Hogwarts: Harley from The Witch Way - Chapter 403

c387 curse erased

“So Professor, you asked Fox to wake me up from bed in the middle of the night just so that I could join you in mourning these unlucky former professors?”

Harry watched Professor Dumbledore put away the professor list and couldn’t help but complain.

“Of course not.” Professor Dumbledore shrugged, “Do I look like such an out-of-place person?”

Facing the rather strange looks of Harry, Fox and other old headmaster portraits around him, Professor Dumbledore knew that this topic was not good for him.

So he coughed twice and got to the point,

“Ahem…Harry, after reading the previous roster, do you feel that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors at Hogwarts have been replaced too quickly?”

“It’s true that the change is too fast.” Harley nodded, “From the middle of your tenure, you basically need to change professors every year.”

“And the further you go, the greater the probability of the professor’s sacrifice. They become disposable consumables. It’s really tragic.”

“No, not really.” Professor Dumbledore shook his head repeatedly, “Look, aren’t there many people who survived?”

“Uncle Remus is a werewolf and has high magic resistance,” Harley responded ruthlessly,

“Professor Moody is a senior Auror with a lot of experience. At least his magic level is much higher than those of the previous professors.”

“In the past ten years, I haven’t seen a professor leave this castle alive.”

Professor Dumbledore took a few sips of the honey water in disguise, and ended up choking on the thick liquid inside and coughing.

“I just want to use this abnormal death data to tell you that the rumor among students that ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts is cursed’ is true.”

After calming down, Professor Dumbledore explained with a serious face,

“This curse comes from my incompetent student Tom, and tonight, we are going to lift this curse.”

“Sure enough, you hate the previous professors, right? Otherwise, why are you looking for me now?”

Harry once again gave Professor Dumbledore a ruthless last hit.

“Can you blame me?” Professor Dumbledore said with a red face.

“I don’t have the ability to lift this curse myself, and I need your help. But you were young in the past, wasn’t I worried about you?”

Seeing that Harry seemed to want to say something else, Professor Dumbledore quickly stood up and said,

“Come on, it’s late, don’t waste any more time. Let’s leave now.”

…………

A moment later, in front of the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor, Professor Dumbledore was carefully studying the tapestry of the troll beating silly Barnabas with a club.

“What a wonderful artistic creation.” Professor Dumbledore couldn’t help but sigh.

“You should talk to silly Barnabas about this. I don’t know if he will agree with you or want to cast a curse on you.”

Harley half leaned against the wall next to her.

“And Professor, I am accompanying you out at night to lift the curse, not to study the murals with you.”

“Hey, Harry, you should be more tolerant to an elderly person like me.” Professor Dumbledore shook his head helplessly.

“You clearly said before that it was very late and you had to leave immediately.”

Professor Dumbledore seemed not to have heard Harry’s last words. He stood still in front of the wall opposite the tapestry, closed his eyes, and began to walk back and forth.

When Professor Dumbledore walked past for the third time, a door slowly appeared on the wall.

However, this door is different from the door that appeared when Harley used the Room of Requirement.

When Harley used the Room of Requirement in the past, all that appeared were ordinary wooden doors.

But the door that appeared now was completely sky blue, with the Hogwarts logo painted on it, and the door handle was an eagle holding a ring in its mouth.

“The legacy of Ravenclaw.” Professor Dumbledore explained casually,

“Combined with the design style of the room and the traces of magic left inside, it is not difficult to judge that the Room of Requirement should be the masterpiece of Ravenclaw himself.”

“Harry, you know that the previous principals of Hogwarts can obtain the authority of the principal after being recognized by the school castle, and have the right to monitor most of the school.”

“And that authority comes from this room in the Room of Requirement.”

With that said, Professor Dumbledore knocked on the door knocker gently.

The eagle’s beak opened and closed quickly, and a sweet voice came from it:

“It meets the principal’s authority, please come in.”

“Tsk.” Professor Dumbledore opened the door with regret in his voice.

“That’s the bad thing about being a Headmaster. The Ravenclaws left here and the two knockers in the common room didn’t ask me any questions and just let me through.”

“To be honest, I quite like the questions raised by these two knockers. It’s interesting enough after all.”

After opening the door, there are two worlds inside and outside the room.

This time the Room of Requirement is in a forest, with a trail hidden in the forest.

“At the time when Ravenclaw was active, Beedle the Bard had not yet been born. However, the fairy tales recorded in The Tales of Beedle the Bard had already taken shape at that time.”

“Beedle’s later work was just to collect these fairy tales, process and polish them, and finally publish them into a book.”

“Ravenclaw himself is particularly fond of these fairy tales, and designed this core room of Hogwarts based on some of the plots in the fairy tales.”

While talking, the two stepped onto a wooden bridge. Under the bridge was gray river water, as if coming from the underworld.

It is obvious that this journey is modeled after the legend of the three brothers.

However, Harry did not feel any breath of death from the river water, only the presence of color-changing magic and water-making magic.

Finally, Professor Dumbledore was the first to stop.

The two of them were located in an open space in the middle of the forest, with a spring in front of them.

“A magic spring based on the Fountain of Good Luck.” Professor Dumbledore tapped the edge of the spring with his wand.

“Of course, the legendary spring of good luck actually doesn’t have good luck, and neither does this spring.”

“It just has a model of Hogwarts hidden inside.”

Before he finished speaking, countless water flows slowly rose.

Corridors, stairs, classrooms…

All the configurations in Hogwarts Castle are slowly being restored. Except for the professor’s office, student dormitory, bathroom and Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, the Room of Requirement has also appeared in the water castle.

Finally, the spring water stopped flowing and the model was completely formed.

“This is just the most basic model. I can further enhance the monitoring so that the locations of all creatures in the castle, including wizards, pets and house elves, are displayed.”

Professor Dumbledore waved his wand, and the empty space on the model that was originally the student dormitory and professor’s office was instantly filled with red dots.

“Of course, I have no way of knowing what happened in these more private places.”

Looking at Harley’s perverted look, he added another sentence to his image.

“And the curse is here.” Professor Dumbledore’s wand gently pointed at the location on the underground floor of the model.

What was originally Professor Snape’s office was now shrouded in a black mist.

“The position of this black mist keeps changing. It is wherever the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor’s office is.”

“Even if this course is canceled and a new course is opened, such as Principles of Practical Magic, this curse will automatically be transferred to that new course.”

Professor Dumbledore’s voice was quite helpless,

“And Tom used quite subtle and cruel black magic to tie this curse to his life.”

“Unless he dies or breaks this dark magic, we cannot directly lift the curse.”

“And you know, he has a Horcrux, so…”

“I understand, now you think that I have digested the fragments of Voldemort’s soul and have the talent for dark magic that was influenced by him.”

Harley took out her wand, “So you can only count on me to lift the curse, right?”

“As long as you understand.” Professor Dumbledore was obviously relieved.

“After all, this matter is somewhat dangerous. It should be solved by an old man like me.”

“It’s a pity that I’m really old and no longer useful, so I can only ask you.”

“I’m a little embarrassed to say this. I’m older than you.”

Harry murmured something in a voice that Professor Dumbledore couldn’t hear clearly, and at the same time tapped the water surface of the spring.

The water flow exploded instantly, and a cold air quickly climbed along the spring, eroding every corner of the Hogwarts model.

The cold air in the entire castle suddenly became much stronger, as if it was about to freeze.

However, there was no such extreme phenomenon, because the walls of the castle were glowing faintly, and every portrait and every worn-out armor was also exuding fluctuations of magic power.

The cold air was tightly contained by the magic power emanating from the entire castle, and it did not cause much harm.

“The Grip of Doom.”

Harley’s hair grew quietly at some point, reaching into her pajamas and resting on the mirror at her waist.

The ice was instantly covered with a black curse, spreading towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

However, the target of these curses is not the curses entrenched in the office, but the connection between these curses and the outside world——

In Harry’s eyes, these curses extended transparent lines in multiple directions, two connected side by side to the Malfoy family manor, and one connected to Gringotts.

There is another one connected to his waist, in the pocket where the traceless stretching spell has been cast.

In addition to these solid lines, there was also a semi-illusory line that spread to the Gryffindor girls’ dormitory, the room where Harry was.

“It’s been infected by madness and curse, but it still retains the characteristics of a Horcrux?”

There was a hint of surprise in Harley’s eyes,

“It seems that that piece of soul fragment… I can still use it as waste.”

The black curse instantly wrapped the four and a half connections and easily cut them off, replacing the curse against the Defense Against the Dark Arts and the connections between those souls.

“Darkness Mastery, rest in darkness.”

Harley’s voice suddenly echoed through the room, becoming ethereal but mixed with an incomprehensible silence.

Professor Dumbledore on the side watched Harry’s every move attentively, nodding from time to time.

When Harry’s voice sounded, Professor Dumbledore clearly felt abnormal fluctuations in the surrounding environment.

His attention became more focused, and his wand was slightly raised.

The whole room suddenly became completely dark, and before Dumbledore could light up the magic light, a dazzling starlight exploded in the sky.

“Armor for protection!” “Guard for protection!” “Strong as a rock!”

Although he didn’t know what was happening, Professor Dumbledore stepped forward, grabbed Harry and pulled him behind him.

Layers of thick magic defense lay around the two of them, glowing with brilliance and filled with extremely powerful magic fluctuations.

Apparently Professor Dumbledore was very afraid of something happening to Harry, so he was always ready to rescue her.

“Professor, I’m fine.” Harry’s voice made Professor Dumbledore feel relieved a little.

“That was just a normal phenomenon when the curse was lifted, and it didn’t do any harm to me. And now the curse has completely disappeared.”

Upon hearing this, Professor Dumbledore hesitated for a moment and waved his wand.

After checking that the surrounding area was safe, Professor Dumbledore canceled the thick magical defense.

At this time, the model of Hogwarts Castle in front of the two people returned to its original appearance. The black mist that filled the castle disappeared without a trace, and the cold air was withdrawn, leaving only the clear spring water flowing slowly.

“Professor, these curses were forcibly connected to his soul by Voldemort.”

Facing Professor Dumbledore’s searching gaze, Harry explained in a low voice,

“So I used some of my innate black magic to guide this connection to change direction and point at me, and then lifted the curse.”

“And professor, don’t worry, the lifting of the curse will not have any effect on me.” Looking at the worry in Professor Dumbledore’s eyes, Harry added,

“Think about it for yourself, would Voldemort allow the curse he set to harm himself?”

“If he dies, the curse will indeed disappear. But if the curse is destroyed first, it will have no impact on him.”

“That’s good.” Professor Dumbledore nodded, “Harry, I’d like to thank you in advance for Severus.”

After checking the room again and making sure that the curse had been completely eliminated, Professor Dumbledore walked out with confidence.

Harley was a few steps behind him and looked at the model up and down.

In this set of models, Harley also noticed another familiar trace of magic – the magic from the Marauder’s Map.

It seems that his father and Sirius came here and used special magic to connect the map with this model, so the Marauder’s Map can monitor the entire school at all times.

Harry shook his head, no longer thought about it, and walked out of the forest.

On the way, her back suddenly became illusory, becoming almost transparent, but quickly returned to solidity.

…

…(End of chapter)