Chapter 221 - 221 Unexpected package
Chapter 221: Chapter 221 Unexpected package
Ron hesitated, glanced around at the professors and Sirius and Peter, and seeing that there were no Lords of Slytherin House around, he gritted his teeth and told the joke he had made up earlier to prank Malfoy.
"There\'s a Slytherin graduate who joined the Death Eaters ...
...
The Slytherin graduate rejoiced and said excitedly, \'Yes, yes, that\'s what I\'m going to learn!\'"
...
After the joke was told, an eerie silence fell over the faculty lounge.
Feeling a bit embarrassed about losing face, Ron asked awkwardly, "Isn\'t it funny?"
"Pfft..."
Sirius was the first to laugh.
"Hahahahaha ... That\'s definitely the funniest joke I\'ve heard lately!" He laughed excitedly, "I\'ve been looking at that Lucius Malfoy for a long time now, but of course, if we could change the main character of the joke to Snape, the joke might be a little funnier."
Sirius passed Ron an encouraging look, "Come on, think of a few more jokes out there featuring Snape as the main character, I\'ve got my eye on you, boy!"
Even with the praise, Ron wasn\'t much happier and just forced a smile.
But he knew that this Sirius Black had spent more than ten years in that joyless place in Azkaban, hiding in the east after escaping from prison, and surely he had only heard this one joke.
Then this joke of his must be the funniest one Sirius had heard recently, because there wouldn\'t be a second one!
Ron then reluctantly turned his attention to the others.
Lupin, who was too preoccupied at the moment to have much of an idea of listening to jokes being told, just gave a facetious tantalizing smile.
Peter, who was worrying about his future and was full of bitterness, was even less likely to laugh at any jokes.
Fortunately, Dumbledore\'s expression seemed to be a bit jovial.
"It\'s true that the young are still creative," Dumbledore said with a smirk, "but I suggest that you\'d better not tell the joke to Mr. Malfoy, or you\'ll be fighting again. Minerva\'s been quite busy lately, so it\'s best not to give her more to do."
Hearing Dumbledore\'s advice, Ron was a little heartbroken. Because this joke had been heard by Draco Malfoy on the spot where it was thought up, they did almost fight ...
Finally, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all turned their eyes to Dracula.
Only if Professor Dracula approved of the joke would Harry\'s homework be lightened, and Hagrid and Buckbeak would be helped ...
At Ron\'s hopeful gaze, Dracula slowly hooked the corner of his mouth.
"It didn\'t feel that funny, but it was pretty creative." Dracula laughed softly, "I\'ll count you guys through for now this time!"
"Professor, what about Buckbeak ...," Hermione pressed.
"Don\'t worry, Buckbeak will be fine!"
Dracula waved his hand and walked out of the faculty lounge.
...
Dracula was still very efficient in acting on what he had promised.
On the afternoon of the next day, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to visit Hagrid at the shed on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they saw an old man with a mess of floppy, flowery white curls and a slightly freckled face sitting opposite Hagrid in the shed, chatting.
On the tabletop in front of the two men was an old brown leather suitcase, which a blonde teenager was eyeing very covetously, drooling at the corners of his mouth.
"Good afternoon, Hagrid ... Hey Rolf, what are you doing here?" Harry asked in surprise as he walked through the door to greet Hagrid, and then saw the two men, one old and one young, sitting next to Hagrid.
"Good afternoon, Harry." Rolf surreptitiously wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and greeted Harry as well, explaining, "I\'m here with my grandfather, who was invited by Professor Dracula to see Professor Hagrid about the Buckbeak problem."
Newt turned his head to the three young wizards and smiled, nodding at them.
"Ah, there you three little ones are!" Hagrid waved his bushy palms and greeted the three as they took their seats in a crowded group at the table, "Let me introduce you, this is the world\'s most prestigious and powerful magical zoologist, Newt Scamander!"
"You are Mr. Newt Scamander?" Before Harry and Ron could react, Hermione took two fierce steps forward and squealed with excitement.
"It\'s me, how do you do, little girl." Newt smiled gently at her.
"I finished reading Where the Fantastic Beasts Are written by you, and you are just amazing!" Hermione\'s eyes seemed to sprout stars, "Ahhhhhh ... why didn\'t I bring my copy of Fantastic Beasts, I want an autograph so bad ..."
Harry and Ron looked at each other in disbelief and whispered drops to each other.
"Ron you know what? What\'s the book Where the Fantastic Beasts Are?" Harry asked in a whisper.
"Seems to ring a bell." Ron thought hard, "I think ... I\'ve heard Fred and George mention it, but it\'s not like either of them read much, could it be their textbook?"
"The name does sound like a textbook for a class on protecting magical creatures." Harry nodded approvingly.
Hagrid let out a somewhat embarrassed laugh as he heard the two whispering because he was seated closer to them both.
"Ah, Where Magical Creatures Are is indeed the textbook Professor Kettleburn chose for the Protection of Magical Creatures class, and Hogwarts has used it for years." He said, "But I think The Book of Monsters for Monsters is a bit more interesting ..."
Suddenly, Hagrid blushed, "Ah, Mr. Scamander, I didn\'t mean to say your book wasn\'t interesting!"
"It\'s okay, I know what you meant, Hagrid." Newt laughed easily and handed Hermione an autograph written on a piece of paper, exciting the young witch enough, "I\'d kind of encourage young wizards to read more of the other Fantastic Beasts books as well, a collection of a hundred books!"
Hagrid then relaxed and heaved a sigh of relief.
He was in need of this magical zoologist\'s help with Buckbeak\'s problem, and it wouldn\'t be good if he unintentionally offended Newt.
"Mr. Scamander, how are you going to help Buckbeak?" Hagrid glanced at the hawk-headed, horse-bodied winged beast in the corner that had gotten a little impatient with its stay in the shed, and wiped the corners of his eyes sentimentally.
"Oh, I heard Professor Dracula say that the Committee for the Disposal of Hazardous Creatures wants you to bolt Buckbeak, right?" Newt asked.
"No ... that\'s right, and they\'re going to have a trial for Buckbeak after Christmas break, say ... maybe they\'ll sentence Buckbeak to death." Hagrid huffed. "Those scumbags never treat those little guys like floods!"
"I understand, those guys are really just like they used to be." Newt was thoughtful, "Tell you what, Buckbeak sure as hell can\'t be bolted down, so why don\'t we keep him in this box of mine for two months before the trial."
"Really? That\'s great!" Hagrid, being a Fantastic Beasts lover, certainly knew what Newt\'s suitcase meant.
If it wasn\'t for the fear of hitting the roof, he was afraid he would have jumped for joy.
Harry and Ron, on the other hand, didn\'t understand why Hagrid was so excited, nor did they know how such a small suitcase was going to fit a Buckbeak the size of a stallion in it, and both of them had a look on their faces like they were out of their element.
"Rolf ..." Harry asked quietly approaching Rolf, "Your grandfather\'s suitcase looks like a rather ordinary one, why does Hagrid still look so happy?"
"An ordinary suitcase?!" Rolf stared with wide eyes and a look of disbelief, as if he simply didn\'t expect that there would be anyone who didn\'t know about Newt\'s famous suitcase, "That\'s a suitcase that all magical zoologists dream of, I\'ve wanted it for a long time!"
As he said that, he eyed the suitcase again.
"Of course I can\'t give you the case, Rolf." Newt saw the expression on Rolf\'s face and said with a lost smile, "You caused such a big mess at Hogwarts the last time you brought just one curled-winged demon. Not to mention taking a magical animal suitcase."
Rolf\'s face turned a little sad in the flesh and scrunched up unhappily.
"And don\'t be upset, it\'s good that we\'re able to allow you to remain at Hogwarts." Newt laughed softly, "The professors at Yinfamoni are going to be pissed off at your choice, so they\'re going to send out a couple of professors to Hogwarts for a visit next school year ..."
"They want to find out what kind of magic this school that abducted their students has."
"Huh?" Rolf was instantly a bit alarmed, "Why would the professors come to Hogwarts for an inspection? Don\'t they have classes every day?"
"As far as I know, there\'s also a group of exchange students who came here together, and those professors will be coming over to visit as lead teachers." Newt laughed, "Maybe some of the students who are going to be exchanged to Hogwarts are also some of your former best friends!"
Ignoring Rolf\'s tangled performance, Newt focused his attention on Buckbeak.
He first picked up a piece of meat and tossed it aside to get the hawk-headed, winged beast\'s attention, then while it stood up and was about to go feed, he swiftly grabbed the suitcase on the table and pressed it against Buckbeak\'s back.
Under the dumbfounded gaze of Harry, Ron and Hermione, Buckbeak\'s body transformed into a shadow and was swallowed by the open suitcase ...
The opening of this suitcase was much narrower than Buckbeak\'s entire body in any direction!
"Just a little magic spell." Newt saw the expressions on the trio\'s faces and told them with a smile, "There are quite a few animals still kept inside this suitcase, Buckbeak will find some good friends here!"
...
Time passed quickly, and snowflakes gradually drifted across the skies of the Scottish Highlands.
In the two months leading up to the Christmas holidays, Harry felt as if his bad luck had been used up by the time before, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Professor Dracula had enlisted the help of a professional Fantastic Beasts for Hagrid and packed the Buckbeak, which needed to be bolted, into a suitcase that looked small but was actually the size of several Quidditch pitches.
That Mr. Newt Scamander also promised that after the Christmas break, he would personally go ahead and dispose of the Magical Creatures Committee and help Buckbeak win that case.
On top of that, Harry easily defeated the Slytherin team in the Quidditch match afterward, giving Gryffindor back its chance to compete for the title.
Because of the Dementors, Harry\'s Lightwheel 2000 had long since fallen to pieces at that previous Quidditch match, and he had ridden the same sweeping series of brooms as the rest of his teammates.
Even though there was a huge difference in hardware and equipment from the all Lightwheel 2001 Slytherin team, Harry was able to catch the Golden Snitch under Draco Malfoy\'s watchful eye with his nimble maneuvering and even better flying skills, and the entire match took no more than ten minutes!
The Dementors hadn\'t left the castle yet.
In his correspondence with Sirius, Harry had learned that the officials at the Ministry of Magic were not entirely satisfied with the evidence presented by Dumbledore that Peter Pettigrew was the culprit, and had decided to make an official announcement as to whether or not Sirius had been cleared of any wrongdoing after the Wizengamot magical council had held its trial.
As a result, Dumbledore also withheld the news of finding Sirius\' whereabouts to prevent him from getting into any further trouble.
Although the sight of dementors flying around not far from the castle was still depressing, Harry\'s progress in learning the Patronus spell in his Defense Against the Dark Arts class seemed to have sped up all of a sudden ...
Harry believes that this is because he has learned who the real culprits of his parents\' deaths were, and also possesses some of the courage to face the memories of his early childhood head on, so the Dementors don\'t affect him as much as they used to.
Instead of passing out immediately after the Dementor Dracula had captured released its breath, he was able to keep his wits about him through the difficult response and managed to raise his wand and recite the incantation of the Patronus Spell - the
The silvery-white mist would dispel the gloom before him, giving him courage and spiritual comfort.
Before he knew it, the time had come for a weekend of Christmas vacation.
It was time for Hogwarts to organize another trip for the young wizards to Hogsmeade.
Harry was in a rare, somewhat gloomy mood as he watched the other students chattering away in the common room, discussing which store in Hogsmeade they should visit.
"We can buy all the Christmas presents we want there!" Hermione said cheerfully, "My mom and dad may be muggles, but they love the furry tooth mints they get from the Honeydukes too!"
At that moment, she saw the look on Harry\'s face and couldn\'t help but lower her voice.
"Harry, we can bring you back some if you need anything." She said softly.
"No, there\'s nothing I want." Harry\'s tone was a little hard.
"Harry ..."
Just as Hermione was still worried about Harry, an owl suddenly flew in through the window over the Gryffindor common room.
A long package fell from the sky and landed heavily on the couch in front of Harry.