Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 433 You are dead, what about Penello?
The memory was quickly read, and after Slughorn's voice sternly refused, the room was filled with thick fog again.

"I don't know anything about Horcruxes, and even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you! Get out now, and don't let me hear you mention this again!"

"Well, that's it," Hera said calmly, "that's it, it's time to go."

Harry looked at Hera blankly and asked, "That's it?"

"That's it." Hera sighed, "This is the memory that Dumbledore got from Slughorn before, but it is obviously a modified memory. Even though I asked Professor Slughorn after school started, he insisted that he didn't reveal a word to Riddle."

"You don't believe him?" Harry asked suspiciously. "He doesn't seem to have any reason to side with Riddle, does he? Everyone knows he's a complete villain, and there's no reason to help him hide it."

"Because, I think he was ashamed of that memory, so he falsified it to make himself more decent, and erased the parts he didn't want us to see. As you can see, the falsification was bad, which is a good thing, showing that there must be a very useful truth hidden under the false memory."

"So, is this your intention for me to approach Professor Slughorn?" Harry asked in a low voice, suddenly he was not so resistant to approaching Slughorn, because he was also helping Hera, helping the Order of the Phoenix, not a piece of trash who could do nothing.

"That's right, Harry, you can do this, and only you can do it." Hera looked firmly into Harry's eyes, "I noticed before that you haven't done what I told you, but I think after what happened today, maybe you can figure out why. This is undoubtedly the most important thing, and it involves a lot—about how to completely defeat Riddle."

"But, sir," said Harry, trying to keep his tone as respectful as possible, but still unable to hide his doubts, "I shouldn't be needed - you can use Legilimency or Veritaserum with Snape, he's far more proficient at it."

"I'm so glad you can trust Severus." Hera raised his eyebrows. "But obviously Slughorn is on guard against us. He's a very capable wizard, and even now that he's old, he'll definitely use these two tricks. I think only Severus can better his Occlusion skill. As for the Veritaserum, I bet he has the antidote for Veritaserum with him, since I talked to him at the beginning of school."

"Have you talked to him about it since school started?"

"That's right, but obviously I failed." Hera said helplessly, "But I believe that you are the one who can break through his defenses. It is very important to get the real memory, Harry is very important. In fact, for a long time, I have been thinking whether all this was planned by Dumbledore. He left these memories and made me realize the importance of Slughorn. At the same time, I think that he let you see these memories is definitely not as simple as letting you understand Riddle."

"Okay, I will try my best." Harry gritted his teeth and took the task.

"Very good, then, good luck to you. Good night." Hera yawned, and threw the Pensieve under the desk, "I think you can go back to bed now, maybe today's news needs some time to reflect."

Harry didn't seem to expect that Hera would suddenly chase him away. He thought their chat was going on happily, so he acted a little surprised, but he stood up immediately.

"Good night, sir."

"Good night, Harry." Hera yawned and sat back in the armchair, and at the moment Harry closed the door, Phineas couldn't wait to speak.

"Hera, I can't see where that boy fits. He's reckless, brainless, and doesn't understand size at all. I'm ignoring what you're thinking." Phineas~Nigelus said, hugging his shoulders, and almost pointed and cursed in the direction of the door.

Hera rubbed her temples and said wearily, "But we have no other candidates, right? He is already the most suitable person. There is no more suitable person than him. Besides, that is not recklessness, that is youth." Hera corrected Phineas' mistake. "I think that Harry's becoming such a person may have something to do with his godfather, although they didn't communicate much. But it definitely planted the spirit of adventure in Harry when he was young."

"He's just like his stupid dog godfather, how could the Black family be so different!" Phineas hid in a corner, and he went to sulk at himself.

"If Riddle has other means of immortality, it will be a headache." Hera only felt distressed for a while. He was not from that era, and he knew little about Voldemort. It is really a headache to find out what experiments he tried on the road to immortality.

If Harry Potter was sacrificed, Voldemort was defeated.But not long after, he survived by relying on his little tricks.Just like 17 years ago, everyone thought he was dead.

Earlier the next day, Snape had stopped Hera in the Great Hall and invited her to come to his office later to discuss the progress of the teaching, after all Hera had been substituting for quite some time.

Of course, everyone knows this is just a cover.

Hera agreed casually, and his attention was always on Harry, who was whispering to Ron and Hermione, and if nothing else, it was everything they talked about last night.

Hera didn't mind Harry telling his friends about these things—only Ron and Hermione, of course—after all, Harry's IQ wasn't always online, and he needed someone to help him as a counselor.

"I think Mr. Headmaster must be listening to his poor Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's application for teaching guidance?" Snape noticed Hera's eyes and said in a strange tone.

"Oh, of course, I'd be happy to discuss knowledge about teaching together." Hera retracted her eyes, straightened her body and said.

"I heard that Potter's level of potions has made great progress this semester, which makes me doubt my teaching level. Maybe I buried his talent." Snape's lips moved slightly, as if he was squeezing out words from his jaw, and at the same time he glanced at Harry in disgust.

"Maybe he has some skills." Hera said meaningfully. He vaguely guessed why Harry's potion level had increased so exaggeratedly. As he said at Christmas, he found the potion teaching material of the Half-Blood Prince, and he probably used the above notes to brew the potion.

Snape snorted coldly, "I'll find out what trick he used."

Hera shrugged helplessly. If his guess was correct, the truth must be very funny—Snape hated Potter the most, but his notebook was helping Potter become the most dazzling 'genius' in potions class step by step.

After breakfast, Hera followed Snape to the office on the third floor. Since he took over the Defense Against the Dark Arts course, he also had to leave the Potions Office on the basement floor.But it doesn't look like the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office here.

The room was decorated in the way Snape was familiar with, making it dark and warm.There are hundreds of glass bottles on the shelves, and warm specimens of plants and animals float in colorful potions.

"I thought you would try a new style!" Hera looked at the bottles and jars with great interest, and he saw a glass bottle containing a vampire skull inside. Perhaps Snape was preparing to develop a vampire potion—like a werewolf potion?

"Close the door behind you."

Hera complied, and cautiously drew out her wand to reinforce a spell on it.

"Tell me, what's the new news?" Hera sat down on the chair and asked calmly.

Snape walked to the light, silently took out a piece of parchment from his pocket, put it on the table, pressed it and pushed towards Hera.

"This is the list I inquired about. I found that quite a few of the Death Eaters formed gangs in private, and Bellatrix was the leader," Snape said.

"But Bellatrix never cared about power, right?" Hera picked up the list and scanned it from top to bottom. "She only cares about whether her master cares about her."

"That's right, so I suspect that the Dark Lord told her to do it." Snape said coldly, his eyes narrowed. "And all of this is hidden from us, I think... the truth is clear."

"Ha, that's right, that's right. What else could it be for? It must be to get rid of me, a 'traitor'." Hera said with a sigh, "But I can't figure out what made him suspicious of me."

"He was completely insane. After Dumbledore's death, his power suddenly rose to the peak and swelled to the point of losing his mind." Snape's black eyes flashed coldly, "This may be our only chance. If he is still so rational, it will be very difficult for us."

"Maybe this is Dumbledore's plan." Hera stared blankly in the direction of the door, thinking ecstatically.

Snape was silent, he sat behind the desk, and said again: "Draco never left the castle during Christmas, I think he must be doing something secretly in the castle."

"I know." Hera nodded, and he said very cryptically, "I have a little thing that can help me observe the movements of everyone in the castle."

"So you figured out what he was doing?"

"No way," Hera shook her head, "I can only know that he entered the Room of Requirement, but that won't be shown on the Marauder's Map."

"The Marauder's Map?" Snape frowned.

Hera smiled coyly, "You don't want to know what that is." He paused for a while, "So, I think this task is still entrusted to you. Even if I know that Malfoy went to the Requirement Room, I have no way of knowing what he did in it, because I have no idea what he was thinking when he entered the Requirement Room." Hera spread her hands helplessly.

Snape was silent for a while, then slowly said: "I will continue to start from Draco."

"Okay." Hera nodded, "Is there anything else you want to tell me? Don't tell me you don't know what to teach the students."

"Hmph, of course not," said Snape coldly. "If your poor brain can get a little less mushy, it should be clear that this is not the time for joking."

"Obviously I do, but you're the one who doesn't know what's going on," Hera said, staring into Snape's dark eyes.

"Oh?"

"Right now you should focus on the Dark Lord instead of these little things. There is nothing more important than winning." Hera said every word, which made Snape very unhappy.

Snape suppressed his anger and said angrily, "I'm here to ensure your safety."

"Dumbledore can die, Potter can die, you can die, everyone in the Order of the Phoenix can die, why can't I die?" Hera asked contemptuously. "I'm not someone who is greedy for life and afraid of death."

Snape was silent, he stared blankly at Hera, as if meeting him for the first time.

After a while, he said, "So, what are you going to do with Penello?"

"Penello—" Hera breathed a long sigh of relief, staring at the ceiling in a daze, then lowered her head, looked at Snape for a while, interlaced her fingers, and then spoke slowly, considering every word.

"If I sacrifice, I can get the final victory. I think this is a very good deal."

"I see." Snape said sadly.

"Severus, since when did you care about my relationship?" Hera asked puzzled, in his impression Snape was never a gossip guy.

Snape frowned, sat rigidly on the chair, his eyes were like slits, and his mouth was slightly opened, "I just want to see what a Slytherin and a mud-Ravenclaw would look like together."

"I don't think that's bad," Hera whispered, noticing Snape's interrupted syllable, but he wasn't sure what Snape meant to say. "Maybe you can say what you wanted to say."

"That's all I wanted to say," said Snape darkly. "Now, you can leave. I'm still preparing to teach the second year students. We just happened to be talking about werewolves, and maybe I just need a living werewolf to talk to the students."

"Oh, you can discuss it with Remus yourself." Hera got up quickly, and he left along Snape's steps.

After Hera returned to the office, not long after she had been working in the armchair behind the desk, an owl flapped its wings and landed on the windowsill.

"Yo, who wrote to me on the first day of school. Really worth looking forward to."

"Mundungus. From Knockturn Alley"

(End of this chapter)