Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 471 The Captain of the Inspection Team (Two chapters combined)

In the month or so since Voldemort obtained the potion formula, he had tested its effects and prepared the ritual items needed to split the Horcruxes and the victim for the Killing Curse.

But Voldemort had not yet prepared a vessel for the Horcrux.

To be precise, Voldemort still couldn't forget about the Gryffindor sword.

This was also the task Voldemort gave Draco Malfoy before the start of the term—

They stole the Gryffindor sword from Dumbledore's office.

Clearly, Voldemort was dreaming.
Putting aside how difficult it was to get into Dumbledore's office and how hard it was to steal the Gryffindor sword, just looking at the person he chose shows how unreliable he was.

Lucius Malfoy is not currently in prison, and Draco Malfoy is still in the stage of being a spoiled young master, rather than the family's only hope.

So Draco Malfoy, on the train to Hogwarts, wore an unusually somber expression and cleverly plotted how to steal the Gryffindor sword.

But upon meeting Hathaway Romanoff at the opening banquet, he immediately fell under her spell, which she wielded with such ease, and from then on completely abandoned...

He forgot the task Voldemort had given him.

It wasn't until recently, when Voldemort contacted Draco through his father Lucius Malfoy to question him about the progress of his mission, that Draco Malfoy suddenly remembered that he himself was still supposed to steal the Gryffindor sword.

But since Voldemort wants to eat a peach so badly, let him have it.

Anyway, the Gryffindor sword Thiera can now be mass-produced.

When the time is right, Tiera will mass-produce another one.

In response to Umbridge's divisive tactics, Dumbledore's army swiftly took action.

Hermione got Harry to do an interview for The Quibbler.

Thanks to Tierra's skillful management during the second-year summer break, the sales of The Quibbler have reached roughly the same level as The Daily Prophet. Moreover, thanks to contributions from Gilderoy Lockhart, as well as other contributions and traffic brought about by his investment, The Quibbler has gradually become one of the mainstream media outlets in the British wizarding world.

Because of the debt owed to Gringotts, Gilderoy Lockhart couldn't make an appearance, and Tyrell herself was quite busy. So, before Christmas of her fourth year, she had been sending the outline of the Harry Potter series to Xenophilius Lovegood. The Harry Potter series currently being serialized in The Quibbler is entirely ghostwritten by Xenophilius, so the story is progressing quite quickly. It has now reached the end of the fourth year, with the plot involving Tyrell being killed by Voldemort.

Hermione may not read "The Quibbler," but some people do.

The recent Death Eater breakout, coupled with the development of the Harry Potter series, has fundamentally changed public opinion about Hogwarts and the entire wizarding world.

Many people no longer trust the Daily Prophet or the Ministry of Magic. Numerous wizarding families have signed a petition demanding that the Ministry of Magic reveal the truth. Some radicals, seemingly with nothing better to do, even staged a sit-in in the Ministry of Magic's halls with a large portrait of Tyella.

The entire Ministry of Magic was in chaos.

Connelly Fudge was engulfed in flames.

Hermione, however, keenly sensed this shift in the political climate and approached Harry and Luna, hoping to get an interview with Harry in The Quibbler and have it published.

Luna, of course, had no reason to refuse.

They completed the interview over the weekend, and during the day, Harry's little fan, Colin Clive, took several photos of Harry to accompany the interview.

When they entered the auditorium on Monday morning, an owl delivered a message.

Hermione wasn't the only one anxiously awaiting the Daily Prophet's report. Almost everyone was eager for news of the escaped Death Eaters, and although many reported seeing them, none had been caught yet.

Hermione gave the newspaper owl a copper nut and eagerly opened the newspaper.

Harry was drinking orange juice. He had only received one text message that year, so when the first owl landed in front of him, he thought it must be a mistake.

"Who are you looking for?" He lazily removed the orange juice from under the bird's beak and leaned over to look at the recipient's name and address: Hogwarts Great Hall, Harry Potter.

He frowned and reached for the letter, but then three, four, five more owls flapped their wings and landed beside him, jostling and pushing, stepping on butter and knocking over salt shakers, all wanting to be the first to give him the letter.

"What's going on?" Ron asked in surprise, as seven more owls landed in the middle of the first group.

They screamed and flapped their wings, and everyone at the Gryffindor table craned their necks to look.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, reaching into the pile of feathers and pulling out a long-eared owl with a long, cylindrical wrapping. "Look here! It seems our strategy worked!"

Harry tore open the brown foreskin, and out rolled out a tightly rolled March issue of The Quibbler.

He unfolded it and saw his own face smiling shyly and weakly at him on the cover.

On the day of the photoshoot, Harry ate half a Weasley twins cold candy at Hermione's suggestion, which made him look very unwell.

Hermione also deliberately made Harry take out his old clothes, and he was forced to wear the trousers that were a size too small for him in his third or even fourth year.

In Hermione's words, Harry in this state is perfect for gaining sympathy.

The photo had a line of large red text printed on it:

Harry Potter finally reveals the truth: That night I saw the mysterious man resurrected.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Luna wandered over to the Gryffindor table and squeezed in between Fred and Ron. “It came out yesterday, and I asked Dad to give you a copy. I think these are all letters and gifts from readers.”

She pointed with her finger at the owl that was still jostling in front of Harry.

“That’s what I think too,” Hermione said eagerly. “Harry, you don’t mind if we—?”

“Whatever,” Harry said, feeling a little dizzy.

Ron and Hermione opened the letter together.

“Hey, here’s a new outfit!” Ron said, opening the largest package.

"Here's candy!" Fred and George exclaimed as they opened another package. "There's also a letter inside!"

“Oh, my poor little Potter…” George opened it, read only the beginning, and then said jokingly, “I believe you, blah blah blah… Your life has been too bitter, here’s some candy to cheer you up.”

“Harry, can we have a meal?” Ron asked.

“Whatever,” Harry said. “You can all have some.”

“There’s another one! You’ve convinced another one, Harry!” Hermione exclaimed excitedly. “After reading your side of the story, I have to admit that the Daily Prophet has been very unfair to you. Although I don’t want to believe that the devil is back, I have to admit that you’re telling the truth! That’s fantastic!”

“What are you doing here?” a deliberately sweet, girlish voice asked. Harry looked up, his hands full of envelopes.

Umbridge stood behind Fred and Luna, her toad-like eyes scanning the mess of owls and letters in front of Harry. A crowd of students watched the spectacle behind her.

“Why do you have so many letters, Mr. Potter?” she asked slowly.

“Is it illegal to receive letters now?” Fred shouted. “Watch out, Mr. Weasley, or I’ll put you in solitary confinement,” Umbridge said. “Mr. Potter?”

Harry hesitated, but he couldn't see how this could be kept secret; sooner or later, The Quibbler would attract Umbridge's attention.

“People wrote to me because I gave an interview and talked about what happened to me last June.”

He threw "Sing a Quixote" at her, and she caught it. When she saw the cover, her face, as pale as dough, flushed with unsightly purplish-red patches.

"When did you do it?" she demanded, her voice trembling slightly.

“What’s it to you?” Harry was about to say something, but Hermione stopped him.

Umbridge looked up at Hermione, furious, the magazine trembling between her stubby fingers.

“How dare you? How could you?” She took a deep breath. “I have taught you time and time again not to lie, but you have clearly ignored me. Fifty points deducted from Gryffindor, plus a week of solitary confinement.”

"Gryffindor gets a hundred points!" A loud voice came from the teachers' table as soon as Umbridge finished speaking.

Everyone turned to look, and saw Dumbledore put down his cutlery and slowly stand up.

"Mr. Potter is a true warrior for speaking the truth, for not fearing power, and for facing the harsh realities of life." Dumbledore glanced indifferently at the quiet Breakfast Room. "Therefore, I think Mr. Potter deserves a hundred points."

“Of course, it is wrong of Mr. Potter to talk back to his teacher,” Dumbledore added. “However, I happen to have a batch of less important documents to process recently. Mr. Potter can come to the Headmaster’s office every Saturday or Sunday evening when he is free to help me process the documents until they are finished, in lieu of Mr. Potter’s solitary confinement.”

"Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley stood by Mr. Potter in his time of need, defending their friend amidst a deluge of rumors. Add one hundred points to both Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger, for demonstrating the loyalty and courage expected of a Gryffindor," Dumbledore continued. "Miss Lovegood, for demonstrating the wisdom expected of a Ravenclaw, add one hundred points."

"Draco Malfoy, Hathaway Romanoff, Pansy Parkinson, and other Slytherin students have shown no respect for their elders, sowed discord among classmates, helped cover up lies, bullied and ostracized other students, and instigated school violence. All Slytherin House Cup points are deducted!"

After Dumbledore finished speaking, the entire Great Hall fell silent, with only the sound of sand flowing from the hourglass that represented Slytherin.

"Classmates are like brothers and sisters, and a group is like a family," Dumbledore said slowly. "In the Hogwarts family, betrayal is the most intolerable thing."

After saying this, Dumbledore turned and left, leaving behind the noisy Great Hall of Hogwarts.

Dumbledore… or rather, Tyrell, although she deducted all of Slytherin's credits and added 300 to Gryffindor's, but—

Tierra did not strip the disciplinary inspection team of its power to deduct points.

In other words, if they wanted to, they could easily go even further and deduct the same number of points from the other three colleges as they did.

In other words, if Draco Malfoy, relying on Lucius Malfoy's position as a school board member and Hathaway Romanoff's provocations, were to continue to openly exercise his power to deduct points, thereby further exacerbating the division between Slytherin and the other three houses, and even Hogwarts as a whole.

And indeed, things turned out exactly as Tierra had predicted.

Draco Malfoy was indeed well-behaved for a few days, but only for a few days.

After frequent communications with Lucius Malfoy and receiving his father's support, Draco Malfoy, after a few days of behaving himself, returned to his old ways, and this time he went even further. Almost wherever the disciplinary squad encountered the other three houses, no matter what they were doing, the disciplinary squad could always find various reasons to deduct points—

Your posture is incorrect, deduct 10 points!
Your clothes are disheveled, deduct 20 points!

You stepped with your right foot first, deduct 30 points!
You glanced at me, deduct 40 points!

Some members of the disciplinary inspection team even forcibly entered classrooms of lower grades—

"Bam—"

One day, Hathaway Romanov, who was in charge, kicked open the door to the third-year divination classroom before class.

“From now on, when you see the six of us, it means we’re here to check discipline,” said Pansy Parkinson, Hathaway Romanov’s lackey, as soon as she entered the room.

Hathaway Romanoff, meanwhile, walked slowly behind with her hands in her pockets.

"Keep an eye on your badge. No one but our disciplinary inspection team can check it, understand?" Pansy Parkinson arrogantly pointed to the badge on his chest.

"Let me introduce you. This is our Discipline Inspection Team Captain, Hathaway Romanov," another lackey said, standing next to Hathaway Romanov. "Call her 'senior'!"

The third-year students, Hefpatch and Ravenclaw, looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Ravenclaw and Hefpatch will each lose fifty points," Hathaway Romanoff said, her eyes shining. "A small punishment to serve as a warning; if it happens again, the deduction will start at one hundred points."

“During the day, you must be properly dressed, and maintain a distance of at least eight inches between men and women. Every time you see us, you must call us ‘senior sister,’ understand?” Hathaway shouted.

"Our standard is that there can be no textbooks on the table and no scraps of paper on the floor; otherwise, points will be deducted, understand?"

"Understood..." came a few scattered replies from the classroom.

"Hide this book, this textbook, why are you putting it on the table?"

"And put the teacups, lamp, and crystal ball on the table neatly!"

“You guys did a terrible job. Ravenclaw and Hefpatch will each lose 100 points. This is a small punishment to teach you a lesson. Do you understand?” Pansy Parkinson said fiercely.

"understand……"

"Speak louder, didn't you eat breakfast?"

"understand!"

……

“I see…” Tyrell, who was at another Hogwarts and had witnessed the spectacle, nodded, then lowered her head and jotted something down in her notebook.

"That explains why the control program I added when I pieced Hathaway Romanov back together went so smoothly."

“The spiritual dimension of artificial life forms is more susceptible to the influence of their surroundings.” Tiera closed his notebook and said to Maka-Fal-Monkasa, who was observing with him, “This is the defect of artificial life forms as individual life forms, but at the same time it is the advantage of them as the Son in the rite of becoming a god… In other words, if an artificial life form is kept by one’s side and its stability is maintained before it becomes a god, it is easy to make the images of the Father and the Son overlap.”

(End of this chapter)