Chapter 162 - 162 The first person to infiltrate the Hufflepuff common room.
Chapter 162: Chapter 162 The first person to infiltrate the Hufflepuff common room.
If this obvious smell of vinegar were to be smelled by other Hufflepuff students, wouldn\'t they immediately know that he had gotten a bad taste in his mouth here in the barrels at the entrance to the common room?
Thinking like this, Rolf secretly took out the Curled Winged Demon that was staying in his shirt pocket, curled up into a cocoon.
"Little one, lend me some of your venom." He whispered, "I haven\'t learned the Oblivion spell yet, so I might use your venom."
The venom of the Curled Wing Demon had a certain effect of erasing memories after being diluted, somewhat similar to the Oblivion Spell.
However, the Oblivion Spell could eliminate any memory, while the effect of the Curled Wing Demon\'s venom after dilution was to make one forget bad memories.
Rolf\'s grandfather had once borrowed the venom of the Curled Wing Demon in Amerika to help the Amerika Magical Congress erase the memories of magic from all the local Muggles, or as they were called over there, non-magical people.
It was also because of Newt\'s actions that the International Confederation of Wizards Secrecy Act was maintained.
Rolf had the idea of erasing people\'s memories when he wanted to collect the venom of the Curlywinged Fiend.
If the matter of him secretly butting into Hogwarts was really discovered by someone, then he was prepared to suddenly put on a ghostly face to scare that person, thus making the memories of other people seeing him turn into bad memories, and then utilizing the diluted Curlywing Demon Venom to erase them.
Rolf looked at his bag that his grandfather had hidden from his grandmother by casting the No Trace Stretching Spell, which contained a mask made according to Bogart\'s characteristics, and revealed a satisfied smile.
As long as he wore this mask, the sorcerer who came face to face with him would see the most feared thing in his life, very practical!
As a future magical zoologist, every time Rolf went out on an adventure, he would prepare himself with all sorts of props that he didn\'t know if they would be useful or not, so maybe they would come in handy at some point.
He skillfully took out a small bottle, grabbed the sharp teeth in the curled-winged demon\'s mouth and began to collect the venom.
Just then, however, a student who looked two or three years older than Rolf and was quite handsome suddenly walked around the corner of the corridor and appeared next to the barrels in front of the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.
"Hey, what grade are you in and why are you staying in front of the common room entrance?" The Hufflepuff student glanced at the yellow and black scarf around Rolf\'s neck and didn\'t question Rolf\'s identity much.
"I don\'t seem to remember much about you. I\'m Cedric Diggory, fourth year, what\'s your name?" He asked as he casually drew his wand from his pocket and was about to tap it against the bottom of one of the large wooden barrels.
Just then, a sour, buttery smell reached Cedric\'s nose.
"Is this the ... smell of vinegar?"
Cedric frowned and instantly turned the wand he was about to tap into the barrel and pointed it at Rolf.
"I told you how I hadn\'t seen you before, so you\'re from another academy." Cedric said seriously, "Why are you wearing a Hufflepuff scarf pretending to be a student from our House and coming to the door of our common room?"
Rolf was originally watching Cedric\'s movements with bated breath, wanting to take a closer look at how this Hufflepuff senior entered the common room.
He didn\'t expect this senior to be so perceptive that he immediately suspected him, so he secretly hid the vial of curled-winged demon in his hand behind his back.
"What is that in your hand?" Watching Rolf\'s sneaky movements, Cedric frowned and asked, "Is it some kind of mischievous prop that you want to throw into our common room?"
"No, Senior, I\'m really from Hufflepuff Academy." Rolf slyly said without changing his face, "I\'m a first year and forgot the way to get into the common room for a while ..."
After the experience of being suspected by Hermione, this time he knew he shouldn\'t say his original second year, it was too easy to be seen through.
If he pretended to be a first year, he might be able to use the excuse of not being familiar enough with the place to weasel his way out of it for a little while longer.
"Don\'t be ridiculous, the first semester of first year is almost over, what kind of person can\'t remember the password by now?" Cedric didn\'t buy into Rolf\'s bullshit at all, "Let me guess, you\'re not supposed to be a Ravenclaw, they\'re not that boring in their house ..."
He guessed Rolf\'s house thoughtfully, not realizing that in fact the young wizard wasn\'t even a student at Hogwarts ...
"Gryffindor and Slytherin\'s are both possible-"
"I wouldn\'t be surprised at all if it\'s Gryffindor with another prankster like Fred and George, and if it\'s Slytherin, chances are you\'re one of those purebloods who are so full of discrimination against Hufflepuffs, the ones who are always trying to come over and bully the students here."
"So which one are you?"
Looking at Cedric, who had an expression as if he had seen through everything, Rolf was somewhat speechless.
How is it that any random student he comes across is such a smart guy, are all the students at Hogwarts this powerful?
"But I\'m really from Hufflepuff, senior!" Rolf said with a stiff upper lip.
He wanted to struggle a little more, and quietly took out the bag he had cast the No Trace Stretching Spell on, trying to pull the mask for scaring people out of it.
"Don\'t move!" Cedric amplified his voice, disliking his wand forward, "Don\'t even think about sneaking up on me with your mischievous little things. I\'ve known Fred and George long enough to be quite familiar with these things!"
Seeing that Cedric had punctured his plan in one go, Rolf became more and more helpless.
What kind of talents were Fred and George, that they could make this Hufflepuff senior see this little prop he used for his prank at a glance?
Hogwarts was truly full of talents, and was by no means comparable to Yin Fa Mani!
"Senior, but I\'m really a Hufflepuff student." Sneak attack seems to be out of the question, Rolf decided to take the emotional route, "I\'ve always had a bad memory, and I\'ve often forgotten all sorts of things since I was a kid ..."
He changed into a crying expression, "... My father and grandfather both studied magical animals, they originally wanted to train me to become a magical zoologist, but just because my memory was too bad, they gave up!"
"Whenever I feed the critters, I always can\'t remember which ones I\'ve fed, so it often happens that one animal has been fed several times and is about to die, while the other hasn\'t been fed even once and is still hungry ..."
"Just because of this reason, I\'m afraid I won\'t be able to be a magical zoologist in my life ..."
Rolf\'s eyes were filled with a watering expression.
Of course, all of these things were all made up by him. Or rather, it was an experience taken from a forgetful wizard who had previously come to the Scamander\'s house and applied for an assistant job.
However, Cedric didn\'t know that these things were made up by Rolf, and he was touched badly.
Cedric\'s father, Amos Diggory, worked for the Ministry of Magic\'s Division of Magical Animal Management and Control, and could truly be considered a magical zoologist.
Cedric, who grew up with his ear to the ground, was of course aware of how magical animals had to be fed and what precautions there were in between.
So he knew very well that Rolf\'s words about magical animals were all fine, so he shouldn\'t be lying about Rolf\'s father and grandfather wanting him to be a magical zoologist.
"I\'m sorry, I was wrong about you." After a slight hesitation, Cedric put his wand away.
Most of his suspicions about Rolf subsided.
But Cedric was still the best of his age after all, so he still maintained a certain amount of doubt about what Rolf had said.
"What a poor little wizard, why don\'t you tell me your dormitory number and I\'ll send you straight back to your dormitory?" Cedric said with concern.
His tone was very gentle, but the connotation of it was to inquire about Rolf\'s dormitory, wanting to further confirm if this strange student was a freshman at Hufflepuff or not.
As an excellent student who had given Professor Dracula half a year as a toolman ... nay, a small teaching assistant, Cedric often went to each dormitory to collect homework, and remembered the dormitory numbers of each grade very clearly.
Cedric had already decided that as long as Rolf could not say his dormitory number, or said a dormitory number that was not a first year dormitory, then he would immediately whisk this deceitful little wizard out of the underground floor where Hufflepuff was located!
However Rolf was no slouch either, he realized Cedric\'s plan almost immediately and his heart tightened.
How was he to know which dormitory the first years were in?
If he were to talk blindly, the probability of being dismantled would be too great; but if he continued to shrug it off by saying that he had a bad memory, it would be too unconvincing, and it was likely that he would continue to be suspected as well.
While hesitating, Rolf\'s mind suddenly thought of the story about Hogwarts that Grandpa Newt had once told him---
"The kitchens at Hogwarts are hidden behind a huge portrait of a silver fruit bowl, and to open it, you have to reach out and tickle the pear in the portrait, which then turns into a large green doorknob. It\'s something that basically only Hufflepuff students know about."
Rolf\'s eyes lit up.
"Senpai, I don\'t need you to walk me back to my dormitory, that would be too much trouble." He opened his mouth.
Just as a skeptical look resurfaced in Cedric\'s eyes, Rolf followed up with, "I\'m feeling a bit hungry and would like to go to the kitchen to eat something, would you like to join me?"
Cedric froze for a moment, then slowly nodded.
"Good." He said.
Cedric wanted to see if this strange student could find the location of the Hogwarts kitchens or not.
The method of entry to the kitchens was basically something that had been passed down from generation to generation of Hufflepuff\'s young wizards, and if he did get into the kitchens, then that would roughly sit with Hufflepuff\'s young wizards.
Rolf was also quietly relieved to see that Cedric was willing to come along.
If this senior didn\'t follow along, how else could he use the location of the kitchen to prove that he was a Hufflepuff student?
With that thought in mind, Rolf rounded the corner of the wide marble corridor with brisk steps, looking unobtrusively from side to side for the portrait depicting a silver fruit plate.
Finally, he spotted a large oil painting hanging on the wall.
Unlike other magical portraits where the picture moved around, this one showed no signs of activity at all, as if it were a most ordinary Muggle oil painting.
There was a huge silver fruit plate in the painting, which was filled with apples, bananas, grapes, pears, and various other fruits.
The one and only pear happened to be placed at the very front of all the fruits!
Uncontrollable delight surfaced in Rolf\'s eyes, while a hint of nervousness also appeared.
He took a deep breath, slowly raised his hand, and gently scratched the huge pear-
It was only at this point that the magical properties of the painting manifested.
A cute little face suddenly appeared on the pear, and as if it couldn\'t withstand being tickled, it couldn\'t hold back its laughter.
At the same time, the laughing pear seemed to be yanked out of the painting by something, lengthened and thinned, and transformed into a large green doorknob.
The stone in Rolf\'s heart completely fell.
He gripped the doorknob and pulled the kitchen door gently open.
The opening of this kitchen door also seemed to mean that a new world opened up to Rolf ...
...
Later that night, there was a new face inside Hufflepuff\'s common room-
His name was Rolf Scamander, and he was the first non-Hedgepatch student to enter the Hedgepatch common room!
Rolf deliberately left the kitchen a little later than Cedric and, following the method Cedric had told him for entering the Hufflepuff Common Room, tapped his wand on the bottom of the large barrels in the center of the second row, in the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff".
The lid of one of the barrels slid open with the correct tap, revealing a narrow passageway.
Rolf followed this passage into the Hufflepuff common room that he had been longing for- the
The Hufflepuff common room was round, plain, low, welcoming, warm, and sunny. It is full of yellow mantles, polished brass trimmings and soft sofas and armchairs decorated in yellow and black.
The round windows look out onto \'swaying grass and dandelions\', making the whole lounge come alive.
There was a large honey-yellow wooden fireplace opposite the entrance, with an apocryphal image of a badger, Hufflepuff\'s representative animal, and a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, the founder of the college, hanging above the fireplace.
Rolf entered when the common room was at its most crowded, and few people paid much attention to the sudden appearance of a new face.
After all, Hufflepuff had absorbed all the young wizards who did not fit the qualities of either house, and had long since become the most populous house at Hogwarts.
As a result, there were so many students in Hufflepuff\'s seven years that it was usually difficult for the young wizards here to have the chance to recognize every single student in the same house.
Taking this unique opportunity, Rolf quietly stopped a Hufflepuff young wizard who looked to be in a very young grade and affectionately put his arm around his shoulder.
"Hey there classmate, are you a first year?" He asked in a self-congratulatory manner.
"Ah, yeah ... right." This Hufflepuff\'s young wizard seemed to be stunned by Rolf\'s self-congratulation, and his speech became a bit stuttered.
"Nice to meet you, I\'m Rolf Scamander, a freshman who just transferred here." Rolf made up nonsense without a fight, "Professor Dumbledore told me to come down to the common room and find myself a first year dormitory with a bed still available."
"Do you know of any other first year dormitory with an extra bed?" He asked.
It was actually supposed to be Dean Sprout\'s job to assign beds, but Rolf only knew his grandfather\'s old acquaintance, Professor Dumbledore, at Hogwarts and didn\'t know who the Dean of Hufflepuff was.
So he could only think of snubbing this young first year wizard of Hufflepuff in the principal\'s name.
Rolf\'s idea was that there were four people in each dormitory, and as long as this year\'s Hufflepuff freshmen weren\'t multiples of four, then there were bound to be dormitories that still had empty beds, and then he\'d be able to sneak in and stay in them.
"Ah, it\'s nice to meet you too, my name is Jamarco Rondon." The small Hufflepuff first year wizard scratched his head and said nervously, "It just so happens that we have an extra bed in our dormitory, so you can come and stay in our dormitory."
Rolf\'s luck wasn\'t bad, and this empty bedspace was obtained without any trouble.
He put his arm affectionately around Jamarco\'s shoulder, and the two of them went to Jamarco\'s dormitory together - the
Each of Hufflepuff\'s bedchambers contained four-poster beds with patchwork sheets, copper lamps that emitted warm light, and copper bed-warming stoves for the young wizards to use in the winter.
Jamarco\'s bedchamber was the same, except that there were only three four-poster beds with sheets, and one bed that was empty, making it obvious at a glance that it was unoccupied.
As a would-be magical zoologist, Rolf had long ago gotten into the habit, like Newt, of carrying his bunk with him and winding up wherever and whenever he could.
He naturally pulled a set of bedding out of the bag he\'d cast the No Trace Stretching spell on, and spread it out on the vacant bed on the spot, completely unperturbed by his three new roommates\' suspicions about the authenticity of his identity.
Not only that, but that very evening, Rolf distributed various trinkets made from parts that had fallen off of magical creatures that he had with him to all of the little first year Hufflepuff wizards, and quickly bonded with the innocent little ones.
"How about it, the things I brought you guys are interesting, right?"
At this moment, in Rolf\'s new dormitory, all of the little Hufflepuff first year wizards were gathered together, star-studded around Rolf.
"These little things of yours are so much fun, Rolf!" Jamarco, who had gotten to know Rolf pretty well by now, said, "But how can it be fun when you\'ve given us so many nice things, but we have nothing to give you?"
"Yeah, yeah, we can\'t accept so many expensive gifts from you!"
"That\'s right, it\'s too broken!"
"..."
The little wizards of Hufflepuff were still pure, kind, and loyal after all, and none of them were willing to accept Rolf\'s gifts for nothing.
"Don\'t be in a hurry to reject it first, you guys listen to me."
Looking around at the sincere-faced new students, Rolf couldn\'t help but feel a touch of emotion rise in his heart, and in his heart, he became even more satisfied with the school and academy that his grandfather had praised so much.
He unknowingly put on a smile on his face, "Actually, the reason I gave you all so many things on the first day I came to Hogwarts is because I have a request for you all ..."
"Just say what you have, Rolf, we\'re all good mates!" One of the young Hufflepuff wizards said atmospherically.
"Yeah, Rolf, it\'s only right that we all help each other out!" Another little wizard said, "And since you\'re so generous, we can\'t be too stingy, right?"
The pure and kind Hufflepuff little wizards were completely unaware of what Rolf was up to, and expressed their approval.
"Thank you all so much." Rolf revealed a touched expression, "In that case I won\'t hide it from you all ..."
"Can you guys help me hide my identity as a transfer student in front of the other professors and classmates? If others ask, just say that I enrolled together with you guys, only that I usually keep a low profile and go unnoticed."
"I don\'t want to be ostracized by the others for being a transfer student."