A Certain Hogwarts Magician Professor

Felix came down the spiral staircase, his hands empty, as he always did, unlike other professors who carried books and parchments and the like.

He heard Lupin's voice as he passed the castle keeper's office on the first floor.

"...Unfortunately, I really trouble you. If you can find it, please let me know."

Lupin's thin figure came out of the office and brushed past Felix, "Hello, Professor Hepp." He froze and said with a smile.

"Hello, Professor Lupin, you look good," Felix replied.

When he left, Felix knocked on the door of Filch's office, "Mr. Filch, are you there?" The door was pushed open, and Filch's face emerged from the shadows, a pair of goldfish eyes stare at him.

"Professor Hepp, I thought..." he muttered, moving the door away, with Felix following behind, a rather cramped room next to the castle's foyer.

There are no windows in the room, and it looks dim and cramped even in the daytime. The only light source is a green lantern hanging from the ceiling. There are many wooden filing cabinets lined up around the walls, some of which are already full. The edge of the old yellow-haired parchment sticks out between the cracks.

There were a few chairs in the office, but Felix had no idea of ​​sitting down. He secretly cast an air-freshening spell on himself, finally getting rid of the ubiquitous fishy smell.

Felix looked at a scrawny cat on the table, with big, bulging, bright eyes.

"She seemed very human," Felix said.

Filch was delighted that he used the word "she" and said with a trembling jaw: "You'll never find a cat smarter than her, more human, if I say, better...at least She won't break the school rules and will help you out."

Felix listened patiently to his account of how Mrs Norris was patrolling the corridors alone (a cat?) until Filch was out of breath before he answered, "She looks malnourished, though."

Filch's voice was hoarse, and it seemed that no one had ever asked this question before. He hesitated and said, "She's a picky eater. I persuaded her, but she only eats the fried fish I made..."

"I have some nutrients here, the formula is very clever, the key is that there is no harm." Felix said, he brushed the ring on his left hand with his right hand, and a square wooden box appeared in his hand.

He opened the lid of the box, glanced slightly, and said with some regret: "There's only half left..."

Filch said hesitantly, "Norris may not like—" He took out a small glass bottle from the square wooden box, opened the stopper, and a strange aroma diffused, diluting the fishy smell in the room. .

Mrs. Norris immediately raised her head and stared at the glass bottle with a longing expression.

But it didn't move, but looked up at Filch, who said, "It's okay, Norris, drink it."

The cat immediately let out a oozing cry, jumped off the table, ran quickly to the owner, stuck out its tongue and licked the bright red liquid in the bottle, until the last drop was licked, and then it stretched out contentedly. A lazy waist made a "snoring" sound.

Filch's eyes shone strangely, and he couldn't help but say, "Norris has never been like this. She's dismissive of the pet store's tonics."

Felix explained with a smile: "The formula comes from a potions master who was awarded the Merlin Second Class Medal. It was left by Professor Belby. Although he made it casually, the effect is definitely far better than the products on the market."

"The recipe—"

"I can give it to you, the configuration method is very simple, you don't even need a wand, but you may use some dragon blood."

"It's nothing," Filch said quickly.

"Do you have parchment here?"

"Yes--" Filch swiftly opened the drawer and pulled out a stack of blank parchments. Felix hooked his fingers and let a piece of parchment float in front of him. As he watched, the paper appeared automatically. A series of smooth letters.

All the while, Filch kept staring at the parchment in the air, his knuckled hands twisting together. Felix asked casually: "By the way, I just saw Professor Lupin."

"Yeah," Filch said unconsciously.

"He's here—"

"Begging for something to be confiscated," Filch said, his eyes still on the parchment. "Don't blame me for provoking, Professor Hepp...he's not a good man."

"Why do you say that?"

Filch came to his senses. He glanced at the door warily, and said in a low voice, "He was dishonest when he was in school and liked to violate the school rules... Of course not as many as his two friends, but I can recognize him clearly, he is The one with the bad idea."

He looked at Felix and complimented: "Unlike you, you were a decent man in school—"

Felix said amusingly: "I had a lot of trouble when I was in school."

Filch said slyly, "It's not the same—sir, it's not the same, you never cause trouble to anyone unless it finds you first," he pointed to the filing cabinet by the wall, "there's a drawer there for It belongs to them—Lupin and his funny friends, if not for the abolition of corporal punishment at Hogwarts..."

He murmured dissatisfiedly, "Mr. Pringle is in good time, unlike me, oh, Pringle is the former castle keeper. He left a lot of tools, and I keep them."

Felix looked at the carefully wiped chain hanging on the wall and shook his head, the little wizards had a reason to hate Filch. He knew early on that Filch liked to physically punish students, and even if the physical punishment was abolished, the mental punishment remained.

And Filch is looking for ways to bring this skill to life and carry it forward.

"Mr. Filch, you just said that Professor Lupin came to get his stuff back—"

"That's right, he was hanging out with his friends more than a dozen years ago, and I checked them out and found a suspicious, layered piece of parchment from them, and I suspect there's a secret there, So it was taken away."

Filch said, half of his face twitched, "You don't know how bad they are, after the parchment was confiscated, they still looked indifferent," he said fiercely: "They must think I can't crack it. The secrets, they would throw them away so they could secretly pick them up, but—I didn't, I kept them, and locked them in the drawer marked 'highly dangerous'."

"What about the parchment now, which was given to Professor Lupin?" Felix asked curiously.

"...lost it," Filch said deflated. "I don't remember when it was lost, maybe they took it themselves."

"But as you said, Professor Lupin came to ask for..."

"Who knows, maybe his friends didn't tell him, or other little wizards stole it from me over the years," Filch said regretfully.

The parchment fell in mid-air, and Felix handed the recipe to Filch, "Please put it away."

"thanks, thanks--"

"You're welcome, Mr. Filch, I got what I wanted too."

Filch looked at him in astonishment, Felix smiled and said, "Look, isn't Mrs. Norris very satisfied?" He pointed to the cat at his feet, which was lazily rubbing against his trousers. .