Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 247 New Members Coming Soon
"Buckbeak? Who's that?"

Mike asked in confusion, frowning.

Hermione looked at Mike in shock, as if she was shocked by Mike's answer, but then her expression became a little annoyed and she said:

"You actually forgot about it? Didn't you ride it when you first started school?"

Mike then remembered that Buckbeak was the hippogriff and quickly apologized to Hermione.

He really forgot about Buckbeak. During this period of time, his mind was full of Black and Freemasonry, and he didn't take Buckbeak, the "beast", seriously at all.

Fortunately, Mike was good at talking and had a lot of experience in dealing with girls like Hermione. After comforting her for a while, Hermione finally stopped being angry and began to explain the matter of Buckbeak.

"I overheard Professor McGonagall chatting with Professor Lupin. They said that Malfoy's father had taken Buckbeak to court, and the Ministry of Magic had decided to execute Buckbeak for hurting Malfoy!"

Hermione was very emotional, and her eyes became red as she spoke.

Mike was calm inside, and even felt like laughing.

To be honest, it was a good result that Buckbeak's attack ended in this way. After all, Buckbeak was a beast with a history of attacking people. In the Muggle society, if such a beast with low IQ had a history of attacking or eating people, death would be its only fate.

This is also the case in wizarding society. After all, no one can guarantee that the beast will not fall in love with the taste of human blood and make similar or even more serious mistakes.

Mike believed that if Dumbledore had not intervened, even Hagrid would have been severely punished. After all, as the professor of Care of Magical Creatures, he had to bear a considerable part of the responsibility in this matter.

Hermione and Harry thought that Malfoy provoked them first, so it was reasonable for Buckbeak to hurt Malfoy, especially since Malfoy's injuries were not serious.

But this idea is extremely subjective and extremely stupid.

As the saying goes, the head follows the butt. They only sided with Buckbeak because they had a bad relationship with Malfoy and a good relationship with Hagrid. From an observer's perspective, Mike felt that the Malfoy family's behavior was not too excessive.

After all, provocation is not illegal. It's like when you are sitting on the subway and an old lady suddenly jumps out, points at your nose and starts scolding you. This is a provocation. Even if you report it, it will be useless. At most, she will be given a verbal lecture.

But if you can't help but hit her, I'm sorry, you may have to pay money to settle the matter privately or go to jail.

This is true between people, not to mention between people and beasts.

Of course, Mike would never tell Hermione these words. On the contrary, he expressed his indignation towards the Malfoy family from Hermione's perspective, and said that they must have used their privileges to make things turn out like this.

As Mike expected, girls of this age were still so gullible. Hermione's eyes lit up when Mike said this.

Without caring about crying anymore, she immediately returned to her usual seat and began flipping through a thick book, declaring that she must cheer up and help Buckbeak escape the fate of being executed.

Mike casually flipped through a few books on Hermione's desk, and shook his head when he found that they were all law-related books.

Hermione wants to rescue Buckbeak through legal means, but Mike is pessimistic about this.

However, he did a good job on the surface. Seeing that Hermione had completely forgotten the unpleasantness with Ron and devoted herself to studying, Mike left the library silently and went to the Room of Requirement.

'I need a place to hold prisoners.'*3
After standing in front of the door of the Room of Requests and silently reciting it three times, a huge dungeon appeared in the Room of Requests.

This place perfectly meets all of Mike's fantasies about a dungeon: dark, damp, and dirty...

There is only one long corridor inside the dungeon, and on both sides of the corridor are cells of various sizes. The smallest of these cells can only be measured in centimeters, while the largest is more than ten meters high. No one knows what these strange cells are used to detain.

Mike even found some human-shaped skeletons in some cages. The surfaces of the bones of these skeletons were extremely dirty, and some were even broken.

"It looks like my predecessors have achieved great results!"

As Mike said this, he stuffed the still stiff Peter Pettigrew into a cell that was only ten cubic centimeters in size, put some dry bread in it, and then left the gloomy dungeon.

But he did not walk far. He stood at the door of the Room of Requirement, closed his eyes and silently prayed for a moment before pushing the door open again.

The layout of the Requirement-Granting Room has changed drastically, and it has returned to the training room that Mike is most familiar with.

Mike poured himself a cup of black tea familiarly, then sat on the sofa and drank it in small sips.

The Christmas holidays are coming, and Penelope and Franklin will leave Hogwarts tomorrow and go home to reunite with their families, so Mike decided to hold the first summary meeting of the Freemasons tonight.

Penelope and Franklin arrived at the Room of Requirement one after another before they finished their cup of tea.

Mike poured them a cup of black tea and said, "Now that everyone is here, let's officially start the meeting."

As Mike announced the official start of the meeting, Penelope straightened up, took out a disk of documents and said:
"Let me give you a report first. As of today, we have loaned out 13410 gold galleons. The smallest loan amount is 10 gold galleons, and the largest is 500 gold galleons.

Among them, the number of students in grade 4 and above who borrowed money far exceeded that of students in lower grades, but most of them used the money to purchase new books and learning materials.

Only a small number of lower grade students used the loans for legitimate purposes. Most of them used the money to buy candies and toys. One student even took out a loan to buy a Nimbus 2000.

Penelope paused here, put down the documents in her hand, looked at Mike and said, "I think these people who use their loans for food, drink and entertainment have no potential at all. I suggest you stop investing in them."

Mike lowered his eyes and did not answer Penelope directly.

“How is the sharing plan of learning resources going?”

"Similar to the use of loans, senior students really like the sharing community we have established and have a strong desire to exchange knowledge and communicate with each other. But junior students..."

Penelope closed her mouth here and just shook her head slightly, the meaning was very clear.

"It seems that our financial aid institutions are only counterproductive for students who are too young. So let's stop providing loans to students below the fourth grade and increase the maximum loan limit for senior students."

"I understand. I will carry it out."

Under Franklin's dull gaze, Mike and Penelope finished planning for the future of the student aid program, but Mike didn't stop talking at this time, and continued: "Okay, the first thing is over. Let's start today's serious business. Regarding new members, do you have any good candidates to recommend?"

After Mike finished speaking, he turned his gaze to Franklin beside him. Franklin, noticing Mike's gaze, immediately woke up from his daze, and after realizing that Mike was asking him, he quickly shook his head like a rattle.

Mike turned his gaze to Penelo again, only to see Penelo raise her slender arms and slowly say:

"I recommend Soraka as our newest member."

Hearing Penelope's words, Mike immediately stood up and raised his voice and said:
"Soraka? The doctor who likes to cut people open?"

"Yes, I think Soraka is a very good candidate. She has a very high talent in healing and a good personality. She used all the loans we lent her to improve herself... Most importantly, she has a relationship with us."

After listening to Penelope's words quietly, Mike slowly raised his head and asked, "What did she do with the loan?"

Penelope was silent now, and after a long while she said, "I bought a lot of corpses for dissection."

"Is that so?"

Mike rubbed his brows hard as he thought about it. After thinking for a long time, he agreed to Penelope's proposal. After all, Soraka had some abilities besides being a little abnormal. So he said:
"Then let's start the vote. Those who agree with Soraka joining please raise your hands."

After saying that, he raised his hand first.

This is the system negotiated by Mike, Penelope and others. Every member of the Freemasonry must be recommended by an old member and voted on by all members of the Freemasonry. Only with the consent of more than half of the members can one join.

Penelope naturally supports Soraka, so Franklin's vote is irrelevant.

"Then Soraka will be temporarily appointed as a member of the Freemasons. Next, Penelope, you will go and contact her." Mike spread his hands and said, "I also have someone I want to recommend, the Weasley brothers. Although these two people are not very strong, they have strong talents in inventions and creations, and I have a good relationship with them."

"But they are purebloods."

Franklin asked, frowning.

Mike was speechless about this black brother, but since they were all on the same side, he could only patiently explain:

"Franklin, our organization is not a Muggle wizard group. We support Muggle-born wizards only because they can bring us more benefits. In principle, we do not exclude people of any bloodline from joining. We now want to unite all the forces that can be united."

Franklin nodded thoughtfully, then raised his hand before Mike announced the start of the vote.

Mike raised his hand as well.

So, Penelope's vote also lost its meaning.

At this point the first summary meeting of the Freemasons officially ended, and after the meeting Mike and the other two returned to Ravenclaw together.

Three days later, Hogwarts Castle was dressed in new clothes. Professor Flitwick, who loved to arrange parties, took the students who planned to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas to decorate Hogwarts into a snow kingdom.

Not only was the auditorium filled with all kinds of ribbons and balloons, but even the monster statues that had looked ferocious in the past were given Christmas hats by the students, making them look even cuter.

Mike stood in front of the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, looking at the portrait of Sir Cadore in front of him, speechless.

Ever since being attacked by Black, the fat lady who was originally the security guard of the Gryffindor common room was determined not to take on this dangerous job anymore. Not only her, but most of the portraits in Hogwarts were unwilling to do it.

In desperation, Professor McGonagall had to choose Sir Cadogan who volunteered.

Sir Cadore is a brave knight with a mental problem who challenges everyone who passes him on his fat grey horse.

At this moment he was provoking Mike, hoping that Mike would accept his challenge.

Mike didn't know the password to the common room, so he could only stay here and wait for other Gryffindor students to come in and out so that he could get the password.

"Mike!? Long time no see."

A familiar voice was heard, and Mike turned his head to see a fat man looking at him with surprise.

"Neville? You've come just in time. I've been standing here for almost half an hour. Quickly read the command and let me in."

The innocent Neville didn't even ask Mike why he came. He just said "oh" and took out a piece of paper with words written on it and started reading:

"Broken glass, dragon thorns, dragon balls, cold blood..."

Mike, who was standing by, looked a little dumbfounded and couldn't help asking, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, Sir Cadore changes his password at least twice a day, and I can't remember it at all, so I wrote down all the passwords he had set before, hoping to guess the right one."

Mike: “…”

It turned out that Mike was lucky. When Neville read the 41st password, Sir Cadore finally opened the entrance.

Neville seemed very happy after guessing the password correctly. He wanted to share his joy with Mike, but Mike had no time to pay attention to him and went straight to the Weasley brothers' dormitory.

All of the Weasley brothers' roommates had gone home, so after exchanging pleasantries with the Weasley brothers for a while, Mike closed the door and began to explain Freemasonry.

Half an hour later, Mike, who had finally explained the general role of Freemasonry and the rights and obligations of every member, took a deep breath and said:
"As I've said before, this is a very small but extremely united group, and I sincerely invite you to join now."

The Weasley brothers looked at each other, and then said in unison:

"We have no problem with you swearing an unbreakable oath. It's up to you, boss."

"Then when the holiday is over, we will hold an initiation ceremony for you."

(End of this chapter)