The days at Hogwarts

Isn't it true that a long illness makes a doctor...

"Oh - may our ancestors bless you!" Mrs. Longbottom was so excited that she almost fainted. She held onto the bed frame to slow down and staggered towards the two innermost beds, mumbling incoherently, "I have to tell them this news, I have to tell them this news..."

"Grandma!" Neville shouted, followed her and helped her walk inside.

Madam Pomfrey sighed softly.

Loren thought about it and followed them. He was also curious about the condition of Neville's parents.

When Mrs. Longbottom really walked to the two beds, she was speechless when she saw her son with a swollen body and her daughter-in-law with gray hair and thin face.

She was too old, and her mood swings were putting a greater strain on her body than usual. Mrs. Longbottom found a seat beside the bed and sat down, breathing hard, with a smile that was half happy and half sad on the corner of her mouth.

When his mother saw Neville, her bulging eyes lit up. She seemed not to want to speak, or unable to speak, but she gestured timidly towards Neville.

"Another one?" said Mrs. Longbottom wearily. "Very good, Alice, very good - take it, Neville, whatever it is..."

Neville was very familiar with this action. He stretched out his hand and opened his palm in front of Alice. His mother gently placed a piece of Blow Up Super Bubble Gum wrapper on his palm and happily closed his palm.

Then she hummed an unknown song and slowly lay back on the bed with a smile on her face. It seemed that this simple action could bring satisfaction and happiness to her mentally impaired self.

His father sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at them, as if he had taken in everything that had just happened. He laughed foolishly, saliva flowing from the corners of his mouth, onto the bib pinned to his chest with a pin.

Loren observed the two of them. As adult wizards, their magic power was very weak. Even Neville couldn't catch up with them, and they were even weaker than Lockhart.

Perhaps it was because of the long-term non-use of magic, coupled with the twisted soul and weak body, that the magic power in the body continued to weaken.

However, there were no signs of other magic on them, which meant that it was not the curse or hex that was continuing to work on them.

Loren showed an interested look in his eyes... From this point of view, without the interference of long-term curse, if the magic is re-cast to piece together their twisted souls and broken consciousness, there is still a possibility of recovery.

Mrs. Longbottom on the side recovered her breath: "You should be proud, Neville, proud! You should be proud!"

"I know," Neville said briefly.

She stretched her neck proudly, like a proud swan or a smug old crow, and announced to Loren and others in a proud tone: "My son and daughter-in-law have been tortured to death by the mysterious man's men!"

After saying this, she began to pant again. Neville clenched the candy wrapper in one hand and stroked his grandmother's back with the other hand to help her breathe more smoothly.

"Can you tell me about their specific situation?" Loren asked gently.

Neville looked at Loren, then at Madam Pomfrey, his eyes evasive, obviously not wanting to untie this scar again.

"Neville! They sacrificed their health and sanity, not to make their only son ashamed of them!" Mrs. Longbottom said sternly, a little angry.

Neville took a deep breath, and a feeling of powerlessness made him look up at the ceiling.

"Speak out! Speak out proudly!" Mrs. Longbottom urged.

Loren already regretted asking that question, and he opened his mouth to skip over it, but Madam Pomfrey pressed his shoulder, stopping him.

Neville's eyes dimmed, and he spoke with difficulty: "My parents are Aurors, both of them."

"They are both very talented and well respected in the wizarding world!" Mrs. Longbottom added.

Neville continued: "Three times they escaped from Voldemort's clutches..."

Mrs. Longbottom's breathing became more rapid when she heard Voldemort's name... She herself didn't even dare to say that name directly.

"After Voldemort's fall, they were captured by the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange—" Neville looked painful, but he gritted his teeth and continued to narrate, "Bellatrix used the Cruciatus Curse on them, affecting their souls and making them crazy. They never regained consciousness again."

At this point, Mrs. Longbottom showed a satisfied smile. She finally recognized Neville's changes and thought that he could inherit the glory of Longbottom.

So it was the Cruciatus Curse... Loren looked at the smile on the old witch's face and insisted that there was something seriously wrong with Neville's family environment.

After bidding farewell to the Longbottom family, Madam Pomfrey took Lauren away from St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries and began their journey home.

"Madam Pomfrey."

"Ok?"

"Does the Cruciatus Curse act directly on the soul?"

"In fact, the mainstream view in the academic community is that the three unforgivable curses all act directly on the soul, which is one of the reasons why they are rated as unforgivable."

……

Half an hour later, Loren sat at the desk in the headmaster's office and reported to Dumbledore about Lockhart's situation, but the main content of the report was about Neville's parents.

"Principal Dumbledore, do you remember that I have a mirror that can reflect people's hearts and go deep into their consciousness? If I can use it to create the deep and broken consciousness of Neville's parents and piece them together, is it possible to heal them?"

The silverware on the table was emitting white smoke. Fawkes was dozing on his perch. Most of the portraits of old headmasters on the wall were also dozing, with the exception of Headmaster Dilys Devonte, who had once served as a healer at St. Mungo's.

Principal Devonte shouted excitedly in the frame: "What a genius idea! In the past, we were helpless in dealing with the injuries of the soul because the soul was too mysterious and illusory. We didn't know where to start!"

"If the soul is projected out and created into a visible and touchable illusion, the repair of the illusion can repair the patient's soul damage!" She was always calm and almost cheered without caring about her image, but soon frowned again, looking very troubled. "I just don't know what the projection of consciousness will look like. If the self-protection is materialized, it may cause harm to the person who enters the illusion. You know, that is also a soul-level injury..."

The steam from the silverware swayed in front of Dumbledore's eyes. He leaned over the desk, looking at Loren with a smile, feeling extremely satisfied.

His original intention was to let Loren learn something from Lockhart's plight and stay away from the path of spying on people's hearts and manipulating people's hearts. Although Loren did not seem to have any regrets about Lockhart's affairs, he had other surprising gains.

With such beauty in his heart, Dumbledore believed that there was an essential difference between Loren and Tom.

The old headmaster brushed aside his beard that was getting in the way and generously pulled out a box of cockroaches from the drawer. "Principal Devonte's concerns are reasonable. I will discuss this matter with some scholars who study the soul."

Why does it feel like this person is suddenly happy?

Loren glanced at Dumbledore with doubt, but his attention was soon attracted by the pile of cockroaches. It was not until his cheeks were bulging with stuffing that Loren remembered: "Oh, there is one more thing. Voldemort came to see me last night..."

He revealed the intelligence that Voldemort was preparing to rescue people from Azkaban, concealing only some insignificant details.

Dumbledore's azure eyes reflected the white mist, hazy. With his wisdom and experience, he easily noticed that some content was missing.

But he was very relieved that as long as Loren's heart remained bright, having a little secret was not a big deal.

"Well, if he wants to save it, let him do it," Dumbledore said leisurely.

"Ok?"

"After all, I'm not an official of the Ministry of Magic, and I can't stop him, right?" Dumbledore spoke like a naughty child.

Then Loren understood that this old silver coin wanted to take advantage of the situation...

The two of them slowly focused on the last few pieces of cockroaches. They increased the speed of chewing and stared at each other, fearing that the other party would eat one more piece than them. They also talked from time to time to divert each other's attention and slow down the other party's speed of finishing the candy.

The young wizard asked hastily, "Hmm - are the distinctive characteristics of those famous wizards really related to magic? I mean, does the love you have always advocated really have magical power?"

The old wizard raised his eyebrows, quickly swallowed the candy in his mouth, and stuffed another one in: "Of course, love in the heart is the most powerful magic."

……

The snow outside the window kept falling, as if to bury the whole world in a piece of pure white.

The year 1992 came to an end amidst the falling snow.

Chapter 219 Snape’s little thoughts

In the secret room, dozens of suitcases were neatly placed around Loren and Snape. These suitcases were specially used to store medicinal materials. Simple and crude alchemical arrays were engraved on the inner lids of the suitcases, and there were also many magic spells on them.

Not long after coming out of the principal's office, Loren was conscripted by Snape and asked to help deal with the basilisk's corpse and collect and store the basilisk materials.

In front of them, a giant basilisk corpse several dozen feet long lay at the foot of the giant Slytherin statue. Even though it had been dead for some time, its body showed no signs of decay. It was as thick as an oak tree trunk, and its scales still shone with a cold, hard green metallic luster.

The snake's head was slightly flat and triangular, with a fatal penetrating wound extending from the skull to the upper jaw. The originally plump yellow eyes were also pecked blind by Fox, and liquid flowed out of the wound, leaving only two shriveled eyeballs.

Loren felt a little regretful. He was very interested in the lethal power and petrifying power in the basilisk's eyes. He even had the idea of ​​using the two powers to make weapons.

Now that there is no endless supply of magic to choose from, this idea seems to be stillborn.

Observing the basilisk's corpse closely, Loren noticed some details that he had overlooked before. The basilisk's scales were not smooth. There were two rows of short, blunt spines on its back, and the scales on the top of its head also had blunt, thick, thorn-like protrusions, making it look rough.

In the middle of the abdomen, about one-fifth of the length of the entire snake's body, large pieces of scales had been removed from the roots and piled up on the side. This was Snape's previous achievement.

"The basilisk's scales are very hard, and it is difficult to cut them with ordinary spells and knives. I asked you to come and help deal with the basilisk's corpse in order to speed up the process and to check if your Sharp Edge Spell has degraded." Snape's cold voice echoed in the secret room.

Loren retracted his gaze from the basilisk's body, glanced at Snape with a little disdain, and curled his lips. It's fine if you want to exploit underage student workers, but you also have to find some high-sounding reasons.

"The basilisk's corpse won't rot. Professor, can't you just cut it up bit by bit? There's still a long Christmas break, right?"

Loren tried to resist, but Snape, the inventor of the Shadowless Divine Sharpness and professor of Potions, who was a master at handling materials, had only cut so little after so long, and it was only scales...

If I get involved, I'm afraid I'll have to spend the entire time before Christmas in the secret room.

Snape's eyes were calm as he raised his hand to roll up the sleeves of his robe, as if preparing to start work.

After rolling up his sleeves, he reached out and hit Loren on the head: "Put away that offensive look and respect your teacher. Besides, there is not so much time to waste. We need to deal with these things before the people from the Ministry of Magic and the Board of Directors come to school."

Loren felt pain and nodded while holding his head. He understood that the Crabbe case had been investigated and the basilisk would soon be exposed to the Ministry of Magic and the school board.

Many people would be tempted by treasures of this level. If they were involved, even if Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall could handle it, it would still cause a lot of trouble.

Don't be naive to think that everything in the school belongs to Hogwarts. Driven by sufficient interests, many pure-blood families can ask for a share of the profits in the name of Slytherin blood.

Purebloods intermarry from generation to generation, if you really analyze it, every family is related to each other. Even the Weasley family and the Malfoy family, if you count a few generations back, you can definitely find relatives.

"If I had known this would happen, I should have gone home during the Christmas holidays." Loren wailed and reluctantly followed Snape's steps and began to learn how to cut the basilisk's scales.

The scales were stacked layer by layer, and only when the upper layer was removed could the full picture of the scales be clearly seen. In a large area in the middle section, the scales had been removed, and there was a clear boundary between the black skin and the green snake scales.

Loren reached out and pressed the exposed basilisk flesh. It was hard and felt like some rough rock.

Snape held a snake scale in his left hand, propped it up, and then pointed his wand at the junction of the scale and the skin, and whispered: "[God's Sharp Sword Without Shadow]"

The invisible sharp blade swept past, and a diamond-shaped scale fell off, with a flat surface at the end.

Snape threw the scale into the nearest suitcase without even looking at Loren, and started to deal with the next scale: "In fact, the method of pulling it out can better ensure the integrity of the scale, but that way we have to deal with the flesh and blood attached to the scale, which will be more cumbersome."

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

Another scale fell off. Snape raised his eyelids and looked at Loren: "Have you learned it?"

Loren did not answer, but held a scale, pointed his magic wand at the base of the scale, and chanted: "【God's Edge Without Shadow】"

A scale was peeled off, but the cut surface was not smooth enough and there were some flaws.

It's a matter of experience, just try a few more times. Snape ignored this flaw, waved his hand, and pointed at the basilisk's head: "You start cutting the scales from there, and I'll be responsible for the tail where the scales are more numerous and denser."

Loren looked at the basilisk's head and his eyes widened instantly. But remembering what he had just said about respecting teachers, Loren temporarily suppressed the urge to slander Snape...

What do you mean by more and denser scales? It sounds like your job is more difficult. Obviously, the scales at the tail are more neatly processed, and the arrangement is more in line with the stacking law, which makes it easier to handle.

Most of the odd-shaped scales on the head are not layered together. The scales are oddly shaped, and the fit with the skin is messy, which looks very troublesome.

Sensing his reluctance, Snape said slowly, "After dealing with the basilisk corpse, you can take some materials and choose whatever you want. Do you have any other questions?"

"Not at all!" Loren's answer was very straightforward. The eyes of a basilisk, of course, were the eyes of a basilisk.

After saying that, he chuckled and quickly ran to the basilisk's head, looking at the irregularly shaped scales that wrapped around its head.

The first thing Loren noticed was the one located at the front, which is commonly known as the rostrum scale. Unlike the other strange-shaped scales on the head, the rostrum scale was neat and symmetrical, and the basilisk had only one rostrum scale on its entire body.

After thinking about his unskilled processing skills, Loren decided to change to another scale that didn't look that good.

The scales on the snake's head fit into the skin at different angles. The difficulty of casting the Divine Sword Shadowless Curse is not the difficulty, but finding the right angle and anticipating the cut surface in advance.

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

The whistling invisible blade raged in the space of the secret room, cutting off scales one by one. Periorbital scales, temporal scales, jaw scales... Slowly, Loren gradually peeled off the entire scales of the basilisk's head.

His proficiency in the Divine Sword Shadowless Curse also increased rapidly, becoming more and more handy. He could cut wherever he wanted and cut however he wanted. The direction, trajectory, expansion and contraction, and power of the knife marks could all be adjusted and changed in a single thought.

Snape watched Loren's progress from afar, a barely perceptible smile on his face.

Apart from the most difficult head, the scales on the basilisk's torso were much easier. Seeing that Loren's work was on the right track, Snape began to talk about some knowledge about the basilisk.

"The snake material we often use is the African tree snake skin... The scales of snakes are mainly divided into three types: smooth, granular and prismatic. The first two are easy to understand. Prismatic scales refer to scales with a vertical ridge in the middle."

Loren took a look and found that the basilisk's scales seemed to have all three types, which should be considered as the basilisk's special feature.

He was not very interested in the knowledge about these creatures, so he asked, "Professor, what are the uses of the various materials on the basilisk?"

"[Shen Feng Wu Ying]"

Snape buried his head and cut off another scale, then threw it into the suitcase. "Who knows?"

"what?"

Snape explained slowly: "The number of basilisks is too small. After the death of Salazar Slytherin, the detailed basilisk hatching ceremony seems to have been lost. After that, the Ministry of Magic strictly prohibited the hatching and breeding of basilisks-"

Loren couldn't help but be curious and interrupted: "Professor, isn't it said that the basilisk is a monster born from a toad hatching a rooster egg?"

Snape gave him a subtle look. Although there was no language, Loren understood that Snape was calling him a fool.

"Loren Morgan—" Snape sarcastically said in a tone that was almost like a poetic recitation, "You don't think that this strange 5X-level dangerous magical creature can be cultivated in such a simple way?"