Chapter 77: New Words to Dig Out, Don’t Waste More!

On Monday morning, a notice was suddenly posted on the Hufflepuff bulletin board:

The Dueling Club is hereby established. This is the notice of Hogwarts Headmaster Dumbledore, at 8 pm on November 20th.

All the students gathered under the bulletin board and chattered about it. Everyone seemed very excited.

There was no way... Lockhart did the most in class every day, which was to take out a passage from the book and let everyone perform a drama.

After half a semester, I didn't learn any useful knowledge, but I learned a lot from "On the Self-cultivation of Actors".

Is the school finally going to teach something useful?

Hannah, standing in the crowd, said in an expectant tone:

"I hope Professor Dumbledore will teach us dueling in person. I heard from my grandfather that he used to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, so he must be experienced."

"How old is Professor Dumbledore? Does he still have practical skills?" Susan raised her eyebrows and said.

"I don't know, maybe... 120 years old?" Hannah guessed.

"One hundred and fifty years old?" Susan thought for a moment and said.

"No, I think he looks two hundred years old. Look at the wrinkles on his face..." McMillan laughed.

The students all laughed. No one cared how old Dumbledore was. In everyone's eyes, Dumbledore seemed to be healthy and long-lived forever.

"Maybe Professor Flitwick will come to teach us." Neville interrupted, "My grandmother said that Professor Flitwick was a fighting champion when he was young."

"Professor Flitwick, I heard from a Ravenclaw student..." Susan whispered, "He is a half-blood of a wizard and a house elf!"

Hearing this information, the little wizards eagerly gossiped about Professor Flitwick's identity. Anyway, he was definitely not a pure-blood wizard.

Neville looked at Rolf who was silent and asked, "Rolf, what do you think, who will teach us how to duel?"

"No need to guess, it's Lockhart." Rolf came back to his senses and laughed softly:

"Besides him, who else would you think would propose to hold a duel club?"

"If it's him, I'd rather not participate!" Justin complained loudly, and other students followed suit.

Now most students have determined that Lockhart is a liar.

Rolf didn't say anything, just looked at the notice and pondered.

Since Lockhart is going to hold a duel club, why doesn't he take the opportunity to search the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office? !

...

...

As the duel club was approaching, after the dinner, the auditorium was redecorated, the four dining tables were replaced by a gilded stage, and hundreds of candles were floating in the air.

All students were guessing who the teacher was, but they didn't know that the professors were also trying their best to compete for this place.

Finally, at the suggestion of Professor McGonagall, the fairest way of drawing lots was adopted.

Professor Snape was lucky to get this precious opportunity to "help" Lockhart.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick also hinted to Snape to teach Lockhart a lesson, at least to make him behave for a while.

This was probably the first time that the four major colleges were so united.

Snape, of course, understood this tacitly, and even considered whether to let Lockhart be injured more seriously... so that he could take over the Defense Against the Dark Arts class again.

Obviously, during the half year when Quirrell was injured, Snape also tasted the sweetness.

At eight o'clock in the evening,

all the students rushed to the auditorium on time.

Walking on the road, Shirley asked: "Rolf, are you really going to search Lockhart's office?"

"My intuition tells me that there must be something wrong with Lockhart." Rolf whispered: "Someone told me, 'Don't ignore intuition, it is data that is processed too fast and exceeds the human brain's ability to understand.'"

"Do you want me to go with you?" Shirley whispered.

"No need." Rolf smiled and said, "I'm faster, maybe I can catch up with the duel club."

The ponytail girl was silent for a moment, and then reminded, "Then you should be careful."

Perhaps afraid that the boy would not pay attention, Shirley blushed and reminded again, "Really be careful."

"I know." Rolf said goodbye to the girl and turned to walk in another direction.

The girl stood at the stairs and watched the boy's figure disappear in the depths of the corridor. She turned and walked towards the auditorium.

Rolf walked along the corridor on the third floor and soon came to the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office. His figure disappeared, so he let the Bowtruckle open the door and quietly walked into the room.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts Office was transformed by Lockhart and was very gorgeous. The floor was covered with wool carpets, the walls were covered with exquisite brocade, and long beeswax candles emitted abundant light.

There were countless frames of Lockhart's photos hanging on the wall. They all looked up. The door of the office was clearly opened, but they did not see the wizard.

After Rolf closed the door, he walked towards the desk step by step. He sat on the chair and flipped through the things on the desk as if nothing had happened.

The desk was large, with ink bottles and quill pens placed on it, as well as cakes, biscuits and peaches scattered around. Exquisite silver cups surrounded a pot of wine, and a cedar box was full of letters.

The boy glanced at them casually. Most of them were letters sent by Lockhart's fans, and letters he replied to fans.

Rolf searched and picked, but did not find Tom Riddle's diary in the desk and cabinet, so he had to open the bedroom.

Walking into the bedroom, Rolf suddenly became energetic.

In the corner of the bedroom, there was a small workbench filled with various ointments, herbs and potions, and many bottles filled with golden liquid.

Rolf found that these liquids and packaging were exactly the same as the shampoo that Lockhart gave to Snape at the beginning of the school year.

Lockhart did mention more than once in class that he invented a very effective shampoo, but the cost was too high, and his secret ambition was to sell those conditioners.

Could it be this?

But it was just shampoo, and there seemed to be nothing strange in the bedroom. Rolf was a little disappointed, at least these had nothing to do with the diary.

The boy found a piece of parchment on the workbench. After he picked it up, he glanced at the shampoo formula:

Honey, incense, oil and whale oil... There are more than 30 ingredients, and the ingredients are very detailed, but the last ingredient was deliberately smeared by ink.

Rolf frowned. What kind of ingredients need to be smeared?

The boy began to carefully check the workbench, and he soon found silver eggshell fragments in a grinding dish.

Rolf picked up the silver eggshell fragments, put them to his nose and sniffed them, then crushed them and put them on the tip of his tongue, tasting them lightly...

Rolf closed his eyes and pondered, his elbows resting on the workbench, his ten fingertips arched together, forming a spire.

He already knew the last ingredient of the shampoo.

No wonder Malfoy saw Lockhart in the pet store in Knockturn Alley during the summer vacation, he went there to secretly buy that ingredient.

Then, the mysterious animal that attacked Ron and Filch that night... He also knew what it was!

There is no need to dig up more new words!

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