Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Chapter 20 Riddles, Rumors
Michael breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, Peeves didn't get to him. If he had really called Filch, it would have been terrible."

"Peeves is unlikely to go to Filch." Wade pulled him up from the ground and said, "Have you forgotten? The two of them hate each other. Peeves will not be willing to do anything to please Filch."

"That's true." Michael nodded.

Peeves often caused trouble, either by knocking down statues or spilling ink everywhere, which invisibly added a lot of workload to Filch, the castle's caretaker, and made Filch crazy.

The two of them walked up the stairs of Ravenclaw Tower in circles, which made them dizzy. They had to stop and rest after walking for a while, and their thighs felt so sore that they felt like they were not their own.

Normally at this time Michael would complain incessantly - unless there was a pretty girl around, he would pretend not to be reluctant at all and stop to rest in the name of taking care of the girl.

But today, Michael was very silent. It was not until they were about to return to the lounge that he said, "We also have flying lessons tomorrow."

Vader: “Yeah.”

"Forget the bullshit I said!" Michael said sullenly, "Just follow Madam Hooch's instructions and take your time."

Wade said helplessly: "Neville's incident was just an accident. Not everyone is as unlucky as him."

Michael may not be unaware of this, but he cannot let go of the burden in his heart for the time being.

After finally returning to the tower, it was past curfew, but there were still a few students gathered in the corridor - not every Ravenclaw was good at solving puzzles, and even the smartest brains couldn't solve the problem when it came to knowledge blind spots. So sometimes you could see more than 20 students standing outside the common room, discussing and answering the questions of the day.

Wade walked over and knocked on the bronze knocker on the wooden board. The eagle's beak on the knocker suddenly opened and said in a gentle voice as if singing: "There are hands above and below, sometimes crawling and sometimes walking. When walking, it looks like a human, and when crawling, it looks like a dog."

The door to the lounge will only open if you answer the questions posed by the eagle-shaped door knocker correctly.

Michael imagined a creature with hands all over its body, crawling darkly, and said in horror, "What kind of monster is this? Is it - a demon from some myth?"

He hurriedly took out his textbook "Fantastic Monsters and Where to Find Them" from his bag and started flipping through it without hesitation.

"Don't look, it's not in the book." A Ravenclaw student said tiredly, "I've already read the whole book."

Several others nodded silently.

Vader stood by, thinking.

The bronze door knocker is like the legendary Sphinx. The questions it asks may not be difficult, but sometimes they are not easy to think of - because the door knocker only asks questions, but does not tell them whether it is a brain teaser or a riddle, nor does it suggest whether the answer is a plant, animal, tool, word, or intangible thing, such as time, death, etc.

This riddle sounds very Cthulhu-like at first glance, but it also seems familiar.

"--monkey?"

Vader asked unsurely after a moment.

"Correct answer." The eagle-shaped door knocker said, opening the wooden door. ...

After an accident in flying class, the breakfast table the next day was much quieter. Students no longer tirelessly told stories about how they had flown over mountains and seas on broomsticks. Instead, another piece of news spread among the first-year students.

"Didn't Harry Potter and Slytherin's Malfoy almost get into a fight during flying class yesterday? Guess what happened?" At the long table, Padma Patil said to the people around her in a mysterious tone, "I heard that because Harry Potter showed an amazing talent for flying, he was not punished, but was recommended by Professor McGonagall to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team!"

Because she has a twin sister in Gryffindor House, she is always well-informed about this.

"Really? That Professor McGonagall?" The students around were all very surprised. Who doesn't know that Professor McGonagall is the most fair and strict professor at Hogwarts? She treats the four colleges equally and never shows favoritism. This time, she made an exception for Harry Potter. This shock even made people forget the previous news for a while.

But someone finally remembered.

"That's impossible," Terry swore. "No first-year student has been able to join the Quidditch team in a century! This must be a rumor!"

"Maybe he's a reserve player or something." Anthony guessed. "After all, we all saw that Potter can fly very well, very fast and agilely. It would be incredible if the Gryffindor team rejected him. But he is a first-year student after all. He has never ridden a broom before and doesn't even know the rules of Quidditch. It's ridiculous for him to join the team directly - he should just be a reserve player."

Another student, Kevin, also said: "Think about it, if Potter really made an exception and joined the team, the Weasley brothers would have shouted out long ago. But did you hear them?"

The analysis was well-reasoned and everyone nodded in agreement.

Padma curled her lips in disdain and whispered to Michael, "In fact, it was Gryffindor Captain Wood who wanted to use Harry Potter as a secret weapon, so he didn't allow publicity. Those stupid boys are just jealous, so they don't want to admit it."

Michael didn’t remind her that he was also one of the boys, but smiled and said, “Maybe they just don’t want to admit that they are not as good as another boy in front of a pretty girl.”

Padma blushed slightly.

Wade glanced to the side and saw Michael raising one eyebrow at him. At such a young age, he looked so romantic and carefree, as if he had walked out of the shadow of his past. Wade couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the restaurant - six long-eared owls carrying a long and thin package flew into the hall with great effort, attracting everyone's attention. The owls circled down, dropped the package in front of Harry Potter, and then flapped their wings and flew away, leaving only a few feathers.

Michael gasped, grabbed Wade's wrist, and said in a low voice: "Broom! I bet it's a flying broom!"

His eyes turned red with envy, and he said in a voice as if vomiting blood: "And it's a Nimbus series - I recognize that packaging!"

"Yeah." Wade pried open his fingers, put his hand back on the table, and said nonchalantly, "If you perform well in the flying class this afternoon, you might have a chance to join the team and get a new broom!"

He just said it casually, but Michael seemed to take it seriously. His eyes became particularly serious, and he bit the lamb chops with extra force.

Soon, it was time for flying lessons.

(End of this chapter)