The Return to Hogwarts

If he does a good job, then in the future, when the children he taught enter the magical world and learn that one of their impressive Defense Against the Dark Arts professors was a werewolf, they might not hate werewolves as much.

Time slipped by quietly in the midst of everyday life, and before we knew it, the start of the new school year had arrived.

Chapter 153 Poisonous Magic

Sirius Black's escape from prison has caused the Ministry of Magic a great deal of trouble and has also made many wizarding families feel fear and anxiety. However, no matter what, the opening date of Hogwarts, which has almost become an annual 'big event' in the wizarding world, remains unchanged.

Diagon Alley gradually returned to its former liveliness. Even Amosta, who had rarely left her room since mid-to-late August, could tell a little from the noise coming from outside the open window.

Hedwig's cage was still hanging on the window grille, but it was empty. The snow-white, clever owl, like its owner, had gone out for a stroll.

Amosta stared quietly at a frog in a cage that Hedwig had caught for a snack. Once his thoughts had cleared a bit, he looked down at the several tattered research manuscripts spread out on the table.

Amosta had acquired this pile of manuscripts from the underworld marketplace. According to the seller, they were research manuscripts left behind by the despicable Herpo, the progenitor of black magic in ancient Greece. Amosta didn't care whether the manuscripts were actually left by Herpo, but the contents were certainly worth the dozens of Galleons he had spent.

"--To imprint a curse or some kind of magic into the soul of a living being, as long as the race does not perish, that race will be forever cursed. Hiss, terrible magic."

Amosta squinted, tapping his fingers lightly on the table.

In his mind, there did indeed seem to be a lost curse with a similar effect—the Blood Curse.

The Blood Curse will give the cursed person the ability to switch between human and snake forms. It sounds magical, but it is actually very cruel. This curse will continuously 'pollute' the magic power in the cursed person's blood, and the rate of pollution will gradually accelerate as the magic power in the body becomes stronger. When you are completely unable to resist, you will lose your human form and memories forever.

The most despairing aspect of this curse is that it spreads like a virus through blood ties. In other words, once a wizard is afflicted, their descendants will suffer this despairing pain generation after generation until the family line ends one day.

Compared to the three Unforgivable Curses, Amosta believed that this Blood Curse was far more terrifying.

Back when Amosta was studying at Hogwarts, he found an introduction to the Blood Curse in a book called "The Most Poisonous Magic" in the forbidden section. The book also mentioned Horcruxes and contained text that both curses were invented by the ancient Greek wizard Helbo.

The pile of tattered pages in front of me contains some experimental records of the creation process of this curse, as well as incomplete theoretical foundations.

Amosta has been studying this manuscript for some time now, and based on the incomplete information on the manuscript, he has been trying to deduce the theoretical structure of magic, and then to obtain the corresponding spells and casting postures from the complex structure of spells.

Despite the bright, clear sky, the room with its wide-open windows gradually darkened as the tip of Amostella's staff traced a mysterious path, as if a thin veil of shadow seeped out from the void, obscuring the light within.

An ominous atmosphere gradually filled the air, making the frog in Hedwig's cage uneasy. It stood up on its legs, perched on the iron cage, and made a noisy croaking sound.

Amostella stared at the frog in the cage. Unbeknownst to her, the illusion magic that had been obscuring her eyes had been broken by the continuously surging magic. Those eyes, like pure purple gems, radiated a chilling malice. The frog, unable to move, floated up uncontrollably. Even with only a shallow sense of self, its two bulging eyes revealed clear fear, as if it knew its death was imminent.

The emerald green color on the frog's skin gradually turned grayish-white in the distorted space that enveloped its body, and then melted and dripped away like wax, disappearing completely.

The space where the frog had been standing now contained a blurry frog silhouette emitting a faint, shimmering white light, looking like a ghost.

"soul."

Against the backdrop of powerful yet malevolent magic, Amosta's handsome face exuded an indescribable majesty. He moved slowly and gently, wafting wisps of black energy from the tip of his wand.

The moment the writhing, almost living black energy appeared in the room, the slightly dark air inside began to vibrate slightly. If it weren't for the defensive spells that Amosta had set up beforehand, everyone in the entire Leaky Cauldron would probably have been affected!

As the frog's soul closest to the black aura, it was undoubtedly the most affected. Its pale white outline trembled so violently when facing the black aura that it almost left afterimages in the air.

Seeing this, Amosta's movements became even gentler, his hand holding the staff as tender as if stroking a lover's cheek. Oh, no, he didn't have a lover, it was as if he were stroking a golden Gallon.

Under his control, the black mist, writhing like snakes, gradually reached out its tentacles like luminous white souls, slowly and steadily...

boom!

A muffled rumble filled the room, and a gentle breeze carrying countless dreamlike specks of light, like fireflies, made Amosta instinctively squint.

It failed.

Amosta waved his hand, scattering the scattered light of the frog's soul. A sudden realization dawned on him, but his expression showed no sign of disappointment.

This is how experimental research and the reverse deduction of the curse work: failure is the norm, success is accidental, and as long as a perfect approach can be found, it is not a complete loss.

Amosta waved his wand to clean the pus from Hedway's cage, then leaned back in his chair and picked up the difficult-to-decipher manuscript to study it, occasionally flipping through the runic runes to check for any translation errors.

On one corner of the desk was a stack of brand-new parchment filled with calculations. It contained Amosta's complete derivation of the spell's structure over this period of time. After the manuscript failed to provide him with any further inspiration, Amosta reached for his own draft paper, examining the derivation process himself, but again, he found no problems.

This is strange!

Amosta closed his eyes and began to ponder.

According to the contents recorded on the stack of manuscripts he had acquired, if the magic was successfully cast, he would obtain a cursed frog soul, which would be a curse seed. When he wanted to curse someone, another spell would forcibly embed this curse seed into the cursed person's soul.

Thus, the curse is successfully cast, and the cursed person and their descendants will face torment worse than death, turning into a frog before the age of thirty.

During the creation process, the creator never even considered the issue of breaking the curse, so unless reproduction is interrupted, the suffering will be passed down through generations.

Why did it fail?

Amosta was still pondering the question when the sound of footsteps in the corridor interrupted his thoughts. Before the person knocked on the door, Amosta had already erased all the 'evidence of the crime'. As he stood up, he casually brushed his hand across his eyes to 'restore' their color.

I need a quiet place where I can conduct my experiments and research without being disturbed.

As Amosta walked toward the wooden door, he suddenly remembered the magical room on the eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle, which was truly a wonderful place for experiments and research.

Chapter 154 Family Banquet

On a moonlit night, a lively family dinner was taking place inside the Leaky Cauldron. Apart from Charlie and Bill, the entire Weasley family was present. Harry, Hermione, and Amosta were also special guests at the dinner. Even the pub owner, Tom, was forced into a chair and made to drink two glasses of mead by Mrs. Weasley, whose cheeks were flushed, while serving them the food.

"I don't know how to thank you, darling!"

Mrs. Weasley gripped Amostella's sleeve tightly, and this was the fifth time she had said this to Amostella that evening. "I can't even imagine what would happen if Ginny and Ron really... Oh, how terrible!"

"We were planning to go to Hogwarts in person to express our gratitude, Amosta—"

Mr. Weasley wiped the sweat from his balding forehead and said with a smile.

For some time now, Mr. Weasley had been on edge because of Black's escape, so he finally had something to be happy about. Therefore, despite his low alcohol tolerance, he indulged himself a little and drank quite a bit of rum.

"That incident back then."

Mr. Weasley let out a burp and said,

“I mean, when you, Bill, and Charlie were at Hogwarts, after that terrible incident that night, Molly and I wanted to go to Hogwarts to thank you in person, but Snape told us that you needed to be in seclusion for an entire semester and wouldn't let us see you for half a year. After you rescued Ginny and Ron from the Chamber of Secrets, we planned to visit again. I wrote to Dumbledore to ask if it was appropriate, but he told us that you had already left the school and your whereabouts were a mystery!”

Fred and George, sitting opposite Amos Tower, chuckled as they watched their dizzy parents. The other children had a similar reaction, except for Percy, the eldest Weasley, who wrinkled his nose and looked somewhat dissatisfied.

"Oh, Mom and Dad!"

Percy puffed out his chest, which was adorned with the student council president badge, making it shine even brighter in the candlelight, and complained in a serious tone.

“We are all very happy to see Professor Blaine again, Mom and Dad, but you are being a little too rude!”

“It’s alright, Percy—”

Amosta, supporting the dazed Mrs. Weasley with his shoulder, smiled and said to Percy.

"This isn't school, we don't need to be so formal. Oh, speaking of which, I haven't had a chance to congratulate you on becoming student council president yet. Dumbledore made a wise choice, didn't he? I think you deserve it, just like your brother Bill—"

Percy blushed, unsure how to answer, so he could only glare fiercely at the twins who were pretending to vomit.

The Weasleys had a really nice family atmosphere, and Amosta was in a good mood as well, chatting with the Weasleys about his classmates who had graduated, something he hadn't done in a long time.

Among these people, a considerable number have faded into obscurity, and some even have closer ties to the Muggle world. Only a handful stand out, such as Nymphadora Tonks, who entered the Ministry of Magic and became an Auror.

"Oh, I know, that girl is very passionate and quite popular in the Auror office—"

Mr. Weasley clinked his glass against Amostella's again and said, "Speaking of which, Rufus and his gang haven't had much luck lately. They ran into a tough nut to crack, spending over half a month at St. Mungo's before they recovered. Just as they were preparing to make a name for themselves in front of Fudge and Barty, they ran into Black—"

cough--

Amosta coughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, I heard that Bill worked as a curse remover in Gringotts, Egypt after graduating. How is he doing these days?"

"Oh, speaking of that!" Mrs. Weasley, who had been all smiles all evening, suddenly became furious. "Bill and his colleagues have been harassed by those wretched goblins from Gringotts!"

"Gringotts goblins?"

Amosta blinked and asked in surprise, "Isn't he working for Gringotts?"

"This matter is also related to Rufus and his companions encountering those dark wizards," Mr. Weasley said, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"Two months ago, Rufus and his team intercepted a group of dark wizards smuggling artifacts. The artifacts they had were the very ones Bill and his team had unearthed. The group of dark wizards acted immediately after Bill and his team handed the artifacts over to Gringotts. This was too suspicious, and the goblins believed there must be a traitor among Bill and his colleagues. Therefore, they demanded that the Egyptian Ministry of Magic detain them all and interrogate them one by one."

Amosta pursed his lips and lowered his head, suddenly becoming interested in the glass in front of him.

"--Of course, the result of the interrogation was that Bill and his colleagues were innocent, but the goblins refused to accept this result. They demanded that all wizard employees be subject to their surveillance until the item was found. In my opinion, those greedy goblins should examine themselves more; they are the ones more likely to do such a thing!"

Mrs. Weasley, who had finally had a chance to visit her eldest son, was furious when this happened.

"Ahem, you're right, Mrs. Weasley. Indeed, I think it's more like the fairies sent someone to do this!"

Amosta coughed a few more times, looked innocent, and nodded in strong agreement.

The lively family dinner lasted until after 9 p.m. Amosta, who often drank with clients in his past life, had a remarkable achievement. The Weasleys were carried upstairs by their eldest three sons. Their youngest daughter, Ginny, who looked much more energetic than last semester, ran to the boss to get two glasses of honey water before also running upstairs.

Amosta, holding a steaming cup of tea, leaned against a support and looked at the three little ones who barely had a chance to talk to him, and said with a smile,

"I've noticed that you've always had something you wanted to say to me, haven't you?"

After a summer of tanning, Hermione, two shades darker from the sun, smiled shyly. Then, she glanced at Harry with a worried expression and said...

Harry told us something—

Amosta's gaze immediately fell on Harry, and his eyebrows rose.

This kid wouldn't be stupid enough to gossip about Blaine Manor and his own background everywhere, would he?