A certain broken Hogwarts

Chapter 61 Letters and Guidance (Two-in-One)

Early the next morning, Owen got out of bed, shook the little ball of fluff, Melete, awake, and stared seriously into her golden eyes, his voice carrying the languidness and huskiness unique to the morning: "Melete, do you see if there's anything wrong with me?"

The little cat squeaked open its eyes a crack in annoyance, and with a grumpy expression, it reached out its paw to brush Owen's hand away. After yawning widely, it squinted at him and shook its head.

Doesn't this person know that cubs won't grow if they don't get enough sleep? I really want to scratch that grinning face... Melete glared at Owen, slowly licking his paws and diligently washing his face.

"Okay." Owen stretched, making sure not to wake his roommate who was sleeping in late on the weekend, and carefully groomed himself to look neat and presentable.

The auditorium was nearly empty, and the morning sun shone brightly through the windows. Owen leisurely finished his breakfast, then found a clean and bright empty classroom and began writing a letter in neat, beautiful handwriting. Now that the fax machine had been found, and given the great efforts the school's ghosts had made, the promised ghost gathering could finally be put on the agenda.

"Honorable Sir Francis,

"I'm glad you enjoyed my last story. In fact, I would have preferred to write about your exciting past. It must have been a great adventure, but I can only trace your glorious experiences from fragments in history books... I can only say that it's a great pity."

"Next Saturday night at nine o'clock, there will be a grand ghost party at Hogwarts Castle. I know you haven't appeared in public for hundreds of years, but Sir Stuart and Lady Elizabeth are both willing to attend this grand event, and they also hope to see you, whom they have never met before."

"I remember you once told me that you had always admired the two of them but had never met them. I think this will be a wonderful and beautiful gathering, a meeting that transcends time and history, and will surely spark a burst of inspiration and ideas."

"On behalf of the ghosts of Hogwarts, I sincerely invite you to this gathering and look forward to having an in-depth conversation with you about that fascinating history. I hope you can fulfill the small wish of this student who has always admired you, and also so that the other two will not be disappointed and sigh because they have missed out again."

"You are sincere, Owen Shafik."

After writing the letter, Owen carefully sealed it in a dark, understated black hard envelope with a silver wax seal. Then, he chanted a spell over the envelope, using a technique similar to that of a roaring letter, transforming it into a magical letter that could politely and affectionately read its contents aloud.

He has been communicating with the three ghosts in this way for the past few days.

Next, Irving continued writing two more letters, calmly considering his words.

"Sir Stuart, it is a pleasure that you also appreciate Debussy's music, but compared to the ever-changing 'La Mer,' I prefer the gentle and serene 'Clair de Lune.' It... We look forward to your participation in this grand event at Hogwarts. We have obtained the consent of Sir Francis and Lady Elizabeth, who also yearn for this romantic encounter that transcends a thousand years..."

"My esteemed Lady Elizabeth, I am quite surprised to hear that your favorite opera is Othello, you see... I extend a sincere invitation to you to have a historic meeting with Sir Francis and Sir Stuart at Hogwarts..."

Irving sealed the three letters, breathed a slight sigh of relief, and went to the owl's hut to mail them.

These three extremely famous and charismatic ghosts were his carefully selected targets. They were strangers to each other yet shared a deep mutual respect, but their reclusive lifestyles prevented them from ever meeting. He believed they would be very happy to have a chance to meet and finally resolve their long-standing regret.

Owen created the illusion that two other ghosts had already agreed to attend the party for each of them, using this as bait to most likely invite all three together. Once these three great beings arrived at Hogwarts, the grand gathering would be perfectly legitimate.

"I've done my best. If I still can't get them to come, then I can't help it anymore." Owen wasn't flustered about fooling three people in a row. Anyway, it wasn't a bad thing for these three "socially anxious" ghosts. Friends, after all, occasionally tricking each other can deepen their friendship.

The grass outside the castle was still piled with papers from last night, glistening with morning dew, covering a large area like snow.

The students had never seen anything like it before. They ran excitedly into the pile of white paper and stacked it into all sorts of shapes, such as dragons, castles, or human-shaped sculptures.

The shouts and cheers filled the school with youthful energy, until some clever person set fire to the pile of papers. The spark, blown by the wind, instantly ignited all the papers and quickly spread to the lawn...

A wildfire nearly engulfed the Forbidden Forest, and the professors rushed out of the castle, energetically jumping around to put out the flames. Professor McGonagall stomped her feet and shouted "happily," turning a group of young wizards into flowers ravaged by the storm.

"What a peaceful campus life."

Owen stood in a classroom, watching this scene through the window, and chuckled as he remarked. Then, Prankster showed up at his door. This mischievous ghost had come to demand that he keep his promise.

"Teach me, teach me, you promised Peeves, cheating and fooling!" Peeves grinned and circled around Owen, holding two dung balls in his hands, gesturing maliciously at Owen's head, as if he would throw them at Owen's head if he didn't agree.

"Okay—" Owen said, arms crossed, drawing out his words, "Although you caused me a lot of trouble last night, you did help me find the fax machine, so I'm not going to renege on my promise."

He glanced at the impatient Mischievous Ghost with a deep smile, his eyes narrowing with a playful expression.

"First, you need to understand that people only see what they want to see, and what we need to do is deceive their eyes first."

Owen raised his right hand and pointed at the dung balls in Peeves' hand, indicating that Peeves should hand them over to him.

"This is mine! No one can take what belongs to Mischievous Ghost away from him!" Mischievous Ghost shouted, putting Dong XZ behind his back.

"When did you get the idea that I didn't take them?" Owen winked his left eye teasingly, and two identical little gadgets appeared in his hand.

"Huh? This is impossible!" Pipi Ghost took out his two dung balls and looked at them closely, only to find that they had somehow turned multicolored. He was stunned, his little black eyes almost turning into cross-eyed stares.

"Give it back! That's Pee-Pee's stuff!" Pee-Pee looked at the dung ball in Owen's hand with a mixture of anger and anxiety, pinching his nose and flying around the classroom.

"Okay, here you go." Owen let go of the little gadgets in his hand. Pikachu hurriedly flew over, scooped them up, and dropped the colorful little balls in his own hand.

"That's the first point I want to tell you: the truth and the lie." Owen smiled and caught the ball that Pippi had thrown down, tossing it up and down a few times. "So that the other person can't tell what's real and what's fake."

"Explain yourself clearly!" Pipi Ghost brandished the dung ball in his hand, threatening with a fierce face.

"Why don't you try to see if what you have is real or fake?" Owen tilted his head.

Pipi let out a strange cry and threw the dung ball at Owen. With a "pop," the dark, round ball exploded, bursting into a wad of confetti.

"You lied to me! What you took is the real thing!" Pipi Ghost angrily overturned the table, hung himself from the chandelier and swung back and forth, the chandelier creaking under the weight.

"Tsk, you're too naive." Owen crushed the small ball in his hand, and a large burst of colorful ribbons came out of it.

"Where's my dung ball?" Pipi shouted, slamming his head into the ceiling.

"Think about it yourself," Owen said, feigning profundity. "I just want you to understand that a successful scam is one that confuses the other person, making them mistake the fake for the real and the real for the fake..."

Pippi the Ghost poked his head out, squinted his little eyes, and suddenly his expression became even more wicked. He always had a talent for playing pranks.

Seeing this, Owen suddenly raised his hand, revealing his wand. He pointed the tip of the wand out the window, smiling elegantly and mysteriously: "Secondly, when I told you there would be a trick here..."

As Peeves turned to look out the window, Owen's wand suddenly exploded into a bouquet of flowers with a "bang." At the same time, the chandelier Peeves was clinging to suddenly transformed into a giant tree frog with a huge mouth, swallowing him whole.

After Peeves angrily and illusoryly emerged, Owen leaned lazily against the wall and said, "The real trick is somewhere else."

"This is very useful." He winked mischievously at Pippi. "For example, when you don't like someone, you can pretend to be uninterested in them and play a little trick on them. When that person lowers their guard, you can then turn your attention to them and achieve surprising results more easily."

"When he's gloating, then you can really tease him mercilessly. The contrast between then and then will hurt him even more." Owen suddenly smiled meaningfully. "Or, when that person is someone you don't dare to mess with but really hate, you can pretend that you just accidentally affected him."

"There's no one that Mischievous Ghost is afraid to mess with!" Mischievous Ghost chuckled.

"Is that so?" Owen merely glanced at him without exposing him. In fact, he knew that Peeves was most afraid of the principal and dared not provoke most of the professors, because they were perfectly capable of dealing with Peeves.

"Let me put it another way, like someone you don't want to mess with but look down on, someone you really want to mess with but also want to find out their secrets." Owen's tone became elusive and seductive, making Pipi Ghost think of a certain person.

Owen glanced at Peeves, whose eyes were darting around, wiped his mouth, and smiled knowingly. He knew Peeves looked down on a certain cowardly professor, and had even tried to pry into his secrets.

Owen merely prompted Peeves to recall the incident, then subtly reinforced his idea through words.

When the time was almost up, Irving clapped his hands and said, "Alright, one last thing, cleverly utilize the mechanism."

He opened the classroom door a crack and placed a stool on top of it. He gently pushed the door open, and as the door opened, the stool fell down with a thud.

"This is the simplest prank mechanism, I think you know how to do it." Owen glanced at Peeves, then strung a thin line between the door and the classroom window, and simply wrapped a blackboard eraser around the inside of the door.

He pushed the door open again, and the thin string suddenly loosened, pulling the blackboard eraser across the door straight at him. Irving casually closed the door, and the blackboard eraser slammed against it with a "thud," leaving a white chalk mark.

"You can use your intelligence and mischievous talent to design one or two more steps... to make the mechanism more complex and varied," Owen laughed. "The best thing about mechanisms is that you don't need to be at the scene of the prank, so you can easily extricate yourself. You're a ghost, naturally gifted at setting up many mechanisms."

"Peeves' pranks are always aboveboard, Peeves fears no one!" the ghost with a sinister grin shouted in an unpleasant voice.

"Yeah, that's great." Owen shrugged. "Hopefully you won't find yourself in a situation where you need to extricate yourself. But the mechanism can be used for much more than that; it can also be used to attract attention and help you pull off a scheme...it all depends on how you use it."

"Alright, that's all for now. Bye-bye." Owen waved and walked out of the classroom in a good mood.

After giving Pippi a brief lesson, he strode back to the common room and lazily curled up in the armchair in front of the fireplace to do his homework. This armchair had practically become his personal spot.

Melett seemed to sense his return. With her head held high, she walked gracefully out of the dormitory, nimbly dodging the outstretched hands of students trying to touch her. She slowly approached Owen and lightly jumped onto his lap.

"Meow—" Melet stretched and let out a meaningless meow before curling up to warm herself by the fire with Owen. Her large ears and long tail twitched occasionally, making her look like a fluffy doll.

The kitten, a raccoon dog, is growing very fast. Although it still looks round and chubby, you can already vaguely see the graceful and agile physique it will have as an adult.

"Oh, are you trying to seduce me?" Owen glanced at her and asked with a smile.

"Meow~" Melete meowed softly.

"Alright, the temptation worked." Owen put down the quill and waved his wand to make it write quickly on the parchment, while gently rubbing the cat's soft fur with both hands.

The atmosphere was warm and peaceful until Owen's fingers touched Melete's claws.

The two, one human and one cat, happily played a game where the cat's paws had to be on top, until Melete, furious at losing, jumped off Owen's lap and went to find Daphne and the others for food.

"Losing at this game is a disgrace to the cat world, Melete," Owen joked.

Halfway there, Melete jumped up with a "meow" as if her tail had been stepped on, glaring fiercely at Owen. A cat's paw must be on the ground, unless you encounter a dog! Are you even human with that hand speed?

"Tsk." Owen clicked his tongue lightly, absentmindedly doing his homework. After finishing his homework, he took out "Standard Spells, Level Seven" and flipped through the last few pages.

A day passed by in a flash, and night fell in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)