Chapter 173: new semester

As the Christmas holiday draws to a close, the new semester will begin.
　　 Hogwarts students have returned to the castle to start their new lives.
　　 To be honest, this seemingly "magnificent" horse riot, for most students, the impact can be said to be minimal...
　　 Like the wizards outside the school, they had almost zero contact with this incident. In a sense, they are all spectators.
Most of the students have not seen the brutality of the horsemen (the students were evacuated and left Hogwarts as soon as the riot started)...Neither have they seen the horsemen’s wreckage in the castle. Except for students like Matthew who returned to school for the first time, those remaining traces were cleaned up by Pringle when he returned to the castle later).
　　 Their knowledge of the horse riots, apart from the daily headlines in the Daily Prophet, is also limited to the damaged portraits and sculptures on the campus and in the castle...
　　 Looking at the portraits and sculptures that had been together day and night in the past, they encountered such blasphemy, coupled with the agitation in the "Prophet Daily", many young boys can be said to be filled with righteous indignation at this horse riot.
　　 Some extreme remarks, such as the horse people should be killed, are also endless.
　　 But other than that, the normal life of Hogwarts has not been affected in any way
　　 The courses that should be taken are still to be taken. There is no shortage of teachers and students; except that the castle briefly changed hands during the Christmas holidays, nothing seems to have happened.
　　……
　　 As for where the remaining horsemen went, Matthew Wickfield was actually very curious.
There is no doubt that in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts, and even around Hogsmeade, there has been no trace of horsemen...According to the record, this one has lived in the Forbidden Forest for more than a thousand years ( The community that is almost longer than the history of Hogwarts) has been completely put to rest.
　　 A large number of horsemen died in the riots. The burnt mane, broken horse hooves, and bright red blood stains that can be seen everywhere in the previous castle can make this judgment.
Compared with modern wizards armed to their teeth, horsemen, such magical creatures that are in a state of raging and drinking blood and do not use any magic except for prophecy, have no possibility of confrontation at all. They are too fragile... let alone even if they are. The prophetic magic that they are proud of is not at all Gellert Grindelwald's opponent...
　　 Hogwarts’ previous tragic images can show that it was definitely a unilateral massacre!
　　 As for the other horsemen
　　Matthew believes that there are definitely many wise horsemen who will not be stupid enough to break into Hogwarts to "send to death"...
　　 There are rumors that they are migrating to the depths of the Scottish Highlands; some Aurors tried to track them, but the horses were scattered and the Aurors were too few in number, and eventually lost their target.
The British Isles are too big, and the number of wizards is too few...The surviving horses are scattered in every corner of the tens of thousands of square kilometers of the Scottish Highlands, and only the ten-digit Aurors want to extract them all. , It is an impossible task.
　　 What's more, the remnants of the Order of the Phoenix may also be with the horses...
Whether it’s from Professor Keitelburn, the half-blood giant Hagrid who also colluded with the horses, or the dog that suddenly appeared in the depths of the forbidden forest... Matthew believes that the "black wizards" of the Order of the Phoenix, The collusion between horses is true.
　　……
　　 The whole Hogwarts fell into a kind of superficial peace.
　　 Behind this calm, something terrible is definitely brewing, and Matthew can feel it.
　　He is not the only one who holds this view.
　　On the last day of the Christmas holiday, Matthew saw Draco Malfoy again.
According to rumors, Malfoy had an arrow hit by the horseman in the knee, but now it is completely invisible... Treating such "skin wounds" with wizards can be said to be a piece of cake; Malfoy's parents are all He is a very good wizard.
　　 "Hey, Matthew!" Malfoy said hello weakly.
　　 "How is Christmas?" Matthew asked.
　　 "Just like that," Malfoy shrugged. "Except for a day and a night in the horseman's cave, all other times are fine!"
　　 Matthew couldn't help but smile.
"Waiting for this summer vacation, I think I want my father to take me to find a few experienced old witches to take a look..." Malfoy sighed, "It's really unlucky... Since enrolling in September of the previous year, I have been there. I was injured for various reasons...I suspect I was possessed by something bad..."
　　 Matthew blinked and echoed a few words casually.
　　 The two chatted about Christmas.
　　 "By the way, Matthew," Malfoy suddenly lowered his voice, and said seriously, "My dad didn't plan to let me come back..."
　　 "Are you not going to let you come back?" Matthew asked, somewhat alert.
"Yeah..." Malfoy nodded. "He told me that something big is going to happen at Hogwarts this year... Many wizards from the pure-blood family feel that they don't want to send the children back to school... …"
　　 Matthew couldn't help frowning.
　　 Even at this time last year, Morgana the Black Witch raged on the Hogwarts campus, causing many nasty attacks... At that time, no parents of students considered preventing their children from returning to school...
　　 "Then why are you back again?" Matthew asked curiously.
"Because Principal Grindelwald didn't allow it," Malfoy sighed. "My father received a notice, and some of his friends also received the notice from Hogwarts... No students It is allowed to drop out in the middle of school, nor is it allowed to transfer to Durmstrang or Boothbarton. This was previously allowed, otherwise severe punishment will be imposed..."
　　 Matthew was stunned, as if lost in thought.
　　 "So... my father advised me to be as careful as possible in school for the remaining half of the school year..." Draco Malfoy said mysteriously, "If I don't want to lose my life..."
　　……
　　 The next day, the school started.
　　 They braved the cold wind again, and went to the greenhouse with difficulty.
　　 Fortunately, the temperature in the greenhouse is normal, not too difficult... but you can smell some weird plants from time to time.
　　 But they need to go outside the greenhouse for more than half of this class... Staying outdoors for more than an hour in the cold January morning is something that no one wants to do.
　　 In fact, the content of this class should have been the work of the last semester; they needed to transplant the flor flowers outside the greenhouse... But due to the heavy snowstorm at the end of last semester, the course was postponed.
　　 But the Flor flowers in the greenhouse could not continue to grow for too long. At the beginning of the new semester, Professor Pomona Sprout in the herbal medicine classroom started to complete the work with them.
They wore dragon fur coats and thick masks, and then carefully dug out the flor flowers that grew almost the same from the soil... After preventing them in the sealed bag, they had to take them to go. garden.
　　 You must be very careful during the process, because the pollen of Flor flower is highly toxic...not only can the students not smell it, but if it leaks out during transportation, it may have disastrous consequences.
　　Professor Sprout carefully checked the sealed bags of all of them and made sure that nothing went wrong before taking them out.
　　 Hogwarts gardens are usually rarely open. Professor Sprout took the key and opened the big rusty lock... Everyone was curious and looked around...
　　 "Please don't fall behind!" Professor Sprout kindly reminded.
　　 Five minutes later, they came to the fountain in the garden... Except for an empty dirt floor, there are small yellow flowers planted in other places.
　　 "Can anyone tell me what these are?" Professor Sprout asked.
　　 Because she is wearing a mask, her voice is a bit unclear.
　　 Matthew raised his hand quickly.
　　 "Okay, Mr. Wickfield!" Professor Sprout nodded Matthew's name.
On the side of 　　, Agnes Lestrange gave Matthew a little annoyed look, and put down her half-raised hand.
　　 "These are highland daisies." Matthew replied calmly.
　　 "Very correct!" Professor Sprout nodded at Matthew very satisfied, "Very well...then can you tell me why highland daisies need to be planted here?"
　　 "The pollen of the highland daisy is similar to the pollen properties of the Flor flower, and can remove the toxicity of the Flor flower..." Matthew said calmly.
　　 "Great!" Professor Sprout gave Matthew a thumbs up.
　　 "Then can we take off the masks?" A Hufflepuff student couldn't help but said, "I'm almost suffocating..."
　　 While talking, he stretched out his hand to take off the mask.
　　 "Of course not!" Professor Sprout severely stopped the student's behavior.
"Highland daisy pollen, although it can remove the toxicity of Flor flower pollen, it takes a long time..." Then Professor Sprout explained, "So, this behavior is not desirable... …"
"Because the garden is usually not open to the public, we can do this... After Christmas, the Flor flowers will stop secreting pollen; we can let them get along with the highland daisies for more than a month, and their toxicity can completely disappear... …"
　　 "...After more than a month, on Valentine's Day, when the garden reopens, you will be able to enjoy the beauty of Flor flowers...Of course, there are also their magical functions..."
　　 "But we are in the second grade, professor," a Hufflepuff girl corrected. "We can't celebrate Valentine's Day this year."
　　 Hogwarts Valentine's Day is an annual orthodox holiday... It is only limited to students in third grade or above.
　　 "Is that so..." Professor Sprout said embarrassingly, "Well, I almost forgot... Then you can come to the garden in February next year to appreciate the fruits of your labor a year ago."
As if to alleviate the embarrassment, Professor Sprout shouted: "Okay, kids, we will start working now... Pick up the small shovel beside you, and transplant these Flor flowers in... Complete After this step, the course about Flor flowers is completely over!"
　　Everyone started to work quickly
　　 This seemingly simple step, but a small problem appeared.
　　The garden is not a greenhouse, because the temperature is too low, the soil is almost frozen, and it can't be shoveled with a small shovel...Theodore Knott even almost broke his shovel, almost broken.
　　 Matthew came up with a good way. He took out his wand and pointed it at the condensed mud in front of him:
　　 "Flame ()!"
　　 After roasting with an open flame for a while, the frozen soil gradually softened.
　　 Matthew waited patiently for a while, because the temperature was very low, and the temperature of the warm soil that was toasted quickly dropped again.
　　 Taking advantage of this time, he quickly planted his Flor flower in ~EbookFREE.me~ When Matthew had finished all the work, many other students were still waving their shovel vigorously.
　　……
　　 The long herbal medicine lesson is finally over.
　　 They were almost exhausted one by one.
　　 But the Slytherin students don’t have time to rest now, because they still have a course on the first day of school.
　　 The "Severus Snape" professor's transformation class was held ten minutes after the herbal medicine class.
　　 They dragged their tired bodies to the front of the deformation class classroom.
　　 The door of the classroom was closed, and there seemed to be a notice posted on the door.
　　 A few students leaned forward, and they immediately showed very excited expressions.
　　 "Professor Snape has not returned to school for some reason..." Malfoy and the others celebrated very happily, "This transformation class is temporarily postponed, great!"
　　 This is naturally a good thing, even Matthew, take a good rest at this time.
　　But--
　　 The "Severus Snape" professor has not returned to school for some reason?
　　 Matthew couldn't help frowning.
What is the reason for 　　?
　　 When he suddenly thought of the St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Injuries, he once had a relationship with Professor "Snape"!
Is 　　 related to that?
　　 Matthew was lost in thought.