Old Blood at Hogwarts

Aaron, Ron and Hermione approached Harry's bed.

"Dumbledore is really angry this time." Hermione said with a trembling voice. "I have never seen him so angry. When you fell, he ran onto the field. He waved his wand and you hit the ground. The fall slowed. Then he waved his wand at the Dementors and shot something silvery at them, and they just left the field. He was so angry about this that we heard him—"

"Then he put you on the stretcher with magic," Ron said. "You were floating on the stretcher, and he followed you to school on foot. Everyone thought you..." His voice trailed off.

Suddenly, Harry looked up and said, "Has anyone got my Nimbus 2000?"

Aaron, Ron and Hermione looked at each other quickly.

"Oh-" Aaron said, "You'd better be mentally prepared?"

"What?" Harry said nervously, looking at them one by one.

"Well... it blew away when you dropped it," Hermione said hesitantly.

"and then?"

"Then it hit - hit - oh, Harry - it hit the whomping willow," said Ron.

"Then what?" Harry's voice became more nervous.

"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It - it doesn't like people bumping into it."

"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you woke up," Hermione said in a low voice.She slowly reached for the pocket at her feet, tipped it bottom up, and dumped the remains of the brooms onto the bed.

Aaron, Ron, and Hermione talked to Harry for a while, and then were kicked out of the hospital by Madam Pomfrey.

On the way back to the common room, Aaron thought about what happened today and realized that he had been ignoring a threat - that was the dementors.

Although Aaron was threatened by dementors on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the school year, because Dumbledore prohibited the dementors from entering the school, Aaron never encountered them again, and he never encountered them again. Take their threats to heart.But what happened today undoubtedly reminded Aaron that dementors are evil creatures, and their nature prompts them to attack humans.Just because they didn’t enter the school before doesn’t mean they won’t enter in the future.Moreover, the dementors came to hunt down Black, and Aaron also wanted to find Black. It was hard to say that he would not encounter the dementors in the process.Judging from the previous performance of those dementors, Aaron didn't think they would let him go because he was not their target.Therefore, Aaron felt that he urgently needed a way to deal with Dementors.

Speaking of this, Aaron couldn't help but think of what Professor Lupine did when he encountered the dementors on the train; and how Dumbledore dealt with those dementors on the court before.

Professor Lupine and Dumbledore should have used the same method to drive away the dementors.That should be a kind of curse, but Aaron didn't know what kind of curse it was.

[Perhaps I should ask Professor Lupine. 】

Aaron thought to himself.

He decided to ask Professor Lupine for information about the spell in Monday's Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

During breakfast in the Great Hall on Monday, Aaron met Harry, who had been lying in the hospital all weekend.He now seems to have fully recovered, but seems unhappy about losing the game and losing his broomstick.

The happiest person about Gryffindor's failure was Draco Malfoy.He finally took off the bandages and celebrated having the full use of his arms again by imitating Harry falling off his broomstick with great energy.Whenever Harry appeared in front of him, he would imitate the appearance of those dementors and make mocking sounds to Harry.

In the Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Monday afternoon, Aaron was waiting for Professor Lupin to come to class as usual.But when the bell rang, it was Professor Snape who walked into the classroom.

Everyone felt very strange when they saw Snape coming in and didn't understand what he was doing.And, why hasn’t Professor Lupine come yet?

Snape walked up to the podium and said to the students below: "Professor Lupine is sick today and cannot come to class. So I will take over the class today."

Everyone was shocked when they heard the news and started talking to each other.

"Quiet." Snape looked around the classroom, "Since Professor Lupine has not left any progress records that can explain your progress..."

"Sir, we have already learned Boggart, Red Riding Hood, Cabba and Grindylow." Ginny said quickly, "We are just about to start..."

"Quiet," Snape said coldly, "I didn't ask you. I was just commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization."

"He's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," Colin said boldly, and the rest of the students nodded in agreement.

"You are too easy to satisfy." Snape's eyes flashed with a dangerous light, "Lupine has almost no high demands on you - I think the first grade should be able to deal with Red Hat and Grindylow. Today we To discuss—"

Aaron watched him flip through the textbook quickly until he reached the last chapter.

"—a werewolf," said Snape.

"But, sir." Ginny seemed unable to control herself. "We shouldn't be learning werewolves yet. We should start learning chinkpunk-"

"Miss Weasley," Snape said calmly, "I feel as if I am teaching, not you. I tell you all, turn to page 394." He looked around again, "All of you! Now!"

Everyone secretly exchanged painful glances, and some people even muttered something gloomily.But no one dared to disobey Snape's order. They all opened their books and turned to the last chapter.

"Can any of you tell me how to tell the difference between a werewolf and a real wolf?" Snape asked.

Everyone sat there in silence, motionless, except Aaron.He was the only one who raised his hand.

"Mr. Elf, answer the question I just asked." Snape said to the only person in the classroom who raised his hand.

"Compared with ordinary wolves, werewolves in animal form have slightly shorter muzzles and smaller pupils, making them look closer to humans. In addition, the hair on the werewolf's tail will be in tufts, and it will attack humans unconsciously." Aaron He stood up and replied, "There is a big difference in the behavior of the two. Real wolves are not very aggressive. Wolves rarely attack humans unless under special circumstances. But werewolves almost only target humans. There’s not much danger to other animals.”

"Very good." Snape grinned and said, "It seems that not all people here are idiots."

After that, class officially started.Everyone sat in their seats and took notes about werewolves based on the textbook.And Snape walked back and forth between the desks, checking the work they had completed during Professor Lupin's teaching.

"It's a poor explanation... That's not right. There are more Kabbah in Mongolia... Professor Lupin gave eighty points? I think thirty is too much..."

The bell finally rang, but Snape didn't let them go.

"Each of you write a paper and give it to me. The content is about the method of identifying and killing werewolves. This topic should be written on two pieces of parchment and handed in on Monday morning. Someone should be in charge of you. I want to tell Dumbledore Professor, how backward you are."

Aaron left the classroom with other students.As soon as everyone was out of earshot of Snape, they cursed him angrily.

Aaron did not join his classmates in scolding Snape.To be honest, although Professor Snape likes to favor students from his own college, he also likes to ridicule and attack students from other colleges.But in terms of teaching level alone, he is undoubtedly top-notch.Whether in previous Potions classes or this Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Snape behaved very professionally.In his class, you never have to worry about not learning anything.

However, Aaron still prefers Professor Lupine to teach him.After all, Snape was indeed unfriendly to students from the other three houses, especially Gryffindor students.He always found ways to punish Gryffindor students and deduct points from them.As an honors student, Aaron had never been deducted or punished by Snape, but he still felt uncomfortable facing a professor who was always thinking of finding fault with himself.

Although Aaron didn't like Snape very much, he still had to do the homework he left behind.That night, Aaron began to search for information for his thesis.Originally, Aaron only looked up information about werewolves to complete his homework, but as he checked more information, Aaron made some unexpected discoveries.He discovered that there was a person in the school who behaved very much like a werewolf.But after thinking about it carefully, he thought it was impossible.The dangers of werewolves were well known, and Dumbledore would not have let one into the school.

During Thursday's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Lupine was back.He did look sick.His old robes were even baggier on him, and there were dark shadows under his eyes.Still, he smiled at the students as they sat down.And they immediately complained bitterly about what Snape had done when Lupine was ill.

"It's not fair. He's just here to teach. Why should he leave homework for us?"

"We don't know what a werewolf is—"

"—Two rolls of parchment!"

"Didn't you tell Professor Snape what we haven't learned yet?" Lupine asked, frowning slightly.

Everyone started talking again.

"Yes, but he said we were too far behind—"

"—he won't listen—"

"—Two rolls of parchment!"

Everyone looked indignant, but Professor Luping only smiled slightly.

"Don't worry, I'll tell Professor Snape, you don't have to write that paper."

This class was very enjoyable.Professor Lupine brought a glass tank. Inside was a hinkpunk, a creature with only one leg. It looked like it was made of wisps of smoke. It was very fragile, and it didn't look like it wanted to harm anyone. .

"...They will lure travelers into the swamp." Professor Lupine said, "Did you notice the light hanging from its front feet? When it gets dark, it will jump in front... People follow the light... then……"

The glass above Xinkpunk made a terrible creaking sound.