Harry quietly slipped out of Borgin and Burke's antique shop, pressed his cracked glasses to his nose, and looked around.
In front of me was a dirty alley, lined with shops that seemed to be engaged in the dark arts. Borgin and Burke's seemed to be the largest one, and in the window of the shop opposite there were some shrunken human heads displayed in a gloomy manner. Two doors away, there was a large cage filled with huge black spiders.
In a dark doorway, two ragged wizards were looking at him and whispering, and some creatures that did not look like humans were licking their lips at him.
Harry felt creepy and wanted to leave this weird place as soon as possible.
He jogged along, adjusting his broken glasses from time to time.
… However, two minutes later, he was sad to find that he had lost his previous direction.
"You're not lost, are you, dear?"
Suddenly, an old, unpleasant voice sounded in Harry's ears, startling him.
An old witch stood before him, holding a dish that looked like a whole dead person's fingernail. She looked at him grimly, revealing teeth that seemed to be covered with moss.
Harry trembled all over and stepped back hastily.
"I'm fine, thank you." He said tremblingly, "I just..."
At this moment, Harry suddenly felt something grabbing his shoulders and then flying up.
The old witch below stretched out her sharp nails and tried to pull Harry down from the sky, but his body rose too quickly and the hunchbacked old witch couldn't reach him at all.
Harry's feet were off the ground at this time, and he flapped his legs frantically, trying to break free from the air, but he was afraid that if he fell down, he would become the prey of the old witch again.
So Harry bravely turned his head to take a look, hoping that the thing that was grabbing him was the one he had learned in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class... As the first-year student in the Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam, he might be able to find a solution!
Turning his head, Harry saw a huge bat grabbing his back, flapping its wings continuously.
This bat looks somewhat familiar...
Just like...
Like the one that caught him on the Quidditch pitch!
Harry's heart was at ease all of a sudden, and he even felt like appreciating the scenery from the height.
He saw the ugly old witch's unwilling expression, saw many unserious-looking wizards on the narrow street looking at him in the air in surprise, and saw a window that was so luxurious that it didn't fit in with the entire alley...
A silver-haired man was sitting inside the window, elegantly sipping wine from a crystal glass.
The bat's wings slowed down and hovered next to the window. Then, it suddenly accelerated and threw Harry's thin body against the wall next to the window.
"Ah..." Harry screamed in horror as he looked at the wall that was getting closer and closer.
Just as Harry was about to collide with the marble wall, the silver-haired man in the window glanced at him.
The next moment, the marble wall seemed to turn into liquid, rippling with spiral waves.
Harry passed right through the thick wall and landed heavily on the soft sofa.
"Mr. Potter, I think you need to explain to me why you are in a dangerous place like Knockturn Alley?" Dracula's voice came from beside Harry, "Are you curious about this place and sneaked in?"
"Professor Dracula!" Harry was relieved after hearing this voice. He shouted in a hoarse voice, "I'm lost... I used Floo powder for the first time today, and I sucked soot into my throat... So I might have mispronounced a word..."
"The words 'Diagon' and 'Kno' don't seem to be similar. How much coal dust did you inhale?" Dracula said with a playful smile.
Then he discovered that Harry was indeed covered in soot, which had even stained the luxurious sofa cushions in the compartment.
Dracula frowned.
"Well, I can see that you do inhale a lot of coal dust."
As he spoke, he snapped his fingers, and the soot in the compartment disappeared instantly, and even Harry's glasses were repaired and looked brand new.
"Thank you, Professor..." Harry said weakly, "Why does this Knockturn Alley not feel like a place where decent people would come... Oh, no, Professor, I didn't mean to say that you are not decent."
Dracula's face immediately turned dark.
"Do you know who the old witch who stopped you just now is?" He sneered and asked maliciously, "This is the content that will be taught after the second grade starts. As long as you prepare well at home, this question should not be difficult to answer."
"Ah?" Harry was stunned. "Isn't she an old witch with a rather strange appearance and personality?"
"It seems that you haven't prepared for the following content at all." Dracula smiled happily. "If you look closely, you will find that the old witch has many warts on her face and neck, which are similar to fungi or solid blisters growing on the skin."
"If you look more closely, you might also notice that the front of her feet are much narrower than those of ordinary people, because this creature only has four toes."
"So... that old witch wasn't a wizard?!" Harry asked in shock.
"Yes, she is a hag." Dracula chuckled. "Hamstraps love to eat raw livers, especially children's livers. If I hadn't happened to find you nearby, you would have probably already had your heart and liver dug out by that hag, and you wouldn't even have left a complete corpse even if you died!"
Harry broke out in a cold sweat and was terrified. He swore that he would never come to this damn place, Knockturn Alley, again!
"Well, since you didn't prepare well at home, you will have twice as much homework as others in the first two weeks after returning to Hogwarts." Dracula glanced at Harry, whose face turned green with fear, and said casually.
"Professor, there is a reason why I didn't prepare for the lessons!" Harry explained quickly, "After returning to the Muggle community, my uncle and aunt hid all my magic-related things. I had no chance to prepare for the lessons!"
"What a poor child," said Dracula.
When Harry heard this, a hint of joy appeared on his face, thinking that he would not have to double his homework.
"But what does this have to do with me?" Dracula's next words broke Harry's joy, "and how would I know if this is just an excuse you made up?"
"I will assume that what you said is true, but since you used Floo powder to come to Knockturn Alley, it means that you must have left your Muggle family and lived in a wizard family for a while. Well, I guess it's Weiss's family."
"So while you were staying at Weiss's house, were you only focused on having fun and completely forgot about your studies?"
Harry stared blankly at Professor Dracula's long speech, and finally understood -
It didn't matter whether he had prepared for the lesson or not. The petty professor just wanted to take revenge for the word "improper" he had just said!
He stood up indignantly, stared at Dracula, and said in a loud voice:
"Professor, I am willing to accept doubling the workload!"
Looking at Professor Dracula's half-smile in front of him, Harry decisively chose to give in.
He would definitely fail to resist, so he might as well agree to it quickly to prevent the workload from tripling. Professor Dracula didn't assign much homework anyway... Well, the prerequisite is to stop Hermione from reminding him!
"Professor, you are right. I am indeed living in the Weisley family now." Harry said, "I mispronounced the word and came to Knockturn Alley. Now I am separated from them. They must be very worried. So... could you please take me to Diagon Alley?"
Dracula glanced at him and casually placed the crystal glass in his hand on the table.
"Then let's go. It's time for me to leave too." He stood up, walked to the window of the compartment, and opened the tightly closed window.
In fact, when this compartment was first built, this luxurious window could not be opened in order to ensure the privacy of the compartment.
But Dracula thought that it was too cumbersome to go around the middle hall, pass through many booths, walk down the stairs from the entrance of the White Dragon Bar on the second floor, and walk all the way to the door of the Black Wizard Tattoo Shop on the first floor. It would be much faster than jumping out the window.
So in order to cater to Dracula's preferences, the proprietress of Bai Feilong Bar specially ordered people to transform the window into a form that can be opened and closed.
At this time, Dracula opened the window with ease and jumped down from the upstairs.
Because Harry had experience in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he simply gritted his teeth and followed Dracula to jump out of the window.
Sure enough, just before landing, a bat flew lightly to Harry's feet, providing enough cushion for his landing, allowing him to land smoothly in this dark and narrow alley.
After the two left, the luxurious window of Bai Feilong Bar closed automatically, returning to its previous tight state, not giving those curious people any chance to peek.
Dracula folded his arms across his chest and leisurely led Harry through the winding narrow alleys towards Diagon Alley.
Harry noticed that the evil looks that were originally directed at him with ulterior motives in the alley had changed.
After seeing Dracula beside Harry, they all showed fear and awe in their eyes. They didn't even dare to keep their gazes on the two of them. They just glanced at them briefly and then quickly looked away.
"Professor, the people in this alley seem to be afraid of you?" Harry asked curiously, "Have you ever found an opportunity to deal with these people before?"
Dracula casually glanced at the various dark wizards and dark creatures on both sides of the street and sneered disdainfully, "Just them? I'm too lazy to even deal with these people."
Harry could only silently give a thumbs up to Professor Dracula's extremely confident words, because he had no way of refutation...
The real reason is actually not complicated.
In an alley like Knockturn Alley filled with the aura of dark magic, a source of darkness like Dracula, even if he reveals the slightest trace of dark aura, can cause a great impact on the dark wizards and dark creatures here.
The people or animals who can survive here are not fools. At least their senses are much more sensitive than ordinary people. So even if they have never met Dracula, they can deeply feel that this silver-haired man... is not easy to mess with!
After walking for about five or six minutes, the light in front of Knockover Alley became brighter and brighter, gradually dispelling the haze and darkness in the alley.
The two finally walked out into the bright sunlight, and Harry saw a familiar snow-white marble building in the distance: Gringotts Bank.
"You don't need me to lead you the rest of the way, right?" Dracula stopped and asked.
He glanced with disdain at the sunlight shining into the alley, took a step to the side, and stood in the shadow under the eaves of a shop.
"Yeah!" Harry nodded heavily, "Thank you for your help today, Professor Dracula!"
As he spoke, he ran towards Gringotts Bank, because he had already seen Hermione standing on the white steps of Gringotts, waving at him happily.
Dracula looked at Harry's departing back, then caught a glimpse of the Weisley family hurrying over from a distance, chuckled and shook his head.
The next moment, his figure disappeared in the shadow under the eaves.
…
In the Hogwarts Great Hall, most of the faculty and staff have arrived.
There is a very strange phenomenon in this magic school - that is, many Hogwarts professors live in the school.
Professors like Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick can all be considered older single wizards. None of them have family burdens and do not need to go back to accompany their families after work.
In other words, the students of Hogwarts are their family.
Therefore, if these professors had no other academic research or exchanges to conduct, they basically stayed in Hogwarts for the entire summer.
At this moment, Snape was whispering something to Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall was busy sorting out the list of new students and the opening banquet process, and Professor Flitwick was happily chatting with Professor Sprout...
Suddenly, the light in the auditorium seemed to dim.
"Eh, is it going to rain?" Professor Flitwick looked curiously at the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. "There don't seem to be any clouds in the sky."
"It's also possible that Professor Dracula is here." Professor McGonagall said to Professor Flitwick calmly while writing on the parchment. "He often does this kind of thing when the students are not around."
Sure enough, the next moment Dracula appeared in the professor's seat and sat elegantly in his chair.
Dracula had never been a fan of the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall, because it allowed him to feel the sunlight even when he was indoors.
So he used the deed to Hogwarts to figure out a good idea - that is to change the light transmittance of the ceiling by controlling the magic supply of the castle's magic nodes to the ceiling of the auditorium.
In short, it is to adjust the brightness of the ceiling!
However, this is not appropriate when there are too many students. On the one hand, it will affect the mood of the little wizards when they eat in the auditorium, and on the other hand, it will easily expose Dracula's identity as a vampire who dislikes sunlight.
Of course, Dracula himself didn't care about his identity being exposed at all, it was just Dumbledore who was paying attention to it for him...
Therefore, due to all these reasons, the sky suddenly darkened.
Seeing Dracula take his seat, Dumbledore sent Snape beside him to his own seat, and then led the applause.
"Let us congratulate Professor Dracula! He has become the first Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to be reappointed for a second year at Hogwarts in decades!"
…
…