“You call yourself a wizard? Can’t you just solve the problem with magic?”
Vein scoffed, then cast a lightness charm on himself and Cedric.
Cedric felt his body become light and agile, his footsteps almost silent.
He asked excitedly, “Where did you learn this spell?”
“Three Hundred Tang Poems… No, Practical Spells Thirty, it's sold at Flourish & Blotts.”
“I’ll buy a copy during the holidays.”
“…”
The two of them hurried along, quickly reaching the trophy room.
Sure enough, the twins were already waiting, hiding in a corner with a map in hand.
Seeing Vein and Cedric arrive, George discreetly pocketed the map.
“You guys got here early, but plans have changed, we need to delay things a bit.”
Cedric frowned, wary, and asked, “What kind of tricks are you two up to now?”
“It's not our fault this time,” Fred sighed helplessly, explaining:
“It's Lee, he was curious about the taste of the owl’s pet food, took a couple of bites, and he's been in the hospital wing since morning.”
“Madam Pomfrey gave him medicine, but he’s still a bit dizzy. We'll let him rest for another half hour.”
Vein and Cedric both broke out in a sweat.
That’s Gryffindor for you, why are they so brave?
The most ridiculous thing was that, even on the verge of collapse, he was still thinking about sneaking out. They could never learn that kind of spirit.
“Are you sure he’ll recover?” Vein confirmed, he didn’t want to spend the whole night waiting.
“Don’t worry, Lee’s basically fine, just a bit disoriented,” Fred waved nonchalantly, then asked curiously:
“Vein, did you really make Professor Quirrell cry?”
There were no secrets at Hogwarts. After an afternoon and a day of spreading, almost every student and teacher knew about the ‘little conflict’ between Quirrell and Vein.
Even Professor Sprout called Vein over during lunch and gave him a few words of advice.
“I know you are a good boy, Laurence. Professor Quirrell is just too nervous, he needs some time.”
Vein was also helpless.
“How could I be bullying him? I just wanted the professor to cover up the spell, who would have thought he’d break down?”
“Be kind to our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor,” Fred patted Vein on the shoulder: “You only have a year with him.”
“Maybe he was just guarding against vampires,” Cedric, the honest one, was still defending Quirrell: “He met a vampire in Romania during the summer holidays, he seems to be terrified.”
“Whatever the reason, anyway, Quirrell won't be around after this semester,” George shrugged.
“In fact, no one has been able to hold this position for two years.”
Vein became interested, “Can you tell me about the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professors?”
He knew this position was cursed by Voldemort, and he also knew the fate of the subsequent professors, but he didn’t know why the previous professors resigned.
Lee Jordan wasn't here yet, and they had nothing to do, so the twins began to tell about the miserable experiences of the previous two Defense Against the Dark Arts professors, taking turns.
“When we first started school, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was called Olivier Knight, he was a seemingly nice old man.”
“But after Easter, the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic suddenly came to Hogwarts with arrest warrants.”
“Professor Olivier had a bad habit of drinking, that time he was a bit drunk, and he actually severely injured the Minister for Magic at the time.”
“As a result, Millicent Bulstrode was unable to run for re-election due to health reasons, so the current Minister was able to take office.”
Cedric nodded in agreement, “That’s what my dad said, he also said that Bulstrode is still complaining about Professor Olivier at home every day.”
Vein was dumbfounded, what a ridiculous butterfly effect.
A professor actually beat the Minister for Magic into early retirement.
If Voldemort knew, he would probably die laughing.
“What about last year’s professor?” Vein asked again.
This time, the twins and Cedric’s faces turned strangely awkward, as if it was something embarrassing to talk about.
“Last year’s Montra Clift… was a friend of Headmaster Dumbledore,” Cedric said slowly.
“What did he do wrong?”
“No, he didn’t beat the Minister for Magic, and he wasn’t a Dark Wizard… ” George shook his head, trying to hold back a laugh, but finally couldn’t help it.
“Clift had a serious mental illness, and it wasn't until before the final exams that he accidentally left his St Mungo's diagnosis in the classroom, and Charlie saw it.”
Cedric chimed in: “The whole school went crazy at the time, a mentally ill person… was a teacher for a whole year, and no one noticed.”
“The doctors at St Mungo's are crazy too, they searched all over Britain, even went to France next door, but they didn’t expect him to be at Hogwarts.”
At this point, he couldn’t help but laugh.
Vein could already imagine how chaotic the scene was.
“Why did Dumbledore agree to let him teach?” Vein asked puzzled.
“Who knows? Maybe no one was willing to take the job anymore, even if he was mentally ill, it was better than canceling the class,” George said indifferently:
“Anyway, both of those professors were much stronger than Quirrell, at least they taught us some real stuff.”
“Even though Clift was mentally ill, he didn’t forget how to use spells.”
“I don’t know what Quirrell was thinking, he was teaching Muggle Studies just fine, why did he have to come looking for death.”
Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is a one-year contract, this is a consensus that everyone has reached. They don’t believe Quirrell, who has been a teacher for years, didn’t know this.
It can only be attributed to being stubborn.
Bang!
A loud sound came from upstairs, the four of them were startled.
Fred immediately jumped up, “It must be Lee, he's diverting Filch.”
Sure enough, they soon heard Filch’s roar.
“It's that dungbomb again! I'll catch you and put you in detention! A year of detention!”
The sound faded away, clearly Filch was heading upstairs.
“Let’s go quickly, I don't know how long Lee can hold on, watch out for Filch's cat.”
Pushing open the door of the trophy room, the twins ran out first, Vein and Cedric followed closely behind.