Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 387 End of Semester
A good person?
Harry thought about it for a moment, but in the end, he didn't refute it.

To be honest, Principal Blake wasn't exactly a bad person.

Seeing that Harry didn't refute her, Anne suppressed a laugh and said, "Yes, he's a good person."

If Principal Blake heard this, he would surely stand tall with pride.

After all, since Umbridge came to Hogwarts, he was no longer the most unpopular person in the history of Hogwarts—of course, he was still the most unpopular headmaster.

Sometimes Harry feels a bit sorry that Umbridge didn't become the headmaster and didn't take away the title that Headmaster Black cherished most.

The holidays have arrived as scheduled, and the students of Hogwarts are once again enjoying their break.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Professor Lupin will remain the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor next year—a fact the students have already confirmed with Dumbledore.

Several days before the holidays, Harry and Ron ran into the twin brothers who had returned to Hogwarts to promote their shop.

Ron was clearly shocked by the sudden appearance of his two older brothers—or rather, by the twins' attire.

He stared wide-eyed at the punk-style twins and asked in surprise, "Hey—you two, your jackets look so cool!"

“Top-quality dragon skin, my little brother,” Fred said, pulling on his zipper. “Our business is booming, and we think we should treat ourselves a little better.”

As he spoke, Fred took out some flyers and slapped them at Ron: "Now's the time to need you, little Ronnie—if you help us hand out these flyers, we'll buy you one too."

Ron took the flyer without hesitation and turned to leave.

“We’ve graduated,” Fred and George said to Harry and the others after handing out the flyers. “We’ve rented a shop in Diagon Alley and plan to sell some magical gadgets there—I’ll send you invitations when it opens.”

"Did Mom agree?" Ginny retorted. "Don't wait until Mom finds out and flies into a rage before smashing up your magic gadget shop."

“Oh, don’t say that, Ginny,” Fred said, shaking his head. “Can’t you wish us well for once? Or, deep down, do you want to see this happen?”

“I never expected our youngest sister to be such a fun person,” George said with a grin. “You won’t see this, Mom has already approved our plans to open a shop, and she and Dad will be there to celebrate in a couple of days.”

On the eve of the holidays, they were still in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, welcoming the annual end-of-term assembly.

The Gryffindor red and gold decor style was used for the fifth time in the Great Hall, and the students were already used to it.

Apart from the sixth and seventh graders, no one had ever seen the color scheme of the other houses in the auditorium at the end of the semester.

The seventh-year students had clearly given up, while the sixth-year Slytherin students were secretly encouraging themselves, planning to make Slytherin great again next year.

However, it is clear that Gryffindor will no longer have the Weasley twins as a major source of points deductions next year. If they want to catch up with Gryffindor's momentum, Professor Snape's powerful influence will have to exert his influence once again.

As usual, Dumbledore addressed the students, and also specifically praised the Gryffindor students for their outstanding performance this semester.

Even without extra credits, Gryffindor's scores this year are far ahead of the other houses.

The holiday arrived as scheduled, and students dragged their suitcases, left their respective college's common lounge, and walked onto the platform.

"What are your plans for the holidays?" Draco asked Harry on the platform. "After the OWLs exams, I feel like I've lost my sense of purpose. How about we do something exciting and intense during the holidays?"

“There are no plans yet,” Harry said. “I’ll let you know with the crystal ball when the time comes.”

Now, Mr. Lemaître's seventh generation of crystal balls has been successfully launched. The standard version only requires two Galleons, the advanced Pro version requires twenty Galleons, and the Pro Max version of the crystal ball requires two hundred Galleons.

The wealthy Malfoy family naturally wouldn't let their child go empty-handed; Draco received the latest Crystal Ball 7 Pro Max.

"I understand," Draco said, waving to Harry before boarding the train.

Harry, Anne, Ron, and Hermione boarded the train and found a compartment to sit in.

As Ron passed a lady selling snacks, he bought a huge pile of crucible cakes and pumpkin pies.

"Food is something you can never miss out on." Ron was still reminiscing in his seat in the private room when he grabbed a crucible cake and stuffed it into his mouth.

He got up a little late this morning and hasn't eaten yet.

“I think you’re the embodiment of the seven deadly sins, gluttony.” Hermione looked away from the Daily Prophet, then looked at Ron, who was gorging himself on food, with pity, shaking her head and sighing.

Neville and Ginny also entered the box, and Harry noticed that Neville was holding a Mibu Mibu instead of his toad Rafer.

The name "Mibu Mibao" sounds cute, but it's not actually like that.

This is a rare magical plant from the ancient Assyrian region. It has the appearance of a small gray cactus, with its surface covered with regularly pulsating, boil-like protrusions.

This plant has a unique self-defense mechanism; when attacked, the boils will spray out a foul-smelling, viscous liquid.

This plant was actually a birthday gift from Neville.

"Where's your Rafe?" Ron asked curiously.

“It got away,” Neville said sadly. “It slipped into the Black Lake, and I waited for it for a long time, but it didn’t come back up. I really don’t know what’s in the Black Lake that’s attracting it…”

“You need to take it easy, Neville,” Ginny comforted him. “Out with the old, in with the new…”

But she didn't say much more, after all, it was Neville's pet that he had raised day and night for five years.

Neville kept his head down and didn't answer. He reached out and stroked Mibumibo, which made a strange low moaning sound when touched.

After failing to comfort Neville, Ginny pulled out The Quibbler and started doing the little quiz. “I heard from Luna,” Ron mumbled—because he was chewing on a crucible cake—that later this year, The Quibbler would come with some fun gadgets, like glasses that let you see swarms of fly gnats.

“You should know, Ron,” Hermione looked up again, “that so-called harassing fly is just a magical creature Luna made up; it doesn’t exist!”

“I think it’s worth a try, just in case you can see it,” Ron said, swallowing a crucible cake. “Wearing it won’t hurt you anyway.”

Hermione snorted loudly through the back of her nose and didn't reply.

Clearly, she had strong reservations about Ron's acceptance of Luna's nonsense.

Ron shrugged, took a few more bites of the cauldron cake, and then pulled out the Wizard's Chess set.

“Harry,” he said, “let’s play wizard chess, we’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”

Harry was also feeling a bit bored, and playing wizard chess was indeed a pretty good way to pass the time.

Anne sat next to Harry, watching intently as the two played wizard chess, occasionally offering Harry pointers on how to play.

"Hey!" After Anne directed Harry to eat Ron's castle, Ron finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Don't you know the saying 'one should observe the game without speaking'? My dear lady?"

“Alright, Annie,” Harry said, suppressing a laugh, “Don’t annoy Ron…”

“The Daily Prophet is practically becoming a second-rate magazine like The Quibbler.” Hermione put down the Daily Prophet and sighed heavily. “Look at what’s written here! They even published a story about someone saying a mysterious person passed by their house? I really can’t imagine what the editors of the Daily Prophet were thinking, publishing something like this…”

“That’s just a publicity stunt, Hermione,” Ron said without looking up. “The Daily Prophet is a magazine, after all; they won’t miss out on this kind of publicity stunt.”

No sooner had Ron finished speaking than he discovered that his knight had been eaten by Harry's minions.

But Ron's chess skills were clearly still quite good, and without Anne's support, Harry quickly fell into a disadvantageous position again.

“Speaking of which,” Ron scratched his head and continued playing chess, “Ginny, how are things going with Michael Corner? I think you were dating him, weren’t you?”

“Never again.” Ginny put away the Quibbler magazine. She had just finished her quiz. “During the Quidditch match, he didn’t like Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw, so he got upset—just for that little thing, so I decided to ignore him.”

After saying that, Ginny scratched her nose with the tip of a feather, flipped through "The Quibbler" haphazardly, and started checking the answers.

Ron looked very happy when he heard this.

“Very well, I’ve always thought he was a bit of an idiot.” He said, forcing his queen into Harry’s crumbling castle. “This is good for you… In time, you can find someone better.”

“Yes, I’ve chosen Dean Thomas,” Ginny said with a smile, clearly pleased with her choice and the test results. “Don’t you think he’s a better choice? After all, he’s a Gryffindor too.”

"What did you say?!"

Ron roared, standing up and accidentally knocking over the chessboard. "Who did you choose? Dean Thomas?"

“Yeah,” Ginny said, clearly not seeing anything wrong with her behavior. “It’s just a date, why are you making such a fuss?”

It's clear that Ron doesn't really like his sister dating Dean Thomas—in fact, as an older brother, Ron always feels uncomfortable seeing his sister on a date.

After seeing Ron's reaction, Anne gave Harry a meaningful look.

The train was approaching King's Cross station and its speed slowed down.

After a long and bumpy ride, Harry felt like he was about to fall asleep.

“Let’s go, get out of the car.” Ron put away the chessboard, seemingly still upset about his sister’s date with Dean Thomas.

My sister is so beautiful, how could Dean Thomas possibly be a match for her?

But such things obviously didn't go according to his wishes. As the saying goes, "If it's going to rain, it'll rain; if a mother wants to remarry, she'll remarry." Ron could only accept this fact.

When the ticket inspector signaled that Harry, Ron, and Hermione could safely pass through the magical barrier between platforms 9 and 10, he discovered something unexpected waiting for him on the other side: a group of people he never expected were standing there to greet him.

There was Mad-Eye Moody, who wore a bowler hat pulled low, obscuring his magical eyes, and looked just as menacing as when he wasn't wearing the hat. He held a long wooden staff in his rough, tangled hands and wore a large travel cloak.

Tonks stood behind him, sunlight streaming through the dark glass ceiling of the platform, her bubblegum pink hair shimmering in the light. She wore patched jeans and a bright purple T-shirt with a graphic of the quirky sister band.

Next to Tonks was Lupin, whose face was ruddy, his hair was gray but neatly combed, and he was wearing a brand new overcoat.

It's clear that Lu Ping has been living a good life lately; you can tell from his appearance.

Standing in front of them were the Weasleys, Fred, and George. The Weasleys were wearing their best Muggle clothes, while Fred and George were still wearing their new jackets made of dark green, scaly material.

“Ron, Ginny!” Mrs. Weasley rushed forward and hugged her children tightly. “Oh, and my dear Harry—how are you?”

“I’m fine, Mrs. Weasley,” Harry smiled and nodded to her. “So…why are so many people here?”

“We just happened to receive an invitation from the Minister,” Mr. Weasley said with a smile. “He invited us to visit number twelve Grimmauld Place, and of course… we figured we were on our way anyway, so we came here to pick you up first, so Ron and Ginny wouldn’t be disappointed, would we?”

"Looks like Sirius's work in the department is going well?" Harry asked with a smile.

“Still working overtime,” Mr. Weasley said. “But even when he’s busy, he still manages to find time to get together with us, doesn’t he? Besides us, it seems Sirius also invited Professor Dumbledore… Of course, I heard he also invited Professor Snape, but it looks like Professor Snape didn’t accept Sirius’s invitation.”

“You know they’ve never gotten along, Arthur!” Mrs. Weasley turned and glared at Mr. Weasley with displeasure.

“Oh—” Professor Lupin began, “but as far as I know, Professor Snape seems to have accepted the invitation.”

(End of this chapter)