Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 338 Returning to Hogwarts (Happy New Year!)

Merry Christmas, Ron!

Early on Christmas morning, the soft sunlight shone through the heavy, cold air into the windows of the Gryffindor Tower, waking Harry and Ron, who were sleeping in their dormitory, in a way that was almost as natural as possible.

Just like any other Christmas, the dormitory was empty except for the two of them—the Christmas ball was only held at the tournament venue, and this year's Christmas at Hogwarts was no different from usual. Their roommates, and their best friend and external brain, Hermione, had also gone home as usual, leaving them alone in the somewhat empty dormitory, opening their presents...

"Hermione delivered another book, 'The Quidditch Team of Britain and Ireland'... A dung bomb? Did you deliver this?"

Harry chuckled at the package Ron had delivered: "Is this Zonko's new stuff? Thanks a lot. Now if Fred and George put canary cookies in my food again..."

"A magic pencil sharpener, complete with gadgets that can open all sorts of locks and untie all sorts of knots—it was a gift from my mysterious godfather, whose name I still don't know, and I haven't been able to return the favor… Could he really be Sirius Black, the fugitive suspected of being wrongly convicted, as Hermione suspects?"

Next, Hagrid sent a large box of candies of all kinds of flavors. As usual, Mrs. Weasley sent a package every year, containing a new sweater and a bunch of homemade meat pies. Neville sent some homemade herbal specimens. He hadn't dared to open the box from the twins yet, planning to open it later with the same attitude he would have towards Voldemort...

"Well, as expected, no one agreed to their request."

After counting all the Christmas packages, Harry shrugged somewhat helplessly.

"I guess he won't be able to send a gift either."

Ron, still rubbing his eyes, said, "Didn't I tell you? Durmstrang's address has the strictest security measures, which can easily shield the magic on the owl—did you forget yesterday when you wanted to send Ken a gift, Hedwig could only stare blankly at the address on the package, refusing to take off no matter what... That was Durmstrang's protective magic taking effect."

"it's a pity."

Harry lay back down on his bed; the pies and sweets would easily save him from breakfast anyway. "He definitely needs some holiday cheer right now—he just defeated a dragon!"

"And it's the biggest and fiercest Iron-Belly Dragon!"

Ron yawned and then sighed, "Charlie mentioned in his letter that even ordinary dragon farms wouldn't dare to raise this kind of fire dragon easily. Only the world's top and most professional fire dragon research institutions dare to raise Ukrainian Ironbelly... He also said that it would take at least ten dragon tamers working together to subdue one Ironbelly. Doesn't that mean Ken alone is worth ten wizards?"

"I had no idea Ken was this amazing... No wonder he dared to go looking for trouble with Voldemort back then!"

—When Durmstrang's second project began, Hogwarts naturally watched the competition simultaneously. Even when those Ukrainian iron-bellied students first appeared on screen, many professors were shocked and stood up, including the usually composed Professor Moody and the ever-gloomy Snape. Professor McGonagall kept muttering, "What's the difference between this and murdering a student?"...

But what appeared on the screen next silenced everyone—all three warriors proved with their own strength that this year's Triwizard Tournament was incredibly prestigious.

"Is this because defeating and subduing are different levels of difficulty?"

Harry thought for a moment and replied, "At least the dragon tamers can't use that eye-damaging spell when subduing a dragon, nor can they smash the dragon with fireballs like that half-Veele did—they'll probably be like Hagrid, trying their best not to harm the dragon, right?"

"……Too."

Ron nodded: "Then we..."

"Harry? Ron?"

A muffled voice suddenly rang out from nowhere, interrupting their conversation.

"Who's there?!"

Harry and Ron were startled by the sudden noise and jumped out of bed. Harry, in particular, who had recently been receiving frequent extra help from Professor Moody, almost drew his wand. After looking around but finding no one, he became even more nervous, but at the same time, a sense of unease crept into his mind—

This voice... sounds familiar?

"It's me, Ken."

To their astonishment, a blazing crimson-gold flame suddenly ignited in the air before them, and a figure quickly emerged from the flame, as if an invisible Floo Powder fireplace had always been hidden there. Harry and Ron also remembered this phenomenon vividly: they had witnessed a similar scene in their second year—it must have been the flame emitted by Dumbledore's phoenix when it teleported people…

"Ken?!"

Harry's glasses nearly slipped off his nose: "Why are you back?!"

"We were just talking about how closed off Durmstrang is... Are you really Ken?"

Ron, his face pale, took several steps back, his expression a mixture of surprise and suspicion: "Shouldn't you be spending Christmas in Durmstrang right now?"

"As you can see, Dumbledore sent me back."

Avada calmly explained—in fact, Dumbledore's phoenix didn't teleport him precisely to Harry and Ron's bedroom. Instead, it placed him directly in the Hogwarts Headmaster's office and then hurriedly disappeared again with Dumbledore himself. He had no choice but to sneak into Harry and Ron's bedroom through the interdimensional space, creating the effect of those crimson-gold flames, pretending that he had been sent there directly by Fawkes—this was mainly to make them believe in his identity and origin.

"Harry, Ron, I need you to go to the Room of Requirement immediately. I have something very important to share with you, and I'll need your cooperation and assistance in the upcoming operations..."

He didn't waste any time on meaningless small talk, but went straight to the point: "Please hurry, time is limited—this concerns Harry's safety."

"Harry?!"

Ron's face paled even more. He stared at his friend in astonishment, while Harry looked at Avada with almost the exact same expression—they had only had a peaceful year last year, and now trouble had struck again this year?

And why would Ken and Professor Dumbledore, who are far away in Durmstrang, know about something that concerns him before he does?

He was about to ask something more, but Avada had already vanished again, leaving behind the words, "I'll be waiting for you at the door of the House of Requirement"...

(End of this chapter)