Hogwarts and the Holy Grail War

"Normally, he would explain why he forbade us to go somewhere," Percy explained. "For example, there are many dangerous beasts in the Forbidden Forest. Everyone knows that. Even if he couldn't tell all the students, he should at least tell us prefects."

"Now, before everyone goes to bed, let's sing the school song together!" Dumbledore waved his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

The other teachers' smiles froze in an instant.

Dumbledore flicked his wand, and a long golden ribbon flew out of the wand, twisting and coiling like a snake above the high dining table, forming lines of text.

"Everyone chooses the tune he likes." Dumbledore said, "Get ready and sing!"

All the teachers and students sang the school song in a scattered manner. Ethan heard the Weasley twins singing the melody of "Funeral March", so he began to howl the whole song in a Peking Opera style.

Dumbledore used his wand to conduct the last few bars for the three of them, and when they finished singing, his applause was the loudest.

"Music," he said, wiping his eyes, "is more charming than anything we do here! It's time to go to bed. Go back to the dormitory."

-

"Gryffindors, follow me. Keep up, thank you."

The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the noisy crowd, out of the dining hall and up the marble stairs.

"This is the quickest way to the dorms, but be careful with these stairs, they can change at any time."

Percy explained as he led the freshmen up the stairs.

The portraits hanging on the surrounding marble walls began to move, greeting the students:

"Welcome to Hogwarts."

Climbing up the stairs and passing through a door hidden behind a curtain, they came to a corridor by the window. At this time, Percy, who was at the front of the crowd, suddenly stopped.

In front of them, a bundle of walking sticks was floating in the air. Percy was only a step away from the people behind him, so they all fell towards him.

"It's Peeves," whispered Percy. "A ghost who loves to play pranks."

Then Percy raised his voice again: "Peeves - come out!"

He was answered by a loud, piercing popping sound, like the air being deflating from a balloon.

"Do you want me to go find the Bloody Baron?"

"puff--"

Suddenly, a translucent dwarf appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, holding the bundle of canes tightly in both hands. Unlike the pale ghosts seen before, he was brightly colored.

"Oh my, it turns out to be that annoying little first-grade brat! And there's also a big fool, it's so funny!" He grinned and looked at Ethan when he said the last sentence.

Ethan: ?

Staring at the grinning Peeves hovering above them, Ethan silently took note of the grudge.

"I'm not kidding!" Percy yelled.

Peeves stuck out his tongue, made a face, and disappeared. The cane came down on Neville's head, and Ethan quietly slipped the wand out of his sleeve, pinched the front end and shook it, and the cane brushed Neville and fell to the ground.

"You better be careful of Peeves," said Percy, leading the way. "The Bloody Baron is the only one who can subdue him. He won't even listen to us prefects."

Ethan listened to Percy's words, silently thinking about how to deal with this unfortunate child in the future.

"Here we are."

At the end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very plump woman in pink clothes.

"Password?"

The woman in the portrait asked.

"Dragon scum."

Percy replied.

The portrait opened to one side, revealing a circular hole in the wall behind it, through which one could crawl into a cozy circular room filled with plush armchairs and a crackling fireplace.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor common room. The boys' dormitory is upstairs on the left, and the girls' dormitory is on the right," Percy guided the freshmen to their dormitories. "Find your own dormitory according to the name on the door. Your luggage and belongings have been sent upstairs."

-

"Harry Potter...Neville Longbottom...Ethan? Ethan, come here, you'll be in the same dormitory with us!" Harry and Ron read the names on the dormitory door and waved to Ethan.

Ethan responded and followed them into the dormitory. The dormitory was a semicircular room with five four-poster beds with crimson curtains against the wall. Their boxes had already been brought up and piled at the end of their beds.

"So, is it true? You really participated in that cup war?" Ron quickly changed into his pajamas, sat cross-legged on the leftmost bed, and asked Ethan across Harry's bed.

"I was just kidnapped. If that dark wizard wasn't such an unlucky guy, I probably wouldn't have died." Ethan replied as he put his pajamas on his head. "And I was in a fuzzy state the whole time. I can't remember exactly what happened. It was Professor Figo who told me."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Harry, who was stuck in the middle, had a black question mark on his face.

"Well, I'll tell you in detail later. It's too late today, you should go to bed early. Look, Neville and Seamus are both very sleepy." Ethan changed into pajamas and sat on the bed, pouting.

Neville, who was hugging a pillow and preparing to listen to a story, and Seamus, who was rolling on the bed:? ?

I don't have it, so don't talk nonsense.

But they were indeed exhausted, and they fell asleep on the bed soon after.

Perhaps because he drank too much grape juice today, Ethan was awakened by the urge to urinate in the middle of the night and was about to open the floodgates to release the water. He turned his head and saw Harry sitting on the windowsill with his legs curled up, staring out the window in a daze.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Ethan sat down opposite Harry and asked softly, "Can't sleep?"

"I...don't dare..." Harry whispered.

"Don't you dare?"

"I dare not sleep. I'm afraid this is all a dream. Magic, Hagrid, Hogwarts, Ron, and you are all a dream," Harry tucked his head deeper into his arms, his voice as thin as a mosquito. "I'm afraid that when I wake up, everything will disappear, and I'll be back in my uncle's cupboard."

Ethan sighed. Harry had been abused by the Dursleys for the first ten years of his life. How much sense of security could a child who had been abused for years have? Now that he had suddenly left that family and came to this unknown magical world alone, it was inevitable that he would doubt this too-good-to-be-true life.

"Don't worry, Harry, I understand how you feel. But this is not your dream. Me, Ron, Hogwarts, and everything you've experienced are not illusions." Ethan patted Harry's shoulder. "You're just too tired. Go to bed and have a good sleep. You'll be fine. Tomorrow morning, you'll still be lying in the Gryffindor dormitory."

Ethan half coaxed and half pushed Harry onto the bed and covered him with the quilt. Ethan patted Harry's cup, got up and walked out the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom, wanna come together?"

Chapter 11 Gently wake up the sleeping soul

The earth gradually wakes up, and a ray of morning light breaks the silence of the night.

Ethan, who had just returned from morning exercise, took a shower, changed into wizard robes, and tried to wake up Harry and Ron, who were still sleeping in, to have breakfast together.

"Harry, Ron, get up and have breakfast."

Ethan was trying to lift the two people off the bed one by one, but every time he successfully lifted one up and came to the bed of the other, the one he had lifted up would fall down limply.

One after another.jpg

"There's no end to this." Ethan's patience gradually wore thin. He put his hands on his waist and panted slightly, looking at the two people sleeping like babies helplessly. "If this is the case, don't blame me for being a bad person."

He first came to Ron's bed, slapped Ron twice in the face, and then shook Ron back and forth, "Ron? Ron, what's wrong with you? Ron?"

"Um...what happened?" Ron asked dazedly, squinting his eyes.

"You had a nightmare, you were yelling. It scared me to death."

"Ah... Indeed, I dreamed that my mother was angry and kept slapping me in the face... Hiss, such a real dream, I felt as if I was really slapped in the face twice." Ron gradually woke up, sat up, rubbed his face and recalled the "nightmare" he had just had.

"It's good that you're awake. Hurry up and get up, wash and change clothes, or you'll be late for breakfast."

Ethan came to Harry's bed again, leaned over and whispered devilishly in Harry's ear: "Harry, wake up. Your aunt and her family are coming to school to take you home. Your cousin has plucked out all the feathers on your owl."

Harry sat up with a start.

"What did you say?" Harry was shocked, and there was even a slight tremor in his tone.

"Nothing, I'm calling you to get up. Hurry up and wash and change your clothes. Don't go to class hungry on the first day of school, right?"

Ethan pushed and shoved the two people into the bathroom and let out a long sigh at the door.

"Eldest brother is like a father, eldest brother is like a father." He said to himself, "Don't bother with them, they are the protagonists."

Thanks to Ethan, Harry and Ron sat at the long table in the hall on time and ate breakfast listlessly.

"You don't look very well. Didn't you sleep well last night?" Hermione, who was sitting opposite the long table, asked with concern.

"I guess so. I had a nightmare. Luckily Ethan woke me up." Ron answered nonchalantly while putting sugar in his cereal.

"Nothing, I just felt a little stimulated early in the morning, but I've recovered now." Harry said with lingering fear as he cut the fried eggs with a knife and fork.

Ethan, the instigator standing by, silently quickened the pace of finishing the bacon and smoked meat on the plate.

I feel a little guilty, but not much.

“Pu la la la la—”

"The mail has arrived." Ron looked up at the dome.

With the sound of flapping wings, hundreds of owls flew into the restaurant from the small windows in the dome, flying around the dining table until they found their owners and threw letters or packages in front of them.

The black cat also flew to Ethan, but did not bring any mail. It rubbed Ethan's hand, pecked at the bacon on the plate, and then flapped its wings and flew away.

"Your owl is so handsome." Ron opened the letter and spoke with envy. "I can only share an owl with my brothers - except Percy. Mom bought him a new owl as a reward for becoming a prefect."

"It's okay, you can also use my Hedwig." Harry said, sandwiched between the two of them. Hedwig was his snowy owl.

"If you want, you can also use my black cat." Ethan waved his hand and said generously.

"Thank you very much. I appreciate your kindness. I just want to have something that belongs to me alone - my textbooks, robes, and even wand are all my brother's old ones." Ron smiled at the two of them, his smile full of bitterness.

"Hey, can I see your newspaper?" Harry quickly changed the subject.

Ron nodded.

Harry unfolded the newspaper and looked at the headline on the front page. Ethan also leaned over to look at the advertisement between the two pages.

"Hey, look! Someone broke into Gringotts!" Harry exclaimed, and Ron and Ethan both turned their eyes to the news headline Harry was pointing at.

Harry began to read the news in the newspaper.

"Within one day, Gringotts' vault was attacked twice. Based on the traces at the scene of the attack, it is initially determined that the attackers were two different groups of people, probably some unknown dark wizards.

"The goblin in charge at Gringotts confirmed that someone had indeed broken into the building, but repeatedly stressed that nothing had been stolen. Vaults 713 and 12, which had been searched by the intruders, had actually been emptied earlier that day.

"A Gringotts goblin spokesperson said: We have no comment on what is stored in the vault, so please do not interfere in this matter."

Harry finished reading the news, looked up, and said, "Strange, number 713, that's the vault Hagrid and I went to."

"What's in it?" Hermione asked.

"There's only a small cloth bag, and I have no idea what's in it." Harry shook his head.

Ethan also frowned.

Vault 12, that was the vault he and Professor Figo had visited yesterday, it contained a secret passage leading to the remains of an ancient magic user.

Why was he attacked? Was it just for the money inside? Or was he targeting ancient magic?

Ethan kept his doubts in his heart and planned to go to Professor Figo to find out the truth later.

"I'm sorry to bother you all. Please follow me, Mr. Ethan."

Professor McGonagall's voice sounded behind Ethan. Ethan quickly put down the knife and fork in his hand, stood up and saluted Professor McGonagall.

"Okay, Professor."

Ethan greeted the trio, crossed the bench and followed Professor McGonagall out of the hall.

"Excuse me, Professor, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Professor McGonagall stopped in the corridor outside the door and turned to look at Ethan.

"It's about your courses, Mr. Ethan. Considering your special situation of being a fourth-year student, you will have to work twice as hard to catch up with other students of the same grade. After in-depth discussions with the principal and professors, we have prepared a tailor-made course program for you."

"Here," Professor McGonagall handed over a piece of parchment.

"This is the schedule we have arranged for you. In the first week, you will take classes with the first-year students. This is to familiarize you with the courses at Hogwarts. Remember to stay after class. The professors have assigned you extra homework. You can catch up quickly in this way. Professor Figo kept praising your talent to me.

"Let's stop here for now. Today you need to attend Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes with the first-year students. Remember to be in the classroom on time. Transfiguration is my class. If you are late, I will not be stingy with deducting points even if I am the head of Gryffindor."

Professor McGonagall gave Ethan a meaningful smile and turned away. Ethan looked at the full schedule in his hand, smiled bitterly and sighed.

"School life is so fulfilling!"

Chapter 12 Say, You Are a Pig