#490 - The sleepwalking ghost professor who specializes in killing idiots (5k subscription required)

After finishing today's secret trip to Hogsmeade Village, Lin Xia began to reflect on his own shortcomings.

Because she deals with special magic plants all year round, and each rare magic plant has a different taste.

So when she entered O'Connor's potion room and found the raw materials for truth serum, although she was surprised, she didn't take it seriously, and she even forgot to do the odor removal after she came back.

Through this incident, Lin Xia also discovered her past shortcomings.

For example, every time she went from the lab to the classroom, she hurried there and did not do any work to deal with the odor.

Of course, if the special smell of the magic plant on her body was too strong, she would cover it up, but if it was just a slight smell, she would ignore it.

The smell was so faint that the little wizard couldn't tell what she was researching.

But for a professor with great talent and attainments in potions, it is easy to guess what materials she is researching recently or what potion she is making.

This is equivalent to exposing information to the outside world.

Although these details have not caused any major problems yet, after Snape's sudden attack, Lin Xia felt that she had to pay attention and remind other people in the laboratory.

"Just include it in the laboratory's rules and regulations!" Lin Xia made the decision happily.

In the past, she didn't think that the laboratory she arranged was simple. After all, it contained so many advanced equipment, the defense was very strong, and there were various magic arrays to support it. But she always felt that the laboratory was missing something.

Every time I enter the laboratory and look at the wall, I feel it is a bit empty.

At that time, she thought that just hanging a portrait would be enough, but the portrait seemed even more awkward, so she took the portrait down after a few days and the place has been empty ever since.

Now it seems that we have to hang some rules and regulations on the wall to make it appear rigorous.

Today's training task has been completed. Lin Xia lay down on the bed early, emptying his mind and falling into a deep sleep.

The same quiet late night.

Some fell asleep, while others tossed and turned, and finally put on a robe and went to the third floor of the castle again.

Snape walked back and forth in the corridor on the third floor with a kerosene lamp in his hand, thinking about something.

"I clearly smelled a damp and rotten odor, which was mixed abruptly with the air in the corridor. It must have been brought by the students who were out at night!" Snape thought confidently.

But soon he began to doubt again.

"But this smell can only be found outside. There won't be such humid water vapor in the castle. Could it be that those hiding people are intruders? No, I have to tell Mag about this..."

-

It turns out that Hogwarts still has students who wander the night sky.

However, because the night patrols were too frequent and intensive, even the boldest students did not dare to challenge the power of the patrol team at night.

Therefore, these students who want to go out at night choose the time of three or four in the morning.

The sun had not risen yet at this time, and the patrollers were extremely tired. They would ignore many tiny movements, and some even fell asleep while walking.

The moon was hanging high in the sky, and the moonlight was like silver sand flowing through the frosted diamond-shaped window panes. I walked to the window and looked out, and could see the spiral stone steps of the Gryffindor Tower not far away dyed an icy blue by the unique moonlight of winter.

Looking out further, you can see the frozen surface of the Black Lake. The starlight reflected from the ice is like pieces of the Milky Way, and you can occasionally hear the sounds of insects and birds.

Such a quiet night, such a beautiful view.

The students wanted to enjoy the quiet night alone, but when they passed the third floor, they saw a swaying dark shadow.

"Shadow Terror!"

George and Fred summarized the rumors that were circulating in the morning. They came to the Hufflepuff table early in the morning and winked at Lin Xia on purpose.

Lin Xia had just borrowed the live map from them yesterday afternoon, and the rumor spread this morning. It was hard not to suspect that the dark shadow was Lin Xia.

But George and Fred didn't think that Lin Xia would be discovered so accidentally.

Given her style of always seeking perfection, she would have cast an invisibility spell on herself even if she was careless, rather than being discovered wandering around the third floor in public.

Facing George and Fred's jokes, Lin Xia did not respond. After finishing breakfast, she wiped her mouth with a wet wipe and spoke slowly:

"I didn't go out last night. Those night walkers didn't see me."

George and Fred looked at each other and asked in confusion, "Who else?"

George: "Fred, perhaps we have discovered the most unlikely truth."

Fred: "George, you and I are thinking the same thing!"

George: "Fred, in that case, why don't we think boldly, maybe the swaying black shadow is a professor at the school?"

Fred: "But George, why is the professor up on the third floor so late at night?"

George said briskly, "There are a lot of empty classrooms on the third floor. Maybe the professor woke up in the middle of the night and thought that class was about to start, so he ran to the classroom, only to find out that he had made a mistake."

Snape heard the rumor during his afternoon Potions class.

The little wizard has made up many versions of this rumor, the most popular of which is:

The student got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and hurriedly ran to the bathroom on the third floor (there is a loophole here, why not go to the toilet in the dormitory but run to the castle, but the excited little wizards don’t care about this logical loophole), then he saw a wandering ghost on the third floor.

The most terrifying thing is that this ghost was a professor at Hogwarts when he was alive!

The students were discussing the matter privately.

"I feel like this ghost professor got up in the middle of the night, didn't realize he was dead, and was still rushing to class!"

"You mean Professor Binns? But we never see Professor Binns in the evening, except when we go to the Great Hall for dinner."

"No, no, no, I think it was another professor who went to the third floor in the middle of the night to take revenge on the students!"

"Ah, why do you want to take revenge on students?"

"I have a guess. Don't professors always say that our class is the stupidest?

Maybe he was pissed off by his students, so he wanted to seek revenge on them. He would kill the stupidest one!"

"Hiss—this is even more terrifying than the Slytherin Heir's Chamber of Secrets incident!"

So, the young wizards started a heated debate on the topic of "Are there more half-blood wizards or idiots in Hogwarts?"

Snape stood silently behind these students, listening to their rumors with a sullen look on his face, and then he roared like a venomous snake:

"I don't know whether you are stupid or not. I just know that if you continue like this, you will definitely fail the Potions class."

Snape said sarcastically: "Hogwarts would rather expel students than repeat them!"

Many little wizards were frightened and cried on the spot.

But because of Snape's outburst at the junior wizards in the Potions class, the rumor was quickly updated to the latest version, which is more widely known than the previous version.

"The night wanderer is Professor Snape!"

"So many professors have heard this rumor, but only Professor Snape is furious. This matter must be related to him!"

"Professor Snape actually has a habit of sleepwalking!"

"Hiss, have you heard that Snape will kill all the stupid students in the middle of the night!"

"Have you heard the latest rumors? I heard that Professor Snape will kill all the students who don't obey him, especially at three or four in the morning!"

By the time even other professors heard the rumor, the students' fear of Snape had reached its peak.

Normally, he not only dared not say a word during class, but also ran very fast after class.

Originally, Snape thought these students were stupid. They were unwilling to say a word in class and would not stay in the classroom after class. They ran very fast after class every day, but this group of students ran faster than him.

Snape: ...

At a faculty meeting, Professor McGonagall specifically mentioned the recent rumors.

Snape had already mentioned to McGonagall that he suspected the night wanderers at that time were outsiders who had sneaked into Hogwarts, so during the night patrols in recent days, everyone was highly alert during the three or four o'clock in the morning.

McGonagall mentioned the rumor, ignoring Snape's bruised face, and said:

"The spread of rumors has both advantages and disadvantages. I think it would be better to keep this rumor and prevent young wizards from visiting Hogwarts at night in the early hours of the morning. What do you think?"

When the other professors heard this, they all glanced at Snape with interest.

It has been a long time since Snape suffered such a big loss. I don’t know which little wizard he offended, and the rumors about him became more and more terrifying.

However, this message is indeed conducive to maintaining the safety of Hogwarts online, so except for Snape who firmly raised his hand to veto, other professors all voted in favor, and in the end the school did not come forward to explain the rumor.

Time flies, and soon it is the weekend. This weekend is the weekend closest to Christmas.

Because of the rumors circulating in the school these days, Lin Xia and Draco didn't dare to ask about the affairs of Hogsmeade village.

They were afraid that Snape, who was in a manic state, would associate them with "outsiders" because of a little information.

And this weekend, Lin Xia also had an event of not-so-small magnitude, which was a paper press conference at Hogwarts.

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This is not the first time she has held a press conference at school.

Having attended several press conferences, she has become familiar with this type of report.

The preliminary preparations had been completed long ago, and she was just waiting for the journal to publish her paper. A special review panel would also come to verify whether she was the first author of the paper.

On this Saturday, Dean Sprout arrived at the auditorium early and took charge of the meeting.

As soon as Lin Xia's binding wand was invented, before it was published in a journal, it was contacted to the Ministry of Magic through her connections and was included in the Ministry of Magic's list of weapons to be purchased exclusively for Aurors.

Lin Xia is her student, and she is also the recommender, so she has to make this press conference a success both for her own sake and for her own personal gain.

The dean saw Lin Xia sitting on the podium writing something, and couldn't help asking, "What are you writing?"

Lin Xia said: "Dean, I'm thinking about the topic in the laboratory."

Dean Sprout glanced at the densely packed estimated data on her parchment, and could not help but retract his gaze and reminded:

"You should read more about the binding wand. I received news yesterday that I'm afraid someone will make things difficult for your press conference today."

Lin Xia raised her eyebrows but didn't care too much.

If it was really important, the dean would not have told her just when the press conference was about to start, but would have discussed with her how to deal with it long ago.

Sure enough, the next second Dean Sprout said, "Although they are coming with great force, our Hogwarts professors are not pushovers. As long as the questions they ask are beyond the scope of what can be answered at the press conference, we will stop them immediately."

The dean suddenly smiled and imitated a rock band's classic pose as they were about to start a show, a gesture similar to that of a conductor.

"This is Hogwarts after all. No one can bully our students in school."

Outside the castle.

When Hogwarts Castle was first built, the four founders cast a powerful protective magic on it. No one could Apparate directly to the castle and could only land in a small village outside the castle.

After arriving at the small village, the Thestrals will carry the scholars to Hogwarts.

The members of the paper review panel are relatively fixed. After all, the academic achievements of each scholar can be used for a lifetime once they are researched out.

Many scholars have obtained the ticket to lifelong scholars by studying only one item.

But in order to ensure that scholars can understand the latest inventions, most members of the jury have published academic results within 10 years.

Originally, the academic association wanted to invite scholars who had achieved academic results within five years, but when making the invitation list, it was found that there were very few scholars who had achieved academic results within five years, so in the end, the scope had to be expanded to ten years.

"Hi, Lina, we meet again. In the past, we only saw each other once every three years, but how many times have we run into each other in the past two years?"

"Haha, including this time, it has happened at least 4 times. The researcher at Hogwarts must be really amazing. How did she come up with those great ideas?"

"I think it has something to do with the academic atmosphere. Since the Ministry of Magic has vigorously promoted academic research and formulated relevant policies, more and more new generation researchers have made outstanding inventions. This is a good thing."

Amid the cheerful and lively atmosphere, a scholar suddenly sang a different tune and said, "I don't think so."

He raised his head and glanced at Hogwarts not far away. The severe cold did not damage the beauty of Hogwarts. The spires and bridges of the castle were covered with snow. Everything was white, making the castle look even cleaner and purer.

The ice crystals condensed on the tower reflected a blue light under the warm winter sun.

This is the castle in my dream!

Behind it, there is a large forbidden forest rich in resources and the mysterious Black Lake.

Ruiz thought: With such abundant resources, it would be easy to train a few researchers.

Not to mention that Hogwarts has so many excellent professors, and every professor there is a senior wizard, which is far beyond the reach of private laboratories outside.

Ruiz sneered, "That girl named Lin Xia is only in the third grade. We in the third grade don't even know how to do research. I don't believe she can research so many things in the third grade."

The scholar named "Lina" frowned and said, "Ruiz, don't talk nonsense, this is Hogwarts!"

Louis seemed to be stimulated, and said loudly: "It is precisely because this is Hogwarts that I dare to speak out loudly.

Only the students know whether the professors participated in and helped them in their research. Anyway, I don’t believe that they can invent so many things at such a young age! "

Some scholars suddenly sneered, but the sound was not loud enough for others around to hear.

"In the end, I didn't believe that Hogwarts could produce research geniuses. I'm not exaggerating, but Hogwarts has provided so many talents to the wizarding world. Even Dumbledore graduated from this school.

Ruiz, you can't discredit the reputation of Hogwarts just because you are a professor at Durmstrang and your school can't produce any research talents."

Ruiz's face turned red, as if someone had stepped on his tail, and he denied it again and again: "I didn't, I just calmly stated the existing facts!"

The temperature was quite low in winter, and Ruiz exhaled thick white mist when he spoke. His red face made him look a bit like an angry clown.

“It is only a fact if it actually existed; if it never happened, it is a rumor.

Could it be that you guys at Durmstrang also wanted to do this, but even the professors couldn't come up with relevant academic results, so you slandered Hogwarts?"

That sarcastic voice appeared again.

Ruiz looked around and said, "Who is talking? If you have the guts, come out and confront me. Don't hide your head and tail!"

The sound never came back, but all the scholars remembered the confrontation.

Some astute scholars noticed something and felt that the paper launch at Hogwarts would not be easy.

Many of the scholars present not only conduct their own research, but also accept invitations from the school to teach students.

In particular, this researcher named "Lin Xia" suddenly emerged and produced such an amazing academic achievement as the magnetic wand in the first grade. This made many schools unwilling to lag behind and wanted to cultivate a research-oriented student like Lin Xia.

One reason is that they don’t want to fall behind, and the other is that having such students will give them a great advantage in subsequent admissions.

It was precisely because of Lin Xia that Hogwarts had performed very well in recruiting students in the past three years, almost covering the entire UK, no, it should be said that most of Europe had outstanding students.

After all, whether a student has combat talent or not can only be determined through Auror selection, and the spells that lower-grade students can cast are very simple and of low strength, making it impossible to judge their talent.

But research is different.

Look at Hogwarts, they can discover students’ research talents from the first year and have achieved impressive academic results.

Rather than believing that the students themselves have outstanding research talents, parents believe that Hogwarts has a complete training program.

Which parent would think that their child is ordinary?

So everyone wants to send their children to Hogwarts, maybe the child will also be a little inventor!