Professor of Gemology at Hogwarts

At the door of Dumbledore's office, Gray looked up at the stone monster in the empty corridor. This huge and extremely ugly stone monster stood motionless and glared at him fiercely.

Okay, based on his impression of the original work, he vaguely remembered it was "lemon ice cream", but would it be... too abrupt to just say the password and walk in like this?

While he and the stone monster were staring at each other, the stone monster snorted disdainfully and jumped to the side. The wall behind it cracked in half.

"Huh??" Gray looked at the stone monster in surprise, but it closed its eyes and refused to pay attention to him.

He walked up the moving stone stairs and came to the bright door with a griffon knocker on it. Gray knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Dumbledore's voice came from inside.

Walking into the house, there are portraits of the past principals of Hogwarts hanging on the wall. They are all sleeping, their chests rising and falling gently - in fact, they are pretending.

"Forgive me, Gray. The new semester has just started. I forgot to tell the staff the new password. The password is 'lemon ice cream'." Dumbledore sat behind the desk. "You seem to have something to talk to me about. talk?"

"I would like to know more about Ballard Mason, Headmaster Dumbledore."

At this time, he noticed that the portrait next to him was no longer sleeping, but had his eyes open a slit and peeked at Gray.

"So, you went to see him, right?" At this time, Dumbledore looked at him, the tips of his ten slender fingers touching together.

Remember in a second>

"Yes, but we had an unpleasant conversation between the two of us." Gray thought of Mason's crazy appearance of suddenly shouting and suddenly crying, and in the end he was thrown out of the door.

"It seems that Ballard is still very grumpy..." Dumbledore laughed twice. "He is an old friend of mine, but he is a little arrogant. He cannot bear to see that there are no students signing up for his class."

"But alchemy is still an elective course. We can't live without professors, and there are fewer and fewer alchemists." Dumbledore said calmly, "So he has stayed here. I think he will make What kind of grades can I give my old friend, the principal, to understand that I did not pay his salary in vain?"

Gray felt that Dumbledore was beating around the bush and saying a bunch of irrelevant things.

"He knew Frandy, my mother."

"Yes, Franty discovered Ballard's secluded little world in Hogwarts. Perhaps they exchanged their views on magic, so Franty became his student. About this matter , that’s all I know.”

"He also knew Nico Flamel? And they created the Philosopher's Stone together?"

"Really? It seems that the exchange between you was not as unpleasant as what you just said." Dumbledore looked at Gray curiously, "Ballard actually talked about Nico. Well...he He is usually crazy and often fantasizes about helping Nico create the Philosopher's Stone, but the Philosopher's Stone was created hundreds of years ago."

How could Gray forget this logic?The reason why Nico Flamel has lived for so long is because the Philosopher's Stone was made hundreds of years ago!

But Mason said that he helped create the Philosopher's Stone?This made him even crazier in Gray's impression.

"Then why did you let me visit him?" Gray looked at Dumbledore, "You should know that I have been studying crystals since I was in school. At the time, I had no idea that there was a man named Ballard in the castle. Mason. But now, when I am about to become a professor, you say that Professor Mason wants to meet me? Besides, my research on crystals did not go any further after graduation."

If Mason was really interested in him as a person studying crystal stones, he should have invited Gray to meet him long ago when he was in school or during his working years.

But in fact it was not the case. When Dumbledore suddenly came to visit and invited Gray to be a professor, he only mentioned this man named Mason in passing.

Dumbledore's expression was calm, looking at him through his glasses.

"I'm just passing on a message for an old friend, Gray. Even I can't understand Ballard's craziness sometimes."

How do you say this?It's okay to lie to a kid like Harry, but forget it.Dumbledore would not simply help spread the word without knowing why Mason wanted to see Gray, especially since Mason was such an eccentric old man.

Dumbledore slowly took out a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it carefully.The watch looked very strange. It had twelve hands but no numbers. There were also some small stars rotating along the edge of the dial.

Dumbledore obviously understood. He put the watch back in his pocket and said, "I'm sorry, Gray, but our conversation has to end here. The International Federation of Magicians has an important meeting, and I think as the president, I can't be late."

Gray's conversation with Dumbledore ended like this, and he didn't get any useful information from it.

October came, and a damp chill permeated the grounds and seeped into the castle.A sudden flu epidemic among the staff and students set the school doctor, Madam Pomfrey, in a hurry.

Several professors also got busy. More and more people were suffering from colds, and the refreshing potion was not enough. Snape was entrusted by Madam Pomfrey to help make some concentrated refreshing potion for the sick students.

On the other side, since Gray lent Ron a piece of Mecca Stone last time, everyone has discovered the healing effect of crystal stones on diseases. Therefore, Madam Pomfrey asked him to provide some therapeutic crystal stones to the school hospital.

"Ms. Pomfrey, the red ones are Mecca stones. The green ones are malachite. This is green quartz. They are both used to calm labor pains."

"Thank you very much, Professor Morris!" Madam Pomfrey happily took the shimmering stones.

During this period, Gray would go to the Forbidden Forest every week to get some petrified wood back, and then count the days of the next full moon, completing his magic source stone bit by bit.

He also tried to eat some Origin Stone powder. After eating it, he felt hot all over his body, very smooth and refreshed.

Gray also tried the effect, and the spell released was stronger than before.In terms of ability, he was almost on par with an Auror, which he had never thought of half a year ago.

At the same time, the role of the petrified wood itself began to show itself. After putting the slices under his pillow that day, Gray's memory became better and better day by day. Perhaps this piece of petrified wood was too high-quality. In just over a month, Gray's memory became better and better day by day. It almost achieves the effect of photographic memory.

This allowed him to further his research on spar science, and he could quickly understand and memorize many esoteric books.Because his magic power increased, his magic to manipulate stones became stronger and stronger.

Gray thought, with his current ability and the blessing of the crystal, could he challenge the basilisk alone?