Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is a general subject. When it comes to wizards, it involves knowledge from many fields, but the most core part is the wizard's personal combat ability.

"I'm asking you to write papers analyzing different styles of cases to deepen your understanding. We covered more theoretical knowledge in the last class, so today's remedial class will leave it to you to put it into practice."

Melvin stood up, took out his wand, and waved it around like a conductor. The furniture that received the instructions floated and moved toward the wall. In the blink of an eye, a space of moderate size was cleared in the middle of the office.

"You've all heard of wizard duels, right?"

Harry scratched his head and stood up at the same time as Hermione, standing at opposite ends of the clearing. They stared at each other intently, a similar look in their eyes, their wands in hand, their breathing slowing down a little.

Melvin didn't talk about dueling etiquette. That kind of thing is only for show on stage and has no use beyond that.

He coughed lightly and said gently, "Now, you can start the duel."

As soon as the words fell, the two people in the field immediately moved.

Hermione's spell power was slightly weaker, and she had thought of a strategy long before they took their positions. She didn't intend to fight him head-on, so she immediately kept her distance.

[Retreat the enemy three feet]

[fainted to the ground]

As he stepped back briskly, he cast several spells one after another. They were light and swift, but the beams of light were dim and narrow, obviously not spells released with full strength. The spells whirred through the air, illuminating the room with dim shadows.

[Retreat the enemy three feet]

Harry blocked one spell with a repulsive spell, but found that he didn't have time to cast the second spell. He turned to the side hastily and narrowly avoided the stunning spell that followed.

One attack and one defense, two strategic choices, it is hard to say which one has the advantage. Hermione took two steps back when casting the spell, and Harry took a big step forward when dodging. The overall distance between the two did not change.

Melvin stood in front of the shelf by the wall, quietly holding up his armor to prevent any flying spells from damaging things. His eyes were calm as he took in the confrontation between the two people on the field.

In the previous courses, the two papers laid the foundation for the two people's basic understanding of duels, and they had the concepts of attack and defense, distance, rhythm and suppression. Perhaps because there were too many case analyses, the combat practice had a slight imitation meaning.

Hermione's magic power is slightly weaker, but she can cast spells more flexibly. She is not obsessed with a single spell and does not think of winning with one strike. Her spells are not very powerful, but she has her own ideas for arranging and coordinating them.

If he could maintain the stalemate and slowly find his own rhythm, he might find a chance to defeat Harry.

But unfortunately, Harry's talent is amazing. Although his casting frequency seems slow on the surface, he already has a plan in his mind.

The space in the office was limited, and as Hermione had nowhere to retreat, the distance between them gradually narrowed.

When Hermione swung out another grinning curse in an attempt to break the blockade and change direction, Harry did not dodge or avoid it. Regardless of the silver light that was about to hit his body, he waved his wand and spurted out an unavoidable stunning spell.

Hermione took a half-step and lost her balance. She watched helplessly as the Stunning Curse came over her, her clear eyes full of surprise.

The two spells staggered each other and attacked their respective targets.

Just as the two men accepted the reality and waited for the spell to take effect, they saw two beams of light frozen in mid-air, as if they had hit an invisible and intangible transparent iron curtain and quietly disappeared.

"Okay, that's it for today."

Melvin retracted the iron curtain. "You know the outcome of the battle yourself. Go back and write a paper reviewing it. Analyze the decisions made in this duel. Find out which choices could have been made better, and which opportunities should have been seized but were not."

Hermione pursed her lips, feeling a little uncomfortable.

One was an insignificant crunching curse, and the other was a stunning curse that eliminated combat effectiveness. It was clear at a glance who won and who lost.

"It's getting late, Hermione, you should go back first, Harry stay a while."

Hermione was about to nod, but suddenly she looked up, glanced at the professor, then at Harry, her eyes shifting constantly, and she didn't know what she was thinking, her lips pursed even tighter.

The little witch sniffed and replied bitterly, "Okay, Professor."

Melvin watched Hermione walk out of the office dejectedly, with a resentful look in her eyes as she closed the door. He couldn't help but find it funny, and then waved to Harry.

Harry quickly put away his wand and sat over: "Professor, is there anything you want me to stay for?"

"Last year, when you were guarding the Philosopher's Stone, you revealed a unique foreign language." Melvin tore a piece of parchment and folded it into thin strips. "I wonder if you still remember... Parseltongue?"

"It's hard not to remember." Harry's expression was a little unnatural. "At first, I thought it was a very common wizarding ability, but Ron told me that only a very small number of wizards can speak Parseltongue. In Britain, most of them are descendants of Slytherin, and they are basically evil dark wizards."

"Talents and abilities are neither good nor evil; it depends on how the owner uses them."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought so too."

"I asked you to stay because I need your help with something. Please repeat a few words in Parseltongue..."

As Melvin spoke, he rolled a long, thin piece of origami into a spiral and slowly pushed it in front of Harry.

Under Harry's gaze, the stacked paper spirals gradually unfolded, growing fine scales, vertical pupils and fangs at one end, and the other end turned into a snake tail, shaking constantly.

……

When I left the Muggle Studies office, the lights in the corridor were already off.

But it was autumn time at Hogwarts, and there were no clouds in the night sky to block the moonlight. The staircases and corridors were very clearly lit, and the portraits on the walls on both sides were not completely asleep yet. If the enthusiastic Sir Cadogan was alarmed, he would guide the lost little wizard back to the lounge.

Harry walked alone back to the portrait cave, carrying a small glass bottle.

Professor Melvin was just sorting out Parseltongue's memories and gave him a strand of silver thread. Inside was a replay of tonight's battle. He could take it back and put it into the video mirror and stir it, and then he could replay the details of the battle at will.

It's just like a videotape, so useful.

I'll take Ron for duel practice later, and it would be nice if I could replay the details.

I don't know if this kind of memory extraction magic is difficult. I can go back and ask Hermione. She has a lot of magic books in her mind, so she will definitely know.

Harry held the glass bottle and quietly touched the portrait of the Fat Lady. He lowered his voice and said the password. Before the Fat Lady could complain, he got in, walked through the hole in two or three steps, and climbed into the lounge.

There was still some residual warmth from candles in the common room. It was not yet the season to light the fireplace, and there was only light from the slanting light coming in through the glass windows. The armchairs and sofas seemed to have turned into dark shadows.

Hermione should have returned to her dorm to rest.

Harry was about to go up the spiral staircase when he heard someone speak from the chair nearest him: "What did Professor Lewynter ask you to stay for, Harry?"

A candle flickered to life, and it was Hermione, in her strawberry red nightgown, staring at him with wide eyes.

Harry turned his head and stared at her blankly. "The professor asked me to help record some Parseltongue sounds, and gave me this as well. This is a replay of our fight."

"that's it?"

"That's all." Harry nodded. "You're waiting here just to ask this?"

Hermione's stern face couldn't hold back any longer, and she looked a little embarrassed.

She didn't know what she was thinking. She actually thought that the professor left Harry alone to take special care of him, or to give him one-on-one tutoring or something.

Originally, she had the closest relationship with the professor, but suddenly it was Harry who took over, which she found a little bit unacceptable.

"I'm thinking about the content of my thesis. I can't remember some details clearly. I can't sleep until I figure it out, so I'm waiting for you here."

"I see……"

……

Girls' restroom on the third floor.

A figure walked through the cold moonlight and into the bathroom.

The broken tiles are peeling off, and there are water stains left after the sewage has dried up. Although no one has used it for a long time, there is no indescribable smell.

Damp, old wooden doors were embedded in the stone walls, forming spacious compartments. A pool of water flowed quietly on the floor. Melvin traced the direction of the water mark and determined that it was overflowing from the third compartment from the front.

Pushing open the wooden door of the cubicle, the toilet tank was quiet. It seemed that Myrtle did not sleep here tonight.

Avoiding the unknown liquid on the floor, Melvin walked towards the sink. In the cool moonlight, he examined the copper faucets one by one and soon spotted an inconspicuous snake-shaped pattern. "Found it."

He pulled out a bottle of silver potion from his pocket, hooked his finger, and used a levitation spell to draw out one or two drops.

The same silvery memory was put into the potion. The potion evaporated and turned into swirling mist. A vague figure emerged in the thick fog, and its lips moved, making a hissing sound.

[Open]

Melvin couldn't understand the hissing, but he knew the meaning of the snake language.

The copper faucet emitted a dazzling white light. In the hazy light and shadow, the faucet spun rapidly, causing the pool to spin with it, as if the thick floor and walls had turned into liquid and flowed into the sewer along the vortex.

After about ten seconds, the white light dissipated, revealing a spacious hole in the pool, connected to a thick water pipe, and it was pitch black.

Melvin couldn't help but smile. He was about to jump into the pipe to start his underground adventure under the moonlight, but he smelled a strong and dazzling smell, the kind of smell that came from the sealed fermentation of various things in the sewer, ammonia mixed with the smell of rotting protein.

"..."

He couldn't help but feel a little hesitant. Is the pipe underneath, which has been covered in dust for decades, really safe?

"Crack~"

The crisp sound of snapping fingers spread throughout the bathroom, and a cluster of blue flames slowly floated into the pipe.

There was no fire or explosion, which meant the problem was not serious.

Melvin thought for a moment, put on a waterproof and moisture-proof spell, put up a close-fitting bubble wrap, turned over and jumped into the pipe.

The inner wall of the iron pipe is covered with mucus secreted by various microorganisms and mosses. It is slippery and sticky, and the touch is hard to describe. Under the action of these mucus, the entire pipeline sliding process is very smooth, and the pipeline path is winding and twisting.

With the help of the blue flames surrounding him, he could see many pipe branches extending in all directions.

The entire slide lasted nearly five minutes. After a gentle slope and a slight acceleration, the water pipe became horizontal. Melvin slid out along the water pipe and landed on a damp and cold stone ground.

Melvin sniffed his collar and cuffs to confirm there was no residue, then he looked around with confidence.

A stone passage was carved out, the air was filled with damp water vapor, with a slight odor, but not pungent, the normal smell of not seeing the sun for many years. There were some corpses of small animals on the ground, which seemed to have starved to death after accidentally entering here.

It is completely decayed and will break at the slightest touch.

It was a one-way street with no forks and a very clear direction. Melvin walked in and blue flames kept rising up and floating in the air, illuminating the dark space.

The specific circumstances of the construction of the secret room cannot be verified and can only be inferred through fragmentary legends.

Among the four founders of Hogwarts, the other three have the personalities and styles of decent wizards, but Slytherin is both good and evil. He rejects Muggles and half-blood wizards and is only willing to teach pure-blood students. He hopes to teach dark magic and wants students to be exposed to dangerous forbidden magic.

Of course the other three disagreed, especially Gryffindor. Slytherin didn't want to confront them head-on, so he built the Chamber of Secrets alone.

Conducting dark magic experiments, teaching dark magic, or having other uses. Later, the conflict between them could no longer be eased, and Slytherin closed the Chamber of Secrets and left alone...

The tunnel was silent. After turning a corner, I saw a snake skin lying at the end of the tunnel in the distance.

About twenty feet away, the blue flames shone on the surface of the snake skin, reflecting a green glow. Upon closer inspection, it appeared in vibrant colors, bright and beautiful, and it was obvious that it was highly poisonous.

Melvin tapped it with his wand, and the dull sound was like metal.

He touched his pocket, gestured, and fell into deep thought.

"..."

There is enough space for seamless expansion, but it is not easy to stuff it in. If you are not careful, the intact snake skin may be broken.

Melvin sighed with some regret and decided to bring a suitcase with him next time, the largest one.