The Return to Hogwarts

Chapter 586 Untitled

2023-11-10

As the last group of three Slytherins jumped up from their chairs with terrified screams, Professor Blaine slowly opened his eyes in front of the young wizards.

George Weasley didn't seem to have completely shaken off the earlier experience. He sat in his seat, still clutching his unharmed thigh. At this moment, his comedic talent seemed to have vanished completely, and his gaze towards Professor Blaine was filled with resentment.

Neville lowered his head, looking apologetic. Hermione, Harry, and Ginny were all quietly comforting him, while Draco was smugly showing off to those around him their encounter with Professor Blaine.

Most of the young wizards looked numb. On the one hand, Professor Blaine's ruthlessness had completely exceeded their limits. On the other hand, after so much training, they thought they were already very different. However, they were still easily defeated by Professor Blaine, who had suppressed most of his power. This sense of loss was indescribable.

Looking at the group of dejected young wizards, Amosta was not disappointed; this result was not unexpected.

"Cheer up!"

Professor Blaine spoke calmly, and after the students’ gazes were focused on him, he raised his wand and touched his temple, slowly drawing out a few strands of silver hair that emitted a halo.

"Now, let's review the entire drill from beginning to end—"

As he spoke, his wand traced intricate patterns in the air, and the silver thread gradually unfolded into a plane like rippling water, the perspective of which was Professor Blaine himself.

Fred, George, and Lee were among the first to be sent out, and no one knew how the younger wizards fared afterward, including Hermione and the others. No one was surprised by Professor Blaine's ingenious methods; they were used to it, and everyone quietly observed their own performance.

They spent the rest of the class watching the match. With a few minutes left before the end of get out of class, they watched the entire game from beginning to end.

"You've all fallen into a misconception, and I must remind you—"

Amostella said to the thoughtful young wizards...

"You treated the recent duel like any other exercise you do in class, without taking it seriously. This is extremely dangerous. Once you get used to this mindset, it will be too late when you finally face someone on the battlefield and realize there's no second chance."

The problems exposed in the duel just now go far beyond this. Putting aside the individual strengths of the young wizards, from Amosta's perspective, their teamwork was actually terrible. Even Draco's group only coordinated in terms of attack rhythm, while the attacks themselves were completely separate.

However, considering that this was only their first time cooperating and even their first time actually fighting with someone, these mistakes are not intolerable.

"--As for the specific reasons for each group's failure, I won't tell you. You need to think about it. In groups, each group should submit a paper to me by next Wednesday discussing the reasons for their failure. The paper should be at least fifteen inches long."

A fifteen-inch paper is no easy task, Harry thought, his eye twitching. But he immediately realized that Professor Blaine required it to be done in groups, which meant that everyone would share a portion. Given Hermione's style, she could probably finish the paper by herself.

The atmosphere at the end of PE class hadn't been this so somber in a long time. Everyone lined up to leave the classroom, and George was still limping—although he wasn't physically injured, the profound mental blow was affecting his body, and he couldn't shake off the illusion for the time being.

Oh, right--

Harry ignored the smug look Malfoy kept giving him. This guy was just lucky and learned from the mistakes of the teams before him. If Slytherin had gone first, his fate might have been even worse than George's!

Harry, who was about to leave the classroom, muttered something under his breath. He turned back and ran to Professor Blaine, who was arranging the desks and chairs back to the front wall in an orderly fashion. A few minutes later, under Professor Blaine's amused and exasperated gaze, he ran out of the classroom with an autographed document in hand.

"You went to—" Hermione had been waiting for him outside the door, and she understood what was going on at a glance. "He gave it to you?"

"Professor Blaine has always been easy to talk to, hasn't he?"

Harry asked, somewhat puzzled.

"yes--"

Hermione pouted, her eyes widening in terror, and her body shuddered violently.

"But when he was chanting a spell for Ginny in the spiritual world just now, oh my, Ginny is definitely going to have nightmares tonight."

“Ginny isn’t the only one having nightmares—” Harry said with a sigh as he started walking.

Generally, students returning to the common room after physical education class are usually bursting with excitement, and most of them can't resist sharing their thoughts unless Professor Blaine orders that the course content be kept secret. However, today's situation is quite strange to the others.

"what happened?"

When Harry and Hermione returned to the corridor in front of the Fat Lady's portrait, they were astonished to find Ron waiting for them at the door. As soon as he saw them, he rushed up to them and anxiously asked…

"Didn't you all go to class? Why does George look injured? I haven't seen Ginny like that before. What happened? Why is no one willing to talk?"

Ron looked at Hermione, but when he noticed the complex emotions in her eyes, he looked away as if he had been electrocuted and turned to look at Harry instead.

"Oh, it's nothing--"

Harry said wearily,

“Nothing unexpected happened, Ron. We just… got a lecture from Professor Blaine. Let’s go inside and talk. Hermione and I were both hit with a Stunning Charm and ended up in Professor Blaine’s mental world, but it felt incredibly real.”

With that, Harry walked around Ron toward the portrait of the Fat Lady, and Hermione followed without a word. Watching the two figures disappear, Ron opened his mouth but no sound came out; his face, illuminated by the firelight, appeared exceptionally pale.

As the sun sets, the blood-red afterglow reflects on the shimmering surface of Black Lake. On the cliffside, a magnificent black castle silently watches the rippling water, exuding a sense of inexplicable tragedy in its silence.

Fleur disliked this tragic atmosphere, so she withdrew her gaze from the distance. Looking towards the nearby Quidditch pitch, she spotted Hermione Granger, the little girl who, like her, possessed the identity of a warrior, running laps around the Quidditch pitch, along with a dozen or so others.

Absolutely stupid!

She noticed this phenomenon from the very first day she arrived at Hogwarts. Every evening, a group of Hogwarts students would run around their playing field. What good could wizards possibly do by constantly exercising? This behavior was so ridiculous that Fleur didn't even bother to ask what it was all about.

The room, draped with sky-blue curtains, was filled with a delicate fragrance. Although it was only a temporary room, every decoration was exquisitely crafted and full of artistic flair.

Fleur, dressed in a blue silk slip nightgown, lay languidly on her side on the bed, not even bothering to fix the fact that one shoulder strap had slipped down, leaving half of her upper body uncovered. She rolled over, listlessly surveying her room. On the dressing table, a radio with a casing made from the horn of some kind of magical creature was playing music by the strange sisters—harsh and unpleasant, Fleur's assessment.

"The English are vulgar and completely lacking in aesthetics."

Furong muttered something in annoyed.

Everything at Hogwarts was not what she had expected. She had thought she would be warmly welcomed, but instead she was met with indifference, and the Triwizard Tournament also went awry.

"elder sister--"

Gabrielle walked right in; she was the only person allowed into Hibiscus's room without permission.

"Oh, Gabrielle—"

Furong pulled up her shoulder strap and sat up slightly.

"Excuse me, could you please throw this radio out? I've had enough of this awful music—"

"I find it very interesting!"

Gabrielle came to call Fleur for dinner, she said with a smile, but still turned off the music.

"The castle's steward has just spoken to Mrs. Maxim; he wants us to have dinner in the hall, not in the carriage—"

"The person in charge of the castle?" Fleur's heart skipped a beat. "Who is it?"

When she was with her sister, Gabrielle was a mischievous little girl. She knew what answer her sister wanted, but she just smiled and didn't say anything until Fleur hugged her and tickled her armpits. Only then did she giggle and say something.

"It was Mr. Blaine who told Mrs. Maxim that the Triwizard Tournament was meant to promote exchange among all parties, and that if we and the Durmstrangers always stayed in our own places, then the event would be meaningless. And Mrs. Maxim agreed—"

"Did he say anything else?" Furong tossed her hair and asked expectantly.

"No--"

Gabrielle said 'honestly' that it wasn't until her sister lost interest again that Gabrielle looked pleased with herself.

"But I told Mr. Blaine that I wanted to visit Hogsmeade, the only pure wizarding village in England, and Mr. Blaine immediately agreed—"

Chapter 587 Meeting with Sirius

2023-11-11

Sirius arranged to meet them at the Three Broomsticks pub on Saturday noon. For most of the morning, Harry spent the rest of the morning idly writing his Potions paper in the common room.

Hermione stayed in her dorm and didn't go out. Ever since Hermione figured out the dangers of some of the Triwizard Tournament events after Krum's reminder, she had gone completely crazy. She found books from the library that were heavy enough to crush Hagrid and began to study the habits of all the dangerous creatures and how to deal with them. She memorized those books day and night, and if anyone tried to disturb her, she would immediately throw a tantrum.

Ron borrowed the Firebolt from him early in the morning and went to the field with Dean and Seamus to let loose. When Harry reminded him that they would be going to Hogsmeade through a secret passage later, Ron hesitated for a moment and refused the suggestion again.

Meeting Sirius was the thing Harry looked forward to most after receiving the reply, but Ron's absence made Harry, who had been waiting for so long, feel rather unhappy. Even without Hermione's guidance, Harry was beginning to understand the implications of his close friend of several years undergoing such a significant change.

He realized that Ron might not just be worried about her as Hermione had said, but had a deeper reason, though he hadn't figured out what it was yet.

"Sorry, am I late?"

There were no girls Harry knew in the common room, so he couldn't find anyone to go to the girls' dormitory to remind Hermione to keep track of the time. He could only wait anxiously by himself.

With only ten minutes left until eleven o'clock, Hermione burst out of the girls' dormitory staircase with her hair disheveled. As she approached, Harry immediately asked in surprise,

"What happened, Hermione? What happened to your face!" Harry pointed to the scratches on Hermione's cheeks. "Did you throw the rats you caught from Crookshanks out the window again?"

"Let's talk as we go, Harry!"

Hermione said breathlessly.

They hurriedly left the Gryffindor tower, and when they were in a secluded corner, Harry pulled his Invisibility Cloak from his bag and draped it over himself and Hermione.

Since acquiring the Invisibility Cloak, Harry had used it countless times, but wearing it during the day in the castle was an unprecedented experience. To avoid the crowds that were many times larger than at night, Harry and Hermione had to be extra careful, otherwise, by the time they returned from Hogsmeade, rumors of the castle being haunted might be rampant.

They arrived at the Gondhilda Corridor on the third floor of the castle. It was a secluded place with hardly anyone in sight. Harry lifted his Invisibility Cloak and ran with Hermione to the end of the corridor to the hunchbacked, one-eyed witch statue. Once the hunchback was opened, Harry and Hermione nimbly climbed up.

"I'm practicing how to deal with Dementors in my dorm!"

Harry and Hermione were running frantically through the secret passage, wands glowing. Hermione said in a nearly broken voice,

"I just can't get the Patronus Charm to work. No matter how I chant the incantation, there's absolutely no response. This has never happened before. How did you manage that, Harry? How did Professor Lupin teach you?"

"There's a trick!"

"Mastering a spell that Hermione couldn't master is indeed quite an accomplishment," Harry said proudly.

"You need to find a Boggart to help you practice; being in the same environment is very helpful for learning this magic!"

"Harry--"

Hermione said with a hint of helplessness,

“I’m not you. Boggart doesn’t turn into a Dementor when he’s with me. Besides, Boggart isn’t something you can buy with Galon at Bee Duke’s Candy Store.”