Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

Vader watched the scene with a smile.

Originally, he felt that these classmates were more or less "taking care of children". But at this moment, Wade felt that... maybe they could really become good friends.

……

Although Madam Pomfrey easily healed Neville's wrist, it still took a long time to wait for the bone to heal. Michael was unwilling to leave Neville alone in the infirmary because of guilt, and insisted on waiting until he was fully healed before going to dinner together. On the way, they encountered a staircase that changed direction, causing them to walk twice as far as usual to get back to the Great Hall.

In short, by the time they returned, the last dessert on the long table had disappeared.

"Oh, no." Michael said with a bitter face: "I should have some candy in my dormitory-"

"Hi, Michael, Neville, and Wade." Theo and Ryan came over. They had been friends since childhood, and after going to school, they were almost inseparable like conjoined twins.

"We heard that Neville had an accident during his flying lesson." Theo looked at Neville with concern: "Are you okay?"

"Broken wrist -" Neville held up his arm to show him, "but Madam Pomfrey healed it in no time."

"That's great." Theo said happily, grabbing his arm and looking at it.

"Have you had dinner?" Ryan asked. "We didn't see you guys just now."

"No!" Michael looked at the two of them pitifully and asked expectantly, "Did you two leave some bread or something for us?"

"No - but it's better than that!" Theo pulled Michael out of the auditorium: "Come with us!"

"Where are we going?" Neville asked confusedly.

"We'll be able to see it soon! This is a secret known only to Hufflepuff students! A senior student told us the day before yesterday." Theo said excitedly.

"I dare say that nothing can be hidden from the Weasley twins," Michael said to Wade, who nodded in agreement.

They passed through a door and walked down a stone staircase to a wide stone corridor. The corridor was brightly lit by torches on both sides of the wall. There were many decorative paintings on the walls, just like other places in the castle, but there were few people in the paintings, only various kinds of food.

Theo stopped in front of a large painting of fruit, reached out, and gently tickled the pear in the painting.

Chapter 19 Zoe and Peeves

The pear squirmed as if it was ticklish, giggling, and turned into a green doorknob. Theo grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open, and everyone entered.

This is a very large room.

The room was the same size and layout as the hall above, with four long tables, but empty. There were many gleaming kitchen utensils along the stone walls, and a brick fireplace at the other end, with a roaring fire and the smell of roasting meat.

There were many strange-looking creatures in the room. They had big bat-like ears and bulging round eyes like frogs, which looked as big as tennis balls. They also had noses as thin as pencils, skinny hands and feet, and they wore tea towels with the Hogwarts emblem on them as robes.

When the little monsters heard the noise, they all turned their heads to look over. They looked at the students with eager, expectant eyes, but they didn't all come over. Wherever Wade and the others looked, the little monsters bowed and knelt toward them, showing great respect.

"Oh my God!" Michael was extremely surprised and said enviously, "So many house-elves."

"Welcome to the Hogwarts kitchens!" Theo said, opening his arms. "This is the best place in Hogwarts!"

"You can tell them whatever you want to eat. The elves are very welcoming." Ryan also said.

"Hello," Weed bent down and looked at the nearest house elf, and asked, "Can you help us get some food?"

"Of course! Of course, sir!" the house-elf said softly, "I would be honored."

The house elves happily brought over various delicacies such as pies, steaks, baked potatoes, egg tarts, plum puddings, orange juice, pumpkin juice, vegetable juice, and even two bottles of butter beer. After the few people had eaten and drunk their fill, the elves brought over many desserts, vowing to make them eat to their heart's content.

"I can't eat any more." Neville took an ice cream, licked it and said with difficulty.

"Almost all Hufflepuff students know where the kitchen is because our common room is nearby. So it's an open secret," Theo told Michael. "There are always all kinds of delicious food in our common room - Hufflepuffs never go hungry!"

"It's wonderful." Michael drank butter beer and sighed, "Why am I not a Hufflepuff?"

"What are you talking about?" Ryan laughed. "When we were sorting, I heard someone say that if he was sorted into Hufflepuff, he would rather drop out of school."

"There's nothing good about Ravenclaw either." Michael sighed, "Ravenclaw Tower is too high - really too high - I feel like dying from climbing the stairs every day - every time I go back to the common room after class, I have to make up my mind..."

He seemed a little drunk and spoke in a very aggrieved manner.

Wade managed to control himself and not overeat, but it was his first time drinking and he obviously couldn't hold his liquor very well. Just two rum-filled chocolates and a glass of butter beer knocked him out. At this moment, Wade's head was dizzy and he saw double when he looked at people.

He propped his chin up, yawned lazily, and was identifying the house-elves one by one -

"Coco, Amy, Becky, Happy, Lola, Phil..."

It seemed to be a great honor for the elves to have their names read out by the wizard. They lined up to tell Wade their names as if they were performing some kind of ceremony.

"Um, Zoe? Are you a girl?" Wade recognized the elf that spoke to him at the beginning.

To be honest, the elves all have wrinkled faces like those of 80-year-olds, and apart from their names, their gender cannot be identified by their appearance or clothing.

"Y-yes, Mr. Gray," said Zoe, twisting her fingers nervously and excitedly.

"Are you the ones who usually help us clean the room and do the laundry?" Wade asked.

"Yes, yes, sir." Zoe nodded vigorously, looking at Wade seriously with her big eyes: "Zoe, Harpy and Phil are in charge of Ravenclaw Tower."

If you look closely, you can see that the house-elf's tea towel is decorated with a tiny flower - she is indeed a girl.

"Are you also cleaning other places in the castle?" Wade asked again.

"Yes, sir."

"You were the ones who took our luggage off the train?"

"Yes, sir."

"It's been hard work." Wade sighed. "It's really a lot of work."

“No, no—how could that be?” Zoe said quickly, “We like to work! Work doesn’t make us feel tired. It would be terrible if we didn’t have a job!”

The house elves all said how dedicated they were to their work and never slacked off. They tried their best to make dinner that satisfied everyone, polished every silverware to a sparkling shine, washed the students' muddy shoes, and always appeared and disappeared quietly, never disturbing others. They were very excellent house elves.

Wade looked at them silently and didn't speak for a long time.

……

After dinner, it was almost curfew time. The elves enthusiastically stuffed the few people with a lot of cream cakes and fried jam donuts, and then they each returned to the college lounge.

Wade and Michael walked up the movable stairs. When they were tired and panting, the armor on the wall shook suddenly, and then a white guy suddenly jumped out, roaring like a beast.

"Ah!" Michael was startled and his legs went weak and he sat down on the ground.

"Hahaha……"

The white guy held his belly and laughed out loud. He floated in the air and kicked his legs.

Michael was angry and amused: "Peeves! You're hiding here and scaring people again!"

Peeves is a special ghost in Hogwarts. He can float around, have a physical body, touch objects, and likes to create chaos. Just like his name, he is a very naughty guy.

"Look! There are two little wizards here! They are wandering outside at night instead of sleeping!" In the corridor, Peeves circled around Wade and his friend, saying maliciously, "Wait, I'm going to call Filch over! Catch you little rascals!"

Peeves loved to scare students who were out at night like this, and then chase them all the way, watching them run back to the dormitory in a panic, and sometimes he would pull their robes and hair to tease them. But this time he miscalculated, because Wade waved his wand, and a row of golden letters appeared in front of him, writing the current time.

"Ha!" Michael laughed breathlessly. "Seven minutes till curfew! You can't fool us, Peeves!"

Peeves rolled his round eyes and said slyly, "Seven minutes - not enough for you to return to Ravenclaw Tower."

"Yeah. But by the time you get Filch here, we'll have already gone back," Wade said calmly.

Peeves curled his lips and muttered, "Hmph, boring Ravenclaw!" He turned and floated away to play pranks on other students.

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," said the eagle-shaped door knocker, 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!"