The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

Hogwarts Castle is once again busy with the return of young wizards, and the joyful popularity seems to have raised the temperature nearby. The weather continues to warm up, and the ice and snow are melting faster.

The snow clumps accumulated on the branches of the trees disappeared. When I got up in the morning, I could only see a layer of ice crust covering the leaves, and only a thin layer of translucent ice remained on the surface of the black lake.

The path on the grounds outside the castle was wet and muddy, making it squeaky when walking. There was more and more mud on the soles of the shoes, and the shoes became heavier as they walked.

The third-year Gryffindor and Slytherin wizards were standing on the field at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, waiting to start their first lesson after returning to school - Care of Magical Creatures.

"Oh, that's terrible..."

Simo raised his feet and glanced at the mud-covered boots. The muddy yellow mud almost covered the entire upper of the shoes. He wrinkled his face in disgust, "These are new boots my mother bought me."

"Yes, it sucks. I hate winter, I hate school..." Ron sighed sadly, "It would be great if I could always have vacation."

Harry looked at him in surprise: "But you told me yesterday that you wanted to start school soon."

"I want to start school and play with my friends, but I don't want to go to class." Ron had a "you don't understand my heart" expression on his face.

"Me too, me too!"

"...You don't know how boring the days after the holiday are!"

Taking advantage of the fact that there was still some time before class, the little wizards chatted about interesting things that happened during the holidays, and even talked about the attack in Diagon Alley. All kinds of outrageous rumors were like novel stories.

Loren and Hermione listened with interest.

In the group of Slytherin students next to him, the tall and fat Goyle rubbed his feet alternately, trying to remove the mud from his feet in this way.

Draco frowned as he watched, and finally couldn't bear it anymore. He waved his wand and cast a cleaning spell on his shoes: "Don't be a fool, okay? You are a wizard."

Goyle didn't refute a word and just smiled at his suddenly clean shoes.

Theodore Nott also rubbed his shoes, but not to clean them. Instead, he spread a piece of mud evenly on the shoes, probably to kill time.

Painting a pair of black leather boots khaki, Nott showed a satisfied look, raised his head and asked loudly: "Draco, has your family heard about that incident?"

"What?" Draco didn't quite hear.

"That incident in Diagon Alley..." Nott kicked the sole of his left shoe with the heel of his right foot, "I heard it was Mrs. Lestrange who did it. If it weren't for the help of a few professors, those idiots from the Ministry of Magic would have done it." Just let her get away with it.”

Draco said "Hmm" without a hint of saltiness: "Why do you mention this suddenly? Does it have anything to do with us?"

"What does it have to do with us?" Nott looked up with a meaningful smile, "Of course it does. Both the Lestranges were imprisoned back then, and most of their land and business would have been divided up. If it weren't for you If mother steps in, nothing will be left.”

"Now that Mrs. Lestrange has escaped from prison, attacked Aurors, and forced her way into Gringotts... the remaining half cannot be saved." Nott paused, "I thought the Malfoy family had already prepared and planned Eat this part.”

"I don't know about adults' matters," Draco said softly.

He was actually aware that at the beginning of January, another letter came from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and that letter took away several thousand galleons from the Malfoy family.

The mother originally wanted to make some income from elsewhere and make up for some of the damage, but was dissuaded by the father.

Two days before the start of school, Lucius took him to Gringotts to open a private vault, exclusive to Draco, and deposited several huge sums of gold galleons into the vault, mostly earned from selling dark magic items. Yes, it was not recorded in the accounts.

Draco still remembered the complicated look on Lucius's face when he asked why he did this:

"Draco, the storm is coming. We can no longer move things up the trees at home, otherwise we will be the first to be destroyed by the storm..."

"But you can't just stay in place, you have to leave a way out..."

"This is how the Malfoy family survives, Draco."

He was vaguely aware of something unusual, but his father just let him go to school peacefully and stay in Hogwarts as much as possible.

Professor Hagrid from the Care of Magical Creatures class came from a distance. Theodore Nott nodded and did not continue the conversation. He didn’t know how much he believed it.

Hagrid held a black smoking iron bucket in his left hand, and lifted a large bundle of firewood on his shoulder with his right hand. He walked up to the student and put down the iron bucket, throwing the firewood beside him.

Hagrid clapped his hands and said with a hearty smile: "Long time no see, little guys!"

"Professor Hagrid, long time no see!" the little wizards responded in unison, poking their heads to see what was in the tin bucket.

"I know the weather is not good. It's too cold and wet. Not to mention you, even Yaya doesn't want to come out...so I've prepared a surprise for you..."

Hagrid piled the firewood into a circle, picked up the iron bucket and poured out a small half bucket of hot coals into the center of the firewood pile. With the wind on all sides, the firewood pile quickly turned into a bonfire, burning with crackling sounds.

Dozens of fiery red little lizards were scurrying back and forth in the flames, and the patterns on the lizards' backs lit up like neon lights.

"Wow!" The eyes of the little wizards reflected the bright fire.

Hagrid was very satisfied with their reaction. He knew these cute little guys would win everyone's love:

"Salamanders are born in flames and feed on flames. As long as the flame they live in is not extinguished, they can live forever. For salamanders that have lost their flames, feeding them chili powder can extend their lives by six hours..."

He explained the characteristics of the salamander in very brief words and said with a smile:

"There are dozens of salamanders in this bonfire. You can collect firewood and leaves. You can add firewood to it, or you can try to light a bonfire yourself and see if you can attract these little guys."

"Old rules, you are not allowed to go deep into the Forbidden Forest! Go!"

The little wizards did not take action immediately, but swarmed over to observe the salamanders. Although they had used salamander skins and tongues in potions class, they were all made from cannons, and there was no live fire dancing in front of them. It's novel.

Loren looked at this little creature curiously. It had a flat and small head, short limbs and a layer of scales covering its body. It had a long tail trailing behind. It was so small that the largest one was no wider than a palm.

It looks similar to an ordinary lizard, but it can move freely in and out of the scorching flames.

Loren put his left hand against his right hand and held his chin with his right hand, and began to think about some strange questions:

Does the salamander's fire resistance come from its scales or is its entire body resistant to fire?

Can it be made into fireproof material?

Can it protect against severe fire?

As if aware of his gaze, the salamander closest to him stuck out its tongue at him and tilted its head to look at him. Its round eyes looked a bit cute.

The Salamander took two steps in his direction. After emerging from the flames, he immediately shrank back and stared at him stupidly.

"..."

Loren felt a subtle sense of guilt.

"Loren, come with us! I know where the firewood is!" Harry and Ron dragged him and ran into the woods.

Hermione knelt down and looked at the little guy who had just looked at Loren in the flames. She picked up a twig and lit it, then reached into the bonfire and poked the salamander in the face.

The salamander turned and dodged, grinned and sprayed a few sparks at Hermione, then quickly scurried into the fire and hid. It has nothing to do with the cute look just now, it's completely two-faced.

Hermione: "..."

Being able to play with fire and tease small animals, the little wizards were almost fascinated by these fiery little guys. They ran into the forest regardless of the mud, looking for firewood everywhere.

Young wizards with some life experience will seek out dead wood buried among leaves and grass;

The inexperienced person chooses to cast the crushing spell directly on the branches.

After a while, more than a dozen bonfires were set up on the site, the damp wood was being smoked, and thick white smoke slowly rose, choking the little wizards to cough non-stop, even if they were blackened by the smoke, they did not want to Stop.

In the end, only a few bonfires were successfully lit, and Loren and the others were one of them.

"Why can Loren attract salamanders with a torch, but Harry and I can't?" Ron used a small branch to stir up the bonfire, and the salamanders quickly hid in the pile of firewood. "Tell me, do you look down on me?" ?”

"Chi!"

The little salamander spat a mouthful of sparks at him, the meaning of which was unexplainable.

"Okay, don't let me catch you, or I'll be like George and Fred, and feed you Libra fireworks!"

Ron and others were furious and picked up small branches to surround the Salamander. Although the Salamander was not dominant in size, it would fight back with spat and sparks from time to time based on the advantage of the terrain, fighting the little wizard back and forth.

The orange flames were rising, and the heat wave dispelled the chill of the late winter snow, making the venue bright and hot, and making people's cheeks glow red.

Loren and Hermione squatted on the opposite side of the bonfire, quietly watching another salamander sucking the flames, and the scales on its body became more red and bright as it ate.

After confirming that it was full, the salamander burped and spit out an orange flame the size of a bellflower. The flame swayed out of the bonfire and was quickly blown away by the wind.

"Um!?"

Hermione's eyes lit up when she saw it. She held her wand and pulled out several blue flames, controlling the flames to float towards the salamander.

The little salamander's eyes lit up, and it flicked its tail and ran into the blue flames. The scales on its body quickly turned light blue. It was not known whether it was caused by the temperature change or the change in the color of the flame.

Loren felt a little itchy when he saw it, but he also knew that the salamander probably couldn't resist Li Huo, so he wasn't so crazy as to do any biological experiments.

Loren touched the wand and turned a few flames into small animals. He threw himself into the fire and played with the salamanders. After a while, the crackling sound of burning wood became faster.

Hermione glanced at him calmly, gritting her teeth secretly.

Damn it, even the flames it transforms are Munchkin cats. Are you implying something?

But it is indeed a bit powerful, as the disembodied flames can be deformed and controlled.

An unknown witch was once again inspired to delve into the art of transfiguration.

…

On the afternoon of the first day of school, Loren and Hermione's Arithmancy class ended at half past four, and there was still some time before dinner.

"Hermione, are you going to the library to do your homework?" Loren turned around and asked.

"Ah?" Hermione looked to the side with a guilty conscience, "I plan to go to Professor McGonagall to ask some questions about transfiguration."

Hermione silently added the second half in her mind: It's mainly about how to turn you into a cat.

Loren didn't notice anything strange about her: "I plan to go to Principal Dumbledore and ask about my transformation talent, and talk about Horcruxes by the way."

"That's it..." Hermione said slowly, "Go ahead and see you at dinner."

Loren looked at her strangely several times, always feeling that something was wrong, but finding nothing wrong, he finally waved goodbye.

Familiarly, he came to the principal's office and opened the oak door. The office was empty. Fox was lazily lying on the perch at the door. Dumbledore was not there.

"As a principal, I'm not here on the first day of school... I'm really incompetent!"

Loren muttered to condemn a certain principal and looked over at the desk. Apart from the tea set and silverware, there was only a small gold cup left on the table.

"Hufflepuff's golden cup..."

Loren was stunned for a moment. He was always curious about this only Horcrux that he did not take back with his own hands, and he failed to take a closer look when he left that day.

"Since it's here, it'll be okay if I take a closer look."

Loren quickly convinced himself to step forward and examine the golden cup carefully.

The ear handles are exquisite, the body of the cup is engraved with badger-shaped carvings, and the clear yellow magic power has a trace of black mist. Other than that, there is nothing unusual about it.

"Compared to a diary that can communicate... other Horcruxes seem to be much more rigid."

Loren muttered in a low voice, "There shouldn't be such a big difference... Is it the difference between the carriers or the soul fragments..."

"I prefer that there are differences in soul fragments." As a familiar voice came from the inner room of the office, Dumbledore, wearing a roomy gray cashmere sweater, slowly walked out.

"Good afternoon, principal."

Loren, who was caught in the act, didn't care at all. Instead, he stepped forward and curiously inquired, "Why do you say that?"

"The process of splitting souls through killing is uncontrollable..." Dumbledore moved behind the desk. "When he made the diary Horcrux, he was just a student whose soul had not yet stabilized, and he suddenly learned some secrets of his life experience. , soul shock..."

Loren asked thoughtfully: "Principal, you mean that when he first made a Horcrux, he broke a large piece of his soul?"

Dumbledore nodded: "I think even Voldemort himself doesn't know how much soul he has left after many splits."

"No wonder he was very smart when he was a student, but then he became stupid," Loren said.

A smile appeared on Dumbledore's face, he shook his head and did not continue the topic. While pouring tea for Loren, he asked: "On the first day of school, what do you want to do with me, an incompetent principal?"

"I can turn into a cat!"

"?"