Hogwarts: What are the four great masters doing?

There was a hint of nostalgia in Ryan's words.

In fact, this pocket watch was made by Slytherin for Ryan in the past - Ryan has many more in his vault.

And in that era a thousand years ago, Ryan often carried such a pocket watch with him.

Whenever he slacked off during training, the words on his pocket watch would turn into "Lazy".

Then he would hear Slytherin's cold voice in his ears: "Boy, stop playing... go to training, the path of magic does not allow for a moment of carelessness."

He is always so strict.

Of course, after Ryan completed the almost abnormally intense training.

Slytherin would always tell him indifferently: "Now you must rest and slow down your magic... There is a dessert in the second secret compartment at the door. Helga prepared it for you."

"Delighting in sugar is a flaw in how your body senses influence your emotions, but it might help your magic power recover faster."

But that was obviously not the case - at least Ryan was sure that the Hufflepuff teacher's craftsmanship was not that bad.

Of course, Harry had no idea what Ryan was recalling at the moment.

He just clenched the pocket watch in his hand.

"Thank you, Ryan."

There was a joy and sincerity in his voice that he had never heard before - a joy that was almost second only to when he arrived at Hogwarts.

"I love this gift...very much!"

"I also prepared a Christmas present for you...but..."

He felt ashamed for a moment and suddenly felt that the feather pen he prepared for Ryan was a little insincere.

"It's okay, Harry."

At this moment, Ryan smiled and said, "But perhaps you would be willing to lend me your invisibility cloak for research? I'm very interested in it."

"Of course, I promise not to break it!"

He certainly didn't expect a return gift from Harry, and his words were just a casual remark - he was indeed a little curious about Harry's invisibility cloak.

"no problem!"

Harry agreed immediately without hesitation.

Soon, the two of them left the kitchen after enjoying the delicious food.

"Merry Christmas, Harry."

"Merry Christmas, Ryan."

After reaching the sixth floor of the castle, Ryan said goodbye to Harry and returned to their dormitories.

Of course, this night of heart-to-heart talks with Harry was clearly just the beginning of the Christmas holidays.

Ryan was still very busy after that - he was busy packing the various Christmas gifts he bought and sending them to his friends.

At the same time, he himself certainly received many Christmas gifts.

Harry gave him a quill and the right to research the invisibility cloak, Ron gave him some candy, Hermione sent him a Muggle encyclopedia, Neville gave him a plant he had planted himself, and Seamus sent him a handmade item that he said he had made himself.

Well... Ryan didn't dare open the last gift because he didn't like explosions.

And given Ryan's fame, the Christmas gifts he received were not just from his friends.

Many young wizards in Hogwarts whom Ryan was not familiar with, and even people from the magical world outside Hogwarts, sent him Christmas gifts or letters.

The most ridiculous part was that Ryan found a love potion sent to him by a senior witch in a Christmas gift box.

Besides that, he even received a letter from a reporter from a magical newspaper.

"Rita Skeeter..."

Ryan remembered the reporter's name - he had read a lot of news reports from him before entering school.

And it has to be said that judging from Ryan's perspective... there are many exaggerations and doubts in the reporter's report.

So Ryan decisively rejected the other party's interview request, and in his reply he tactfully said, "Perhaps you could interview another key figure, Professor Snape, the master of potions."

However, perhaps it was because of fear of Dumbledore, or the reputation of Hogwarts itself.

So he didn't receive any truly malicious black magic items or curses - this actually surprised Ryan.

"Are the pure-blood families so cowardly?"

He had thought that there would definitely be one or two conspiracies among so many letters.

The excessive number of letters also made it difficult for Ryan to open and reply to them.

However, the twins who occasionally visited his dormitory were very enthusiastic - they offered to wrap Ryan's gifts or write reply letters.

After the letter was sent, they proudly said, "You're done, Ryan... We replaced the gift you gave to Professor McGonagall with a cat toy!"

But Ryan sneered and retorted, "It's still unclear who will be finished - I changed the sender of the letter to you."

The outcome of the pranks was revealed after the Christmas dinner. Ryan used the magic ball to record the pale faces of the twins when they were taken away by the angry Professor McGonagall.

"I bet Ron and Percy will like this image."

So the Christmas holiday was spent happily.

However, just a week after Christmas dinner, the happy atmosphere came to an end.

"what?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow and looked at the twins in front of him.

The sky outside the window was very gloomy - the snow that had been falling for a week had stopped yesterday, and it looked like it was going to rain instead.

"A Ministry hearing? On New Year's Day?"

The news brought by Gemini is also depressing.

"Yeah."*2

The twins nodded, also looking angry.

"Dad said those pure-blood families must have done it on purpose."

They were filled with indignation.

And just as they said - not long ago, they received a Christmas card from home.

The letter accompanying the card contained a message from Mr. Weasley, which included the news that the time for Dumbledore's hearing had been set.

At the request of the pure-blood families, the Ministry of Magic scheduled the hearing for tomorrow evening - New Year's Day, January 1st.

Although there will be no banquet at Hogwarts on this day, it is said that Dumbledore has invited the 'Funky Dance Company', which is very popular in the wizarding world, to perform.

The performance will be held on the large lawn outside the castle. Starting in the evening, most of the professors and students who stay on campus for the Christmas holidays will be there.

Based on Ryan's current understanding of Dumbledore, he was sure that the headmaster must have wanted to join in the fun.

"They knew they couldn't do anything to Headmaster Dumbledore, so they deliberately chose this time to disgust him!"

"They're also blaming Dumbledore for the previous troll attack!"

Fred was very dissatisfied: "But if you ask me, the troll might have been arranged by them!"

After hearing this, Ryan frowned slightly.

Having Dumbledore go to the Ministry of Magic for questioning on New Year's Day - this was a completely meaningless and purely disgusting tactic that made him look down upon pure-blood families even more.

At the same time, he couldn't help but admire Dumbledore's ability to cultivate his energy and control his own strength.

He felt that if it were another legendary wizard, it would be absolutely impossible for a pure-blood family to disgust him so much.

However, he did not agree with Gemini's statement.

Based on his understanding of pure-blood families, it was obviously impossible that the troll was placed in the castle by them - they might have the motive, but they obviously didn't have the courage.

However, the twins didn't know what Ryan was thinking.

After complaining, they stopped talking about Dumbledore and invited Ryan to have dinner together tomorrow and then go to see the performance of the Weird Dance Company.

"We even asked Cedric to come along!"

As for their invitation, Ryan shook his head: "Ron and Harry and I have an appointment to have dinner with them tomorrow...but we do plan to go to the show."

"See you then!"

After hearing this, Gemini didn't hesitate, but just said goodbye to him and left Ryan's dormitory.

But after they left...

"Dumbledore will not be at the castle tomorrow..."

A hint of thought and doubt flashed across Ryan's eyes.

And in the evening of the next day, when the sun set.

As agreed, Ryan prepared to leave the dormitory and go to Gryffindor Tower to find Harry and Ron.

"It's Friday. I have to go."

Ryan looked out the window at the sky.

The sun sets in the west and the sky gradually darkens.

There weren't many clouds in the sky above Hogwarts, but in the distant horizon one could see extremely thick clouds being blown towards them.

This made the sky begin to appear dark and gloomy.

"So it's definitely going to rain tonight—I'll close the window, and don't run around!"

Ryan judged the speed at which the clouds were approaching and said to his cat.

"Meow!?"

The white cat scratched its paws and meowed with its ears folded.

Ryan, who had gradually become familiar with it, could now roughly understand what it meant: "Of course, you can walk around the castle... but don't mess with Madam Norris again!"

He felt that Filch had been looking at him a little too fiercely recently.

"Also, be careful not to break anything in the castle—especially the candlesticks or torches!"

"Meow!"