The Hogwarts Emerald

Chapter 31 The Coming Christmas
Ada and the other two looked at the parchment with blank expressions. They really couldn't figure out what the magical use of this piece of paper was. Fred and George turned the parchment over and over for several times, but the parchment was still parchment, without any changes.

"Take a look at it, maybe you can come up with a solution." George handed the parchment to Ada.

Taking the parchment, Ada examined it carefully for a while, but found nothing. She placed the parchment on the table, drew out her wand and pointed it at the parchment, "Show your true form!"

The parchment did not react, remaining in its tattered state.

"Show yourself quickly!" This spell did not work, as if it was just a piece of paper and there was no secret on it.

Ada tapped the parchment several times with her wand and continued to chant the spell of revelation, but it didn't work at all. The old parchment remained unmoved.

Ada spread her hands, indicating that she was powerless.

George had no choice but to put the parchment away. He said, "It seems that we will have to spend a lot of time to find out its secret."

"I hope that the time and energy we spend are worth it, and this parchment can give me a different surprise," said Fred.

"I hope so. I hope it lives up to its reputation of being 'extremely dangerous'." Ada also said.

The three extremely sleepy people said good night to each other and then returned to their dormitories to rest. They still had a lot of "work" waiting for them tomorrow.

The next day, everyone quickly figured out why Gryffindor's points were reduced again. No one did anything radical about the twin brothers who had their points deducted again. The Gryffindors just decided to leave the brothers alone and let them fend for themselves.

The twins, who were deducted points and ignored, accepted Filch's punishment in the evening - cleaning the boys' bathroom. Professor McGonagall did not allow the brothers to use magic, and the [Cleaning Spell] that the twins had just learned was useless, which made Fred and George miserable.

When the two brothers returned to the common room with a bad smell, Ada was sitting in the common room writing furiously. The double homework caused Ada a lot of trouble and wasted a lot of her practice time.

The three of them would get together from time to time to discuss the precious parchment, but they had no clue where to start.

Hogwarts was getting colder in December, with Christmas and the holidays approaching.

A week before the holiday, the twins finally finished their punishment of cleaning the boys' bathroom, and Ada was freed from double homework. During this time, Ada's hand speed has greatly improved, and she thinks she can consider writing homework for others to make some extra money.

Earn every Galleon through your hard work.

The snow covering the campus was getting thicker and thicker, and the surface of the Black Lake was covered with hard ice. Students called their friends to have a tense and exciting snowball fight in the school.

Ada, Angelina, Alia, and Lee Jordan formed a team of four to face the twin brothers, a four-on-two battle of unequal strength.

From the beginning of the snowball fight, Ada and her four companions, who outnumbered them, were in a tough fight. The twin brothers had the upper hand with their unparalleled tacit understanding. Angelina and Alia were no match for the twins and were beaten back by George, leaving Ada, Lee Jordan and the twins to face off in the middle.

After being hit by snowballs repeatedly, Ada finally got angry and decided to let the kids see what a real snowball fight is. Can throwing a few snowballs at each other and causing a large amount of snowflakes be called a snowball fight?

Obviously not! Under Ada's command, Angelina and Alia finally mustered up the courage to start a crazy confrontation with George, attracting his attention and pulling the defense line.

Ida and Lee Jordan rushed to Fred in the midst of his hail of bullets, and together they knocked Fred, who was firing the most fiercely, to the ground, and buried him in the snow. Then she and Lee Jordan did the same thing and buried George next to them.

"You two aren't so majestic anymore...haha..." Lee Jordan said as he looked down at the twins lying in the snow, laughing.

But before he could finish, he was thrown to the ground by three girls, and suffered the same fate as the twins. The "smug" Qiao didn't even notice the three girls exchanging glances behind him. He was buried in the snow because he was too careless, and he couldn't blame anyone else.

The twins did see the girls' conspiracy, but how could they tell Lee Jordan?
After knocking Lee Jordan down, Ada also planned to go forward and taunt him, but she did not make the same mistake as Lee Jordan.

Ada first looked back at Angelina and Alia, and saw that the two were cleaning the snow off their bodies. Then she began to ridicule them with relief: "You three...ah!"

Before Ada could fire her best shot, Angelina and Alia buried her as well. The two of them were just pretending to clean the clothes, but in fact they were paralyzing Ada and letting her relax her guard.

The two girls who succeeded in the sneak attack celebrated by high-fiving, while the twins and Lee Jordan, the three losers, laughed loudly at the fourth loser, Ada. Ada, who taught her apprentice to starve her to death, lay in the snow and asked the sky in silence: Even a snowball fight requires intrigue, I'm afraid this world will never be a good place...

Seeing Angelina still celebrating her victory with Alia, Ada, unwilling to accept the defeat, tried to stir up trouble. She said, "The one who is still standing is the only winner!"

After hearing her words, the two girls became wary of each other, neither wanting to be taken advantage of by the other. The four people lying on the ground also stood up again, and in the end, this battle of four against two became a melee of six people.

The six people who had a great time returned to the common room wet to change clothes. Rather than dry clothes, what they probably needed more was a cup of 999 Cold Remedy each.

This way of playing snowballs was inherited and carried forward by other Gryffindor students in the days that followed. Wherever there was snow on the school playground, you could see piles of snow one after another. People who didn't know would think they were in a cemetery.

When the students gathered in the auditorium for dinner, Professor McGonagall began to compile a list of students who would stay on campus for the holidays. All of Ada's friends had to leave school and go home for the holidays, but she was the only one who chose to stay on campus.

Fred and George invited Ada to spend Christmas at the Weasleys' house, but Ada did not agree. Ada had already made plans for Christmas, and she thought it was better for the family to get together at Christmas, and she, as an outsider, would not get involved.

When Professor McGonagall came over, Ada signed her name on the detention list without hesitation. This Christmas would be perfect if Snape didn't stay in school.

In the last few days before the Christmas holidays, Fred and George would always appear near Hagrid, enthusiastically asking about Hagrid's well-being and trying every way to help Hagrid, even though Hagrid didn't need their help at all.

The reason why the two brothers did this was not only because they wanted to get some more information about the Forbidden Forest from Hagrid, but also because they felt guilty for deceiving Hagrid.

The walls of the hall were hung with festoons of holly and mistletoe, and all around it stood twelve towering Christmas trees, some with sparkling icicles and some with hundreds of flickering candles.

These decorations were all done by Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. The two worked together to decorate the hall with a festive atmosphere, which made the students look forward to the upcoming holidays even more.

Just like that, the Christmas holiday finally arrived amid everyone's anticipation.

(End of this chapter)