Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 277 Pranks and the New Professor

Mike didn't care too much about Professor Flitwick's plan to put him in solitary confinement.

After all, even though it was confinement, Professor Flitwick would not really put him in confinement. At most, he would just learn spells and drink tea with Professor Flitwick every day.

But what Mike didn't expect was that Professor Flitwick was so anxious that he put Mike in confinement before the new semester even started.

This is not right either, because although it is called confinement, it is more like a retreat.

A spellcasting retreat with only Professor Flitwick and Michael.

During the time when Mike was forced to stay in seclusion, many things happened outside.

The biggest concern was the shift in public opinion.

Ever since Michael was released by the Ministry of Magic, all mainstream media have changed their tone, from criticizing the Ministry of Magic to completely destroying it, to defending it with all their might.

Like at the beginning, when Mike was imprisoned as a hero, it was said that Mike took the initiative to cooperate with the Ministry of Magic's investigation.

The injured Muggles appeared in the camp because the staff of the Ministry of Magic who was responsible for maintaining the Muggle-Repelling Charm near the venue secretly ran away to watch the game, causing the Muggle-Repelling Charm to fail. After suspending the staff member who was not sure whether he was a temporary worker, the matter was over.

As for the key thugs in this incident and the Voldemort follower who released the resurrection curse, although the Ministry of Magic has not caught them yet, it has still put forward several scapegoats.

After those scapegoats were executed, the people's resentment gradually subsided.

After all, everyone has their own lives, and not everyone is so idle as to have nothing to do all day long to criticize the Ministry of Magic.

However, although the Ministry of Magic seemed to have handled this incident well, the damage it caused still exists.

The first is the international image.

Foreigners don't care how many reasons you have, they only see the terrorist attack at the Quidditch World Cup, so the British Ministry of Magic will probably be the object of ridicule by other countries for many years to come.

On the other hand, there is the influence of those thugs.

Those thugs are all powerful people, so the Ministry of Magic will naturally not arrest them all and make them public.

But with so many celebrities suddenly disappearing, anyone with a discerning eye would have already seen through the trick.

In the eyes of these people, the authority of the Ministry of Magic has long since disappeared.

Of course, none of these things have much to do with Mike.

At this moment, he had already ended his brief retreat with Professor Flitwick and boarded the Hogwarts Express to head to school to start his new semester.

This time, the treatment Mike received was obviously different.

Those members of the mutual aid society actually occupied an entire carriage early on and used it as Mike's exclusive carriage.

Mike was naturally not polite. He went straight into a private room in the carriage with Penelope, led by Benjamin.

And there was already someone in the box.

This is a boy (girl?) who looks a little thin. Judging from his skin color and hair, he should be Asian.

But the long black hair and slightly feminine face made it difficult for Mike to tell his gender.

"Is he the one you were talking about?"

Mike turned his head and looked at Benjamin. Seeing him nod, he continued to ask:

"Why is he here?"

"I don't know either. I received the Hogwarts admission letter out of nowhere when the summer vacation was about to end." Benjamin said excitedly, dancing with joy. "But this is a good thing. It's always good for children to read more books."

After saying that, Benjamin stretched out his hand and wanted to touch the child's head, but the other party dodged him in disgust.

Benjamin was not annoyed, he just smiled awkwardly at Mike.

Mike said nothing. He could understand Benjamin. The child in front of him was the faceless monster they had caught in East London before.

Originally they planned to send him to Mike as soon as possible, but after Benjamin discovered that the faceless monster was actually just a child, he had other ideas, such as letting the faceless monster help them hunt other dark magic creatures.

There is no doubt that they succeeded and achieved very good results.

Therefore, in Benjamin's eyes, this faceless monster is a treasure.

Or maybe, Benjamin might have raised this guy as his younger brother or son.

Mike didn't care about the twists and turns here. He took Penelope and sat opposite the child and asked:
"What's your name?"

The child didn't seem to be talkative. He ignored Mike's questions and just lowered his head, making it difficult to see his expression.

"Hey, what did I teach you? Be polite. Mr. Tang Li is asking you a question!"

Seeing this, Benjamin hurried forward and gently pushed Wumian's arm. Then Wumian said reluctantly in a very small voice:

"Zhou Hong."

"Zhou Hong? Are you Chinese?" Mike was a little stunned when he heard this. There were not as many Chinese people going abroad during this period as there would be more than a decade later. Qiu Zhang was the only Chinese person in the entire Hogwarts. "This is really rare."

Faced with Mike's question, Zhou Hong remained silent again.

Benjamin originally wanted to remind him to be polite, but Mike stopped him.

One name says it all.

Seeing this, Benjamin said nothing more and walked to Zhou Hong and prepared to sit down.

At this moment, Mike noticed that the young man named Zhou Hong suddenly showed an excited smile on his face.

Before Mike had time to think about the meaning of that smile, Benjamin had already sat down. Then, Benjamin let out a scream, and at the same time, he covered his butt and jumped up at a speed several times faster than when he sat down.

"Hahahaha" Zhou Hong laughed.

"You... you are really going too far!" Benjamin pulled out a thin needle from his butt and said to Zhou Hong, "There should be limits to pranks! You even used a weapon this time! You! I will punish you by not allowing you to eat sweets for a month!"

Zhou Hong's laughter stopped abruptly. With a look of horror on his face, he hugged Benjamin and rubbed his head against his chest, saying non-stop:

"I was wrong! I was wrong! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Zhou Hong's accent is very strange and the words he uses are very monotonous. It seems that he did not learn English well.

Seeing Zhou Hong's sincere attitude of admitting his mistake, Benjamin's expression also eased. He touched Zhou Hong's head and said:

"Forget it this time, but if you do it again next time, it won't be so easy."

Zhou Hong didn't react when he heard this, but just continued to rub against Benjamin.

At this time, Benjamin also realized that something was wrong. He forcibly pulled Zhou Hong away and saw that his white shirt was soaked with snot and saliva. "Zhou Hong!"

Benjamin roared and reached out to catch the culprit.

However, Zhou Hong had already run out of the box laughing.

On the other side, Penelope had already laughed so hard that she couldn't stop, and even Mike had a smile on his face.

Seeing this, Benjamin scratched his head awkwardly, took out a magic wand and used it on himself to clean himself up, and said:

"I'm sorry to both of you for making fun of me. Zhou Hong is a little bit fond of playing pranks, but he's a good kid otherwise."

Mike smiled and shook his head, he had already seen it.

The kid named Zhou Hong in front of me doesn't like playing pranks at all, he is clearly a naughty kid!
The train was still running fast. The previous turmoil did not affect Mike. After laughing, he started talking and laughing with Penelope again.

When Benjamin found that Mike was not interested in chatting with him, he left the carriage, leaving the rather cramped compartment to Mike and Penelope.

After exiting the carriage, he did not look for another seat to sit down, but stood like a door god not far from the door of Mike's box to ensure that no one would disturb Mike.

It was because of Benjamin's hard work that Mr. Mac arrived at Hogwarts very smoothly without any other accidents happening in the process.

After getting off the train, Mike, accompanied by a group of mutual aid members, went to the storage location of the Thestral carriage, ready to take the carriage to the castle.

Benjamin, however, left the group and told Zhou Hong over and over again like an old lady not to mess around on the boat, lest he fall into the Black Lake and catch a cold. (New students need to take a boat when they first arrive at Hogwarts)
Before leaving, she put the Ravenclaw scarf from her neck on Zhou Hong's neck under Zhou Hong's disdainful look.

This move made the other freshmen around envious. The blue and white striped scarf with the Ravenclaw emblem on it might not be a big deal in the eyes of the old students, but for these freshmen who have not yet been sorted, it has great appeal.

"Wow! Your brother is so nice to you!"

"Hey, my brother is from Gryffindor, but he never lets me touch his clothes or wand!"

"This is so beautiful! Can I touch it?"

……

After Benjamin left, the freshmen gathered around him, chattering non-stop, and many of them stretched out their hands, wanting to touch the legendary Ravenclaw badge.

"He's not my brother!"

Zhou Hong stiffened his neck and spoke in broken English.

His expression was still full of disgust, but his hands were protecting the scarf from beginning to end.

Those who wanted to touch the scarf, none of them succeeded.

……

The Hogwarts Great Hall was brightly lit. Professors and long-lost classmates gathered together, chatting and laughing about the interesting things that happened during the holidays.

Among them, the Quidditch World Cup was mentioned most frequently.

While everyone was talking about the Quidditch World Cup, their eyes couldn't help but drift towards Mike.

Obviously, Mike's story of standing up to thugs at the World Cup is well known.

Mike always ignored these glances. At this moment, he was concentrating on searching the teacher's seat. After checking back and forth several times and failing to find the familiar figure, he withdrew his gaze and sighed deeply.

Lupin left after all.

This is not surprising. Due to Snape's continuous hints, many students in Hogwarts have already guessed Lupin's identity. It's just that because of the intervention of Michael and the members of the mutual aid society, everyone remained silent.

But truth will come out sooner or later. Although this problem was not exposed last year, it may be exposed this year.

So it was natural for Lupin to be replaced.

The key question is who will be his successor.

Just as Mike was thinking about the problem, the door of the auditorium was pushed open, and a group of little wizards with curiosity in their eyes walked in under the leadership of McGonagall like an old hen leading a group of chicks.

"Every time I see new students coming in, I remember that you walked in like this back then."

Penelope whispered in Mike's ear, and then she couldn't hold back her giggles anymore.

"I didn't seem so shameful back then, did I?"

Mike looked confused and pointed at Zhou Hong and another boy in the crowd who had some water plants hanging on their heads.

"But you were very nervous back then, more nervous than anyone else. As a result, you looked like a duck when you walked. Hahahaha! My sisters and I were laughing at you at the time! Hahaha!"

Mike touched his nose awkwardly, speechless.

Can you blame me?
Is tension something that people can control?

On the other side, Benjamin slapped himself on the forehead.

Despite all my repeated warnings, Zhou Hong still fell into the Black River!

Damn it, can't you just take the weeds off your head first? Can't you see that Professor McGonagall's eyes are about to spit fire?
Zhou Hong naturally could not hear Benjamin's inner roar. At this moment, he was excitedly discussing his experience with the boy who had just fallen into the black lake with him. He didn't even hear Professor McGonagall calling his name.

Finally, it was a girl next to him who patted him on the shoulder that finally brought him to his senses.

Facing Professor McGonagall's murderous gaze, Zhou Hong straightened his head and chest and put the Sorting Hat on his head without fear.

Following the Sorting Hat's resounding verdict, thunderous applause broke out from the Gryffindor table.

Professor McGonagall's pursed lips trembled.

She could almost foresee that the next seven years would be difficult for her.

Seeing this, Benjamin became a little depressed. He still hoped that Zhou Hong could be sorted into Ravenclaw.

But given his temper, it didn't seem strange that the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor.

After the separation ceremony, it was time for the principal to give his much-anticipated speech.

All the old students were quite confident about the speaking speed of their headmaster, so when Dumbledore stood up to speak, many people had already picked up their knives and forks, ready to start devouring the food as soon as it appeared.

But this time, Dumbledore did not end the battle as quickly as they wished. Instead, he said seriously:
"I'm sure some careful students have noticed that there is an empty seat in our teaching chair this year. I regret to inform you that our beloved Professor Lupin has applied for resignation due to health reasons."

There was an uproar in the audience, and many young wizards who didn't know Lupin's true identity were very sad about his departure.

"But I have invited an equally outstanding Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for you all. Let us welcome the former senior Auror, Alastor Moody!"

(End of this chapter)