Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 160 Borrowing Books
After that, school life returned to normal. Since Professor Sprout's mandrake wouldn't mature for some time, Tyella had to temporarily assume the identity of "Giddy Lohart" and teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, which presented some challenges for her.

It's not a problem with the teaching; with Tiera's knowledge, she could easily pass a few Defense Against the Dark Arts classes.

However, the endless stream of little wizards who would come to him with "questions" after each get out of class annoyed Tyella to no end.

Most of them came to ask for his autograph, with only a very few coming with the intention of learning.

But whether they came for autographs or questions, Tiera had to accept everyone to maintain her persona. Even with the students asking questions, Tiera had to use her greasy Gilderoy Lockhart face to say:

Would you like an autograph?

“Um…oh, no, no need…” said a tall, handsome, brown-haired fourth-year Hefpatch boy. “Professor Lockhart…I just have an idea I’d like to ask. In class today, you talked about the construction of altars in ritual magic. You talked about how to use ancient runes and Latin to construct ritual altars. But if we replace some of the Latin with arithmetic structures…wouldn’t that make the construction of the altar a little simpler?”

Tierra looked at the young man in front of her with some surprise. She hadn't expected that Hogwarts' educational system could produce a student who could come up with innovative ideas on his first encounter with ritual magic.

"Yes, that's wonderful... Mr... Mr..."

“Diggory, Professor,” the boy said. “Cedric Diggory, Professor.”

“Cedric?” Tierra looked at Cedric with some regret—

He is intelligent, handsome, and, according to the original work, a warm-hearted young man.

I didn't feel much when I watched the movie or read the novel before. I just thought Cedric was a plot device. All his good qualities were just for the sake of the final Avada Kedavra curse, to force Harry to embark on the path of the savior.

Tragedy is about destroying something beautiful for people to see, and Rowling understood the core of tragedy deeply.

But now this tool was standing right in front of Tiera, which made Tiera feel a lot of emotions.

“Yes, Cedric, very clever. In fact, the construction of the ritual altar can be done entirely using only a few simple ancient runes, and the rest can be done using arithmetic models.” Tiera patiently answered his questions.

“But why are most ritual altar designs still in ancient scripts like Nehemiah and Latin?” Cedric asked again.

“Because the error tolerance of arithmetic models is too low,” Tiera explained. “If you use ancient runes and Latin to build the altar, and you write a symbol wrong or pronounce a spell wrong, the worst consequence of your ritual is that the altar explodes. Even if it’s not a key symbol that is wrong, the ritual can still continue, but the effect will be less effective.”

“However, if an arithmetic model is used to construct a ritual, even the slightest calculation error can lead to unavoidable consequences. Take the demon summoning ritual as an example. Agatha Morley, the author of 15th-century demonology, caused the summoning of a demon far beyond her expectations by substituting the wrong symbol in her calculations, which triggered the infamous Hearts Mountain incident in the 16th century,” Tierra said.

“From then until 1840, the Ministry of Magic throughout Europe, including the British Ministry of Magic, classified the method of constructing ritual altars using arithmetic constructs as Black Magic, on par with the three forbidden spells. Anyone found using, spreading, or learning it would immediately receive a one-way ticket to Azkaban,” Tierra said. “Even now, the book ‘Fifteenth-Century Demonology’ is still in the Forbidden Books section of Hogwarts, and openly teaching underage wizards how to construct ritual altars using arithmetic constructs is still considered irresponsible by most wizards.”

“Yes, Professor, I understand.” Then he asked a few other questions, all of which were answered by Tiera.

“Thank you, Professor Lockhart, you truly are a great wizard!” With all his questions answered, Cedric gave a slight bow. “Goodbye, Professor.” “Goodbye,” Tyella replied with a greasy return bow.

After Cedric left, Tiera waited a while longer in the Dark Arts office before putting on her coat and heading towards the library.

“Mrs. Pince, hello.” Tyrell, wearing Gilderoy Lockhart’s face, grabbed two books from the restricted section of the Hogwarts library and placed them on the desk at the library’s front desk. “I would like to borrow these two books.”

“Professor Lockhart!?” Mrs. Pince said, somewhat flattered, then picked up the two books on the table—

"Fifteenth-Century Demonology, The Lesser Key of Solomon?" Mrs. Pince asked in surprise. "What do you need these two books for?"

“As you know, Mrs. Pince, Voldemort regained his power by summoning demons. Although I disrupted the ritual, it still had a very serious impact. This made me realize my shortcomings in this area, so I think I should fill in the gaps in my knowledge,” Tierra said.

“You are so eager to learn,” Mrs. Pince exclaimed, then pulled out a booklet, wrote “Fifteenth-Century Demonology” and “The Lesser Key of Solomon” in the blank space at the end, and then pushed the booklet toward Thiera—

“Please sign your name here,” Mrs. Pince said.

Tiera picked up a pen and wrote the name "Gidrolohart" in the blank space.

Mrs. Pince pulled the book back and then carefully examined the signature "Gidro Lockhart" over and over again—

“Your signature… seems a little different from the ones we’ve had before…” Mrs. Pince said hesitantly.

“My hand is injured.” Tiera raised her right hand and waved it.

There was a charred mark on the palm of his right hand, as if it had been branded with a hot iron. It was the mark that Tiera deliberately left on his palm with the burning wand during her show that day, in full view of everyone.

"Oh my goodness!" Mrs. Pince exclaimed, "Your hand... isn't that the scar from that day? Hasn't it healed yet?"

“It’s impossible for him to get better,” Tiera said, feigning sadness. “My magic isn’t enough to defeat the half-mad Voldemort, so I had to use an ancient spell I obtained while exploring a ruin, sacrificing my wand in exchange for temporary, powerful strength…”

“This has also left a permanent, indelible scar on my hand. The scar is so deep that it has damaged my nerves, and I'm afraid my right hand will never be as dexterous as before,” Tiera said.

"You are truly amazing!" Mrs. Pince said, her eyes filled with tears.

“No, Mrs. Pince, it’s nothing. For the peace and stability of the wizarding world, my sacrifice is nothing.” Tiera said, picking up the two books from the table. “Then I’ll take my leave.”

Thank you Korsi for the 100 points!
Because I'm about to enter the third grade, these two chapters today are a bit bland, mainly to lay the groundwork for the main storyline of the third grade.

Thank you Ashires for the 100 points!
Thank you to Lonely Totoro for the 105 coins!
Thank you
Bai 07's votes in January
The flowers have all fallen, leaving only the branches bearing the marks of January's tickets.
The January vote was cast by a fool who never makes a mistake.
Casablanca's January vote
Old Cat Fairy's February vote
Huatou's February votes
February votes cast at the funeral of the gods
ZEROKNIGHT's January vote
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(End of this chapter)