Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 57 Late Night Conversation
Melvin sat by the fire, looking at the hound wolfing down its food bowl, and fell silent.

"Hululu..."

"Clap clap clap..."

Yaya was concentrating on enjoying his dinner with his head buried in his rice bowl, which was a broth that Melvin had made with a few ingredients from the cabin.

Take a piece of bacon hanging on the wall and shred it into meat strips. Take a few rock cakes that have been frozen as hard as iron in the cupboard and break them into small pieces with the splitting spell. Add water and put them in the pot to cook together. You will get a pot of salty and fragrant thick soup.

It has meat, salt, carbohydrates, and it's served piping hot.

"Aww..."

Yaya took the time to look at Melvin, licked around his mouth with her pink tongue, nudged his calf with her head, rubbed it twice, and then buried her head to continue eating.

"Eat it quickly, or it will get cold."

Melvin rubbed its head, rubbed its teeth a few times, and narrowed his eyes in satisfaction.

"Hululu..."

Yaya finished up a small pot of meat pie soup and licked the soup on the edge of the dog bowl. Melvin wanted to give it another bowl, but there was still some left in the pot. However, Yaya didn't want to eat it and lay on the ground with his belly exposed, groaning.

Then keep it as food for tomorrow.

Melvin used a cleaning spell to dispel the smell, confirmed that the cabin was well ventilated, added two more pieces of firewood to the stove, and then slowly got up and left.

Seeing that he was about to leave, Yaya didn't care about her bloated belly, and quickly got up, howling and leading the way, until she sent him out of the forbidden forest before returning to the house.

After a few hours of traveling back and forth, it was already lights-out time in the castle.

Melvin looked up at the dim lights coming through the windows.

Only a few windows were still lit, such as Professor McGonagall's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, the abandoned classroom next to the library on the second floor, the Gryffindor common room, and the headmaster's office where a figure was still faintly moving...

Ten minutes later.

Principal's office.

A cup of hot cocoa with four sugar cubes on it steamed on the desk, and a phoenix pecked at its perch. Behind the desk sat the current president, and on the wall hung a list of past presidents, all of them silently listening to the young professor recount his experiences tonight.

Hogwarts was founded nearly a thousand years ago. It has heard of all kinds of evil and cruel dark wizards, and even trained many famous dark wizards recorded in books. Every headmaster has to deal with several dark wizard cases every few years while in office. Dumbledore's achievements are the most brilliant. Before he officially took over as headmaster, he defeated Grindelwald, the leader of the Witch Party, and ushered in the Dark Lord again more than ten years ago. He saved the wizarding world twice, and his achievements are almost comparable to those of the four founders.

The portraits of previous headmasters were actually not interested in the dark wizard who suddenly appeared in Hogsmeade, but they found that Dumbledore, who had the best record, was listening attentively and seemed to take it very seriously, so the portraits of the headmasters perked up and became serious.

Melvin sniffed the aroma of hot cocoa and finished recounting his experiences tonight.

Phineas Black wanted to speak, but was stopped by Headmaster Moore. Dumbledore pondered, and the group of headmaster portraits became nervous. Dumbledore looked up and asked Melvin:
"The magic power on the last rope is very different. What's the difference?"

"Very tricky, very evil, almost as malicious as the Unforgivable Curses."

"Oh..." The portrait of the principal on the wall exclaimed in a low voice.

Dumbledore looked at the young professor in front of him with deep eyes, and made a decision in his heart: "I think I know who he is."

Melvin feigned confusion: "Who?"

"An old friend, remember the dark wizard I mentioned to you last time?"

Dumbledore paused, a sigh in his voice: "Those things happened too long ago. I need to sort out the chaotic memories in my mind... It all started 54 years ago. At that time, I was the Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts. My job was the same as Minerva's now. Every year before school started, I had to visit students from Muggle families and guide them to school.

"One of the students is very special. He has no family and lives in the Wood Orphanage in London. His name is Tom Riddle..."

Melvin listened quietly, combining his memories of his past life with Dumbledore's narration to piece together the whole truth of the matter.

In the early autumn of 1938, Dumbledore met Riddle for the first time. He thought that Riddle was a poor and lonely child, but in fact, he made full use of his magical talent to steal, rob, and bully other children... Neither of them left a good impression on each other.

Riddle's behavior after school started further deepened Dumbledore's vigilance. After Hagrid was implicated in the Chamber of Secrets incident, he began to pay close attention to Riddle's behavior.

To counter the Transfiguration professor's defenses, Riddle acted like a good student throughout school, achieving excellent grades and uniting his classmates. After becoming a prefect, he also served as student president, and he left his name on the trophy display several times. Hogwarts thus ushered in several years of peace and stability.

However, outside of school, he is a completely different person.

Riddle found out about his own life experience and learned that his father was just an ordinary Muggle in Hangleton, and that his proud Slytherin blood came from his mother, Merope Gaunt.

The Gaunt family is a descendant of Slytherin. In order to ensure the purity of their bloodline, they have been marrying close relatives for generations. When Riddle found the Gaunt mansion, the only one left in this ancient family was Morfin Gaunt, a mad wizard with a violent temper, who was also his uncle.

In a conversation with Morfin Gaunt, Riddle learned the truth about his life experience. At that time, there were only three people left in the Gaunt family. Father Marvolo and son Morfin had abused their daughter Merope for many years and despised her magical talent. The long-term oppression in the family made Merope fall in love with the Muggle Riddle.

Morfin used magic to teach Riddle a lesson, so he summoned Ministry of Magic official Bob Ogden. A conflict arose during the negotiation, and the Gaunt father and son attacked Ogden, and both were imprisoned.

Without the oppression of the Gaunt father and son, Merope's magical talent was released. She used a love potion to deceive the Muggle Riddle and became pregnant after living together for a while. Perhaps Merope was negligent during her pregnancy, or perhaps she thought that many years of living together would make Riddle develop true love, so for some unknown reason, she stopped using the love potion.

The Muggle Riddle regained consciousness, was terrified, and left on the spot.

Merope was devastated and fell into complete despair. She shut herself off from the world and refused to communicate with anyone. Pregnant and helpless, she could only pawn the Gaunt family's belongings, including Slytherin's locket, to survive. This struggle lasted until the end of 1926, when she gave birth to Voldemort outside the Wood Orphanage.

Her chronically weak body could not sustain childbirth, and she refused to use magic to try and give birth, dying the very night she gave birth. According to her wishes, the orphanage allowed the child to inherit his father's name, Tom Riddle.

Sixteen years later, Riddle learned the truth, but his uncle Morfin still despised his sister Merope's behavior and despised the Muggle blood in Riddle's body.

"…Riddle himself also despised the Muggle blood in his body and hated his Muggle father who abandoned his family. So he killed the Muggle Riddle family and put the blame on the last blood of the Gaunt family, his uncle Morfin."

Melvin listened quietly without saying anything.

Dumbledore didn't know at the moment that Voldemort not only killed those Muggles, but also used them to forge a Horcrux, the Gaunt family ring.

"After Riddle graduated, he lay dormant for a long time. He tried twice to return to Hogwarts to teach. The first time, I persuaded Headmaster Dippet to reject him. The second time, after I had taken over as Headmaster, I rejected him again..."

After leaving Hogwarts, Riddle began to use the name of Voldemort and recruited his former pure-blood supporters from his school days to establish the Death Eaters. Dumbledore began to secretly investigate his life experience, but there was no progress.

Around the time of the First Wizarding War, Slughorn, then Professor of Potions, suddenly retired. Before his departure, Dumbledore asked Riddle about his life, but Slughorn was vague and his memory was unclear.

After Voldemort's downfall, Dumbledore collected and compiled information, obtaining many useful clues, including the memories of Bob Ogden and the house-elf Hokey.

Dumbledore had known for years that Voldemort was not truly dead, and Quirrell's return from Albania confirmed his suspicions. Melvin found Ravenclaw's diadem, and it presented a phenomenon he had never seen before: a mere memory, yet it had its own actions and thoughts, a mere memory, yet it actually attempted to drain his magical power...

It is not just a memory, it is a soul.

Dumbledore was convinced that Slughorn was hiding something from his memory.

The snow outside the window has stopped, but the howling night wind continues.

"...I have every reason to believe that the dark wizard who attacked Hagrid tonight was Professor Quirrell, and that the final evil magic came from my old friend, Voldemort."

Dumbledore paused for a moment before reading out the name. The cold wind outside the window seemed to stagnate for a moment, and then became even more noisy.

Melvin sorted out all the connections in his mind, pondered for a moment, and asked softly, "Why did the principal tell me such a secret?"

"Well... there are many reasons." Dumbledore took a sip of his hot cocoa and began to list them. "You went to school at Ilvermorny and didn't experience that turbulent period. No one kept repeating his terrible deeds in your ears. You could call him by his name without hesitation, which was something even Minerva couldn't do."

Melvin shook his head: "Professor McGonagall is the head of Gryffindor. She will not be afraid of any dark wizard, not even the Dark Lord."

"I know……"

Dumbledore explained to himself, "Many wizards are reluctant to address that name, not out of fear. It's more of a habit left over from that period. Voldemort cast a spell on his own name, and every time it's called, it might trigger a reaction. With Voldemort's fall, this spell no longer has any deterrent effect. For over a decade, this name has been associated with too many bloody and tragic events. The mere mention of it evokes memories of those who have passed away."

"Many foreign wizards can call Voldemort by his name. This is not a reason for the headmaster to tell me these secret truths," Melvin said.

"Can't you find out if I don't tell you?" Dumbledore stared into his eyes.

Facing those azure eyes, Melvin subconsciously tried to activate the brain occlumency technique, but found that there was no magical fluctuation. The principal's eyes had no penetrating power or oppression, and he just looked at them gently.

Dumbledore averted his gaze and took a sip of his hot cocoa. "As a newly appointed professor of Muggle Studies, you have had almost no communication with your former professors. Less than two weeks into the semester, you seem to have seen through Quirrell's plans and deliberately used your so-called Muggle psychology to scare him away from you."

"As you said, this is a judgment based on psychological analysis."

"Can psychological analysis reveal the location of Ravenclaw's diadem?" Dumbledore looked at him with a smile.

"Uh……"

Feeling somewhat guilty, Melvin avoided the principal's gaze and silently tasted the cloyingly sweet hot cocoa.

I was in the Room of Requirement at the time, and to gain the Headmaster's trust, I had impulsively found Ravenclaw's Diadem. Looking back now, it was a bit hasty. Since everyone knew where it was, I should have held off for a couple of days and just said I stumbled upon it. That would have made sense.

Dumbledore was willing to respect the little secrets of wizards who had gained his trust and did not ask any further questions:
"Melvin, you may be wondering, since I know Professor Quirrell's identity and that he and Voldemort broke into the castle to seize the Philosopher's Stone, why don't I arrest them directly?"

No doubt, no doubt at all.

Melvin silently denied it in his heart, but still made a guess: "Is there a shortage of Defense Against the Dark Arts professors?"

"That is indeed a very important reason." Dumbledore suddenly laughed, "But there is an even more important reason, which I think you have already noticed."

Melvin nodded and whispered, "Harry Potter."

"Yes, Harry Potter..."

Dumbledore's smile faded, his eyes showing some sadness. "Harry's parents, James and Lily, were good friends at school. They got married soon after graduation, and happened to be in that turbulent period. They were hiding from their families while getting pregnant and having children. I still remember them now. They were a very optimistic young couple. Every time we gathered together to exchange information, we would learn about the bad news or the tragedy. When everyone was sad, they would always break the silence and let the meeting continue.

“Everyone felt that life was difficult at that time, but they could always manage to hold on.

"Until 1981, ten years ago, when Harry was one year old, their hiding place was revealed, and Voldemort found the young couple and brutally murdered them.

"Before she died, Lily left a blessing on little Harry, a powerful ancient magic. It was this magic that deflected the Killing Curse aimed at Harry and destroyed Voldemort's body.

"From that moment on, Harry's fate and Voldemort's were inextricably intertwined.

"For reasons that I cannot reveal yet, I am certain that Voldemort will return. It is foreseeable that the resurrected Voldemort will seek out Harry. Harry has little time left. He must quickly familiarize himself with the Dark Lord, or at least gain experience."

"..."

(End of this chapter)