Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 149 148. Rita shows off her skills with Hermione & Luna
Sometimes Harry wondered if he had become dull, just like a once sharp knife that began to rust after not being used for a long time, becoming dull, old, and slow... corroded by a peaceful and comfortable life.

For example, now.

Lying flat on his animal skin bed, Harry stared blankly at the girl who was standing beside his bed and mumbling something rapidly - he was sure her lips were moving, but to be honest, every word the girl said did not reach his ears.

"…If I remember correctly, Hermione," Harry said blankly, "this should be my room."

To be precise, it should be Harry's room in the suitcase world of Mulgore. It is one floor high and decorated with an ancient atmosphere. There is a brazier burning in the middle of the room.

Harry was wondering if he had let his guard down too much, not reacting until Hermione walked up to his bed and started talking.

"Of course I'm here to wake you up!" Folding her arms, Hermione glanced at the fire element dancing in the brazier and said confidently, "The sun is already shining on your butt, Harry, you can't lie down like this any longer!"

"...This is the first time I agree with Ron's statement that girls can't enter the boys' dormitory at will." Wearing pajamas, Harry sat up and sighed and said, "Isn't it a holiday now?"

Hermione and Neville arrived at the Burrow earlier than Harry expected. A few friends had made an appointment to go shopping in Diagon Alley together.

In order not to expose Harry's box, Hermione slept in Ginny's room last night, while Neville slept in a room with Ron and Harry. It must be said that when Mrs. Weasley heard that the three of them were going to sleep in a room together, her eyes suddenly became serious, and she sternly warned them not to play too much at night.

"Is it about the holidays?!" Hermione suddenly became excited. Her eyes looked sinister and her hands moved slightly, as if she would pounce on Harry and strangle him at any time. "It's your disciple! Oh my God! Do you know how I felt when I suddenly learned that you had a disciple last night?"

"Joy?" said Harry.

Then Hermione's gaze became even more creepy.

"Yes, I'm so happy," Hermione said with a wry smile, "This is no small matter, Harry. He is your first disciple, not an insignificant apprentice like us - even if you say that we are only your apprentices in class, as friends, you don't even ask us to be witnesses to such an important event in your life?"

Theoretically, Hermione was right. Even in Muggle society, a disciple who could inherit all the skills of his master was extremely important, not to mention that what Harry was going to teach Luna was a completely new magical skill.

Neither willing to give in nor admit defeat.

Jealousy… not much though.

Well, no matter how much Hermione didn't want to admit it in her mind, she knew that she was actually jealous - after all, she was not even qualified to become Harry's disciple to learn those profound shamanic spells, but now a disciple suddenly appeared?
Hermione also immediately realized the reason why Harry made this decision, the word that had given her a headache for a long time last year... talent.

Damn it.

So sad.

"Sorry," Harry scratched his head and said, "I didn't think too much about it. I just happened to meet such a talented child that day, so I didn't want to miss it."

Damn, he actually said it.

"Okay, Harry," Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Hurry up and get up. Don't forget what you promised us last night. You would take Neville and me to see that girl - let me see how great her talent is."

Harry thought Hermione's last words were somewhat gnashed...well, and he doubted Neville was just a by-product.

"...Okay, right away."

The day at the Weasley family started with all kinds of noise. When Harry and Neville crawled out of Mulgore, Ron had already put on his clothes and was now shouting outside with his neck stretched out, trying to find out from Mrs. Weasley where his socks had gone.

When Harry came to the living room, Mrs. Weasley had been busy in the kitchen for a long time. The aroma of frying sausages filled the whole room, making people's mouths water.

"Wait a moment, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, turning back from the kitchen, smiling, "Breakfast will be ready in a moment - Fred! George! I warned you not to step so hard on the stairs!"

The twins' deliberate stomping sounds sounded as if they were going to tear down the house, and after hearing Mrs. Weasley's call, the two of them started shouting that they were wronged.

Following closely behind the twins, Ginny also came out shyly, not even daring to look Harry in the eye, and hurriedly ran to the garden to call Mr. Weasley who was watering the flowers to come back for breakfast.

Well, in Ginny's eyes, this might be the aftermath of social death - after all, she was yelling something in the living room yesterday when Harry walked in, and then she didn't make any sound or raise her head once until she went to bed at night.

This is what it's like to be autistic.

It was full of life, especially when everyone sat at one table (because it was not big enough, Mr. Weasley had to use magic to widen the wooden table), the atmosphere became more lively, Fred and George were arguing with each other, while Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley were making plans to go to Diagon Alley today, Hermione and Ginny were whispering, and Ron and Neville were discussing what to do after returning today...

It is very chaotic, but this kind of chaos will not make people feel irritated, but will only give rise to an inexplicable sense of warmth.

When breakfast was halfway through, a dark grey owl flew in and placed a newspaper in front of Harry, Hermione, and Mr. Weasley - they were the only three who subscribed to the Daily Prophet.

"Although I haven't seen it yet, Harry, congratulations on getting today's headlines in advance," Mr. Weasley joked.

"Thank you, I think it should be me too." Amidst the laughter, Harry opened the newspaper in front of him.

As expected, it’s the familiar style, with Rita Skeeter-style eye-catching and exaggerated titles.

[The Ministry of Magic lost the case! We won the victory! ! ]

Harry took a cursory glance and saw that Rita had recorded what had happened in Courtroom Four of the Wizengamot yesterday fairly and impartially without any embellishment - which was of course impossible.

No one knew what strange changes had taken place in Rita's mind at that time. She described the entire trial process as extremely dangerous. At least Harry did not remember any twists and turns in the trial of Hopkirk yesterday, but in Rita's description, Harry seemed to have defeated some great devil.

Well, it is understandable. After all, for those wizards who are just waiting for the Ministry of Magic to lose the case and want to vent their resentment accumulated over the years, a bland version is indeed not enough to satisfy them - and the version written by Rita is what they want to see.

"...If you don't know, you might think today's interview is about you, Harry." Hermione put down the newspaper with a subtle look on her face and said, "At least three quarters of the entire newspaper is about you, and the rest of the people and things are all squeezed into unimportant corners."

"Show it to me, Dad," Ron stretched out his hand to Mr. Weasley with an anxious look on his face. After taking the newspaper, he huddled together with the twins and Percy to read it.

"...Honestly, Harry, did so many things happen yesterday?" Percy raised his head and asked, "What's in the newspaper seems to be a little different from what Dad said yesterday."

"It's not that they are different, but that they are too different." Mr. Weasley shrugged and said, "I told you, Percy, this reporter named Rita is not a serious reporter... Well, although she has finally stopped making up bad things about Dumbledore recently."

'Yes, because she already has so much big news to write about.'

Without saying this aloud, Harry continued to look at other articles in the newspaper.

[Unprecedented new magic? Dumbledore of the new century? ]

[Genius or Madman - An In-depth Analysis of Harry Potter's Inner World][……]

Just like Hermione said, most of the newspaper was indeed about Harry, but what Harry didn't expect was that Rita seemed to be planning to make this matter into a large-scale serial report, so in today's newspaper, except for the headline reporting on the results of yesterday's case, the rest of the content was questioning the existence of elemental magic.

It neither confirms nor denies, but the article subtly uses rhetoric to lead readers to doubt the authenticity of the matter.

Finally, I will leave a sentence at the end of the article that the author will conduct follow-up reports.

To be honest, if Harry hadn't received a letter from Rita Skeeter last night, which clearly stated that she wanted to interview him about elemental magic and specifically hinted that Harry needed her help if he wanted to spread elemental magic, Harry would have really thought that this reporter wanted to deny the existence of new magic.

As someone who also witnessed Harry's demonstration of elemental magic in the Wizengamot, Rita had looked like she wanted to pounce on Harry and interview him fiercely when she left the Fourth Courtroom yesterday, but she was sent away by the striker.

"Ha! This woman is talking nonsense again!" Looking at an article on the back of the newspaper, Hermione said angrily, "It's disgusting. She simply made you, Harry, a delusional lunatic!"

[…But does such a genius really exist? A child who is only twelve years old, who grew up in the Muggle world, has never been exposed to magic, and even knew about the existence of wizards only last year, now claims to have invented a new kind of magic? ]

[Is this possible? Or, is this logical? As we all know, Harry Potter did not have a good life in his Muggle relatives' home, so the author has a bold guess - this poor child, is he really not saying this because of his long-term loneliness and desire for attention? ]

[Compared to the fact that Harry Potter was gifted and invented new magic by himself, I would rather believe that someone told him all this and instructed him to say so, and that person's name... we all know who it is]

【…】

Unable to bear it any longer, Hermione fell into a rage. She even slapped the newspaper in her hand on the table. With a bang, Neville next to her was so scared that he bounced on his chair, and the little fat on his face trembled.

Well, not only that, the others were also startled, and when Hermione realized what she had just done in a moment of anger, her whole face suddenly turned red.

"I, I mean - that's really, really infuriating, isn't it? That woman actually said that to Harry," Hermione stammered.

When Rita Skeeter said good things about Harry and Dumbledore in the newspaper, Hermione would affectionately call her Rita, but when Rita Skeeter started talking nonsense, Hermione would call her that woman.

"Yeah, yes, yes, yes." Ron surprisingly reacted the fastest and he responded repeatedly.

Then, like dominoes, everyone at the table started to pair up.

Hermione's face immediately turned even redder.

"Well, don't be in a hurry." Handing the newspaper to Ginny, who was already full of curiosity, Harry said to Hermione: "It's just a reporter who talks nonsense. Don't worry about it. By the way, Mrs. Weasley, can Luna go to Diagon Alley with us today? She is my apprentice."

"The Lovegood child?" Mrs. Weasley said with understanding, "She is indeed a poor child... but when did she become your apprentice?"

Her face looked a little strange. Although Mr. Weasley said a lot after he came back yesterday, Mrs. Weasley still found it difficult to adapt to the sudden changes in Harry, a child who had lived in her home for so many days. The identity of the founder of a new magic system was a little too far-fetched for a housewife.

It also seemed strange that Harry had a disciple... Mrs. Weasley felt that if she remembered correctly, the child from the Lovegood family should have entered Hogwarts this year, just like Ginny.

He is only one year younger than Harry, but he became Harry's disciple, and a very serious inherited disciple - well, it's really confusing.

"Not long ago," said Harry.

"Oh, of course not a problem," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile, "She could just be friends with Ginny."

"Thank you," Harry said, then looked at Hermione and said, "So - do you want to go to Luna's house together?"

"Of course." Hermione said without hesitation, without even having time to think: "What are we waiting for? Let's go, or we'll be late for Diagon Alley."

There was nothing much to say. Neville was also very curious about what Harry's disciple looked like. After stuffing a few bites of bread into his mouth, he squeezed out some incomprehensible words and hurriedly followed.

"Honestly, even though we are neighbors, I have never been to the Lovegood family." Ron muttered as he walked and chewed a sausage, "That family is really weird."

"It's not a good habit to speak ill of others behind their backs, Ron." Hermione glared at Ron, "especially now that he is Harry's apprentice."

Harry: "..."

I understand the reason, why did you suddenly look at me?
"How can that be considered bad?" Ron protested. "Even in the whole area around Ottery St. Catchpole, they never associate with other people, and The Quibbler is old Lovegood's magazine - you must not have read that magazine?"

Ron suddenly snorted, as if he remembered something.

"Is there anything wrong with that magazine?" Hermione asked, as she had never read it before.

"Well, everyone basically treats the stuff in that magazine as a joke... for fun or something." Glancing at Harry, Neville carefully explained to Hermione.

Neville had already been very subtle.

"Entertainment Magazine" Hermione concluded, "So that's the house over there on the slope? Um, is that really a house?"

Hermione suddenly felt uncertain, because they could see the solitary hill on the other side of the hillside, on the top of which stood a very strange-looking house - like a huge black cylinder, with a rickety observatory on top, and a thick telescope.

There were no tall trees on the entire hillside, only naturally grown grass... or weeds. When Harry and the other three arrived in front of the house, there was only an iron plate hanging at the entrance with a line of large characters on it - Editor-in-Chief of "The Quibbler": Xenophilius Lovegood.

"So, this is both Luna's home and the magazine department of The Quibbler?" Hermione said curiously. She touched the iron plate and then turned around to see a head standing by the door frame, a pair of unfocused eyes staring at her.

"what!!!"

Hermione screamed completely instinctively, and suddenly she shuddered and jumped back, almost falling to the ground.

"You are here, tutor." Luna raised her hand and greeted her. Then she looked at Hermione and said, "Did I scare you?"

"You, you - when were you there?" Hermione had already stood up straight, and she forced herself to hold her chest out to avoid showing her fear, and said, "There was no one there just now!"

"Because they said someone is coming." The voice was always very calm, just like a ghost. Luna said calmly: "My mentor, and Ron... they said you are approaching... soon..."

Countless horror movies and horror novels she had seen flashed through her mind in an instant, but the next second, Hermione realized what Luna was talking about - it was the element that told Luna about their arrival.

(End of this chapter)