Compared with the busy days of recent time, it was much more peaceful when we were back at Hogwarts.
Now, among Amos's daily tasks, there's an additional one: checking the mail sent to Hogwarts for students and professors. He doesn't need to open the packages to inspect them; for a powerful wizard with a keen intuition, it's merely a matter of a glance to determine if something is dangerous.
However, this still takes up an hour of Amos's breakfast time every day, as there are a lot of things being sent to Hogwarts every day.
He indeed made some gains, finding something unsuitable for the school almost every day. Most of these came from Slytherin, where students sometimes struggle to accurately discern the difference between harmless pranks and dangerous black magic artifacts.
Without Professor Brian, the fun of physical education classes is reduced by a great deal, which is a consensus among all the students who attend physical education.
Ever since he returned, the practice of students in difficult circumstances, which they had practiced before being surrounded, has started again. Most people did not change much from their previous performance. This is not surprising, as it is an educational process where experience is sought through numerous failures. Even Amos himself did not have much good experience to share, and he could only rely on their own efforts to learn.
However, Hermione's performance was somewhat better than before.
To help her resist the curse, his and Dumbledore's magic remained within Hermione's body for a period of time. Of course, it's impossible for a wizard to easily absorb another wizard's magic in such a condition. However, his and Dumbledore's magic were so powerful that some residual magic inevitably 'infused' her body.
Moreover, due to her long-term state of extreme magical exhaustion, this stimulation encouraged Hermione's body to absorb more magical energy to nourish its weakened physical form.
Now, Hermione's magic power was significantly higher than before, and the crisis between life and death made her nerves tougher, which made up for some of her shortcomings in the ancient and never-outdated skill of dueling.
As for Dumbledore, after that conversation in the soul corridor of Frank and Alice, it was obvious that Dumbledore had some guesses.
However, this guess was too incredible. Amos himself said at the time that those were just his guesses, and Dumbledore could never be sure if it was his own illusion. In the following days, Amos could feel that Dumbledore was always holding back his desire to investigate further when facing him. After all, this was more incredible than any magic.
It was a quarter past nine in the evening, and there was still some time before the school's designated curfew. However, there were not many young wizards wandering through the castle's various floors. Most of them were fifth-year students who would be taking their OWLS exams in June.
In the office, Amos closed the letter he had been holding and gazed at the small, flickering fire in the hearth, lost in thought.
Remus's letter, he told him that he would come to Hogwarts to watch the second match tomorrow, at that time, hope to chat with him about their expansion of alchemy workshops in the United States.
But Amos thought that Remus might not be coming for that reason alone. Perhaps, he had received some hints from Sirius, or maybe he himself had sensed something, which was not entirely impossible. After all, Remus was a wizard with a keen eye and an acute sense of smell.
However, this is also for the best. He has something to trouble him. originally, he intended to ask the already confirmed to come watch the match Sirius for help, but Remus is undoubtedly more suitable.
He quickly wrote a reply, asking Remus to arrive at Hogwarts before nine o'clock tomorrow evening. Use the secret passage that they 'Four Greats' often used in their student days to enter Hogwarts, and don't let anyone see you.
After sealing the letter, Amos left his office and walked along the corridor on the third floor towards the staircase.
He paused in front of Moody's office door for a few seconds, glancing towards the closed door.
The wall could not block Amos's vision. He saw a shape of magical aura sitting on the chair behind the desk, motionless, with an aura that felt lifeless.
For the person inside the office, the wall was equally ineffective at blocking the gaze of the marvelous magical eye.
Through two walls, the two people locked eyes for a moment, and then Moody, as if burned by an unseen force, shifted his gaze away. Meanwhile, Amos walked towards the staircase with a face without emotion.
As if he had sensed that Professor Brain was in a bad mood, the young wizards along the way quickly stepped aside, hanging their heads and not daring to greet him.
Even the mischievous Peeves ran quickly into an empty classroom on the fourth floor after encountering him and hiding behind the door, sticking his tongue out and making faces in the direction that Professor Brain was leaving.
The wind from the top of the tower was fierce, blowing Amos's robe rustling. But he was unmoved, silently standing opposite the group of mountains that stood rigidly in the endless darkness, until the lights in the castle went out one by one, leaving only the small tower where Dumbledore lived lit up.
A gray owl in the roof loft, seeing that Amos remained standing outside on the corridor, flapped its wings and flew up into the air, hovering above his head, curiously eyeing him.
The rustling sound of the owl's feathers caused by the strong wind awakened Amos. He smiled at the owl.
"I can actually fly as well."
Amos smiled and said that. The next second, in the owl's 'shocked' gaze, he jumped onto the parapet and then leaped into the abyss.
The sudden feeling of weightlessness caused Amos to squint his eyes, but as the speed rapidly increased, a sense of 'freedom' flooded his heart. For a moment, he seemed to understand some of the freedom Dumbledore had once told him about, the freedom of a soul that exists apart from the body and within the material world.
Before Amos could fully savor the intoxicating feeling, the ground had rapidly expanded in his field of vision. He immediately became ethereal, tracing a crescent-shaped trajectory in mid-air, his form gliding over the restored emerald grass that bowed in the strong wind. In a blink, he was hovering above the shore of the Black Lake.
"What was that noise just now?"
The three of them in the Invisibility Cloak paused, Harry holding onto the edge of the Cloak to prevent it from being blown open by the just roaring gust of wind. He raised his head, confusedly looking at the boundless night sky.
"Maybe it was an owl."
Hermione also noticed the recent movement. She guessed,
"Owls like to be active at night. They might be out to catch mice. Crookshanks also enjoys doing this. Don't waste time, Harry, I can't spend the whole evening here. I have to go back and finish Professor Flitwick's essay."
"Well, at least you need to come up from the lake alive."
"The biting cold of spring, the icy wind at night made Ron shiver. He pulled on Harry and Hermione's robes as he continued on, shivering and saying, "
"I think you're crazy, Hermione, why can't we try during the day? Why in the evening?"
"Oh—"
"Her cheeks flushed in the darkness."
"I can't be seen by others. You understand, Ron, according to my own idea, I was going to turn myself into a fish or otter or something like that. But the time was too short. My understanding of advanced transfiguration is not thorough enough. I can only grow a tail for the time being."
The lakeside was silent for a few seconds, and then, both boys hidden by the Invisibility Cloak burst into laughter simultaneously.
"Are you saying" Harry tried to hold back his laughter, "you'll become a mermaid?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Harry's ribs were hit with a heavy elbow, the pain almost made him gasp for breath.
"Not a mermaid!"
Hermione said, clearly very angry that Harry had treated her like a pale, ugly creature.
"I can't make myself grow gills, that involves more complex changes. In fact, I found another way. The buoyancy charm, it gives me air under water. It's also a spell learned in sixth year. When I was studying advanced transfiguration, I realized that maybe the high-level spellbook would have a way to help me out of trouble, so I just took a look."
"If the buoyancy charm works like that,"
Ron tried hard to suppress his laughter, saying seriously,
"If this charm allows you to breathe underwater, why do you have to go through the trouble of growing fish tails?"
"Oh, that's because--"
Hermione's tone was low and unsatisfied,
"I'm not very good at swimming, you understand, Ron, this will let me swim faster underwater."
(Chapter ends)
