Daily Life at Hogwarts

Chapter 162 A few things before the holiday

If anything is the most frustrating thing, it's a near miss.

However, there are times when just a little bit is a lot worse.

Ravenclaw College still failed to catch the leak in the end, and was still ranked No.2 in the College Cup by five points until the end of the year banquet. It must be a lie to say that Ravenclaw students are not depressed.

That night, Albert and his roommates went to the auditorium to attend the year-end banquet.

The Great Hall has been elaborately decorated in the red and gold colors of Gryffindor, and a huge banner depicting the Gryffindor lion hangs on the wall behind the guest of honor.

The Gryffindor students were all talking loudly, their words filled with the joy and confidence of winning the House Cup.

Compared with Gryffindors, the students of their next-door neighbors, Slytherins, were not at all happy.It's no wonder they couldn't be happy. Slytherin House won the House Cup for four consecutive years, but... it was broken like this, and they still lost to Gryffindor, whom they hated the most. No wonder they were in a good mood.

The students of Ravenclaw are estimated to be in the most complicated mood and the most depressed. They are only a few points away from the championship. It is a pity that no one missed the Ravenclaw, but they are also happy to see Slytherin fiasco.

As for the Hufflepuff students, they haven't won the House Cup for a long time, so they don't care too much about it. Anyway, seeing Slytherin who doesn't like fair competition lose so badly is something worth celebrating.

Not long after, Dumbledore arrived in a hurry. He stood on the podium and raised his hand to signal everyone to keep quiet, and the noise in the auditorium gradually subsided.

"Another year has passed!" Dumbledore said happily. "Before you enjoy the delicious food, you must not like to listen to my old man's nonsense. However, we still need to hold the Academy Cup award ceremony. The scores are as follows: No.4, Slytherin, 250 points; No.3, Hufflepuff, 390 five points; No.2, Ravenclaw, 430 nine points; No.1, Gryffindor, 440 points Four points."

At this moment, thunderous cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table, the voice was deafening, and some students shouted hoarsely with excitement.

Fred, George and Lee Jordan followed the crowd to stand up and applaud loudly.Albert was also applauding vigorously, pretending to be excited.But he couldn't help muttering in his mind, "What an unlucky score."

While cheering, Lee Jordan poked Albert with his elbow and pointed his finger at his neighbor next door.The faces of the Slytherin students were all ugly, as if they had just been punched in the nose.

In the auditorium, except for the Slytherin students, everyone was applauding, whether it was celebrating Gryffindor's victory or Slytherin's fiasco.

Professor McGonagall, who was at the guest table, also stood up and shook hands with Professor Snape, with a happy smile on his face.

During the dinner, which was rich in delicacies, Fred and George invited Albert to their house for the summer holidays.

Unfortunately, this invitation was declined by Albert, because their family already had their own summer vacation plan. Herb wrote to Albert a while ago to tell Albert that the whole family was planning to go to France for the summer vacation.

Fred and George felt sorry for this, they always wanted to thank Albert for saving them, and the Weasleys obviously had similar thoughts.

Everyone was well fed at dinner except Fred and George.

After all, it is easy to get sleepy after eating and drinking enough.If they missed tonight's act of revenge, they would never have the chance to get revenge on Filch again this term, which was clearly not a situation the Weasley brothers wanted to see.

After finally enduring it until Gryffindor won the House Cup, and finally no longer need to worry about anything, how could he give up?

After twelve o'clock, Fred and George started to act. With the help of Albert's Disillusionment Charm, they first made some noise in the castle, attracting Filch, who was about to rest, to the armor corridor on the fourth floor of the castle.

Then, George took the opportunity to sneak into Filch's office and smeared the bottle of garlic-flavored beeswax on the corner of Filch's office. Not to mention, the smell is really pungent, and the effect is even more amazing than that of big dung eggs .

After all, you can still see the source of the smell, but once the beeswax is applied to the corners, you can't even find it, let alone remove the source of the smell. In just a moment, the entire office plus Filch's bedroom There is a choking garlic smell.

After Fred found out that George had returned to the Gryffindor common room through the Marauder's Map, he withdrew immediately, leaving Filch still on the fourth floor struggling to find their whereabouts.

After knowing that he was being tricked, Filch should go back to the dormitory to rest in annoyance.

When Filch opened the wooden door of the office, he was immediately choked by the strong garlic smell. He rushed into his office angrily, trying to find the source of the smell.

For a moment, Filch's angry roar echoed in the administrator's office. As for his Mrs. Norris, she avoided the garlic-smelling administrator's office far away.

"Tell me, isn't this going to get a little big!" George heard Filch's roar, and turned his head to Fred.

"If I were you, I would go and get rid of the garlic smell on my body first, so as not to be suspected on your heads." Albert quietly appeared in the lounge, reminding the two people who were discussing.

"Oh, you're right!" George also smelled the garlic on his hands, and hurried to wash his hands.

The next morning, word of Filch's reprisals spread throughout the castle, and everyone wondered who the hell had been to smell garlic all over Filch's office.

However, no one sympathized with the administrator, more gloating.

Albert and his party also pretended not to know about it.In fact, more of their attention is focused on final exam grades.

Hogwarts will announce the final exam results of the students on the last day.

"Look, you are indeed No.1 in this class." Fred said with a smile as he nudged Albert.

"Your grades are also very good."

Fred, George, and Lee Jordan all passed with high marks.

"I guessed that you would be No.1." Shanna smiled and walked over to talk to Albert, "However, I think Katrina must be very angry."

Albert smiled and shrugged his shoulders, saying that he couldn't help it.

He himself doesn't feel much about getting the first place. This year's students are just that kind of people. No.1 seems to have nothing to be proud of. His goal is to complete the panel task. Fortunately, "in the name of genius" and "all aspects "Crush" tasks have been completed.

Although Katrina said she wanted to compete with her for the better result, and was rejected by Albert in the end, the competition seemed to be still valid, at least in terms of the panel's judgment.

Katrina won this year's No.2, and she was also excellent in all of them, but she was still a little behind Albert in terms of scores.

At this moment, Katrina, who was also standing in the crowd to check her grades, was staring at Albert with extremely annoyed eyes.

She was angry, angry at herself, angry at herself for losing to the guy who didn't study hard for the final exam.

While everyone was still discussing the test results with great interest, Professor McGonagall appeared with a bunch of notices.

She asked freshmen to sign a pledge that they would abide by the "Reasonable Restraint of Underage Wizards Act" outside of school.

After signing, a notice was sent to everyone, and everyone was warned not to use magic during the holiday.

"I really hope they forget to send this to us." Fred Weasley shook the notice in his hand regretfully. It was a torment not to be able to use magic during the holidays.

"You don't have to worry at all. In a wizard's family, the Ministry of Magic can't figure out who is using magic, so even if you use magic at home, you won't be warned by the Ministry of Magic." Albert pouted and explained . "As long as you use magic in places like Diagon Alley where there are so many wizards, the Ministry of Magic cannot determine whether you are using magic, because Zongsi can only locate and monitor whether someone is using magic within a certain range around you."

"You know it very well?" Shanna was a little surprised that Albert knew these things.

"Of course he knows." Lee Jordan couldn't help laughing, "After all, someone was tricked by him."

"Someone?"

"Truman of Hufflepuff," Fred reminded kindly. "So as long as we stay at home, we can use magic without any qualms?"

"That's right, as long as you are at home, students born as pure-blood wizards can only rely on the self-conscious supervision of their families." Albert said disdainfully, slightly dissatisfied with his inability to use magic during the summer vacation.

"According to what you said, the Ministry of Magic relies on Zongsi to judge whether we use magic, but when did they..." Shanna asked suspiciously, "The one who secretly used Zongsi for us?"

"Secretly?" Albert's expression was a little weird, "No."

"there is nothing?"

"Didn't you sign it just now? The magic contract." Albert reminded.

"You mean...the letter of commitment?" Not only Shanna, but others also understood what was going on.

"According to the information I got from Professor Brod, the letter of commitment we just signed is a magic contract, also known as Zongsi. Of course, there are loopholes in that thing."

"Why didn't you say it earlier, if you knew it, you wouldn't have signed it." Lee Jordan was depressed.

"Not to sign?" Albert repeated softly, "Can you not sign?"

"What if you break the date?" Fred asked curiously.

"The Ministry of Magic will know immediately, and send an owl to warn you."

"What's the loophole?" George was even more curious about it.

"It can't figure out who is using magic." Albert simply gave an example, "If you live in a community full of Muggles, when someone around you uses magic, then the Ministry of Magic will detect it. , will think you are using magic.

"In the beginning, Truman was tricked by you like this?" Fred asked curiously.

"Yes, this is the loophole I was talking about. The Ministry of Magic can monitor your location through traces. When you are in Diagon Alley or staying at home, and there are people around who use magic, the Ministry of Magic cannot determine who is using it." magic, because the wizards who come and go in Diagon Alley and your family may use magic."

"That's great, so we don't have to worry about being discovered by the Ministry of Magic when we use magic." Fred and George clapped their hands together.

"But you need to worry about being known by your family." Lee Jordan said angrily.

Everyone returned to the dormitory to pack their things, only to find that their closets were empty and everything was packed into suitcases.

"It should have been cleaned up by the house elves." Fred explained to everyone.

"Guessed." Albert nodded, "Let's go, don't miss the train."

When everyone was dragging their luggage to the foyer, Filch suddenly jumped out from the hidden corridor, staring at Albert and the others with two red eyes, and said hoarsely: "You guys did it, didn't you!"

The four of them looked at each other, all pretending to look like "I don't know what you're talking about".

"Don't think I don't know, you guys definitely did it, the garlic smell in my office."

"We don't understand what you're talking about!" the twins said in unison.

"We went to bed very early last night." Li Qiaodan coughed lightly, and argued, as for us here including the Weasley brothers, I don't know.

Albert spread his hands helplessly, expressing that he was ignorant of the matter.

"You grow garlic!" Filch said with an angry gleam in his eyes.

"You said that!" Fred said with a smile, "Last time, Albert made garlic scrambled eggs, and the taste was not bad."

"If you don't believe me, you can ask the house-elf." George added, "That dish is made by the house-elf."

The four of them passed by Filch, who was full of astonishment, trying not to let out a laugh, and boarded the carriage to the Hogwarts Express.

Along the way, several people were talking about Filch, predicting whether the other party would trouble them next semester, and how they should deal with it.

In fact, only Fred and George had this trouble.

As the train passed through Muggle towns, they were eating Bibby beans from Lee Jordan to see who had the worst luck.

Before the train stopped at platform 9 and 4/3 of King's Cross station, they took off their wizard robes and changed into jackets and jackets commonly worn by Muggles.

There was an old guard at the ticket gate, and only two or three people were allowed to pass at a time. It took Albert a long time to line up and walk out of the platform.

"Here, Albert, here we are!"

As soon as he stepped out of the platform, Albert saw Nia waving at him.

"Nia has become a lady." Albert smiled and praised his sister.

"I've always been a lady." Nia complained dissatisfied.

"Where's Tom?" Albert asked.

"It's temporarily being kept at your grandpa Luke." Herb reached out to take Albert's luggage, and explained casually, "You know, we're going to France for the summer vacation, so we don't have time to take care of it, and your owl is also being fostered temporarily." Where Grandpa Luke is."

"Oh, God, I must write to Grandma Sansa and ask her not to feed Tom too much food." Albert couldn't help covering his cheek with his palm, he seemed to foresee seeing Tom again By the time, it had been fed into a fat cat.

"There's nothing wrong with a fat cat," Daisy reassured. “I think it's cute”

(End of this chapter)