"The Forbidden Forest may have some secrets, but it has nothing to do with me."

Riddle's face quickly returned to normal, and he said calmly, "I've only been here for less than half a year since I acquired this body, and I don't know anything about this vast forest."

"Really?" Dracula was noncommittal, "Then tell me why you made so many low-level mistakes when catching magical beasts that you shouldn't have made? I don't think you're collecting teaching materials at all, it's like you're going to kill animals."

Dracula and Riddle stared at each other, staring at him with scrutinizing eyes, and the heavy pressure slowly weighed down.

"Well, I'll admit that I didn't go to the Forbidden Forest just to capture magical beasts as teaching material...... After a few moments, Riddle finally couldn't resist the pressure from Dracula and changed his words, "I actually want to improve my spellcasting ability."

"Exercise spellcasting?" Dracula furrowed an eyebrow.

"Yes, I have a lot of complex spell-casting techniques in my memory, and I also have a lot of powerful magic, but this body is still too new to integrate the spell-casting skills in my memory." Riddle said,

"So I need to find some hostile creatures to help me practice casting spells, so that I can gradually increase my strength."

Dracula glanced at him, pulled a blood-flavored lollipop from the desk drawer, and peeled off the candy.

"In order to improve your spell-casting ability, you went to the Forbidden Forest to kill magical beasts?" He shoved the lollipop into his mouth and said nonchalantly, "Why don't you find a wizard at Hogwarts as your sparring partner?"

"There are so many professors here, there will always be someone willing to help you. Even if no professor is willing to help you, you can go to Slytherin and ask Professor Snape for a few scoldings, and I think he'll be willing to go through a few tricks with you."

Dracula chews a lollipop in his mouth with a playful expression.

"Hmm...... I didn't expect that," Riddle smiled implicitly, "for a newcomer like me, who hasn't been here for a long time, I always feel that it's not appropriate to trouble other professors because of this kind of thing."

"What's wrong with that? They're all colleagues, and you don't look a few years older than the students, and they're as patient with you as you are with little wizards." Dracula chuckled, "I don't think you think it's inappropriate, but you have other plans!"

Riddle's improvised reasons are so fake that there is no need to doubt the truth of this matter, and it simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

I don't know why this teaching assistant, who is supposed to be very intelligent in theory, would make up such an unrealistic excuse.

Was it because he hadn't thought that his actions in the Forbidden Forest would be discovered? Or does he think it's open enough to be undisguised?

"Riddle, don't hide anything, or you should know the consequences." Dracula put on a cold expression.

It's just that with the lollipop in his mouth, his cold expression seems a little nondescript......

"Professor Dracula, I really can't tell you this secret." Riddle shook his head helplessly, "If I say it like that, I'm probably going to upset you." ….

"But it's just making me happier that you're hiding like this now." Dracula said coldly.

Dracula's eyes suddenly lit up, staring straight into Riddle's eyes.

Vaguely images of the lake emerged from Riddle's eyes, but these vague images quickly disappeared again.

"Compared to your spell casting level, your Occlumency is pretty good." Dracula scoffed.

"After all, in order to guard against Dumbledore's prying eyes, this is what my main soul valued most during school." Riddle smiled, "Even with his Deception Mind is gradually becoming proficient."

Dracula glanced at Riddle again, waved his hand, and threw him out

Office.

He stood up from his chair and pondered the secrets of the Forbidden Forest as he tasted the blood-flavored lollipops in his mouth and felt the salty taste on the tip of his tongue.

Even though Riddle's Occlumency is already considered to be the top in the wizarding world, in the face of Dracula's spiritual prying eyes, no wizard can make his mental protection seamless.

From the images of the lake just a few times, Dracula sees an ancient building full of snakes.

It's a place that Dracula was once very familiar with, but he never had the heart to remember.

If Riddle's unusual behavior in the Forbidden Forest was to find this location, then Dracula would have been unhappy about it, and would have bothered to bother him about it.

That's something he didn't want to mention for a long time.

……

The dawn of Christmas has arrived.

The weather was cold, and it was white in all directions.

Looking out of the windows of the Gryffindor Tower, you can barely see the spire of the opposite tower, the Quidditch pitch and the frozen Black Lagoon.

The wind and snow roared around Hogwarts Castle, raising a cloud of snow and dust in the air. The snow was like a white tapestry, swirling and falling from the sky, making the young wizards who stayed at the school feel cold from the bottom of their hearts.

In the often bustling second-year Gryffindor dormitory, only Harry and Ron were left.

It wasn't until nearly noon that Ron sat up from the bed with his pet mouse spotted in his arms and stretched lazily.

"Harry, how are your Christmas presents going this year?" He saw Harry, who was sitting by the window with his present open, yawning and asking inexplicably.

"Everyone else's Christmas presents are almost ready, but one of them doesn't know what to prepare." Harry responded.

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

The small package had been brought by the Dursleys - they had given Harry a toothpick as a Christmas present, along with a text message asking him if he could stay at Hogwarts for the summer.

In fact, Harry also wanted to stay at Hogwarts during the summer vacation, but unfortunately Hogwarts never agreed to such a request from the young wizard.

"Is there another gift you don't have ready?" Ron glanced out the window at the bad weather, "Then you might have to hurry, or the owl wouldn't be able to deliver the gift on the same day on a snowy day like this." ….

"I know." Harry said, "The gifts that needed to be sent to a little further away were sent last night, and the rest was at Hogwarts, and it will definitely be delivered that day."

"A gift from inside Hogwarts?" Ron asked in surprise, "What's the point of hesitation, the classmates are all about the same anyway, why don't you just pick a few and send them out?"

He leaned over to Harry and looked at the signature on the envelope, "Hey, don't you have a gift from Professor Dracula ready?"

"yes, I don't know what to send to Professor Dracula." Harry said.

"Isn't that easy?" Ron slapped his thigh and said decisively, "Didn't we analyze it last Christmas? Professor Dracula's favourite things are liquor and lollipops, and my choice of vodka and sunny orange lollipops is absolutely fine!"

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of vodka from his gift pile and placed it in front of Harry, "I bought an extra bottle of vodka, I can lend it to you!"

"Uh...... Ron, I'm actually wondering if Professor Dracula doesn't like vodka?" Harry glanced at the fabled eaux-de-vie and hesitated.

"I remember after last Christmas, both of us had our Defence Against the Dark Arts homework called back and rewritten...... Do you think it's because Professor Dracula isn't happy with our gift?"

"Wouldn't it?" Ron was stunned for a moment, "My analysis should be fine, and Professor Dracula is so careful?"

That's what Professor Dracula is

Watch out! ，

Harry complained to himself, but he didn't dare to say it, for fear that the wall had ears and would be heard by the cautious Professor Dracula.

"Ron, the general direction of your analysis should be fine...... Harry said reasonably, "but Professor Dracula usually drinks red wine with a goblet very elegantly, which doesn't seem to be the same as vodka's 'ton and ton' temperament."

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

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

"But in this weather, where are we going to buy high-end wine?" Ron muttered, "And the average red wine Professor Dracula certainly doesn't like it, and we don't have that much money for that luxury."

Harry's head drooped at Ron's words.

"So what are we going to do?" Harry said dejectedly, "I don't want to be penalized for rewriting my homework for gifts."

Ron pinched his chin and thought, a wise expression on his face.

"I see!" He clapped his hands hard, "We don't have the money to buy the most expensive wine, but we can make the most ingenious wine!"

"How?" Harry asked.

"You see, Harry, the main thing between vodka and red wine is the difference in color, and it looks strange to drink vodka from a goblet." Ron said confidently, "But what if we dye the clear vodka red?"

"Huh?" Harry's mouth opened wide.

He always felt that something was wrong with Ron's thoughts, and he couldn't say that there was anything wrong, in short, he just felt a little unreliable. ….

"Don't worry, Professor Dracula must also want to taste vodka, but he doesn't think it's elegant enough and detrimental to his image, so he thinks our gift is not good enough." Ron said,

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

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

"Let's go, Harry, let's go to Greenhouse One and pick some cockscombs." He put on his thick coat and pulled Harry out of the dormitory, "It's Christmas, there's definitely no one on the greenhouse, my plan is completely doable!"

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

He was a little drumming at Ron's whimsical thoughts, but he couldn't bear the overconfidence of his sworn friend, and he didn't hear any of Harry's questioning words......

……

At night, the wind and snow outside had not stopped, the wind was blowing, and the people outside wrapped their robes tightly.

On the contrary, the Great Hall of Hogwarts is warm under the influence of magic.

At the Christmas dinner, everyone ate with gusto.

The auditorium was magnificent, with thousands of candles in the sky glowing brightly and gently.

More than a dozen silver frost-covered Christmas trees dot the hall, and the ceiling is adorned with beautiful friezes of mistletoe and holly.

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

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

These odes are sung by the little wizards out of tune, outrageous, and broken...... But compared to the Hogwarts school song, at least there is a standard tune, so that the singing voice will not be completely lost and only nonsense will be sung.

As Hagrid poured glass after glass of eggnog, his voice getting louder and louder, until by the end of the auditorium, he could barely be heard singing like a wolf......

Percy Wesley also did not go with Mr. and Mrs. Wesley to visit the family's eldest son, Bill. But his explanation to the other little wizards was that he was

So he stayed for Christmas only because as a full laude student, he had the responsibility to support the work of the professors during the holidays when there were many expensive personnel.

So, Fred, who couldn't stand it, quietly cast a spell on his brother, causing his prefect badge to add a few small letters to the "P" for the prefect, and it became "Pinhead".

Percy didn't notice it at all, and stupidly asked everyone what they were laughing at.

During the lively Christmas dinner, Dracula sat bored in his professorship, watching the young wizards laugh and play, and even some of the professors joined in.

He casually took out a bottle of red wine from nowhere, and poured it into the goblet in front of him.

The red wine in the goblet is crystal clear, and the glass has a slightly purple hue, which looks particularly attractive.

Dracula nodded in satisfaction, elegantly raised the glass to his lips and took a sip......

"Poof—"

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

"Dracula!" Snape stood up abruptly, gritting his teeth and drawing his wand, the drink still dripping from his face on the table, "If you're trying to provoke me, then I'll admit you did!"

"I'm sorry, Professor Snape." Dracula knew he was wrong, so he cast a cleansing spell at Snape's hooked nose, and cleaned his greasy hair as well, "It's a bit of an unexpected drink......

"Vodka?" He looked at the high-end red wine bottle in front of him, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Dracula instantly thought of the bottle of red wine he had picked up from a pile of Christmas presents, and thought that the gift-givers, Potter and Wesley, had finally learned to be smart and knew their preferences......

Now the new hatred and old hatred are counted together, plus the bottle of vodka and the sunshine sweet orange lollipop last Christmas, these two goods can basically be announced as dogs!

"Otherwise, Professor Snape......" Dracula looked at Snape, who looked a little handsome after his hair was not oily, "and as compensation, I'll take the homework from Potter and Wes back and rewrite it, no, three times!"

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

"Deal!"

He nodded heavily and sat back in his seat.

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

……

…….

Ripples of dust