Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle

Hearing this, the last bit of hope in Rita's heart was crushed, and her fear reached its peak: "You...what do you want to do?"

She quickly realized something and murmured, "You want to control me?"

Melvin said calmly, "I prefer to call it a collaboration. I'll keep the Animagus secrets confidential for you and provide you with exclusive information. Miss Skeeter only has to publish the article as usual. It's a very cost-effective deal, isn't it?"

……

Half an hour later.

Rita sat in the chair, staring at the Ouroboros mark on the inside of her arm, lost in thought.

Chapter 154 Greedy Snake

The conversation in the office is over.

There were all kinds of candies and biscuits on the table, and a pile of packaging cartons were opened. The young professor showed his generosity without hesitation. Under his hospitality, the gold medal reporter, who was originally exhausted and hungry, looked more energetic, and his frightened and angry mood was relieved. It was a scene of hospitality where the guests were very happy.

Rita swallowed the remnants in her mouth mixed with pumpkin juice, barely filling herself half full.

In fact, what she wanted to eat most at this time was meat, or the apple pie in the box next to her, but as a prisoner who had just been released from the bottle, she couldn't ask for too much.

The Ouroboros pattern on the inside of the arm still looks a little strange.

The young professor sitting opposite closed his eyes, as if he was also sensing the mark.

Melvin could sense the golden reporter's gaze, but he didn't care. He was immersed in his own world, with magic spreading in unknown directions. It had nothing to do with space and coordinates, and there was no concept of distance. It was more like a world in some abstract sense.

His consciousness also spread along with the magic power. In this perception, the world became a boundless nothingness, without any tangible entity, and filled with hazy gray fog.

Silver light flows in some places, some dim, some bright.

As his consciousness gathered, some familiar images appeared in his mind: the foot of Mount Greylock, New York's Broadway and the entrance of the Woolworth Building. These places were dim; the outskirts of Hogsmeade, the junction of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, and Charing Cross Road. These places were bright.

"Anchor point for Apparition?"

Melvin seemed to understand.

In the world of magical perception, in the vast mist, in addition to scattered silver light, there is an exceptionally clear pattern, a constantly rotating Ouroboros. Melvin's consciousness is immersed in that ray of light.

Rita felt the snake mark on her hand become hot. She lifted her sleeve and found that the originally blurry pattern was quickly becoming clearer, and the scales on it were emerging one by one, as if there was really a snake embedded in her arm, trying to twist its body and crawl out.

"Rita, you're flustered, I can feel it..."

Melvin's tone was inquiring, his eyes still closed. His question was purely motivated by magical research. "We have reached a cooperation. What are you afraid of?"

Rita shuddered slightly. "The last person to do this was the Dark Lord."

The gold medal reporter once did a special report on the Death Eater trial, understood the function of the Dark Mark, and had some speculations about this strange snake mark.

The Ouroboros mark is not only branded on the surface of the flesh, but also connects to the soul. In addition to some superficial emotional perception, it can also locate the location of the mark. As long as the professor has the intention, he can summon the mark bearer at any time and place, and can also actively Apparate to find the mark.

Melvin opened his eyes, his unsettling dark pupils gleaming, and then he smiled. "I don't hold any extreme beliefs about pure-blood supremacy, nor would I launch any bloody and brutal purges. It's just that when I'm working with a peculiar wizard like you, Ms. Skeeter, I have to take precautions. That's all."

Rita took a deep breath. "What do you want me to do?"

"For a short period of time, you don't have to do anything. Just return to your life and do your original work," Melvin said softly. "Report news, write articles, attend banquets with high-ranking officials and pure-blood families, and gather any intelligence you deem valuable."

"..."

"By the way, the Daily Prophet is planning a big news story. If you go back now, you might be able to get the position of chief editor from Editor Guffey." Melvin smiled slightly.

"..."

Rita didn't feel relaxed at all. She sat in the chair in silence for a moment, the arm where the snake mark was slightly tense: "Then... can I leave?"

"If people from outside the school want to stay for Christmas, they need to apply to the principal in advance."

Melvin said, waving his hand and opening the window of the room, letting the bright daylight shine into the room.

Rita stared blankly at the snowy scene outside, her expression a little dazed. She remembered that it was still autumn when she transformed into a beetle that night, but she didn't expect that when she left the glass bottle again, it was already the end of December.

After a moment of distraction, he stood up and walked to the window, transformed into a beetle again, and plunged into the white snow of deep winter.

……

Following Madam Pomfrey's instructions, Hermione, Qiu Zhang, and Marietta gathered around the bed, carrying potions.

Qiu Zhang shook the potion made from mandrake evenly, unscrewed the cork, and a cloud of yellow-green mist floated up, slowly escaped from the bottle mouth, and dissipated in the ward.

It smells like mud, not stinky, but not pleasant either.

Marietta wrinkled her nose, Hermione looked curious, Qiu Zhang behaved more calmly, looked at the medicine bottle, then looked at Harry lying on the bed, and slowly brought the bottle close to his eyes.

Harry's gaze was still fixed on the moment he faced the basilisk, his green eyes dull and lifeless, with a bit of frozen fear in them.

The medicine dripped into the eyes, and the eyes closed as if stimulated, as if they were turning from petrification to sleep.

"..."

Under the gaze of the three witches, Harry's eyelashes trembled a few times and he finally opened his eyes.

Those green eyes were lively and vivid.

Qiu Zhang, transformed into the school doctor's assistant, handed over the cup of water from the bedside table and asked with concern, "Harry, how are you feeling?"

Harry didn't say anything. He just felt sore all over, as if he had been trained by Captain Wood for two weeks in a row. His throat felt like he had swallowed red-hot charcoal. After drinking a glass of water, his dry body slowly healed.

Only then did I have time to look around.

The white decoration indicated that this was the school infirmary, and he was already very familiar with this place.

On his left was Hermione, looking at him with concern. Next to him stood Marietta, the head of the drama club, whom Neville and Ron had both mentioned to him. As for the one closest to him... it was Cho Zhang from Ravenclaw.

Her long, shiny black hair falls softly on her shoulders, with slightly curled ends. Her black eyes are mysterious and elegant. When she smiles, her eyebrows and eyes are curved, which reminds people of the crescent moon seen in stargazing class, gentle yet lively.

Even though Harry had just woken up and was feeling unwell, he couldn't help but notice how adorable she was. When he took the empty water cup from her, the girl smiled slightly, and his heart skipped a beat.

He thought it had nothing to do with the injury.

"Harry! We defeated the basilisk! We defeated Lockhart too!" Hermione said cheerfully. She probably thought Harry was very concerned about what happened next, so she kept chattering.

"...No one expected Lockhart to be a memory-stealing liar. Fortunately, there was Marietta."

"…Professor McGonagall rushed to the Chamber of Secrets and had us moved back to the infirmary. Professor Lewynter purchased the mandrake from Budapest. Madam Pomfrey and Snape are still brewing the medicine."

"Madam Pomfrey planned to wait until the potion was finished before awakening the petrified students. After our constant pleading, she was willing to give us a few bottles in advance. Fortunately, the method of applying the potion is simple."

"The other two bottles are with George and Fred. They used them to rescue Percy and Ron. They didn't come home for Christmas this year."

As Hermione explained, the twin brothers' cheers could be heard not far away, followed by Percy's scolding, asking them to keep their voices down in the ward, and then Ron's screams and Ginny's faint sobs.

Qiu Zhang and Marietta looked at each other, then looked up and smiled, "You must have a lot to say, so I won't bother you anymore."

The girl nodded and smiled as she left, her smile brighter than the winter day outside: "Goodbye."

"goodbye……"

Harry felt lost, all the excitement was theirs, he just felt it was noisy.

……

December 12rd, one day until Christmas.

Melvin woke up in his bedroom. The air was warm and dry. The charcoal and firewood in the fireplace were reduced to ashes. A white snake was curled up in a wizard's hat at the head of the bed, with its head buried under its tail.

Open the window to breathe fresh air, wash up and change clothes.

When he walked out of the bathroom, the baby snake had also woken up. It was spitting out its tongue quickly, sensing the information around it, then poked its head towards him with half of its body raised.

"hiss……"

This is the sound of air passing through the throat and mouth when you exhale quickly.

Other snakes do not have vocal organs and can only call like this, but the long-horned water snake can speak human language. This baby snake has been hatching for almost a week and is still calling like this. It can't even make syllables like "ah ah oh oh".

Could it be a mute?

It's really worrying.

Melvin sighed and put the snake in his pocket.

"hiss?"

The white snake stuck its head out and looked at him. Its face was expressionless, but it conveyed confusion.

"Even if I tell you, you won't understand."

Melvin pressed it back. "I'll ask Professor Kettleburn and Hagrid later. I wonder when you magical creatures will be able to speak. It can't take a year or two, right? I wonder how Hagrid taught Aragog..."

"Hiss..."

The white snake didn't understand and exhaled in the same tone as him.

The fireplace had been warming overnight, drying the room. The snake's scales felt icy cold to the touch, so Melvin twirled them a few more times. "When you learn to speak, I'll send you to school in two years. Otherwise, you'll end up like your mother, a centuries-old, illiterate snake who can't even explain the principles of magic."

"hiss!"

The white snake still didn't understand, but the long horn with the gift of prophecy was giving a warning.

During the holidays, it is inevitable to be a little lazy. He got up and washed up slowly, and was delayed by Yurm for a while. When he walked out of the bedroom, it was already a little late. The house elf thought he was absent from the auditorium and had already sent breakfast to the office.

The breakfast during the holidays at Hogwarts was also quite rich. The house elves prepared the usual milk and eggs, bread and bacon, baked beans and roasted tomatoes according to his usual preferences, accompanied by a bottle of raspberry jam.

Melvin sat down at the table, and the white snake crawled out of his pocket and down his arm to the table.

Seeing it looking at him curiously, Melvin took a teacup, tore half of the bacon, peeled the egg, compared its size, cut a small piece with a spoon, and gave it to it in front of it.

The long-horned water snake is not interested in eating in the first few days after hatching. It may be that it has absorbed enough nutrients from the snake eggs and has not yet experienced hunger. At this time, it probably knows how to eat, burying its head in the teacup and sticking out its tongue to test it.

As soon as his tongue touched the bacon, he immediately moved it away in disgust and turned to the egg next to it.

Melvin chuckled and took advantage of the meal time to look at the letters he received today.

Some cross-border letters and parcels that are too far away cannot be guaranteed to arrive on time on Christmas Day. Occasionally they will be delivered one or two days in advance. As the number of friends across oceans and countries increases, more letters are delivered in advance.

The first one was stamped with the MACUSA stamp and was from Principal Fontana, with Christmas greetings on the cover.

Greetings about recent situations, conveying blessings, and mainly asking about the Goblet of Fire Tournament.

At a wizard gathering in New York some time ago, Principal Fontana had a few words with Ms. Maxime from France. At present, it seems that Beauxbatons has no plans to restart the tournament.

Durmstrang was somewhat interested, but their headmaster Karkaroff wanted to wait another two years until their school's talented player, Viktor Krum, came of age...

The curve of Melvin's mouth is more obvious. Who says warriors have to be adults?

I opened the next letter, it was from the assistant.