Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 40 The Daily Prophet

Loren crunched the lamb chop in his mouth, his eyes fixed on Hermione.

Hermione, sitting opposite, couldn't suppress a smile as she happily ate her food and hummed a broken melody.

Hermione glanced at Loren every now and then, muttering strange things like "22 to 0".

Loren comforted himself, he had become familiar with the Iron Man Charm, and Hermione had gained a small amount of happiness, a win-win situation!

The sound of owls flapping their wings came from the skylight; there would be more letters coming in from Hogwarts on weekends.

The silly spectacled owl also brought Loren a reply from Grandpa Bates.

Loren sent his letter to Grandpa Bates on the Saturday of the second week of school, and this was already the Saturday of the third week. An owl should be able to travel back and forth in less than a week, so perhaps Grandpa Bates' reply was taking a little longer, Loren didn't think much of it.

Loren placed the boy aside, gave him some cheese and bread cubes, and began reading the letter.

In his letter, Bates said he wasn't worried about Loren at all, that he only remembered to write to the old man two weeks after school started, and that his wording was extremely impolite. He said he would settle these matters slowly after Loren returned from his vacation.

Bates did not give a direct answer to Loren's question about returning to the city. He said he would visit some old places from back then and told Loren not to interfere.

Throughout the entire letter, Bates made no mention of any magic school or any magical abilities Loren had learned. He only mentioned at the end that the family's two sheep had given birth, and that it would be perfect for roasting Loren when he returned.

Loren carefully folded the letter after reading it, put it in his pocket, and felt a warm feeling in his heart.

Hmph, what do you mean by "suitable for roasting lamb"? It's just that I miss him. That's how old people are, just being stubborn.

Tomorrow is the night of the full moon. I wonder how the old man is doing, and whether he will go to the mountains again.

Loren did not reply immediately; he planned to wait until he obtained the wolfsbane potion and have Hanhan take it back with him.

The werewolf matter was now over, and even the silly creature pecking at food nearby seemed even cuter. Loren reached out and stroked the spectacled owl's feathers.

Hermione was also looking at the owl; she was there when they bought it. "It looks a bit bigger."

Loren nodded and popped a piece of pudding into his mouth. "You could say it's gotten much fatter."

"Coo-coo!" The little spectacled owl, focused on the cheese, looked up. That's very impolite!

"So what did you name it?" Hermione asked, somewhat curious.

Loren's hand, which was about to put something in his mouth, froze. Naming him? He seemed to have never thought about it; he'd always just called him "Silly, Silly."

He tentatively asked, "Hanhan?" These two words are pronounced in Chinese.

The little spectacled owl immediately responded with a "coo-coo!"

Hermione repeated it twice, not understanding what it meant, thinking it was just some kind of reduplicated sound, like meow or pee-pee.

"I want to borrow Hanhan's help to write a letter to my parents."

Hermione hasn't written home since school started. It's her first time away from her parents, and even though the magic of the spells might ease her loneliness, her longing for them only grows stronger.

She struggled to explain to her parents the magical principles she had learned, how the tone of a spell could affect the outcome, just like a high school student talking to home on the phone without knowing the grammar of individual words, or Newton's First Law.

The little girl's after-school life was equally monotonous, and she wasn't very close to her roommates. For a long time, she only had Loren as a friend, and it wasn't until after their night out that she became familiar with Harry and his two companions.

Seeing Loren correspond with his family, Hermione finally decided to write to her parents, telling them that the headmaster was a white-bearded old man and about her favorite Professor McGonagall.

Loren agreed: "Of course..."

"Merlin's beard!"

Not far away, Seamus huddled next to Ron and Harry, looking at the Daily Prophet in their hands and exclaiming in surprise.

The Daily Prophet reported on Peter Pettigrew's trial, revealing some details from the proceedings.

Peter Pettigrew joined the Dark Lord in 1981, betraying the Potters and leading to their deaths. The Dark Lord also died in the incident.

While being hunted by Sirius Black, Peter caused an explosion that destroyed a street and killed 12 Muggles. He faked his death by leaving a finger. After framing Sirius, he hid in the Weasley family home for 10 years using the illegal Animagus identity. He was apparently exposed by Dumbledore, arrested, and handed over to the Ministry of Magic.

The Daily Prophet obscured details of the arrest process, and they were unaware of the inside story, only able to make some guesses.

In the dock, Peter Pettigrew had nothing to say, but his mother claimed that Peter Pettigrew's actions led to the end of the Dark Lord, that he was a hero, and that he should not be tried.

The court rejected the unreasonable old woman's ruling and sentenced Little Star to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban.

After recounting the events, the report lavishly praised Minister for Magic Fudge's brilliant leadership in overturning the wrongful conviction left by the previous minister. It only briefly mentioned Hogwarts and Dumbledore's contributions.

Upon learning the whole story, Seamus was overcome with excitement and repeatedly exclaimed, "Merlin's beard!"

One of my roommates is a savior who killed the Dark Lord and saved the magical world.

Another roommate's family has kept Death Eaters as pets for 10 years.

Another roommate exposed the Death Eaters who had been hiding for 10 years just a few days after the start of the semester, and exonerated the wrongly accused.

Even the most unassuming Neville is a descendant of heroes, from the Auror family.

Simo sighed, then suddenly realized that he seemed to be nothing at all. He frowned and fell into a strange sense of inferiority.

Harry was overjoyed; the accomplice who caused his parents' death had been punished, and he had gained a godfather.

Harry still had many questions about what happened back then: the scars, the inexplicable title of Savior—Harry's mind was always filled with doubts.

As Ron looked at the report, he thought of Banban again, and felt more disgusted than afraid.

That day, his pet transformed into a short, fat, disgusting middle-aged man right in front of him, the biggest shock Ron had ever experienced in his life.

Memories of eating and sleeping with his adorable pet flashed wildly through his mind. Ron covered his head, "No, no, no."

The more he tried to escape the memory, the clearer the images became. Ron couldn't eat anymore, gave up resisting, and slumped onto the stool with lifeless eyes.

The older students surrounded Percy and the twins, asking them all questions, such as whether the three of them were cursed or whether they had discovered someone stealing food in the house at night.

Percy looked terrible and didn't say a word. For a time, Scabbers had been his pet, and he had many unpleasant memories of them.

George and Fred picked out some questions to answer:

"Yes, we were six years old when Peter Pettigrew had a serious illness."

"I've been in bed for a whole week."

When he was six, they hid Banban in the soup Molly had made, and he was beaten so badly that he couldn't get out of bed for a week.

"We also noticed something was wrong with Little Pettigrew and wanted to investigate him."

"Percy stopped them."

The two wanted to use Banban as a test subject to conduct some magical experiments with the props.

……

(End of this chapter)