A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 44 Trivial Matters

After consulting Professor McGonagall about the Vanishing Charm, Owen finally let her go, satisfied.

Melete, nestled in his arms, lazily squinted her eyes, occasionally ruthlessly pushing away Owen's teasing hands with her little paws, as if to say "don't bother me," completely unbelievable that she had just jumped out to follow Owen.

Owen tirelessly pressed down on Melete's paws, playing a game where the cat's paws had to be on top, which made the little tabby angrily turn around and bury her head like an ostrich. Owen didn't seem to mind, and continued playing with the fluffy ball at the end of Melete's tail, finding it to be just like a nice-feeling cat toy as it swayed back and forth with her tail.

"Ah, it's getting late, I should head back." A moment later, Owen felt sleepy again, so he stood up and said, "Thank you for your help today, Hagrid."

"Oh, no trouble at all." Hagrid waved his huge hand and enthusiastically handed him a large bag of rock cakes, telling him to share them with Harry when he got back.

"Oh, and tell Harry about the Sorting Ceremony he mentioned last time." Hagrid's expression turned serious. "I asked Dumbledore, and he said there's no need to worry too much, but we should still remain vigilant."

"Huh? Did someone really tamper with the Sorting Hat?" Owen was surprised. Why was Dumbledore making such a fuss too?

"I don't know." Hagrid shook his head solemnly. "Although the Sorting Hat swore that it had not been tampered with, but only discovered that Harry had an important Slytherin trait, it couldn't say exactly what it was... After all, it doesn't have the ability to know everything about someone just by staying on their head for a short while."

"But I think someone under the Confusion Charm can't tell if their feelings are real or not." Hagrid's brow furrowed. "Hogwarts hasn't been peaceful lately. Someone's got their eye on... that thing, and something like this happened in the Forbidden Forest..."

Hagrid’s tone was very vague when he spoke of “that thing”.

"Okay, I'll pass it on to Harry." Owen's lips twitched. Dumbledore was clearly also confused by Harry's Sorting, since he didn't know anything about Horcruxes, and he should have already noticed Quirrell's strange behavior, so his thoughts went astray.

Dumbledore was a smart man, and smart men are prone to overthinking, which can lead them astray.

"I have to say, it's no wonder it's Gryffindor's brain circuitry?" Owen thought to himself with amusement.

"But Hagrid, perhaps Harry really does possess the qualities that Slytherin admires?" he said with a smile.

"If he's really suited for that place, I believe he won't go astray..." Hagrid said earnestly.

Meeting Owen's intense gaze, Hagrid felt inexplicably guilty, realizing he hadn't said anything good about Slytherin in Owen's presence. It seemed most of the Shafik family's words came from Slytherin.

Hagrid opened his mouth, then hurriedly explained, "Uh, I mean you guys will corrupt him... oops, I mean, he'll be corrupted by you guys... no, I mean, you're actually a good guy, you'll corrupt him properly..."

Melett, who was lazily dozing, slightly opened his golden pupils, glanced sideways at the clumsy big guy, yawned widely, and rested his head on the back of Owen's hand.

Listening to Hagrid's clumsy and increasingly rambling explanation, Owen couldn't help but chuckle and said, "I understand, Hagrid. I'll head back now, bye-bye."

It took Hagrid a while to clear his tongue. Watching Owen's retreating figure, he muttered softly, "I didn't mean for you to corrupt him..."

On his way back to the common room, Owen didn't forget to stop by the Ravenclaw Tower on the west side of the castle. He found Ms. Grey without wasting much time and briefly told her what had happened the night before.

"...I only caught a glimpse of the dangerous thing's outline from afar and then ran away. It's good that the raven is alright, but without its guidance, I got lost in the Forbidden Forest and couldn't find the fax machine..."

The Ravenclaw students coming and going curiously observed Owen; they rarely saw Ms. Grey talking to students from other houses. In fact, Ms. Grey was often cold and distant even to students from her own house, so it was quite unusual for her to be chatting so amiably with someone.

Many people deliberately walked past Owen and Ms. Gray, trying to remember Owen's face. But the two people in the middle of their conversation ignored them, simply moving closer and speaking in much softer voices.

Ms. Grey nodded slightly and said in a low voice, "Hogwarts is indeed facing hidden dangers lately. Stay away from the Forbidden Forest from now on. I'll continue to keep an eye on the fax machine for you."

Irving gave a thank you, inwardly sighing that the days of staying up late would continue. He was genuinely worried that staying up too late would stunt his growth, but thankfully the Shafik family's hairline held up well, otherwise he would have been worrying about hair loss much earlier.

After chatting with Ms. Grey for a while, Owen said goodbye to her and went back to his dormitory to catch up on sleep. He was woken up by the extremely hungry Melete, and then he groggily got out of bed to pour her some milk.

Early the next morning, Irving mailed out several letters.

A letter was sent to my father, asking him to help me apply for a license to keep a raccoon cat. After all, raccoons are XXX-level magical creatures, and they can be aggressive towards people at times. Keeping a raccoon cat requires a license from the Ministry of Magic.

However, this was a trivial matter for Mr. Shafik. As the head of a pure-blood family with a long history, profound scholarship, and abundant wealth, Mr. Shafik, although not holding a position in the Ministry of Magic, held a high position there as one of its important investors. He was also a member of the Wizengamot and maintained good relationships with many high-ranking officials.

Another letter was sent to Uncle Mike, who ran the potions shop, asking him for some herbs. Quirrell eagerly sent over a partial list of herbs; aside from the ingredients for the elixir of immortality, most were herbs for restoring and replenishing life force. These herbs weren't cheap, but fortunately, they weren't too rare. After all, the most important ingredient in the elixir of immortality was the Philosopher's Stone, while the other herbs were the main ingredients in many healing potions.

Owen himself could control a large portion of these herbs, and their value was of little concern to him, given the wealth and power of the Shafik family. So he didn't feel any pressure.

The other three letters were replies to three famous ghosts. During this time, through Irving's persistent writing, he finally managed to make contact with the three reclusive ghosts and become acquainted with them.

"Phew, that means we're halfway to the success of the All-Britain Ghost Gathering." Owen breathed a sigh of relief. You see, his earlier boast at the ghost gathering about his good relationship with these three ghosts was pure bragging. Now, that statement finally had some truth to it.

After finishing all that, Owen found a sunny spot and, basking in the warm sunlight, took a long, black block of wood and hummed Hedwig's March while whittling the wood with a gleaming silver knife.

With his years of experience crafting magic props, a wooden stick exactly like his wand was quickly made. Owen even stuffed a magical unicorn hair he had obtained from Hagrid into it, giving it a faint magical aura.

Yes, a fake wand can easily trick people in Owen's hands.

(End of this chapter)