Professor Vampire.

Chapter 110: Chocolate Frog Picture

In the Hogwarts Castle, Harry was clearly unaware that his invaluable mentor—a diary he had stumbled upon—had been ordered to obtain his blood within a month and a half.

At that moment, he was worrying about tomorrow's Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

"Hermione, you're the smartest one among us. Can you guess what tomorrow's Defense Against the Dark Arts class will be like?" Harry asked, sitting on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room and looking anxiously at Hermione, who was scribbling away.

"If you're asking about Defense Against the Dark Arts, I'm not the smartest one, Harry." Hermione, with her messy hair, said without looking up, "You're the top student in Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

It was clear that Hermione was still a bit disgruntled about not being the top in all her subjects, especially considering that person was Harry, who often didn't do his homework and was always fooling around with Ron.

"Come on, Hermione, my last exam results were just a fluke. You're definitely the smartest!" Harry said, leaning on the table and trying to butter up Hermione.

At this point, he thought about the diary that had been helping him with his studies.

'Speaking of which, I haven't seen Tom around these days,' Harry wondered, thinking he might have misplaced the diary.

Harry was about to look for Tom to ask if it had any thoughts about the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Just then, Ron came down the stairs from the other side of the common room.

"Hermione, I brought the book you wanted!" he said with a bright smile, handing Hermione a book. "Look, it's the book Hagrid let slip about the magical creatures."

Harry stopped in his tracks and looked at the book in Ron's hands.

The book had a deep green cover with some golden patterns, and the title "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was written in sparkling gold near the top.

"This is a work by Newt Scamander. If we choose to take the Care of Magical Creatures class in our third year, we'll likely use this book," Hermione explained to Harry and Ron as she took the book.

She then showed a look of admiration, "This book includes almost all the magical creatures known in the wizarding world. I can't imagine how Scamander managed to gather all this information!"

"Wait a minute, Hermione," Ron said, looking confused. "You mean... this is a third-year textbook, but you've already read it?"

"Yes, Hermione, we're only in our second year!" Harry agreed.

"What are you two thinking?" Hermione shot them a look, "I finished this book before the start of my first year. I forgot some details after not looking at it for a while, so I needed Ron to borrow it from the library."

Harry: "..."

Ron: "..."

"Alright, stop standing there. Come look at this magical creature!" Hermione's eyes lit up as she flipped to a page in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and waved Harry and Ron over. "It's the creature Hagrid mentioned yesterday—called the hinkypunk."

Harry and Ron came over and saw the book describing a magical creature holding a lantern and hopping on one leg.

"The hinkypunk is a small, one-legged magical creature that appears in blue, gray, or white mist. It likes to disguise itself as a helpful guide, carrying a lantern to light the way for travelers at night, thereby luring them off the path into dangerous swamps or marshes..."

Hermione read out the characteristics of the hinkypunk from the book.

"Hmm, so the hinkypunk just lures others into danger?" Ron asked skeptically, "It doesn't seem to have much offensive power, right?"

"It seems that way." Hermione nodded, her messy hair bobbing along, "As long as we're a bit cautious in the wild, we're unlikely to be led into danger by a hinkypunk."

"But... this seems different from what we imagined?" Harry said with a puzzled expression, "We were just guessing how Professor Dracula might torment us—Neville guessed he might bring a fire dragon into the classroom and make us fight it!"

"Harry, Professor Dracula is a good professor. He wouldn't make us face an enemy that's impossible to deal with!" Hermione said indignantly.

"Uh..." Ron was interrupted, and he hesitantly added, "Hermione, do you think it's possible that... Professor Dracula himself is someone we just can't handle..."

Hermione was momentarily speechless.

"Ahem, Hermione, let's just find out what the other magical creature Hagrid mentioned is." Harry covered his mouth, trying to hold back a laugh, "What was it called... Grindelwald, right?"

"It's Grindylow, Harry." Hermione regained some of her confidence as the topic returned to magical creatures, correcting Harry's mistake. "I remember Grindelwald was on the Chocolate Frog card, or wait, was it on Dumbledore's card?"

Ron thought for a moment, pulled out a pentagonal blue box from his pocket, and unwrapped it.

"I happen to have a box of Chocolate Frogs. We can check if we have Dumbledore's card," Ron said with interest. "I've collected a whole set of Chocolate Frog cards, but they're in the dormitory, and I'm too lazy to get them now."

"Ron, how can you be sure this box of Chocolate Frogs has Dumbledore's card?" Hermione asked, looking skeptically at Ron.

"Can't be sure, but it's quite likely," Ron said as he removed the outer wrapping of the box and lifted the pentagonal blue lid. "Dumbledore's card is the most common. Harry and I got Dumbledore's card when we first met on the Hogwarts Express!"

He took a Chocolate Frog out of the box and placed it on the table. Harry quickly pressed down on the Chocolate Frog to prevent it from jumping off the table.

Then, Ron pulled out the pentagonal blue card from beneath the frog.

The card had a golden frame with an elderly man with glasses, white hair, and a long white beard smiling warmly.

"See! I told you, it's definitely Dumbledore, right?" Ron said proudly, holding up the card and showing it to Harry and Hermione.

Hermione snatched the card from Ron's hand, turned it over, and read the blue text on the back—

"Albus Dumbledore, current headmaster of Hogwarts; recognized as one of the greatest wizards of modern times. Dumbledore's well-known achievements include: defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, discovering twelve uses of dragon blood, and his successful collaboration with Nicolas Flamel in alchemy. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling."

The three young witches and wizards were not aware of the stories behind Dumbledore's "well-known achievements" and looked at the card with curiosity, somewhat stunned.

"I just realized, we didn't need to ask Professor Dracula about Nicolas Flamel..." Harry said, still in shock, "Nicolas Flamel's name is already on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card."

"But Professor Dracula gave you a chance to talk to Mr. Flamel remotely!" Hermione said indignantly, feeling regretful about not having the chance to speak with the famous alchemist. "You two wasted a great opportunity. If it were me, I'd have prepared hundreds of questions about alchemy..."

"So Grindelwald is famous?" Ron asked, bewildered, "He's even mentioned as part of 'Dumbledore's well-known achievements' on the Chocolate Frog card."

"I remember!" Hermione's eyes lit up as she pulled out a thick tome from the stack of books beside her, "You must not have been paying attention in History of Magic!"

"Professor Binns mentioned in class that Grindelwald is considered one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time and led the global wizarding war fifty years ago..."

"Only Hermione would listen to History of Magic..." Ron muttered.

Hermione ignored him and flipped to a later page in "History of Magic," which showed a golden-haired, blue-eyed middle-aged wizard smiling broadly at the three young witches and wizards outside the book.

If Professor Dracula saw this wizard's image, he might be reminded of the golden-haired youth seen in the Mirror of Erised, which could spark a deeper interest in this most famous dark wizard of the first half of the century.

However, Harry and Ron were not very interested in the dark wizard defeated by Dumbledore; they wanted to quickly change the subject from Hermione's enthusiastic quest for knowledge to something less tedious.

"Hermione, haven't you forgotten our main task?" Harry said cautiously, "We need to find out about tomorrow's Defense Against the Dark Arts class and what we will be facing."

For other subjects, they might have already found out the next class's content from the textbook.

However, Professor Dracula's Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were notoriously unpredictable, seemingly taught on a whim without any planning... No wonder the failure rate in Defense Against the Dark Arts was higher than in other major subjects.

Of course, Professor Dracula was reliable enough, as the failure rate for Defense Against the Dark Arts in previous years was several times higher than the previous year!

What frustrated the young witches and wizards was that this year, Professor Dracula had authored a textbook, but it was not for teaching. Instead, it pointed out flaws in "Dark Arts: A Self-Defense Guide," making it impossible for them to rely on any book, leaving their preparation for the next class up to fate.

This was particularly distressing for Hermione, who wanted to prepare in advance!

Hearing Harry's desire to focus on the main task, Hermione put away "History of Magic" and gave Harry a resigned look.

Sure, here's the translation:

---

It was Harry who mistakenly referred to Grindelwald as "Grindylow" because he had seen the name Grindelwald on a Chocolate Frog card before, which led the topic astray!

"The remaining magical creature is the Grindylow. Next time, don't mispronounce it, Harry!" she said irritably, flipping a few pages back in the book *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* that had been covered by other books, "Found it!"

"The Grindylow is a green water creature with horns, classified as a dark magic creature. It has a green body, greenish-green teeth, and horns on its head. The Grindylow has very long fingers which, despite being quite strong when grabbing things, are easily broken..."

"Hm... XXX level magical creature? Isn't that a bit too low?" Ron asked curiously, looking at the danger level indicated in the book. "Hermione, what level magical creature is the cat-bat you always wanted? X level?"

"The cat-bat is a XXX level magical creature and is somewhat dangerous," Hermione said. "So, I'm only planning to get a mixed-breed kitten with some cat-bat lineage, not a purebred cat-bat."

"What?!" Ron exclaimed, his eyes wide in shock. "A cat is actually a XXX level magical creature?!"

"Hermione, I beg you, please don't get a cat, at least for the sake of my Scabbers, okay?"

"Ron, a tamed mixed-breed cat-bat is not dangerous!" Hermione corrected him sternly. "And I will make sure to feed my cat only clean, good food, not mice. You can't deprive me of my right to have a cat just because you have a rat!"

"Hey! Are you implying that Scabbers is dirty?" Ron asked angrily.

Seeing the two friends on the verge of an argument, Harry quickly stepped in as a peacemaker, standing between them.

"Ron, Hermione, you're going off-topic again!" Harry said. "We still haven't figured out the danger level of the Grindylow!"

"No need to research further, the Grindylow isn't too dangerous," Hermione said, sitting down irritably and turning her head away. "I don't think Professor Dracula will be giving us that kind of devilish practical training anymore."

"That's good, that's good," Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

...

Even though Hermione suspected that Professor Dracula wouldn't be as ruthless as in the first week, Harry and his friends still couldn't be sure what to expect in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class the next day.

So, the next day, after the first period of Herbology, Harry volunteered to ask the third-year students who had Defense Against the Dark Arts as their first class about the course content.

"Harry, why are you so diligent today?" Ron asked suspiciously as he watched Harry quickly pack up his Herbology gear. "And the third-year and second-year content is quite different; I don't think it will be very helpful."

"The difference between third-year and second-year is only one year; the content in Defense Against the Dark Arts shouldn't differ too much," Harry said, quickly slinging his bag over his shoulder and heading towards the greenhouse door. "Besides, I happen to know someone in Ravenclaw's third year."

"Wait a minute, Harry," Ron said, grabbing Harry's backpack. "We can go together. When we return to the dormitory at noon, we can just ask a third-year Gryffindor what they learned in the morning."

"But I'm still a bit anxious and want to know right away what we'll face in the afternoon's Defense Against the Dark Arts class!" Harry said determinedly, shrugging off Ron's hand and rushing out of the greenhouse door.

Watching Harry leave in a hurry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, puzzled.

"When did Harry get to know a third-year Ravenclaw student?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"I don't know..." Hermione also shook her head in confusion. "I haven't seen Harry act like this before."

...

Harry ran all the way, urgently calculating in his mind.

He packed up quickly, and since Ravenclaw students usually like to leave the classroom later, the Ravenclaw students in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class should still be in the classroom when he left Greenhouse 1.

Although the Herbology greenhouse was quite far from Gryffindor Tower, it was relatively closer to Ravenclaw Tower. He still had to cross the entire teaching area—the greenhouse is located in the northeast corner of the teaching area, while Ravenclaw Tower is on the southwest side.

If Harry was fast enough, he could run from Greenhouse 1 in the northeast corner along the north side of the teaching area to the west side, then climb up to the second floor from the entrance leading to the Quidditch pitch, and run south to the staircase near Ravenclaw Tower.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was located on the second floor near the middle of the eastern corridor. Ravenclaw students returning to their common room would definitely pass through the southern corridor of the teaching area, just in time for Harry to meet them.

Harry was betting on his luck, hoping the student he wanted to meet wouldn't go directly to the Great Hall for lunch—

Generally, the Great Hall is the most crowded immediately after class, and the path to the Great Hall is also very busy. So most Ravenclaw students prefer to return to the common room to read for a while before heading to the Great Hall for a meal...

Finally, luck was on his side. Harry stopped the Ravenclaw third-year student he "knew" at the second-floor staircase of Ravenclaw Tower.

Walking down the corridor was a very beautiful Asian girl with long, cascading black hair, holding a few books in her hands, adding a touch of gentle bookish charm.

"Hello, Cho Chang," Harry said breathlessly, his face flushed, as he greeted her. "We've met before, during the time Professor Dracula distributed the talismans."

Cho Chang looked at the red-faced boy whose hair was tousled by the wind with some surprise.

"Harry Potter?" She smiled slightly. "Actually, you don't need to introduce yourself. I'm sure no one here doesn't know who you are."

Then, Cho Chang smiled politely and looked at Harry with a questioning gaze, waiting for him to explain what he needed.

"Uh... well, it's not a big deal..." Harry glanced at Cho Chang and quickly looked away, speaking shyly. "Our first class this afternoon is Defense Against the Dark Arts. I was just trying to ask you, if you don't mind, what did you cover in the morning?"

Cho Chang nodded slightly, about to speak, but another voice cut in first—

"If you want to know what was covered, you could just ask me."

A silver-haired figure suddenly spoke up from somewhere.