Hogwarts: Voldemort, don't stop me from studying

"That's all right," Filch said happily. "As long as it can do the job... I wonder how much it will cost?"

He asked, carrying a heavy bag of money.

Hogwarts provides food and accommodation all year round. Filch stays in school all day and has no place to spend money except occasionally going out to buy alcohol.

Therefore, even though the salary offered by the school was not high, Filch still had a considerable amount of savings, and he was confident when he asked this question.

"The cleaned crabs are not finished products yet. If you need them, I'll give you a cost price... fifteen silver Sickles for one," said Wade.

This was a very fair price, much better than Filch had expected. He suddenly said with great wealth, "Then I'll buy ten... no, twenty!"

Wade couldn't help but laugh and said, "Not that many. This kind of crab has not been mass-produced yet. There are only seven in total that I made myself. Um... I'm going to keep one, and I can sell the remaining six to you."

"Uh... well."

Filch said with a little disappointment, but he felt happy when he thought that most of the troublesome cleaning work could be handed over to the crabs in the future.

"Come with me," Wade said. "I put the cleaning crabs in the activity room."

The two walked up the stairs, and Filch became more talkative as his mood improved.

"I've had enough of this... frog brains, rat intestines, and slug slime... those little devils always leave these things everywhere..."

Filch couldn't help complaining, and said to Wade:

"Of course, you're an exception, kid. I know you never leave any dirt everywhere... and those Quidditch guys, they get mud everywhere..."

The students passing by in the corridor saw someone walking with Filch and thought he was caught by the administrator. They hid aside and looked at Wade with sympathy.

A few enthusiastic junior students hurried over to inform the rest of the SSC.

"Oh no! Oh no!"

The little girl grabbed Padma's hand and said in panic, "Filch has caught Weed Grey, and he's coming to catch you too!"

"what!"

Padma was shocked and ran back to the umbrella house. Seeing that most people were there, she hurriedly told them the news.

Everyone was shocked and asked, "Why did he arrest people?!"

"Has the last fight been exposed?" Theo asked worriedly.

"Malfoy and the others must be telling on me behind my back!" Harry said firmly.

"He can't just arrest people!" Padma stamped her feet: "I'm going to find Professor Flitwick!"

She opened the door and ran away in a hurry. Hermione grabbed her face and said in a shrill voice: "It is not against school rules for us to form a club! I have memorized all the school rules!"

"Come on, Hermione, we've broken more school rules than we can count!"

Fred clapped his hands vigorously and shouted, "What are you standing there for?! Pack your things and run!"

Everyone jumped up as if they had just woken up from a dream, hurriedly packed up things that they thought might be in violation of the rules, and rushed out of the umbrella house with their schoolbags.

The corridor was very quiet, and there was no sign of ambushing pursuers.

They breathlessly hid their belongings in an empty classroom nearby, but then, feeling uneasy, they turned around and slipped back like ordinary students.

"—Have you heard? Vid Grey has been caught."

"By whom?"

"Filch."

"I don't know what school rules he violated..."

The rumor spread among the students faster than the flu.

It was not surprising that the Weasley twins were caught, and it was also common for Gryffindors like Harry and Hermione to be caught, but it was extremely rare that Weed Grey, a top student and a Ravenclaw, was caught and seemed to be acting as a "guide".

Then Wade found that there seemed to be an unusually large number of students in the corridor today, and they were all secretly looking at him. But when he looked over, everyone avoided his sight again.

There were also some familiar classmates who looked at him with complicated expressions.

Someone winked at him - 'What's going on? Do you need help?'

Some people even secretly took out various prank props, as if they were preparing to use them on Filch next to them, giving him a chance to escape.

Wade quickly figured out the reason and was suddenly in a state of confusion. He shook his head at some people, signaling them not to make trouble.

But Filch didn't understand why there were more and more students in his sight, as if all the students in the school had run into the corridor. He stared at some people fiercely, ready to grab their braids at any time.

The two soon arrived at the Umbrella House. The students watched from a distance at the end of the corridor and saw Wade open the door smoothly, but Filch stood at the door and did not go in.

Even Mrs. Norris squatted obediently beside him, without any of her usual arrogance.

A string of question marks popped up over the students' heads.

Until they saw Wade carrying out a few cleaning crabs and handing them to Filch, then the administrator counted out a few gold Galleons and silver Sickles and handed them to Wade, then happily carried the crabs away.

Everyone suddenly realized what had happened, and then they felt an emotion that was hard to tell whether it was resentment or disappointment.

There were the sounds of footsteps, and Professor Flitwick was almost pulled up by Padma, shouting:

"Slow down... Oh, Merlin, don't run so fast... What happened?"

The first girl who spread the rumor shrank her neck and quietly slipped away.

There will be another chapter later

Chapter 223 Flowers

"Thank you, Professor."

"Is everything really alright? You know you can tell me if you get into any trouble."

"No, Mr. Filch just bought a few crabs from me for cleaning purposes, but everyone misunderstood."

Wade explained the whole thing somewhat helplessly, and Professor Flitwick was relieved.

"I hope you won't be so reckless in the future." Professor Flitwick said to Padma and others, "Be calm and observe before you act."

"I'm sorry, Professor."

Padma lowered her head and said embarrassedly.

After the farce was over, everyone moved their belongings back in a mess. The girls saw that the original crab that loved to blow bubbles was still there, and they felt a sense of joy at having lost something and then found it again.

"Why did you sell the cleaner crabs to Filch?" Harry asked in confusion. "No one likes him, and you don't need the Galleons."

"Although it is refreshing to give him a hard time, wouldn't it be better to have a good relationship with the administrator?"

Michael retorted, "Imagine you were hanging out after curfew and Filch would ignore you."

"Really?" Harry asked wistfully.

"Fake!"

Hermione smacked him on the head with the book containing the school rules.

"Even if Filch turns a blind eye, he will still catch you if he sees you!"

Harry's eyebrows drooped in frustration.

Vader smiled and didn't explain further.

……

After that, when the students saw Filch again, they saw that there were always a few crabs following him - at least two, sometimes as many as six, lined up in a neat row, just like they were following their leader.

Filch no longer yelled hysterically at students when they spilled mud or other dirt on the floor.

On the contrary, he seemed very happy. With a wave of his hand, the crab soldiers rushed forward with a clattering sound and cleaned the floor clean in a short while.

Sometimes students accidentally crushed a slug or exploded a crucible, and the elderly administrator didn't have to climb up a ladder to clean it up.

For cleaning crabs, there is no difference between the roof and the floor, and it does not add any extra workload.

Filch used to hate rainy days because they meant he would have to clean all day long.

But now, he even hoped that it would rain a little more, and then he could stand leisurely by the window and enjoy the feeling of water vapor hitting his face.

The administrator's temper seemed to have suddenly become much better, and the students were a little uncomfortable with it.

The weird feeling when they accidentally made a mess in the hallway and received not yelling and insults but a smile from the administrator was simply creepy.

The bad habits of some slobs were suddenly corrected.

"I used to think there was nothing worse than Filch's roar, but now I realize I was wrong—"

A Gryffindor said to his companion in a deep tone: "What's worse is Filch's smile."

His companion nodded in agreement: "When he smiled at me, I got goose bumps."

……

Filch didn't take the students' comments to heart.

He showed off his crabs to every corner of Hogwarts, and watched with satisfaction as everywhere they passed became clean and shiny.

However, although the cleaning crab is easy to use, as a semi-finished product, it sometimes has some minor faults, and Filch can only ask Wade for help to repair it.

After a while, the two became really familiar with each other, and Filch even entertained Wade in his own cabin like a guest.

You know, even Dumbledore didn't get an active invitation from the administrator.

Filch's office was very dark, with only an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling providing a dim light for the room.

There were many filing cabinets along the walls. It was said that Filch had more than a thousand boxes of punishment records, but no student had ever had the chance to actually see them.

There was also a wall with hinges, handcuffs and other things hanging on it, shining with cold metal light under the light. Even if they couldn't be used, just lying there was enough to intimidate timid students.

An orange crab flipped back and forth in Vader's hands.

"The magic pattern circuit is a little worn out, but it's not a big problem."

It took Wade only a few minutes to fix the crab. He put it on the ground, and it immediately climbed up, wiping off the few drops of ink on the ground.

Crabs have their own cleaning spell, so even if they clean all day long, they themselves are never stained with dirt.

Filch watched it work with great fondness, and said affectionately, "Thank you, Wade. Omar was hit by a student's spell before, and then he stopped moving... I almost thought it was dead..."

He sniffed, seeming to be still immersed in sadness.