A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 172 Chaos

After a morning of competition, the hungry students ate a hearty meal and couldn't wait to rush back to the competition venue.

The midday sun shone warmly on Owen, making him squint and feel a little sleepy. The other young wizards, however, were full of energy, chatting and laughing as they awaited the next match, creating a lively atmosphere.

As everyone eagerly awaited their return, the professors finally returned to their places. Only Headmaster Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen; considering he was a very busy man, he was probably dealing with some urgent matter.

After Professor McGonagall drew the lots, the sixth-grade competition began in earnest. Everyone was loudly discussing who would win, and the Weasley twins, as usual, seized the opportunity to secretly set up a betting pool.

Having shed the shadow of their former glory, the two brothers diligently resumed their money-making endeavors. Although they received further investment from Irving, there's never too much money; after all, for their dream, they wouldn't give up making money even if it meant dying the next moment!

"Hey! Percy and the Hufflepuff prefects ran into each other early. Want to bet on who will win?" The twins sneakily slipped over from the Ravenclaw stands, avoiding Professor McGonagall's gaze, and winked as they spoke, practically asking, "Want to buy some?"

"Haven't you had enough of your confinement?" Owen turned to look at the two identical faces, his tone slightly mocking.

"Isolation is the meaning of our lives, our daily spiritual sustenance. How can we give it up?" Fred said earnestly.

Since the brothers broke free from Voldemort's influence, they, who had been suppressed for so long, began to indulge in even more reckless behavior. However, this was during the time when the Heirs were rampant, and the professors were on edge like never before, with Professor McGonagall's cats hiding in various parts of the castle.

The outcome was obvious: the twins were utterly defeated in their game of hide-and-seek with the cat. After being caught three times in a row, Professor McGonagall was furious and locked them up in solitary confinement for two months.

Living together with Filch every day, the Weasley twins felt like they were becoming friends... No, that was such a hopeless future!

"Fred, how could you even think of that? No wonder Filch's been so nice to you lately, you wouldn't happen to be..." George stared at his brother in shock, his eyes wide, "You wouldn't happen to want to inherit his underwear, would you?"

"No! How could that be!" Fred retorted righteously. "Actually, I'm more interested in his dentures."

The two brothers exchanged a few lame jokes, then looked at their wealthy and gullible sponsor and asked in unison, "Want to place a bet?"

"No, I'm a good student, I don't play this game," Owen refused with a smile. One wonders if Percy Weasley would feel quite pleased after discovering that his two brothers were making money off him through betting.

"Oh—" the twins uttered in a melodious voice, then chuckled, "By the way, your headband is really pretty."

Upon hearing the word "headband," Harry, who was intently watching the game from the front, suddenly turned his head and saw the headband that should have been destroyed, dangling from Owen's head. The two head-shaped things on it were bouncing back and forth like two silly geese shaking their heads incessantly.

Harry was going crazy. He had spent the whole morning eliminating these damn headbands, so why were there still some that had escaped? He was going to kill Blaise tonight! With that thought, he lunged at Blaise in a fit of rage.

Owen naturally sat down in the seat next to him, and then saw Harry "whoosh" fly over and tackle the Weasley brothers, the three of them tumbling together under the seats.

"Hey Harry, you've been really into throwing yourself at people lately," Owen said, his tone dripping with schadenfreude.

Fred reached out and helped Harry up, who was clutching his back and hissing for breath, and said in an exaggerated tone, "Really? I like you so much."

"I think Mom will support you two. She's been talking about you a lot, Harry." George said seriously, like a witness at a wedding in a church.

Harry's lips twitched uncontrollably; he didn't know what expression to wear when facing these two. Actually, he thought these two brothers were the kind of people he liked and admired, but... they were definitely a bit too mischievous...

"Ahem, whose money fell?" He coughed lightly and pointed awkwardly behind them.

The twins looked in the direction he was pointing in perfect unison, only to find it empty. When they turned back, Harry had already returned to his seat as if nothing had happened, casually snapping off the headband he had taken from Owen's head and viciously crushing the two goose-like heads.

Harry's been quite lively lately. Owen straightened his messy hair and winked with amusement.

"Your bird is great. So, really not going to place a bet?" The twins looked at Irving again, noticing Nyx, who was posing arrogantly on the back of the chair.

Nyx held his head high, his three slightly longer feathers fluttering in the wind.

Owen smiled but said nothing, and simply picked up Melete, who was darting around under the seat, and put her in his arms.

"Well, such oddballs are rare indeed," George said sincerely. "Thank goodness for this infinitely tolerant world..." Every kind of oddball has its place.

He sighed and shook his head, then secretly moved elsewhere with his twin brother to continue their lucrative job.

Nyx proudly maintained what she considered her most beautiful posture, only belatedly realizing what was going on when she saw Irving's ambiguous smile. What kind of infinitely tolerant world was this? Was he implying that it was so ugly that even the world couldn't bear to look at it?

It let out an annoyed cry, its clear, penetrating voice echoing ethereally. As if sending a signal, a burst of cheers erupted from the stands, and the two prefects had already taken to the stage.

Percy Weasley and the Hufflepuff prefect stood on the ring, bowing to each other before brandishing their wands and casting spells. The unremarkable spells clashed between them, producing a series of crackling sounds that drew gasps of surprise. The matches on the other rings were largely ignored.

Owen covered his mouth and yawned, closing his eyes in boredom. In his opinion, this kind of duel, which was not intense at all, was extremely boring; he would rather watch first-year wizards throwing tantrums in the ring.

"Tch, they're not that great." Draco proudly raised his pointed chin, his tone smug. "I could do that too!"

"But our knowledge of spells isn't as rich and diverse as theirs, and we're subject to their limitations in many ways," Daphne said after a moment's thought, lest someone get carried away.

She was actually quite surprised; after learning one useful spell after another at the study group gatherings, this duel seemed rather disappointing to her. Although she was keenly aware that she couldn't beat these two right now, she also genuinely believed that with more effort, she should be able to reach that level.

But this is a sixth-year prefect... Is this the level of teaching at Hogwarts?

"Most of the spells we practice at our gatherings are for dueling, but dueling magic only makes up a small part of the knowledge we're taught at school," Owen said casually. "We were supposed to learn dueling magic in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at school... well, you know."

The fact that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor changes every year has indeed hindered many students' progress in dueling magic.

"However, this also reflects the overall level of the magical world," Owen added. "You know, many Ministry of Magic staff can't even cast a decent Armor Charm, so how much better can the other wizards be?"

"I feel... the wizarding world is doomed," Draco said, resting his chin on his hand.

Harry didn't interrupt; he didn't know much about the wizarding world. He simply said, "Look, the Weasleys are going to win!"

Suddenly, Percy Weasley unleashed the Armor Charm, an invisible barrier blocking the incoming spell. He seized the opportunity to knock his opponent's wand away with a Disarming Charm, then smoothly cast a Stunning Charm, knocking his opponent unconscious.

A deafening cheer erupted from the stands. On the Gryffindor side, people chanted his name and applauded thunderously.

Percy Weasley smiled smugly yet forcedly and bowed, eliciting even more excited screams from the audience.

"Look at how smug he is..." Draco muttered with annoyance, "Arrogant and conceited..."

Owen's eyebrows twitched slightly as he listened to the high-pitched screams rapidly spreading from the Gryffindor stands. Why did this scene seem so familiar?

The students' faces flushed red as they screamed and shouted. Some jumped up excitedly, waving their arms; some tore their books to shreds and tossed them high into the air; some threw off their pointed hats; and some drew their wands and frantically fired bursts of sparks into the air…

A strange frenzy spread from one person to another, rapidly engulfing everyone before they could even react. Suddenly, everyone was stomping their feet and roaring, their throats hoarse and faces flushed.

Fanaticism and agitation appeared on everyone's faces, making everyone seem to have grown into the same face at this moment: crazy to the point of being ferocious, passionate to the point of being eerie, violent to the point of being terrifying, manic to the point of being ignorant...

Irving was acutely aware of this shift. Before the emotion reached him, he used two fingers to prop up the corners of his mouth, forcing a fake, bright smile to avoid being affected. His eyes flickered coldly, and for the first time, he truly felt that contagious emotions weren't so interesting.

Harry and Draco screamed and jumped up, caught up in the pointless frenzy. People blushed and huddled together, so close that Harry was pushed to the side and couldn't be seen anymore. Owen, standing in the middle of the crowd, had the illusion that he was the only person left in the world.

"Awooo!" Draco waved his arms wildly, getting pushed and shoved onto Owen. Surrounded by a dense crowd with no room to escape, Owen could only reach out to support him, being jostled and shoved until he was practically sandwiched between two people.

Nyx had already nimbly perched on Owen's shoulder, while Melett huddled in his arms in fear, her golden cat eyes narrowing into thin slits and trembling slightly.

Draco spread his arms and hugged Owen, jumping around wildly, his hands still groping around restlessly, his unconscious screams making Owen's ears go numb.

"Meow!" Melete suddenly bristled and swung his claws fiercely, leaving a bloody gash on Draco's hand.

Owen instinctively became alert. He shoved Draco aside and found that Draco's flushed face was adorned with a strange smile, making him look both insane and terrifying. Draco raised his right hand, which had been scratched by Meletus, and held a rectangular black box, which he then violently threw into the crowd behind him.

He actually managed to steal the box containing Tom's diary from Owen's pocket! In the crowded throng, Owen's body was being pushed and shoved, which gave the other party the perfect opportunity to make their move.

Owen didn't bother checking his pockets, nor did he care how the diary had been discovered on him, or when Draco had been controlled. He flicked his right hand, and his wand instantly appeared in his grasp.

"Fly here!" He pointed with his wand at the spot where the box had disappeared.

But in the blink of an eye, the inconspicuous box was already submerged in the frenzied crowd. People rushed forward and firmly covered the box, rendering the spell ineffective.

A multitude of excited faces turned towards him, their original expressions replaced by sinister and malicious smiles, countless eyes seemingly filled with a strong sense of mockery. Hands reached out to grab Owen, wands were raised towards him... In this moment, he seemed to have become the enemy of the entire world.

Why does it feel like I'm surrounded by zombies...? This thought flashed through Owen's mind.

"Screech!" Nyx, perched on Owen's shoulder, screamed in fright at the bizarre scene and spewed a mouthful of black flames at the crowd.

"Armor for protection!"

An invisible barrier rose just in time, forcefully deflecting the grabbing hands and creating a space around Owen that had been tightly packed together. This also prevented anyone from being burned by Nyx's flames and blocked the oncoming spells. Some of the spells that missed or were deflected struck nearby students, instantly knocking several of them down.

The Ironclad Curse's barrier shattered under the combined attack of numerous spells, and the crowd surged forward once more, ready to give Owen an unprecedented experience of passion.

In this situation, the diary, which had already disappeared into the crowd, was temporarily unrecoverable. Owen cast another Ironclad Charm, focusing on dealing with the mind-bending students.

A mass Fear Charm would normally have solved his predicament, but it could easily have triggered a stampede. Furthermore, Fear Charms are dark magic, which would have caused a lot of unpleasant trouble afterward. Fortunately, Owen was facing a group of novice wizards with limited spellcasting skills, and since they were all mentally unstable, they weren't too difficult to deal with.

Owen deftly waved his wand, transforming the chairs in the stands into black ropes. These ropes, like black snakes, snaked and coiled, binding the students surrounding him into groups of two or three, making them writhe and struggle in place.

Having finally gained some room to move around, Irving landed steadily on the back of a chair as if performing a juggling act. He then nimbly somersaulted in mid-air and landed lightly behind the stands, before disappearing into the shadows under the effect of the Disillusionment spell.

After quickly leaving his original position, Irving escaped the out-of-control crowd, but the chaos continued.

(End of this chapter)