The years of welding at Hogwarts

Especially now for the second-year students, every one of them has mastered superb knife skills.

Even Ron and Harry, poor students in Potions who were always targeted by the old bat in class, could hardly find any fault with their knife skills, as the old bat, who was full of prejudice and opinions against Gryffindor House, could not find any fault with them.

Ron quickly cut a cabbage with the help of the knife, and swept the whole cabbage into a large iron basin next to him with the wide blade of the knife.

Harry, who was waiting for the cabbage to be put into the pot, saw this and raised his wand. The large iron basin on the ground began to float up under the effect of the levitation spell, and then flew right above the oil pan and suddenly turned over.

The moment the cabbage and the hot oil came into contact, a large amount of white smoke immediately rose from the iron pot on the stove.

Harry skillfully used the levitation spell to control the spatula in his right hand, stood at a safe distance where he would definitely not be splashed by the hot oil droplets, and used the levitation spell to control the spatula to begin stir-frying the cabbage in the pot.

Soon, the aroma of stir-fried cabbage wafted from the wok.

"Seamus, help me check if the potatoes are cooked!"

"I'm coming!"

Hearing Harry's words, the blaster who had been waiting on the side immediately jumped up from the log he used as a chair and walked to the bonfire next to the stove in two or three steps.

A cauldron was hung on a wooden rack above the campfire, and inside it were the potatoes that Harry had thrown in to boil about ten minutes ago.

After taking the potatoes out of the crucible, Explosive Ghost drew out his wand.

This action of his instantly made the people around him quickly retreat to a "safe distance" ten meters away from him before they dared to stop retreating.

Seeing that everyone was avoiding him as if he were the plague, the corners of Simo's mouth twitched.

"I say, do you really need to do this? Am I such a dangerous person?!"

Facing Seamus' soul-searching question, Harry just nodded silently, "Yes."

The spatula would automatically stir the cabbage in the iron pan. Harry, who didn't need to stay by the stove for the time being, had his hands free, so he simply stood in a safe area and began to count on his fingers all the achievements of Seamus, the explosive genius, since his debut.

"During the first Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall asked us to turn matches into silver needles, and you blew the entire desk into pieces."

"In the first Potions class, you sent the entire class except Noah and Draco to the school infirmary."

Every time Harry read out a glorious achievement of the explosive genius, Seamus Finnigan's face darkened.

Then Ron and Dean, who were in the same dormitory, also started to criticize Seamus.

Ron muttered as he carried the plates to the table made of wooden stakes, "Later, Professor Flitwick heard of your reputation and was on guard against you, but you still blew Dean, who was in the same group with you, into the school infirmary."

"..."

Even though the dishes were cooked by Harry and served on the table,

The guys who were in the same team all sat down at the dining table, and Simo's friends were still recounting the glorious achievements of the demolition genius.

"On the fifth day of military training, Instructor Barnes asked us to try to mobilize the free magic in the external environment to enhance our magic power. You wanted to cast a simple blazing fire spell, but you directly blew a large hole with a diameter of more than ten meters on the grass of the Quidditch field."

"Okay, okay, stop talking."

Seamus obediently stuffed his wand back into his sleeve, picked up his knife and fork and began to put food on the plates of his friends.

"Come on, come on, little brother, try this. Oh my god, it smells so good."

……

Such a scene not only happened at Harry's and his friends' dining table, the entire camp was filled with such a thriving atmosphere. The students of Hogwarts were united and friendly, and every student seemed to be enjoying themselves.

It was such a joyful scene that continued until they finished enjoying the lunch they had cooked themselves, and the professors announced in front of them that they would have a whole afternoon of free time. The atmosphere in the camp reached its climax.

Every student was cheering for the professors' wise decision. Even though the scope of activities was limited to the area from the Quidditch pitch to the camp and returning to the castle was not allowed, it did not affect the students' interest at all.

Looking at this group of excited students, Buggy curled up the corner of his mouth into a sneer.

What a bunch of naive little guys.

Because predators that might endanger students have been driven far away by professors for safety reasons, the resources near the camp are the most abundant.

But when they have plundered all the resources nearby at noon today and need to start setting foot in the hunting territories of those higher predators, they will find that obtaining food is not as easy as they imagined.

This is why Bucky dared to make a bet with Noah that after nightfall, the lower grade students at Hogwarts would have nothing to do but eat potatoes pitifully.

There is a saying in that mysterious ancient oriental country that makes a lot of sense:

Canglin is practical and knows etiquette.

With sufficient resources, this group of Hogwarts students could certainly put aside the barriers between their grades and colleges and live in harmony, just as the professors expected.

Students who are able to obtain high-level resources will naturally not hesitate to share the food they hunt with those students who are not capable enough to participate in hunting.

But that is based on the premise that the resources they have are sufficient for them to consume.

And under the condition of scarce resources, can they continue to get along with their classmates who can only pick fruits and vegetables around the camp like they did at noon?

Not only Bucky, but all the professors at Hogwarts are looking forward to it.

Only when they are in trouble can they see the true nature of these students.

Because of the depression in the past ten days, the Hogwarts students who were given the order to move freely began to play wildly like wild horses.

They all naively thought that this picnic at noon was really specially prepared by the professors for them to relax after their hard training, and even the subsequent free activities were the same.

They all took it for granted that after the sun went down this evening, they would return to the spacious hall of Hogwarts Castle with tired but cheerful steps, to the sound of pleasant bells marking the end of a day's training, just like in the past, and enjoy the food carefully prepared for them by the house-elves.

No one was aware of the crisis.

The sun in the sky gradually tilted, and the shadows of the trees on the ground were gradually lengthened due to the slanted light, until everyone's shadow could be stretched out two or three meters on the ground. At that moment, the bells of Hogwarts Castle in the distance rang as it did in the past.

After ten days of training, gathering quickly after hearing the bell has become a conditioned reflex ingrained in the students' bodies.

Without even the need for the professor to give orders, the students who had gathered from all directions consciously arranged themselves into eight square formations in the camp, adjusted the spacing between the rows, and waited for further instructions from the professors.

Looking at the students' appearance, even the cold-blooded devil instructor Bucky Barnes could not help but show a hint of approval for the performance of these students.

"Before we wrap up today's training, I have one announcement to make."

Bucky's eyes swept across the faces of every student in front of him. He was looking forward to what kind of disbelief these students would show.

"In the next ten days, all your training and life will take place in this camp."

"That is to say, in the next ten days, your three meals a day will be the same as today's lunch. From obtaining food to cooking ingredients, everything will depend on your own abilities."

"Considering the special circumstances today, you will still return to Hogwarts Castle to sleep tonight."

"Starting tomorrow, you will need to build your own shelter in the camp. We will not set foot in Hogwarts Castle for the next ten days."

"Now, you are free to move! Disband!"

When Bucky said

The moment the sound fell, the entire camp seemed to explode. Students gathered together, and the sound of students' chattering lingered everywhere.

Every student looked helpless at this sudden attack.

First of all, the biggest problem they faced was tonight's food -

Because Bucky's announcement was so sudden, none of the students, who originally had a whole afternoon of free time, thought of using this time to stock up on food for tonight.

In other words, they had to get their food for the night in the dark in the forbidden forest, which became several times more dangerous than during the day after nightfall.

Chapter 298 Testing the Power of the New Invention

The Forbidden Forest during the day and the Forbidden Forest at night are two completely different places.

Even though this dark forest filled with rich magical energy gave birth to many terrifying dark creatures, these deadly predators would not choose to hunt openly in broad daylight.

But when the forest is shrouded in the darkness of the night, it is completely different.

Even a thick-skinned half-giant like Hagrid would not choose to go deep into the Forbidden Forest at such a time of night if it was not necessary, let alone hunt in the forest.

"What should we do now?"

Charlie Weasley looked at Gemma Farley, who was in the same year as him.

Charlie Weasley has experience working in a dragon farm, so his excellence is naturally needless to say.

As a member of the Hogwarts branch of Kamar-Taj, Gemma Farley, who has graduated from Hogwarts and accepted an invitation to return to school for further education, has fully demonstrated her abilities in the ten days of military training.

Now the eighth grade students all vaguely follow these two people and regard them as the leaders of the team.

However, no matter how outstanding a student is, as long as he is not at the level of Longbottom and Shafrin, he will feel quite embarrassed about the current situation.

"Let's organize the manpower first..."

Gemma Farley sighed helplessly, "Count how many of us can enter the Forbidden Forest to hunt, and divide them into teams that go out and those that stay behind."

"The rest of you should stay in the camp for now and do what you can. We now need to build an observation tower in the camp that is taller than the treetops..."

As orders were issued one after another, the students surrounding the two began to take action.

Charlie narrowed his eyes. "That's not what I'm talking about."

Gemma Farley, a member of Slytherin house who didn't really get along with Charlie, a Gryffindor, turned around and prepared to leave after she finished her words.

But Charlie's words made her pause again.

Turning back, Gemma folded her arms and stared coldly at Charlie in front of her, "I think it is not a wise choice to discuss this matter under the current circumstances."

"No, it is precisely because the conflict in the camp has not yet been aroused that we should talk about this crucial matter in advance so that everyone can be prepared."

Charlie said slowly and firmly, “Otherwise, we will never be able to control the situation.”

With Gemma's intelligence, she naturally knew what Charlie was talking about.

In the current situation, if we just wait for two or three days...

No, it won’t even take two or three days.

Given the abundance of resources in the low-risk areas surrounding the camp, in the absence of carbohydrate-rich foods such as rice and flour as staple foods, the resources would only be enough for two or three meals for nearly a thousand people at Hogwarts.

This means that they will have to wait until tomorrow night at the latest before facing a difficult situation -

There is not enough food.

However, the number of students who can go out to get food only accounts for less than one-fifth of the nearly 1,000 students.

In such a situation, there are only two choices before them.

When the food is barely enough to fill their own stomachs, should they share the hard-earned food with the students who stayed behind in the camp, or just ignore the flood?

Hunting is a highly physically demanding activity, not to mention that students have to compete fiercely with the extremely dangerous natives of the Forbidden Forest when they go out.

Without filling their stomachs, they would certainly not be able to maintain their overall state, and the food they could obtain might even become less.

So, share the food with other people?

To be frank, although the things done by the students who stayed behind in the camp were of little help to the training, their tasks were not difficult at all.

Picking fruits and vegetables and cooking food, building a lookout tower so as to be able to observe the red sparks of distress sent by hunting teams in the dark, these are things that even a second-grade wizard can do.

Given that they are able to do these things themselves, is there any need for them to share their food with these burdens who are only holding them back?

More importantly, if I share the food with those burdens, I will eventually be unable to maintain a good condition, so that they will be trapped in this wilderness.

If a student performs poorly in a competition and is given a low score by the professors, what does that mean?

Charlie obviously realized this, but as the eldest brother of the Weasley family.

Well, now that Bill is not here, he is indeed the eldest brother of this group of Weasleys. Charlie certainly cannot sit idly by and watch his younger brothers and his most beloved little sister starve.

As for the small bonus the team received after winning first place, Charlie really didn't think much of it.

How could honor and Galleons be more important than family?

Gemma obviously saw through Charlie's thoughts, "Are you worried about your brothers and sisters?"

Even though she had a bad relationship with Gryffindor, Gemma did not seize on the hint of selfishness in Charlie's idea and attack him wantonly.

Facing Gemma Farley's sharp gaze that seemed to be able to see through his inner thoughts, Charlie just nodded, acknowledging his true thoughts.

“I just don’t think now is the right time.”

The obvious disagreement between these two backbones could not but arouse the curiosity of the students passing by. Some students who were originally busy preparing for tonight's dinner also stopped and gathered around the two.

"Don't you understand what the professors are trying to do?"

"They deliberately delayed the announcement of our next training content until so late, just to catch all of us off guard."

"Everything has a priority. The most important thing for us right now is not to deal with this potential conflict that has not yet emerged, but to solve the food problem tonight and even tomorrow morning."

Gemma Farley lowered her eyes slightly, and her tone was as calm as an ancient well. "Your idea may be right, but not being able to sort out the priorities of things will only make the situation a mess."

Under Gemma's calm and well-reasoned narration, Charlie, who was a little confused about priorities because he was concerned about his family, lowered his head embarrassedly and obediently did what Gemma asked.

……