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Chapter 187: Summer Vacation Arrives

At Hogwarts, each year's final exam grades were announced on the last day of the semester.

The day after the grades were announced was the day the young wizards traveled home on the Hogwarts Express.

Obviously, after getting their report cards, some young wizards would have a rather happy summer vacation, while others would cry bitterly and welcome a beating from their parents.

Each house had a different way of handing out report cards.

Professor McGonagall, the headmaster of Gryffindor College, in order to let the young wizards experience the nervousness of the ordinary wizarding level exams in advance, would usually give the report card to an owl to deliver it to every young wizard after compiling their grades.

Although Harry was also a little worried about his own grades, he was actually considered to be very open-minded among the young wizards.

After all, he hadn't really listened to the required exams for the entire semester, and had mostly coped with his homework, so he wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he failed several subjects.

Plus, the Dursleys, as so-called parents, obviously didn't care about Harry's grades at wizarding school, so unlike other young wizards who needed to worry about parental punishment for failing exams, he had no other worries at all.

Compared to Harry, Ron was obviously much more nervous.

Not only because he had to face Mrs. Weasley's stern eyes when he got home, but he was also worried that his younger sister Ginny, who had just come to Hogwarts to attend school, would mock him because of his grades.

In order to ease Ron's stress, Harry decided to distract him by talking to him for a while.

"Ron, how do you think you did on this test?" He asked in a whisper.

"Don't mention it, I think I'm definitely going to fail History of Magic." Ron covered his face and said with a pained expression, "Other than a pervert like Hermione, who would remember exactly what was written inside the International Wizarding Convention of 1289 ..."

Saying this, Harry nodded empathetically.

He also didn't know this part at all, so he had completely blanked out this question on the paper.

Now seeing that Ron hadn't answered the question either, Harry felt bad for him while at the same time there was a sense of relief.

"Don't stress too much Ron, at least you must have done well in your other subjects?" Feeling that his gloating mood was a little inappropriate, Harry hurriedly went on to reassure, "I remember you going to the library all day before your exams to revise with Hermione!"

"It was all average too." Ron had a lifeless look on his face, "You must have no idea what I screwed up with the Expansion and Contraction spells on the Spells exam ..."

"My wand sucks, when I get home I'm going to make sure my mom buys me another one ... Of course, that's if I don't do too poorly on my final exams, otherwise a beating would be nice."

Harry glanced at the wand in Ron's hand that had been taped in a circle with magical tape and was almost broken in two, and sympathy couldn't help but appear in his eyes.

"Aren't you used to this wand?" Harry asked, "When you were training at the dueling club earlier, I remember you were already proficient with this broken wand eh?"

"Let's see what you told me ... Oh yeah, you told me that as long as I can control the amount of magic power, then I will be able to successfully duel with this broken wand as well!"

Speaking of which, Harry couldn't help but admire Ron's perseverance a little.

Not knowing whether it was randomly grouped, or purposely assigned for fun, Harry thought it was the latter anyway, Professor Dracula often grouped Ron and Seamus Finnigan, the two problematic elements, inside a team.

Seamus belonged to the category of being a Demolition Ghost, in his hands, any kind of spell could be turned into an incredibly powerful Demolition Spell; Ron, on the other hand, was a self-murderer, and when he used the broken wand, with a little bit of inattention, he would hit the spell on himself.

But under the high pressure given by Professor Dracula in the dueling club, these two had actually worked out a method of dueling that suited them.

Seymour took advantage of the fact that whatever magic spell he used was likely to explode, and in the dueling matches where opponents were randomly assigned, people who were unfamiliar with him often belittled his spells that didn't have the power to kill, only to often end up being extremely messed up by a wand that was thrown in front of his face abruptly as if it was carrying a high-powered blasting spell.

Ron, on the other hand, had learned the method of controlling the amount of magic power that Prof. Dracula had said, and the magic spells he normally used deliberately limited his magic power output, but during the duel, he would often unexpectedly increase the amount of magic power, and then reverse his wand, so that a large amount of gathered magic power would fiercely explode out from the end of the wand, and instantly defeat the opposite contestant!

These two people formed a style of dueling that was hard for anyone to duplicate, and could be called the two oddballs of the dueling club.

However, it was such an oddball of the dueling club that flopped again on the final exam of the magic spell class.

"During the exam, I was just too nervous." Ron said sadly, "I ended up accidentally not controlling the amount of magic used and let a contraction spell hit myself from the end of my wand ..."

"Harry, you don't know how embarrassed I was, the wizarding robes on my body shrank right down to a level smaller than what a child would wear, almost suffocating me with strangulation!"

"Luckily, Professor Freeway saw the situation was not right and helped me defuse the spell in time. Otherwise I'm afraid I would have become the first wizard to be strangled to death by his own magic spell during the exam ..."

"Then you really are ... ill-fated." Harry covered his mouth, forcing himself not to laugh out loud, and had to make a sympathetic expression on the surface.

"By the way, Harry, do you think you'll still get first place in Defense Against the Dark Arts this time?"

Ron didn't care if Harry was stifling his laughter, he suddenly thought of something and asked with high excitement, "I don't know where you went by yourself before, you probably don't know too well, the homework that Hermione worked on the most during that time was Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

"Look at Hermione's resigned look, she was afraid that you would take the first place in Defense Against the Dark Arts once again, and once again break her monopoly on the top spot in all her homework!"

"I'm not going to get first place this time any way." Harry laughed bitterly and shook his head, "I haven't been paying much attention this semester."

"Have you forgotten what Professor Dracula punished me for this semester? I had to fight four duels every dueling club before I could leave ... It's all because I was distracted in class."

"That's true, you really haven't been in the right frame of mind this semester, whether it's in class or at Quidditch matches." Ron said, cupping his chin, "But didn't you adjust completely in the end?"

"I remember that game before exams when you caught the golden flyer in five minutes! You weren't seeing the look on Malfoy's face then, it was like he'd eaten a fly!"

Ron held his stomach and laughed out loud.

Thinking about Malfoy's funny expression at the time, Ron was completely unnerved, instead Harry became a little despondent.

"But I still figured it out too late ...," Harry sighed, "Gryffindor had a great chance to get a second title this year, but didn't even make it to the final because of my performance. "

"Don't beat yourself up too much Harry, everyone is out of form at times." Ron was now starting to turn the tables and comfort Harry, "And it's not unacceptable for us that the Quidditch Cup ended up with Hufflepuff. As long as it's not Slytherin!"

"I was genuinely surprised that even Hufflepuffs, who are usually only interested in food, could try so hard to compete for the House Cup."

"After getting the Quidditch Cup, Hufflepuff's score surpassed that of Slytherin's House by a little bit for a short time, and then those little badgers were like crazy, topping Snape's targeted deduction of points, and going as hard as they could to earn them ..."

"Really, it felt like Snape didn't even deduct points from Gryffindor those days, just picked on Hufflepuff, but in the end it wasn't as fast as they were earning it ... Haha, hard on Prof. Sprout for getting the Academy Cup she hasn't touched in a while!"

"Indeed." Harry nodded approvingly, "Never realized before that the Hufflepuffs were so good too."

The truth was that Hufflepuff was supposed to be a severely underrated house.

Normally, it seemed that the young wizards of Hufflepuff were relatively Buddhist, not placing much value on honors like the College Cup, and not competing for it.

Coupled with the fact that the Hufflepuff common room was very close to the Hogwarts kitchens, and the little badgers would go to the kitchens from time to time to refill their meals, so those condescending purebloods in Slytherin often looked down on the people of this academy, thinking that all of them were rice bowls.

But it was really on this day that the young wizards of Hufflepuff saw a chance to win the College Cup, and it was only then that the most numerous of the four colleges finally showed their fangs.

The outnumbered Hufflepuff little wizards worked hard to add points to the college in every way possible, and even though the semester was over, they still didn't miss any opportunity to add points, even going so far as to go knocking on the doors of various professors' offices and volunteering for the professors.

Of course, this was also credited to our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Dracula was happy to see Snape suffer, so he called together a large group of small Hufflepuff wizards who had rushed to do volunteer work, and asked them to compile the grades of Riddle's corrected papers for him, and then fill them out on a piece of parchment and send it to Prof. McGonagall, who would then create the final version of the transcripts.

After completing this uncomplicated task, Dracula generously added ten points to each of the young wizards who came to work, instantly making up for the points Snape had deducted from his hard work of picking holes throughout the day.

In the end, with Dracula's happy-go-lucky attitude and a few other Deans' tacitly agreeable behavior, Sprout led Hufflepuff to the rather rare College Cup after many years!

"Harry, do you remember that awkward look on Snape's face when he shook Professor Sprout's hand in celebration just cracked me up!" Ron laughed excitedly.

Harry thought back to Snape's expression at the end of term dinner and laughed joyfully as well.

Just then, a fluttering of wings came from a window location high up in the Gryffindor tower.

Harry and Ron's playful expressions instantly calmed down as if cold water had been poured on them, and they looked up menacingly.

Several Hogwarts Castle communal owls, each carrying a thick stack of parchment, flew inside the Gryffindor common room through a window high above and threw the report cards, which the young wizards had come to expect and hate, on the side of the common room's fireplace.

"Why couldn't we have lit the fireplace in the summer? That might give us a chance to get rid of these damn report cards in one fire." Ron grumbled secretly.

At this point, however, no one cared what Ron said anymore; all the young wizards' eyes were focused on the piles of parchment, with a mixture of anticipation, longing, hatred, cowering, and avoidance in their eyes.

Percy, as Gryffindor's Head of Grade, volunteered to step forward and unwrap the string tying the parchments for the young wizards, handing out the report cards to each corresponding young wizard individually.

Hermione swooped in early and grabbed her report card as quickly as she could.

She unfolded the delicate piece of parchment and nervously scanned her grades, seeing the whole row of 'O's (Outstanding)' and giving a satisfied look.

But the satisfied expression on her face immediately collapsed when she proudly shifted her eyes to the notes that followed her grades in one subject.

"What's wrong with you, Hermione?" Ron asked curiously as he came up next to Hermione at some point, "I see you're on the verge of tears, what's going on?"

He glanced at the long row of 'O's' on Hermione's report card and raised an eyebrow, "Isn't it fine? They're all excellent!"

Hermione, however, didn't appreciate it at all, and gave him a stern look, putting her report card away before huffing and puffing her way back to her dormitory.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Harry walked over at that point and asked Ron, a little puzzled, "Did she fail the test? That's not like her."

"But I see that she did quite well on the exams ah, every subject is followed by an 'O'." Ron scratched his head, "It can't be that the exams are too good to be fresh ..."

At that, he suddenly froze, then took a breath of cold air.

"Wait, I might know why Hermione's upset!" Ron exclaimed, while tapping Harry heavily on the shoulder, "Come on, Harry, get your report card!"

Harry was stunned, and then also understood what possibility Ron had thought of.

"It can't be, can it?" His mouth dropped open a little incredulously.

It so happened that just as the two thought of this overly whimsical possibility, Percy came over with two sheets of parchment.

"Harry, Ron, your report cards." He handed over the two pieces of parchment.

Without even bothering to look over his own grades, Ron snatched Harry's report card and pointed his finger all the way down the row of grades, finally stopping behind the subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts -

Defense Against the Dark Arts: O (Remarks: First in year)

Although there was no grading system, the top grades at Hogwarts were often purposely labeled with the rank, which was what gave the young wizards the incentive to compete for the top spots.

"Harry, you really did get first place again!" Ron jumped up fiercely, "I knew you could do it!"

Even though he had partially guessed it from Hermione's performance, Harry still glared his eyes round when he was actually told of his result.

"I ... I'm not dreaming, am I, Ron?" He asked incredulously.

Ron instantly slapped Harry hard on the shoulder, "Still think it's a dream now?"

"Hiss ... It really wasn't a dream, but you hit him too hard." Harry grimaced and rubbed his sore shoulder, grumbling under his breath.

Aside from the unexpected pleasure of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry and Ron had likewise passed all the other exams, only most of them were just above the passing line of "A (acceptable pass)".

The two young wizards, who had thought they would fail, were quite pleased with this.

Harry was also relieved to know that the few days he spent with Asst. Prof. Riddle at the end of the day had been of great use.

What was most unexpected for Harry was that he had passed Snape's Potions class exam.

Potions class this kind of long-term accumulation of experience in the course is not a day or two days of surprise preparation for the examination can be successfully learned, if Harry in this class is also like other subjects do not pay attention in class, coupled with Snape's hatred, I'm afraid that is not failing the subject can not say.

Fortunately, it was also because Snape had to pick on Harry every class that he wasn't able to wander off in Potions like he did in other classes as well.

Even so, Harry was suspicious that Dumbledore had intervened and not allowed Snape to purposely cross him.

Snape's attitude towards Harry over the course of the semester had been quite frightening -

Every time Snape saw Harry, one of the muscles next to his thin lips twisted unpleasantly, and he kept flexing his fingers as if he hated to choke Harry.

Unbeknownst to him, Snape knew all about Harry's absenteeism this semester, so to speak.

More than a decade ago, Harry's father, James Potter looked at Lily Yinvans in the same way that Harry had been looking at this time of year, and Harry's behavior reminded Snape of his own lost youth as well as the love of his life ...

So he was even more uncomfortable with Harry who looked exactly like James Potter in every way except his eyes.

...

In a flash, it was time to go home on the Hogwarts Express.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny had taken a separate compartment and had made the most of the last few hours of magic allowed before the holidays, playing Crackling Blast Wizarding Cards, setting off Fred and George's last few Flibbertigibbet fireworks and practicing disarming each other with magic.

By now, none of the young wizards in the room were more skillful with the Disarming Spell than Harry.

"Sometimes I really don't understand how you practiced your disarming spell." George took his wand from Harry in a depressed manner, feeling like the two years he had outlived him had been for nothing.

"George, Harry has just been letting you off the hook!" Ginny said with a smile on her face as she watched Harry's every move and expression, "You don't know, but Harry's Disarming Spell has an attack power that is comparable to Black Magic!"

"This ... is a lie, right?" George turned his head to look at Ginny, "Ginny, I know you've been worshipping Harry since you were a child, but you can't worship blindly."

Ginny didn't say another word, just looked at Harry and smiled knowingly.

The two young wizards, both subconsciously recalled the situation when they faced that huge fire dragon in the middle of the relics left behind by Slytherin.

At that time, Harry had righteously stood in front of Ginny and repelled the fire dragon's attack with a Disarming Spell whose power was comparable to black magic.... The power of that Disarming Spell was far greater than the magic spell that had been used on George this time when practicing in the carriage!

In the midst of laughter, the Hogwarts Express train gradually slowed down and finally stopped in King's Cross Station.

Before he was about to get off, Harry seemed to suddenly remember something and pulled his quill and a piece of parchment from his trunk.

"Here's the phone number." He said to the crowd present, while scribbling the number down twice in a cursory manner, before tearing the parchment in two and handing it to Hermione and Ginny respectively.

"Ginny, I told your father how to use the phone last summer, he'll understand. Call me at Desiree's house, okay? I can't stand talking only to Derek for two whole months ..."

"Your aunt and uncle would be proud of you if they heard about the brave act at the end of the semester," Ginny said, as they disembarked from the train at that moment, joining the throngs of people slowly making their way toward the enchanted dividing wall, "wouldn't they?"

"Proud?" Harry bristled, "Did you lake it? They'd be furious if they heard that I almost died in the mouth of a fire dragon but actually came back from the dead ..."

"What are those two talking about?" Ron looked at Hermione beside him with a conditioned look on his face, "Why don't I seem to understand, something about bravery, something about fire dragons, something about coming back from the dead ..."

"I didn't get it either." Hermione frowned, then turned to Ginny, "Ginny, what were you two just discussing?"

"Nothing really!" Ginny made a face at Hermione, "Just pretend we were talking about some fairy tale plot!"

Then, together, they passed through the entrance to the Nine and Three-Quarters station and returned to the Muggle world.