Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 45 Shadows in the Night
Gryffindor common room.

Harry and Ron successfully reunited with Hermione.

“You’ve come at just the right time. Look what I’ve found.”

Upon seeing the two of them, Hermione proudly waved the thick, somewhat moldy book in her hand.

"You went to the library? What's this?"

The two approached Hermione and saw the name of the large book.

Powerful Potion

"That's our next target—thanks to Cedric, who got the autograph from his own dean, otherwise I wouldn't have seen such a good thing!"

Although Percy had confirmed with Professor Binns that the legend of the Chamber of Secrets was false, Hermione and Cedric still insisted that a Chamber of Secrets did exist.

However, they really need to prepare for both possibilities now.

They had previously discussed that the most likely candidate to succeed Slytherin was Draco Malfoy—after all, he was the first student outside to know about the Chamber of Secrets.

It's impossible to get any information out of that guy, but they can start with Malfoy's two henchmen—as long as they can transform into Malfoy's appearance while he's away, they can naturally get information out of the two henchmen.

In addition, Cedric planned to take the risk of impersonating Professor Levi while he was teaching and asking his two assistants questions—although he felt a little apologetic, he was already quite familiar with the personalities of the two assistants and was confident that he could imitate the scene of Levi talking to them.

Hermione carefully opened "The Powerful Potion," and the three of them crowded around, looking at the watermarked pages.

To be honest, it's no wonder it's a book from the forbidden section; the art style is wild.

Some of the potions in the book have terrifying effects that are hard to imagine. There are also some illustrations in the book that make people feel very uncomfortable: a person seems to have been turned inside out, and a witch has many arms sprouting from her head.

"it's here."

Hermione exclaimed excitedly that she had found the page labeled "Compound Decoction".

The people above are becoming different people.

Harry sincerely hoped that the extremely painful expressions on those people's faces were just the painter's imagination.

Lacewings, leeches, sapwort, and two-eared grass

Hermione murmured, pointing to each ingredient on the ingredient list with her finger.

"These are easy to get; they're in the students' lockers, and we can get them ourselves."

However, there were also some complex pieces: a two-horned beast horn ground into powder, fragments of an African tree snake's skin, and a small piece from the person we wanted to become.

Hermione nodded, wrote everything down, and carefully closed the book.

"There are definitely no African tree snake skin fragments in the student lockers. What should we do? Are we supposed to steal them from Snape's private warehouse?"

At this point, Ron became somewhat timid.

“You don’t need to worry about that. If it were just the three of us, we would probably have to take risks—but we still have Cedric!”
He's an upperclassman, and he'll be going directly to Hogsmeade Village this weekend to trade for what we need. He'll handle the complicated materials.

"Reliable, isn't it?"

Ron whistled, but his words carried a hint of sourness.

"How long will it take to prepare this potion?" Harry asked.

“If I can get all the ingredients, Cedric said he would process more than half of the herbs for me, then it should take about twenty days—that’s the maximum processing time for some of the more complex materials.”

"Twenty days?" Ron said. "By then, Malfoy might have defeated half the Muggles in the school!"

Hermione's eyes narrowed unhappily upon hearing this.

"Really? So what did you two get today? Tell me about it."

Hermione said this, but she didn't actually have any expectations for the two of them. She stood up with her books in hand and said to them:
"I'm going to the library to return some books now, and then I'll go to the auditorium for dinner—you probably haven't eaten yet either, so let's talk while we eat."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, and their voices suddenly became hesitant.

At night, in the half hour before lights out.

Harry took out his invisibility cloak again before his roommates returned.

"Harry, are you really still going?" Ron asked him worriedly.

“You saw it today too, how terrified Filch was of him. If he wanted to do something at night, this was the perfect opportunity.”

Harry's eyes were filled with determination.

"But... are we just going to sit here and wait? You have a Quidditch match tomorrow, so be on your toes! Have you forgotten? Tomorrow you're facing that bastard Malfoy!"

Harry's resolve was immediately dampened.

"Then—we'll just wait here for a while, and if we don't find anything, we'll go back, okay?"

Seeing that Ron was still hesitating, he shook his head.

"Never mind, I'll go by myself."

"What are you talking about, buddy? Of course I'm with you!"

After much deliberation, Ron decided to follow Harry.

Harry, holding the Invisibility Cloak, walked out of the common room and, together with Ron, found a secluded corner. They put on the Invisibility Cloak, slowly made their way to Levy's office, and quietly waited.

Time passed bit by bit.

At first, the corridor was often filled with laughter and playful noise, and the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard from time to time.

But as time went by, these sounds gradually faded until they disappeared completely.

Lights out.

All sounds within the castle were swallowed by silence. A black curtain covered the sky, engulfed the armored statues, submerged the area where Harry and Ron were, and extended into the depths of their vision.

This gave them a sense of security, but also made them feel somewhat afraid.

"Den!"

The sound of a door closing came from afar, followed by heavy footsteps.

Filch began to tour the entire castle.

Harry and his companion held their breath and waited.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long before Li Wei appeared outside the door.

Just him.

The two exchanged a glance and quietly followed.

But Li Wei's next actions quickly became incomprehensible to the two of them.

He simply strolled slowly through Hogwarts Castle, wandering aimlessly, stopping to look around.

He didn't look like a professor at all, or a student who had lived here for seven years; he looked more like a ghost who was visiting for the first time.

Harry and Ron followed behind him, watching him stand outside the empty classroom and peer through the glass in the door for a while.

He went to the auditorium and changed the theme of the dome decoration four times in a row.

Then, he turned to the second and third floors and slowly went up the spiral staircase.

The corridor, which was filled with the noise of students during the day, was now only filled with the echo of his very light footsteps.

Moonlight streamed through the tall stained-glass windows, casting dappled, cool light that shone on his profile.

At that moment, Harry suddenly realized that Professor Levy was actually a very lonely person.

But before he could think it through, Ron's breathing suddenly quickened, and he was about to shout out—he quickly covered his mouth with both hands, almost forcing back the sound that was about to come out of his throat, suppressing his fear.

"Bah"

Harry's eyes widened in response to Ron's whimpering, puppy-like whimper.
They saw a disheveled female ghost, now silently hovering in a corner of the castle, staring warily at Li Wei.

But upon closer inspection, it wasn't a female ghost at all; it was clearly one of the castle's ghosts, Lady Grey.

(End of this chapter)