Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 203: Taking in a House and a Servant

With excitement, Mike pushed open the wooden door and entered the room.

Professor Flitwick was talking to the old man with white beard in the room. When they saw Mike coming, they stopped talking and looked over at the same time.

"Mike, let me introduce him to you." Professor Flitwick said with a smile, "This is the elder of our Raven's Nest, Randall Woodcutt."

Mike nodded to Randall and greeted him respectfully.

"Haha, what an outstanding kid." Randall laughed so hard that his eyes were invisible. He pointed at a large sofa in the room and said, "Come on, don't stand. Sit down."

Mike didn't hesitate and sat down with Flitwick.

At this time, the conversation really got to the point. Randall's small brown eyes kept looking at Mike, and after a long time he said:

"Michael, on behalf of all the members of Ravenclaw House, I want to thank you for finding the long-lost tiara. Perhaps a little wizard like you cannot understand its significance to us, but we cannot take advantage of you because of this."

Randall paused here, carefully observed Mike's expression, and saw that there was nothing wrong before continuing:

"So after discussion, we decided to give you two house elves."

After saying that, Randall stretched out his chicken claw-like hand and snapped his fingers in the air, and then two house-elves appeared in front of Mike.

The two house-elves were very similar in height and size, and they were dressed very similarly, both wearing pure white pillowcases without any symbols. Unlike Mike's impression of house-elves who looked dirty, these two house-elves were very clean, even the pillowcases they wore as clothes were spotless.

They were wearing berets on their heads. The one on the left was made of tweed with a red and black checkered pattern, while the one on the right was exactly the same as the one on the left except that the pattern was black and white.

These two berets were very new. If Mike guessed correctly, they were given to them by their owner not long ago.

(There is an implicit contract between house-elves and wizards. If a wizard wants to give freedom to his house-elves, he only needs to give it a piece of clothing. The clothing mentioned here includes a wide range of items, from handkerchiefs to tablecloths and curtains.

In history, there are very few cases of voluntarily canceling contracts with house-elves. On the one hand, wizards are unwilling to lose such a free labor force. On the other hand, freedom is a sin for house-elves. Being given clothes by their masters is like exile to them.)
As soon as the two house-elves appeared in the room, they bowed deeply to Mike for a long time and then stuck their huge heads on the ground, making a dull sound of the wooden floor and their foreheads hitting each other.

"These are twin brothers, only 10 years old this year. The one wearing the red and black hat is the older brother, named Shuke, and the one wearing the black and white hat is Beta. From now on, you are their master."

Randall introduced the two house elves to Mike, and the two little guys immediately raised their heads and looked at Mike in surprise. In their house elf society, a house elf without an owner is a shame for all elves and should commit suicide immediately. So the two little guys were very happy when they heard that they had new owners so soon.

"Master, Master! I'm Beta. I know everything. I promise I won't let you down."

The house-elf wearing a black and white hat began to express his loyalty in a hurry, while Shuke beside it was much calmer. He was not as impulsive as his brother and just bowed to Mike again.

"Okay, you guys go down first, we still have business to discuss."

Randall waved his hand and gave orders to Shuke and Beta. However, surprisingly, Shuke and Beta, who had obeyed Randall's words before, did not obey his orders after hearing his words. They just looked at Mike with questioning eyes.

Mike naturally understood what was going on. Shuke and Beta were now his own house-elves, so they would naturally no longer obey Randallton's orders.

So Mike nodded slightly to Shuke and Beta, and made them disappear back into the room.

Randall was not annoyed when he saw this. He had lived for such a long time that his hot temper had long since faded away. Not to mention that house-elves were such rigid creatures. There was no reason for him to get angry over such a small matter.

Seeing that the two house-elves had disappeared, Randall smiled and took out a piece of parchment and a bunch of copper keys from his arms and handed them to Mike.

Mike took it instinctively, and just when Mike was confused, Randall explained:

"Filius told me that you were looking for a house, right? Then this house is for you."

Mike was stunned when he heard this, and then he was surprised.

This is really like a pillow falling asleep. I was still considering whether to find someone to buy a house or just build a new one, and now Raven's Nest has directly given me a ready-made one.

When he opened the parchment, he saw that it was actually a magic contract.

This magic contract is different from the one signed by Mike and Lockhart before. It is a magic contract of the highest level, and its effectiveness is second only to the strongest and oldest contract magic: the Unbreakable Oath.

The contract clearly stated that the location of this house was the same as Professor Flitwick's home, in Godric's Hollow, but the house number of this house was 518 Godric's Hollow.

It seems that this is what Professor Flitwick and Randall were discussing before, and it is very likely that this house was chosen by Professor Flitwick, so that Mike can live closer to him so that he can be there first if anything happens.

Mike felt something in his heart was touched. Professor Flitwick had been very kind to Mike in the past two years, and he was raising him like his own son. Mike's heart was not made of stone, so he was naturally very moved.

Taking a deep breath, Mike bowed deeply to Professor Flitwick and thanked him. Although Mike did not say anything sentimental, the feelings he expressed were fully conveyed to Flitwick's heart, and directly made Flitwick, a sentimental man, shed tears.

Randall on the side watched all this with a smile, and waited until Mike and Flitwick calmed down before continuing:
"This house was originally a safe house set up by our Raven's Nest when Voldemort and his Death Eaters were wreaking havoc in Britain. Now that Voldemort is dead and his Death Eaters have all fled, there is no need for this safe house to exist any more. Giving it to you will make the best use of it.

Since it was once used as a safe house, the protection of this house is very good. Not only a lot of defensive magic and basic Muggle-repelling spells are set up, but also concealment magic is applied. This concealment magic is not as good as the Fidelius Charm, but it is also very good. Although it cannot protect against great wizards like Dumbledore, it is enough to protect against ordinary wizards. As long as you sign your full name on this contract, this house will belong to you, and you will have the highest authority over all the magical devices in it. "

After listening to Randall's explanation, Mike immediately took out his blackthorn wood wand. This kind of high-level magic contract cannot be written with ordinary pen and ink. It needs to be written with magic power just like the magic signature used as one of the withdrawal vouchers at Gringotts.

Since everyone's magical aura is different, this signature can be said to be unique and extremely difficult to imitate.

Mike used his wand as a pen and magic power as ink to sign his name on the contract.

After Mike wrote the last letter, the parchment suddenly caught fire and disappeared into ashes. Something else appeared in Mike's mind, which was the specific address of a house.

This specific address is like Mike's car navigation in his previous life, marking out all the routes Mike needs to take from his current location to the house.

After slowly digesting the sudden surge of information in his mind, Mike told Randall and Professor Flitwick that he had finished.

At this point, Mike's purpose of attending the Raven Party today has been successfully achieved, but the Raven Party has not yet ended.

When Mike and others walked out of the room and returned to the hall, there was still a steady stream of wizards coming in from the gate, and then ran excitedly to the display stand in the center of the hall to see the crown.

As the hero who recovered the crown, Mike naturally became a hot figure in the eyes of these people. People kept coming up to greet Mike and said that if he encountered any difficulties in the future, he could go to them and they would definitely give Mike the greatest help.

Among them are senior officials of the Ministry of Magic, direct members of ancient families, and many heirs and even patriarchs of new families that started out in business. This shows the strength of Raven's Nest.

The people who had been coming to say hello to Mike since early morning until noon finally calmed down. Raven's Nest was a loose organization where members helped each other, and the control over its members was not strict.

So when it was almost time for dinner, even though the crow party had not yet ended, most people still left the cabin in groups of three or four to go do other activities.

This is actually not surprising. Although these people have a good relationship with each other, they usually work all over the world. Now that they finally meet together, they naturally want to have some fun.

Perhaps for them, the main purpose of attending the Raven Gathering was not to see the Ravenclaw crown, but simply to get together with old friends whom they had not seen for a long time.

Mike also received many invitations, but he declined them all.

Because he had already promised Uncle Mario to go to his house for dinner.

In the hall, Mike, who had finally gotten rid of those grandpas and uncles, let out a long sigh. This kind of socializing made Mike feel very tired, even more tired than the last battle with Cedric.

Abbott, who had been waiting for a long time, saw that Mike had finally calmed down, so he came over and said, "Is it done? If it's done, I'll go to the Ministry of Magic."

"Let's go. I'm ready."

Upon hearing this, Abbott smiled and turned to Uncle Mario who was chatting with Flitwick and the others and shouted:
"Dad, Mike and I are going to the Ministry of Magic and will be home before lunch!"

Uncle Mario obviously knew about the Dolphin patent, and he was chatting animatedly with his old friends, so he waved his hand without looking back, signaling Abbott to get out.

After receiving the response, Abbott quickly pulled Mike out of the cabin, fearing that Mike would be found by some uncle or aunt.

As there were no fireplaces or other equipment in Raven Cottage, and Abbott, the new Auror Captain, naturally did not have the portkey that could lead directly to the Ministry of Magic, Abbott and Mike first used the portkey to return to the Foley family's manor, and then used the fireplace in the manor to teleport to the Ministry of Magic.

The British Ministry of Magic is located deep underground in Whitehall in central London. The entire Ministry of Magic has a total of ten floors, which contain a large number of offices, courtrooms and a Wizengamot court. It can be said that this is the center of power in the entire British wizarding world.

When Mike walked out of the fireplace, what appeared before his eyes was a hall that was far more magnificent than Gringotts.

The floor of the hall was a dark wooden floor that had been polished to a shine. There were many gilded fireplaces embedded in the walls on both sides. Countless wizards were queuing up to enter the fireplace on the wall opposite Mike to leave the Ministry of Magic, while on Mike's side, a steady stream of people were walking out of the fireplace.

It seems that the fireplace on Mike's side is specifically used for arriving at the Ministry of Magic, while the one on the opposite side is specifically used for leaving.

Perhaps because Mike stayed at the fireplace for too long, many dissatisfied voices came from the fireplace behind Mike. Mike looked back and found that there were already many people behind him, so he quickly made way.

Abbott laughed when he saw Mike's rare embarrassment and introduced him:

"This is the main hall of the Ministry of Magic, located on the eighth floor underground. And that is our current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge."

Looking in the direction that Abbott pointed, they saw a huge magic portrait hung above the crowd. The portrait showed a wealthy middle-aged white man, who was smiling and looking down at the people coming and going in the hall below.

Directly below this portrait, and in the center of the entire hall, is a huge fountain.

In the center of the fountain is a group of statues consisting of wizards, witches, centaurs, goblins, and house-elfs. The tallest of them is a noble and handsome wizard, holding his wand high up and pointing it to the sky. Surrounding him are a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf.

At this moment, the statues of the centaurs, goblins and house-elfs were looking up at the two wizards with infinite admiration. Streams of shining water spurted out from the tips of the wizards' wands, the centaurs' arrows and the house-elf's ears, drawing graceful arcs in the air and finally falling into the pool.

(End of this chapter)