Malfoy Rise at Hogwarts

Chapter 67 Return of the Fire Crossbow
The Christmas holiday is over, and the little wizards have returned to Hogwarts, making the deserted school return to its usual lively appearance in an instant.

The first class after school is Care of Fantastic Beasts.On this cold, wet January morning, the last thing anyone wants is to spend two hours on the grounds tending to a boring Flobber caterpillar.Unexpectedly, in order to make them happy, Hagrid made a bonfire full of salamanders.

This class was very interesting. The students collected firewood and leaves to keep the fire burning. Those lizards who like flames jumped around in the crackling firewood.After some inquiries, Schelling found out that all the Flobber caterpillars had died from eating too much lettuce.

Then came the alchemy class.The alchemy class has begun to become interesting. After the students memorized the theory of the conversion of matter and magic power, Professor Bock started his first practical class.

He found a large number of broken alchemy items in Hogwarts, such as old flying broomsticks, golden snitches with cracked surfaces, rusty pocket looking glasses, etc. He asked the students to disassemble them to observe the internal structure and practice the skills of repairing them.

The repair spell (Reparo) can only repair ordinary objects that have been physically damaged, and most alchemy items contain powerful or complex magic power. If you use a repair spell to try to repair it with a normal wand, although its physical form can be repaired, its damage at the level of magic power cannot be repaired.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything, and Schelling knows one of the exceptions—the Elder Wand. The repairing spell cast by this powerful wand can repair other wands. If Schelling guessed correctly, other alchemical items can also be repaired by it, as long as they are not too large or complicated items, such as the Vanishing Cabinet, the Mirror of Erised, and so on.

The students enjoyed the practical class of repairing alchemy items and felt that they had learned a lot of useful things.Professor Bock even moved the disappearing cabinet broken by Peeves last semester into the classroom. He said that as long as the students have mastered the basic skills of repairing alchemy items, they will be able to learn how to repair the disappearing cabinet in the next class.

And on Thursday night, Harry also officially started the weekly Defense Against the Dark Arts tutoring class. Professor Lupine gave him a small lesson to learn the Patronus Charm.

Because the learning process was not going well, Harry seemed very anxious, and even doubted Professor Lupine's teaching level—this is different from the original book. After all, in the original book, Harry was the first student in the same class to learn the Patronus Charm. In this book, there are at least 60 young wizards who can cast the unformed Patronus Charm, and there are many people who can cast the physical Patronus.

Harry heard about it from Hermione—Hermione practiced it in one night under the guidance of Schelling, and Harry's deadly enemy Draco did the same.Thinking that he was not as good as Draco in learning made Harry very upset. This emotion made him feel irritable, which affected his progress in learning the Patronus Charm, forming a vicious circle.

In Potions class on Friday, Professor Snape taught the knowledge of poisons for the first time in class, and just as he likes to choose a difficult style, he chose the "Undetectable Poisons" category (Undetectable Poisons).

(Note: People's News Agency translated Undetectable Poisons as undetectable potions, and the author has lost the strength to speak out. Poison is poison, isn't it the English level of elementary school students?)

It is very surprising that in this class, all the students in Slytherin showed their outstanding strength, even Goyle and Crabbe, who were the worst in history, also showed the ability to crush Hermione.

This stunned a group of Gryffindor cubs, Hermione showed an expression of disbelief, and was even more shocked.Harry and Ron hated Potions class even more. They thought it was Snape's conspiracy to suppress Gryffindor, and they guessed that Snape was secretly making trouble for the Slytherin students.Of course, Harry selectively forgot that he was also enjoying Professor Lupine's private tutoring.

Snape took the blame innocently.Slytherin's performance like this is of course due to Schelling's credit. After Schelling shared Snape's notes in September, the potion level of the third-year wizards in Slytherin has greatly improved. It is no problem to be able to crush Gryffindor.

On Saturday, Ravenclaw played a Quidditch match with Slytherin.

Under the leadership of Roger Davis, the overall strength of the Ravenclaw team is indeed extraordinary. Both offense and defense are very sharp and smooth. No wonder they can crush Hufflepuff.It's a pity that against the Slytherin team, which is known for being mean and unscrupulous, it is not enough.

Under the constant fouls by Marcus, Cassius, and Montague, Ravenclaw sent off 2 players in a row due to injuries. Although they gained a 100-point lead with frequent free throws, in the end Draco caught the Snitch one step faster than Zhang Qiu, allowing Slytherin to secure the victory, although the victory was very dangerous.

Of course, this is also because Draco retained his strength. He chose to follow Schelling's advice and did not take out the Firebolt in this game, but continued to use the Nimbus 2001.

According to Wood, this is good news for Gryffindor. If they also beat Ravenclaw, they will be ranked No.2.

As a result, Wood increased the number of team training to five times a week.That meant that, counting Lupine's dementor-fighting sessions - more grueling than six Quidditch sessions - Harry only had one night a week to do all his homework.

Even so, he wasn't as nervous as Hermione was.

Hermione's heavy homework finally seemed to be overwhelmed by her.Every night, Hermione must be seen sitting in a corner of the common room, with textbooks, arithmetic and divination charts, rune dictionaries, illustrations of Muggles moving heavy objects, and dense notes spread out on the tables in front of her.She barely talked to anyone and was always rude when disturbed.

January has turned into February without knowing it, and the freezing cold weather has not changed at all.

As the Ravenclaw match drew closer, Harry still hadn't ordered a new broom.Now, after Transfiguration, he would ask Professor McGonagall for news about the Firebolt, with Ron standing hopefully behind him while Hermione hurried past, her face turned away.

On Thursday night, Harry ran into Professor McGonagall on his way back to the common room after Professor Lupine's fourth anti-dementor training class, and finally got back his Firebolt from her.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, the teammates who had heard the news surrounded Harry excitedly. Captain Wood even shouted: "With the Firebolt, Ravenclaw must be out of the game. They are all riding the Sweeping Seven Stars!"

People pass the Firebolt back and forth, admiring it from every angle.After about 10 minutes, the crowd gradually dispersed, and Harry and Ron finally saw Hermione.Hermione was the only one who didn't rush to them, her head buried in her homework, carefully averting their eyes.Harry and Ron made their way to her table, and finally, she looked up.

"I got it back." Harry looked at her with a smile, holding the Firebolt high.

"See, Hermione? There's no question at all!" said Ron.

"But—couldn't have been!" said Hermione, "I mean, at least you now know it's safe."

"Yeah, I thought so too," said Harry, "I'd better put it upstairs—"

"I'll get it!" said Ron enthusiastically. "I'm just about to give Scabbers a booster."

He took the Firebolt and carried it up the stairs of the boys' dormitory as carefully as if it were made of glass.

While Harry was chatting with Hermione, trying to repair their friendship, Ron's screams came from the dormitory at an inopportune moment.

The entire common room fell silent, and everyone stared blankly at the stairs.There were hurried footsteps, louder and louder - and then Ron jumped out, dragging a sheet with a large bloodstain on it.

Then he threw something angrily at Hermione's rune translation homework.Hermione and Harry hurried together to look.A few long ginger cat hairs lay on top of the quirky, pointy writing.

Ron and Hermione had a big fight in public.

Ron suspected that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, and didn't give Hermione a chance to explain at all. He scolded Hermione as if venting madly. He even said that Hermione had been brainwashed by Slytherin and had forgotten her duty as a Gryffindor.

This incident caused a great disturbance, and even students in other colleges, including Schelling, heard about it.

Because of this turmoil, Hermione became very sensitive, as if she would cry at any time, and this incident hit her too hard; she became more lonely, often spending time alone in the library, and less likely to go back to the Gryffindor lounge.

Two days later, in the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, because of Harry's outstanding performance and the superior performance of the Firebolt, Gryffindor easily won, and it was a 200-point victory.Unlike in the original book, Draco, who had become a little more stable and mature this semester, did not pretend to be a dementor with his friends to try to interfere with Harry's game, and Slytherin did not lose face by deducting points for it.

After the game, everyone wrapped Harry up and went to the Gryffindor common room together. A lively party continued into the evening.Fred and George returned from a two-hour disappearance with bottles of Butterbeer, fizzy pumpkin juice, and large bags of Honeydukes sweets.

Only one person was absent from this merry party.Hermione sat disbelievingly in a corner, trying to read a huge tome called Life and Social Habits of a British Muggle Household.

When Fred and George started juggling butterbeer bottles, Harry took the opportunity to leave the table and approach Hermione, asking, "Have you not been to the game?"

"Of course I've been." Hermione didn't look up at Harry at all, and her voice was a little strangely high, "I'm glad we won, I think you did a good job, but I have to finish reading this book by Monday..."

"Come on, Hermione, come and have something to eat." Harry glanced at Ron, who was smiling happily at the moment, and he couldn't help thinking: Is Ron in a good enough mood to make peace with Hermione?
"I can't, Harry, I still have pages 420 to read! Besides..." Hermione's voice sounded a little hysterical, she also looked at Ron, and whispered: "I'm afraid he won't want me to participate."

This matter is obvious.Because Ron picked the moment on purpose and said loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't been eaten, he could have had a few of these butterscotch flies, which he's always loved—"

Hermione burst into tears.Her nerves have been very tense recently, whether it's the busyness of classes and studies, or the things about Banban, which keep her in a state of depression... But Harry still didn't expect that she really cried when she said it.

Before Harry could say or do anything, Hermione tucked the large book under her arm and, sobbing, opened the door in a panic and ran out of the Gryffindor common room.

"Can't she be given a rest!" Harry couldn't help but said to Ron, and then glanced at the door opening, "It's already night, I think it's best to get her back as soon as possible..."

Ron also glanced at the half-open doorway. He struggled for a while, but still put on a stubborn face. "No," said Ron grimly, "if she's acting sorry - but she never admits she's wrong, that's what Hermione is! She still looks like Scabbers is on holiday or something... "

Harry hesitated for a moment, sighed, and then ran out of the door with a helpless expression on his face.

　In the original book, Harry let Hermione, a little girl, go out for a night tour by herself in the middle of the night.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)