The days at Hogwarts

He thought for a moment, frowned and asked, "The Animagus ritual has time requirements, which are related to the solar and lunar phenomena. If you use the time converter while holding the mandrake in your mouth, will it affect the ritual?"

"Should, shouldn't, right?" Hermione hesitated as she spoke words one by one. She had never expected that the time turner and Animagus would conflict with each other.

Loren took back the mandrake blade and said, "Let's talk about it after we ask Professor McGonagall."

Hermione blinked: "Oh."

In fact, Loren was not too worried. Hermione would eventually abandon the Time Turner, give up Divination and Muggle Studies, and return to normal schooling anyway.

It won't be too late to perform the Animagus ritual then.

Putting the mandrake back into the pendant, Loren and Hermione continued to shovel the leaves, put them into buckets, and pour them into the compost pit...

lunch time.

When Loren sat down at the Gryffindor table, he realized that the topic of pure-bloods and genetic diseases had become even more heated.

The four colleges were talking heatedly at the long tables, and the young wizards were divided into two main arguments:

One is pure blood without genetic diseases.

Staunch pure-blood advocates believe that Muggles are more vulnerable than wizards and are more easily defeated by diseases, while wizards are more powerful and have more advanced medical care than Muggles. Therefore, the genetic diseases that plague Muggles are not true for wizards.

The second is that the genetic disease of pure-blood wizards is already very serious.

The view of this group of young wizards is that physical illness may not be obvious, but pure blood is shrouded in the shadow of mental illness.

Lonely, irritable, paranoid, crazy...

Gaunt, Black, Crabbe...

Many families have died out, or are dying out, and various mental disorders will eventually wipe out the purebloods.

Amidst such discussions, Greengrass, who was cursed by his bloodline, naturally became the focus of everyone's attention.

In addition to the new student Astoria Greengrass, the Greengrass family also has a little witch, Daphne Greengrass, who is studying at Hogwarts.

Daphne, a staunch supporter of pure-bloods.

She entered school in 1991 and was a classmate of Loren and others. Under the brilliance of Loren, Hermione, Harry, Neville and even Draco, this little witch had no sense of existence.

Although the Greengrass are a pure-blood family, their wealth and power are not worth mentioning. Compared with many families such as the Malfoy, Crabbe, Nott, and even the Parkinson, there is a huge gap.

The only thing that makes people remember Daphne is that she is one of Pansy Parkinson's best friends, or one of her followers.

The young wizards from the four academies couldn't help but look over there, because a farce was happening at the Slytherin table at that moment.

Daphne was yelling at a little Slytherin witch: "Claire! You're a dirty half-blood who has tainted your bloodline! If you dare to look at me like that again, I swear, I will dig your eyes out!"

The little witch named Claire covered her face and ran away.

Having lost her target, Daphne turned her angry gaze towards her sister. If she hadn't fallen, how could she have suffered such humiliation?

Following her gaze, Loren saw the freshman at the center of the storm—Astoria.

She sat next to Draco. The little girl had long golden hair and blue eyes that met her sister's gaze innocently. She awkwardly forced a smile to please her sister, and the dimples on her cheeks were obvious when she smiled.

Obviously, Daphne, who was angry, didn't buy it. She gritted her teeth and growled, "Astoria!"

Chapter 284 Lupin's Boggart

"Sister..." The little girl trembled with fear and her face turned pale.

"enough!"

Draco, who was sitting next to him, suddenly threw his silver fork into the plate, making a crisp and loud clatter. He looked at Daphne coldly and said, "You should vent your anger on those who are talking about you, instead of going crazy at the Slytherin table."

Daphne's momentum stagnated: "You——"

Draco Malfoy was someone Pansy Parkinson wanted to please, so she didn't dare to get angry at Draco. She glared at Astoria a few times and left the hall angrily.

The young wizards watched Daphne's back disappear. After a brief silence, a more heated discussion broke out.

"Besides physical weakness, could there be mental illness in their family?" Ron asked in a low voice.

Seamus tilted his head, unsure, "No way, Astoria seems pretty normal to me."

"Stop, both of you!" Hermione tapped the goblet with her fork. "Don't talk about others behind their backs. It doesn't matter if they have a blood curse or a genetic inheritance. It's not polite."

Ron poked the steak on the plate and muttered, "It was you and Loren who brought up this topic. You said we..."

Hermione's brows slowly frowned, and she seemed to be blaming herself.

"Don't listen to him." Loren put a piece of cut strawberry pie on her plate. "The idea of ​​genetic disease has been around before, but it just happened to coincide with the freshman's fall. We didn't expect it to cause such a big discussion."

"But..." Hermione still felt a little uneasy.

"No buts. If you feel bad about it," Lauren paused, avoiding Harry and Ron beside him, and whispered to Hermione, "We can ask Draco to take care of the new student. As for her sister, no one should dare to offend her in the future."

"Malfoy?" Hermione nodded slowly.

On the other side, at the Slytherin table.

Astoria breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her sister leave, a genuine smile forming on her face.

Draco poked at the food on his plate absentmindedly. The food at Hogwarts wasn't bad, but it was still worse than what he had at home. Especially since there was a farce during the meal, he didn't have much of an appetite.

Feeling that the corner of his magic robe was being tugged, he turned around and saw the little girl Astoria grinning at him: "Thank you, my name is Astoria Greengrass, what's your name?"

The elder sister is a venomous snake, while the younger sister is a corn snake. Why are the sisters so different?

Draco glanced at her, without any intention of replying, and stood up to go back to the Slytherin common room.

"Eh?"

Astoria watched him walk away, then looked at his largely untouched plate, hurriedly wrapped some pies in brown paper, and staggered after him, "Wait, you haven't told me your name yet!"

……

The first class in the afternoon is Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Hermione sat straight-shouldered in the front row, with her textbook, quill, and parchment in front of her.

The little witch was flipping through the textbook carefully, reviewing the content of the third-year Defense Against the Dark Arts course, and occasionally drawing on the textbook. Her hair was tied into a bun at the back of her head, her long eyelashes were fluttering, her expression was focused, and her face was calm.

Oh my, Hermione looks so pretty when she's serious.

Loren, who was standing next to her, rested his chin on one hand and blinked as he watched Hermione prepare.

Just smelling the refreshing fragrance coming from Hermione, he began to feel sleepy after reading for a while. When Hermione turned another page, Loren yawned: "Why are we here so early? There are still 20 minutes before class."

“Remember the Mandrake?”

Without even looking up, Hermione circled a feature description in the "Boggart" chapter with her quill. "After lunch, I went to see Professor McGonagall and asked if the Time Turner would have any effect on Animagus. The professor told me to find the answer myself."

"How to find it?"

"Transfiguration Today will publish a special issue on Animagus at the end of the month, which will bring together half a century of Animagus research. Professor McGonagall's paper from last semester will also be published there. The professor said I can find the answer in it."

"I see..." Loren tilted his head to look at the Boggart portrait in the book and yawned again, "What does this have to do with you dragging me to the classroom early?"

As for Boggart, he flipped through the textbook when he first got it. Although the description in the book was detailed, he didn't know much without the actual object as a reference.

"There were big problems with the teaching progress of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class in the past few years. Professor McGonagall asked me to talk to Professor Lupin first. I went to his office but didn't find anyone there, so I came to the classroom early to wait."

Hermione stopped writing and pulled out her watch to check the time, "But Professor Lupin hasn't arrived yet."

Loren stood up and stretched his body, "It's still early in the school year, let's take it slow."

"Ah."

While the two were chatting, other young wizards entered the classroom one after another, laid out their textbooks, and chatted with each other. Three minutes before class started, Professor Lupin finally walked into the classroom.

"Good afternoon, sorry for being late."

Although still wearing patched clothes, Lupin had a faint smile on his face, which brought him closer to the students. "A friend of mine told me that you guys have fallen behind on some subjects because the two professors last year were not very competent, so I went to find out about the situation from Professor Flitwick."

"Professor McGonagall didn't think of that," Hermione muttered.

Loren observed Lupin's complexion. He looked much healthier than when he was on the train. The aftereffects of his transformation into a werewolf on the full moon night were beginning to fade.

Harry seemed to be in a good mood. He pulled Ron aside and whispered, "The friend Lupin was talking about must be Sirius. Two incompetent professors, haha! Sirius is one of them!"

"Oh, I hope Professor Lupin isn't the third one." Ron shrugged.

Lupin put his tattered suitcase next to the podium and said with a smile, "Today's class is a practical class. Please put your textbooks back into your schoolbags, take your wands and follow me."

Seamus whistled with interest. "Practical lessons? That reminds me of Lockhart, and those Cornish elves."

"Oh, no!" Neville shook his head with a sad look on his face. "Being hung from the ceiling is not a good memory."

The students were confused and interested. They stood up and followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom and walked towards the staff room.

There was a small incident on the way. Professor Lupin used a small spell to repel Peeves, which made the little wizards feel much more at ease.

The staff lounge is a long room with wooden panels on all four walls, and old, unmatched tables and chairs have been moved to the corners.

Snape sat in a low armchair.

The chattering little wizards suddenly quieted down after seeing Snape, and gathered silently behind Professor Lupin.

"Lupin, you'd better handle this thing properly." Snape said lightly, his eyes patrolling the young wizards. "Perhaps no one has reminded you, Lupin, that there are people in this class who always mess things up, the clumsy Neville Longbottom, the self-righteous Harry Potter."

Loren watched with great interest, even a little gloating.

Professor Snape is really something like you. It's bad enough that you show off your power in your own class, but I didn't expect that you would do it in front of other teachers now.

Snape suddenly changed the subject: "And—Loren Morgan!"

"Huh?" Loren was suddenly cueed and was a little confused.

Snape said the rest slowly: "Come to my office on Friday night."

"Okay, professor," Loren replied.

It’s the familiar Professor Snape again. He’s always a little abnormal when Harry is around, not to mention that there is also a new professor, Remus Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, here now.

Lupin raised his eyebrows and shouted to Snape who was walking out the door, "I was hoping Neville would help me complete the first step of teaching. I'm sure he will do an excellent job."

Neville looked at Lupin gratefully, his face flushed.

"This is my class after all." Lupin smiled at him and turned to motion for the students to go to the other end of the room.

There was a strangely shaped cabinet that looked quite old. The frame was made of some old tree branches, and the surface was inlaid with mottled mirrors. A handle on the left indicated that it was a wooden cabinet with a single door.

Standing in the front row, Loren and Hermione could see their faces in the mirror.

Boom!

The wardrobe suddenly began to shake violently. Some living creature inside caused the wardrobe to shake, making a dull sound on the floor.

"It's very novel, isn't it?" Professor Lupin saw several students jumping back in surprise, and said with a smile in his tone, "Is there any student who can guess what is in the cabinet?"

"A Boggart."

"Well answered, Mr. Thomas. Can anyone tell me what a Boggart looks like?"

Hermione, who regretted missing the first question, quickly spoke up: "No one knows, sir. Boggarts can change shape. They become whatever the person who sees it fears the most, so they are so -"

"So scary!" Lupin took over. "Yes, yes, I can't explain it more clearly myself. Boggart likes dark and closed spaces, wardrobes, gaps under beds, cabinets under sinks..."

Listening to Lupin talking about the characteristics of a Boggart, Loren stared at the shaking cabinet, trying to use magic to see something.

As a strange creature, Boggart does not seem to have any real biological characteristics and it is difficult to classify it as a magical animal.

Dementors need to absorb happy emotions and can communicate with wizards, but there are no observation records of Boggarts eating, reproducing, communicating, etc.

There is a mainstream view in academia that Boggart is a product of human emotions, and that the combination of fear and corresponding magic gives birth to Boggart.

Lupin's teaching continued: "Boggarts have entities, but no one knows what they really look like... After transformation, sometimes they cannot imitate the same power or magic. For example, the cry of a Boggart that turns into a howling banshee will not be fatal...

...The spell to repel the Boggart is very simple, but requires great willpower. You need to force the Boggart to change into an image that you find funny, and the laughter will make the Boggart collapse. "

"Let's practice the spell without the wands first. Please repeat after me - funny funny!"

"Funny, funny!" the whole class chanted together.

……

"Very good, very good!" Lupin nodded and looked at Neville. "Come on, Mr. Longbottom. As I said before class, I believe you can help me complete the first step of teaching tasks excellently."

Neville walked out of the team tremblingly and came to the front of the cabinet.

"Very good, Neville," said Professor Lupin. "First of all, what are you most afraid of in the world?"

The luster in Neville's eyes changed, and he slowly fell silent.