The immense Great Hall of Hogwarts was utterly silent.

Normally, when a new professor was introduced, everyone would applaud in welcome.

But now, aside from Dumbledore and Danilova, almost no students or professors clapped.

Albus Dumbledore clapped a few times, but finding the applause echoing lonely in the silent hall, he wisely lowered his hands and sighed somewhat helplessly—he could feel the resistance permeating the air.

The students stared at Dumbledore, mouths agape and speechless, as if too shocked to speak.

Adding two unheard-of courses out of the blue was hardly something to be happy about for most young wizards, especially when the names of these courses seemed to carry an ominous undertone.

On the other hand, the professors at the staff table mostly wore indifferent expressions.

There seemed to be an invisible dividing line between the new and old professors, clearly separating them into two worlds.

As formal professors, they had learned of Hogwarts' reforms this year from Dumbledore before the start of the term, but that didn't mean they had no objections to the headmaster's decision—in fact, dissenting voices accounted for more than half.

"As I was saying..."

As if oblivious to the cold reactions of the teachers and students, Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued with a smile.

"In the upcoming semester, all years at Hogwarts will have math and science courses added, mainly exploring and learning about the most basic and fundamental knowledge of natural philosophy, temporarily taught by Mr. Alexei from Russia."

"Alexei? From Russia?"

At the Ravenclaw table, Luna Lovegood turned her head, looking curiously at the foreign student sitting not far from her. "Danilova, could this new professor be some elder from your family?"

"That's my dad!" Danilova answered proudly.

"But, if I remember correctly..."

On the other side of the table, Hoffa Bach furrowed his brow slightly, carefully examining the middle-aged man standing at the end of the staff table. Unlike most of the professors, Alexei wasn't wearing wizard robes, but a shirt and jacket.

"According to your previous introduction, your father should be a Muggle, right? How could he become a professor at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know," Danilova replied softly, glancing at her father, cheeks puffed out.

"Anyway—anyway, my dad is super amazing… Maybe, my dad actually knows magic!"

Danilova had only learned about her father becoming a professor at Hogwarts tonight.

At this moment, she, like all the other young wizards, was filled with curiosity, wishing the dinner would end immediately so she could rush to her dad and ask him everything—after the discussions with her classmates, she even suspected her father was a wizard in disguise.

In her little head, she almost instantly imagined a whole bunch of love stories between her dad and mom.

…

Meanwhile, at the staff table.

Noticing the curiosity and excitement in his precious daughter's eyes, Alexei couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

In fact, according to the original arrangement, Professor Vinogradov from the Steklov Institute of Mathematics of the former Soviet Academy of Sciences was supposed to be the professor of this course—however, after learning that most of the students were a group of children with zero mathematical foundation, Vinogradov had been lobbying in various research institutes, looking for a replacement.

As one of the last batch of Soviet experts to arrive at Hogwarts, the deputy director of the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, and Vinogradov's student, Alexei naturally became Vinogradov's best "Stand User."

Not to mention, the news about Danilova's enrollment had already spread throughout the academic circles by some big mouths.

With several factors stacked together, Alexei naturally became a teacher at Hogwarts—the first math teacher and the first Muggle staff member in Hogwarts history—which was also the reason why the other professors were so cold.

If it weren't for Dumbledore's persuasion and explanation, most of the professors' faces might have been even uglier.

Of course, there was another reason, which was that, unlike the other professors at Hogwarts, Alexei was not considered a formal professor at Hogwarts. Strictly speaking, he was more like a temporary worker or support staff.

Apart from being able to teach at the school, Alexei had no additional professor rights.

Even the most basic adding or deducting points, Alexei could only record in a small notebook, and then submit it to the corresponding deans of each house after class, so that Professor McGonagall and others could make judgments and exercise the decision to add or deduct points on his behalf.

As for professor dormitories, salaries, and formal titles, these were naturally non-existent…

This was also the bottom line that the British Ministry of Magic and the Hogwarts Board of Governors could accept—and in exchange, Dumbledore also agreed not to investigate Peter Pettigrew's confession, and provided a guarantee of innocence for various magical families in his personal capacity.

After the incident of the Lestrange family vault being seized, a slight influence gradually spread.

As time went on, many ancient pure-blood magical families began to worry—the authority of the Ministry of Magic was threatening them for the first time. A subtle and imperceptible gap had appeared between the once intimate British Ministry of Magic and pure-blood wizarding families. In this case, Dumbledore's and Hogwarts' attitude was particularly important.

In addition to this, another reason for the Ministry of Magic and pure-blood families to compromise came from the collapse of the former Soviet Union, and the subsequent impact of the turbulence caused by the "Hogwarts mortgage incident" and the "dark magic financial scam."

As a wizard, if even the most basic exchange rate conversion required the help of goblins, and even the simplest and most inferior financial scams could not be detected, it would be too bad—under this unified understanding, adding a little bit of knowledge about mathematics to the daily courses at Hogwarts was obviously very reasonable and necessary.

Even if it was necessary to temporarily hire a few Muggle scholars for this purpose…

In the eyes of Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy, and other pure-blood wizards, according to the seven-year Hogwarts system, it would take no more than seven years for young wizards who had fully mastered Muggle mathematics knowledge to be born in the magical world.

By that time, Hogwarts would naturally return to a state where it was all wizards again.

The current educational reforms were just temporary expedients—a mere numbers game, how complicated could it be?

…

"As for the other new course offered this year, language and literature."

At the podium in the very center of the school hall, Dumbledore did not explain too much about the math and science courses.

Waiting for the scattered applause in the hall to die down, Dumbledore cleared his throat, looked at the students with a smile, glanced meaningfully at Lockhart, who was standing at the staff table, and continued with a smile.

"This is a special course established after research by the school professors, the Ministry of Magic, and the school board of directors, aimed at improving everyone's basic literacy skills, so as to enhance everyone's reading comprehension, writing, expression, and literary appreciation skills. Here, I am honored to announce to you that Gilderoy Lockhart will be the professor of this course in the coming time."

"As for the textbooks, you don't have to worry at all. In the first class, Professor Lockhart will distribute a batch of carefully selected basic textbooks suitable for everyone to read and study, as well as diaries and novels for appreciation—"

"Ahem."

Gilderoy Lockhart cleared his throat, looking expectantly at Dumbledore.

After a slight pause, a hint of helplessness flashed across Dumbledore's face, and he continued.

"By the way, Professor Lockhart has decided to give everyone a complete set of his novels as a back-to-school gift—well, it's under your seats. After tonight's dinner, you can take them back to your dormitories for collection."

Accompanied by Dumbledore's voice, the students bent down and groped under their chairs.

Under each seat, there were a full seven brand-new Lockhart series novels, each book slightly wrapped in gift paper and simply tied together with a sky-blue ribbon, with a delicate bow tied on the cover.

Of course, it would be even better if there wasn't an attached "Reading Report Task Card" on it.

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Chapter 1!