A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 614 They rushed out
While Harry was doing community service in Azkaban, Charles was helplessly watching the two of them, one singing and the other harmonizing, inside Farbatton Castle.

A transcript of a regular wizard level exam was spread out on the table.

Jack, with a stern face, pointed to the report card and said to Gabrielle, "You must never be as lazy as him in the future. You must study hard and make progress every day."

"Otherwise, the exam would have ended up like this, a complete disaster!"

Gabrielle immediately nodded like a chick pecking at rice, her little face full of seriousness, and chirped in a clear voice, "Yes, yes, Grandpa Jack is absolutely right!"

"I never expected that someone could actually get a zero!"

A mischievous glint flashed in her beautiful, large eyes.

Charles glared at her. The old man had lost to him once on this point, so he was deliberately pretending not to understand English letters and calling them Arabic numerals. Why was she getting involved?

Gabrielle was not afraid at all. Instead, she made an exaggerated face at him and stuck out her tongue. Her expression clearly said, "I did it on purpose. What can you do about it?"
Charles put away the report card, stuffed it into his pocket, ignored the old man, and continued to ask Gabrielle, "The weather's nice today, how about we go fishing at sea?"

Ruby, who had been comfortably dozing with her head resting on Charles's head while perched on the back of the chair, was jolted awake by the word "fishing at sea." She let out a short, terrified cry, flapped her wings, and flew away in a panic, disappearing out the window in a flash, as if some monster was about to appear.

Charles glanced at the old man beside him, who was pretending to drink tea nonchalantly, and thought to himself that he probably had a history of using rubies as bait at sea.

“Oh, right,” Gabrielle said, tilting her head as if she had just remembered, “have you finished your summer homework?”

"Don't write it on the last night."

Charles shrugged, his tone relaxed: "I finished writing it a long time ago. Only you would rush to write on the last night."

Harry left him a message saying that he had finished his summer homework and was waiting to see how things went, with payment upon delivery.

Upon hearing this, Gabrielle's face flushed slightly, and she twisted her fingers shyly, saying, "I... I haven't finished writing yet... It seems like it's about time to start writing."

I had so much fun with Charles during the holidays that I completely forgot about my homework.

Charles had no choice but to send her back to Fleur's place.

He even tried to help Gabrielle with her homework, but Fleur hit him on the head with her wand.

For the rest of the summer vacation, Charles traveled to Germany and, following the address Erica had given him, arrived at a secluded little farm.

This farm, located in southern Germany, is small and typical of a family farm. In addition to the owner's house, there are cottages for tourists to enjoy a farm vacation, as well as a small lake.

The original owner of the farm was a Muggle-born wizard. After his parents passed away, he chose to fully integrate into wizarding society and no longer farm, so he sold his ancestral property.

Erica used the money she won in the lottery last year to buy this place to grow the garlic she specially cultivated.

Charles went to the address and, led by the housekeeper, entered the house. He saw Marlene, wearing only an apron, busy in the kitchen, where a pot of fragrant mixed vegetables and blood sausage was simmering.

“Erika went to the driving school in town,” Marlene explained while stirring her soup. “She’s taking her tractor driving test in a few days and has been practicing intensively.”

Charles imagined a vampire girl sitting solemnly in the cab of a huge tractor, her hands on the steering wheel, and couldn't help but scratch his head with a bit of a laugh. The image was indeed quite striking.

Marlene tasted the soup with a spoon, nodded in satisfaction, and continued, "There's a Muggle tractor parked in the garage; it was left by the previous owner."

"I heard that it accidentally fell into the river next to the farm a few years ago. After it was pulled out, it was left there and no one repaired it or touched it again. So it was sold to Erica cheaply."

She turned to Charles, a hint of expectation in her eyes, and said, "Erica has been talking about it these past few days, wondering if that big piece of steel can still be repaired."

"Could you spare some time to go and see her? She seems to care a lot about it."

"No problem, it's a piece of cake, leave it to me!" Charles readily agreed, patting his chest vigorously.

He turned and walked to the garage next door, pushed open the door, and a smell mixed with engine oil, rust and dust hit him.

When his gaze swept over the tool rack inside, his eyes lit up instantly—wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, sockets of various sizes, and even a small machine tool and welding machine in the corner. The tools were not only complete, but also stored properly, and everything looked to be of the highest quality!
For someone who loves tinkering with machinery, this was a treasure trove. Charles was practically drooling, his hands itching to get started. In the center of the garage sat an old-fashioned tractor, clearly twenty or thirty years old. It was covered from top to bottom in large patches of dried black silt and withered yellow water plants, obviously never properly cleaned after being pulled from the river and left here to gather dust.

Repairing this old tractor was not a difficult task for Charles.

He took out his magic wand and first thoroughly cleaned the stubborn mud and weeds inside and outside the tractor, then began to disassemble the severely rusted or deformed parts.

Fortunately, in the spare parts cabinet in the corner, he found replacement parts carefully wrapped in oil paper and put these intact parts back in one by one.

"I thought you weren't coming."

A familiar voice rang out at the door.

Erika is back, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, her long white hair tied up, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and she hands over a bottle of ice-cold Coke.

She had heard that Charles was going to handle some mysterious matters with Fleur, so she didn't specifically invite him to the farm this summer. She only casually mentioned the farm's location when chatting on her communication notebook.

“I happened to have some free time recently, and the matter is settled.” Charles took the Coke, tilted his head back and took a big gulp, then handed it back and reinstalled the engine he had been working on. “The tractor is basically done, so there’s no need to spend money to buy a new one.”

He spoke with a hint of pride, explaining that he had repaired the tractor perfectly, with not a single part missing and fitting together seamlessly.

Finally, he also used several special spells for maintaining the doll, lubricating and maintaining the key parts to ensure smooth operation.

Erica immediately perked up, confidently jumping into the spacious driver's seat and rubbing her hands together, exclaiming, "Hehe, great!"

"I can drive now! My coach even praised me for my rapid progress. I'm going to go out and try it out!"

The land on the farm all belonged to her, and it had been almost abandoned for the past two years. She had set up magic that Muggles wouldn't notice, and the Aurors didn't check tractor licenses, so she could drive it however she wanted, as long as she didn't go on the highway.

She skillfully started the machine, which emitted a deep, powerful roar before running smoothly. The rumbling sound filled the entire garage, and the car body vibrated slightly as a result.

Just then, Marlene came over and called out from the garage door, "The soup is ready, come and eat!"

Erica waved vigorously at her, her face beaming with excitement, and called out with a mischievous grin, "Marlene, come here!"

Marlene wasn't really into these bulky Muggle machines; she always found them noisy and troublesome.

But today, Erica had told her to do whatever she wanted, so she obediently went over.

She had just laboriously climbed to the open door of the driver's cab, and before she could even stand properly, Erica excitedly pulled her over and sat her directly on her lap.

Charles wisely refrained from disturbing them, and began to gather the tools scattered on the floor, preparing to leave the garage for dinner.

Sudden--

"Whoosh!"

With Erica's excited cheers and the sound of the accelerator being slammed on, the tractor shot out of the garage door at an astonishing speed, leaving only a blurry afterimage and dust kicked up by the tracks.

The immense force of the impact created a gust of wind that caused the chandelier hanging from the garage ceiling to sway wildly and creak loudly.

"thump!"

A deep, muffled thud as something heavy fell into the water could be heard clearly from afar.

Charles stood frozen in place, a wrench still in his hand, staring dumbfounded in the direction the tractor had disappeared outside the garage, then at the still swaying chandelier, and finally his gaze settled on the small lake shimmering in the sunset on the edge of the farm in the distance.

He had only one thought in his mind: thank goodness, I didn't step on the gas and head straight to Poland or Paris.

What happened next, Charles, was truly miserable; I won't go into details.

(End of this chapter)