Chapter 66 Christmas Gift
In the prefects' lounge of Slytherin House.
Sitting on a tall armchair that looked very classical, carved with two giant snakes intertwined, was a tall female prefect with straight light brown hair.
Her face, as delicate as a sculpture, was so cold that the air in the secret room seemed to be covered with a layer of frost. If Daphne were sitting here, she would recognize this female student - the new prefect of grade 5 and the eldest daughter of the Selwyn family, Irina Selwyn.
There are two boys in the secret room. At this moment, facing Irina's overwhelming momentum and overwhelming pressure, their faces are very ugly. One of these two boys is Gallup Lestrange, who was defeated by Schelling, and the other is Miles Blige, the goalkeeper of the Quidditch team. They are both fifth grade students. .
Irina spoke, "That boy from the Malfoy family, his prestige seems to be getting higher and higher - you have also seen his performance on the court today. Slytherin is no longer the only one who supports him, Lian He There are also quite a few in Chippachi and Ravenclaw. What do you think of this?"
Gallup spoke with difficulty: "Although the Malfoy family has declined in recent years, it is still one of the most powerful families. And little Malfoy's strength is even more unpredictable. Last time we launched a duel in an attempt to suppress The Malfoy family's arrogance had the opposite effect. Instead, it allowed him to take the opportunity to consolidate his prestige in Slytherin. He couldn't defeat him, and it probably wouldn't be possible to use force to overwhelm others. If he used drastic measures, Snape and He will definitely not sit back and ignore the old Malfoy's friendship. I really can't think of any way..."
Miles Blige nodded in agreement, "I have to say, that kid is not simple. A series of tight plans made his fame grow faster than a fire dragon - look at what he has done in the past three semesters. What, defeating trolls, killing basilisks, Merlin fighting for hegemony, but the savior even came to his doorstep to slap him in the face twice to establish his authority. Recently, he held a magic exchange meeting, wrote a book and sold it like crazy, in Defeating more than a hundred dementors in front of everyone on the Quidditch field——"
At this point, he sighed, "This guy has already gained momentum and is now at the peak of his power. I suggest that we stay away from him for the time being and wait for a better opportunity."
An imperceptible sarcasm flashed through Irina's eyes, "Is this the only level of ambition and belief you two have? I have to wonder if the family made a mistake when they chose to take you in as vassals..."
Gallup raised his eyebrows and asked, "Irina, what do you mean by this?" Even though the Lestrange family is currently in a bad situation, they have not yet fallen to the point of being bullied. My uncle is not dead yet. Who knows if he will be able to successfully leave Azkaban like Black one day.
Irina said unhurriedly: "Nothing else, I just think that you have lost the courage to face Malfoy. And your intelligence seems to have fallen behind. You may not know yet-the Higgs family has passed Tren Higgs became friends with the Malfoy family, along with his close friend, Adrian Pusey (Chaser of the Slytherin Quidditch team). The two of them were in Slytherin 4. The prestige among the students is not low.”
(Note: In the original book, Terrence and Derian are the only two players on the Quidditch team who never commit a foul. The author believes that it is reasonable for them to have a good relationship, and sets the two as good friends in this book. )
She paused, giving the two of them some time to digest the information, and then continued: "Even in our fifth grade class, Cassius Warrington and Graham Montague also vaguely revealed that they wanted to communicate with each other. The intention of making friends with the Malfoy family, Cassius, a mixed-blood with no background, was first selected to participate in Merlin's test, and then took away the position of prefect that should have been you, Gallup. This itself shows that Many questions..."
"If you add in the Quidditch captain Marcus Flint, he accepted the Malfoy family's broomstick, and at least his position will not be biased towards us; from this point of view, there are seven people in the entire Quidditch team. At least five of them are biased towards Malfoy, and Miles is the only one left here..."
"If we continue to bury our heads in the sand and do nothing as you suggested, soon, I dare say, not only Quidditch, but also the position of prefect and other resources will slowly... If you are eaten away by them, it will be too late!”
(Note: The position of prefect is not just a medal or a false name - it has a dedicated lounge, a dedicated carriage, and a dedicated washroom; it has the power to deduct points and punish ordinary students with solitary confinement; and most importantly, they can freely enter the library In the forbidden book area of the library, Hermione, who became a prefect in the original book, can freely search for information about Horcruxes in the forbidden book area as if there was no one else.)
Miles frowned, "Even if what you said makes sense, what should we do specifically? Now in terms of momentum, strength, and foundation, the other party is looming above us..."
Irina's red lips, as beautiful as red roses, were slightly raised, "While 4 of the 6 prefects are from our side, we still have a good chance. What's more, I think... it's It’s time to drag the Ghost Club into this muddy water..."
Schelling didn't know about the secret conversation in the prefects' lounge. He only knew that there were only two short weeks left before the end of the first half of the semester.
The castle was already filled with the Christmas atmosphere in advance. Almost all students were happily discussing their respective holiday plans. Because of Sirius Black, most students were going home for Christmas.
Draco, Daphne, Astoria, and Meredith all decided to go home for the holiday, but Sherin decided to stay in school. Narcissa was a little dissatisfied at first, but Sherin evaded the professors and tried to appease his mother by saying that they wanted to give him some private lessons. There was no way, because people who were too good were like this.
He had already contacted Nicholas and successfully exchanged three bottles of eight-eyed spider venom for a portion of phantom grass. He also asked Dobby to help him sell the jumping toadstool on the black market in exchange for 60 gold galleons.
With the basilisk venom, phantom grass, and the rest of the materials collected by Dobby from various pharmacies, the materials for refining the magic potion were complete. Sherin planned to use the two-week vacation to make the magic potion at school.
This year Ron and Hermione both decided to stay at Hogwarts. Ron said he couldn't stand being with Percy for two weeks, while Hermione insisted that she would go to the library. But Harry knew that they did this to keep him company, and he was very grateful for that.
In the last week of the semester, everyone could go to Hogsmeade again. Everyone was very happy except Harry.
On the morning when everyone went to Hogsmeade, Fred and George gave Harry a Christmas present in advance - the Marauder's Map. This was Harry's happiest day since the Quidditch match. Harry used the Marauder's Map to successfully sneak into Hogsmeade, find Ron and Hermione, and overhear the story of Black betraying his parents at the Three Broomsticks.
That night, Harry slept very badly. He was thinking about revenge on Black, which made Ron and Hermione very worried about him. Harry was born with the attribute of seeking death. As good friends who knew him well, Ron and Hermione knew that if there was a chance, Harry would definitely do the stupid thing of seeking revenge on Black.
Schelling accidentally heard that Hagrid was not doing well either. He received a letter from the school board about Buckbeak's attack on Blaise.
Although he would not be punished for this, Hagrid and Buckbeak had to attend a hearing of the Dangerous Animals Committee. According to Hagrid, Buckbeak was in danger and it was difficult for him to escape death. After all, no one except Hagrid cared about the life and death of a hippogriff.
Hagrid became increasingly depressed because of this incident. He would occasionally drink to relieve his sorrow and let people see him drunk.
On Christmas morning, Schelling found that he was more popular than last year - he received nearly 100 gifts, more than half of which were from girls he didn't know, from 1st to 7th grade girls, spread across the three colleges of Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, most of which were snacks and chocolates.
Dobby gave another pair of socks, Kreacher gave a wooden sculpture, Draco gave a toy from Zonko's Joke Shop, and Narcissa gave a pair of very practical dueling gloves.
The gloves were engraved with anti-disarming spells. When the hand wearing the gloves held the wand, an invisible and tight magical connection would be generated between the wand and the gloves. Unless the owner lost consciousness or died, the wand would never leave the gloves. Perhaps the disarming spell cast by a great wizard of Dumbledore's level could break the function of the gloves, but how many great wizards can there be in this world?
[Dueling gloves obtained! ]
Daphne and Meredith, like in previous years, gave a precious book from their family collection. Astoria imitated her sister and chose to give a book. Sherin stored them one by one in his portable library, which already had more than 400 books (he asked the house elf to copy all the books in the Malfoy family's collection for him).
Murray gave him a scarf that he knitted himself. Although the style and craftsmanship were very ordinary, Sherin could feel the full of love on the scarf and cherished it very much. Even Luna gave him a pair of glasses with a very strange style. It is said that after wearing it, you can see harassment flies and nymph hooks.
What surprised Sherin even more was the Christmas gift from Hermione. In addition to thanking him for the guidance at the Patronus Charm Exchange Conference, Hermione was very considerate and attached her own exam key notes, which could make Sherin's preparation for the exam this year much easier.
It is worth mentioning that as early as a week before Christmas, Ellerby and Badmore Flying Broom Company in Germany did not forget to send a Firebolt to Sherin, the major shareholder.
Although the Firebolt is valuable, Sherin has neither the time nor the interest to participate in Quidditch, so he gave the Firebolt to Draco as a Christmas gift, and asked Draco in the attached Christmas card to keep it secret and use it as a secret weapon to defeat Gryffindor.
No matter how valuable the Firebolt was, after all, it was a gift to his brother, and Shaylin didn't take it seriously at all. Unexpectedly, Draco couldn't wait until the start of school to meet Shaylin. On Christmas morning, his head appeared in the fireplace in the Slytherin common room.
Draco expressed his gratitude to Shaylin and said that this was his best Christmas gift. He promised that Shaylin would do his best to win glory for Slytherin and the Malfoy family in the next Quidditch game.
At the same time, a lot of things happened to Harry and his trio.
Harry received a Firebolt as a Christmas gift from an anonymous person. Harry and Ron were very excited about it, but Hermione thought it should be checked by the professors first. While Hermione and Harry were arguing, Hermione's cat Crookshanks attacked Ron, or rather Scabbers, in Ron's pocket, resulting in Hermione and Ron having a bad time.
At noon, Schelling wanted to eat some candies and snacks from the Christmas gifts in his room or in the common room for lunch, but he looked at the quiet Slytherin lounge and listened to the fairy lights on the Christmas tree singing in the lounge. Christmas songs, a strange feeling of loneliness arose in his heart. After thinking about it, he decided to go to the auditorium for Christmas lunch.
Going downstairs to the auditorium, Sherling found that all the college tables had been moved to the wall, and a table for twelve people was placed in the center of the auditorium. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Professor Flitwick Sitting there was Filch, wearing an old tuxedo.
There were only six students, including Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as well as two very nervous first-year students, and a slumped-faced fifth-year Slytherin student. Schelling had no friendship with him, but recognized that he had once been a follower of Gallup Lestrange. However, after Gallup lost power, the small group was disbanded or something, and had almost no sense of existence.
"Merry Christmas!" Dumbledore said with a smile, "There are so few of us, it seems a bit silly to use the house table... Sit down, sit down!"
Sherrin looked around and found that there was no extra space at the table. He immediately walked next to Snape and used his wand to conjure a chair from the air. It spun for a few seconds and plopped down between Snape and McGonagall.
Dumbledore and Snape didn't care, their expressions barely changed at all. But Mag's eyes were filled with uncontrollable appreciation.
"Is this... a transfiguration spell?" Hermione couldn't help but say.
The Transfiguration Spell is a NEWT level course, which is at least 3 years higher than Sherrin's current grade. You know, the third-grade transfiguration artist is still learning how to transform a teapot into a turtle!
"Yes," Xie Lin responded calmly, "but I have only touched the threshold of the transfiguration spell, and I am not yet able to use it skillfully."
"Uh..." Hermione didn't know what to say. Just looking at Xie Lin's posture, it didn't look like "unskilled". But in fact, Schelling was not deliberately being modest. His current level of transfiguration spells was enough to turn a chair into a chair. If he was asked to be like Dumbledore, who waved his wand and turned into hundreds of sleeping bags, it would be beyond his power.
"Firecracker!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, and handed the end of a large silver firecracker to Snape, who reluctantly pulled it. With a loud bang like a cannon, the firecrackers exploded, revealing a large pointed witch hat with a stuffed vulture on top.
Snape's lips pursed even thinner, and he pushed his hat toward Dumbledore. Dumbledore immediately replaced the wizard's hat on his head with it.
"Eat happily!" he called, looking around the table with a smile.
Just as everyone was about to start, Professor Trelawney opened the door. Wearing a green dress covered in metallic sequins, she looked like a sparkling, oversized dragonfly.
"Sybil, what a surprise!" Dumbledore said, standing up.
"I was looking into the crystal ball, Headmaster," Professor Trelawney said in her most disembodied voice. "To my surprise, I saw myself leaving my lonely dinner to join you. How could I Can I refuse the hint of fate? I hastened down from my tower and begged you to forgive me for being late..."
"Of course, of course," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye, "I'll get you a chair -"
He used his wand to conjure a chair out of the air. Different from the simple chair conjured by Schelling, this chair is not only beautifully carved, but also has various colorful Christmas decorations hanging on the back.
However, facing such hospitality, Professor Trelawney did not sit down. Her big eyes glanced around the table, and she suddenly let out a low scream.
"How dare you do this? Don't you all know that thirteen is an unlucky number? Whenever thirteen people dine together, the first one to stand up will definitely be the first to die!"
Schelling stood up, opened the chair for Trelawney like a gentleman, and said, "Thankfully, Professor, you have joined me, so there are fourteen of us. Does this count as breaking the curse of thirteen?" "
Professor Trelawney stared at Schelling for a moment, then sat silently in the empty chair. She looked around and said, "But where is dear Professor Lupin?"
"I'm afraid the poor man is ill again," said Dumbledore. "It's just in time for Christmas. How unfortunate it is."
"But you must already know that, Sybil?" Professor McGonagall asked, raising her eyebrows.
Professor Trelawney gave Professor McGonagall a cold look.
"Of course I know, Minerva," she said calmly, "but we don't show off that we know everything. I often pretend as if I don't have a third eye, so as not to make others nervous."
The disagreement between Professor McGonagall, who believed in logic and rules, and the imaginary Professor Trelawney, was not a big secret at Hogwarts. It had already been spread among several well-informed young wizards.
After the two bickered for a while, Professor Trelawney coldly stated the fact that Lupine would not stay at Hogwarts for long. Before the atmosphere became awkward, Dumbledore intervened.
"I doubt it," said Dumbledore, still in a lighthearted tone, but with a slightly raised voice, ending the conversation between Professor McGonagall and Professor Trelawney. "I don't believe Professor Lupin is in any imminent danger. Severus, have you prepared another potion for him?"
Snape opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but then changed his mind and replied grimly, "Yes, Headmaster." Schelling noticed this small detail that was different from the original book, but he didn't think much about it at the moment.
The two-hour Christmas dinner ended quickly. Schelling wiped his mouth elegantly, stood up, politely said goodbye to each professor, and returned to the Slytherin Common Room.
That night, Hermione called Professor McGonagall and temporarily confiscated Harry's Firebolt on the grounds that it needed to be checked, which put Hermione in a cold war with Harry and Ron.
Hermione never returned to the Gryffindor Common Room again, hiding in the library all day. When Xie Ling occasionally went to the library to look for information on refining magic potions, he would see Hermione sitting in a corner with disheveled hair and unkempt appearance, irritably flipping through books.
The day before school started, in the laboratory of the suitcase space, Xie Ling held a bottle of light green potion in his hand and smiled with satisfaction. With Xie Ling's unremitting efforts, a bottle of magic potion was successfully produced!
Xie Ling directly opened the wax seal and poured the magic potion into his mouth. At first, there was no feeling, but after the potion entered his throat, it was as if he had drunk some terrible poison, and there seemed to be a flame burning in his throat. Xie Ling pinched his neck with his hands and coughed violently.
Soon, Xie Ling's body temperature began to rise. He grabbed a bag of ice that he had prepared in advance and put it on his forehead to cool his head. What followed was a noticeable increase in heartbeat, blood was rushing in his blood vessels, and the whole person seemed to be in a blazing flame, with an illusion of ascending directly to heaven. Even with Xie Ling's state of mind, he couldn't help but let out a roar like a beast.
This bad feeling lasted for about ten minutes before it gradually weakened and finally returned to normal, but Xielin's body and clothes were completely wet with sweat.
Xielin slept well until he woke up the next day with full energy. The first thing he did was to use the magic eye to observe himself carefully.
He found that his magic power had indeed improved significantly, and he had caught up with the level of senior students, and was about the same as the elite seventh-grade students Percy and Penelope. Xielin was very satisfied with the effect of the potion. Now that his biggest problem was solved, he could start to practice more advanced spells.
He had already planned a series of spells that he needed to learn for himself, and even the theory had already been mastered, and the only thing left was actual practice.
According to Irina, the five people on the Quidditch team who favored Malfoy were Marcus, Cassius, Montague, Adrian, and Draco. Terence had been replaced by Draco and became a substitute.