Classroom Seven, A dimly lit Chamber.
Cedric Diggory, Roger Davies, and Collins Foley formed a three-man team to fight a dark green, fifty-plus feet long Basilisk.
"Collins! On your way!" Cedric shouted.
Collins immediately closed her eyes, and the next second she sensed an icy gaze directed at her. Her body began to stiffen, and the magic inside her seemed to solidify a little as if to freeze her whole body into stone, but she knew it was the effect of a Supersensory Charm.
"I'm not a Squib!"
She staggered back, panting. "Whoosh!" A piercing sound rang out, and a palm-sized stone grazed her forehead, drawing a bit of blood with its sharp edges.
Without a word, she lowered her body and quietly waited for her chance.
"Roger! It's heading towards you!"
When she heard Cedric's voice again, her eyes snapped open and her long-prepared "Conjunctivitis Curse" instantly shot out towards the basilisk, without confirming the result of the attack, she retreated far back and placed a few broken stones in front of her.
"Only left eye left!" Davis's voice warned.
A few minutes later, the basilisk fell down with wounds all over its body; it is still breathing, but with wounds all over its body and a blind eye. Under normal circumstances, it is already close to death.
They emerged from different places as they silently observed the basilisk disperse into countless green dots of light, and a sense of satisfaction welled up in their hearts.
Roger Davies slumped on the ground in exhaustion, not caring about his image, anyway, they had seen much worse. This is their fifth time against the Basilisk, with the previous four all resulting in a group massacre.
"A remarkable victory!" Flitwick announced as he appeared, his two legs turned into hazy smoke, trailing a long trajectory as he suddenly appeared in front of them.
Cedric grinned. It is the second time that he saw this Genie-like Professor Flitwick, he got startled as he used the Protego charm when he saw Genie-like Professor Flitwick in darkness for the first time.
The four administrators so far showed a distinct and striking personality difference-
Professor of Charms Class, Ravenclaw Head Flitwick is always brimming with enthusiasm and has no qualms about praising any bit of students' progress, he even would act as if he was surprised; Professor of Transfiguration, Gryffindor Head McGonagall displayed a serious and attentive character, she would appear at the beginning and would give them a few useful pieces of advice; while the young Headmaster Dumbledore loved to chat with students, and the keen perception and insight he displayed made the students ashamed.
The Ancient Runes Professor Hap is the most peculiar. He would often appear while they were trying to break through the levels, staring hard at them and pointing out their mistakes in a not-so-pleasant manner at the appropriate moments. Moreover, he was happy to show them the method to pass the level personally - using their own method - after they failed.
"... You should be aware that the gaze of a basilisk's eyes can cause death 100% ... which is actually a sort of misinformation. Killing a wizard is not an easy task, and without magic at play, you will find that their eyes are not very different from those of ordinary snakes."
Flitwick as usual provided his summary about this level while evaluating their actions.
"But Professor, the basilisk in the chamber the year before caused the petrification of a student and a cat." Cedric asked in disbelief.
"That doesn't indicate much. The basilisk was in its state of aggression, and any creature that appeared in front of it would have been attacked; Do you think it can maintain an enormous amount of magic on its eyes when it is alone?"
Collins calmly analysed, "Professor Flitwick, can I assume that the basilisk's gaze is similar to our magic, an active power?"
Flitwick nodded and praised him, "That's right, from the results of Severus' dissection of the basilisk, it is!"
"Any other examples to back that up, Professor?" Cedric inquired.
"Of course! Take Demiguise as an example ..." Flitwick elaborated.
Cedric and his team dragged their tired bodies out of the chamber, the dark, damp, rugged, and narrow chamber slowly disappeared behind them, and they were now standing on the white, smooth floor, in a vast space where three buildings of different sizes and styles were strangely aligned next to each other.
Professors Felix and Sprout approached them head-on, and they immediately narrowed their eyes to stare at the clothes of the two professors. This is a trick all of them have gradually mastered over the past month - the clothes of the administrators of Classroom Seven will emit a faint, silvery light.
This is one of the ways to distinguish the real from the fake.
As for the two ... in front of them, they were both real.
"Professor Sprout, Professor Hap!" The Three greeted. Felix and Sprout responded with gentle nods as they walked further into the room.
"Cedric, what do you think they're here for?" Davis asked.
Cedric's eyes paused on the backs of the two professors with a sudden look of realization, his gray eyes looked eager, "Maybe we're going to have a new administrator soon ..."
The always composed Collins Foley looked slightly crestfallen: " No! Absolutely not!"
"Why?" Cedric stared at her; Ms. Sprout is his house Head.
"Think about which class she teaches," Collins closed her eyes, "I dropped my Herbology class in sixth grade because I didn't want to take care of the twisted and ugly herbs that were becoming more and more perverse ..."
Her lips quivered as she said, "Wriggling and twisting Snargaluff, Fanged Geranium, Stinksap, Mimbulus mimbletonia ... Take Bubotuber, for example, in second grade we just had to watch them from afar, but in fourth grade, we are required to squeeze the puss out of them, what was in sixth grade? "
She craned her head to look at Cedric.
Cedric said bitterly, "Slicing Venomous Tentacula and pollinating other plants."
...
In the depths of classroom seven, the two professors stood in silence.
A silver, dwarf figure appeared before them, becoming clearer and clearer. Felix felt he met a pair of twins, both with flowing gray hair and a heavily patched hat.
Sprout's memory form hummed, cheerfully creating a magical plant from the empty air, with a dozen whomping willows growing around each corner of the room on their own. With nimble steps, she sprinkled a black seed, and in no time, a cluster of blackthorns grew as tall as five or six feet.
Professor Sprout looked enviously at the sight in front of her, while Felix watched the blackthorns twist around each other to form a towering wall.
"I once suggested this to Dumbledore, that we should grow a fence around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but the workload was so great that we eventually had to give up."
"Umm, I think the students will have some headaches ..."
Meanwhile, the Weasley twins were whining in the common room, lamenting how they seemed to have forgotten how to fly. Harry, who was busy catching up on his homework, suddenly realized to his surprise that he hadn't touched his flying broom in ages.
So later that evening, he dragged Ron along with Hermione, who seemed to be drowning herself in a sea of books, to the Quidditch Pitch for a quick flight.
The southeast corner of the Quidditch Pitch is now become a construction site, with a dozen houses linked together to form a circle, together arching around the tallest building in the center - which is only short of a pointed dome.
Some workers were busying themselves with the last part of the work.
They watched from afar for a while, and then sat on their brooms to enjoy the cool October breeze. Hermione sat on her broom sideways, allowing it to rise three feet off the ground, as she circled the pitch slowly, while Harry operated the firebolt, constantly speeding up, accelerating, and turning into a scarlet shadow. He flew higher and higher, getting farther and farther away, and from hundreds of feet, he saw Hagrid carrying a log measuring at least thirty feet in length.
"Hagrid, do you need help?" He dived down as he circled around Hagrid twice and hovered in front of him.
Hagrid looked at him with a suspicious look on his face.
Harry, without saying much, pulled out his wand and recited the incantation: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Hagrid flipped the log over his shoulder and said gruffly, "It's kind of useful ..." Together they returned to the pitch, and a reddish-faced male wizard in a sunhat shouted from the site, "This way... ... Hagrid! Keep up the pace, we'll be done today."
Hagrid carried the log and erected it without much effort, and Harry, who was standing nearby, could see that it is one of the support pillars of the building.
The red-faced male wizard who shouted chanted a spell to anchor the pillar, while the two guys beside him continued to survey the drawings, and one of them said in a grumbling tone, "Are they planning to relocate the school here? Finn ... leave some room for the statue, we have to reserve a space for it."
"Statue? What statue?!" The wizard named Finn shouted.
"They will bring it with them, but we need to reserve a space for it, got it? The place where you are standing is going to bear a huge thunderbird statue in the future."
Harry approached Hagrid and inquired, "This is ...?"
" Quarters of the Ilvermorny School." Hagrid said briefly, as he looked at Hermione and Ron, who were excitedly shouting as they went back and forth in circles above the Quidditch goalposts.
Hagrid said thoughtfully, "Looks like you guys can't be restrained for a while, you can stop by my place for tea sometime, Luna and Ginny will often stop by there, oh, Firenze too..."
"Luna and Ginny?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I've learned quite a lot from them, and Ginny tried to borrow Aragog from me to try and see if Ron really wasn't afraid of spiders anymore. You know - she's always been curious ..."
"Aragog is it still ... uh, is it alright?" Harry asked, he actually wanted to ask if that old spider is still alive, but it didn't seem polite.
"Getting by." Hagrid muttered, "To be honest, not exactly doing well. It's been trying to get back to the Forbidden Forest, but there's no longer a place for it in the Acromantula colony, and it can't see anymore... Felix will visit us monthly - to shrink it with his spell - so I will regularly let it out to skulk around instead of always being locked in its cage ... It's good to get some sun and eat some frog eggs ..."
He rambled on, to Harry's great surprise, he seemed to have missed quite a few things.
When they returned from the pitch, Hermione was complaining that she had missed fifty pages of reading, but her face bore a smile, which both Harry and Ron had grown accustomed to, then Ron mentioned that he still hadn't finished his Divination class homework.
"You don't seem to be in any sort of hurry?" Hermione looked at him suspiciously.
"Thanks to all this time I've been hanging around the restricted section with Harry, a lot of new ideas have popped up," Ron said, "which helps us maintain a good grade."
"Yeah, getting high marks by making up your own shitty stories," Hermione said, "are you sure Trelawney won't know about the effects of the spells in the restricted section?"
Ron's expression is no longer that confident, as he hesitantly looked at Harry.
At this point, they walked into the entrance hall, where a notice had been posted on the large bulletin board, with a group of students huddled at the bottom.
'The Tournament of champions: Ilvermorny's representatives will be here on Sunday, October 16, at 10:00 am. Please be prepared in advance -'
"I knew it!" Ron said aloud, looking like he had discovered some kind of truth: "No wonder, for the past two days the professors have been reminding us about manners over and over again!"
Harry didn't say anything, his mind had already travelled to two days later, what kind of school Ilvermorny's... what their students would be like?
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