Hogwarts: A Chinese-Style Professor

Chapter 309 Hufflepuff's Golden Cup (3K4)

April brings the Easter holiday.

This year's Easter holiday produced a miracle that astonished the Hogwarts professors—not a single student chose to go home for the two-week period.

This may be related to the fact that professors in each subject assign a large amount of homework.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions classes seemed to be competing to see who could assign the most homework, with mountains of assignments given to students of all grades.

According to a fourth-year Ravenclaw student's record, just completing the assignments for these two subjects took up three of her fourteen-day holiday.

Not to mention, Professor McGonagall also has a lot of homework.

In addition, older students have to prepare for wizard exams, and some outstanding students also have to complete assignments for dark magic courses.
Without staying in the castle with the magic network, and without using some of the book's functions, the students had absolutely no confidence in completing their assignments.

But aside from that, what students like most is that Professor Li Wei can come up with some more fancy tricks.
For example, the 'Winter Festival' that 20% of students never experienced.

Even though more than three months have passed since that time, they still feel resentful.

Professor McGonagall easily noticed this—the students, having already built a good relationship with this seemingly cold but actually warm-hearted vice-principal thanks to their excellent performance in the Transfiguration class, naturally knew what she cared about and what made her proud.

All they need to do is act cute and subtly discuss the holiday celebrations in groups with many professors. Surely their plan will succeed?
Sure enough, Professor McGonagall actually approached Levi.

Easter celebrations?

Li Wei paused for a moment, looked Professor McGonagall up and down, and asked in confusion:
"The students have a very heavy academic workload. Do they have time to go on a trip to the festival?"
As far as I know, many students have already made study plans for the holidays.

"Is that so? But I think the younger children are still really looking forward to it—"

“Hmm—though I don’t think it’s necessary—” Levi reminded Professor McGonagall, “May 30th is Freedom Day, do you remember?”

They were really going crazy back then—I don't think you'd want the school atmosphere to become too lax either.

"Of course."

Professor McGonagall suddenly realized what was happening, and her expression turned serious again.

Yes, there's still Freedom Day. Thinking of the scene from Freedom Day last year, Professor McGonagall's heart began to pound.

She was very satisfied with the students' performance on Freedom Day last year—but that satisfaction was also her downfall.

Given how well the students performed in magic last year, what surprising performances will they deliver at the end of their second year studying with Levi?
What kind of chaos will they turn the castle upside down?

With this in mind, Professor McGonagall immediately lost interest in the so-called Easter celebration.
"I understand what you mean—yes, it's really unnecessary."

She pursed her lips, feeling somewhat apologetic for not being able to fulfill the students' petition, but she still made her decision.

But Li Wei then offered a compromise, saying:

"We won't have any big celebrations—after all, the professors have already lost their Christmas break; let's at least give them a little rest during the Easter holiday."

Professor McGonagall turned to look at Levi, a slight smile playing on her lips, anticipating his proposal.

"How about we organize a simple Easter egg hunt?"

Hide Easter eggs containing various puzzles throughout the castle and have the students find them in a small competition.

The student who finds the most Easter eggs will receive a reward—the puzzles can be designed by professors from each subject, three in total; it's up to you to take care of them.

"Great—this is a very interesting activity that will also educate the students—I'll take care of it!"

Professor McGonagall patted her chest in assurance and left happily.

"Li Wei—"

No sooner had Professor McGonagall left than Horace burst into Levi's office like a cheerful purple balloon.

"Hello, Horace."

Perhaps because Li Wei's attitude towards him has been quite peaceful and stable recently, Horace has not been harassing Li Wei as frequently as before.

To be honest, this was the first time Li Wei had seen him in the past two weeks.

"Judging from your appearance, you've had quite a bit of success lately?"

Li Wei had intended to talk about the other party's club—Horace had rebuilt the Slug Club in the second month after returning to Hogwarts.

The main focus of activities was on the upperclassmen at Hogwarts.

Given the students' current grades and state of mind, Horace wanted nothing more than to wipe them all out! His fanatical attitude even startled some students at first.

But Horace gave far too much.

Material and financial support was just the beginning—after learning about the task board in the school hall, he praised Li Wei extensively and immediately joined in.

If Li Wei earned the respect of those organizations through his abilities, and they reluctantly allowed him to take Hogwarts students on internships...

Slughorn's success is entirely due to his connections.

As a result, he was always able to ensure that those already outstanding students received better treatment during their internships.

For those students, it was no different from fish seeing tempting bait; they took the bait immediately.

Moreover, with Horace's involvement in the club, the students of the four houses had another reason to stick together, and their relationship became even closer through the exchange of benefits.

In fact, if Horace hadn't possessed this ability, his actions would have been stopped long ago; both Professor McGonagall and Levi would have stopped him.

But for now, they choose to wait and see. "More than abundant, my dear friend, simply incomparable!"

Slughorn practically sank into the chair, his hands clasped excitedly over his round belly, his bulging eyes sparkling.

"I'll get straight to the point so you won't think I'm beating around the bush."

Do you remember what you told me to keep in mind before?

Li Wei's eyes narrowed slightly, and he sat up almost imperceptibly.

"You have news?"

“It’s not just news,” Slughorn said, deliberately lowering his voice but unable to hide the smugness of revealing the secret. “It’s a concrete, highly targeted lead!”

He leaned forward, his velvet vest taut.

"I haven't had a moment's rest these past few months! I've been keeping your and Dumbledore's affairs on my mind the whole time! After all, your business is my business!"

He patted his chest and boasted, then quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching, before whispering to himself, covering his mouth with his hand:
"Remember what I told you? Even with those most difficult fairies, I have my own ways of dealing with them."

Before Li Wei could urge him on, he continued:
“I used my deepest and oldest connection in Gringotts—I can’t reveal who it is, but he’s a real old-timer who has been in charge of the treasury’s deposit records for hundreds of years.”

Shoras couldn't hide his smugness as he said this.

"A few bottles of aged Fiery Whisky, plus some academic discussions about the purity of currency during the Fairy Rebellion."
In short, he had me examine some non-core but extremely old copies of records.

He paused deliberately, savoring the flicker of genuine interest that rose in Li Wei's eyes, before continuing:
Between 1955 and 1965, a high-level vault owned by the Lestrange family repeatedly deposited and withdrew a batch of ancient magical artifacts with special serial numbers.

Among them was a cup-shaped item—I knew immediately that it must be related to what you're looking for—I trust my intuition!

By the way, does this name ring a bell?

“Lestrange,” Levi pondered for a moment and said, “Bellatrix Lestrange? One of the core members of the Death Eaters, currently imprisoned in Azkaban.”

"It is that person, and her identity is far more important than you imagine—"

Slughorn nodded, his voice even lower.

"She is actually Sirius's cousin, and one of the most fanatical and loyal to the mysterious man, completely different from those opportunists."

If she knew the mysterious man was still alive, she would definitely try every means to escape and become his vessel—she would consider it a great honor.

"You should really tell Dumbledore that."

Li Wei remained expressionless and said something in a neutral tone.

Horace, however, misunderstood him and deliberately said:

"Of course, I'll tell him later—but you're the first to know. As soon as I found out, I dropped everything to come find you—I think you should know."

Li Wei neither warmly nor coldly accepted his surrender; he simply nodded.

“Of course, Horace, I’m truly impressed by what you’ve done—you know, you’ve always held a very high place in my heart.”

"Oh dear—hahahaha!"

Upon receiving Livy's approval, Horace's face flushed red, and he clapped his hands excitedly.

Let's get back to business—

"Records show that the item was never retrieved or moved after it was deposited."

Given Bellatrix's loyalty and the absolute security of Gringotts' vaults, what you're looking for has most likely never left one of the Lestrange vaults deep within Gringotts.

“A fairly reasonable deduction—Horace, it would be a waste of your talents to merely make you a professor of the history of magic—I think you are more suited to be Minister of Magic.”

Horace had hinted to Levi countless times about how he would gradually make Levi Minister of Magic.

“Ha! I knew you’d understand!” Slughorn’s face lit up. “This isn’t information that just anyone can dig up.”

Connections, my dear friend, in a critical moment, reliable connections are worth a dozen Aurors!
As for the Minister of Magic, please don't mention it again—I think the position of Professor of Magical History suits me perfectly; I love it, both in terms of education and those children.”

He then struck while the iron was hot, taking out a finely crafted invitation card with a faint fragrance from his pocket and gently pushing it in front of Li Wei.

"So, to celebrate this little discovery, and to let more, well, the right people know about our strong friendship and efficient collaboration."
I'm planning a small Easter dinner. It'll be on Saturday evening of the first week of holiday at my private wine cellar in London. It would be great if you could attend and offer some guidance to the members.”

Li Wei picked up the invitation, his fingertips able to feel the expensive texture of the paper. The invitation, written in elegant cursive script, invited Li Wei to attend as the guest of honor.

"I don't think I have any reason to refuse."

Li Wei gave Horace a meaningful look—this old rascal really knows how to seize an opportunity.

It's likely that the other party had been planning this for a long time, and after not contacting him for half a month, they accumulated a great deal of merit before finally extending the invitation.

The objective was quite clear: to bring Li Wei into his network and endorse his influence.

Even without the Golden Cup, this was a win-win situation, but it just didn't fit Li Wei's personality and style.

But the other party even found the Horcrux hidden in Gringotts, yet all they wanted in return was this 'small thing'.

Li Wei felt that even if Horace found Dumbledore and proposed this deal, Dumbledore would accept it.

However, that would mean something completely different.

(End of this chapter)