Hogwarts Summoning Guide

The Niffler (scientific name: *Nifflera*) is a magical digging creature from Britain. Covered in black fur, with a long snout, its appearance is somewhere between a mole and a platypus. It has a particular fondness for anything shiny. It plays a significant role in the *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* series. In the Harry Potter series, Hagrid acquires several to teach his magical creature classes, while Ron's brother Fred uses one for pranks. (In the movies, the Niffler has a small pouch for hiding things, adding a storage bag function to its anime-style design; this description is retained here.)

"Ah, Nifflers! Newt named them that, and they're a bunch of adorable and mischievous little creatures!" Dumbledore seemed to be recalling some old memories as he continued, "But I'm not talking about ordinary Nifflers. There's a very special breed that not only has a talent for finding gold, but is also very sensitive to trinkets imbued with dark magic."

Bai Lin immediately understood Dumbledore's meaning. He had already obtained some information that some of Voldemort's Horcruxes might be rare treasures, but Dumbledore was still trying to determine their exact locations. Another problem was that some items might be very small, such as a tiny ring. Even if you found the treasure's location, how could you dig it out in a short time? At this point, having a Niffler who was very sensitive to dark magic would make all the difference.

"Leave it to me!" Bai Lin thought of the Nifflers, which were clearly listed in the Magical Zoo's animal inventory, and how he could even find out where these little creatures originated and their "distributors." Bai Lin said, "Give me about a week, and I'll find one for you!"

"That would be a great help!" Dumbledore had a lot of confidence in Bai Lin. He also wanted to test Bai Lin. Although he invited Bai Lin to join the Order of the Phoenix, he did not tell Bai Lin the names of the existing members or the location of the command center immediately.

Dumbledore should have made contact with Sirius Black by this time. Black has reclaimed his family's ancestral home at 12 Grimmauld Place and will offer it to the Order of the Phoenix as a secret base. The house is protected by powerful magic, and only those who know its exact location can see it; ordinary dark wizards cannot enter.

To prevent the Gryffindor children from being tormented by Snape, Bai Lin decided to finish his Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Thursday afternoons (which the students called DADA, and Bai Lin called Defense Against the Dark Arts class) before going to Paris. Bai Lin was really looking forward to this week's Defense Against the Dark Arts class. He had learned a lot of new dark magic and planned to show these little brats what it was all about.

Thursday afternoon arrived quickly. Bai Lin had specially arranged for Catherine to come from Hogsmeade to serve as his teaching assistant, while the work at the clothing store was handed over to the exceptionally capable Finnis. Of course, Finnis also had another task: to cooperate with Zobi in Paris to open a double-sided door. Finnis had chosen a massive project—digging a secret chamber ten meters underground in the clothing store. Bai Lin didn't know how house-elves would dig a secret chamber; if he had known, he might have demanded a three-bedroom, two-living-room structure.

Seeing Bai Lin bring the meticulously dressed Catherine to class, many girls with budding hearts voiced their dissatisfaction, especially Hermione, who really wanted to get points in the Black Organization class; her pouting lips were practically enough to hang an oil bottle.

Bai Lin's classes are very popular at Hogwarts, not only because of his handsome appearance and approachable manner, but also because of his rigorous explanation skills and his novel and surprising tricks that always give students a fresh perspective. For example, his battle with the Death Eaters in the forest gave the students a lot of confidence.

The students were all teenagers who used to think that fighting dark wizards was something only adults did. The adults wouldn't teach them offensive spells, and there were no real magical battle scenarios for them to practice. So, the Dark Wizard Protection class was always boring and tedious. But Bai Lin showed them that many ordinary spells that could be learned in the third grade could be effective in battle and even defeat powerful dark wizards.

Bai Lin did a quick count and found that not only were there no absentees, but also more than a dozen fourth and fifth graders who came to listen in. Qiu Zhang was among them, and he even gave him a bright smile.

"Ahem," Bai Lin cleared his throat and said, "Please put away your textbooks, take out your wands and anything else you think will help you defend against dark magic, haha. This class is a magical combat practice class. Those of you who have already previewed the textbook content don't need to be disappointed. I will still surprise you in the next class, haha~" Except for Hermione, all the students were amused. Hermione felt that Bai Lin was targeting her because she was the only one in the class who was crazy about previewing the course.

The students happily put away their textbooks; lessons without textbooks are usually very interesting.

"Now, I'd like to trouble Miss Catherine, whom I specially invited, to do some necessary defensive work for us~ I don't want to destroy the classroom, haha." Bai Lin formally introduced Catherine, whose expertise in many white magic spells far surpassed Bai Lin's.

Catherine stepped forward gracefully, drawing exclamations of admiration from the boys. This beautiful and voluptuous older sister was far more charming than the little girls in the class.

Catherine chanted the spell softly and waved her wand. A faint light barrier instantly enveloped the entire classroom. It was a ranged magical defensive shield. The spell was long and tedious, and belonged to a relatively obscure spell, not included in Hogwarts' Charms textbook.

Bai Lin cast a summoning spell, and several swaying wooden dummies appeared in the classroom. Bai Lin said, "In this magical defensive shield, the power of many dark spells will be weakened. I will first demonstrate some offensive dark spells."

The students perked up. Although they had heard a lot about evil and terrifying black magic since they were young, the wizarding world did not have any video works such as television or movies, and the students had never seen what this black magic actually looked like.

Bai Lin waved his hand and said, "First of all, let me clarify that I only learned some dark magic to research defensive methods, and it's only for research purposes. It's registered with the Ministry of Magic." After saying that, he waved his wand and shouted, "Shadow Arrow!"

A ball of dark purple energy condensed in front of Bai Lin's wand, forming a sharp cone-shaped energy body. It shot out of the wand at high speed, like a meteor striking the dummy opposite, causing a violent explosion that blasted the three dummy into pieces.

The students were startled, because both the spell and the Shadow Bolt were so fast that they could hardly react. But seeing the destroyed dummy, all the students gasped in horror.

"There's an upgraded version of this move. I just used it to subdue a fully grown Iron-Belly Dragon." Bai Lin waved his wand, channeling the magic power within him, and dozens of black arrows condensed around him.