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Chapter 170: Dracula thought Harry and Ron could be dogged.

"Is that so?" Dracula was noncommittal, "Then tell me, why did you make so many low-level mistakes that you shouldn't have made when capturing magical animals? It doesn't look to me like you were there to collect lecture material in the slightest, but rather like you were there to mutilate the animals."

Dracula and Riddle locked eyes and fixed him with scrutinizing gazes, the heavy pressure slowly pressing down.

"Okay, I admit that I didn't go to the Forbidden Forest just to capture magical animals to use as teaching material ..." After a moment, Riddle finally couldn't resist the pressure given by Dracula and changed his words, "I actually wanted to exercise to improve my spell casting ability."

"Exercise spell casting ability?" Dracula furrowed his eyebrows.

"That's right, there are many, complicated spell casting techniques in my memories, as well as many strong magic spells, but this body is still too new after all, it's hard to integrate the spell casting techniques in my memories." Riddle said.

"That's why I need to find some hostile creatures to help me practice spell casting, only then can I gradually bring my strength up."

Dracula glanced at him tantalizingly and took out a blood-flavored lollipop from his desk drawer, peeling off the candy's outer wrapping.

"In order to improve your spell-casting abilities, so you went inside the Forbidden Forest to mutilate magical creatures?" He stuffed the lollipop into his mouth and said absently, "Why don't you find a wizard at Hogwarts to be your chaperone?"

"There are so many professors here, there will always be one willing to help you. Even if there are absolutely no professors willing to help you, you could always run over to Slytherin and get a few curses out of Professor Snape, I'm sure he'd be willing to go through a few moves with you."

Dracula had a lollipop in his mouth and a playful expression.

"Well ... I hadn't thought of that one," Riddle smiled insinuatingly, "A newcomer like me who hasn't been at Hogwarts for very long always feels it's not quite right to bother another professor over something like that. "

"What's inappropriate about it? They're all colleagues, and you don't look a few years older than the students, they're just as patient with you as they are with the younger wizards." Dracula let out a light laugh, "I see that you don't think it's inappropriate, but clearly have other plans!"

Riddle's improvised reason was too fake, so fake that there was no need to doubt the truth of this matter, and it did not stand up to scrutiny at all.

It was also unknown why this assistant coach, who should theoretically be very intelligent, would make up such an unrealistic excuse.

Was it because he hadn't even thought that his behavior in the Forbidden Forest would be discovered before? Or was it because he thought the matter was frank enough to be left completely undisguised?

"Riddle, don't hide anything or you should know the consequences." Dracula changed to an icy expression.

Only paired with the lollipop in his mouth, the icy expression instead looked a bit incongruous ...

"Professor Dracula, I really can't say this secret." Riddle shook his head helplessly, "If I just tell it out like this, it might in turn make you unhappy."

"But you hiding it like this now precisely makes me even more unhappy." Dracula said in a cold voice.

A light suddenly flowed in Dracula's eyes, staring straight into Riddle's eyes.

Vaguely, some images of mold lakes emerged from Riddle's eyes, yet these not-so-distinct images quickly disappeared again.

"Compared to the level of spell casting, your brain closure technique is well practiced." Dracula snorted.

"After all, that was the most important thing that that main soul of mine took to heart during the school year to watch out for Dumbledore's prying eyes at the time." Riddle grinned, "Along with his regal fetching of thoughts he grew proficient at it."

Dracula looked at Riddle once more and waved his hand, whisking him out of the office.

He rose from his seat, savoring the blood-flavored lollipop in his mouth, feeling the salty taste on his tongue as he pondered the secrets of the Forbidden Forest.

Even though Riddle's Brain Closure was already considered to be in that top tier of the magical world, there were no wizards who could manage to make their mental protection seamless in the face of Dracula's mental snooping.

From the images of a few mold lakes just now, Dracula saw an ancient building with roaming snakes all over the building.

This place was once very familiar to Dracula, but never had the heart to recall it.

If Riddle's erratic behavior in the Forbidden Forest had been to seek out this location, then Dracula would have indeed been displeased by the incident, and indeed would not have bothered to hitch a ride with him for it.

It was a place he didn't want to mention for a long time.

...

Christmas Day dawned.

It was cold and white in every direction.

Looking out the windows of the Gryffindor Tower, one could barely see the spires of the towers across the street, nor could one see the Quidditch pitch or the frozen Black Lake.

The wind and snow roared around Hogwarts Castle, raising a dusting of snow in the air. The snow seemed to be a white tapestry, swirling down from the sky one after the other, sending chills down the spines of the young wizards who stayed in school.

Only Harry and Ron were left in the Gryffindor second year dormitory, which had been hot and bustling from time to time.

It wasn't until almost noon that Ron sat up from his bed with his pet mouse, Spotty, in his arms and stretched lazily.

"Harry, how are you doing on your Christmas presents this year?" He asked as he saw Harry, who was sitting next to the window opening his presents, yawning as he molded.

"Everyone else is pretty much ready for Christmas, but I'm still missing one that I don't know what to get." Harry responded.

Harry unwrapped a small package as his owl, Hedwig, stood on the table next to him, looking at him curiously.

The small package was from Mr. and Mrs. Dursley - they had given Harry a toothpick just for Christmas, along with a short letter asking him to inquire if he could stay and spend the summer at Hogwarts as well.

In fact, Harry wanted to stay at Hogwarts for the summer as well, but unfortunately Hogwarts had never granted such a request from the young wizard.

"Is there another gift that isn't ready?" Ron glanced out the window at the inclement weather, "You might have to hurry then, or the owls certainly won't be able to deliver the gift the same day on a snowy day like this."

"I know." Harry said, "The gifts that need to be delivered to places a little further away were sent out last night, the rest of this gift is at Hogwarts and will definitely be delivered that day."

"A gift within Hogwarts?" Ron asked in surprise, "What's the hesitation about that, the students are all pretty much related anyway, so why not just pick a few and send them off?"

He came over to Harry and looked at the signature on the envelope, "Huh, you don't have Professor Dracula's gift ready yet?"

"Yeah, I don't know what to get Professor Dracula." Harry said.

"It's not that simple?" Ron slapped his thigh and said decisively, "Didn't we analyze it last Christmas? Professor Dracula's favorite things are alcohol and lollipops, my choice of vodka and sunny sweet orange flavored lollipops are absolutely fine!"

With that, he also pulled out a bottle of vodka from inside his own pile of gifts and placed it in front of Harry, "I got an extra bottle of vodka that I can lend you!"

"Eh ... Ron, I was actually wondering if Professor Dracula would not like vodka?" Harry glanced at the bottle of the legendary water of life and fell into hesitation.

"I remember after last Christmas, we both got our Defense Against the Dark Arts class assignments called back and rewritten ... Do you think it could be because Professor Dracula wasn't happy with our gifts?"

"No way?" Ron froze for a moment, "My analysis should be fine, and is Professor Dracula so careful?"

'Professor Dracula is that careful!'

Harry spat secretly, but didn't dare to say it out loud for fear that the walls would have ears and the careful Professor Dracula would overhear.

"Ron, the general direction of your analysis should not be a problem ...," Harry said reasonably, "but when Professor Dracula usually drinks alcohol, he is very elegantly drinking red wine in a tall glass, with the vodka kind of 'tons and tons and tons' vibe doesn't seem quite the same."

"Seems to make sense." Ron was deep in thought.

"So I think we should get some high quality red wine!" Harry looked up confidently.

"But where are we going to buy high quality red wine in this weather?" Ron mumbled in a small voice, "And I'm sure Professor Dracula won't be able to look at regular red wine, and we don't have that kind of money for that kind of luxury."

Hearing what Ron said, Harry's head dropped as well.

"So what are we going to do?" Harry said with his head drooping, "I don't want to be penalized for rewriting my homework again because of the gift."

Ron cupped his chin, thinking, with a wise look on his face.

"I know!" He slapped his hand hard, "We can't afford to buy the most expensive wine, but we can make the most original one!"

"How?" Harry asked.

"You see Harry, the main thing between vodka and red wine is actually the difference in color, drinking vodka from a tall glass would look weird." Ron said confidently, "But what if we colored clear vodka red?"

"Huh?" Harry's mouth dropped open.

He always felt that there was something wrong with Ron's idea, and he couldn't tell what it was, but it just felt a little off.

"Don't worry, Professor Dracula must have wanted to taste a good high-count drink like vodka as well, but he just didn't think it was elegant or degrading enough, which is why he didn't think our gift was good enough." Ron said.

"But what if the vodka turns red? As long as it is disguised as red wine in a high-grade red wine bottle, Professor Dracula can serve the vodka in a tall glass in a dignified manner, and even more so, he can drink it elegantly."

Ron's eyes grew brighter and his expression became more confident.

"Come on, Harry, let's go to Greenhouse One together and pick a few cockscombs back." He threw on his own thick coat and rushed out of the dormitory, pulling Harry along with him, "It's Christmas, there's surely not much going on over at the greenhouses, and my plan is perfectly feasible!"

Harry was dragged by Ron as he stumbled all the way to the greenhouse shed in the northeast corner of the castle.

His heart was a bit beat up about Ron's whimsical idea, but couldn't resist this deadbeat's overconfidence, and didn't hear any of Harry's questioning words at all ...

...

In the evening, the snow and wind hadn't stopped outside, and the gale was blowing so hard that people outside wrapped their robes tightly around them.

But in contrast, the Hogwarts auditorium was warm with magic.

At Christmas dinner, all the people ate with gusto.

The auditorium looked grand and imposing, with thousands of candles in the sky giving off a bright and gentle glow.

There were a dozen Christmas trees covered in silver frost staggered around the auditorium, and the ceiling was decorated with many criss-crossed, beautiful ornaments of mistletoe and holly.

There was enchanted snow falling gently from the ceiling, warm and dry, not cold like the snowflakes outside in the cold wind.

Dumbledore led the young wizards in a few of his favorite Christmas carols.

These carols although sung by the young wizards out of tune out of tune, outrageous outrageous, broken tone broken tone ... but compared to the Hogwarts school song, at least it is still a standard tune, not so much as to let the song is completely out of tune, only blind nonsense singing.

In the middle of the song, Hagrid poured down cup after cup of eggnog, and his voice became louder and louder, and in the end, the auditorium could almost only hear his ghostly singing voice alone ...

Percy Weasley had likewise failed to go with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to visit the oldest son in the family, Bill. But his explanation to the other young wizards was that he had stayed for Christmas only because it was his duty, as a straight-A student, to support his professors during the expensively staffed holidays.

So Fred, who couldn't stand it, quietly enchanted his older brother so that the "P" on his Head Boy badge, which stood for Head Boy, had a few small letters added to it, turning it into "Pinhead".

Percy doesn't even realize it and asks what everyone is laughing at.

As the festive Christmas dinner progressed, Dracula sat bored in his professor's chair, watching the young wizards laugh and jostle, and even some of the professors joined in.

He casually took out a bottle of red wine that he had gotten from somewhere and casually poured it into the goblet in front of him.

The red wine in the goblet was crystal clear, and the glass was glowing with a slightly purplish color, which made it look extraordinarily attractive.

Dracula nodded his head in satisfaction, elegantly raising the glass to his mouth and taking a light sip ...

"Pfft--"

The "red wine" in Dracula's mouth instantly sprayed Snape, who was sitting across from him, in the face.

"Dracula!" Snape stood up fiercely, gritting his teeth and pulling out his wand, the wine still dripping from his face onto the tabletop, "If you were trying to provoke me, then I admit you did!"

"Excuse me, Professor Snape." Dracula knew he was a little out of line and did a cleansing spell on Snape's hawkish nose, cleaning his greasy hair in the process, "It's really just that the drink was a little out of the ordinary ..."

"Vodka?" The corner of his mouth twitched a little as he looked over at the bottle of premium red wine in front of him.

Dracula instantly thought of this bottle of red wine he'd picked up from a pile of Christmas presents, and thought that Potter and Wesley, who'd been thinking of giving it as a gift, had finally learned the hard way about their preferences ...

This was now a new grudge, and with the bottle of vodka and the Sunny Sugar Orange lollipop from last Christmas, the two of them could basically be declared leashed!

"How about this, Professor Snape ..." Dracula looked to Snape, who inexplicably looked a bit cleaner after his hair stopped being oily, "As compensation, I'll type Potter and Wesley's homework back and rewrite it once, no. Three times!"

Hearing Dracula's compensation, Snape thought for a moment, his angry face gradually calming down.

"Deal!"

He nodded heavily and sat back in his seat.

Offstage, Harry and Ron, who were fighting with Draco Malfoy, suddenly felt a chill on their crests ...