Chapter 80: Suspicious Characters! Quick Verification!

Dudley scanned the surroundings.

He saw the old gatekeeper, Argus Filch, standing silently with a gloomy and cold expression at the entrance of the Great Hall, watching others eat. And he received a D-rank regret unlocked by the System regarding this man.

He also noticed a young and charming witch with a beautiful appearance, a smiling face, full of charm and amiability, sitting at the faculty seats.

Dudley hadn't noticed it before, but now he found that this witch had extremely strong social skills and could have a pleasant conversation with the surrounding professors who had different styles and personalities.

Although she wasn't wearing a headscarf, she was definitely not an ordinary person.

Of course, Snape, with his gloomy and expressionless face, wasn't fond of this witch.

Dudley asked Percy beside him and learned that this witch was Eris Hunter, the new professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts recently hired by Dumbledore.

This was a character that didn't appear in the original story, and there were a lot of suspicions about her.

Especially after Dudley had observed the expressions of other professors and staff and found no problems, the suspicions about this beautiful witch became even greater.

Voldemort's main soul was extremely weak at this stage. Whether it was for the sake of absorbing vitality and magic power or to reduce the restrictions on his actions and facilitate the search for 'The Philosopher's Stone', it was unlikely that he would possess a student.

Most of the other course professors at Hogwarts were quite powerful and knew each other well. It would be difficult to possess them, and it was also easy for the possession to be seen through.

Only the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors, who were frequently replaced, had the authority, magic power, and vitality. They were also relatively unfamiliar with other professors and not easy to be seen through, making them the most suitable candidates.

Thinking of this, Dudley immediately quietly called his cousin.

"Harry, look in the direction of that young female professor at the faculty seats and carefully feel if your scar on your forehead aches faintly."

"Yes! Cousin!"

Harry immediately did as Dudley said and turned to look at the faculty seats.

As a result, after staring for a long time, his scar didn't ache, but he could hardly hold back his anger.

That old bat Snape, probably thinking that Harry and Dudley were staring at him, hardly ate his food anymore and just sat there, having a disgusting long-distance eye contact with the two brothers.

"Forget it, Harry!" Dudley stopped Harry's action. "This approach doesn't work. When the gathering is over later, I'll find an excuse and we'll go meet this beautiful professor."

"Okay, cousin!"

...

After a while, everyone was full.

The remaining food on the plates disappeared and was taken away by the house-elves in the kitchen.

Dumbledore stood up again and gave the students the last warning for tonight.

To sum it up:

The Forbidden Forest is dangerous and should be kept away from. At the request of Administrator Filch, magic is not allowed in the corridors. Students who intend to become Quidditch players can go to Madam Hooch, the flying class professor, to sign up. The review process will be conducted in the second week after enrollment.

After saying these things, regardless of the displeased expressions of other professors, Dumbledore, like an old mischievous child, directed everyone to sing the Hogwarts school song.

Someone also conjured up a long ribbon, which floated in mid - air, constantly twisting and changing to form strings of English lyrics, serving as a prompter.

Suddenly, all kinds of raucous singing voices filled the air. Everyone sang their own tune, completely off - key and out of harmony.

Many students were just faking it and taking advantage of the chaos. They weren't singing the school song at all.

Fred and George, the mischievous twin brothers, were even more outrageous. They were singing the British dirge.

It made Dudley dumbfounded.

After listening to the whole thing, Dudley thought that the tune he led Harry to sing was the best. "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" was such a wonderful melody.

When the song ended, Dumbledore finally announced the end of the event. He asked the prefects of each house to lead their house members back to the dormitories.

Dudley didn't follow the order. Instead, he stood up and, with a beaming smile, led Harry straight to the professors who were also getting up to go back to their offices to rest.

"Professors, I'm the teaching assistant now. I'll need your guidance in the future! Come on, let's get to know each other!"

Dudley was very enthusiastic. After quickly reaching the faculty seats, he bent down and grabbed the hand of the short Professor Flitwick based on the principle of proximity.

Professor Flitwick was very happy and was about to say something to Dudley. However, before he could speak, Dudley let go of his hand and went to shake the hands of other professors.

Harry followed Dudley to smooth things over. As soon as Dudley let go of the hand, Harry quickly stepped forward and held Professor Flitwick's hand. He shyly justified Dudley's behavior, saying that his cousin was just too excited today and hoped the professor could forgive him.

And so on.

Dudley and Harry had a clear division of labor and acted quickly.

Before Dumbledore and the other faculty members could figure out what was going on, Dudley had successfully shaken the hand of that pretty female Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

As expected!

There was no backlash from the weakened Love Protection magic, which proved that the female professor had no intention of killing him.

If Voldemort was parasitizing on her, he must be in a dormant state at the moment. Otherwise, there would definitely be an accident.

Dudley's mind raced, but on the surface, he remained calm. As before, he quickly let go of her hand and moved on to the next professor, but he also spared some attention to observe the result of Harry shaking hands with this female professor.

Two seconds later, everything was normal.

The genuine maternal love protection on Harry wasn't triggered either. It seemed that the scar on Harry's forehead didn't hurt either.

Being so close and still getting no reaction, could it be that he, Dudley, had misunderstood her?

As Dudley was thinking, his eyes suddenly met Snape's repulsive face. He couldn't keep up the fake smile on his face any longer. He immediately pulled a long face, ignored this old bat, and went to shake the hand of the next professor.

Snape's outstretched hand was left awkwardly in mid - air.

Harry, who was following Dudley, also didn't give Snape any face. He ignored him without even looking at him.

Snape angrily put down his hand, and his gloomy and expressionless face became even more gloomy.

Hogwarts offers eight compulsory courses and five optional courses, a total of thirteen courses taught by thirteen professors.

However, Professor Binns, who taught the history of magic, was a ghost and didn't eat in the Great Hall. Therefore, there were a total of twelve professors present.

Soon, Dudley and Harry gave them a half - hearted greeting with false enthusiasm.

To make it seem more reasonable, Dudley and Harry also shook hands and said hello to Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, and Madam Pince, the librarian.

After bumping fists with their good friend Hagrid and nodding to Dumbledore, they turned around and left.

The whole process was extremely rapid. The queues of students from the four houses hadn't fully left the Great Hall yet.

Dudley and Harry walked quickly and then jogged, and soon caught up with the Gryffindor group led by Percy.

Only leaving the Hogwarts faculty members standing there, utterly confused and bewildered.