Chapter 99: Restricted Book Area Authority! You want me to go to the Forbidden Forest? One night is not enough!
Severus Snape died in Azkaban. This news was blocked to a certain extent, but for some wizards with connections and status, it was already semi-public.
In the famous Malfoy Manor, the usually elegant Lucius Malfoy looked at the letter in his hand recording the news of Snape's death, and vented his rage in a rare manner, smashing every precious antique in the magnificent hall to pieces.
Snape didn't have many friends, but Lucius was definitely his best friend.
The two were friends when they were still in school, and later joined the Death Eaters.
Lucius had an ancient and noble surname and wealth, while Snape possessed a rare talent in potions. With Lucius's deliberate efforts to make friends, his relationship with Snape became closer and closer over the years.
After the war, their relationship became even closer than when they were both Death Eaters.
Although Snape was a core member of the Death Eaters, he was protected by Dumbledore and was even able to enter Hogwarts as a teacher and the Dean of Slytherin.
This was truly a relief for Lucius.
You have to know that at that time, the purge of Death Eaters was in full swing.
Even the descendants of some prominent families could not escape being sent to Azkaban.
Even if he managed to avoid jail by some means, those greedy bureaucrats in the Ministry of Magic would not miss the opportunity to exploit him.
Several ancient nobles became impoverished during the liquidation process, and their lives were extremely difficult for a time. Some of them were more prominent than Malfoy at the time.
Logically speaking, the Malfoy family would never have an easy time.
But because of Snape's relationship, the Malfoy family still had to be investigated by the Ministry of Magic, but it was much better off than other nobles.
Even for a period of time after the war, the Malfoy family was still able to help other nobles, and gradually became the leaders of the post-war noble wizards and became the most prominent family.
The relationship between Lucius and Snape then deepened, and Snape became Draco Malfoy's godfather. At the same time, Lucius also provided Snape with a large amount of money and ancient books for potion research.
Now that Snape is dead, how can Lucius not be angry, whether out of personal emotion or from the perspective of vested interests?
In particular, Draco Malfoy was also implicated in the process. His wrist and ankle bones were broken. Although they have been reconnected, he is still lying in bed and unable to get out of bed.
Lucius went to see Draco, and unexpectedly saw lingering fear on Draco's usually domineering and spoiled face.
Draco seldom spoke, and even in his drowsiness after taking the potion, he would tremble with fear from time to time.
Thinking of this scene, Lucius couldn't help but smash his cane to the ground.
"Ciel Evans, you filthy mudblood, it's all because of you!"
What made him most angry was that Charles had done such a thing, but as a school director, he could do nothing about it.
He strongly demanded that Dumbledore expel Charles and send him to the Wizengamot for trial, but Dumbledore rejected his request.
It is an indisputable fact that Snape used the Unforgivable Curse on Ciel in public.
In this case, what Ciel had done to Snape before, including attacking the professor and causing his mental breakdown, is of course not valid.
Who would hold a poor first-year wizard who stood up for his classmates accountable for a vicious Death Eater who was sent to Azkaban?
As for the matter involving Draco, if he wanted to expel Charles who was under the Cruciatus Curse based on this, even if Dumbledore agreed, I'm afraid there would be an uproar in public opinion in the next second.
At the board of directors meeting, even the majority of the directors agreed that Dumbledore needed to appease Charles and give him condolences and compensation on behalf of Hogwarts.
As for the punishment for Charles, first of all, we must wait until his injuries are completely healed, and secondly, it must not be too severe, it just needs to serve as a warning.
Even though Lucius strongly insisted, the punishment for Ciel that was finally discussed was just to let him take a walk in the Forbidden Forest at night accompanied by the gamekeeper.
Lucius was so angry that he laughed.
No matter what means Charles used to defeat Snape, whether it was some rare magic or Snape was careless and underestimated his enemy, the strength of this little wizard was extraordinary.
If an ordinary little wizard goes to the Forbidden Forest at night, he may have a nightmare.
But for Charles, what's the difference between this and going out to relax?
Can this be called punishment?!
After taking a deep breath and hesitating for a long time, Lucius gritted his teeth.
He had never been a decisive person, but this time, Snape's death and Draco's injury really stimulated him.
If he doesn't do something about this and doesn't make that Mudblood Ciel pay the price, the reputation of the Malfoy family will probably be in jeopardy.
Lucius's first thought was Knockturn Alley.
The dark wizards there are extremely vicious and are willing to do anything as long as they are paid with gold galleons.
As a Hogwarts board member, I can't put people into Hogwarts Castle, but if it is deep in the Forbidden Forest where Hogwarts' protective magic is relatively weak, it is still possible to let some dark wizards in for a short period of time.
In this way, with the help of the dark wizards' endless variety of strange methods, unlike Snape, who was a professor at Hogwarts and could not use many dark magic in the castle, Lucius felt that it would be easy for a group of dark wizards from Knockturn Alley to take down Ciel.
Deep down in his heart, Lucius still felt that with Snape's strength, if it was a normal battle, how could he lose to a little wizard?
Most likely I underestimated my enemy and as a professor I held back.
But this time, these dark wizards will not have any sympathy or mercy.
By then, Lucius swore that he would let those dark wizards teach Charles a lesson and let him know what it means to be extremely cruel!
Then, a hideous smile appeared on Lucius's lips, and he sent a message to the wizard in Knockturn Alley whom he knew.
"After a while, bring some people to help me teach this guy a lesson. Don't worry, he's not a tough guy, just an academic. It's easy to deal with him with your methods."
"If you can do this job, you can get as much gold galleons as you want!"
As for where exactly this task would be carried out, Lucius did not specify, only saying that he would take them there.
After all, they had to pass through the weak points in the protective magic and enter the depths of the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts. If the news leaked out, it would be a big trouble.
Knockover Alley.
A dark wizard's eyes lit up as he looked at the message sent to him.
"Brothers, Lucius Malfoy is employed by a big client!"
"The opportunity to make a fortune is here!"
"My Lord Merlin, I was penniless the last time I was punished by that little devil... no, by that incarnation of justice. But today my luck has finally turned and I'm going to make a fortune!"
As for the difficulty of this job?
Seeing that Lucius Malfoy said he was not a tough guy but an academic, he must be a nerd who just reads from a book.
In the past, they had helped Lucius do some dirty work. For example, when the Malfoys' business encountered a rival, Lucius asked them to help teach the rival a lesson or threaten him.
Every hire is easy and the rewards are quite generous.
This time, the dark wizards in Knockturn Alley naturally understood this type of situation, and more than a dozen dark wizards agreed immediately.
Not only did he agree, but in order to reassure Lucius and retain this important client, the dark wizard who had cooperated with Lucius also looked at the others and said.
"Although that little devil stole a lot of things last time, how could I not know your character? No one would put all their eggs in one basket. You should have some treasures left in the bottom of the box."
"This is our first battle after we get back on our feet, so we must fight well. So don't hide anything. To be on the safe side, bring all your magic items with you!"
At the same time, after receiving the replies from these dark wizards, Lucius' expression relaxed.
"It looks like there should be no problem."
But then, Lucius thought about it and decided that he had to be more cautious.
There cannot be any accidents in this matter, otherwise if Charles runs away and tells others about this matter, without Snape's relationship, he will probably have to go to Azkaban!
Therefore, Lucius came to the cabinet where the Malfoy family’s treasures were kept. Except for a Voldemort diary secretly placed here, there were the most precious, powerful and dangerous magical items collected by the Malfoy family.
Lucius picked out a few of the most powerful ones, but he still felt that was not enough.
"When a lion fights a rabbit, he also uses all his strength."
"It needs to be more stable."
Immediately, Lucius contacted several noble families that had close ties with the Malfoy family.
Although the Malfoy family is the most respected among the current magical nobles, and many others have fallen into decline, with two families even falling to the point of becoming the foundation of the Malfoy family, Lucius knows that the good things passed down from their ancestors in their hands may not be less than those of his own family.
Since we are going to take action in the Forbidden Forest, the safer the better.
Besides, Lucius chose to do it himself, more or less out of a desire to avenge Draco, to let him see how brave his father was, and to break the shadow for him with his own hands.
Of course this has to be won beautifully.
So Lucius visited the noble families that were close to him one by one.
"Crabbe, I heard that your family has an old magic item that was left over from hundreds of years ago. It's very powerful?"
"Gore, how do you think I usually treat you? Am I taking good care of you? Now I need a favor. I'll lend you something and return it to you after a while. Are you willing to do me this favor?"
In this way, Lucius went to four or five houses in succession and borrowed one or two magic items from each house. He had everything from defense to attack, and he armed himself to the teeth.
Not to mention dealing with a first-year student at Hogwarts, even if he were to face Dumbledore.
Oh no, even if he were to fight Voldemort...
Forget it, even if he were to face that crazy woman Bella Lestrange, or Dolohov, one of the best Death Eaters, he would not be at all inferior.
This is the power of gold galleons!
Lucius' eyes showed a look of confidence.
"Stable!"
"Just wait until that mudblood recovers from his injuries and heads to the Forbidden Forest. I will bring the dark wizard with me to let him know what regret is!"
……
Meanwhile, Ciel had been in the ward for almost the entire day.
Throughout the entire day, he spent most of his time using his newly acquired mental simulation and knowledge deduction abilities to learn new spells.
It’s true that although the effect is far inferior to direct deduction using Deep Blue, it is much more efficient than learning in reality, and there will be visible progress every moment.
A simple spell like the Levitation Charm was already at the same level in Charles' hands as when Professor Flitwick created the dueling arena.
By this calculation, practicing in this way for a whole day would probably be equivalent to the consumption of nearly a thousand deduction points.
It may not seem like much, but when accumulated, you can save hundreds of thousands of points a year.
And this is just the beginning. As Charles' mental strength increases, especially as more knowledge is stored in the memory palace, the effects of simulation and deduction will only get better and better.
One day in the future, perhaps Ciel won't need Deep Blue anymore, his Occlumency technique will be able to bring about an effect similar to that of Deep Blue!
At this moment, Charles opened his eyes, and what came into his sight were the bouquets of flowers and various gifts piled up almost to the ceiling of the ward, as well as various greeting cards.
These were sent by Hogwarts students.
Almost everyone in Hufflepuff House sent one, hoping that Charles would wake up as soon as possible. Looking at these gifts and cards, Charles looked somewhat helpless.
He really didn't want to have any interaction with these young wizards. He came to Hogwarts just for the deduction points and various materials he could get here.
As a result, he killed Snape this time. It seems that he has become the leader of the children?
Shaking his head, Charles stood up from the bed, opened the door and wanted to go out.
But when he opened the door, Charles was stunned by a figure sitting at the door.
"Little Hannah?"
Sitting at the door was Hannah Abbott.
She seemed to have been guarding here all the time. She had just fallen asleep for a short while when she was awakened by Charles opening the door. Her face looked haggard.
But when she saw Charles, Hannah's expression immediately became excited.
"Ciel?"
"you're awake?"
"Are you OK?!"
"I was so scared when I saw you fainted. Later I heard that you were hit by the Cruciatus Curse. I then realized that it was the Unforgivable Curse. Neville was also so scared that he cried. He said that his parents were driven crazy by this curse."
"I didn't even dare to leave, for fear that you might go crazy and no one would know..."
Hannah rambled on for a while before blushing and whispering.
"I'll go get Madam Pomfrey."
Looking at Hannah's hurriedly leaving back, Charles showed a bitter smile on his face.
He had met Hannah a few times when he was at the Leaky Cauldron, and he did think the little girl was cute, but she was only eleven years old.
What kind of person would set his sights on a little girl of this age?
But now it seems that Hannah has developed a crush on me?
Then, Charles suddenly turned his head and remembered that among the pile of gifts placed beside his bed, there seemed to be quite a few small pink cards with hearts drawn on them.
Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff.
There were even a few unsigned letters, possibly from Slytherin.
What is this?
Ciel took a deep breath and used Occlumency to clear his mind of all distracting thoughts.
At least in the past few years, he is still at the peak of his strength development, and every minute and every second of investment can actually bring about an improvement in his strength.
Also, his strength is still far behind that of Dumbledore and peak Voldemort.
Behind him, there was Dak watching.
Although Dak has always been playing the role of giving him points, Dak is really improving rapidly every second in the dream world of R'lyeh.
If Charles slacked off one day and started doing something romantic, he might be surpassed by Dark.
Charles doesn't want to become a fish at the mercy of Dark the next time he enters the dream world of R'lyeh.
Therefore, it’s better to put off dating for a while.
Just then, Madam Pomfrey hurried over, and when she saw Ciel standing there, she let out a scream.
"Sit back!"
"Get back in bed!"
Then, even though her examination showed that Ciel was fine except for being a little tired, Madam Pomfrey still insisted that Ciel needed to rest in bed for at least three more days.
After all, this was damage caused by the Unforgivable Curse, and no one wanted Charles to suffer any sequelae.
Next, when they heard that Ciel had woken up, all the students from Hogwarts flocked to him, but they were all scolded away by Madam Pomfrey, who asked them not to disturb Ciel's rest.
Only a few headmasters came in, and were told by Madam Pomfrey to end the visit as soon as possible.
After a moment's silence, Professor McGonagall spoke with some embarrassment.
"Headmaster Dumbledore is worried about Snape's case. The Ministry of Magic is under great pressure. He also needs to find a new Potions Professor, and the position of Headmaster of Slytherin House cannot be left vacant..."
"I mean, it's not that he doesn't care about you, but he's just too busy for the time being. I've already sent him a message, and he'll come over later."
Ciel waved his hand to show that he understood and that Professor McGonagall didn't need to say more on the matter.
Professor McGonagall heaved a sigh of relief and quickly took out a notebook and handed it to Ciel.
"Here are the Transfiguration notes I put together. Read them when you feel better."
"There are also some reference books in the notes. You can look them up when you have a chance. It's hard to find these books anywhere else."
Charles' eyes showed gratitude.
He still admired Professor McGonagall's character, so he naturally would not vent his anger on Professor McGonagall, who was also a Gryffindor, because of Dumbledore's behavior.
Then, Professor Flitwick's face was beaming as he praised Ciel.
"Although Snape is a bastard, he has real skills."
"Humph, when the You-Know-Who was so arrogant, Snape also..."
"Forget it, let's not talk about this. Anyway, Ciel, you can defeat Snape in a one-on-one fight, that's amazing!"
He scratched his head, pulled out a reference book, and winked at Ciel.
"These books are classics in the study of spells, but they are also very valuable, and there are almost no copies circulating."
"They're all collected in one place, ahem, you know."
"You can look for these books later."
After hearing this, Charles had a rough idea in his mind.
After the two professors left, he turned to look at Professor Sprout, the Head of Hufflepuff House.
Professor Sprout pulled out a bottle of potion from his pocket.
"Come on, drink this first."
Ciel nodded, tilted his head back and drank the potion.
The next moment, a series of prompt sounds came from Deep Blue.
A bottle of magic potion brought Charles more than 50,000 deduction points!
Charles' heart trembled slightly. Even the materials of a fire dragon could not add up to so many points. It was conceivable how precious this potion was.
Looking at the obvious fatigue on Professor Sprout's face, it was clear that she had probably worked a lot for this potion.
Think about how Professor Sprout stood firmly in front of Ciel when facing Dumbledore. Although this dean does not cause trouble, he really cares for the little badgers.
Ciel took a deep breath and thanked Professor Sprout solemnly.
Professor Sprout shook his head, tears flashing in his eyes.
Then she wiped away her tears.
"You still need to rest. I won't say much. I have two things to tell you."
"The first thing is Hogwarts' compensation to you. You will become the first student in Hogwarts' history to have the right to attend classes freely."
"That is to say, you can choose not to take any courses in the entire seven years, and you can graduate successfully as long as you pass the final assessment."
"At the same time, you will have higher authority than the class leader. You can deduct points from other students for violating school rules, and you can add points for commendable situations. This authority is close to that of a professor, and is similar to that of a teaching assistant."
"Also, I believe that with your intelligence, you must have guessed from what Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick said just now that the restricted section of Hogwarts is fully open to you. This is also the first time since the establishment of the restricted section of Hogwarts."
After listening to Professor Sprout's words, Ciel also nodded.
He doesn't care about permissions, but the permission to fully open the restricted area is still useful to him.
Otherwise, you would have to get a note from the professor to borrow books from the restricted area, which is not only troublesome, but also a record of what books you borrowed would be left.
Charles didn't want others to know about his browsing history.
And the restricted book area is not as lenient as imagined. You can read everything with a note from the professor.
Books in some areas can only be taken in the presence of the professor; they cannot be taken away with just a note.
Having full browsing rights in the restricted area is much more convenient, and Charles can accept it.
"What about the second thing?"
Charles asked.
Professor Sprout looked dissatisfied.
"Lucius Malfoy, as a member of the school board, strongly demands that you be punished."
"Although the ridiculous punishments he advocated were not passed, you will still be punished due to the matter of Draco Malfoy."
"After you have recovered from your injuries, you must take a walk in the Forbidden Forest at night accompanied by the gamekeeper Hagrid as a punishment for your actions."
Professor Sprout said angrily.
"How could this be?"
"You have just recovered from your injuries. How can I let you go to the Forbidden Forest?"
"unacceptable!"
At this moment, Charles was stunned for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
"Indeed, it's really too much!"
"I may be right, but I'm not that right. As the old saying goes, it takes two to tango. How can you use such a light punishment?"
"How can one night be enough? Professor, can you please reflect on my request and let me survive in the wilderness?"
(End of this chapter)
