The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 43 Returning to the Castle for Christmas

Moriarty's two duels came to an end. While everyone was amazed by Moriarty's endless family magic, they also admired Moriarty and Charlie's unconventional shapeshifting techniques.

Of course, Tonks' guardian spirit is also a pleasant surprise.

In their presence, many students were too embarrassed to continue the duel, and Professor Flitwick stopped organizing it, asking each person to submit a paper about the duel, which only required a piece of parchment.

"Have you heard of the All England Wizarding Tournament? You lot—" Professor Flitwick's gaze swept over William, Leon, Charlie, Tonks, and Moriarty, attempting to extend an invitation: "You can all participate! I dare say you can achieve a good ranking."

Leon, who intended to enter politics, decisively refused, and Charlie also shook his head and declined, saying, "It would be great if there were a Fantastic Beasts Contest."

Everyone looked at Charlie with the eyes of someone looking at a giant. How could magical creatures compete? Perhaps only Hagrid could understand him.

William also said he plans to travel after graduation, and Tonks said she would join Moriarty if he did.

"And what about Mr. Moriarty?" Professor Flitwick asked calmly, his gentle and expectant gaze fixed on Moriarty.

"We'll see, Professor," Moriarty said ambiguously. "I'll be in a lot of trouble for a long time."

Professor Flitwick nodded in disappointment. In fact, he most wanted Moriarty to participate, but he also knew that Moriarty would not agree easily.

Dumbledore once told him that Moriarty was not as keen on pursuing fame and fortune as worldly people, and was not interested in the clubs at school.

This was actually the real reason Dumbledore allowed Flitwick to open the dueling club: he wanted to get closer to Moriarty.

Another reason was that Flitwick realized Moriarty wasn't lying.

Moriarty was telling the truth; he was indeed very busy, perfecting spells, brewing potions, improving Kara boots, arranging the Dragon Field, opening secret chambers... he had too many things to do.

This doesn't even include the trivial matters that happened at school, such as the Quidditch match two days later.

Thanks to Moriarty's strong individual abilities, the Slytherin team rarely held pre-match training sessions, which indirectly reduced the chances of clashes with Gryffindor.

In the locker room before the game, William told the players with a smile that in the past, when the Gryffindor team practiced, they would always ask Coach Sloan for permission to compete with the Lions for playing time.

If it were a Slytherin training match, Gryffindor would do the same. The two sides would go back and forth, locked in a fierce battle.

"Captain William, more than the ball game, we want to know who won your duel with Prefect Leon?" Jericho mustered his courage and asked the little snakes what they were thinking.

William and Leon exchanged a glance and shook their heads. William told Jericho that once the two of them had fought, the outcome of the duel was no longer important.

Jericho wanted to know more details, but Moriarty dragged him out of the locker room; the match was about to begin.

As the silver whistle blew and both teams mounted their brooms, Moriarty heard the system's mission notification: "Mission issued: Defeat Ravenclaw within forty minutes! Reward: 200 points. Mission failure: Punishment - The host must wear Jericho's underwear and fly around the pitch three times."

Whenever Moriarty rides a broomstick, the system always issues some embarrassing punishments, which Moriarty is used to.

Therefore, in the match against Ravenclaw, Moriarty took even less time, catching the Golden Snitch in just thirty minutes, with a score of 160-0.

Commentator Tonks was lavish in his praise, showering Moriarty with compliments, and Penelope also came over to congratulate Moriarty.

Moriarty asked her who had the upper hand in her duel with Lilith.

Penelope said Lilith had the upper hand, but Moriarty didn't see a trace of sadness in her; she ran off laughing.

As the second week of December arrived, the deans of each college would take down a list of students who would stay on campus instead of going home for Christmas.

Marcus and Jericho are among those listed, while Moriarty, Lilith, Keith, and others will be going home for Christmas.

Seeing Marcus and Jericho huddled forlornly in a corner of the common room sofa, Moriarty invited them to return to Slytherin Castle for Christmas.

"Are you serious?" Jericho jumped up from the sofa. "We? We can go to Slytherin's castle?"

"Of course, you heard me right." Moriarty nodded with a smile.

So on December 25th, Hogwarts held a Christmas dinner for the students and professors who stayed on campus, while Moriarty led his friends back to Bristol Castle.

Luke and Ingo, along with their house-elves, were already waiting on the silver stone path: "Welcome home, young master!"

They bowed to Moriarty, and the house-elves and fairies seemed to have gotten much fatter in the months they hadn't seen each other.

"Luke, take Marcus and Jericho to choose rooms; they are guests of the castle for the time being," Moriarty instructed his servant. "Ingo, you come with me."

Ingo seemed to know what Moriarty was up to, and he whispered, "Lockhart is waiting for you on the second basement level."

Moriarty headed straight for the basement, and as he reached the door of the secret chamber on the second floor, he heard Lockhart shouting loudly, "Greetings, Master! Your most loyal servant, Gilderoy Lockhart, reporting for duty!"

Moriarty entered the secret room and immediately saw Lockhart, who gave a comical servant's bow. It seemed he had indeed learned the manners of a noble servant, but it was clear he lacked the talent.

"Get up, let's talk business." Moriarty turned them into two chairs, and Lockhart, before he even sat down, anxiously said, "Master, I don't know what's wrong! Dumbledore is actually inquiring about me! This is unbelievable, I swear he's never paid any attention to me before, this is really unusual!"

Over the next hour, Moriarty and Lockhart discussed the developments in the British magical world.

Suddenly, a "click, click..." sound rang out in the secret room, which sounded quite fun.

"It's a dragon egg!" Moriarty's gaze fell on the high platform.

Lying on it were the immortal phoenix egg and the dragon egg. A deep crack had appeared on the surface of the dragon egg, and something was moving inside. Lockhart quickly moved the immortal phoenix egg aside, then held his breath and stared intently at the dragon egg.

With a screeching sound, the egg cracked open.

A small dragon was swaying and flapping its wings on the high platform.

It wasn't actually pretty; it looked like a crumpled black umbrella. Its thorny wings appeared particularly large compared to its thin, bronze-colored body.

However, its scales are exceptionally smooth, and it has a black ridge along its back.

It also has a long, big nose, a pair of small horns on its head, and dark red eyes that bulge outwards.

"Puff, puff."

Xiao Long sneezed twice, producing a tiny spark, revealing his sharp, slender teeth.

"Peruvian Venomous Fang Dragon! A five-star danger level magical creature," Moriarty slapped away Lockhart's hand that was about to stroke the little dragon, "Don't let its small size fool you, its teeth are highly venomous, and if it bites you, even Merlin might not be able to save you."

Lockhart's face turned pale instantly: "Oh, young master, then what do we need it for?"

"It? Let's call it 'Christmas'! We'll use it to start a dragon farm!" Moriarty's eyes gleamed. "Dumbledore has begun to suspect our relationship, let's give him something to do!"

Undoubtedly, besides Voldemort causing Dumbledore some trouble, the pure-blood families could also pose a certain obstacle to him, although this obstacle was very limited. But as long as we could divert Dumbledore's attention, we would have enough room to maneuver.

"Pureblood, let me think..." Lockhart was also racking his brains: "The Foley family has never been involved in the breeding industry. The Malfoy family does have a dragon farm in Romania, but Lucius Malfoy's reputation isn't very good. As for the others... the Greengrass family, the Selwyn family, the Parkinson family... I'm not very familiar with them."

“We don’t need them. This time it’s the Flint family,” Moriarty interrupted Lockhart’s racking brains and revealed his plan: “The big guy who came back with me is the heir of the Flint family.”

I intend to hand over the dragon breeding business to the Flint family—provided, of course, that Marcus proves his absolute loyalty to me.

It's time for us to establish pure-blood families. You can now make contact with some friendly half-blood and Muggle pure-blood families. In addition, I want you to maintain close contact with Ministry of Magic officials, and most importantly, reputation!

You need to maintain the persona you've created: a staunch fighter against dark magic, a powerful adventurer in the young wizard's heart. That way, next year...

Oh, Lockhart, I'll give you a surprise next year!

(End of this chapter)