After dinner at Hogwarts, Zhang Xu went to the Muggle Studies professor's office and began to prepare the quiz papers for the first class of the next semester.

The family will return to Edinburgh early tomorrow morning, and although he would like to stay with his family any longer, he is driven back to Hogwarts by his grandfather after dinner, citing his work.

The fire in the fireplace was not very strong, and there was a puff of white smoke. Conducted by a homemade geothermal system, the heat generated by the fire is carried to the floor throughout the office, bringing the indoor temperature to more than 20 degrees Celsius.

It was cold and windy outside, but there was no snow. After finishing his work, Professor Zhang walked to the open window next to his desk and slammed open the entire window.

The cold air of minus a few degrees poured into the office, diluting the smell of cumin in the air, squeezing the fire to the ground, and blowing Professor Zhang, who was a little dizzy because of the case or because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

After a while of cold wind, Professor Zhang's head became a little clearer.

"Knock Knock"

There was a knock on the office door.

With a wave of his hand, the door opened, and a person who surprised Zhang Xu walked in.

As soon as the visitor walked into the office, his nose moved slightly, and he smelled a smell that should not be in the professor's office.

She looked at the cumin-smelling fire not far away, and the corners of her mouth twitched.

"Your office is really ......," she thought for a moment, "and it's as special as you." ”

"Thanks for the compliment." Zhang Xu turned his back to the window, propped up his hands, and sat on the windowsill, "Why are you here?" ”

"I just got back from the Headmaster, and I just listened to her talk about Hogwarts all night, and what you should look out for as a professor at Hogwarts." The visitor replied as he walked over to Zhang Xu's side and sat down on the chair next to his desk after asking for his consent, "I didn't expect you to bring so many interesting changes to Hogwarts." ”

There was another "knock knock", and then Harry unceremoniously pushed open the office door, "Zhang, borrow your office to do our homework for us, the common room is too noisy...... ......"

Harry saw the lonely men and women in the office, and then habitually said "Hey, he's not here" before skillfully exiting and closing the door.

"I can't think of Mr. Potter as interesting."

As soon as the other party finished speaking, the door of the office was suddenly pushed open with a bang, and Harry walked in with a map of the living spots.

"What's the matter, there's no name on the map?" Harry was surprised and asked, "Who the hell are you?" ”

"She's Professor Alan Becca Rodney, assistant professor of math at Hogwarts." Zhang Xu introduced to Harry, "Next academic year, after Professor Scarlett resigns, she will take over the position of professor of mathematics. ”

"Don't look at how many years I've been selling coffee in Hogsmeade, but I have a 'Qualified Teacher' Certificate from the Secretary of State for Education." It was none other than Mr. Rod Niro, "As for your map, I don't have my name on it, it's just a little trick, Mr. Potter." ”

Harry wanted to say something, but was driven away by a spell from Zhang Xu.

Zhang Xu didn't feel surprised that Rodney's name didn't appear on the map of the live spot. As a group of people who wander on the tip of the knife, they naturally go further than wizards in terms of secret infiltration and other spells.

What made Zhang Xu feel strange was that the person who succeeded Scarlet would actually be her. He had known that Scarlet had found a replacement, that Rodney had retired the other day, and that he had taken over the job that Nelson, who had not recovered from a serious injury. So when he heard about Rodney's visit to Professor McGonagall, he knew whose class she was going to take.

"How did she find you?" Zhang Xu asked curiously.

"One day she came to our shop and was talking to us, and she mentioned it. At that time, we were thinking about finding a job after retiring, so we hit it off. Rodney replied, "You don't have to sit by the window like that, do you?" It looks like I'm forcing you into debt. ”

"After all, this is a school, so it's better for us to keep some distance." Zhang Xu replied.

"Tsk......" Rodney glanced at him disdainfully, "Although you are quite to my taste, and I may not refuse if you take the initiative to find me, but you have not moved me to the point where I can put down my dignity and take the initiative to attack you." Of course, if you ask me for relief of my sister's huge debt, I can only agree with tears in my eyes. ”

"Can you really agree to all kinds of requests?" After hearing this, Zhang Xu suddenly came to his senses.

"What do you want to do?" Rodney clasped his hands to his chest, pretending to be like a frightened bird.

"I'll leave the assignment correction for Muggle Studies class to you in the future." Zhang Xu said happily.

"I knew it was going to happen." Rodney spread his hands and said, "Now that you're free, how about taking me to keep the castle?" ”

Zhang Xu went to the windowsill and closed the window to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

Without the cold air blowing in from outside, the temperature in the office soon began to rise.

He went to the fire, grabbed a handful of cumin from the jar beside him, and sprinkled it on top of the smoke-filled wood chips beside the fire.

"I noticed it just now." Rodney came behind Zhang Xu, "I've seen people use various flavors of incense, but you are the first to use cumin to make incense...... Wait, these are the cypress you burned? ”

After covering the cumin jar, Zhang Xu said: "I didn't do it to improve air quality and cultivate sentiment. ”

With a wave of his hand, a bunch of leg of lamb tied together like a bunch of grapes and a few pieces of mutton flew out of the chimney.

While checking the smoking of the leg of mutton, he said to Rodney: "I heard about this method of smoking lamb a while ago, so I tried it, and it looks good now." ”

With that, he let the leg skewers and strips fly back into the chimney of the fireplace.

After cleaning his hands with a spell, Zhang Xu said to Rodney: "Let's go, I'll take you around the castle, lest you get lost and starve to death in the castle." ”

"These smoked lamb shanks should be good for noodles." Rodney, who walked out of the office behind Zhang Xu, thought about it and said, "Put butter in a pot and melt, then put smoked lamb shank slices and stir-fry until fragrant, then add crushed cheese, salt and pepper, rosemary or basil leaves and stir-fry together, and finally pour the boiled noodles into it and stir-fry." If necessary, you can crack an egg before cooking. ”

Zhang Xu nodded, then shook his head again, and said, "This way to eat is quite good, but it's not magic enough. ”

"And how are you going to eat it?" Rodney asked.

Zhang Xu looked at the time, and then said to her: "Come, I'll take you to the greenhouse first." ”

In Hogsmeade, there was a restaurant that mimicked the layout of the Hogwarts kitchen, and Rodney had been there a few times. But the first time I came to this huge kitchen, I couldn't help but be shocked by the scale of the place and the busy house-elves inside.

There weren't many people in the kitchen tonight, except for a couple who hadn't seen each other during the Christmas holidays, except for the Harry trio sitting in front of the fireplace and writing hard.

At this time, Rodney had not yet recovered from the trip to the greenhouse, and she asked Zhang Xu for the seventh time: "Didn't we do that just now?" ”

Zhang Xu replied again: "Don't worry, it's okay if you don't get caught." ”

Walking to a table in front of the fireplace, Zhang Xu got a set of kitchen utensils from a shelf not far away and put it on the table. Then he took out the fresh mandrake roots and leaves, and then said to Rodney, "You peel the mandrake roots first and clean the leaves." ”

After saying that, he ignored Rodney, who didn't know how to start with the mandrake roots, and went to the smoker in the corner of the kitchen and came back with a piece of freshly smoked bacon.

After inspecting the greenhouse, but seeing signs of theft in the greenhouse, Rodney finally mastered the knack of quickly peeling mandrake roots.

At this time, Zhang Xu also came back with bacon and a small stove and other materials, and he said to Rodney: "There is no smoked mutton yet, let's take bacon instead." ”

He Snape into slices of moderate thickness, and then shredded Rodney's skinned mandrake roots and a sunshine mushroom. Spread a mandrake leaf on top of the bacon slices, then top the evenly mixed mandrake roots and shredded sunshine mushrooms, and roll them into a bacon roll.

Watching the butter melt in the pan and the neatly arranged rolls of bacon sizzle in the pan, Rodney said, "This time I finally know why the strange-looking menu in Hogsmeade's 'basement kitchen' is so popular with young people." ”

Zhang Xu didn't take this stubble, he asked, "What do you say is good for the last spice?" ”

"Parsley, sage, rosemary or thyme."

The last line he sings in the tune of "Scarborough Bazaar".

The four spices of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme represent love, strength, loyalty, and courage, respectively.

Rodney heard Zhang Xu's hidden meaning, the first parsley representing love was counted, and the other three spices were asking her if she was willing to sacrifice your strength, loyalty, and courage for Hogwarts.

She smiled and found the four spices on the kitchen shelf, which she sprinkled on top of the fried mandrake sunshine mushroom bacon roll.

The smell of spices wafts out of the pan under the stimulus of hot oil, and the smell of bacon and spices fills every space in the kitchen.

Not far away, Harry's trio, who were rushing to do their homework, recalled the days when they were in the dungeon smelling the scent and copying the school rules.