The Return to Hogwarts

Judging from the expressions on Hagrid's, Harry's, and Ron's faces, they clearly thought Hermione had gone mad.

Hermione ultimately left Doom with Hagrid; he was the only person she trusted who could offer her help. Last school year, when Ron mistakenly believed Crookshanks had killed Scabbers, she also entrusted Crookshanks to Hagrid for a while to prevent their relationship from completely collapsing.

However, she also set rules for Hagrid and Dom.

She forbade Hagrid from ordering Dom around, nor allowed Dom to do anything with Hagrid other than play. She told them that she would try to come every day to teach Dom the right values ​​in life.

"I need to hurry and draft the program and concrete action plan for our association—"

Hermione, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak, continued her incessant chatter.

"--We need a clear marker to distinguish who our own people are and who are still waiting to be persuaded. Because we may have many members—"

Ron let out a strange cough that sounded like a mocking laugh.

“Harry, next Wednesday, the two of us need to promote this during Professor Blaine's gym class. Professor Blaine has already expressed his support for us.”

Harry really wanted to remind Hermione how angry she had been with Professor Blaine, and that he hadn't promised her anything in the first place.

The three of them hurried into the shadows cast by Hogwarts Castle. Harry and Ron walked very fast, trying to get away from Hermione as quickly as possible. When they reached the steps outside the castle gate, Harry almost tripped because of his fast pace.

“Oh, watch out, Mr. Potter—”

Behind the closed, imposing gate, a hoarse, deep voice suddenly rang out. In the quiet of the night, the voice was like a thunderclap, leaving Harry and his companions dazed and disoriented.

It's over--

As Professor Moody's limping figure stepped into the moonlight, the same thought simultaneously crossed the minds of Harry, Harry, and his friends.

"This invisibility cloak is quite impressive. Whose is it?"

Professor Moody's blue magic eye and his normal eye were both fixed on the spot where they stood frozen, and he accurately said the Invisibility Cloak. This left Harry with no hope of anything more; he had encountered the third wizard tonight who could see through his Invisibility Cloak.

"be mine--"

Harry pulled down his Invisibility Cloak, and the three young wizards stood obediently outside the door like quails, receiving Professor Moody's gaze.

"Shouldn't you explain to me why you're wandering around the castle at bedtime?"

Surprisingly, Professor Moody's voice didn't contain much anger, which gave Harry a glimmer of hope that they might be able to escape punishment.

“It was my fault, Professor Moody—”

Hermione's face flushed red, and her tone, no longer arrogant, lowered as she spoke.

"I have a question about Blasttail that I'd like to ask Hagrid. Harry and Ron are worried I might get into danger, so they insisted on coming with me—"

Harry and Ron both frowned, about to refute Hermione's statement, but Hermione suddenly pinched the soft flesh on their waists from behind, making them gasp in pain.

"yes--"

Professor Moody stared at Hermione's face and said in an amused tone,

"You also brought Hagrid a gift, didn't you, Miss Granger? I must admit, you're a noble little wizard—"

Chapter 534 One month later

2023-10-14

"--I must admit, you are a noble little wizard--"

Professor Moody's deep voice echoed in the dim hallway, and Hermione, who was directly in the way, turned pale from her flushed face. She stared blankly at Moody's terrifying blue demon eye, trembling slightly with fear.

Upon hearing this, Harry's eyes widened, his heart leaping into his throat. He recalled the fleeting blue light that had flashed past the dark window of Hagrid's hut, and looking at Moody's Evil Eye, Harry instinctively cried out...

"You were right outside the window in Hagrid's cabin!"

“Oh, very good, Mr. Potter, you are very perceptive--”

Professor Moody made no attempt to hide anything; he looked at Harry with admiration in his voice.

“When I returned from patrolling the Forbidden Forest, I saw three people wearing invisibility cloaks sneaking towards Hagrid’s house. As a professor, I had no reason not to check it out, right? What if they were three dark wizards with ill intentions!”

If they could see through the invisibility cloak, how could they not have discovered who they were?

Harry thought to himself that he was mad, but he didn't dare point out Professor Moody's lie.

“Well then, Miss Granger—” Professor Moody’s blue magic eye was fixed on Hermione. For some reason, Harry sensed that Professor Moody wasn’t actually that angry; in fact, he seemed quite pleased with their behavior.

"I must admit you surprised me—"

Professor Moody, leaning on his cane, thumped over to Hermione. The height difference between them wasn't actually that great, but because Hermione was looking down, Professor Moody appeared much taller. He looked down at Hermione, his injured voice sounding like the whistling of a leaky bellows.

“In my long career, I’ve seen many utterly wicked people, and I’ve personally sent many of them to Azkaban, but I never expected to find a little wizard like you—”

Professor Moody looked at the top of Hermione's head and said admiringly,

“You respect life, Miss Granger, even for poor, lowly house-elves, and you want to fight for their rights. I can tell you, among those self-proclaimed righteous wizards, there are few with your kind heart—”

Hermione looked up, her face filled with disbelief.

She expected to be met with a barrage of reprimands from Professor Moody. Thinking back to how Professor Moody reacted when Malfoy attacked Harry, Hermione thought she might also be hit by a couple of curses. To her surprise, Professor Moody praised her instead.

This, in turn, made Hermione feel ashamed.

“I shouldn’t have lied to you, Professor Moody, I… I just—”

Hermione's explanation was tinged with tears, but Professor Moody interrupted her abruptly.

"No need for explanation, Miss Granger, nobody wants to be punished—"

Moody stepped aside, leaving them a crack in the door.

“But you guys really should go back to your dorms now. Blaine sometimes wanders around the castle in the middle of the night, and I’m not sure if he’ll be so lenient as to let you off the hook.”

"You're planning to let us go!"

Ron said in surprise,

"They won't deduct points from our records, put us in solitary confinement, or tell Professor McGonagall about our nighttime outing?!"

“If you want me to do that, Mr. Weasley!” Professor Moody let out a frightening laugh. “It’s not that I can’t help you with that!”

Harry, Harry, and his friends rushed up the stairs in the foyer at breakneck speed, completely unaware that Professor Moody had been standing in the dark foyer, watching their retreating figures with a deep gaze until they disappeared from sight.

"I never expected him to let us go!"

Ron, still shaken, said as he stepped from the portrait of the fat lady into the dimly lit common room.

“And his eye can see through the Invisibility Cloak disguise—” Harry immediately added, “no one other than Professor Dumbledore and Professor Blaine has ever done so!”

"I need to hurry back to my dorm and think about how we should specifically conduct our promotional efforts before going to sleep--"

After this incident, Hermione was not depressed at all. On the contrary, she seemed to be encouraged. Her eyes lit up and she hurriedly walked towards the girls' dormitory.

"Are you crazy?!" Ron yelled at Hermione's retreating back. "Your little elf almost got the three of us killed by Moody!"

Hermione strode briskly up the spiral staircase of the girls' dormitory, ignoring Ron's calls.

"I think she's gone mad!" Ron said angrily, staring at Harry. "When is she going to shut up?"

Harry shrugged and said nothing.

Hermione did not quiet down as Ron had hoped, but instead faithfully did what she was told.

For the next month or so, nothing particularly noteworthy happened at Hogwarts. If one had to pick one thing, it would be the SPEW (Society for the Promotion of House-Elves' Rights) that Hermione Granger had created. Since that night, although Hermione didn't go to Hagrid's hut every day, she would always force Harry and Ron to go see Dom whenever she had the chance.

Harry and Ron were also fortunate enough to witness the house-elves' unusual growth rate. In just over a month, Dom had grown from being not much bigger than a goblin to being about the same height as Dobby.

Hermione had been trying to teach Dom to rest and enjoy life, but to no avail. Her order forbidding Dom from doing chores for Hagrid was also ineffective, because for Dom, chores were rest and enjoyment.

Since Dom moved into Hagrid's cabin, Hagrid's cabin has been completely transformed.

The little house, which had always been dark and filled with the smells of various magical creatures except on sunny days, suddenly became bright and clean. Dom wiped the windows and floors of Hagrid's hut spotless, which were stained with soot and grime, and the stove, which had been used for nearly half a century, regained its metallic luster.

Hagrid's damp and smelly bedding was always kept clean, and Tooth's black fur became shiny and glossy.

Dom would also sneak into the vegetable garden to weed, remove pests, and water the plants while Hagrid was sleeping at night. In short, except for not having any ideas about the frizzy-tailed snails that Hagrid raised, Dom managed Hagrid's life in an orderly manner.

"Just leave it with me, Hermione—"

One day, when Hermione, unable to bear Dom's industriousness any longer, decided to take it back to the castle and secretly keep it, Hagrid pleaded with his beetle-like black eyes wide open.

"I promise to teach Dom how to enjoy life!"

However, Hermione still brought Dom back to the castle. She hid him in the dresser in the common room. Just two days later, Hermione took Dom back to Hagrid's hut, which had immediately become a mess. She couldn't explain to her classmates what was going on with the gleaming floor of the common room, or the girls' neatly washed and folded underwear placed on their beds—clothes they never handed in to the school laundry.

Lavender exclaimed that she was going to tell Professor McGonagall about it, but Hermione managed to stall her with some excuses.

In addition, Hermione's elf rights advocacy association also suffered a setback.

She actually did, during Professor Blaine's gym class, while everyone was lining up to practice dodging, preach to everyone about how house-elves are treated unfairly. You can imagine how the Slytherin guys laughed at her.

"You see yourself in those little guys, don't you, Granger?"

Pansy Parkinson laughed loudly.

But Hermione remained unmoved, still holding her piggy bank for collecting dues, trying her best to persuade Ernie to join the association.

It wasn't that no one joined; some people like Ginny, Luna, and Hannah were indeed willing to listen to Hermione's ramblings and pay her a membership fee of two silver sieges. Cho Chang also joined; Harry had personally invited her. But recalling Cho Chang's astonished expression when she first heard about it, Harry always felt that Cho Chang was probably just too embarrassed to admit it.

In addition, Professor Blaine made some contributions. He generously gave her ten Galleons and did not stop Hermione from causing trouble in his class. Based on this alone, Harry felt that Hagrid was absolutely right. Professor Blaine was indeed a very remarkable wizard, not just powerful.

Late October, Wednesday evening.

A new situation arose during Professor Blaine's physical education class.