Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 167 Branching
After a chance encounter with his pet, Xiren gained another mount.

After he turned into a cat, he was able to sit steadily on Tom's back, and Tom didn't feel unhappy at all. On the contrary, he was happy to carry Sheren around the castle, which he found to be a very interesting thing.

Especially when pursuing Mrs. Lorice, it was double the joy.

It had been getting a bit bored because it thought Mrs. Lorris was too slow and could be caught up with in no time.

Now that there's an extra weight from the Celia, the two sides have suddenly become evenly matched again.

And so, in the empty castle, the three cats embarked on a thrilling chase.

Mrs. Lorris was running ahead, with Tom and Siron chasing after her, and Filch was far behind.

Filch was only good at catching students, but trying to catch up with the agile Mrs. Lorris and Tom was pure fantasy, which made him so angry that he could only curse at them from behind.

Unfortunately, his voice was completely drowned out by the howling wind.

To be honest, the speeding cat ride is really thrilling. It's incredibly fast, and occasionally it takes shortcuts, jumping directly onto the opposite passageway by stepping on the guardrail, giving you the thrill of leaping over a grand canyon.

It seems that the fire bolts are nothing special.

But before Sirendo could even get a feel for it, the voices coming from downstairs forced him to jump off Tom's back.

It seems the Hogwarts Express has arrived at its destination, and the first group of students have already returned to the castle, which means the opening banquet will begin soon.

Xilun has returned to normal.

The black fur transformed into a school uniform robe, and then a pointed hat was put on.

"Go play by yourself." Celen rubbed Tom's head. "I'll introduce you to an old friend later."

Tom licked Celen's palm and ran away.

Siren then pretended to be nonchalant and returned to the first-floor lobby, where he walked into the auditorium with the others.

"Sirlen!" Harry ran over from afar. "Thank God, I didn't expect to see you here!"

“We discovered you and Professor McGonagall were missing on the train, and we’ve been looking for you for ages,” Ron and Hermione said as they approached.

"Later, Professor Lupin said that it must have been Professor McGonagall who Apparated you away from the train."

"Now it seems that's indeed the case."

When did you go back to school?

“A little earlier than you,” Celen said vaguely. “Something came up, so Professor McGonagall brought me back ahead of time.”

He didn't tell them that he had learned about the Animagus.

After all, the fewer people who know about this kind of thing, the better.

In fact, at the beginning, what troubled Siren the most was how to persuade Professor McGonagall to agree that he would not register with the Ministry of Magic... at least he could wait a few years before registering.

To Siren's surprise, after he adapted to his new body, Professor McGonagall and several other professors went to the neighboring village of Hogsmeade without mentioning taking Siren to register with the Ministry of Magic.

Moreover, she didn't come to see Xilun all afternoon, as if she had completely forgotten about it.

She didn't mention it, and neither did Celen, nor would she tell anyone... especially Hermione.

At this point, Hermione was even more rigid and stubborn than Professor McGonagall, and it's hard to say whether she would insist on having Celen register after knowing this.

But what respectable wizard would register their Animagus?
Anyway, Xilun definitely wouldn't agree. Animagus magic is a disguise magic; if everyone knows about it, can it still be called disguise magic? It's a load of rubbish!
Therefore, only illegal Animagus are the real Animagus; those registered with the Ministry of Magic can only be called advanced Transfiguration.

“You don’t look well,” Siren said, changing the subject. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

“No, no…” Harry suddenly became a little embarrassed and stammered, “It’s just that some…some unpleasant things happened on the train.”

“I have to say you were right not to take the train, Siren, I really envy you.” At this moment, Ron also came up from behind and offered to explain, “You probably have no idea what we’ve been through.” “What?” Siren asked, feigning curiosity.

“Dementors!” Hermione said. “Several Dementors forced their way onto the train, as if they thought Sirius Black might be hiding inside.”

“They’re horrible,” Ron said, rubbing his hands together with lingering fear. “It’s like all the happiness has been sucked away.”

"I don't know what they did to Harry, he..."

"Oh, Ron!"

Harry suddenly shouted, startling Ron.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you so easily startled?"

“No, it’s nothing.” Harry quickly looked around, pointed to a person not far away, and said to Siron, “Look at that person, Professor RJ Lupin, he’s the one who drove away the Dementors.”

Harry spoke very quickly, and Siren looked over to him in response.

“And he’s also our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year,” Hermione said.

"I feel like we're finally going to have a reliable Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year."

……

The three of them talked back and forth, and soon they had roughly recounted what had happened on the train... Of course, the part about Harry fainting in front of the Dementors was intentionally omitted.

As the three of them talked with Siron, they walked to the Gryffindor table. Just as they were about to sit down, a voice called out, "Potter, Granger, I want to see you both!"

Harry and Hermione turned around in surprise, and Professor McGonagall appeared behind them without them noticing.

Even more surprisingly, they saw a smile on Professor McGonagall's face. Harry rubbed his eyes, making sure it was definitely a smile.

This is incredible!
He figured he should still be on the train and hadn't woken up yet, otherwise how could he have seen Professor McGonagall smiling?

At the same time, he also smelled a faint scent of alcohol.

So Professor McGonagall not only smiled at them, but also drank alcohol?
The group felt their minds were in complete chaos. If this weren't Hogwarts, and if Dumbledore weren't sitting in the front row of the teachers' seats, they would definitely think that Professor McGonagall in front of them was someone else in disguise.

But now she's definitely real.

Although the two were speechless with surprise, they still left with Professor McGonagall.

“They should go find Madam Pomfrey,” Ron said. “Harry fainted on the train, fell off his seat, and was convulsing. It must be those Dementors’ doing.”

Cyrus clicked his tongue. Well, Harry had only been gone for a minute, and Ron had already revealed what he was desperately trying to cover up.

But soon Celen realized that it didn't seem to matter whether Ron said it or not.

Because almost everyone in the Great Hall was talking about it, and each person was exaggerating, saying all sorts of things. Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff insisted it was a conspiracy, believing that the Dementors took the opportunity to "kiss" Harry and suck his soul away.

Ron's early revelation of the less exaggerated truth turned out to be a good thing.

……

Professor McGonagall led Harry and Hermione away. Professor Flitwick seemed to have had a few drinks, so Snape presided over the Sorting Ceremony.

This made things difficult for the freshmen. They were already nervous, and seeing Snape's gloomy face made some of them unsteady on their feet. Even though they were assigned to Slytherin, they headed straight for the Gryffindor long table.

This made Snape's face even uglier; he figured that the new student would probably receive special treatment from the headmaster afterward.

Wish him good luck.

……

(End of this chapter)