The next morning, as Harry was getting out of bed and noticed the torn edge of his clothes pulled out from under the bed, he dimly remembered what had happened last night. Jumping off the bed, he half-squatted on the ground, squinting into the dimness beneath the bed. The two rows of stacked food boxes there left Harry momentarily speechless and finally confirmed that what happened last night was not a bizarre dream.
"Did Dobby and Shiney give you a whole bunch of pies and cakes last night?"
On his way to the Great Hall for breakfast after leaving the common room, Harry couldn't wait to share this with Ron and Hermione, who, as expected, completely missed the point.
"I knew it wasn't a hallucination; I could smell the pie. Why didn't they bring me some too?"
Ron indignantly said,
"I sent Dobby a pair of socks for Christmas last year!"
"The point isn't the food, Ron—"
Harry quickly leaped past Angelina, giving her a nod of acknowledgement before turning his head to look at Ron and Hermione.
"The key is what Shiney and Dobby said about the crisis. Dobby said that Hogwarts is facing a crisis similar to that of the Slytherin Chamber."
"Meaning that Hogwarts might face closure."
Hermione's words, spoken with a stern expression, nearly caused Harry and Ron to slip on the stairs.
The two boys, holding hands for support, finally managed to stand steady. They looked helplessly towards Hermione, who always gave them the right advice and could always see through things. Harry expected to see a joking expression on Hermione's face, but unfortunately, her serious brown eyes told Harry that she was not joking.
"You're kidding, Hermione."
Ron gave his assessment straight out.
"Hogwarts might face closure, oh, your Hogwarts A Brief History didn't tell you that Hogwarts Magic School has existed for a thousand years. Nobody can make it go out of business, let alone with Dumbledore and Brian here. Even the Dark Lord wouldn't dare mess with this place."
Ron's words inadvertently revealed an essential truth: the real reason why even those wizards who believe the Dark Lord has returned to the world are not very panicked.
"Oh, actually, Hogwarts A Brief History tells me a lot more than you think, Ron--"
They began to run again, Hermione's tangled curls expanding and contracting rhythmically in the morning breeze like seaweed floating in water,
"The Ministry of Magic, that senior under-secretary still couldn't get into Hogwarts after receiving the Board of Governors' support, her wand was broken by Neville, and she ended up in St. Mangus Hospital for Magical Maladies. Do you think they'll just let it go, Ron?"
"But what can they do?"
Ron shrugged off the notion.
"They can't do anything about Professor Dumbledore and Professor Brian, can they?"
"If you've read Hogwarts A Brief History, you wouldn't be so optimistic, Ron--"
Hermione said grimly,
"I guessed they might pull some dirty tricks. Oh, it seems I was right again."
Harry eagerly asked, but Hermione didn't want to say more, merely coldly said,
"Wait and see, Harry. Soon everyone will know."
The three of them ran from the lobby into the Great Hall, and Harry immediately looked eagerly towards the staff table, where he indeed noticed something amiss.
First of all, Professor Brian had disappeared again and no one knew where he went. Dumbledore was also missing, and the remaining professors no longer had their usual cheerful expressions. Professor McGonagall did not touch her breakfast in front of her, but instead looked sorrowfully at the children below.
The Great Hall was still bustling, but it felt much quieter than usual. Many people had already left their seats and gone to their classrooms.
"When did you learn how to tease people, Hermione?"
Ron scowled at Hermione and muttered something under his breath, then quickly pulled out a chair and sat down.
Muttering 'I'm starving,' Ron rubbed his stomach, preparing for a hearty meal, but when he saw the food on the table, his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Compared to the rich variety of food on the table in ordinary days, today's food was much simpler.
There were only a few dishes with toasted bread slices, fried eggs, and potato pie, while the few plates of sausages had already been taken by the earlier wizards.
"What's going on?"
Ron looked confused and turned to give Navi a glass of pumpkin juice as he struggled to swallow a piece of dry bread.
"Who ate everything?"
Neville took the pumpkin juice from Ron, nodded gratefully, and gulped it all down, making a contented sigh afterward.
"I saw it when I came down –"
Neville complained.
"I was woken up hungry, so I came down early to look for some food, but there wasn't much on the table. I barely managed to grab a plate of fried sausages from two second-year students."
Harry's expression seemed to change subtly. He looked over at the Gryffindor table next door and the farther Ravenclaw table, noticing that the situation at both was similar.
Harry's eyes turned to Hermione, surprised and asked,
"Is the Ministry not allowing people to sell food to Hogwarts anymore?"
"Oh, perhaps things are even worse, Harry."
Hermione sighed and said, a bit exasperated with Harry's cluelessness.
"Don't ask, Harry. I'm not sure yet."
Many details indicated that something abnormal had indeed occurred, but Harry wasn't sure if his guess was correct for the time being.
The bland breakfast left Ron with little appetite, so he hurriedly finished his meal, and then they headed to the basement together with Navi.
The Potions class room is a dark, damp room located underground. As Harry entered the classroom, most of Slytherin had already arrived. Some students were gathered around Draco Malfoy, whispering among themselves about something from their Physical Education class. They all looked troubled, and Draco's expression was very ugly, standing at the center of the group.
Harry's steps paused subconsciously. He had a feeling that what they were discussing was somehow related to the current predicament that Hogwarts was facing.
Draco quickly noticed Harry's gaze and coughed twice heavily, impatiently shooing away the people around him. Then he sat up straight and looked down at his Potions textbook.
Harry also disliked and retracted his gaze.
Malfoy last made trouble when Hermione was elected as the champion, and since then, the two of them hadn't had any conflicts. However, since Voldemort's resurrection, Harry's animosity towards Malfoy was rising again.
Lucius Malfoy was undoubtedly one of the Death Eaters, and at Voldemort's resurrection ceremony, he had been personally named by Voldemort.
Not only Malfoy, but also Crabbe, Goyle, Shabini and Nott, whose fathers were all Voldemort's 'hard-core fans'. Slytherin was a complete nest of black wizards.
So, would Draco and the others follow in their parents' footsteps and join the dark forces following Voldemort?
Harry quietly walked to his seat, surprised that he had just thought of this question.
The Ministry of Magic had gone to great lengths to send that frog-like woman to Hogwarts, intending to keep an eye on Dumbledore professor and Brian professor. But the more evil Voldemort, naturally had a large number of spies in Hogwarts?
A sense of urgency suddenly surged through Harry's mind. He wanted to go remind Dumbledore professor and Brian professor to be on their guard against these Slytherin students. But then he thought again; he had seen the same thing at Voldemort's resurrection ceremony that Brian professor had seen, so...
Why doesn't he kick them out of the sports class instead, continuing to let them stay in the sports class is equivalent to training enemies for Hogwarts!
Harry deep in his thoughts, but the ribs suddenly a pain woke him up. He looked up stunned, realizing that he didn't know when Snape had appeared on the podium, with eyes cold and lazy mocking smile on his lips.
"Ah, it seems, Mr. Potter has finally woken up from his dream of saving the world?"
(Chapter ended)
