It turns out that this year's Assistant Teacher Riddle is indeed more popular among the young wizards than last year's Assistant Teacher Quirrell.
However, the students not only welcome the handsome assistant professor Riddle, but also have a love-hate relationship with him...
"Professor Dracula, please go and take care of Assistant Professor Riddle!"
"Yes, Professor! Assistant Professor Riddle seems like a different person today. It's scary!"
Two almost identical voices sounded beside Dracula, sounding pitiful, as if they had suffered some injustice.
Dracula put down the newspaper that was blocking his eyes, looked up at the two balls of fiery red hair, and suddenly couldn't help laughing out loud -
Fred and George, the twins recognized as the troublemakers at Hogwarts, now had completely lost their usual mischievous smiles and looked aggrieved.
Their faces were covered in bruises and swellings, and there were two huge, symmetrical dark circles under their eyes on two identical faces.
The Weiss twins who came before Dracula now looked just like two poor little wizards who had been bullied and came to complain to their teacher!
"Professor, it would be fine if you didn't come to help us, but you actually laughed at us!" Fred looked even more aggrieved and shouted loudly.
"That's right! Professor, if you don't help us get justice, you will no longer be our favorite professor!" George also echoed indignantly.
Dracula laughed silently and looked over Fred and George's shoulders at the duel stage in the center of the auditorium.
Today is the day after Halloween, a Monday, and also the first day of normal classes and duel club gatherings after the holiday.
The Halloween decorations and sets have not been removed yet, and the auditorium is still filled with a strong Halloween atmosphere. Many huge pumpkin lanterns are arranged around the auditorium, grinning and showing big smiles to the little wizards.
Dracula was lying comfortably in the largest pumpkin lantern, holding a newspaper that he had just confiscated from the little wizard. He looked past the Weisley twins standing in front of the pumpkin's big mouth and toward the center of the auditorium.
At this moment, Riddle on the stage looked very excited.
He called up the little wizards from the fourth grade and above one by one and "taught" them dueling skills one by one.
It might not be appropriate to describe Riddle's actions as "instruction"... Because rather than teaching, it would be better to say that he was using the fighting power of the Hogwarts students to adapt to the body he had just acquired.
Riddle was getting more and more excited as he fought, but the little wizards were in a terrible situation...
Riddle, who had just obtained a body, had not yet mastered the use of his body. He could not cast spells freely, and he did not know how to control the strength of his attacks.
Therefore, like Fred and George, many young wizards were beaten black and blue by him, which greatly increased the workload of Madam Pomfrey, the head nurse of the school infirmary, and also made the young wizards above the fourth grade complain bitterly...
"So the dark circles around your eyes... what kind of spell did Riddle use to cause them?" Dracula turned his gaze back to the Weiss twins in front of him and asked with interest, "This pair of dark circles is quite interesting, but it doesn't seem like the effect of a spell."
"You're right, Professor!" Fred stamped his feet, looking indignant. "When we went on stage to receive 'instructions', Assistant Professor Riddle despised us for being too weak. Not only did he let us go together, he even put away his wand and fought us bare-handed."
"That's right. As your excellent students with good character and moral integrity, we must fight in a fair and just manner!" George took over and said, "So we resolutely rejected Assistant Coach Riddle's offer."
"Then Assistant Coach Riddle attacked us without following dueling etiquette and beat us up with his fists," Fred said angrily.
"Professor, you told us that there can be no physical contact in the duel, but that's the rule." George cried and sniffed his nose aggrievedly. "Assistant Coach Riddle's behavior is a blatant disrespect for the duel rules!"
Dracula listened to Fred and George's accusations with great interest, and quickly completed the whole process in his mind -
Most of what Fred and George had just accused was probably fine. As fourth-year students, it was normal for them to be called up by Riddle for "instructions"... or more accurately, for them to be sparring partners.
However, Riddle may feel that he cannot bring out his strength on these students and wants to try something exciting, so he lets the twins who work well together come together to try to test out his own strength.
Unfortunately, perhaps Fred and George together could not meet Riddle's needs, so he put away his wand and used these two little wizards to hone his physical fitness.
It's not just the magic power of the new body that needs to be adjusted and adapted, but the physical strength and fitness as well.
Dracula knew the twins Fred and George very well, and knew that they certainly could not be as virtuous and moral as they claimed. If Riddle put away his wand and started a fight with them, the two would be overjoyed and rush forward with their wands...
Of course, facing a master like Riddle who can cast spells silently without a wand, the Weisley twins would not be able to defeat him even without a wand.
So both of them got beaten up by Riddle...
"Assistant Coach Riddle's behavior is indeed a bit unreasonable." Dracula nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, I will vent your anger for you."
He stood up from the jack-o'-lantern, chuckled, and patted the twins on the shoulders.
Fred and George looked up at Dracula in disbelief, with expressions of extreme surprise on their faces.
In fact, they were just angry for a moment and came to Dracula to complain. In their hearts, they did not think that Professor Dracula would be so kind as to vent their anger.
"Are you serious, Professor?" Fred asked, still incredulous.
"How are you going to help us vent our anger, Professor?" George also asked.
Dracula looked at the two big dark circles under their eyes and raised the corners of his mouth playfully.
"Don't worry. I will personally duel with Assistant Coach Riddle to help him train his body..." He said with a smile, "In addition, I will cancel his position as temporary duel assistant. How can I take the lead in violating the duel rules?"
After listening to Dracula's way of venting his anger, Fred nodded with satisfaction.
"Professor Dracula, you are still our favorite professor!" He gave a thumbs up.
However, George next to him keenly sensed something was wrong and asked in a low voice: "Professor Dracula, Professor Snape is not here today... If we cancel Assistant Professor Riddle's duel assistant position, who will train us?"
"Do you need to think about this? Since they are not here, of course I will train you!" Dracula's smile became even more playful. "When the time comes, the entire academy will come together, and I will personally serve as your duel opponent to train your duel skills!"
Fred and George's eyes suddenly widened, with expressions of extreme fear in their eyes.
"No, Professor!
”
"Professor, this is impossible!
”
However, Dracula had been intrigued by Riddle's fighting style, and he ignored the crying Weisley twins and walked straight to the duel stage in the center of the auditorium.
Dracula casually threw the newspaper in his hand into the air. The flickering candle in the pumpkin lantern illuminated the newspaper, revealing a few large words on the cover:
"Azkaban was attacked by unknown dark wizards and has been successfully repelled by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic!"
…
The newspaper continued to fall and gently landed in a skinny old hand.
The hand placed the newspaper on the table, gently adjusted a pair of half-moon glasses on the slightly crooked nose, and stroked the long white beard on the face under the glasses.
"Professor Dracula, I heard that you had a lot of fun in the Dueling Club today?" Dumbledore stroked his beard and looked at the silver-haired figure sitting on the window sill of the principal's office with a smile.
"It's OK," Dracula curled his lips, obviously not very satisfied, "I just hope they can still wake up on time for the first morning class tomorrow."
"I hope so, otherwise Minerva and the others will come to me to complain again." Dumbledore smiled and asked, "What is the current status of Tom Riddle's Horcrux?"
"Weaker than I thought," Dracula shook his head and said, "Voldemort's resurrection potion did not allow Riddle to gain the power of the Dark Lord, but rather solidified his power level to the stage when he was about sixteen years old."
"But it seems that Riddle has integrated well and there is still the possibility of continued growth. He used the method of fighting with the young wizards today to adjust to his new body, and he has made great progress."
Dumbledore nodded slightly, but his expression was slightly hesitant.
After a moment, he asked softly, "Professor Dracula, do you think... our plan is still going according to plan?"
"Of course." Dracula turned to look at Dumbledore, "Are you worried that I am not doing my job and don't care about the plan we have made?"
"Not really." Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm just not sure... Never mind. It would be best if everything could proceed in an orderly manner according to the plan."
"Have you seen today's Daily Prophet?" he asked.
Dracula glanced at the newspaper in Dumbledore's hand and sneered coldly.
"Tsk tsk, the unidentified dark wizards attacked Azkaban and were repelled by the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic..." He curled his lips indifferently, "What a good way to change the topic, this so-called official newspaper."
"That's understandable, actually." Dumbledore said expressionlessly, "The Ministry of Magic doesn't want to cause panic among the people, so it didn't release any information about Voldemort. Moreover, Voldemort was indeed defeated by you, Professor Dracula, so there's no chance that he will revive in the short term."
"Don't want to cause panic?" Dracula sneered again, "Tsk, do we have to wait until Voldemort is completely resurrected before giving the wizards of the magical world a surprise?"
Then he turned his head and looked at Dumbledore. "I clearly remember... the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Head of the Auror Office were both on the island of Azkaban and saw Voldemort with their own eyes. They both had the same opinion?"
"That's not the case. Amelia and Rufus wanted to announce the information about Voldemort's resurrection," Dumbledore said, "but the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, does not want the news to be leaked. Maintaining the current stability is already difficult, and he does not want any other risks to occur during his tenure."
"Cornelly Fudge, the Minister of Magic who Voldemort called a fool, right?" Dracula chuckled.
"Professor Dracula, there's no need to say that..." Dumbledore smiled helplessly, "Cornelly... well, he also has his merits that can be learned from."
"Learning how to cover up one's mistakes?" Dracula leaned against the window frame of the headmaster's office boredly, looking at the sparse stars in the night sky outside the window. "If I'm not mistaken, not many of the Death Eaters sent to the Ministry of Magic were actually sentenced, right?"
"As you expected, Professor Dracula." Dumbledore sighed, "Most of those people are pure-blood wizards who have been donating to the Ministry of Magic for a long time. Their family power also has a large distribution in the Ministry of Magic. Cornelius would not be willing to offend such a large number of pure-bloods..."
"Besides that, those Death Eaters insisted that they were under the control of the Imperius Curse and had no idea about this operation. Fudge was happy to find an excuse to let them go, and they hit it off immediately."
Of course, what Dumbledore didn't say was that Fudge and many people related to the Ministry of Magic took the opportunity to blackmail those purebloods and made a lot of gold Galleons.
"Sure enough, your wizard regime is still so unreliable even after hundreds of years." Dracula smiled nonchalantly and jumped down from the windowsill. "But it's just right for our plan."
Fudge's behavior was indeed just right for them.
It can just protect Snape and Malfoy, the two undercover agents within the Death Eaters, so that they will not be punished by the Ministry of Magic and do not need additional help from Dracula and Dumbledore. Therefore, they can better protect their true identities and continue to lurk in the Death Eaters' camp.
"Has Snape gotten enough rest these two days?" Dracula asked.
"Don't worry, Severus will be able to attend classes as usual tomorrow." Dumbledore smiled knowingly, "He has a strong will and will not waste too much time because of a Cruciatus Curse."
"That's good." Dracula nodded gently, "As you wish, Mr. Principal, our plan can proceed step by step."
"I hope this guy Voldemort won't keep me waiting too long."
…
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