Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 261 Toby and Snape

Harry stood nervously at the door of the office, followed by Ron and Hermione. They had decided to tell Professor Heimer what happened last night according to the results of the divination, otherwise nothing good would happen.

Three times in total, they were asked to tell Professor Heimer the divination results each time, which did not make them feel at ease.

The door to the office was slowly pushed open, and Harry couldn't wait to step forward and said, "Professor Heimer, we—Professor Lupin? So you are here too."

The person who opened the door was Lupin. He saw Harry's reaction and said with a smile: "It seems that compared to Toby, I am still not that popular. I will probably fail in this year's Teacher Award Ceremony."

Harry opened his mouth, his expression becoming a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Professor Heimer's voice came from the room in time: "Is it Harry? Just come in - and you two?"

Professor Hemmer, who was behind the desk, cast his gaze on Ron and Hermione, who were coming together. His tone suddenly became less friendly: "Don't tell me because you got into some trouble again. You just want to think about it now."

I want to apologize, I have seen this lineup many times."

"No, not exactly, Professor." Harry said stammering, his expression a little hesitant.

"Is it because of me?" Lupine, who was standing at the door, said helplessly: "Okay, I'll leave now - don't forget what I just told you, Toby."

Toby nodded, and after Lupine left, he saw curious expressions on the faces of the three people.

"This has nothing to do with you." He frowned and said, his eyes became much more serious: "Isn't it convenient for Remus to know - is it because of the Horcrux?"

"No." Harry shook his head. He glanced at Hermione and Ron again, and finally said: "Actually, it was because of Sirius' matter that he showed up at Hogwarts last night. To be precise, he showed up at Hogwarts.

In the fireplace."

Sirius again?

Remus had just finished talking about how he met Sirius when he was divining his own death, but it happened that Sirius happened to show up at Hogwarts last night?

Toby probably understood the way Sirius appeared - it was one of the functions of the Floo powder. There was no need to actually go through the fireplace, just stick your head into the magic fire.

After listening to Harry's story, Toby asked solemnly: "Does anyone else know about this?"

"It's just us." Hermione said carefully, while Ron and Harry remained silent.

"What's wrong?" Toby asked, "Is there something I don't know?"

All three of them knew that lying in front of Professor Heimer would lead to very serious consequences. This time it was Harry. He didn't hesitate for long and whispered: "Originally we didn't want to tell you, but we did the divination three times, and the result

I found out that if I hide it, there will definitely be no good consequences - is it because Sirius was discovered? Will he be in danger?"

"You must have thought wrong." Toby sneered and said: "Maybe he is not the only one who will be in danger - by the way, you should bring this thing with you in the future."

Next, Harry saw a familiar scene again - Professor Heimer took off the head of a skeleton regardless, turned it into a pendant on a necklace, and then handed the skull necklace to him.

"The next time Sirius comes to see you, remember to inform me in time - this is very important, do you understand, Harry?"

Harry silently put the necklace away and left with Ron and Hermione.

"What do you mean it's not just him?" Ron asked in a low voice in the corridor: "Are there other people who will be in danger?"

"What I'm more worried about is whether this method is feasible." Hermione said fearfully: "Didn't you see the expression on Professor Heimo's face? It's almost as good as the time when he turned into a devil before. It's so cold and scary."

"But we can only do this." Harry covered the necklace hidden under his clothes and said, "This is the answer given to us by divination. It has never been so consistent."

This is true.

The three of them once guessed the taste of the same bean together. After trying it many times, at most only two of them guessed correctly together, never all of them.

In the Ancient Magic Office, Toby was still staring at the direction Harry and the three left.

"Sirius Black," he murmured, "is it you, or is it someone else."

——

At Hogwarts, the Teacher Appreciation Ceremony will continue for a long time. Now almost all students know the way this year is so different - it is not an interview, but a class where students give lessons to professors.

This was really novel, and the selected students like Harry were often surrounded and asked about what lessons they had taught the professors.

"That's Principal Dumbledore!"

Colin Creevey, Harry's number one fan, said something that Harry had heard countless times. His eyes were shining and he asked: "Can you get me an autograph from the principal? I want to show it to my brother."

Look, he'll be enrolling next year."

"I - what?" Harry originally wanted to accept it casually, but after hearing clearly, he couldn't do this anymore: "We are in class, not a book signing event."

In fact, Harry himself did not dare to make such a request to Principal Dumbledore. He felt that he was not familiar enough with the principal yet.

Then, what Harry didn't expect was that in the special class that night, Principal Dumbledore happily took out a note and wrote his own name in beautiful handwriting on it.

"I think this will satisfy Mr. Creevey's brother." He said gently: "Of course, it might be better if you sign on the chocolate frog picture, but you have to risk violating the "Secrecy Act"

, strictly speaking, his brother has not officially entered the magical world."

Harry put the note away in surprise. He heard Principal Dumbledore continue: "So what are we going to learn today, Harry?"

"Still the devil, is that okay?" Harry asked with some anxiety. This was the only thing he could really control.

"No problem." Dumbledore spoke very nicely.

Since Dumbledore told Harry the importance of "love" in the class some time ago, the class has returned to its original appearance - Harry still holds the position of professor, and Dumbledore also seems to be a professor.

A simple and eager-to-learn student, he would never express rejection to Harry's projects.

Harry also asked several times, wanting to know when the so-called magic related to "love" could be taught to him. But Dumbledore's words were still the same, and he had to wait until Harry realized it himself, otherwise there would be no way.

Man can truly teach him.

Fortunately, Professor Heimer's tutoring was also going on at the same time, which allowed Harry to learn a lot of new skills related to the devil. Otherwise, he really wouldn't know how to continue.

In the office, the rune snake turned into black smoke was floating in the air. It performed various difficult movements under Harry's constant control, especially its three heads, which were very flexible. This was all taught by Professor Heimer.

Learned in training.

"Sometimes I have to fight Cedric."

Harry unknowingly told the story of his training process: "His devil badger is very powerful and faster than my rune snake. Sometimes I have to use some unexpected means to defeat him, just like

Like now—"

He played a melody in Parseltongue again, and the three heads of the rune snake began to spin rapidly, almost turning into a small windmill, so fast that it was difficult to see how many heads it had.

Dumbledore watched this scene with interest, but his eyes were a little solemn. He asked: "It looks very destructive. Will you and Mr. Diggory be injured during training?"

"Although there have been -" Harry said in a pinch: "But it was not because of the other party's devil, but because of Professor Heimer. He has already increased the number of flame balls to three, and it is said that he will also add the Golden Snitch. Really

I don’t know what he will do.”

How to catch a snitch covered in flames?

"I can't imagine it either," said Dumbledore.

Harry didn't hear anything wrong with Dumbledore's tone at all. He just asked curiously: "So, Headmaster, can you summon your own devil now?"

"About this matter -" Dumbledore said with a smile: "I'm afraid it will take some time, but you don't need to add any psychological burden to this. You can give me a failing grade. For me, this is

It will definitely be a completely novel experience.”

Harry had never thought of doing this. He opened his mouth wide in surprise and did not close it for a long time.

After tonight's classes were over, Harry left the office, leaving Dumbledore alone in his seat.

His expression now is no longer so relaxed.

Originally, he wanted to attract Toby's attention through Cedric, but he didn't expect Toby to focus on Harry, and he continued to intensify Harry's training on the devil.

This is not a very good sign.

After a short moment of silence, Dumbledore took out his wand, and he transformed into a silver Patronus, which was a phoenix.

Phoenix flew out of the office in twos and twos, went all the way to the underground of the castle, found an office and got into it.

In the room was Snape who was preparing wolfsbane potion. This was not an easy job. Even the potion master had to wait a long time in advance for Lupine to have the potion available during the full moon. That's why Snape reacted to this.

With such resistance, every long configuration process is a kind of torture for him, full of resentment and dissatisfaction.

This kept him from raising his head when the phoenix appeared, completely mistaking Dumbledore's Patronus for nothing.

"I need your help, Severus."

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was Dumbledore's voice: "It's the same old problem, Toby."

Snape listened silently for a while, and when Phoenix stopped, he said in a cold tone: "I have told you more than once, you should not have let him come back in the first place!"

The phoenix didn't answer, it turned into silver light and disappeared.

——

Office of Ancient Magic.

"Come in, who could come to see me at this late hour, Severus."

Toby, who was sitting behind the desk, raised his head and stared at Snape. Then he lowered his head again and asked in a calm tone: "Why did you come to me? Is it about a salary increase?"

Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "I don't remember telling you about this."

"It will be mentioned sooner or later." Toby said nonchalantly: "You have never become rich. Do you know, archeology is a very profitable business, and if I get it, it will make you rich in school.

I envy countless times more gold - to be honest, I also longed to have more gold when I was in school, but I didn't expect it would be so easy. As long as you let yourself go a little, it's easy to do it."

"If I heard correctly, you are blaming Dumbledore for restraining you too much?" Snape asked.

"That's about right," Toby said without raising his head: "Who likes to be called to talk all the time?"

The room was silent for a while, and Al's slight snoring could be heard from the bedroom on the other side. He had fallen asleep long ago and had to continue helping to rehearse "The Legend of Sirius" tomorrow.

Snape walked to the desk and looked down at the two things Toby was staring at - one was a piece of parchment, and the other was an old book that looked very worn.

"What are these?" Snape asked.

"Some interesting things." Toby leaned on his seat and said, "One of them was given to me by the principal, and the other was obtained from a student - do you want to try it?" He suddenly thought.

road.

Snape glanced at Toby suspiciously, but Toby's eyes were hidden behind his hair and he couldn't see anything.

He picked up the parchment and read it over and over again. Nothing was written on it.

"Reveal your true form!" Snape tapped the map hard.

As if an invisible hand was writing, the writing appeared on the smooth surface of the map.

"Moony Face greeted Professor Snape and begged him not to stick his abnormally large nose into other people's business."

Snape froze, and Toby curiously poked his head over, laughing happily.

There are more at the back.

"Mr. Prongs agrees with Moony's point of view, and would like to add that Professor Snape is a loser and ugly."

"Mr. Padfoot expressed surprise that such an idiot could become a professor."

"Mr. Wormtail said hello to Professor Snape and suggested he wash his hair, big mud ball."

Snape was so angry that his whole body was shaking, and he squeezed out a voice from between his teeth: "If you just want to humiliate me -"

"Haven't you seen it yet?" Toby suddenly interrupted, took the parchment from Snape's hand, and said seriously: "This professor, Toby Highmore, orders you to reveal the hidden information!

"

New writing appeared on the parchment.

"The Dark Devil can actually become a professor? What happened? Was Dumbledore killed by him?"

"Look." Toby tapped the parchment with his finger and said, "Have you not thought about whose tone this is? Not many people know my nickname. It can only be James Potter.

he."

Snape stared at Toby closely for a while, as if wondering whether this was a farce caused by Toby himself - it was not impossible.

"Do you believe in the soul?" Toby suddenly asked: "What do you think your soul is like?"

"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you." Snape said coldly.

"But I can tell you what my soul is like." Toby said without being disturbed. He deliberately lowered his voice: "It's terrible. Sometimes I even doubt that it is better than my body." He died even earlier."

Snape sneered: "It's much better than I thought. At least your body is still alive."

"Okay." Toby clapped his hands and said cheerfully: "Now we all know that you want to kill me - so why did you come to me tonight? Do you plan to have a life-or-death duel? "

"If there is a chance." Snape said tit for tat: "But it's a pity that it's not tonight. I came to you for something else -"

"Devil, I am very interested in this magic. It's time to show your achievements in front of my old classmates, Toby Highmore, so that I can see if your ideal is not so ridiculous."

Toby slowly faded the smile on his face.

"Believe me." He said seriously: "You don't want to learn this magic. What do you want? To be immersed in the pain of Lily's death all day long."

Snape stared at him silently, saying nothing.

Toby shook his head helplessly.

"It seems you are already like this."