Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying!

"Look, it's coming out!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed.

The eggshell cracked open with a snap, and a white nose emerged. Then, the black baby dragon struggled to squeeze out, its bony wings slapping against the table with a "thud," and a few sparks flew out of its nose.

Chapter 96 Memory

Newborn animals almost always have a natural cuteness, and even the bald Norwegian Spinosaurus is no exception—when the little guy spreads its wings and brandishes its claws on the table, it doesn't have the intimidating aura of an adult fire dragon at all; instead, it looks like it's being affectionate.

But when it opens its mouth and reveals its long, sharp teeth, the cuteness vanishes quickly, and a sense of threat arises.

But in Hagrid's eyes, this little dragon, which was not even as big as his palm, was too cute. He quickly claimed the identity of the dragon's mother, lovingly stroking the little dragon's head and touching its wings, before being spewed a ball of fire by the baby dragon in anger.

"Look, it can breathe fire!" Hagrid said proudly, brushing the sparks off his beard.

“Hagrid,” Hermione said worriedly, “just how fast did the Norwegian Spinosaurus grow?”

“Oh, it doesn’t grow very fast,” Hagrid said affectionately. “But it won’t grow to 50 feet when it’s an adult.”

“50 feet!” Hermione exclaimed.

"Yes—it's so tiny right now, isn't it?"

Hagrid completely missed Hermione's worries. He took a bucket of brandy from the corner and some chicken blood that he had prepared beforehand, and asked, "Who wants to try feeding it?"

Harry and Ron raised their hands in unison, while Hermione leaned back, her refusal obvious.

Wade was initially interested, but seeing the two men's excited expressions, he lowered his hand and warned, "Be careful—its teeth are poisonous."

Hagrid first demonstrated how to feed the animals himself, and then handed over this glorious task to the Gryffindor duo.

After watching for a while and satisfying his curiosity, Wade took his leave—mainly because Hagrid had made the hut too hot to incubate the baby dragons, and he was sweating profusely after only a few minutes inside.

A moment later, Hermione came out too. Wade waited for her for a moment and said, "I thought you were going back to the Gryffindor common room with Harry?"

Hermione said, "That's what I was thinking. But I think... well... we should give them some space to talk things out."

……

Inside the hut, Harry and Ron took turns feeding the little dragon without looking at each other, working in perfect harmony without disturbing each other. Hagrid, standing nearby, kept talking about his love for the little creature and racking his brains for a name to give it.

"Maybe I should go read a book—there's always an answer in a book," Hagrid muttered, picking up an old book from his cabinet piled high with bottles, jars, and tin kettles, and turning the pages with his thick fingers to find a suitable title.

Harry was feeding the dragon absentmindedly and didn't notice that he was a little slow. The little guy opened his mouth and bit at him without hesitation!

"careful!"

Ron slapped Harry's hand away, spilling a spoonful of brandy on the table.

The little dragon angrily spit out its breath at its keeper, and it looked like it was about to spit out a fireball. Harry quickly pushed the rest of the chicken blood brandy over to it so that it could drink it by itself.

The tiny, jet-black dragon plunged into the wine, frantically thrashing about. It quickly realized it was surrounded by delicious food and buried its head in its drink. The two of them simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief, and the deliberately cold atmosphere naturally eased.

Harry hesitated for a moment before finally blurting out the words that had been swirling in his mind for days: "Ron, I've been wanting to say this... I actually wanted to ask that the other day, but the club rule is—unless everyone agrees, you can't introduce other people to join. I was thinking... it would be better if I asked the others for their opinions privately first, and then brought it up..."

Of course, the first person he asked deflected his probing, a point Harry felt was unnecessary to address now.

Ron let out a breath, his tense shoulders relaxing: "You know what I was thinking? I thought you'd made some cool friends and started distancing yourself from us..."

In fact, Ron was also having a hard time during this period. Malfoy even mocked him, "What, has Harry Potter finally realized that some people are not up to par and dumped him? I have to say, although he was also stupid, he finally made the right decision."

Ron was so angry he lost his mind and got into another fight with Malfoy, and his ribs were still throbbing. But compared to the physical pain, the thought of his friends drifting away was much sadder.

"No! Of course not! How could that be?" Harry exclaimed in surprise, quickly denying it and saying, "You were the first friend I ever made!"

Ron immediately smiled and asked curiously, "What do you usually do in that club?"

After asking the question, he felt a sense of relief—he was finally able to ask it with composure.

Harry explained to him, “SSC is a study group, and we usually just write papers together. But after dinner, Wade will teach everyone some spells that haven’t been taught in school yet, mainly Defense Against the Dark Arts spells. I recently learned the Disarming Charm and the Armor Charm, which are really difficult. I got injured many times before I learned them. Do you want to learn? I can teach you.”

"Is it okay?" Ron asked hesitantly. "Wouldn't this violate the club's rules?"

“No, Wade said we can teach others… it’s just that my teaching might not be as effective…”

……

For Wade, the changing friendships among elementary school students weren't really on his radar; he had more important things to do.

Early on a weekend morning, Wade went to the Requirement store and paced back and forth three times, focusing his mind on the following: I need a room with a Pensieve… I need a room with a Pensieve… I need a room with a Pensieve…

A simple, narrow peach wood door appeared on the wall, and Vidra opened it and went inside.

This place looked like the home of an ascetic, with only a simple wooden bed and a low stool in the room, and a stone pillar about half a person's height next to it. A shallow, empty stone basin sat on it, its rim carved with intricate ancient runes and surrounded by a ring of thumb-sized gems, its opulence incongruous with the house itself.

This is the Pensieve, a magical object that can preserve memories and thoughts, and even allow one to enter those memories and relive past events; it contains powerful and complex magic. Even Professor Morrie frankly admits that he cannot create the Pensieve.

Vader pointed his wand at his temple, whispered a spell, and focused his mind on recalling those memories that had long since faded with time.

A moment later, he removed his wand, and a thin, silver thread was drawn out, extending from his temple and growing longer and longer. Vader gently twirled the wand, as if gathering yarn, and coiled it up. After several turns, the silver thread finally broke.

It swayed gently at the tip of the wand like a spider's thread, one end approaching the Pensieve. Vader gently touched the Pensieve with his wand, and the silver thread fell in, slowly swirling like mist, emitting a faint glow.

This is... a memory from his past life that he had almost forgotten.

Wade took a deep breath and plunged into the silvery memories.

Chapter 97 The Vanishing Cabinet [Revised Version]

It took Wade a whole day to recreate and organize his memories, and by the time he left the Room of Requirement, it was completely dark.

Although both the Room of Requirement and the Ravenclaw lounge are on high floors, one is in the main tower and the other is on the top floor of the Ravenclaw tower, making the distance between them quite far. Normally, Vader would have used the Summoning Charm to summon a broom and fly there, but today, he walked slowly down the corridor, organizing his thoughts and figuring out what he needed to do next.

Footsteps echoed emptily down the long corridor. Suddenly, a voice broke the silence—

"Haha...Surpri-se! (I have a surprise for you!)"

Peeves suddenly appeared, wielding several black water balloons and hurling them at Wade. Wade swiftly drew his wand and pointed it, causing the ink to flow back and splash onto Peeves' face.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

Pee-Pee Ghost spat out ink from its mouth and cursed sullenly as it flew away, leaving the corridor filled with black ink.

Vader was already very skilled at using the Cleansing Charm. He waved his wand a few times, and all the ink disappeared, leaving the corridor spotless.

Someone clapped and exclaimed, "A beautiful silent incantation!"

Wade turned his head and looked: "Griffiths?"

The red-haired wizard once again wandered into someone else's portrait, following him with a smile behind his back.

Wade thought about the sudden appearance of Peeves and asked, "You didn't persuade Peeves to come here, did you?"

“Yes, that’s right!” Griffiths admitted quite frankly, and said, “You looked like you’d been captured by some time monster, with a deep and scary look on your face, so I had Peeves say hello to you—how are you feeling now?”

Wade didn't even know what his expression had been like before. He rubbed his face and said helplessly, "Well, thank you so much!"

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome. Helping students is the right thing to do,” Griffiths said with a beaming smile, then asked, “What were you thinking before?”

Wade didn't want to discuss this topic and asked, "Have you gotten along better with the portraits in the foyer lately? They haven't complained to me about them for a long time."

“Uh… well… uh… of course it’s gotten better…” Griffiths stammered.

Wade stopped in his tracks, frowned, and asked, "You wouldn't happen to be...?"

"Haha, just now two Hufflepuff students wanted to hear me tell stories from the past! I'm leaving now, let's chat again next time!" Griffiths said, raising his voice as if feeling guilty, then hurriedly walked out of the portrait and disappeared.

Wade shook his head.

During this time, the name of the talkative Griffiths gradually became known to more students, because he always liked to chat with people. Sometimes he would suddenly pop out of a portrait and shout, watching the frightened students fall into the trap on the stairs, and then laugh so hard that he was like a mischievous imp in the portrait.

However, the students disliked Peeves but not Griffiths. This was because, aside from the occasional harmless prank, he would tell stories that were hard to believe, and sometimes, if he saw a student feeling down, he would comfort them and try his best to make them laugh.

Wade often saw four or five students gathered around Griffith's portrait, chatting with him. With most of his free time occupied by students, Griffith was busy and even stopped bothering other portraits much less—

Wade had assumed that was the case.

But judging from his guilty look just now, it seems there's another story behind it.

Back in his dorm room, Wade took out his Book of Friends, spoke with his father for a while, and then changed to another Book of Friends.

[Wade: Remus?]

Lupin's reply appeared on the paper shortly afterward:

[Lupin: I'm here.]

[Wade: I have a favor to ask of you—tomorrow morning, please go with my father to Gringotts to get some money, and then go to Borgin & Burke's shop in Knockturn Alley to buy the vanishing cabinet.]

Lupin: Okay.

Lupin readily agreed. After a while, he wrote down some more text:

[Lupin: But as far as I know, there is only one disappearing cabinet at Borgin-Bock; the other is missing. If the other disappearing cabinet is damaged, or in a place inaccessible to humans—such as underwater or buried deep underground—then it is useless and even extremely dangerous to the user.]

[Wade: I know—but there's also a vanishing cabinet in Hogwarts Castle.]

[Wade: Worth a try, right?]

[Lupin: I understand. But promise me you won't try it yourself. We can experiment with rabbits or something first.]

[Wade: Of course, I wouldn't be that reckless.]

Wade put away his friend's book, a sense of anticipation rising within him.

The fact that enemies can appear at any time in a safe fortress makes one feel insecure; but if one can leave the castle at any time, it feels wonderful, and one can do more.