The years of welding at Hogwarts

The Dementors, who served as jailers, did not take this seriously.

There are so many prisoners in Azkaban, and the living conditions here are so bad that it is very normal for one or two prisoners to die every now and then.

Not even bothering to call its companions to help deal with the prisoner's body, the patrolling Dementor just staggered away into the distance without even looking back.

However, it didn't know that a black dog with dirty hair was curled up in a corner of the cell and shivering.

Even if the Dementors did not deliberately absorb the emotions floating in the air, the icy breath lingering around them, which was enough to freeze everything, was enough to make this black dog with only a few pounds of meat on its body suffer.

After a long time, the black dog, feeling his body temperature gradually returning to normal, reluctantly stood up and tentatively stepped out of the cell door.

After confirming that there was indeed no Dementor in this huge Azkaban that could sense him in this form, the black dog started running around the castle.

Running along the long and narrow corridor, it soon arrived outside the black castle that looked like a tombstone.

Looking at the vast sea with raging waves in front of him, Black Dog looked back at the prison where he had been imprisoned for more than ten years, and without hesitation jumped off the reef at the edge of the island and plunged into the vast sea.

Chapter 307 For the greater good

During the last ten days of military training, the students of Hogwarts finally put aside the barriers between them caused by differences in age, grade, background and affiliation, and got along harmoniously with each other.

Not only had the professors never seen such a scene in their many years of teaching career, it had also never happened since Hogwarts was founded.

After putting aside their differences and working together, this wilderness survival, which is extremely difficult for every individual, becomes much easier.

During these last ten days, this group of students who were supposed to be undergoing arduous training did not seem to be on military training, but rather like they were on an autumn outing, and they lived happily in the forbidden forest.

Now that the goal has been achieved, there is no point in letting these students stay in the Forbidden Forest any longer.

Taking advantage of the last few days of training time, Noah brought this group of students who had been letting themselves go for nearly a month back to the Quidditch field, and once again subjected them to severe torture in magical postures.

In addition to the daily standing at attention, there is also the practice of the basic boxing of Kamar-Taj, which is Noah's own modified military boxing. The evil Shafulin has added an additional magical posture training for these students -

Goose step and march in step.

Military training without a parade ceremony is incomplete. Similarly, a military parade without goose-stepping is not a complete parade.

The only thing that Noah felt a little regretful about was that the number of students at Hogwarts was too small. The number of students in all seven grades combined was not as many as the number of students in one grade of a department when he was in college.

With such a small number of people, no matter how uniformly they marched, when they were arranged into a sparse square formation, they had already lost the grandeur and shocking feeling brought by the sea of ​​people that looked like copies and pastes at a glance.

There is no way. After all, this is a congenital deficiency and cannot be compensated by hard training.

……

September 9, Hogwarts Wizardry

The final day of the school’s first simulated military training camp.

The cool autumn breeze gently blew across the green Quidditch pitch, driving the tender green grass sprouts on the ground, creating layer upon layer of ripples like waves.

An unknown piece of music with a warm and cheerful, solemn and exciting melody was floating over Hogwarts Castle through the large speakers that were originally placed around the Quidditch field. The whole school was filled with excitement and anticipation.

If there is a student in the school who is an international student from China and has the honor of witnessing the mysterious military parade of that ancient country, he will know that the name of this piece of music is "Welcome March".

Using weather spells to drive away dark clouds in the sky on some important days seems to have unknowingly become a default practice when Hogwarts holds celebrations.

The entire sky was clear and transparent, and there was not a single cloud floating in the sky within a radius of dozens of kilometers.

The towering stands surrounding the Quidditch pitch were completely dismantled during the military training, leaving only a large rostrum in the middle as the viewing venue for the military parade.

Not only the professors of Hogwarts were seated in the stands, but even the school directors who almost never showed up at school also attended today's ceremony, a rare occasion.

At nine o'clock in the morning, nearly a thousand Hogwarts students had lined up outside the Quidditch field.

They were not divided according to colleges but according to grades, and were divided into seven squares with uneven numbers of people.

With such a pitiful number of people, it was difficult to maintain a decent momentum, but this was the best Noah could do after trying his best.

It's not that he didn't want to make the scene more grand, but the wizarding world had a pitifully low population base and an even lower fertility rate than Muggles.

There are only a few dozen new students enrolled every year. When Noah was in high school, there was not even a class.

Let alone Noah, even if Merlin came, he wouldn't be able to increase the fertility rate in the wizarding world, right?

It’s not that wizards don’t want to have more children. With the magic of magic, even if the population of the magical world increased tenfold, every family would have a dozen children and there would be no need to worry about not having enough food and clothing.

For wizards, food can be harvested in abundance simply by using magic.

While Muggles were still racking their brains and working hard to increase the yield per acre, wizards' enlargement spells had already been able to grow a pumpkin as big as a carriage.

Even in the barren Siberian icy plains, wizards can easily grow Heru taller than humans with the help of magical natural magic...

Phew, corn on the cob.

This refers to corn cobs that are taller than a person, without taking into account the height of the corn stalks.

Even if a wizard's pockets are cleaner than his face, as long as his magical ability is not as low as a squib, he can easily support himself with his magical ability.

Without having to worry about the most basic necessities of life being insecure, the only issue wizards have to worry about is the education of their offspring.

But the assistance mechanism established by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for poor students has also solved this worry for them.

Under such circumstances, the fertility rate in the wizarding world has not been improved. The root of this problem is not that wizards do not want to have children, but that they cannot do it.

The Weasley family has always been denounced by pure-blood families as "pure-blood scum", but in fact, a typical pure-blood supporter like Lucius Malfoy envied Arthur Weasley in his heart.

That guy is really fertile.

A large population is a grand goal that every pure-blood family pursues. However, the reality is that the more a family pursues purity, the more it will eventually wither.

This may be a natural flaw that magic brings to wizards.

Look at the so-called Sacred Twenty-Eight Clans.

Of those so-called prominent families with the purest bloodlines, how many are left now?

Even if there are only a few heirs left in the main line of the clan, how many of them are not in prison?

Lestrange, Black, Rosier, Longbottom...

So, even though Lucius always looked down on his old rival Arthur, as he was the only child in the family, he must have envied Arthur to death.

If Arthur could understand Lucius's thoughts, then the situation of the person who did the toad jumping in the Merlin Memorial Hall that day might have been reversed.

……

Although the formation of the seven grades was not very impressive, it did not affect the high spirits of the professors in the stands.

What big scenes have they not seen in the decades they have been engaged in the education industry?

When the voice of Lee Jordan, the eternal commentator, spread throughout the Quidditch pitch through the radio and the first formation marched towards the Quidditch pitch in uniform steps, the professors could not help but stare wide-eyed, fearing that they would miss any details.

Sorry, they have never seen such a scene before.

Although they are in the same grade,

Due to different physical development, the students' heights vary. Fortunately, there is a large enough distance between each student in the square formation, which reduces the differences between them visually.

Even though they had only received four days of training, the first-year students looked serious and their coordinated movements won Noah's approval as they slowly walked towards the podium.

This may be due to the positive effects of the arduous magic posture training during the first ten days of military training.

In any case, this group of students are doing much better than when he was in military training.

After the gradually advancing square formation came within a certain range of the rostrum, a sharp whistle sounded, and the students who were originally marching in step suddenly changed their pace.

It was almost as if the hand raising and arm swinging were controlled by one brain, and each leg lift was at the same perfect height, which stunned the group of country bumpkin wizards in the stands who had never seen the world.

Standing in the stands, the smile on the older cat girl's face was almost squeezing her eyebrows and eyes out of sight.

She cheerfully waved to the students who were marching in neat rows below the podium, "Hello, students!"

In response, nearly a thousand students from the entire school shouted in unison: "Hello, Principal!"

"The students have worked hard!"

"For the greater good!"

When hearing this, the smile on Professor McGonagall's face froze instantly, and she stood there in a daze for a long time as if she was hit by a petrification spell. The reactions of the other professors in the stands were similar to that of the older cat girl.

The pure-blood school directors who were familiar with this slogan all gasped.

Perhaps the young people who have not experienced Grindelwald's rule do not know the meaning of this declaration in the wizarding world, but for those older wizards, especially those of pure-blooded origin.

How could they be unfamiliar with this declaration that once struck fear into the entire wizarding world?

“For the greater good.”

The weight of this sentence is no less than Germany's "Sieg Heil" during World War II.

If it were in the era when Grindelwald was still a big name in the European and American wizarding world, it might not be a big deal for Hogwarts students to openly shout this slogan in such an occasion.

But the problem is that Grindelwald's rule has been collapsed for nearly fifty years now.

The students of Hogwarts once again shouted such a slogan, and the shock was no less than the sudden news breaking out in Germany in the 21st century -

A certain university raised a swastika flag during its school anniversary celebration, and all the teachers and students raised their arms in salute and shouted "Long live a certain art student who failed the exam."

It took four or five seconds for all the professors who knew Noah's true background to react, and they all turned their death gazes to a certain Shafulin who was watching the fun and was not afraid of getting involved.

Under their leadership, although the school directors who did not understand Noah's background did not quite understand, they also followed the gazes of others and focused their eyes on the young wizard in the stands.

Noah didn't care at all about their stares.

He just raised his eyebrows slightly, with a hint of playfulness and provocation in his expression, and said lightly, "For the greater good."

They had never expected to see such a scene today. The professors and school directors in the stands didn't know how they should react at this moment.

Their inner activities are extremely rich.

One of the ideas that occupies the mainstream thought in the minds of most people is:

"Is this young man crazy?"

But after the initial shock, the pure-blood school directors slowly calmed down and began to have other thoughts in their minds.

You know, the person standing in front of them at this moment is the youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin, First Class since the establishment of the Order of Merlin. Such an honor has long proved his talent and ability that can be regarded as unique in the history of magic.

Even Grindelwald, when he was the same age as Noah, was just an ordinary student at Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Although Gellert Grindelwald's performance in school at that time could be called excellent, for people outside, no matter how excellent his performance was in school, it would be difficult for it to cross the barrier of the school wall and reach everyone's ears.

But Noah and Grindelwald are not the same.

At just under thirteen years old, his achievements were even a hundred times more outstanding than those of Grindelwald.

And it was this young man with extraordinary talent who, in such an important public occasion, was completely unafraid of the pressure from the outside world and provocatively led the students to shout out such a declaration that went against the mainstream thinking of the current magic world...

Is this an ignorant and arrogant young man who is dissatisfied with the current situation of the wizarding world and speaks nonsense without considering the consequences?

Or maybe this rising star in the magic world will start to spread his ideas and form a group like the devil who cannot even be named.

Is his own force preparing to make sweeping changes to this long-solidified, stagnant magical world?

The shrewd directors of Hogwarts were more inclined to believe that Noah was the latter.

So, in the current situation, how should they choose to maximize their own interests?

This was an extremely difficult decision for every school director present. Although the expressions on their faces were calm, their hearts were as turbulent as a storm.

However, a sudden burst of applause directly interrupted their chaotic thoughts.

A man in a black double-breasted tweed coat had a kind but weird smile on his face. He kept clapping his hands, making loud applause.

In the silent stands, the applause was not only abrupt but also very harsh.

But the man didn't care at all.

Under the gaze of everyone, the man slowly walked in front of Noah, took off his hat and placed it on his chest, then bowed slightly to Noah.

"John Shafik, it's an honor to meet you."

The man just left a simple sentence and didn't wait for Noah's response. Then he continued to walk forward. The other school directors who were blocking the way along the way took the initiative to make way for the head of the Shafik family.

Soon, the man's figure gradually moved away, and after leaving the range of the anti-Apparition restriction around Hogwarts Castle, his body twisted and circled and disappeared into the air.

After the first school director who called himself John Shafik left, the other school directors in the stands and their family members who came to watch the ceremony with them also stood up and said goodbye.

Only Lucius remained on the podium in the stagnant atmosphere.

He patted his wife's hand gently and said, "Xixi, you go back first."

……

The Three Broomsticks pub, Hogsmeade village.

As one of the top three bars in the British wizarding world, the Three Broomsticks' decoration does not live up to its fame at all.