The Wind and the Wings of Hogwarts

"So that means..."

“Don’t worry, he might not succeed in his research,” Fred said. “Harry seems perfectly normal; apart from that scar, there’s nothing special about him. Perhaps the reason he was able to defeat the Man of Void is something no one can explain…”

Seeing the atmosphere growing increasingly tense, Scott quickly spoke up, "Alright, let's stop overthinking things. Anyway, Dumbledore will definitely find the murderer. Let's ask him again tomorrow."

“You’re right,” Cedric said. “There’s no point in us speculating here.”

"So, let's have some fun instead."

Scott pulled out his wand, used Transfiguration to create a simple board game, and started playing with them.

Chapter 472 Apparition Practice

Early the next morning.

After Fred got up, he couldn't wait to send a message to George.

When the [Magic Mirror] screen lights up, it shows George's profile, wrapped in a blanket.

"Damn Fred, I'm still sleeping!"

George rubbed his eyes and complained.

“Good morning, George. Any progress last night?” Fred asked.

“How would I know!” George looked very annoyed. “I haven’t gone out since I got back last night!”

Fred laughed. "I don't believe it. After something like that, how could you possibly stay in your dorm room and not go out and find out what's going on?"

"Okay, I knew I couldn't hide it from you."

George sat up with a helpless expression and scratched his messy hair.

"The message was given to me by Pikachu because I agreed to its condition of helping it with its next prank."

"So what was the result?" Fred asked.

“The murderer is Cassius Warrington of Slytherin, the poor guy whose place in the delegation you stole,” George said.

Fred was somewhat surprised. "Warrington, that bastard? No wonder, I knew he wasn't a good person! Luckily I took his spot, otherwise..."

George interrupted his boasting, "Dumbledore has confirmed that Warrington is under the Imperius Curse."

“Oh…” Fred didn’t feel embarrassed at all. “He’s really unlucky. I chose him because he looked so unlucky.”

George didn't respond to his joke.

"In short, he took Harry's blood and then sent it away by owl."

Upon hearing this news, George's expression turned somewhat serious.

“That’s all,” he said. “That’s all Peeves heard before Dumbledore kicked him out.”

"Um……"

Fred touched his chin in a mock manner, as if he were thinking.

But the next second, he turned to Scott and asked, "Scott, what do you think?"

Scott got out of bed, stretched, and answered his question, "It doesn't matter what we think, Dumbledore will handle it."

"What exactly happened?"

Roger pulled back his bed curtains, completely bewildered.

"Potter's blood?"

He returned home very late last night and had no idea what had happened.

Fred hung up the call with George and told Roger what had happened.

"Are we having a particularly unlucky year?"

Roger lay back down, sighing.

“I have a feeling that the situation in the UK will become increasingly chaotic, and since we haven’t graduated yet, we might get caught up in it.”

Fred said, "We will be safe. We are at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore here. Hogwarts is the safest place in the world."

“That’s hard to say,” Roger said. “Those people are all lunatics. They might just attack Hogwarts and drag us all into the war.”

“If that’s the case, we’ll teach them a lesson on behalf of Hogwarts!” Fred clenched his fist.

Roger gave him a look of incomprehension.

"I don't know what you're thinking. If war comes, I might just leave."

“Oh, sure, you can transfer to Beauxbatons for your final year!” Fred said sarcastically.

“Maybe it really will,” Roger replied.

Due to differing opinions, the atmosphere between the two became somewhat delicate.

Scott said, "Are you two going to start arguing about a war that might not even happen?"

“I didn’t argue,” Roger said. “I was just analyzing things rationally.”

Fred said, "All I know is that when facing an enemy, you should fight back fiercely, instead of planning to run away in advance."

Roger said unhappily, "Hey, we're not soldiers, Fred!"

"stop!"

Scott quickly made a "stop" gesture.

"This is abnormal; you're all being too tense. There's no problem discussing these things now, but until that day comes, no one can predict what choice they will make."

Everyone knew perfectly well that what happened at Hogwarts meant that Voldemort was already trying to extend his reach into their school.

It's understandable to feel nervous about this.

Scott told Fred, "Roger is just complaining; he might not leave."

He looked at Roger.

"If all your classmates join the fight, will you really leave?"

Neither of them spoke, but the atmosphere eased somewhat.

When they arrived at the lobby on the first floor for breakfast, they found that others were also discussing the attack that had occurred at Hogwarts the previous night.

Clearly, the news had already spread within their ranks.

Everyone was in a bad mood, seemingly having completely forgotten the joy of last night's Christmas dance.

In fact, the Wizarding Wars that took place in Britain more than a decade ago were neither unfamiliar nor distant to this generation of young wizards.

Although their generation lived in a time of peace, they all heard about the events of more than a decade ago from their elders and had some understanding of the horrors of war.

Not to mention, many of their relatives lost their lives in the last war, and the trauma caused by the war has profoundly affected their families.

They are both lucky and unlucky.

Fortunately, most of them were born into peace shortly after their birth.

Unfortunately, they were still minors or had just come of age when the Dark Lord who started the war returned.

When Voldemort appeared at the Quidditch World Cup final during the summer vacation, everyone truly realized that the dark wizard had really returned.

From that time on, a shadow was cast over the hearts of many people.

This time, Harry Potter, whom wizards called "the boy who survived" and "the savior," was attacked at Hogwarts and almost lost his life, which further deepened that shadow.

The impact of this incident may be even greater, especially for students.

In everyone's mind, Hogwarts has always been "the safest place in the world," an "absolute safe fortress" in their subconscious.

The boy who survived the attack at Hogwarts signifies a crack in the "fortress of absolute security."

This is also the difference between reality and what Scott knew as the "original work".

In the original books, this feeling is cyclical because dangerous events involving Harry occur at Hogwarts every year.

In reality, the Basilisk was dealt with before it could petrify anyone, Sirius Black did not escape from prison, nor did he infiltrate Hogwarts as a dangerous criminal, and the Dementors did not appear before anyone.

Having not personally experienced those crises, today's Hogwarts students are undoubtedly more "vulnerable" than those in the "original story".

Of course, a group of students discussing this matter here wouldn't yield any meaningful results, and it even caused serious negative consequences.

The discussion gradually turned into a dispute, and the once united group split up again.

Perhaps due to their unease, the Slytherin members became the targets of suspicion and resentment.

Even though none of the Slytherins here are publicly known descendants of Death Eaters.

This was something Scott hadn't expected.

He hadn't expected some people to be so sensitive.

This is clearly not going to work.

“Stop talking,” he said. “We’re still in Beauxbatons. We can’t let anyone outside of Hogwarts know what’s going on at our school.”

His words had some effect, and everyone shut up.

Scott added, "In short, we should appear as a unit to outsiders, and we shouldn't let them see any signs of discord between us."

“Scott is right,” Cedric was the first to respond to Scott. “We shouldn’t suspect our comrades and create unnecessary misunderstandings.”

Silence followed.

After a long while, the few people who had spoken rather harshly finally apologized.

Although the apology brought them back to each other on the surface, the previously harmonious atmosphere could never be restored.

No one spoke again, and everyone finished their breakfast in silence.

After breakfast, Scott returned to his dormitory.

"I thought it would help everyone reconcile."

Cedric, who came to visit their dorm, was somewhat disappointed.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “After something like that happened, we should be more united.”

Scott said helplessly, "The British only unite when they're facing the French."