Chapter 178: Is This the Level of Professors at Hogwarts?
Chapter 178: Is This the Level of Professors at Hogwarts?
Ivan raised his wand near the wall, finally seeing that the paintings on the wall depicted people in agony. These humans had gruesome wounds or bizarrely twisted bodies, appearing extremely eerie in the dim light of the night and the wand's glow.
"This is so Snape's style", Ivan said, looking at the paintings on the wall.
If he remembered correctly, in the original timeline, when Snape became the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, he filled the classroom with similar paintings. It was possible that as the Potions professor, Slughorn didn't like such a dark style and had Snape take these decorations with him.
*Chime, the Potions classroom has been explored. Current exploration progress: 54%.*
After taking a quick look around, the System's notification sounded in Ivan's mind, but he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he started searching through the old books in the cabinet.
"Got it!" Ivan didn't search for long before he found what he was looking for among the books.
It was a worn and tattered book titled *Advanced Potion-Making*.
Ivan flipped through a few pages and noticed that many parts had been altered, with extensive notes and annotations written in the margins.
If someone else got their hands on it, they would likely think it was a mischievous student who had scribbled all over the book. After all, many of the annotations contradicted the textbook content. Some sections were even blackened, and several lines of the textbook had been roughly crossed out, making them unreadable.
But Ivan knew that this was the Potions textbook used by the most capable Potion master in the wizarding world, Snape, during his student days. Besides Potion knowledge, it contained several self-created spells.
Ivan looked at the alterations in the book and couldn't help but marvel. In his sixth year, Snape had dared to question the textbook content, innovating and researching more efficient Potion formulas. He was truly incredible.
In comparison, the current students were far weaker. None of them could match Snape's level in magical research.
Ivan put the old textbook in his pocket, tidied up the cabinet he had rummaged through, and left the Potions classroom. Before leaving, he made sure to lock the door back to its original state to avoid any suspicion.
Over the course of the night, Ivan explored dozens of classrooms and returned to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room just before dawn, reciting the password.
"Sleeping Lion!"
The Fat Lady, who had been dozing off, was startled. She opened her eyes wide, looking around, but saw only darkness.
"It must be you, Potter. If you ever try to tease me with your Invisibility Cloak again, I won't let you in!" The Fat Lady frowned, clearly annoyed, but still moved aside to reveal the round entrance.
Sorry, I'm not Potter.
Ivan shrugged, didn't respond, and crawled through the passage.
When he returned to the dormitory, everyone was still asleep. Harry was mumbling something while hugging his blanket, and Ron was snoring loudly. The others showed no signs of waking up.
Ivan breathed a sigh of relief, quickly climbed into bed, and went back to sleep. He had classes the next day.
Over the next few days, Ivan explored the classrooms and secret passages he hadn't visited yet, gradually pushing the exploration progress toward the 60% mark.
But not everything went smoothly, at least not during the second Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where Ivan encountered some unpleasantness.
"Eleven people! A full eleven people scored perfect marks on this questionnaire! Of course, I had initially expected even more!"
Lockhart was visibly excited as he collected all the questionnaires and began to evaluate them one by one.
"What surprised me was Potter! Harry-Potter! And Ivan-Hals!" At this point, Lockhart raised his voice.
Ivan reluctantly stood up under everyone's gaze, wishing he hadn't filled out that questionnaire in the first place.
Harry, who also stood up, looked equally miserable.
"I didn't expect you to remember every single thing about me. Given this, I will award each of you twenty points!" Lockhart ignored the expressions on their faces and said happily.
He had never imagined that the school's two celebrities were actually his fans, which reduced his initial dislike for them.
"To be honest, I don't mind taking a close-up photo with you after class!" Lockhart winked playfully.
"No, thank you, Professor! I have other things to do after class!" Ivan refused Lockhart's request without hesitation.
Lockhart looked at Harry with disappointment, but the latter shook his head, refusing to oblige.
After sitting down, Ivan did not receive any prompts from the System, indicating that this type of point addition was not recognized by the System.
This made Ivan abandon the idea of relying on Lockhart to boost his academic performance this semester.
After a brief moment of disappointment, Lockhart quickly recovered and picked up the book "wandering with Werewolves" from the table, addressing the class.
"Now let's start the lesson. Today, I will teach you how to subdue an out-of-control werewolf!"
"Mr. Neville Longbottom!" Lockhart called out loudly, turning his head to the left front row, but he didn't see the small, chubby figure.
Just as Lockhart was wondering, Neville, who had moved to a corner, stood up trembling and tried to refuse, but Lockhart didn't give him the chance, saying happily,
"Mr. Longbottom, I thought your performance in the last class was excellent, so you will play the role of the werewolf again today!"
Neville walked to the podium with a grimace, participating in Lockhart's poor performance, sometimes even having to play a defeated dark wizard, pretending to be injured and falling to the ground when Lockhart pulled out his wand.
Ivan watched the performance with great interest from below. It was quite entertaining as a comedy, especially since many of the scenes were real, just with a different protagonist.
The diary on the table slowly flipped through its pages, and black ink formed a line of text.
【Are all the professors at Hogwarts of this caliber? Just telling stories in class?】
Ivan rolled his eyes. Do you think this is whose fault?
If it weren't for the curse you created, Dumbledore wouldn't have to worry about the selection of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor every year.
The wizards capable of handling this position have either had a stroke of bad luck after coming for a year or heard the rumors and refused outright.
(End of Chapter)
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