course, Hermione,” Harry quickly seized the opportunity to change the subject, “So you’ve learned it now?”

“No!” The little witch shook her head solemnly. “I only know one spell: Sleep Vanish. Awakening and Soothing... involves some knowledge about the soul, so I must be very careful!”

“But I think the effect of one spell is more than enough!” Ron rarely gave a sincere opinion, and this time it wasn’t just flattery.

"There must be a reason why the professor taught us two spells at the same time."

Hermione deftly pulled the parchment filled with detailed explanations of the spells from between the pages of the book. "Listen, starting tonight, within a week, we must completely master these two spells!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she drew her wand with a "whoosh" and pointed it straight at Ron: "You, go sit down!"

Ron seemed to be pulled by an invisible thread, and immediately shifted his position, at least appearing to be sitting upright.

Immediately afterwards, the sounds of several young wizards chanting spells—some earnest, some tentative, and some tinged with helplessness—echoed throughout the Gryffindor common room…

……

Meanwhile, a kestrel, flying aimlessly over Britain, was feeling rather listless. She hadn't gone home for Christmas, and a furious letter from home nearly blew the roof off her tent—her grandfather was berating her for being idle and wandering around like a lost soul.

She had secretly consulted a fortune teller about it, but the crystal ball's prediction was vague, only pointing in one direction. She flew for a long time following that elusive guidance, but still couldn't figure out where the so-called "job" in the prophecy was.

—Until she saw the ancient castle covered in snow.

The kestrel was so excited at that moment that she almost fell off the sky. Without saying a word, she swooped down into the castle grounds and finally landed on the shore of the cold, black lake.

On the lakeshore, an old man with a silver beard and long robe seemed to have been waiting there for a long time.

“Good evening, child,” Dumbledore said gently, his blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles sparkling with curiosity. “Can you tell me what brought you to Hogwarts?”

"You're Dumbledore?!" Red Falcon didn't answer, but instead exclaimed in surprise, his eyes widening. "Haha! So this really is Hogwarts? That's amazing!"

“I am indeed Albus Dumbledore. How did you find your way here?” the old man repeated patiently, his tone still calm. “And now, can you tell me why you’ve come?”

"Oh dear! This is a long story!"

Chapter 111 Curse

The kestrel, with its friendly nature, hopped a few steps closer, its tone as eager as if it had found a long-lost relative, "I found this place through divination! Isn't that amazing?"

She suddenly lowered her voice mysteriously, as if sharing a shocking secret, "But you have to keep it a secret for me, I'm only telling you this!"

The old headmaster nodded. "It seems you are a rather excellent diviner." He smiled and pressed on, "So, what is the purpose of your trip?"

"I'm here to find a job!" Red Falcon immediately straightened his back and spoke loudly.

“Unfortunately,” Dumbledore shook his head slightly, “the current Divination Professor at Hogwarts, Ms. Sybil Trelawney, doesn’t seem to have any plans to retire at the moment.”

"Hey, who said I was going to teach divination!" Red Falcon waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing away a fly. "Divination relies on talent and... um... intuition, which I can't teach!"

She leaned closer to Dumbledore again, completely disregarding social distancing, and said in an almost whispered voice, "I heard your school is currently short a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor? I can help! I'm pretty good at defense magic!"

Dumbledore gazed at her silently, his eyes deep and penetrating, as if they could see through her enthusiastic facade.

After a moment, he slowly shook his head: "I'm sorry, child, Hogwarts cannot hire a wizard with an unclear background to teach a position."

"Who said I have a dubious background!"

The falcon immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and retorted, "My grandfather is the former president of the International Wizarding Federation, Skard Sandtan! My name is Irisa Lumina! I also know you..."

She slammed on the brakes, seemingly realizing she had almost let something slip, and then looked at the old man with an expectant expression, "You can definitely write a letter to confirm!"

At this point, she stretched out one hand and kept patting her chest to assure everyone, "And you don't need to worry about my level at all! When I graduated from Cordos Doritz, I got an outstanding Grom (Grom) rating in all eleven courses!"

She silently added to herself: Although I might be a little timid... teaching students isn't like actually going to war!

However, she wisely kept those words to herself.

The old man looked at the vibrant little witch before him, who was like a leaping flame, and his silver beard seemed to tremble slightly as he pondered silently.

Finally, a barely perceptible, slightly helpless smile crept onto his lips: "So, Miss Lumina, you might need to find a place to settle down temporarily? After all, verifying the information will take some time."

"No problem! I have plenty of time. Your castle should have plenty of empty rooms, right? If all else fails, I can stay in a tent!"

……

The next morning, as Sagres stepped into the bustling auditorium to have breakfast, an absolutely unexpected figure came into his view.

Red Falcon—or rather, Eliza Lumina—sat proudly in the headmaster's seat, with food piled high in front of her, knives and forks flying around, her cheeks bulging as if she were about to stuff the entire breakfast of Hogwarts into her belly.

His hearty eating manner stood out from the students around him who were still sleepy and eating slowly, and he quickly attracted everyone's attention.

Sagres frowned slightly, paused in his steps, and wondered if he had been too sleepy for too long and was hallucinating.

How did she end up here?

“Eliza?” He took a few steps closer, his voice clearly filled with confusion. “What are you doing here?”

"Oh! Watari—cough cough!"

Iris almost choked on the bacon in her mouth. She quickly gulped down a mouthful of pumpkin juice and finally caught her breath. Then she put on an overly bright smile and waved enthusiastically, "Professor Greengrass, good morning! What a coincidence. I've been invited to take up this position."

"Employment?"

Sagles frowned even more deeply; he simply couldn't reconcile the girl before him, who bore no semblance of a professor and was diligently devouring her food, with the word "office."

"Yup!"

Eliza put down her knife and fork, wiped her mouth haphazardly with a napkin, straightened her back, and tried to appear serious, but the excitement in her eyes was impossible to hide.

"Headmaster Dumbledore himself wrote me a letter, formally inviting me to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts! Of course," she cleared her throat dramatically, adding, "it's only temporary, a transitional position. After much careful consideration, I reluctantly accepted!"

She specifically emphasized the words "deliberately considered" and "reluctantly".

Sagles didn't speak, but simply scrutinized her with his deep eyes.

Her "reluctant" explanation, coupled with her almost overflowing joy and the mountain of plates in front of her, was hardly convincing.

But in the end, he only nodded slowly, full of doubt.

He didn't care about the curse from the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but what exactly was Dumbledore trying to do? How did he know Red Falcon? And why did he take the initiative to invite him to become a professor at Hogwarts?

A series of questions flooded his mind, and just as Sagres was about to ask for clarification, he discovered that the falcon had vanished.

……

As the Christmas holidays drew to a close, the castle corridors gradually filled with the lively sounds of students returning home.

Sagres also temporarily set aside his current affairs and prepared to head to Malfoy Manor—he needed to figure out Lucius Malfoy's intentions.

Out of respect for the old headmaster, he did not choose to Apparate within the castle this time, but instead slowly walked towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

However, as soon as he stepped into the dark border area of ​​the Forbidden Forest, he caught sight of a group of familiar small figures gathering together.

It was Harry, Ron, Hermione, and several first-year students: Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and his cousin Astoria Greengrass.

They were gathered together, clearly feeding the Thestrals, which only those who had witnessed death could see.

“I think,” Sagres’ calm voice broke the silence at the edge of the woods, tinged with a barely perceptible hint of helplessness, “I have already clearly warned you.”

The children were so frightened they almost jumped up and quickly turned around.

Hermione quickly explained, "Professor Greengrass! We were originally planning to go find Hagrid, but we ran into Ginny and the others on the way..."

Sagrass's gaze passed over the trio, landing on the three first-year girls, and finally settling on Luna.

"Perhaps my wording wasn't clear enough?" His voice was steady, yet serious. "I recall this isn't the first time I've reminded you to stay away from the Forbidden Forest, is it?"

Luna looked at him with her misty eyes, her voice as soft as a passing breeze: "I'm sorry, Professor. I brought them here... Astoria wasn't in a good mood after returning from home, so I thought... I'd bring her out for some fresh air, and seeing the Thestrals might make her feel better."

Sagles turned his gaze to Astoria.

The little girl lowered her head, her slender shoulders hunched slightly, and her hair fell down, partially obscuring her pale cheeks.

He could almost picture what she had experienced at Greengrass Manor—the disputes over the choice of college, and the pressure exerted by those deep-seated, suffocating ideas of pure blood.

Sagres's stern tone softened slightly.

He walked up to Astoria, gently placed his warm hand on her head, and patted it soothingly.

“Astoria,” his voice was low and gentle, “if you encounter any difficulties or need help… you can come to me anytime.”

He gazed at her excessively slender figure, a familiar sense of heaviness pressing down on his heart.

Those stubborn old fogies of the Greengrass family... their proud ancient bloodline is precisely the shackle that binds their descendants.

Astoria suffers from a curse that flows deep in the blood of Greengrass—originating from their infamous ancestor, the "Black Witch Doctor" Hippolyta.

He illegally stole unicorn blood in his pursuit of power, ultimately incurring a backlash from the magic of nature.

Ironically, the pure-blood marriages practiced for generations did not dilute the curse; instead, they tightened like a noose, making the curse more and more apparent in the bloodline and prematurely robbing many innocent children like Astoria of their future.

How many more years can she live?

Five years?ten years?

Sagres sighed silently, drew his wand, and gently tapped the tip of it lightly on Astoria's forehead.

A soft, almost invisible white light flashed by, and Astoria felt as if a warm hand had gently brushed away the heavy knot in her heart, making her breathing much easier.

“I will find a way to lift the curse on the Greengrass family,” Sagrais said softly. “Cheer up, so that you won’t have no good memories to look back on in the long years to come.”

Hearing this, the little witch raised her head, and a pure and grateful smile finally bloomed on her pale face, like a ray of light shining through after the first snow.

Chapter 112 The Body is a Cage for the Soul

Sagles then turned his gaze to Harry. "Mr. Potter, come here for a moment."

Harry, bewildered and anxious, followed the professor to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, far from the others.

As Sagres looked at the thin boy before him, whom the world called the "savior," and at the innocence still remaining in the boy's emerald green eyes, a complex and indescribable emotion welled up in his heart.

He slightly raised his wand, and a "Silent Domain" instantly enveloped the two of them. The silent barrier isolated all sounds of their conversation, and the other young wizards could only hear the whistling of the wind blowing through the treetops.

"Do you know the nature of the scar on your forehead?" Sagrais's voice was deep and clear.