Professor Vampire.

Chapter 177: Chapter 177 Harry: Ron you're not afraid of spiders anymore?

"All-"

Ms. Hokey's whistle blew.

Harry hadn't pulled his consciousness back yet, but instinctively took off, flying all the way to the very top of the Quidditch pitch, searching for any sign of the golden flyer.

It was then that he saw Cedric's upright figure quickly fly high into the air as well and give him a friendly nod.

Looking at Cedric's handsome face, Harry had a rare distraction during the Quidditch match ...

He had actually liked Cedric quite a bit-

Cedric was the ball finder for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, the same position as Harry, but Harry wasn't as hostile to the theoretical rival as he was to Draco Malfoy.

This was because Cedric was very friendly, and his Hufflepuff team took sportsmanship very seriously, playing every match squarely, where a loss was a loss, and a win was a win, an extremely sharp contrast to the foul-loving, trickster Slytherin team.

This has also earned the Hufflepuff team a pretty good reputation.

Cedric, on the other hand, as the ball finder and soul of the Hufflepuff team, is the perfect choice to captain next year's team, and is very much in the sights of others, both on and off the field of play.

Not only that, but he's also always gotten very good grades, no worse than Hermione and Percy in any way, and has better people skills than they do.

Handsome, friendly, sunny, cheerful, excellent grades and humble, low-profile big boy, who can hate it?

But after seeing the two events of Autumn Chang keeping Cedric's broom outside the Quidditch pitch and cheering for Hufflepuff on the pitch, now Harry suddenly changed his mind -

He forced himself to recognize Cedric as a useless white boy who only relied on his looks to impress girls ...

"Harry, what are you gawking at?!" Wood's voice suddenly came from below, annoyance laced in his voice.

"Have you forgotten all about the tactics we rehearsed? What did you do just now when it was your turn to get off the field and cooperate?!"

Harry woke up fiercely and looked to the center of the field.

Only to see Fred, George, Angelina, and five others arranged in a trapezoidal formation lengthwise, looking at him with not-so-good looks on their faces.

Startled, Harry looked back to the scoreboard in the commentary box to see that the Hufflepuff team had, surprisingly, already scored their first ten points since the start of the game in a very short time!

Focused on striking up a conversation with Autumn Chang before the start of the match, Harry hadn't had time to participate in the Gryffindor team's routine pre-match tactics review, forgetting about the tactics that had been discussed earlier.

He hadn't just remembered until now that the Gryffindor team had carefully rehearsed a formation for this match, with the ball finder included, in order to quickly pick up points in the early part of the match and establish an early advantage ...

But now the advantage was instead taken first by Hufflepuff.

The formation wasn't actually a trapezoid made up of the current five, but a full triangle of six - all seven players, with the exception of Wood, the goalkeeper, who needed to defend the goal.

The three ball-chasing girls were on three sides of the triangle, working in tandem to pass the ball to each other. The two batsmen, one ball finder, and the three boys were positioned at the three corners of the triangle, looking out for each other and protecting the ghostly fly balls in the hands of the three ball chasers.

However, because Harry didn't keep up with the team's rhythm, the remaining five players could only form a trapezoid, which was equivalent to a triangle with one corner exempted, exposing the two ball chasers on the corners of the trapezoid.

As a result, Hufflepuff's players quickly found an opportunity to intercept the ghostly fly ball in the hands of the Gryffindor team and broke through the back of the unguarded Gryffindor field without a hitch, completing the first goal of the match!

"Sorry guys ... I wasn't paying attention just now ..." Harry didn't know how to explain but silently flew over to his teammates and apologized in a low voice.

Next, Harry joined the Gryffindor's special formation.

However, the first failed match had shown the Hufflepuff players the usefulness of this triangle formation, and Cedric immediately flew back from the sky to match with his teammates.

The original surprise effect of this formation was easily eliminated.

What followed was a lopsided match.

Harry was distracted the entire time, and whenever he tried to focus on finding the Golden Flyers, the image of Autumn Chang waving a flag for Cedric surfaced in front of his eyes.

In contrast, Cedric's mental state was getting better and better.

A short hour later, Cedric fooled Harry with a Lansky fake before he could react, then instantly rose high into the air and caught the golden flying thief in his hands!

"Duuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

Ms. Hockey's whistle blew, and it sentenced the Gryffindor team to death.

Hufflepuff won the match by a huge margin of 230:40!

Commentator Lee Jordan announced Hufflepuff's victory in a lost tone, then flung down his microphone and left the commentator's booth.

Professor McGonagall, who had originally looked expectant, also shook his head and walked down the steps on the side of the spectator stand.

It was no wonder that they were disappointed, as the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. It was really because the Gryffindor team was too confident before the match, and couldn't wait to tell anyone about their team's recent training results.

Fred and George even secretly opened a betting game and paid a large sum of money to press for Gryffindor's victory. This time, these two self-proclaimed Hogwarts gambling saints are afraid to lose all their money ...

In addition to that, in fact, everyone could see that in this match, Harry, who was the ball finder and the biggest contributor of the last tournament year, was obviously out of shape, and he couldn't find what he was supposed to do throughout the match.

This made all the Gryffindor supporters feel that this match was lost somewhat unjustly.

...

On the green of the Quidditch pitch, Harry stood in the middle of the Gryffindor Quidditch team members with a guilty look on his face.

Fred and George were hugging and "wailing" in pain, mourning their loss of the Golden Galleon.

Angelina Johnson and the other three ball chaser girls were looking at the youngest player on the team either with concern or with puzzled faces, wondering what had happened to him to make him drop such a big one.

"I'm sorry, losing this game was all on me." Harry said in a lost tone as he looked down at his toes emotionally.

"Harry, what's wrong with you today?" Wood crossed his arms and counted him out somewhat exasperatedly, "You weren't in the right state before the match, and you were even more groggy after you came onto the pitch. This isn't like your level, Harry!"

It was obvious that losing the match, which had been a sure thing, had made Wood feel very angry.

But given that Harry was in a somewhat strange mood, he forced himself not to lash out and instead could only hold back his concern for his condition.

"I'm fine, Wood." Harry shook his head and prevaricated, "I probably didn't sleep well last night ... Let me go back and get some sleep, okay?"

Wood held his breath in his throat, wanting to say something to lecture and admonish Harry.

But looking at his heavy expression, Wood finally shook his head helplessly and said nothing, leading Harry in the direction of the Gryffindor team's locker room.

Just then, members of the Hufflepuff team walked over wearing a black and yellow uniform.

Cedric greeted the Gryffindor players from a distance.

"Hey, how's Harry doing?" He asked with concern, "We can all see he's not quite right today ... Is he sick?"

The captain of the Hufflepuff team nodded in return, stepping out from the group and saying, "If it's due to uncontrollable factors, then we've clearly won this match."

"Otherwise, let's jointly propose a rematch to Ms. Hodge, what do you guys think?"

"A loss is a loss, we're not yet the kind of team that can't afford to lose like Slytherin." Wood walked up and hugged the captain of the Hufflepuff team, "Your kind words are appreciated."

He and the captain of the Hufflepuff team were good friends in their own right, and weren't going to fall out over winning or losing a game.

"But next time you guys should be careful, we won't lose again!" Wood slammed his fist on the Hufflepuff captain's shoulder.

"Well, we'll be waiting for you guys!" Captain Hedgepatch laughed.

As the two team captains talked, Cedric in the crowd looked over at Harry and frowned slightly when he noticed his downcast face.

"Are you sure you're okay with this, Harry?" He asked with concern as he walked over to Harry, "Your play today was nothing like your previous few games, if you're sick just let us know, it's fine."

Harry opened his mouth, and was going to make a casual remark about Cedric like he had tried to put off Wood and the others.

When he looked up, however, he realized that Autumn-Chang was holding the Hufflepuff yellow flag in her hand and was darting towards where the Hufflepuff Quidditch team members were, her long silky black hair bouncing behind her like a lively swallow.

It was obvious that the person Autumn Chang was looking for was Cedric, not Harry Potter, the savior of the crowd.

Harry's face turned red.

It occurred to him that this time, it was because of himself that Gryffindor had lost the match, that he had lost this match to the handsome, excellent Cedric, and that he was most likely just a dispensable passerby in Autumn Chang's eyes ...

"I'm fine! I don't need your hypocritical concern!" He shouted in a sudden emotional outburst.

Harry then carried his Light Wheel 2000, and without even having the time to change out of his ballgown, he flew towards Hogwarts Castle before Autumn-Chang arrived.

The crowd present watched Harry's performance with dumbfounded astonishment, and a very unreal feeling surfaced in their hearts.

Wasn't Harry's character modest, docile, and easy-going? How could he be so impulsive and rude as he was today?

Fred and George, who had finally stopped crying, saw this and walked over to Cedric and put their familiar arms around his shoulders.

"Cedric, Harry's a little out of control today, don't take it to heart." Fred said, "He's not usually like that."

"I'm fine." Cedric shook his head, "Harry's still young for his grade, it's only natural for him to lose control of his emotions sometimes."

"But Harry's behavior today reminded me of something," at that moment, George, who was standing next to the two men, gave a thoughtful expression, "It seems like Harry used to lose his temper like that at the end of last school year ... Does that mean he's starting again?"

Of course, George wouldn't even think about the fact that Harry's last tantrum was due to Riddle's subtle change, belonging to being influenced by external forces.

It was this one that belonged to his own manifestation of emotional outbursts, which stemmed mainly from the restlessness of adolescence.

Harry's sadness was not so much due to the fact that the object of his admiration was happy with someone else, but rather to his own sympathy and pity for his own situation.

This is a characteristic teenage angst.

...

Summer crept into Hogwarts Castle, bringing with it bright sunshine and warm weather.

The sky, like the lake, turned a light blue with a violet glow.

The curtains of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom were drawn tightly, and not a single ray of sunlight seeped in from the outside world.

In the classroom, the little wizards were sitting upright, their eyes staring straight at the front of the classroom, looking at the black magic defense professor standing on the podium and the blackboard full of content, not daring to have the slightest bit of relaxation or slacking off, fearing that one of their professors was in a bad mood and would drag them off to actual combat training.

However, there was one young wizard who looked a little distracted, in stark contrast to the eager learning atmosphere of the students around him.

"Mr. Potter-" Dracula suddenly put down the wand in his hand and looked at the absent-minded little wizard with an impish expression, "Would you please answer what I just taught everyone? "

Harry's eyes widened in bewilderment as he looked into Dracula's leathery face.

His thoughts had long since drifted off to nowhere, his mind was filled with thoughts of Autumn Chang's figure - the

Guessing what class the little Ravenclaw witch was taking right now? Was the third year busy with schoolwork? Had she gone out on another date with Cedric?

And it was because of thinking about all this nonsense that Harry completely missed what Professor Dracula had been talking about in class.

"Uh ... just talked about ..." he staggered to his feet and looked at Ron beside him with a flustered expression.

Ron spread his hands helplessly at Harry. He had completely failed to keep up with the lesson behind him just because he had thought about what he was going to have for lunch.

At this point, seemingly aware of Harry's dilemma, Hermione in the front row blocked her mouth with her notebook and quietly delivered a message to Harry.

"Spider ... spell ..." she said in a faintly audible breathy voice.

Harry hadn't heard what Hermione was saying at all and stretched his tone to delay answering the question, hoping Hermione would understand him:

"Emmm, let's see-"

True to her word, the smartest little witch in her second year had figured out Harry's intentions and knew that she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to hear much of the message with her air voice, so she picked up her quill and wrote a few large letters in her notebook.

However, just as Hermione was about to stand her notebook up so that Harry could see the letters on it, Dracula on the podium suddenly beckoned.

Hermione's notebook instantly flew off the desk and landed straight into Dracula's hand.

"Ms. Granger, it's fine if you're usually so active in answering questions, but today I'm not able to give another student a chance, and you're thinking of answering for him isn't that inappropriate?"

Dracula looked at the large letters on his notebook and laughed lightly.

Hermione was so ashamed that she covered her face and slumped down on her desk, never wanting to help Harry once more.

Harry saw this and realized instantly that there was no one else to help him. And he also knew that even if someone was willing to help him, he would be instantly poked and prodded by the seemingly omnipotent Professor Dracula, so there was really no point in dragging anyone else into it.

So he took a deep breath and resigned himself to the fact that he had just spelled the two words he had heard from Hermione, "spider" and "spell", and added a random word in the middle to make it fit, hoping that he would get it right.

"You just talked about the Spider Cleaning Curse, Professor!" He said as if he were dying.

Dracula stared at him and suddenly snorted.

"Have you become so good at Defense Against the Dark Arts that you've created a spell of your own, Mr. Potter?" He teased nonchalantly, "Or did you not listen to the lesson at all, and this is simply a mangled spell name you heard from Ms. Granger?"

"Professor, I really did listen to the lesson, I just got nervous and forgot what the word in the middle was!" Harry was still trying to weasel his way out of the situation.

However Dracula suddenly slapped the lectern heavily, instantly interrupting Harry's words.

"Take a good look at the blackboard, Potter." He picked up his wand and tapped it at a certain spot on the board, "But if you'd listened even a little bit in this lesson, you wouldn't have uttered such an outrageous spell name as 'Spider Cleaning Spell'!"

"Look carefully at what's written here! How can you tell me I'm going to be so nervous that I'll forget the word in the middle of a question that I can answer just by reading it?"

Dracula squinted out of the corner of his eye as he looked down at the stage with a strong look of disgust in his eyes.

Harry looked blankly to where Professor Dracula's wand was pointing, and in the next moment, his eyes widened.

"Spider Repelling Spell?" He chanted at the spell on the board.

"Well, now do you realize how much fun you just had?" Dracula had been a little angry, but at that moment, he smiled back with interest at the look of confusion on Harry's face.

He then looked over to Hermione, who still had her face buried in her hands, "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter didn't hear what was said in class just now, so you can repeat what I just recounted."

Hermione had to lift her face from both hands when she was called by name and turned her head to glare at Harry in exasperation.

"The Spider Expulsion Spell is a spell that specializes in spiders, and can be used to repel dangerous magical creatures of the spider variety when they are encountered in the wild ..."

Even though she still had some grudges against Harry, Hermione professionally repeated what Dracula had told her earlier.

Listening to what Hermione recounted, Harry frowned and looked at Ron.

The meaning on his face showed:

''Is it hard for this Ron guy not to be afraid of spiders? I can't believe he can even miss this kind of spell!''