A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts-Chapter 40: The Detention

There is no Chapter 39.

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Harry, Ron, and Hermione tentatively lifted the Invisibility Cloak.

Approaching, they wore mournful expressions, "Professor…"

Felix Harp's gaze swept between them, "Miss Granger, as well as Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, could you explain the reason for your presence here?"

Summoning his courage, Harry spoke up, "Professor, we, we wanted to visit Hagrid. You might not know, but we're friends with him."

"This isn't on your way, you ventured too deeply into the Forbidden Forest." Felix shook his head, "I believe your professor should have advised you not to trespass in the forest."

Ron stammered, "Professor, we were originally looking for Hagrid, but by chance, we saw you. Curiosity got the better of us, so we followed."

"Curiosity got the better of you," Felix toyed with his wand, studying the three of them without speaking.

A tremendous weight of unease settled on the trio.

Finally, Hermione, her voice quavering, apologized, "We're sorry, Professor, we've let down your trust—"

"It's nothing," Felix said calmly, "Adventure is every young wizard's nature, especially for Gryffindor students. But I hope you can define the boundary between bravery and foolishness. Remember, life only comes once."

Felix didn't say much more; he led the three back to the castle.

"Let me think, breaking curfew, trespassing in the forest, tracking a professor…" As Felix spoke, the faces of the three paled instantly, "Ten points deducted from each of you and a week of detention."

The trio returned to the common room as if in a daze.

Seeing Hermione's distressed look, Ron consoled, "It's not so bad, actually. It's a better outcome than I imagined. I thought we'd lose fifty points each and be in detention until Christmas."

Harry nodded in agreement; he couldn't even begin to imagine the consequences if they'd been caught by Snape tonight.

As they lay in their beds, Ron suddenly said to Harry, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"What?"

"Professor Harp, whoosh whoosh whoosh! You can't even see his moves properly. I'm telling you, he's definitely way stronger than Snape, maybe even stronger than Dumbledore!"

"Dumbledore is the strongest," Harry replied without hesitation.

"Not necessarily, the headmaster hasn't been in action for many years. If it were a few decades ago, I definitely wouldn't doubt…" Ron murmured softly before gradually drifting into sleep.

Harry, however, found it hard to sleep. In his mind, he kept replaying images of Professor Harp performing magic, from the moment he cast the first spell to when he transformed into black smoke. Every movement was dissected and reimagined in his mind.

He saw it all vividly.

The next day, Hermione still seemed a bit down, but she quickly rallied herself and even started discussing the Chamber of Secrets clues with them.

With a serious expression, the young witch said, "From what it seems, Professor Harp isn't the Heir of Slytherin."

"Don't be so quick to judge, we've just temporarily dispelled one suspicion, though it's true Professor Harp is a good person." Ron admitted.

Harry quickly changed the subject; he felt that their actions of following the professor last night had left Hermione, as his assistant, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"I think the possibility of Malfoy being involved is greater."

"Absolutely." Ron chimed in.

"But how do we get him to talk? He won't openly admit that he's the Heir of Slytherin."

Hermione nodded, whispering, "Perhaps we need the Polyjuice Potion."

"What's that?"

"The Polyjuice Potion, it can transform you into another person." Hermione enlightened them.

Both of them still looked puzzled.

Hermione said with a hint of annoyance, "Don't you pay attention in class? Snape mentioned it, the brewing process for this potion is extremely complicated, and it requires various rare ingredients. The recipe is documented in the book 'Advanced Potion-Making.'"

The three of them began to discuss in hushed voices.

But soon, they hit a roadblock.

Getting the recipe for the Polyjuice Potion proved to be difficult, as the book that contained it, "Advanced Potion-Making," was in the Restricted Section of the library.

To borrow a book from the Restricted Section, there was only one way: obtain a signed note from a professor.

"We have no reason to borrow that book," Ron said, "It's not something we should be touching at our age level."

"I think," Hermione said, "if we pretend to show interest in the theory, there might be some hope..."

"Oh, come on, professors won't be so easily fooled," Ron said, "unless they're incredibly dim..."

Saturday morning.

After breakfast, the trio arrived at the office of Professor Binns for their detention.

Harry lamented a bit; he was about to have his first Quidditch match, but he couldn't participate in the training due to this detention. Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, would surely be annoyed.

Knocking on the door, they were surprised to see Draco Malfoy here as well.

Malfoy was leaning over a table with a thick book in front of him. He had flipped to the last few pages, and his quill was scribbling incessantly, leaving a smudge of ink on his nose.

Harry suddenly remembered that Malfoy had been given the punishment to copy books.

Professor Harp closed the door and said casually, "Originally, I planned to keep you separate, but I thought it would be too troublesome. I asked, and Mr. Malfoy doesn't mind sharing the same table with you."

Ron suddenly snorted in suppressed laughter. Judging by Malfoy's expression, "doesn't mind" didn't seem quite right. He was starting to look forward to this detention.

Felix conjured three chairs and placed them in front of them, "I'll go get the material you need to copy." With that, he left.

In the office, the four of them stared at each other.

Harry teased, "Malfoy, your detention isn't over yet? Quite a price you're paying."

Malfoy raised his head proudly, "Harry Potter!" He glanced at the three of them and seemed like he wanted to say something when he held back.

With a touch of arrogance, he said, "At Professor Snape's suggestion, Professor Harp allowed me a break in between to not miss the Slytherin Quidditch practice, Potter! I'm going to defeat you on the pitch!"

Harry's mood instantly soured. With the financial backing of the Malfoy family, the entire Slytherin Quidditch team had been equipped with Nimbus 2001 brooms, making them incredibly fast, like seven faint green shadows on the field.

Ron taunted, "True matches are about skill. Even if you take shortcuts and become a Seeker, you'll only become a laughingstock, spoiled brat!"

"Shut up, Weasley. Do you even have a single Galleon left in your family vault?"

Ron's face flushed, and even his ears turned hot. He pulled out his wand and shouted, "Say that again, Malfoy! Say it again!"

Harry and Hermione quickly held him back. Setting aside the consequences of fighting in a professor's office, even if Ron were to fight, what if he cried over slugs for the rest of the afternoon again?

Felix returned with a stack of parchment. Harry and Ron looked at the pile, over a foot high, and any desire to argue had vanished.

"I asked Professor McGonagall; she had some outdated material that needed updating. I volunteered for the job," Felix said cheerfully, "It's coincidentally related to your behavior—student infractions and their punishments."

Felix placed the material on the desk. A "thud" raised a cloud of dust, and he waved his wand to "clear the air," sending the dust away with a gust of wind. "Let's get started, children."

Felix sat in a corner of the office, about seven or eight meters away from them. He pointed his wand at his ears and then opened a thick book, enjoying a leisurely weekend.

On the other side, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down resignedly. Ron strongly rejected sitting next to Malfoy. Grudgingly, Harry had to sit right next to him.

Harry flipped open a parchment and began copying the material with a quill dipped in ink.

Malfoy whispered, "Potter! You know, you're going to lose..."

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry hissed.

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