Homecoming from Hogwarts

Nine p.m.

Bathed in pure starlight, Hogwarts Castle has become quiet. Perhaps because Professor Brain has taken most of the armor in the castle for his own use, the castle seems much quieter than before. Only the portraits on the walls, Whispering to the little wizard who came home late.

The young wizards of the four houses separated in the entrance hall. Slytherin and Hufflepuff headed towards the basement, while Ravenclaw and Gryffindor headed towards their respective towers.

"Oh, that's-"

Eager to share what he had experienced tonight with Ron, Harry climbed the spiral staircase with hurried steps. His eyes undoubtedly caught a glimpse of a limping figure patrolling along the edge. The figure had just escaped from the light of Hagrid's room. The shrouded area was submerged in invisible darkness.

"It's Professor Moody—"

Harry said with slight surprise,
"Could it be that he patrols the campus every night and Professor Dumbledore ordered him to do so?"

"Oh, that's not necessarily the case!"

Fred said enthusiastically,

"You all know that he came down from the position of Auror. Dad also said that he is very vigilant. I guess he probably mistook Hogwarts for Azkaban. He thinks it is unsafe here!"

"But there's no way someone could break into Hogwarts silently, right?"

Hermione said disapprovingly.

"Not always,"

Harry grinned.

"Sirius did it, and Peter Pettigrew, who lurked in the school for more than two years before being discovered."

The children of the Weasley family trembled in unison at the mention of Peter Pettigrew. This despicable guy had been lurking in Hogwarts for more than two years, but he stayed in their home in the form of Animagus. For 12 years, every time this incident was mentioned at home, Mr. Weasley turned pale, and their mother, Mrs. Weasley, looked like she was having trouble breathing.

"But why doesn't he get himself a lamp?" Ginny muttered.

"Even the darkness can't deceive his eyes -" Fred said with some respect, "Aside from Professor Blaine, Moody is the most promising Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in recent years!"

"It's so cool!" George added.

Harry didn't like this statement very much. Compared to Professor Moody, he was more emotionally inclined to Remus and Sirius, but Hermione asked enthusiastically,
"what happened?"

“Absolutely wonderful-”

Fred and George exchanged meaningful glances. After Fred jumped onto a corner platform, he turned around and raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

"Absolutely beyond your imagination, he is a real master of fighting black magic!"

"We have his class tomorrow -" Harry suddenly remembered this and asked excitedly, "Is Professor Moody's class more interesting than Professor Blaine's PE class?"

Before tonight, Harry would not have used the word interesting to describe Professor Blaine's PE class, but would have used the word 'useful'.

"Those are two different things, Harry!" George said disapprovingly.

"Professor Brain said that he would check whether Professor Moody's teaching content met the requirements. If not, he would expel Professor Moody from Hogwarts. He has probably been preparing for this physical education class in the past two days. Maybe, tomorrow He'll be in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom--"

Ginny said coldly.

"When did this happen?" Fred and George looked at their little sister in shock, "Why do you know?"

"On the first day of school, after they dueled in the hall -" Ginny glanced at Harry and said, "I was hiding behind the pillar outside the door. Professor McGonagall didn't see me, but I overheard them. conversation.”

No one wants to see this happen. After all, Professor Moody was invited by Professor Dumbledore, and he is also a good friend of Mr. Weasley.

Harry felt even more guilty. After all, Professor Moody had taught Malfoy a lesson that day in order to punish Malfoy for his sneak attack on him. If he was kicked out of Hogwarts by Professor Blaine because of this, Harry felt that he would also be guilty. Part of the blame, though, was Malfoy.

With this concern in mind, Harry returned to his Gryffindor common room.

Perhaps the carnival in the past few days has exhausted most people's energy. It is obviously still early for the lively little wizards of Gryffindor, but the common room is filled with comfortable chairs and sofas. There was no one in the room anymore. In the dark common room, only the smoldering flames in the fireplace made a few explosions from time to time.After tonight's class, the diligent Hermione didn't have any extra energy to study. She picked up Crookshanks who jumped out from under the sofa, waved to Harry, and walked towards the girls with Hatch in his arms. dormitory.

After saying goodbye to Fred and George, Harry and Neville returned to their dormitories.

As expected, Ron and the others did not fall asleep. He, Seamus and Dean were sitting on a soft cushion on the ground playing chess.

"General!"

Ron shouted with joy, and at the same time, the knight on the chessboard jumped in front of the king on the opposite side, raised his spear and flew the king away, making Dean sigh.

"Oh, you are back?"

Ron raised his head and was about to call Seamus to the stage when he suddenly saw Harry and Neville walking in. When he caught a glimpse of their expressions, Ron raised his eyebrows and said with a smile,
"What's going on, the smell of the big turd eggs finally got you two over the edge?"

"Didn't Professor Blaine tell Hermione before that there will be new changes in this course?"

Dean, who had lost another round, stood up, twisted his butt, and asked curiously,

"Professor Brain increased the dose of feces eggs?"

"Oh, you missed something exciting!"

Harry was thinking about what to say so as not to irritate Ron so much, but when faced with the question, Neville spoke first. He said enthusiastically to the remaining three people in this dormitory,
"Professor Brain officially started teaching us magic, duel magic!"

"what?!"

Seamus and Dean shouted in unison. Seamus no longer cared about cleaning up the chess pieces that had been defeated all night, and jumped up and grabbed Neville's arm with Dean.

"What's going on, Neville, tell us!"

So Neville told them all the details of tonight's class, from Professor Brain's analysis of the three subdivisions of dueling magic to the magic that was so magical that it was unbelievable. The teaching method has not fallen behind at all.

Even Harry was surprised that Neville, who always liked to forget about trivial matters, could remember so clearly what Professor Blaine said in class.

"So, Harry—"

Ron, who had been stunned for a long time, finally reacted. His cheeks bulged up in surprise, and he looked at Harry and asked softly,

"Is this true, is it? Professor Blaine really teaches you dueling I mean dueling magic?"

Harry nodded and said in as understated a tone as possible,
"Just some basic spells that can be used in duels, Ron. You can also learn them in Charms class, but Professor Blaine has advanced our progress-"

"Learn magic in Professor Blaine's spiritual world!"

Seamus' features wrinkled up in annoyance, and he went back to his bed to sulk.

"Damn, what have we missed?"

"You said -" Dean tugged at his hair regretfully, "Is it possible for Professor Blaine to accept our apology and let us return to this course?"

Ron was stunned for a moment, then looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry and Neville looked at each other and fell silent.

The chessboard and flags were scattered on the blanket, and no one bothered to clean them up.Several people in this dormitory have gone to bed, but the topics that used to be opened after going to bed did not appear tonight. No one spoke, and the dormitory room that became dim after turning off the lights was filled with a dull atmosphere. The bright moonlight filtering through the window could not dilute this depression.

Harry quietly raised his head and looked at Ron's bed, and found that Ron was facing the wall, covering himself tightly with the quilt, as if he had fallen asleep.

But Harry knew Ron, and he knew that Ron must be pretending to sleep.

Who could have predicted that things would turn out this way?
Harry, who was also full of melancholy, dropped his head back on the pillow and looked at the ceiling with mottled light and shadow. Gradually, his consciousness fell into chaos. (End of chapter)