The day before Valentine's Day, Hogwarts is filled with an air of fidgety youths, and the whole school became alive.
Among the small group of wizards, various tips for confessions began to circulate, from the manner and place of confessions - with the most popular being under the mistletoe - to what to wear when confessing, all sorting out rhetoric.
There's even a sudden appearance of a batch of poor quality love potions, and several professors put a few students in severe detention to stop the craze.
So the little wizards' attention shifted towards the star students of each house, and they began to discuss which male wizard is more handsome and which female witch is more beautiful ...
Some popular ones even had a proper fan base, such as Hufflepuff's Cedric Diggory, who is already very popular, and the talent he showed in the few dueling classes made his fame expand rapidly over other grades and houses.
Harry also recently suffered a bit, with the dual bonus of the saviour aura and the school's special contribution award, his fame has always been high. Especially after the display of the basilisk corpse in the school, the fear of the basilisk has transformed into corresponding awe for Harry, Hermione, and ... Ron?.
But this awe is more obvious over Harry, because only he has shown a great talent for fighting - his disarming charm even surpassed a number of senior students.
This allowed him to gain a fan following.
"Harry, there are some more girls over there looking at you, can't you control it?" Hermione said in an annoyed mood.
Harry looked at the corner of the library, stood a handful of younger witches, feeling very helpless, and their behaviour is quite bold, staring straight at him, when he looked over, they hid their faces behind the book and let out a "giggle".
Ginny is doing her homework not far away, occasionally while flipping through the book, taking a quick glance at Harry.
It didn't take long for Harry's troubles to be solved on their own, as Mrs. Pince, the librarian, waved her wand to drive the rowdy little girls away.
He breathed a long sigh of relief.
Ron is rather envious, as the people who love to listen to his stories are boys, and their fever is gradually fading off.
As the three walked out of the library, they began to discuss who is the new professor.
"I wonder who the new professor is, I hope it won't be another one like Lockhart and Quirr ...," Ron said with a palpitating feeling, those two had left a huge psychological shadow on him.
"We can learn from the dueling class." Harry does not care much, his most satisfactory course this year is the dueling class, but unfortunately, it is only twice a month.
"Harry, dueling class and defense against the dark arts class are not the same, defense against the dark arts teaches you to ward off danger, and fighting is just a way to ward off danger." Hermione said, "Actually, Snape's theory is full of demands that match the requirements of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class."
Ron looked at her with a shocked expression, as if she had said something shocking.
"Oh~ don't be like that, I'm just making an honest assessment," Hermione said.
Harry didn't say anything, it isn't Snape's opinion on the duel that he objected about, but rather the person himself.
On this point, the two boys agreed tacitly, he didn't like Snape, and Snape also didn't like him.
So he diverted the topic and asked: " Any rumours about the new professor? Leave the dwarfs out of the conversation ..."
As they spoke, a dwarf passed them with a grim face - after Dumbledore had agreed to the dwarf's Valentine's Day performance, they had brought the whole group, twelve in total.
These green-skinned dwarfs walked around the school and became a unique sight this February.
Harry is very glad they don't normally have the habit of wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
As the three watched the dwarf disappearing from their sight, Hermione replied to his earlier question, "The new professor's name is Damocles Belby, a Potions Master who has just been awarded the Order of Merlin for inventing the wolfsbane potion."
" Potions master? Wolfsbane potion?" Harry asked, in confusion.
"The Order of Merlin? The stuff that Lockhart brags about?" Ron said in disgust.
The young witch first told Harry, "Wolfsbane Potion is a new magic potion invented this year to keep werewolves awake during full moon transformations-" then looked at Ron, "Professor Belby received a second class medal, which is different from Lockhart's."
."
Harry nodded.
"How do you know so much about all this?" Ron asked curiously.
"I asked about it from Professor Hap, he is a good friend of the new professor, and he is the one who recommended this new professor to Dumbledore." The young witch said.
Ron smacked his lips and said, "Then why did he recommend his friend over? I mean ... that curse?"
Hermione shook her head, she also could not understand Professor Hap's approach.
Privately, she actually thought that Professor Hap had lost consideration. But she still countered Ron by saying, "The new professor is only subbing for half a semester, I think, he probably doesn't think the danger is too great." She said, not very confidently.
Ron muttered, "That's dangerous, either way."
It wasn't until the evening that their questions were somewhat answered during their time in the common room.
Ginny said somewhat unnaturally, "Luna's mother died in an accident as a result of a spell mishap, and she said to me that if you try to research something new, you will inevitably run into all kinds of dangers ..."
"... unless you don't do anything."
Ancient rune office.
Felix sorted out his haul, he used the weekend to divide up the basilisk material with Snape.
The other professors had little interest in it, except for Kettleburn and Hagrid, who came to see it a few times.
Professor Kettleburn's attitude was the purest, and he said with a regretful look on his face, "If you can raise it ... I mean, just enough to be sure."
Given the professor's exaggerated experience, Felix is deeply sceptical.
Hagrid's attitude was a bit more complicated, his large hand stroking the scales on the basilisk and saying slightly sadly, "I was expelled because of it, then my father passed away not long after, and he loved me so much ... it was a really dark time."
He wiped his tears with a dirty handkerchief and told Felix about his sadness.
But soon, before Felix could think of words to comfort him, Hagrid adjusted himself, sizing up the basilisk's fangs and big hollow eyes, and remarked, "A fascinating creature, isn't it?"
...
Before Felix lay a greenish snake skin and scales separated from its body, as well as a dozen fangs.
These are the results of the processing - originally, the scales on the snake skin are not peelable, just like most snakes, the so-called scales are actually the product of the snake's superficial skin and keratin accumulation.
But under the effect of magic, everything is not a problem, he easily separated the scales and snake skin.
The basilisk has extremely strong magic resistance, comparable to the fire dragon in terms of horizontal analogy. Even if a spell of physical impact hit the thick scales, it might just cause a small, shallow dent.
He considered making a close-fitting soft armour so that the general spell won't be effective against him the least.
As for the scales, Felix temporarily has not yet thought of how to deal with it - this thing is full of magical inertia.
He could only hope that Professor Snape could develop a use for the basilisk's scales, preferably turning it into a rare potion material.