Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 226 Caught on the Spot
Throughout the winter break, besides reading, Sherlock spent most of his time communicating with his friends.

Harry, Ron, Cho Chang, and even Penelope, who stayed at school, would share their experiences with him.
Gemma, Neville, Hannah, and others who had left school and returned home would also write to him to communicate.

As for the school, everyone who remained at Hogwarts enjoyed their Christmas dinner.

The auditorium is even more magnificent and grand at Christmas than it is at Halloween.

Not only were there a dozen Christmas trees covered in silver frost, but also thick ribbons of mistletoe and holly crisscrossing on the ceiling, and enchanted snow, warm and dry, gently drifting down from the ceiling.

Although Headmaster Dumbledore was not present, Professor McGonagall still led the students who remained at the school in singing several of his favorite Christmas carols in remembrance.

Hagrid, whose voice was already deep, grew louder and louder after downing one glass of eggnog after another.

Percy Weasley, oblivious to the fact that Fred had enchanted his prefecture badge, changing the word "idiot" on it, kept asking everyone what they were laughing at.

Draco Malfoy did not leave during this holiday.

As for Crabbe and Goyle, they always did whatever Malfoy did, so they stayed as well.

According to Malfoy himself, the Malfoy family is of noble pure blood, so they have no fear of harm from the heirs of the Chamber of Secrets.

But Ron believed that he deliberately chose to stay after seeing Sherlock leave and Harry stay.

The reason was that he loudly mocked Harry's new sweater at the Christmas dinner, and continued to do so every day afterward.

If Sherlock were here, he certainly wouldn't have done that.

But the consequence of his actions was that Harry suspected he was possessed by Colin, otherwise how could he always be able to accurately ambush him on his advanced routes?

Harry and Ron had initially just let Malfoy's mockery go unchallenged.

But when Malfoy imitated Colin, Harry couldn't help himself.

The main reason is that his imitations are very malicious, for example:
"Potter, may I take your picture?"

"Potter, may I get your autograph?"

"May I lick your shoes? Please, Potter."

Lies won't hurt anyone; the truth is the sharpest knife.

Malfoy's imitation was not only vicious, but also so realistic that Harry could not tolerate it.

Harry originally intended to give Malfoy a good beating.

Unfortunately, Sherlock wasn't there, and he and Ron knew they were no match for Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry, however, was confident he could use magic to deal with Malfoy.

However, once the first move is made, even if you are in the right, you become unreasonable.

Fortunately, Ron Weasley was second to none when it came to trash talk.

He fought against three men—Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle—and held his own.

Just as Malfoy was about to pull out his wand, Harry trembled with excitement.

If the other party dares to make the first move, I will teach them a lesson.

Unfortunately, because there were so few students during the holidays, their conflict quickly attracted the attention of others.

Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater arrived immediately.

Although Malfoy looked down on Percy, the presence of two prefects at the same time was still quite intimidating.

He could only utter a couple of harsh words before leaving dejectedly.

“Percy, if you had come any later, we could have given Malfoy a good beating.”

“Ron,” Percy said sternly, “it’s not allowed to cast spells in the hallway. If this happens, I will report it!”

“Who cares?”

Ron said irritably, "As long as I can beat up Malfoy, it doesn't matter if Gryffindor loses another one or two points—Neville will just get them from Lockhart anyway!"

Percy was furious with his foolish brother, but Penelope pulled him away.

Apart from Malfoy, Harry and Ron are doing well at school.

Without Wood sending Harry to Quidditch training, Harry could completely control his own time during the holiday.

Aside from playing chess and video games with Ron, he devoted most of his time to Cho Chang.

According to Harry, he was mainly learning from Cho Chang how to avoid getting his clothes wet while exercising.

Time just passed by day by day.

When the Christmas holidays ended, Sherlock was taken by his parents to King's Cross Station 9¾, where he was successfully reunited with Hermione.

Because Neville was late, he missed the box where Sherlock and Hermione were—those two spots were taken by Dean and Seamus.

Fortunately, Hannah of Hufflepuff summoned him—after all, they were good partners who had once performed together on the Defense Against the Dark Arts stage.

As for Luna, she remained alone at the back of the carriage.

However, she didn't care about this treatment at all and continued to do as she pleased.

Sometimes I really envy people like you.

Seeing this, Hermione couldn't help but remark to Sherlock, "You can ignore other people's opinions and do what you want."

"you can also."

"No, I can't do it." Hermione was very self-aware.

"Hey, let's not talk about that anymore, how about we play something more fun!"

Listening to Sherlock and Hermione's words, Seamus couldn't help but interrupt them:
"Why don't you see the new spell I've learned..."

Before he could finish speaking, three voices rang out in unison:
"Put down your wand and we can still be friends!"

Seamus had barely picked up his wand when Dean, who was sitting next to him, pressed it down.

After all, none of the three wanted to be exposed to the impact of an explosion in such a confined space.

Compared to Simona's magic, which has a high probability of causing an explosion once cast, Dean is much better at creating mischief.

He immediately gave Sherlock and his two companions a song, dance, and rap performance.

According to him, it took him two and a half years to master this skill.

Dean's performance undoubtedly received thunderous applause.

It must be admitted that Xiao Heizi has some talent in this area. And so, the train chugged and rattled its way north.

By the time I arrived at school, it was already dark.

It's much colder now than when school just started.

Fortunately, it wasn't snowing, and the road conditions weren't too difficult.

However, once the young wizards entered the castle, they sensed that something was amiss.

Although there aren't many people left at the school, it shouldn't be this deserted, right?

More importantly, the professors who came to greet them all had gloomy faces, as if they had eaten something bad.

"what happened?"

Hermione couldn't help but whisper to Sherlock.

Sherlock raised his eyebrows: "It seems... we've arrived just in time!"

"What did you say?"

Before Hermione could react, she heard a familiar voice:

"Sherlock!"

Turning their heads, they saw Harry and Ron rushing toward them.

Not only them, but Peeves, the most annoying of all the ghosts, was also following behind the two.

High in the sky, it looked down at the students returning to school, grinning mischievously.

This action gave Hermione a sense of foreboding.

Because Mischievous Ghost always thrives on chaos.

The next moment, her premonition came true.

Because Mischievous Ghost suddenly started singing:
"Oh, Potter, you scoundrel! Look what you've done! You've killed a student, and you think it's so funny—"

The students were immediately awestruck by his singing.

They quickly realized what was happening and stepped back, clearing a large space in front of Harry and Ron.

Only Sherlock and Hermione stood still, making them particularly conspicuous at this moment.

"Hey, those two are Muggle-born wizards, aren't they afraid?"

"Of course they're not afraid; those are people Porter approves of!"

"Keep your voice down, do you want to die too?"

"Mmm... I won't say anything more..."

The constant whispers made Harry feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Stop fooling around, you little devil!"

Professor McGonagall's voice came, and Peeves stuck his tongue out at Harry and hurriedly backed away.

However, Harry couldn't care less about any of that at that moment.

He looked ahead with difficulty.

At this moment, only Sherlock remained in his sight.

For him, what had happened today was too bizarre; if even Sherlock wouldn't believe him...

Fortunately, Sherlock did not abandon him.

His gray eyes were as bright as ever, or rather, even more piercing than usual.

“My dear Harry…” Sherlock smiled at his friend, “I bet you have a lot to tell me, don’t you?”

Harry's eyes welled up with tears.

Sherlock, you understand me!
"It really was him! He was caught red-handed!"

Just then, someone finally couldn't help but shout it out.

Harry's gaze immediately turned in that direction.

This is Hufflepuff, the guy Ron mentioned last time who specifically came up to him to explain that he's a pureblood.

Faced with someone who had repeatedly slandered him, even someone as good-natured as Harry felt a surge of anger: "What's your name?"

However, his act of asking for the name seemed to cause a misunderstanding on the other party's part.

Upon hearing this, the tall, burly student seemed to realize something, his expression changed, and he hurriedly said:

"If you're thinking of taking advantage of me, I might as well tell you that you can trace your lineage back nine generations to wizards in my family. My bloodline is as pure as anyone else's!"

Upon hearing his words, Sherlock realized who the boy was.

This made him find it somewhat amusing.

Don't say Harry isn't the heir to Slytherin. Even if Harry really were the heir to Slytherin, why would he think Harry would let him go just because of his so-called "pure blood"?

What's even more outrageous is that you already think Harry is the heir to Slytherin, yet you still publicly provoke such a dangerous individual who dares to open the Chamber of Secrets and release monsters?
Aren't you afraid that Harry will be furious because of this blatant rudeness and make you his next target?

Or is this what Hufflepuff is all about?
On one hand, she was afraid of being targeted, so she revealed her pure-blood identity early on, while on the other hand, she couldn't wait to point out the so-called heir.
To be honest, it's pretty mindless.

Judging from their individual performances, they do indeed fit the stereotype of Hufflepuff as "a bunch of brainless idiots".

Fortunately, someone quickly shattered this impression.

“Don’t be like that, Ernie, you can’t be sure that Potter did it.”

A taller, more handsome Hufflepuff stopped Ernie McMillan.

A girl with a blonde ponytail hurriedly added, "Potter always seems so friendly, he couldn't possibly do something like this."

"Hey, Cedric, Hannah, don't you dare speak up for him!"

“I’m not speaking for Potter,” Cedric frowned. “We’ve all just gotten back, and it would be too hasty to make this decision based solely on Peeves’ word.”

Yes, that's what a normal person would think!
Sherlock glanced at Cedric. As Hufflepuff's top scorer, he certainly had brains!

However, McMillan soon proved that he and Cedric were still at least two Hannahs apart.

(End of this chapter)