Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle

"Breaking out is impossible. This nest is several hundred meters steep. It would take us half an hour to climb up, and we'd still have to deal with them chasing us once we get outside." Hermione tried her best to remain calm. "Let's push in and rescue Professor Lewynter. Only he can lead us out."

"But his wand is broken."

"Professor Lewinter can cast spells wandlessly!"

The sound of chanting spells echoed in the sunken nest, the fog quickly dissipated, and the air was filled with dry and pungent smoke. The group of eight-eyed giant spiders gradually stabilized and no longer rushed recklessly into the waves of fire.

The collision of arthropods made a regular clicking sound, and an uneasy atmosphere gathered around the periphery, and all three of them felt the pressure.

"Look out! They're digging!" Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time.

The flame barrier was breached.

Like a sudden rainstorm in summer, crackling dirt and rocks were thrown down, gathering from all directions to the bottom of the central pit, breaking through the safety circle condensed by the flames.

The giant spiders clung to the steep slopes, and the claws on the front of their legs were like shovels, lifting up clods of earth and throwing them down from above. The flames could not ignite the earth, and it covered the burning spider webs, extinguishing the burning barrier.

After two or three uneven rounds of scattering, the ground at the bottom of the depression was several feet thick, forming a flat platform.

The three little wizards were like fragile lambs, exposed without any protection in front of the densely packed eight-eyed giant spiders.

Although there was still residual heat from the flames, Hermione felt a chill all over her body. She stared blankly at the giant spiders slowly approaching, and truly felt their weakness and their powerlessness.

They thought they could do what Dumbledore couldn't, find out the truth about Myrtle's murder, and restore Hagrid's reputation, but the reality was that they could do nothing. Without the professor's help and guidance, they could only become the beast's dessert.

"I've implicated Professor Lewinter." Hermione muttered softly.

Harry and Ron beside them didn't hear clearly. At this moment, they could only hear their own heartbeats, rumbling and slowly closing with the clicking sound of the giant spiders, making them feel breathless.

"Our wands aren't broken yet, we can't give up just like that!" Harry suddenly shouted, "Hermione, you deal with the spiders over here, Ron, you keep an eye on this side, each of us in one direction, let's get out!"

Hermione slowly pressed her lips together and tightened her grip on her wand again.

Ron was a little stunned. He opened his mouth but didn't say the frustrated words in his heart.

At this moment, the spider had approached the platform at the bottom of the pit, approaching slowly but resolutely. The eight eyes on its head were cruel and vicious, and its mouthparts were shining with a cold and eerie light.

[Retreat the enemy three feet]

The emerald green light bloomed again.

The magic spell was thrown out with all his strength and without reservation, whistling out with a sound of breaking through the air, and hit the nearby spider directly. The carriage-like beast was overturned and flew backwards, but more spiders immediately swarmed up, densely packed.

It was late at night, and the first half of the battle had already consumed most of their energy. Casting such a spell with all their strength, squeezing out every bit of magic power in their bodies, the three young wizards were soon exhausted and their vision went black.

Harry held on to the end. He vaguely heard the sound of his friend falling to the ground next to him, and he fell backwards as well. His eyes were blank and he could not see anything clearly. He could only release the repulsive spell by instinct.

The spiders finally surrounded them, and the sound of their mouthparts and front claws colliding was particularly clear.

Harry slowly lost consciousness and his pupils gradually dilated.

The eight-eyed giant spider bit the delicate neck of the little wizard, slaughtering and bleeding him, which it learned from humans.

There was a click, as if hitting some insurmountable barrier.

There was a human-like doubt in the spider's eyes. After a moment's hesitation, it bit towards the abdomen again, intending to empty the internal organs first, but its sharp mouthparts were blocked again.

That's the Iron Curtain!

The transparent, invisible iron curtain suddenly expanded, overturning the eight-eyed giant spider in the entire depression.

……

"Oh my God! What torture they went through! All the magic power in their bodies was drained away, not a single bit left."

"Poor child, even in times of war, few wizards are this tired."

"Look at them, their brows are furrowed when they sleep. They must be having nightmares, and they are suffering in their dreams."

Three clean white beds were placed in the middle of the infirmary ward. Surrounding the beds were the headmaster and the young professors. Dumbledore, wearing crescent-shaped glasses, had just returned from the lounge. He was still wearing blue pajamas, and his beard was tied together with a pink cloth strip.

Melvin could only stand on the bed to make room for Madam Pomfrey to heal. He drank several bottles of potions that looked terrible and cast spells to treat the scratches on his body. Seeing that they were still frowning and having nightmares, the school doctor poured them another bottle of joy potion.

The little wizards then slowly relaxed their brows and fell into a sweet sleep.

"Professor Sprout and I were in the greenhouse this afternoon when we ran into them going to play with Hagrid. I followed them and heard they were planning to ask Aragog about what happened back then..."

Melvin briefly recounted what happened, omitting some unimportant details. "I didn't interfere too much. I let them feel the real danger and, by the way, warned the Acromantula tribe."

"Feel the real danger! Is this something a professor should say?" Madam Pomfrey murmured in a low voice, full of resentment towards him.

"Appropriate setbacks help them grow. Only when they understand pain can they know how to protect themselves. After the wounds heal, they will cherish each other more." Dumbledore was very open-minded. After all, the three of them were just overworked and were not seriously injured.

He sighed softly. "When Hagrid first released Aragog into the Forbidden Forest, the centaurs strongly objected. However, I couldn't find a better place to put him, so I kept putting it off. He reproduced very quickly, and by the time we realized what was happening, the Acromantula population had grown and was difficult to relocate. The centaur elders always complained about me when they saw me."

"..."

Melvin remained noncommittal. He didn't think the principal couldn't move a group of spiders. Who knew what the old principal was thinking?

Dumbledore stroked his beard and looked at the young professor beside him. "I hope they don't miss tomorrow's Quidditch game, otherwise this lesson will be even more painful. What do you think, Melvin?"

"Quidditch?" Melvin was stunned. "If we lose the game, Professor McGonagall won't blame me, right?"

Dumbledore spread his hands to indicate that he didn't know either.

Melvin couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

On one side was the Slytherin team, and he encouraged Draco to nominate himself and replace the original Seeker based on his ability.

On one side is the Gryffindor team. He took the risk of taking his ace player, who might miss the game due to exhaustion and coma.

Professor McGonagall wouldn't misunderstand him...

Chapter 139 Crispy and chicken-flavored

Late at night, in the Muggle Studies office.

"Da da... da da..."

In an upside-down glass bottle on the shelf, a tiny beetle stretched out its short legs and kept knocking on the wall of the glass bottle. The bright blue shell of its elytra was shiny and glossy. Judging from its plump body, it had been well-fed during this period.

Compared to the empty bottle a month ago, there are now some more decorations inside, including wood chips that can keep warm, a bottle cap of water, vegetable leaves freshly picked from the greenhouse, and bread crumbs baked in the school kitchen.

Despite living a comfortable life in the glass jar, Rita Skeeter did not want to spend her old age there. She took advantage of the young professor's late return to try to break through the blockade.

Two tentacles probed for a crack at the bottom. The rim of the bottle sat upside down on the shelf. The wood grain allowed for just enough air to circulate, but there wasn't enough space for her to escape. Her front paws repeatedly struck the bottle's wall. It was smooth and thick, with no chance of breaking.

Skeeter was busy for most of the day and was so tired that he kept panting. He flapped his wings and flew to the bottle cap. He ignored the clear water and used his delicate mouthparts to absorb the moisture from the leaves.

The antennae tremble slightly, which is the beetle's instinctive expression of pleasure after eating.

After eating, Skeeter began to think of other possibilities for escape, but the results he got were hopeless.

She is not married and lives alone away from her parents. She rarely writes to relatives and friends. It is normal for her not to contact the outside world for several months in order to gather intelligence and news, and the editors of the publishing house would not find it strange.

The worst thing was that this foreign professor captured me and kept me as a pet. He had no intention of forcing me to talk. I couldn't figure out his thoughts and intentions, and even negotiation was impossible.

"..."

The pair of translucent thin wings trembled slightly, with an anxiety and urgency that was difficult to conceal.

Just as the beetle was hesitating restlessly in the bottle, the office door was pushed open. The beetle immediately shrank into the sawdust, stuck out half of its head, and peeked at the professor returning to the office.

He first sat behind the desk, staring at the drawer on the right, deep in thought. There was an old diary in that drawer.

The beetle's antennae kept twitching, and Skeeter thought he was reviewing his experiences of the day and preparing to write them down in his diary. This surprised her a little. The professor used to have the habit of writing a diary, but he hadn't opened that old diary for a long time.

Melvin didn't open his diary tonight. He just kept thinking while running his fingertips across the table, vaguely outlining the shapes of a skull and a poisonous snake.

Tom Riddle explained the Dark Mark with great care, with two goals in mind: first, to determine the state of Voldemort's soul by the Dark Mark's condition; second, to pave the way for himself, so that when Voldemort returns, he can seize control of the Mark with just a flick of his finger.

Ultimately, the Dark Lord is the master of the Dark Mark.

Melvin wanted to create a brand new mark, a mark that belonged only to him, replacing the core with his own logo, but this magic was more profound and obscure than he expected, involving the combined application of soul and magic power, and he could never find the right path.

How did Tom Riddle do it?

How does a 16-year-old student touch the mysteries of the soul?

Melvin glanced at the right-hand drawer, pondered for a moment, and instead of taking out the diary, pressed his coat pocket, pushed the door open and left the office.

The beetle in the glass bottle slowly poked its head out, the markings around its antennae looking like glasses.

……

The passage from the bathroom to the secret room opened again.

In a closed room deep underground, in front of the statue of the old wizard.

Melvin mixed the silver potion with his memories, releasing a misty vapor from which came the rhythmic hissing of a snake.

The Slytherin stone sculpture gradually opened its mouth, spitting out a poisonous snake with dark green and black scales. The snake swam down along the statue's robe and cane. The thick scales rubbed against the stone sculpture, making a low friction sound.

"rustle……"

The basilisk fell to the ground and wandered closer. Two round golden eyeballs were embedded on both sides, and the pupils were as thin as slits. The scarlet and black forked tongue occasionally stretched out, spitting out a pungent stench.

This was not the first time Melvin had faced a basilisk, but every time he saw one, he was shocked.

The basilisk had a cold look in its eyes and lowered its head slightly, revealing the long-horned water snake eggs guarded by scales on top.

Only slightly larger than a goose egg, the dull gray on the case has completely disappeared, leaving only a frosty white like moonlight, and a faint but clear alien magic power is pulsing inside.

The unhatched little fellow seemed to sense Melvin's gaze, and the whole egg trembled slightly, becoming extremely excited.

Sensing movement above its head, the basilisk immediately closed its scales to cover the eggs, while raising its head and hissing and sticking out its tongue at Melvin.

Melvin said he didn't understand and couldn't communicate at all, but he had another way to win over the snake: "I went to the Forbidden Forest with some students tonight and ran into a group of giant acromantula spiders. I happened to pick up some roasted spiders and brought them to you for dinner."

Not caring whether the basilisk could understand him or not, Melvin talked to himself, opened his coat pocket, grabbed the corner of his clothes and shook it a few times, shaking out a dozen black things.

When it was poured out of the pocket, it was only slightly larger than a fist, but when it fell to the ground, it turned into the size of a carriage. More than a dozen giant eight-eyed spiders were piled together, their limbs curled up and their shells charred.

The basilisk's bright yellow eyes moved, emitting a bright light.

The burnt black-grey bristles had a distinct burnt smell, and the crispy shell shattered during the collision, revealing the cheesy spider meat inside, which was somewhat similar to crab leg meat and lobster meat, still hot and fragrant.

Mucus-like saliva flowed out of the basilisk's mouth, dripping onto the ground, and then being sucked back in with a hissing sound.

Just couldn't see it.

Melvin waved his hand dismissively, making room for it to eat. "Take your time eating. I'll go check on the statue to see if Slytherin has any relics left for the younger generation."

The basilisk has opened its bloody mouth and started to enjoy its dinner.

Unlike other animals, snakes generally do not chew when eating. No matter how big the prey is, they swallow it whole and force it down. Then they lie there and groan in discomfort for a long time.