Archaeologists at Hogwarts

417 preparation

There are only two weeks left before the final stage of the Triwizard Tournament.

I don't know when, Professor Heimer suddenly suspended Harry's individual tutoring on the grounds of preparing for the competition, which finally gave Harry time to prepare for this test.

In front of the fire in the common room, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were discussing.

Ron stared at the fire and said: "So Professor Hemmer couldn't find out who the troublemaker was until the end, right?"

He was still thinking about the person who caused trouble for Harry and Cedric. If he hadn't thought of that person, the two warriors would not have appeared in Hogwarts, let alone Harry being involved in this matter.

"It's too late to say anything now." Hermione turned her head to Harry and asked, "What are you going to do? Although you have never used a devil before, this is the last test."

Harry thought carefully for a while.

"Instinct." He raised his head and said, "The instinct that Professor Heimer talked about in class, I think my instinct is still flying."

"You can't compete with a broomstick," Hermione retorted, "It's too late to learn the summoning spell now."

"That's not what I meant." Harry acted as if he had made up his mind: "It's Ginny's jumping shoes. If we change the magic circle, it might really give me the ability to fly. Even so. It’s just as effective without a broom.”

Ron became hesitant after hearing this decision.

"Your idea is good, but is this appropriate?"

All three of them knew that Ginny liked Harry, especially during this semester, whenever she saw Harry, Ginny's behavior would become very bad - she seemed to accidentally knock down the plate at home. This skill was also brought to school.

"So only you can help me, Ron."

Harry's instructions made Ron unable to recover for a moment.

"I'm not going." Ron quickly shook his head and said, "If my mother finds out, she will definitely think that I am bullying her."

"Why aren't you even willing to help with this small favor?" Hermione said sarcastically: "This is the only skill that a person who has learned the devil can do? No wonder you summoned a spider."

"You -" Ron blushed angrily: "Isn't it okay for me to go?! Don't humiliate my devil - neither can you!"

He looked at Harry again and said, Harry quickly raised his hand to show that he had no idea at all.

However, Harry still asked cautiously: "But have you tried to summon the devil recently?"

Ron suddenly turned his head: "Stop asking."

Hermione asked in shock: "You haven't summoned it again since you learned it in Professor Hemmer's office, right?"

"I told you not to ask!"

Ron left them with an angry back, Harry and Hermione exchanged glances, both of them had unreasonable expressions in their eyes.

——

However, no matter how angry the timid Ron was, he still did not forget Harry's instructions and found Ginny at breakfast the next day.

"Good morning." Ron greeted somewhat unnaturally.

Ginny looked at him suspiciously: "Did you catch a cold last night and your brain was burned out?"

"I'd rather be like this." Ron sat down, took a piece of pie from the nearest plate, and said while eating: "How are your jumping shoes doing?"

Ginny's jumping shoes were also stuffed into the wish box, but except for the inventor, few people know the specific sales volume of these items.

"This has nothing to do with you." Ginny's expression became more vigilant: "I plan to use the money to open a clothing store, and I will not lend it to you no matter what."

When he heard "clothing store", Ron forgot all about Harry's instructions.

"What clothing store?" He asked, his eyes widening little by little: "Do you know how much it costs? How much do you earn? I won't become the poorest person in our family, right?"

"Isn't it always the case?" Ginny said puzzledly: "Fred and George are smarter than you, and they are also willing to give me some pocket money - except you. But my clothes are always yours.

The next—"

"It's not that exaggerated." Ron retorted: "You can't wear boys' clothes. At most, the textbooks are leftovers from our use, but am I the same?"

"It was like this when I was a kid anyway." Ginny said nonchalantly: "But I won't need it in the future, and don't ask me how much money I made. At least Luna is willing to help me. She has a lot of gold and doesn't know what to do with it.

.”

Ron clenched the knife in his hand: "Damn it!"

——

After Ron sat back down, Harry pretended not to notice, so as not to let Ginny in the distance see any clues.

"How's it going?" He looked at the plate in front of him and asked anxiously: "Did you find out about the magic circle?"

"It really pisses me off." Ron's tone startled both Harry and Hermione: "Fred and George have their own joke supplies store, and Ginny is going to have her own clothing store, too.

She said that my mother agreed, but she was unwilling to give me a 10% discount - I didn't even ask for free."

"Clothing store?" Hermione's eyes lit up: "You guys eat first, I'll go talk to Ginny."

Harry watched Hermione leave in a hurry. He opened his mouth and looked back at Ron: "What's going on?"

"Who knows." Ron muttered dissatisfiedly: "I guess I'm going to ask for a discount - this is for you."

He suddenly handed Harry a notebook, but before he could open it, the notebook opened automatically, and lines of writing appeared on it.

[Don’t be too surprised, kid, but I heard that you want to fly with a magic circle, right? Can you take me with you? I haven’t studied spells for a long time—magic circles are also fine.]

Pandora?

Harry was startled. He subconsciously closed the notebook and asked Ron with his eyes what was going on.

"In order to keep it secret." Ron explained: "Our magic circle needs to be kept secret, so whether it is Luna's or Ginny's, they have given the magic circle they created to Pandora for safekeeping, so as not to

It was accidentally leaked."

"That's a good idea." Harry said worriedly, "But Pandora? Are you sure it has to be Pandora?"

When the notebook could not be opened, the words Pandora said appeared on the cover: [Harry, I can hear what you are saying.]

"Sorry ma'am, I just..."

[Are you just worried that you will be injured while testing the spell? Don’t worry, Toby has limited the scope to small explosions, so you won’t be killed.]

But that was enough to worry Harry.

——

There was no way, although the follow-up was not ideal, Harry could only practice the magic circle with the help of Ms. Pandora.

This matter is not that simple. It would be very troublesome to draw it out of thin air during the game, so they must make more preparations in advance.

"Just use this flute."

Harry took out the flute given to him by Hagrid. It was the tool he used to summon the devil and he had kept it with him for many years.

After making the decision, they first practiced and made changes on the parchment. This process was quite enjoyable, after all, even if the parchment exploded, it wouldn't be able to hurt Harry too much.

Practicing magic circles is already a common thing at Hogwarts. Freshmen are admitted every year, and the occasional explosions in the corridors have never stopped. Even if you have learned ritual magic, due to safety considerations

(Explodes and turns into monsters), students still focus on magic circles many times.

Harry's practice did not attract too many people's attention, because Cedric was also making the same preparations. Especially Fleur and Krum, who had already begun to work with Hogwarts after realizing the importance of ancient magic classes.

students attended class together.

Professor Heimer has no objection to this. He does not have such strict confidentiality requirements for his courses, otherwise he would not let so many people draw the already well-known "book" "Ancient Magic" in the wish box.

But in addition to normal research on magic circles, Harry also learned some other things from Pandora.

"You want to learn from the devil?"

Harry stopped collecting scraps of paper. He looked up in surprise and asked, "Is this possible?"

"It's definitely not as simple as a wizard."

This is an empty classroom, so Pandora used a more convenient way of speaking to communicate with Harry: "But Toby said that this is the only way for me to survive for a long time. I feel that what he said makes sense. Since I am

Because hatred and resentment exist, naturally you cannot survive with love alone, but must maintain a balance. Otherwise, I will have to find a way to find a second black feather."

Harry had never been to the Castle of Death, but he had already learned from Ron how terrifying it was. And the existence of the kerosene lamp was also very strange.

Even though the person hiding inside is Lily Evans, Harry still hopes that his mother can return to normal as soon as possible.

"Then you also have to take a special course?" Harry asked again, thinking at the same time that Professor Heimer would really be free after his own course was over.

"There is such a course, but..."

Pandora's tone gradually became uneasy: "But Toby said that he would not teach me personally, but would compile the contents into a booklet and let me figure it out myself."

"Although the excuse he used was that he didn't know how to teach a notebook, I always felt that was not the case. Toby seemed to be worried about something. Very worried."

Harry thought this was very reasonable. He knew that Halbo had been captured, but there was still no feasible way to deal with Halbo.

Otherwise, Professor Haimer would not have failed to notify him for so long.

This also includes James.

Harry knew that James had been looking for Professor Highmore at every turn lately, but he always came up empty-handed.

Of course, this might be because Professor Heimer was busy working on the last test, but James vaguely felt that Professor Heimer was deliberately avoiding him.

Harry didn't believe this statement, and he still doesn't believe it now.

"The professor has so many things to be busy with. He must be preparing some plans again. Hasn't he always wanted to be the principal of Hogwarts? Maybe he is busy with this matter."

Pandora was silent for a while, and then asked in a strange tone: "Have your expectations for Toby been lowered to this level? Has anyone told you that you have changed a lot?"

"The oldest one should be Hermione."

Once the conversation started, Harry couldn't help but talk about Hermione's lessons, including her fairy tales, and "The Tales of Granger," which he had always been thinking about.

After listening to Harry's story, Pandora exclaimed with exaggerated emotion: "You are really Toby's good students."

Harry sighed: "I'll just take it as a compliment. Do we want to continue practicing now?"

"Of course." Pandora's interest immediately increased: "Let's guess what kind of explosion effect we will invent next time? How about fireworks?"

Harry paused as he took out the parchment.

"Okay." Pandora admitted: "There are not many normal people around Toby - and the Talking Notebook must be the same."

——

In fact, there are still some.

Just as the students at Hogwarts were looking forward to the final test and Harry actually making fireworks explode, an excited student came to the door of the Ancient Magic Office.

He knocked on the door.

The room was quiet for a while, and the student vaguely heard voices inside -

"Our annoying assistant is here again? How could he be so annoying if I fired him? Angela, prepare the disappearing cabinet."

"It's not him, Toby, it's the students."

The door was opened from the inside, revealing Draco's slightly dull face - what on earth was what he just heard?

"It's a Malfoy boy."

This title was also very strange, so Draco pretended that he didn't hear anything. He followed Angela to the desk, and his mind became nervous again.

"What's wrong?" Toby put his legs on the table and crossed them. He looked very comfortable and did not look like he was busy for the last test at all.

"Why did you come to me again? I remember you had already handed in your homework."

"It's instinct, Professor." Draco said excitedly: "I finally found my instinct. I - I like to lie and pretend to be myself, and then I discovered that there is actually such a magic, called the Occlumency Curse.

So I simply tried it, and now—"

"Don't talk yet."

Toby's expression suddenly became serious, and he leaned forward slightly.

"Look at me, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco met Toby's gaze hidden behind his hair. He panicked for a while, but soon calmed down and his breathing became much calmer.

After waiting silently for a while, Draco heard a reassuring answer from Professor Heimer.

"You did it. It's Occlumency. It seems you are born with the ability to be a spy."

Although Draco had never thought about becoming a spy, he still asked excitedly, "Then the next club minister. Me."

For some reason, Draco suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart while looking at Professor Heimo.

It seemed like he was about to be rejected.

But this is impossible, everyone knows that Professor Haimer never breaks his promise.

"I understand, Mr. Malfoy."

Toby stood up and patted Draco's shoulder hard, and then said in a tone that sounded weird to Draco: "You will become the next minister, if... you can understand what I just said in my eyes."

if."

"You did a great job, Draco. Congratulations on finding your instinct."