In the classroom, Grindelwald was carefully polishing the wand in his hand.
The black velvet cloth brushed over the smooth, supple body of the wand and the fine, glittering gems. His movements were meticulous, and he finished his work under the watchful eyes of the four professors with different agendas.
He put aside the velvet cloth and brought the wand up to his eyes, gazing at it for a moment before blowing the dust off it with all his might.
It was only then that Grindelwald turned his head and gazed at the messy queue in the corridor through the door frame. Harry stood at the front and a little girl with messy, brown hair squeezed halfway into the classroom, her mouth wide open in an O-shape from surprise.
"Come in." He said with a wide grin.
The students swarmed in.
Harry wanted to say hello to the new professor, but he finally opted for silence. His mind was completely filled with the image of statue-like professors sitting in the last row... Why was Snape here? For what reason did Professor McGonagall decide to show up? And Professor Hap, Headmaster Dumbledore, have they all made an appointment?
Hermione walked in with her feet barely on the ground, she picked a seat in the first row and sat down, not daring to breathe.
Harry had already walked past that bench, but he abruptly turned around dramatically, his shoes scraping the floor with an ear-piercing screech as he sat down stiffly next to Hermione. Then Ron, Neville, and Seamus came in ... Every student who entered restrained his or her brash movements and tiptoed like a kitten at the sight of the four professors.
The Slytherin students exchanged glances with each other, hiding the very obvious hostility they had deep into their hearts. They had planned to make a fool of the new professor as a way of avenging their Head, but now they became a little confused - if it had been just Snape, they would have taken it for granted that their Head had come to the door to pick a fight, but they did not expect that Professor Snape would pull in three other colleagues along with him, not to mention the fact that he also included Professor McGonagall, who had always been known for being serious and fair, as well as the Headmaster Dumbledore, who had personally appointed this person.
When all the students were seated, the last three rows of seats still remained empty.
"Snicker."
Someone laughed softly as if they found the current scene amusing. It would have been amusing to him too if he had been in a different place - Harry thought indignantly - if he had been standing at the podium, or at the back of the classroom and seen the students acting like quails, but now he is one of those students, so he can't bring himself to empathize with Professor Hap's laughter.
He could only focus on the new professor.
The room had plenty of light. The bright morning sunlight was cast straight through the huge open windows and shone on Professor Bagshot's face, illuminating every wrinkle in his face. He wore a black wizard robe and had a thinner than normal body frame, but he looked much better than when Harry had first seen him. His grey hair pulled together at the back of his head, the fine wrinkles on his neck hidden under the collar of his wizard robes, and the baggy skin on the backs of his hands showed up a little bit, his hands looked long and dexterous, but they were no longer young, eroded by time - except for his slightly sunken pair of blue eyes, which shone in the sunlight like the glistening waves reflecting on the surface of the black lake outside the window.
Grindelwald put away his wand, held his hands behind his back, and looked around the classroom.
"Hogwarts," he said, "an ancient school of witchcraft and wizardry that stands up well above any other magic school in the world. I hope to see some vigour in your faces."
A faint hint of pride showed on the students' faces, and their bodies couldn't help but straighten up as they sat with pride.
"Ah, it looks like you have realized that you are in the company of an excellent group of people, and this would be a good place to start." Grindelwald said softly, his voice tinged with a hint of hoarseness, but the students couldn't help but be drawn in.
They noticed that the professor turned slightly on his toes each time he spoke so that his body would fully face some of the students.
"I lived in this school for a while, and what impressed me the most was one sentence." Grindelwald uttered a Latin phrase and asked, rather expectantly, "Can anyone tell me what this sentence means?"
A large part of the class glanced at a girl in the front row. There, Hermione's arm jabbed like a javelin through the air, raising her hand so fast it almost hit Harry, and Grindelwald caught the students' gaze and focused his gaze on her.
"It means 'Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon', sir." Hermione said a little nervously, "and also the Hogwarts motto."
"Your name, miss?" Grindelwald took out the roll call.
"Granger, Hermione Granger." Hermione murmured.
"Granger." Grindelwald repeated, glancing vaguely at Felix in the last row, who was whispering something to Snape. "Please sit down, Ms. Granger. Oh, I forgot one thing - five extra points for Gryffindor." After saying that he casually tossed the roll call onto the table. "I'd prefer to get to know you all this way. Take out your textbook."
"Which one ... sir?" A student asked, raising his hand unhurriedly.
"How Muggles Thinks, and, you can call me Professor Bagshot," Grindelwald asked Draco, "Your name is?"
"Draco Malfoy."
"Another familiar name, a full member of the Dark Force Defence League? Now turn the book over to page 147 and read the chapter titled 'Social Organization'. You have ten minutes."
"But Professor Bagshot," a tall student said with a frown, "why are we learning this stuff in a Defense Against the Dark Arts class?" His friend Justin tugged on his sleeve, but he still stubbornly asked, "I mean, if I want to understand how muggles are thinking, why won't I attend the Muggle Studies class?"
The other students stopped what they were doing with the book in their hands - frankly, they also had very little interest in the book they are holding, for the same reasons as Ernie. No one wants to stupidly read a muggle studies book in a Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and they were all waiting for someone to object to it, the student's eyes moved back and forth between Ernie and Professor Bagshot.
"Your name."
"Ernie Mcmillan." Ernie puffed out his chest.
"Hufflepuff?"
"Yes, yes." Ernie's body shrank a bit, and for some reason, he suddenly felt the professor's gaze was very intimidating.
"Mr. Mcmillan from Hufflepuff, why don't you spare ten minutes to read through the contents of that page? The answer is in there."
Then the sound of reluctant reading and flipping through the book was heard.
Dumbledore lowered his voice and asked with interest, "I may have missed something, is there anything interesting in that chapter?" Snape and Professor McGonagall turned their eyes to Felix in unison, and Felix said in the same near whisper, "Just an introduction to some Muggle clubs, societies, and social events."
Ten minutes passed quickly.
"Can anyone tell me what you all learned?" Grindelwald looked around and asked, "Mcmillan?"
Ernie was sweating a little from nervousness.
"Well ... I learned about a lot of Muggle clubs and group organizations, like unions, hobby clubs, and associations, committees, religious churches, academic clubs, political clubs, parties, bands ... "
"No, Mr. Mcmillan, no." Grindelwald said softly, "I'm not asking you to repeat what you read. Unless there was a mistake in judgement, I don't think there are any blind people in this room." There was a low chuckle from the students, but instead of laughing, Grindelwald looked serious.
"Use your brain," his tone became sharp, "your brains are there for thinking - Harry Potter?"
Harry stood up with a blank expression.
"Tell me what comes to your mind."
"Er, a lot of people ...?" Harry whispered, very unsure about it. Some of the students laughed lightly.
"Rephrase it differently."
"I think it is about some groups." Harry raised his voice.
"It's close enough." Grindelwald stepped toward him.
"The ... crowd?" Harry said, racking his brain.
"Crowd, yes, that's right." Grindelwald said, patting Harry on the shoulder, "When you tear off the elaborate guise, you will all be able to see a crowd of people. Spot on the answer, Potter, please take your seat." He returned to the lectern.
Harry tried his best not to let the confusion on his face show as he sat back in his seat, he couldn't help but wonder what he had just answered.
But his attention had been completely drawn to Professor Bagshot's words.
"We, human beings," Grindelwald said, "are weak and above all lazy, not quite capable of dealing with all those complex logics and thinkings, but yet we all try to make ourselves appear less ignorant, so we divide everyone we meet into different groups and label them... ..."
"Good, bad; British, European; Hogwarts, Durmstrang; you and I are on the same side, and he's on the opposite side of us... there's always an excuse. We are so desperate to seek identity, to form communities out of our relationships, due to the fear that we will be left behind and become isolated."
"As an ancient school of witchcraft and wizardry, perhaps even one of the oldest, you - the students of Hogwarts - have an obligation to fight against this defect, which is rooted deep inside our flesh and spirit, and to avoid mediocrity. Mediocre people are too lazy to think independently, and then they rely so heavily on the group that in the end they end up casually surrendering the rights they are meant to enjoy."
"And groups are the most irrational of all."
The classroom became silent. At this point, Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Professor Bagshot." With that Grindelwald immediately changed the subject, "Earlier Mr. Macmillan asked what the thinking of muggles had to do with the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I will answer that now."
"The purpose of this class is to teach students how to defend themselves against danger. I can see that you have learned how to defend yourselves against dark creatures, how to defend yourselves against evil hexes, but I find that there is a huge deficiency in your ability to protect yourselves, from a category of danger that you have not taken into account, a danger that is soooo close to you and which you are ignoring, in case -"
"Professor Bagshot." Dumbledore raised his voice, and there was a certain element of warning in his tone.
Grindelwald shut his mouth as he drew his wand and with his backhand, he stabbed the tip of it like a dagger on the lectern.
The classroom was suddenly clouded with fog.
The student's vision became blurred, and for a moment Harry and a dozen other students stood up, clutching their wands and looking around warily. Grindelwald was slightly taken aback by their reaction, but outwardly he was completely indifferent to it. He stared at Dumbledore, who stood up with an angry look in his eyes, and lightly made some gestures and mouthed some words.
Felix narrowed his eyes. What Grindelwald had said was: you can stop me now, but you can't stop what--
He abruptly stopped at that point.
The students in the classroom didn't know anything about it; they just looked at Harry and the students of the frontline lookout club in wonder, wondering why they had reacted so strongly. But right away, they heard the chaotic sound of booted footsteps and fierce slogans, as if it was coming from a distant place.
The colourful flags and merry marching crowds came towards them from behind Professor Bagshot and then went straight through them - the students subconsciously leaned back physically, but they quickly realized that it was just an illusion and that those people - who are presumably muggles - would not be able to affect them at all.
They had seen such a similar but advanced scene in Classroom Seven.
"The London New Year's Parade, quite a famous festive celebration." Grindelwald said casually, "It attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year from all over the United Kingdom Countries and the rest of the world, nothing to fuss about ... after all there are almost sixty million people in the UK alone and the total population of the world is closer to six billion."
The students at the bottom let out a gasp of awe. They stared at the dense crowd, laughing and celebrating all the way.
Harry had seen many parades, but he lived in Surrey, where the population was only a few hundred thousand, and it was nowhere near as spectacular as London's. The Dursleys did go to London on New Year's Day, but he wasn't part of it every time, and when the time came, he would be left in the care of Mrs. Figg.
But Hermione had obviously seen such a scene before, and she was giving Harry and Ron a little history lecture, "The London Parade has been very popular since its inception in 1987, and is the most important festive celebration of the year. There are many professional performers will appear from all over the world, and it covers dance, music, juggling, cheerleading, and vintage car displays ... It's a feast for the eyes and ears like no other."
"It's lively." Ron said with a look of exaltation.
Soon the students were watching with rapt attention, it was a very novel experience for them - as if they were watching a muggle film for the first time in an ancient runes' classroom, and they were completely captivated. The faces of many of them were infected by the joyful crowd, with the same joy and smiles spreading across their faces.
"I've never seen a balloon that big before." A student tilted his head as a giant colourful figure seemed to go through the ceiling.
"Hey! Those dancing girls are so pretty!"
Grindelwald tapped his wand on the table and the cheerful scene froze in an instant. The fog was dissipating and the marching crowd paused before turning their heads in unison with stiff movements and staring expressionlessly at the students in the classroom. Harry felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of hundreds of people staring at him, he seemed to forget how to breathe, and the joy in his head vanished all at once without a trace.
Finally, the smoke disappeared, and with it, the stiff crowd was also gone.
Harry slumped back on his seat, panting, his arms and legs seemed to be unsteady. He couldn't help but imagine just now what would happen if those people suddenly rushed up to him, those cold, indifferent eyes without a hint of emotion, like an Inferius ... he shivered.
He looked around - Hermione was shivering, Ron and Neville were pale as if they had been seriously ill. A few seats away, Malfoy's lips were pursed tightly, his eyes glinted strangely, and a few students even dry-heaved silently.
"By now you should have figured it out: with the ever-increasing number of Muggles and the rise of what they call 'technology', the Statute of Secrecy is under ever-growing pressure, and what I'm about to teach you- "
Grindelwald narrowed his eyes - looking back at Professor McGonagall's angry stare, Snape's scrutinizing gaze, and a serious-looking Felix - before locking eyes with Dumbledore on the other side of the classroom, and he grinned to reveal his white teeth.
"-is about how to hide yourself better."
The rest of the class went on without any further incidents as if what had happened before was just a hiccup, and Grindelwald proceeded to follow the teaching schedule, introducing the students to the concept of the 'Nonverbal spell'.
"Simply put, a Nonverbal spellcasting is simply a means of stealth casting, it gives you a head start and information advantage in a duel, and it is also incredibly effective when you use it while keeping yourself concealed in Muggle society." He added.
Grindelwald demonstrated this personally by pointing his exclusive wand at himself, his wizard's robes immediately changing into a set of muggle clothes, and his slim cheeks turning into the face of another middle-aged man.
If they hadn't been so frightened earlier, the students would have applauded for this complex and subtle transfiguration.
Grindelwald glanced at the clock, "There are only about ten minutes left, so please continue to read your textbook and I believe you will have a different insight." While the students were reading in silence, Dumbledore quietly stood up.
"Professor Bagshot, we need to talk about your syllabus."
"Oh, no problem." Grindelwald said, "Headmaster Albus Dumbledore."
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