The Professors of Hogwarts (Slightly Revised)

"Hoo!" Harley sat up abruptly from her bed, wiping the sweat from her forehead with force.

Outside, the sky had not yet fully brightened. Checking the mechanical watch that Petunia had "gifted" her, it showed that it was only a little past five.

A lingering expression of lingering fear remained on Harley's face; after all, the dream she just had felt far too real.

Damn it, she had dreamed of those days being hunted by Amon again. Although the suffering was in the past, Harley still had such nightmares occasionally.

Harley rubbed her face vigorously, her hands coated in Frost to help herself wake up a bit more.

Then, Harley realized that it was just a dream. Although dreams experienced by a Beyonder held a certain symbolic significance, that was only because the world of the Sequence Pathway contained the Spirit World.

In that world, the Astral Body would roam the Spirit World, allowing certain details that were usually ignored to be stimulated by external factors, transforming into revelations with symbolic meaning, which were then presented to the spirit body in the form of dreams.

This world did not have a Spirit World—or at least, it was highly unlikely to—so perhaps... maybe... f**k!

Harley still couldn't settle her mind, and eventually, she prepared to perform a divination.

The potion of the Witch Pathway did not grant Harley the ability to divine or a natural talent for learning it; it only provided a certain degree of anti-divination resistance upon reaching Sequence 7 Witch.

However, this did not mean Harley couldn't actively learn divination rituals, though the success rate was quite pathetic.

Harley quickly took out various materials and performed several divinations in succession to determine if Amon had followed her here.

Unsurprisingly, the divinations all failed. However, this was due to a lack of information.

At this point, Harley had completely calmed down, closing her eyes to contemplate the current situation:

Amon couldn't have followed me. After all, he is at that level; he is likely plotting against a True God above Sequence 1.

If he had truly followed me, he wouldn't come looking for me again, because the only reason he captured me in the first place was his interest in the aura of the other world on me.

Even if I take a step back and assume he did follow me and is interested in capturing me for research, he would have made his move long ago.

Harley pondered continuously, finally concluding that Amon had not followed her, and even if he had, he would no longer pose a threat to her.

"Relax, just completely forget about those things! I am safe now."

Thinking of this, Harley opened her eyes with relief, got dressed, and went to wash up. Since she was already up, she might as well go to the Great Hall to read.

Relying on the powerful memory and sense of direction granted to her by the Assassin identity, Harley found the Great Hall with ease.

It was still early, and the Great Hall was empty. Harley didn't mind; she silently opened her school bag, took out her Potion textbook, and began to flip through it slowly.

As time passed, others began to enter the Great Hall. The professor who had looked at Harley so rudely yesterday arrived.

Professor Snape entered through the main door of the Great Hall, and as he passed by Harley, he quietly glanced at the textbook she was reading.

Seeing Harley circling and marking key steps for brewing potions in her textbook, Professor Snape nodded with satisfaction before striding back to the teacher's table.

Harley looked at Professor Snape with curiosity, a thought flashing through her mind:

Professor Snape's seat at the teacher's table is clearly closer to the Slytherin table, so why did he take a detour past the Gryffindor table?

However, Harley didn't dwell on it, as milk, bread, and sandwiches had already appeared on the table in front of her. Breakfast had begun.

The number of people in the Great Hall gradually increased, and many cast glances at Harley while whispering to each other as they ate.

Harley didn't like this feeling, so she finished her breakfast quickly and headed to the classroom.

The first day of school happened to be a Monday (Monday, September 2, 1991, as can be verified by the calendar).

Normally, professors from each house would distribute the class schedules. However, Professor McGonagall was very thoughtful.

She seemed to have anticipated that some new students would definitely fail to find their way to the Great Hall on the first day, resulting in them not getting their schedules.

Therefore, she had used magic to place the new students' schedules on their bedside tables the day before.

The first class in the morning was Herbology, taught by the Head of Hufflepuff, Professor Pomona Sprout.

To be honest, Harley felt that this professor resembled a Planter or a Druid.

Professor Sprout was short and stout, wearing wizard robes stained with soil, which had even been modified to be suitable for walking on muddy paths.

The professor's hands were covered in calluses, and the shoes on her feet were caked with dirt, looking quite messy without any shoe covers.

Harley was very interested in this subject; after all, the most important materials for concocting potions were various herbs.

Professor Sprout also possessed profound knowledge and was familiar with many extremely rare materials.

When Harley asked questions she had discovered while reading during the holidays, the professor answered all of Harley's doubts with ease and hinted that Harley could join her Herbology club if she had the chance.

There was only one class in the afternoon: A History of Magic. The professor for this course was Professor Binns, a ghost.

During class, he would constantly drone on in his monotonous, dull voice, never caring whether the students could keep up with his train of thought, and his voice was hypnotic, comparable to a Hypnotist of the Spectator Pathway.

Under the influence of his voice, a large number of students fell asleep. If Professor Binns followed the Spectator Pathway, a Sequence 6 Hypnotist wouldn't even need to act.

Only Harley and Hermione, who were sitting in the front row, remained awake and listened to the professor's lecture attentively.

Harley never underestimated history classes. In that world of the Sequence Pathway, history had always contained a vast number of secrets and paths to becoming stronger.

Harley had already leafed through the thick book, A History of Magic. Although the book seemed to only recount ordinary historical events, it contained quite a few key pieces of information hidden within.

It was a pity that Professor Binns merely read from the textbook without adding his own insights, which left Harley quite disappointed.

Furthermore, the fact that Professor Binns would simply walk through the wall as soon as class ended made Harley feel very frustrated.

Harley had wanted to use her excellent eloquence to try and pry more hidden history out of Professor Binns's mouth!

Tuesday morning consisted of Herbology and Charms, with the latter taught by Filius Flitwick.

This professor was not very tall and had to stand on a stack of books to teach. According to the Ravenclaw students, he possessed goblin ancestry.

Furthermore, he seemed incredibly sensitive; when he called Harley's name, he became so excited that he tumbled right off his stack of books.

However, Professor Flitwick was quite powerful, casting various charms with effortless ease.

Although many of these spells appeared ordinary and were only useful in daily life, Harley had already conceived of several ingenious applications for them.

For instance, she wondered what would happen if someone sufficiently powerful used Alohomora against a gate created by a Gatekeeper of the Death Pathway, where the Underworld and the Spirit World overlapped.

Harley guessed it would be quite interesting; it might forcibly swing that gate open and release undead entities far exceeding the level of the Gatekeeper.

Unfortunately, there was no way to put this hypothesis to the test.

Wednesday morning's Defense Against the Dark Arts was the class Harley looked forward to most, as Professor Quirrell was, after all, a demigod.

Regrettably, the professor seemed to hoard his knowledge, doing nothing but stuttering through the textbook without teaching any additional material.

On top of that, the malicious gaze he directed at Harley caused her spirituality to sound frantic warnings, making her want to avoid any contact with him whatsoever.

The dream about Amon could not be changed, otherwise, deleting a large chunk of the plot would have made this chapter under 1,000 words, making it impossible to publish. Let's just assume Harley had a typical nightmare.