Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 319 Prepare for Action
A guardian spirit, as radiant as moonlight, swam around her. It stopped in front of the little witch, tentatively extending its claws, its bright silver eyes fixed on her.

"Oh my god..."

Parvati's eyes widened as she stared intently at the round and adorable silver otter.

"Hermione! Your Patronus is an otter, how cute!"

Lavender was even more excited than Hermione, grabbing her sleeve and gasping in a low voice, afraid of scaring away the Patronus.

"..."

Hermione didn't look up, holding her wand and unwilling to put it down, carefully examining it, captivated by the otter's silver eyes.

Excited and noisy discussions filled the entire venue, crashing back and forth like waves.

The first stag to materialize, with its robust physique, rammed its hooves and antlers, scattering the Dementors. Cedric's grey geese took flight, chasing the Dementors in all directions...

When Hermione's otter Patronus appeared, the sense of urgency wasn't as strong, and its appearance wasn't as cool as the previous two, but its cuteness brought a unique attraction.

This was exactly the guardian deity the girls had been waiting for, which immediately excited them, making them even more eager to cast spells and summon it.

Amidst the commotion, Ron stood there blankly, the silver light swirling around the tip of his staff dimming.

Harry practiced hard during the holidays, so it's normal that he succeeded in summoning.

Hermione actually succeeded?

Wouldn't that leave me all alone?
Ron felt a sense of urgency.

He had told Seamus and the others about their holiday adventures, especially since Dumbledore had mentioned their names at the opening dinner. Seamus and Dean kept asking about it, and there were also the Creepy brothers... Harry and Hermione didn't have time to answer their questions, but he was happy to help and mentioned them briefly.

The events of thirteen years ago were indeed dramatic, but they were stories of the previous generation. He focused on the current generation, but many things couldn't be revealed: the Time-Turner, Professor Lupin the werewolf, Snape's crush on Harry's mother...

To answer the students' questions and to avoid tarnishing that adventure, some artistic embellishments were made during the narration. Peter made a desperate counterattack, using Apparition within the Hogwarts premises to pull them into a mysterious space.

In that mysterious space, they encountered all sorts of monsters and fought their way through. The three warriors played an indispensable role there, especially Ron, who embarked on a heroic and moving adventure.

"..."

The situation is a bit awkward now.

Harry was clearly the one who practiced the hardest and was also very talented in Defense Against the Dark Arts, so Ron thought it was normal for him to succeed in summoning it.

And Hermione...

Hermione is certainly smart and studies hard, but she's a bookworm. She's been spending all her time in the library lately, flipping through legal articles and cases that make her head spin, even though she doesn't have much time to practice.

For this reason, Ron always felt that Hermione was progressing at about the same level as him, but Hermione actually succeeded in summoning too!?
It was clearly an adventure completed by three people together. The performance of the other two warriors was in line with the story description, while the guardian deity of the remaining one was still just a blurry ball of light.

Ron felt his face burning.

……

Professor McGonagall and Sprout, the Headmasters of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, had been sidelined, but they didn't seem to care. They watched the students casting spells in the queue and chatted with smiles.

"The students in Gryffindor these past few years have been outstanding!"

"Hufflepuff is also very good."

"Harry and Hermione are only in their third year, right?"

“Cedric is only in fifth grade, isn’t he?” Professor McGonagall chuckled. “He has excellent grades and is the Quidditch captain. He’s better than many seventh graders. He should be the student council president after Percy graduates.”

“He is fully capable of the job, and he is doing a great job as a prefect.” Professor Sprout smiled broadly. “Just like his guardian goose, he can fly alone or protect the goslings in the flock.”

"Harry's Patronus is just as I expected, a stag inherited from James."

Professor McGonagall remarked with some emotion, "Hermione's otters are perhaps because they are cute on the outside, resilient on the inside, and intelligent on the inside."

"I wonder who will be the next success story?"

“Percy is very likely. His Patronus is already showing its outline; it's probably some kind of bird. George and Fred have plenty of happy emotions, and Neville is good too…”

“They’re all Gryffindor students, so don’t let Philius and Severus hear you.”

"This is just speculation based on their performance..."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, a smile playing on her lips.

Just then, Hagrid, who was not far away, sighed and started talking about practicing the Patronus Charm: "I'm practicing this too. Melvin told me that a wizard once summoned a giant Patronus. Tsk, if ordinary wizards can summon giants, there's no reason why I can't! Unfortunately, I'm too stupid and haven't been to school much, so I haven't made much progress in practicing."

“Perhaps you lack the motivation of the Dementors. Go up and practice with the children!” Professor Flitwick urged.

"I am a professor, after all..."

"Then go find Melvin after class and ask him to help you with Boggart."

Sprout leaned closer, nodding in agreement as he spoke, while smiling at Melvin.

……

Dementors, also known as soul-devouring monsters, are classified as Level 5X magical creatures, but from a Muggle biological perspective, these monsters do not conform to the definition of life at all.

They feed on emotions, have no material exchange, no metabolism, and no growth or development process. They only respond to the silver glow of their guardian deity, do not age, are difficult to kill, and have no normal reproductive process.

Clad in a rotting black robe, with blurred facial features, it absorbs souls with its mouthparts. Its body resembles a skeleton, with empty and incomplete souls, seemingly lacking independent consciousness. It can be commanded with only a false memory spell and Legilimency.

Of the nearly one hundred Dementors stationed here, Melvin probably only needed to control half of them, while the other half would blindly follow. It's unknown how Voldemort, as an adult, controlled them.

The Dementors were still attacking the students.

Melvin did not enter; he stood on the periphery of the queue, observing quietly.

Dementors are indeed dangerous, but to a wizard who has successfully summoned a physical guardian deity, they are no different from goblins in a vegetable garden—they look scary with their bared teeth and claws, but they can't actually cause any harm.

These dark creatures have been completely reduced to teaching assistants.

The dense swarm lunged forward, colliding with the shapeless silver light of the young wizards, creating a cold white mist. In a fierce struggle, they overwhelmed the sparse and loose silver light and gradually gained the upper hand.

But before they could even savor the delicious emotions and souls before the young wizard arrived, three dazzling silver lights shone forth. The three guardian deities—the stag, the greylag goose, and the otter—slowly herded them back, beginning a new struggle.

In this process, the young wizards gradually gained a deeper understanding of the Patronus Charm.

The pale crescent moon sank into the clouds and disappeared completely. As night fell, the chanting grew faster, and the silvery light gradually solidified. Cedric, Harry, and Hermione stood at the back of the line, keeping an eye on the distance to the Dementors, occasionally answering questions from classmates, and frequently glancing back at the professors.

The initial excitement gradually subsided.

They noticed that the Dementors' offensive intent had decreased; the white mist was no longer as thick and cold as it had been at the beginning, but rather faint; and some Dementors had begun to retreat, attempting to return to airspace far from Hogwarts.

That was a distance beyond the reach of the students' spells.

"Professor, are you controlling these Dementors?"

Hermione slowly approached, her face pale from the cold, her hair disheveled, and a scarf covering her chin, making her look just like an otter.

"They started resisting my commands half an hour ago."

Melvin pulled the girl into the bubble, instantly warming her up: "Dementors are a bunch of forgetful creatures, but if they get beaten for too long and the pain is too intense, they will instinctively back away."

"Is tonight's class over?" Hermione asked, tilting her head back.

The Dementors learned their lesson last semester when the Patronus Serpent nearly tore those cloaks to shreds. For the next few months, they kept circling Hogwarts, and even the accompanying cold mist dared not drift over.

If the last time was a single, devastating blow, this time it's a series of torments.

The little witch thought that tonight's special lesson was to drive away the Dementors.

"Yes, it'll be over soon."

Melvin patted her on the shoulder: "Can you do me a favor?"

"Professor, please speak."

"Could you please call Headmaster Dumbledore over here? He's right next to the school gate."

"Shouldn't the professor have gone to see the principal?"

Hermione was puzzled. She buried her chin in her scarf and ran towards the school gate.

Although Dumbledore was kind and approachable and always told off-color jokes, he still held some authority as the headmaster. Usually, professors would take the initiative to seek out the headmaster, and the headmaster would schedule meetings with professors when he had something to discuss. Now, however, the roles were reversed.

But this is Hogwarts, so anything strange is normal.

Hermione didn't think much of it. The cold wind made her head numb. She buried her face in her scarf, put her hands in her pockets, and quickly went to the headmaster. Dumbledore didn't act like a headmaster. After listening to her, they walked back together.

Hermione paused for a moment after returning to Professor Levent's side.

The professor stood in the snow, his hands in his trench coat pockets. A black briefcase had appeared beside him sometime earlier, the same briefcase that used to sit on the shelf in his office.

"It wasn't there just now..." Hermione looked suspiciously at the professor's pocket.

"Melvin, shall we begin?" Dumbledore smiled.

Melvin nodded: "It's almost midnight."

Hermione followed the two professors to the front of the line, where a slow-moving horde of Dementors lay mired in a silvery swamp.

The sound of footsteps approached; it was the other professors. Only Hagrid didn't come forward. Instead, he hid next to Harry, put his arm around his shoulder, and whispered to him about spellcasting techniques.

"It's almost midnight, so tonight's lesson is over. Now, let's have one last demonstration," Professor Flitwick said to the students.

Melvin beckoned to Hermione and the other two, signaling them to come forward.

Harry stepped forward, stunned.

“Professor… is there anything we can do for you?” Cedric asked.

Melvin pointed to the sky above Hogsmeade, where some Dementors were gathering. From the banner of the Hog's Head Tavern, a cold white mist enveloped the area, as if a white cloth were wrapped around a pig's head, oozing a crimson glow.

“That’s the Dementors’ stronghold. Dumbledore and I will lead the way. You’ll assist Professor McGonagall and the others in blocking the path and driving the Dementors towards the surface, gathering them at the entrance of Hogsmeade Village…”

The plan is simple and the explanation is clear.

Hermione couldn't help but glance at the briefcase at the professor's feet. It was a wizard-crafted box with a black leather exterior, the animal of which she couldn't tell exactly what it was made of. An incredible guess formed in her mind.

“But our casting range isn’t that far.” Harry’s eyes were somewhat blank.

"That's because your faith wasn't strong enough. You need to believe in your own spell. Before tonight, you didn't believe you could summon a guardian spirit, but now?"

Melvin picked up the briefcase, which had twisted alchemical runes on the side, obscure runes, and openwork patterns on the handle, the logo of the Magical Zoo in Diagon Alley.

Melvin noticed the little witch looking at the suitcase: "This is a custom-made suitcase I bought during the summer vacation. The female shop owner specially expanded the space; it's very spacious."

He stepped forward: "Later, we'll coordinate with the professors' guardian spirits and focus our attention. We're going to move these teaching assistants to a new home."

Percy stood at the front of the Gryffindor line, pondering the spell techniques Harry had just revealed to Hagrid.

He felt a little ashamed. He was a seventh-grader, but his progress in practicing spells was not as good as that of a third-grader. He didn't understand why. The techniques were in his mind, but he always felt that something was missing.

He was graduating in June, and all his courses were in the final review stage. He wanted to master this spell, the last spell he had learned at Hogwarts.

"Just a little bit more, just a tiny bit more."

George muttered to himself, "Feels like we could use some more euphoria. Let's cast a happiness spell on each other, Fred..."

Percy turned to look at his two younger brothers not far away, opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. The twins had already made their move, and he couldn't help but laugh, his two similar faces twisted and contorted.

Can this state really summon a guardian deity?
Professor Flitwick had finished speaking. The headmaster stood at the front of the line, in the center of the professors. He raised his wand, his beard and robes fluttering in the wind, as if he had gathered all the magic power of the old wizard.

The chanting as the lips moved was very soft, but everyone could hear it, and even the Dementors high above seemed to cast their gazes at it.

Everyone could see the dazzling silver light bursting forth, and the old principal was bathed in its silvery glow.

[Expected Guardian]

The air in the winter night seemed to tremble, the chill was dispelled by an invisible warm current, and the whole world seemed to quiet down. The silver light seemed not to be light, but flame.

Silver flames unfurled in mid-air, outlining a pair of enormous wings.

Each feather was forged from flowing moonlight, yet its edges burned with platinum-gold flames. The moment the phoenix fully manifested, there was no sound, but a clear and melodious cry resounded in everyone's heart.

(End of this chapter)