From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

“Ivy!” Hagrid looked extremely surprised. This was the first time Hagrid had spoken to him since Ivy had uttered the word “Philosopher’s Stone” in his cabin.

"Long time no see, Hagrid." Ivy reluctantly peeked out from her spotted feathers to greet Hagrid. "What have you been up to lately?"

"Preparing a Christmas tree for the Christmas dinner..." Only then did Ivy notice the half-chopped fir tree in front of Hagrid and the axe in his hand.

Chapter 61 Hagrid's Tremendous Change

“Did you see how badly Ravenclaw lost today?” Harry said to his two friends as they made their way from the Quidditch stands toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They were on their way to see Hagrid, who for some reason hadn’t been there for the Quidditch match.

“Don’t worry, Harry,” Ron reassured his friend, fully understanding Harry’s concerns. “If we could beat Slytherin once, we can beat them again!”

"Don't make any promises you can't keep." Hermione always played the role of dampening enthusiasm in the small group. "You know, it's said that Ivy has also joined the Slytherin Quidditch team, and Slytherin's performance today is definitely related to him."

"What?" Ron and Harry seemed to be hearing this for the first time. "You mean, Ivy cast a spell on those monstrous Slytherin Quidditch players? That's why they were dominating the game? Isn't using magic cheating?"

“I didn’t say that,” Hermione shook her head. “Besides, using magic in Quidditch isn’t necessarily cheating. I remember the rules only say you can’t use your wand on your opponent. What if the target of the spell is your teammate…”

“Maybe it really is…” Harry said pessimistically. “Their agility on broomsticks has almost doubled, and combined with their terrifying size, Slytherin’s strength has been greatly enhanced… I can’t think of anything other than magic that could do that…”

“We can ask Hagrid. He must have watched many Quidditch matches over the years and has experience with this kind of thing,” Hermione said, patting Harry on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Wuhu! Ha!" Shouts came from the horizon. The three of them looked up and saw a flock of large birds flying in the air, perhaps some kind of magical creature from the forbidden forest.

"Is there something wrong with my ears?" Ron asked uncertainly. "Why do I hear those big birds talking?"

“I think I heard that too,” Harry said hesitantly. “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve discovered that I can understand what other animals besides snakes are saying…”

“Maybe this means we have a special talent, in some magical realm,” Ron said chuckled, then he realized what Harry had just said. “Wait, Harry! What did you just say? You can understand snakes?”

“Yeah, once I went to the zoo with my aunt and uncle’s family, and a Brazilian python told me it had never been to Brazil.” Harry shrugged. Since entering Hogwarts, life in the Muggle world felt like hundreds of years ago to him. “I dare say this isn’t any special ability; there must be many other people with similar abilities!”

“No, Harry, no.” Hermione looked at him with a look of regret mixed with shock. “That’s Parseltongue. Many dark wizards have that ability. The most famous known Parseltongue is Slytherin himself, and his descendants have all inherited this ability from him.”

"Wait a minute." Harry was confused, then remembered what the tattered hat had said to him at the Sorting Ceremony. "You mean, I'm a descendant of Slytherin?"

“It’s no big deal. Many wizards are related. Maybe that means you’re some kind of collateral relative in Slytherin.” Ron glanced around and then whispered, “Let me tell you something: I’m a cousin of that pesky Malfoy.”

"Harry!"

Harry hadn't quite recovered from the fact that his best friend was actually his nemesis's cousin when he heard a shout coming from above. It was Hagrid's voice, so he naturally looked up.

However, what came into view was not Hagrid's messy beard, but several strange creatures that Harry had never seen before in his life.

Their bodies, hind legs, and tails resemble those of a horse, while their front half has wings, claws, and a head like a giant eagle, and each has bright orange-yellow eyes, making them look extremely majestic.

When these strange creatures kicked up a flurry of snowflakes and landed on the ground, Harry, Harry, and Hagrid finally realized where Hagrid's voice had come from—he was riding on the backs of these giant beasts!

"Hagrid!" Harry gasped, coughing as a snowflake flew into his mouth. Ron then had to finish the question for him: "How did you get so...short?"

In the eyes of his three friends, Hagrid was always a gentle and kind person. People who didn't know him might be intimidated by his huge body, but after just a few words, they would understand that this towering giant was actually a warm-hearted guy.

But now, Hagrid's distinctively large body had vanished. Like a wool sweater scorched by the sun, Hagrid's size had shrunk, becoming only half its original size. Even so, he was still considerably taller than Ron, the tallest of the three.

"Oh! Hello, Ron and Hermione!" Hagrid jumped off the giant beast's back and said cheerfully to the three of them, "It's all thanks to Ivy! He helped me fulfill my lifelong dream! To fly through the sky on a hippogriff!"

The three looked behind Hagrid and saw Ivy smiling and waving at them.

“Shrinking magic,” Ivy explained simply, “can reduce a person’s size to half of their original size, and their clothes will also change accordingly.”

“Magic is truly amazing…” Ron murmured, while glancing at Hagrid standing right next to him. It was the first time he could see the wrinkles on Hagrid’s forehead without having to look up.

“We met in the forest.” Hagrid hugged Harry affectionately, seemingly amazed by the changes in his physique, especially holding Harry close to his chest like this, whereas Harry used to only be able to hug his legs. “I was picking out a suitable Christmas tree for Hogwarts when I saw Ivy flying down from the sky on a group of hippogriffs.”

“Eaglehead Mash…? Sorry, what?” Harry tried awkwardly, but couldn’t pronounce the syllable correctly.

“Hippogriffs!” Hagrid repeated, patting the giant beast beside him. “These are the adorable big guys!”

"Would you like to try?" Hagrid's eyes sparkled as he spoke to the three young wizards who weren't yet used to talking to him without having to look up. "Would you like to ride them around in the air?"

Chapter 62 Cassandra's Exploration

“This is the best opportunity,” Cassandra told herself in the corridor on the eighth floor of Hogwarts Castle.

It's now the Christmas holidays, and apart from a few little wizards like her who haven't gone home, there's hardly anyone in the castle. So Cassandra has plenty of time to spend exploring the castle.

It must be said that, apart from Cassandra herself, not a single Slytherin boy chose to stay in the castle for the New Year. They all returned to their family manor to enjoy Christmas dinner by the warm fireplace. Perhaps there would be a turkey with its flesh dry and mushy, its belly stuffed with all sorts of vegetables; or various puddings roasted to a deep brown...

"Concentrate! Cassandra, you need to concentrate..."

Cassandra shook her head, trying to shake the image of the Christmas dinner out of her mind. If there was one thing you shouldn't complain about at Hogwarts, it was definitely the food. Although the Christmas dinner was still held in the Great Hall, only a handful of students who remained at the school attended.

Submitting her application to stay at the university without her roommates' knowledge was no easy task. Several times, Cassandra nearly gave herself away. To be honest, she didn't want her classmates to know she was an orphan—an orphan was the right word to describe her; she had no family left in the world.

Worre is a Muggle surname, derived from her father. He was a very brave man who once tried to protect his wife and daughter from a dark wizard single-handedly, bare-handed.

Unfortunately, Mr. Worley did not have enough strength to match his courage; with just a simple green flash, he fell lifelessly to the ground.

Next was Cassandra's mother, a blonde beauty who claimed to be a descendant of the famous prophet Cassandra Trelawney, from whom Cassandra herself took her name... But clearly, those dark wizards had been completely corrupted by dark magic, and neither beauty nor lineage could buy her mother even a fraction of time.

Just as the dark wizard with sharp teeth and a face full of horrible tumors was about to chant the third spell, Cassandra's uncle burst in. He attacked the dark wizard with a metal wand that could make a loud noise, knocking him to the ground in an instant.

Cassandra was very grateful to her Muggle uncle; if he hadn't visited the plantation that day, Cassandra might not exist today.

Before entering Hogwarts, Cassandra lived in the suburbs of London, where her daily life was entirely taken care of by servants. This was thanks to her Uncle Worley, who sheltered Cassandra in this cruel world.

As for himself, Cassandra never saw him again after that day they parted.

“For Uncle.” Cassandra gritted her teeth and continued searching in front of that silly tapestry on the eighth floor of the castle.

She stayed at Hogwarts because of Ivy's secret. Ivy had gone with Malfoy to visit their family's manor, so Cassandra risked staying at Hogwarts. She needed to find that secret; she needed power.

“It must be somewhere nearby…” Cassandra pondered, pacing down the corridor. She had noticed Ivy disappearing on the eighth floor more than once. Sometimes she would glance at Ivy's movements from afar, cautiously following behind him.

Although the route was different each time, Cassandra always lost track of Ivy near the eighth floor.

The quick-witted Cassandra knew there was something fishy going on.

“Perhaps a secret room? A secret passage? Otherwise, there’s no reason for him to just vanish into thin air…” Cassandra frowned in thought, clearly Ivy knew more about Hogwarts than she did.

“It is said that there are many secret passages in Hogwarts Castle…and they all require special magic or passwords to open…” Cassandra looked up at the decorations in the corridor, which was a tapestry of “The Trolls Beat Barnabas.”

“Foolish…and completely unhelpful…” Cassandra lowered her head again and continued pacing down the corridor. “If only I could learn the relevant magic…and reveal all the secrets hidden by magic to me…”

“Where can I learn such magic?” Cassandra immediately thought of the library, where there was a restricted section. Mrs. Pince forbade unauthorized young wizards from lingering there, but Cassandra had seen Ivy enter the restricted section, so he must have obtained permission from a professor.

"Should we take advantage of the Christmas holidays to venture into the forbidden section?" Cassandra immediately rejected the idea. Caution was an innate trait of Slytherins, and she wouldn't risk being expelled by venturing out recklessly. Besides, there were hardly any young wizards at the school during the holidays, and Mrs. Pince could keep a close eye on Cassandra.

“Spellbooks…spellbooks…where can I find useful spellbooks?” Although she rejected the idea of ​​trespassing into the forbidden book section, the word “spellbooks” lingered in Cassandra’s mind.

“No… I came here to find Ivy’s secret, not to find the magic book…” Cassandra shook her head in distress, then decided to keep trying tomorrow, since she needed to be well-fed to have the energy to work.

But as Cassandra's gaze swept across the empty wall, she was astonished to find a door there, a very smooth wooden door.

“That must be Ivy’s secret!” Cassandra was certain that there hadn’t been a door there before. In order to find Ivy’s secret, she examined almost every inch of the brickwork in the wall.

Pushing open the wooden door in the wall, Cassandra found herself in a room filled with books.

Many bookshelves, dozens of feet long, stood crookedly on the ground, each piled high with dirty books. Many more books were simply thrown on the floor. They were stacked on top of each other, forming seemingly unstable towers that made one wonder if they would collapse and bury anyone who tried to pull one out.

"Could it be that Ivy is learning magic here?" Cassandra wondered. "No... if that were the case, why would he need to go to the forbidden library?"

“Moreover, there are no personal belongings of Ivy left here. If he really practiced magic here, there should be things like notebooks and targets…” Cassandra looked around. Apart from dust and books, there wasn’t even a place to sit in this room.

“What was I doing before that door appeared?” Cassandra tried to recall. “Pacing around… and thinking about Ivy’s secret? No, if that were the case, I should have come in already…”

Cassandra scanned the room again, and a flash of inspiration struck her: "Ah! I know! It's the book!"

Chapter 63 Malfoy Manor

"We've arrived! Ivy." Malfoy pushed open the carriage door and jumped down in one swift motion, with Ivy following closely behind.

What comes into view is a gate cast in wrought iron. It looks like a finely crafted product, with all the edges and corners carefully polished. Every side of the iron fence is smooth and rounded, without a single sand hole or rust mark.

Malfoy swaggered to the door, and the wrought-iron gate's bars immediately twisted and curled into a hideous face, saying with a clanging metallic scraping sound, "Welcome home, Master Draco."

"Are Mom and Dad all ready? This is the first time I've brought a friend over to play," Malfoy asked proudly, glancing furtively at Ivy, perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of surprise on his face.

However, Ivy remained calm, observing everything with a composed gaze.

"Everything is as you wish, young master." The metal face on the wrought iron gate tried its best to appear kind and amiable, but the shrill metallic sound ruined all its efforts.

"Great! Let's go, Ivy!"

Malfoy turned around and called out, and the wrought iron gate swung open with a "snap".

Passing through the exquisite wrought iron gate, Ivy and Malfoy stepped onto a path paved with bluestone bricks, with neat shrubs on both sides, showing the gardener's superb skills.

Beyond the bushes lies a meticulously designed garden with a fountain and lovely lawns, where the charming scenery remains lush and green even in the depths of December.

A white shadow leaped from the lawn, fluttered its wings, and landed on a treetop. It was an elegant white peacock, tilting its head to observe the two people passing through the passageway.

At the end of the bluestone brick passageway stands a luxurious mansion with Gothic spires and bright glass, but the slight mottled marks on the exterior walls tell of its age.

Although he hadn't actually entered the building yet, Ivy had already fully grasped the inner meaning of Malfoy Manor: it hoped that every guest who visited would understand that the Malfoy family was a prestigious and long-established noble family.

Ivy curled the corners of her lips. This approach might work on mediocre people who value rules, but for those who wield true power, it would only elicit scorn.

Passing through the luxurious and spacious foyer, Ivy followed Malfoy into a reception room covered in purple wallpaper, where the owner of Malfoy Manor had been waiting for some time.

“Ivy, this is my dad and mom.” Malfoy introduced the three of them. “Mom and Dad, this is Ivy, Ivy-Dum, whom I’ve been talking about.”

"It's a pleasure to meet you." The mansion's owner, Lucius Malfoy, with his long, light blond hair, greeted Ivy with a warm smile and quickly stepped forward to shake hands. "Back in Diagon Alley, I knew you were no ordinary person. Later, I heard about your deeds from Draco's letters. Meeting you today, Mr. Doom is indeed as outstanding as the rumors say."