Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 174, Section 173: The Gathered Squigglies

[...He saved those lost souls, and he freed us from the grief of the curse of blood, from watching our families be torn apart and our kin lost... This is something the Mystic could not do, something neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald could do—and even further back in time, no wizard could achieve this.]

He changed the magical world!

Harry Potter!

[I can say without exaggeration that, at this very moment, in my heart, all the wizards of the past thousands of years, all the so-called outstanding figures of each era, cannot compare to our Professor Potter!]

Because he brought warmth to those in the corners we had previously ignored, and gave them a brand new future.

【…】

Harry couldn't stand the rest of the article; it was mostly long passages of praise. He threw the newspaper on the table next to him, thinking he needed some peace and quiet.

Rita may indeed have gone mad—she even directly attacked the Ministry of Magic's past inaction and indifference towards the plight of Squibs in the newspapers, and directly criticized the discrimination against Squibs by the vast majority of wizards. She attacked everyone from the government to ordinary people, but in a way that was irrefutable. Instead of being angry, people felt ashamed.

"Hey! Harry! Watch out! I haven't read it yet!" Before the newspaper Harry threw could fly into the burning fireplace, Ron pounced and caught it, then began to read it with great interest. "Honestly, if I didn't still have the memory of Rita's past writings in my head, I would have almost thought she was a huge fan of yours."

“I think so too,” Neville nodded. “Thinking about it carefully, Rita doesn’t seem to have said anything bad about Harry in the newspapers, not even when she was attacking Headmaster Dumbledore.”

“Yes, she didn’t say anything bad about him,” Hermione said sarcastically. “During that period, she just described Harry as a baby who hadn’t been weaned yet.”

“At least she’s weaned now,” Ron shrugged, then held up the newspaper to block Hermione’s murderous gaze.

"In short, Rita Skeeter is definitely not a good person. She hasn't said anything bad about Harry yet only because she doesn't need to." Hermione withdrew her fierce gaze and made her judgment. "If one day no one cares about these things anymore, or no one cares about Rita anymore, that woman will definitely not hesitate to make up lies about Harry, just like she did when she attacked Dumbledore!"

With an intelligence beyond her years, Hermione sees things very clearly.

"Don't worry about Rita's article," Harry reassured Hermione, seeing her agitated. "I'll keep an eye on her."

At least for now, Harry believes Rita will be an asset... Well, it's a bit unexpected that the fact that Squibs can become shamans and use magic has been revealed at this point, but everything is still under control.

Even through those polished words, Harry could see Rita's free spirit—for this reporter, these past two years had probably been the best time, with a constant stream of big news stories allowing her to unleash her fury under the guise of righteous indignation, attacking the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore, and everyone else!
Cool! !

There's no need to rack your brains to find a side or flaw in things and exaggerate it like in the past; you can simply tell the truth—tell the truth, and you can easily attract everyone's attention.

When the letters from owls rained down on the editorial office of the Daily Prophet, for a moment, Rita felt like a god in the magical world, untouchable by anything.

Excessive honor can be poison. Harry felt that he might not even need to lift a finger; the Ministry of Magic would control Rita and teach her not to say whatever she wanted in the newspapers… But before that, Harry was completely taken aback when he saw this old man who had rushed into the room and collapsed in front of him, hugging his legs and crying incessantly.

"Mentor!! My great mentor!! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!!!"

The students in the castle could never have imagined that the hated and despised warden, Argus Filch, would cry like this.

His aged face was haggard, and his already balding hair had thinned even further. He practically stumbled into Harry's office. Filch knelt at Harry's feet, wanting to kiss Harry's shoes as an apology, but this startled Harry, who jumped to the side.

"Calm down, Filch!" Harry swung his wand and pulled Filch up from the ground, then settled him in a chair nearby. "What happened?!"

“I…I have failed your orders,” Filch said with a pained expression. “That day…”

Rita suddenly appeared in front of Filch while he was cleaning the castle corridors. She introduced herself as a reporter for the Daily Prophet, and said that she had come to Hogwarts to interview the school's faculty and staff about their views on elemental magic and shamans.

Then there's not much to say about it, and even Ron could imagine what happened next—in the current Hogwarts, there is only one person who regards Harry as a god and the highest faith.

That's Filch.

Even the most disliked Filch students would admit this, because this man has made no attempt to conceal his admiration and gratitude for Harry at any time and in any place.

Therefore, when Rita asked Filch such a question, the result was self-evident... Like a missionary who had found his ideal goal, Filch talked at length about the great deeds Harry had done and the guidance he had given him, hoping that Rita would also join Harry's tutelage as he had.

But what Filch ultimately received was a copy of the Daily Prophet and the revelation that he was a Squib. No wonder students pointed and whispered about him wherever he went today. For the first time, a little girl even rushed up to Filch with tears in her eyes and gave him a bouquet of flowers, leaving the young old man completely bewildered.

But for Filch, the students' sympathy and understanding were no longer the most important things. What mattered was that he clearly remembered that after he became a shaman last year, Harry had asked him to keep the Squib a secret for the time being—but now it had been made public.

Thinking of this, Filch wanted to throw himself to the ground and confess to Harry again. Only punishing himself could make him feel better. But no matter how much he struggled, Harry's magic held him firmly in place.

The bizarre sight startled the children sitting nearby, who shifted their positions to move away from Filch in his chair.

“Calm down, Filch,” Harry had to reassure him again. “It’s not a big deal, and it won’t matter if word gets out.”

Filch's current state somewhat reminded Harry of his butler Alfred—or more accurately, when Alfred was still known as Dobby.

At this moment, Filch looked no different from those house-elves who wanted to punish him, a state of mind that Harry was not happy to see.

"Really? My great mentor?" Filch stopped struggling, his eyes glazed over, and asked, "I really—"

“Don’t worry, go back to sleep, Filch, that’s my order,” Harry sighed and said. “Don’t let these external factors shake your resolve.” “…Thank you, thank you, Master…thank you…”

Filch eventually staggered away; he had put too much pressure on himself.

"Uh, are you sure it's okay, Harry?" Hermione asked with some concern. Before Filch arrived, they hadn't really paid attention to the Squib issue; their attention was more focused on Rita.

"Don't worry," Harry smiled slightly, "there are more important things for the wizards to attend to."

"Something more important?"

Ron and the other two exchanged glances, but Harry refused to reveal any more information.

Rita's report had a greater impact than Harry had anticipated. It didn't even take a week to build up before Hogsmeade, the wizarding village near Hogwarts, was packed with people the very next day. In fact, because the hotels were all full, many wizards even set up tents along the river.

This unusual change immediately caught the attention of the principal in charge, Professor McGonagall—or rather, the vice-principal.

Hagrid even put aside his chores of decorating Harry's office and began patrolling the passageway between the castle and Hogsmeade with his bow and dagger to prevent any dark wizards from sneaking into the castle and harming the young wizards.

In a very short time, even the Ministry of Magic was alarmed. When they sent Aurors to investigate, they were surprised to find that the vast majority of these unfamiliar wizards who came to Hogsmeade were Squibs. Some Squibs arrived accompanied by their wizarding relatives, but such Squibs were rare.

They all longed for an opportunity.

A legitimate opportunity to become a wizard and master magic.

Every day, these Squibs would come in groups to the outskirts of Hogwarts. They could not cross the passageways and Hagrid’s vigilant guards to reach the castle, but they could see the strange, giant totem with its unique style.

Now, the existence of this giant totem building is no longer a secret. It was featured on the front page of the Daily Prophet, making all wizards in the British wizarding world aware of the changes at Hogwarts.

That's why these duds knew what that strange building meant and understood that the man who brought the miracle, the boy, was living inside.

"What are you going to do?" Standing atop the giant totem with Harry, Dumbledore could easily see the gathered Squibs from such a height.

They wouldn't attack Hagrid's one-man defense, nor would they shout or disturb the upperclassmen who would be traveling this road to Hogsmeade on weekends. They simply stayed there, from morning till night.

Some people would return to Hogsmeade to rest when night fell, while others would stay out all night, bringing their tents over or simply sleeping on the grass under the open sky.

Even when the Ministry of Magic's enforcers tried to drive them away, they refused to leave, and the enforcers couldn't really do anything, like use force—the Daily Prophet's reporters were still waiting nearby with their cameras.

“Most of them are no longer capable of becoming shamans,” Harry recalled, drawing his conclusion from a distant glance. “They are too old and in very poor mental condition.”

When someone is a dud, how can they not go crazy?
Leaving aside those Squibs who have completely severed ties with the wizarding world and integrated into Muggle society, aren't those Squibs who remain in the wizarding world, living in the corners of wizarding society and being deliberately ignored, mentally disturbed?
Compared to these people, even Filch used to look rather handsome; at least Dumbledore took good care of Filch.

“I’m afraid I should remind you, Harry,” Dumbledore said with a touch of humor, “that the Board of Governors probably wouldn’t be willing to set up an old-age class at Hogwarts.”

"Why?" Harry joked. "Don't they want to see these young old men learning magic?"

“A young old man?” Dumbledore chuckled, then burst into laughter. “That’s a really sinful word, Harry. I must say it’s cruel. If we’re going by that classification, am I an old man? Hahahahahaha.”

Harry laughed too.

"Alright, alright, let's put the jokes aside for now." After finally laughing enough, Dumbledore wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and said, "We can't continue to turn a blind eye like this."

"Are you referring to the situation of Squibs in wizarding society, or these Squibs surrounding Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

“Both,” Dumbledore said meaningfully. “You’re still young, Harry. You probably don’t want to end up like me, with a tarnished reputation… That reporter will be very happy if we keep letting them stay here.”

Harry Potter ignores Squibs?

Or is Harry Potter discriminating against Squibs?

Rita Skeeter always manages to come up with a very catchy title... at least one that a decent guy like Harry couldn't come up with.

“I know,” Harry nodded.

"You intend to teach them elemental magic?" Dumbledore asked with great interest.

It's unclear when exactly, but observing Harry's actions has become this little old man's greatest source of pleasure.

In particular, the recent buildings and sacrificial sites filled with Minotaur-style architecture have piqued Dumbledore's interest in exploring them.

So the moment Harry finished building it, Dumbledore returned like lightning.

(End of this chapter)