The Return to Hogwarts

People were coming and going in the middle of the tent. The style of these wizards' clothing clearly indicated that they were not British. In the short time Harry was stunned, he heard at least three different languages.

Besides the spectators who came to watch the game, there were also many business people. Many vendors pushed carts like the ones the old ladies on the Hogwarts Express used to sell pies and chocolates, hawking their wares enthusiastically!

"That's amazing, Arthur!"

Sirius exclaimed in genuine admiration,

"The Ministry of Magic can occasionally do something worthwhile. You've essentially built a city here. By the way, have you ever kept track of how many people come back to watch the games?"

"When I got my ticket from Ludona, he told me that the organizers had sold about 100,000 tickets in total. I think those who got tickets wouldn't choose to give up watching the game, so I believe the number would be no less than 100,000!"

One hundred thousand people!

Not to mention Harry, even the Weasley children, who were born and raised in the wizarding world, were speechless with surprise.

“I never imagined there were so many wizards!” Harry said, bewildered.

"The wizarding world isn't just Hogwarts, children—"

Mr. Weasley said with a smile, then glanced at the sun, which had fully risen above the horizon, and clapped his hands.

"Come on, kids, the competition starts tonight, and we'll have a whole day to see what's going on. First, we need to set up tents, and then, oh, start a fire, all in the Muggle way, as the Ministry of Magic dictates!"

The Ministry of Magic's rules were clearly not very effective here, because Harry could see several dark-skinned wizards in the distance spewing large plumes of purple magic fire from their wands. Harry knew Mr. Weasley's style; he was extremely curious about the Muggle lifestyle, and to him, trying out Muggle life might be more interesting than Quidditch!

"No need to bother with the tent, Arthur—"

Sirius said gently,

“A week ago, I had Kreacher, the house-elf who serves Black, set up the tent here. Remus should have arrived last night and is probably waiting for us now!”

"Oh, what?"

Sirius's words were a bolt from the blue for Mr. Weasley, and he visibly became disappointed.

"Okay. But we have a lot of people, are you sure you don't need me to set up another tent?"

“I’m sure, Arthur, the tent Kreacher brought was the one my father used when he was alive. It could probably comfortably house twenty trolls. It’s no problem for us.”

Harry and the others chuckled to themselves; Sirius clearly didn't know Mr. Weasley well enough.

The guide turned into Sirius Black, and after determining the direction, he led them down the small hillside where they stood.

Eating breakfast is a common practice among wizards around the world. Many wizards came out of their tents to light fires and cook in front of them. Harry walked past the spot where a large cluster of purple flames had just appeared and found that the African wizards were roasting rabbits with magical flames.

A group of middle-aged American witches left a vendor's cart, each carrying a bunch of chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

“They’re selling jelly slugs and exploding gummy candies over there—” Ginny suddenly stopped and said to Hermione, “Let’s go buy some.”

So everyone stopped and waited for the two girls.

Harry's gaze followed the group of American women who had just passed by them, noticing them entering several high-roofed tents. Between the tents hung gleaming banners: Salem Witches' Academy. Occasionally, young wizards of similar age or even younger would come and go between the tents.

"They're not from Hogwarts?"

Harry blurted it out, but he immediately realized he had said something stupid; the banner on the tent had already made it quite clear.

"Hogwarts isn't the only place that teaches magic, Harry—"

Sirius Black draped his arm over Harry's shoulder, clearly understanding why Harry looked so surprised, and smiled as he spoke.

“There are magic schools all over the world. There are seven that are as famous as Hogwarts and are recognized by the International Wizarding Federation. The rest are either too small or have very strict admission requirements and do not like to be famous, so it is impossible to count how many there are.”

“Bill used to have a pen pal who went to school in Brazil many years ago. He wanted to do an exchange trip, but his parents couldn’t afford it. He wrote in his letter that he couldn’t go, and the pen pal got angry and sent Bill a hat that had been cursed, which made Bill’s ears wrinkle up.”

Ron said casually.

"Ahem-"

Mr. Weasley coughed twice, explaining awkwardly.

“Your mother and I thought it was unsafe. Bill hadn’t even figured out who the person was. What if he got scammed? Bill wasn’t even an adult yet.”

Harry noticed that Mr. Weasley's ears had turned bright red, indicating that he was under pressure, just like Ron.

"let's go!"

Two girls skipped back, carrying snacks that weren't just jelly slugs and bursting gummies. Besides the ones Harry was familiar with, there were many other snacks he couldn't name. They distributed these to everyone. Harry got a piece of bubble gum, and after chewing it a few times, the bubble suddenly expanded, making his head twice its original size, which made everyone laugh.

"That's a pretty good and ingenious idea!"

George stared intently at Harry's head, while Ginny frantically searched for the bubble gum wrapper, hoping it might contain some way to help Harry's head return to normal.

"It looks like some kind of transfiguration spell—"

Sirius said cheerfully, comforting Ginny who was on the verge of tears.

“It’s okay, Ginny, Remus is waiting for us in the tent. He’s particularly good at dealing with these little tricks. Ah, there he is, I think I see him. Oh, what bad luck.”

Sirius's words puzzled everyone. Harry, with his large head, strained to look over and immediately spotted Remus. At the same time, he also noticed a peculiar tent. The tent was lavishly decorated with striped silk, resembling a small palace, and several live peacocks were tied to the entrance.

"Oh--"

Mr. Weasley also realized what was happening, and he said with a stern face,

"The Malfoy family's tent."

"what!"

Harry stopped in his tracks, his face filled with horror. His large head hadn't disappeared yet, and if Draco Malfoy, his biggest rival at Hogwarts, saw him looking like this, needless to say, Malfoy would have plenty of material to mock him for the rest of the school year.

Harry tried to get away, but it was too late. They were already close enough to the tent when Draco came out of it. Instinctively, he spotted Harry with his big head.

Draco's grey eyes flickered with confusion for a moment, but then the mocking smirk at the corner of his mouth sent a chill down Harry's spine.

Draco's mother had initially intended to scold him into the tent, warning him of a dangerous werewolf outside. However, seeing the mocking look on her son's face, she followed his gaze and immediately spotted Sirius Black walking towards them with a blank expression. Her already grim expression hardened even further.

Chapter 461 Relatives

2023-09-05

At the entrance to the palace-like tent, Draco, dressed in a sharp suit, raised an eyebrow and looked at Harry, whose head was spinning from the bubblegum Ginny had given him, with a slightly mocking gaze, completely ignoring the two professors who had once taught him standing right in front of him.

"What's going on, Remus?"

Sirius frowned deeply and asked Remus, who was confronting Narcissa, in a low voice.

Remus pursed his lips, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

“It’s Kreacher. He wants to invite you to his tent. I noticed the commotion outside, so I came out to check.”

"You traitor!" Sirius Black cursed without any politeness. "Where's Kreacher? Where did he go?"

"I've already sent it to the kitchen to make you breakfast."

Having basked in the ocean sun for over two weeks, Sirius Black, whose complexion was already quite dark, became even darker. He walked past Remus and stood in confrontation with Draco's mother in his place.

"You're not welcome in my tent, get out!"

Narcissa Malfoy remained unmoved by Sirius's merciless rebuke, but Draco suddenly turned pale. He glared angrily at Sirius, seemingly about to step forward to uphold his mother's dignity, but Narcissa stopped him.

Mr. Weasley also stopped Harry and the others from going up to bolster their morale. He gently shook his head at Harry, who, despite his disheveled appearance, was not at all intimidated.

"Let them handle it, Harry. You kids, don't interfere."

"What's going on—" Hermione asked quietly from behind Mr. Weasley, frowning. "That's Malfoy's mother. She seems to know Sirius?"

Harry blinked, glancing at the coldly stern Sirius Black and Malfoy's mother, and realized they might know each other. Before he could voice his doubts, Ron said in a rather disdainful tone,

"There's nothing strange about that, is there? Sirius's family is very famous. Pure-blood wizard families have been intermarrying for hundreds of years. In fact, Malfoy and I are related!"

Even with his eyes squeezed into slits, Harry still tried his best to open them wide and stare at Ron. He was quite surprised to learn that Ron was related to Malfoy!

"Your tent--"

Narcissa Malfoy didn’t seem to have intended to speak to Sirius, but Sirius’s rude tone seemed to have angered her, and she put on a disgusted expression, as if she had smelled something unpleasant.

Narcissa glanced at the tent left by Sirius's father, her eyes looking at it like it was trash from a flea market.

To be fair, Sirius's tent is quite impressive, its style holding its own among a group of luxurious tents. The only problem is that it hasn't been used for a long time. Over the years, Kreacher has been in charge of maintaining the Black family mansion, spending most of his time admiring portraits of Sirius's mother and having no time to clean or maintain the Black family's property. As a result, the tent has become badly damaged by insects.

"Is this all the Black family is left with in your hands, this piece of junk?"

Narcissa looked arrogant.

"Want to hear what Walbuga thought of you when she was alive? 'Spendthrift' is absolutely right. No wonder she emptied the Black family treasury before she died, leaving you not a single penny."

Mentioning this, a shadow of gloom crossed Sirius's dark face. He didn't care about the gold the Black family had hidden in the goblin's underground vault, but the mutual suspicion and hatred between mother and son was certainly not something to be proud of when it was revealed to outsiders.

"I'm not like you—"

Suppressing a trace of anger, Sirius's eyes regained their coldness.

"I don't need gold or to constantly boast about my ridiculous lineage to live a life with my head held high."

Harry almost cheered for Sirius, and even Remus's lips curled into a smile. Draco's pale cheeks flushed instantly; he reached into his pocket, swiftly pulled out his wand, pointed it at Sirius, and let out a low growl like a wolf whose territory had been invaded.

"Apologize to your mother, immediately!"

"careful!"

Harry exclaimed. Apart from Mr. Weasley, he and Hermione and the others beside him had taken precautions the moment Draco showed signs of aggression. In an instant, the atmosphere between the two sides became tense. Wizards passing by looked at them in surprise, and some of the quick-witted ones had already run away to a distance, seemingly to report the situation to the camp administrators.

To be honest, Sirius and Remus didn't take the threat of a junior wizard seriously. However, when they saw Draco pointing his wand at them, they both looked disappointed. After all, no matter how much they disliked the Malfoy family, Draco Malfoy had been their student.

"Put your wands away, you lot!"