My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 385, Section 382: Harry's Christmas Present

Upon seeing these things, a smile naturally appeared on Lynn's face.

With these things, legally speaking, Hogwarts, this ancient school with a history of thousands of years, already belongs entirely to him.

Old John also attached a letter to these contracts, which detailed some of the Pureblood family's recent unusual actions.

This includes giving up industry for Galleons, and secretly purchasing things after obtaining Galleons.

More than a dozen families have joined forces, seemingly preparing to do something big.

Lynn knew far better than old John what these pure-blood families were up to, so he wrote a reply telling old John to focus on managing the already dominant Lundard Company in England, and that he would take care of the pure-blood families.

No one spoke out about the transfer of seats on the board of directors.

Currently, apart from the eleven families that signed the agreement and old John Lynn, no one else knows that Hogwarts Castle has changed hands.

Lynn didn't intend to publicize it; he simply informed Dumbledore about it.

Dumbledore was somewhat surprised but not entirely unexpected.

He knew very well what the Lynn family had left him; using that money to buy the entire Hogwarts was not impossible, even if it wasn't easy.

Christmas is just around the corner.

The weather was getting colder and colder, and most of the young wizards put on heavy robes this weekend, preparing to go out for the last Hogsmeade Week of the first semester.

Harry could only watch Ron and Hermione go out together while he stayed alone in the castle.

Before leaving, Hermione and the others comforted Harry, but Harry didn't seem as unhappy as before; instead, he seemed somewhat absent-minded.

"You can go to the library to read some books when you have time. I remember Professor McGonagall gave us quite a lot of homework," Hermione advised.

But Ron and Harry clearly scoffed at her words.

"There are still three days until Professor McGonagall's class, there's no need to rush to finish the assignments," Ron said.

Harry didn't want to do any homework at this time either.

"It's already bad enough that I can't leave the castle, Hermione, don't bring up homework anymore."

Hermione glared at them.

"You guys are always like this, as if learning a little more would get you killed. Humph, but your good days won't last much longer."

Harry and Ron didn't take Hermione's words to heart.

Snowflakes began to fall outside the castle. Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were bundled up tightly, and then wandered aimlessly through the empty castle all by himself.

As Harry was wandering down the fourth-floor corridor, he turned around and saw Fred and George peeking at him from behind a hunchbacked, one-eyed witch sculpture.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked curiously. "Why aren't you going to Hogsmeade?"

"We've prepared a little surprise for you before we leave," Fred said mysteriously. "Come over here... this statue seems to be alive; Lynn has summoned her more than once."

He nodded toward the empty classroom to the left of the old witch statue, and Harry followed Fried and George inside.

Before leaving, George winked at the statue of the blind, hunchbacked old witch and said, "I hope you don't tell Lynn."

The old witch looked at him with one eye and made no promises to him.

Fred gently closed the door, turned to look at Harry, and smiled.

"An early Christmas present for you, Harry."

Fred happily pulled something out of his coat and placed it on the table. It was a large, square, worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it.

Harry was somewhat suspicious that it was a joke by Fred or George, and just stared at it.

"What is that?"

"This is the secret to our success," George said, patting the parchment with delight.

"This is a helper, a gift for you," Fred said, "but we just decided yesterday that you need it more than we do."

"We know it works anyway," George said. "Leave it to you, because last time we really didn't need it anymore."

"What I need is an old piece of parchment?" Harry asked.

"An old parchment!" Fred said, making a face with his eyes closed, as if Harry had mentally offended him.

"George, explain it to him."

George gave Harry a vivid account of how he and Fred stole the item from Filch's office.

"This is practically our biggest secret; nobody knows we have this," George said proudly.

Fred, however, exposed him: "No, you've forgotten George. Three years ago, in this very spot, Lynn saw us using it."

"Sorry, this happened so long ago, I've almost forgotten. I think he asked us for help with something back then?"

"The strange behavior of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that year—yes, it was us who told him."

Harry wasn't surprised that Lynn knew about it either.

In his mind, Lynn was almost omnipotent, just like Dumbledore.

"So what exactly is the purpose of this parchment?"

"Oh, yes!" Fred said slyly, "This treasure teaches us more than any teacher in this school."

"Are you kidding me?" Harry said, looking at the tattered, old parchment.

"Oh, really?" George.

He took out his wand, gently touched the parchment, and said, "I solemnly declare that I have done nothing good."

Immediately, fine ink spread out like a spider web from the point where George's wand touched it, the ink lines connecting and extending towards the corners of the parchment, where words began to appear, large, curved blue letters.

The most amazing thing was that the tiny ink dots were moving, marking place names and people in small, messy handwriting. Harry bent down in surprise to look. The small dots in the upper left corner showed Professor Dumbledore pacing in his study, Filch's cat, Mrs. Loris walking upstairs, and Peeves jumping up and down in the Memorial Room.

The entire Hogwarts seemed to have opened itself completely to him.

It even includes all the secret passages leading out of the castle.

But Harry's attention was not on the magical images on the map; instead, it was drawn to the title at the top.

[The Marauder's Map is proudly presented by the suppliers of magical prankster aids: Moonface, Wormtail, Bigfoot, and Forkhead!]

(End of this chapter)