Chapter 955 Banquet and Carnival

Classes are back in session at Hogwarts, and the first day of school is the rush for exams.

To be honest, for a moment, when the owl sent the news to every little wizard's home, the accumulated resentment even covered the joy that people felt after defeating Voldemort.

For students, Voldemort is scary, but those several-foot-long assignments are even scarier.

Especially fifth and seventh graders.

"We defeated Voldemort." In the Hogwarts auditorium, Ron couldn't help complaining: "Why can't such dazzling results allow those professors to put a 0 on our N.E.W.T report card?

? "

Although his voice was a bit weak, Ron did shout out Voldemort's name in full.

This change made Harry extremely happy. He always believed that if he wanted to defeat Voldemort, he must overcome his fear of him.

Ron never said his name before, he would tremble even if he heard it.

This situation is a good transition.

Of course, he was happy, but that didn't stop him from pouring cold water on Ron.

"I have to be fair." He patted his friend's shoulder, "We did not defeat Voldemort, the ones who fought him were Kyle and the professors.

17

"Yes, that's right————but we also participated——... The courage is commendable————" Ron scratched his neck and counted how many he defeated in that war. Death Eaters, how many times have they been in danger?

What he said was very thrilling, but Harry and Hermione on the side looked completely uninterested.

Even Neville, who gave him the most face, turned his head.

After all, they had heard it a dozen times in the past few days, and it would have been the same for anyone else. Hermione could even recite these words from beginning to end.

"Stop, Ron, we really don't want to hear any more stories about you and the Death Eaters." Hermione interrupted him mercilessly.

"And I must tell you that reopening the school is a joint decision made by Principal McGonagall, all school directors, and the Ministry of Magic, and most of us support this decision."

"Oh, Harry, what did she just say?" Ron opened his mouth wide and let out a strange scream, "Most people support it?

"Can't she see that among all the people sitting here, she is the only one who supports this decision?"

Hermione's face gradually turned gloomy,

Harry wanted to take care of his good friend's emotions, but he really couldn't say something so contrary to his will.

Everyone else also turned their heads elsewhere, except Ginny who supported her loyally.

This is probably related to the fact that Ginny is in the sixth grade. There are no particularly important exams in the sixth grade. Her own grades are enough to cope with the final exam, so it doesn't matter to her whether school starts or not.

But it didn't matter. The decision of whether to open school was not made by the students. Even if their votes were overwhelmingly overwhelming, the return trip to Hogwarts Express still set off on time and arrived at Hogsmeade Station on time in the evening.

Minerva McGonagall, who had been busy these days, rushed back at this time and looked at the students returning to school at the door of the auditorium.

Among the crowd, a round figure stood out.

Slughorn gasped and walked up the stone steps to the door of the auditorium. "Minerva, why did you suddenly decide to let the students return to school?"

He just came home yesterday, and this time he came by train with his students - Judging from the icing residue on his collar, he most likely booked the dining car again,

Even though he was not using the more convenient Apparition, he had to take the train with his students that would take a day to arrive. This alone proved that the Slughorn in front of him must be himself and not someone pretending to be someone using Polyjuice Potion. .

"Students should continue with class, Horace." Professor McGonagall glanced at him.

"But that person—"

"Voldemort will not come." Before he could say anything, Professor McGonagall said: "We have received the exact news, and then we made the decision to reopen the school.

"There is still some time before the banquet starts. Horace, I suggest you change your clothes."

"Oh, okay————" Slughorn obviously didn't fully understand what Professor McGonagall meant,

Why won't Voldemort come to Hogwarts...-Has the Ministry of Magic gotten any new information? He has been found, why no one in the ministry told him? Slughorn wanted to ask more carefully, but at this time, a group of students poured in from outside, and he could only move forward. In the auditorium.

Although it was a hastily prepared banquet, the scene was not shabby at all. Almost all the professors were present, including Bill Weasley, Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory, etc.——

These people had performed very well in previous wars and were invited to the banquet as outstanding graduates.

There were also Fred and George, but they beat Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for more than 20 minutes when the banquet was at its most lively. Professor McGonagall, who couldn't bear it, sealed his mouth with magic.

But even so, they were able to make everyone laugh with their funny pantomimes, and with the store logo flashing on their chests from time to time, they quickly captured a large group of new customers in a short period of time.

Professor McGonagall turned a blind eye to this and pretended not to see it.

In addition to welcoming students back to school, this banquet was also to celebrate everyone's first victory over Voldemort with strength, so Professor McGonagall gave everyone the maximum tolerance.

In fact, if Fred and George had just kept their voices down a little bit and stopped running around, they wouldn't even have been banned.

Led by the Weasley brothers, more people began to join the carnival. People also needed a carnival to dispel the haze brought by Voldemort to everyone.

Everyone was happy, and the cheers and laughter were like waves, almost breaking through the newly repaired magic ceiling.

Oh, except Slytherin—

A very strange scene appeared in the auditorium. The long tables of the three houses were busy, but Slytherin was as quiet as if he was taking History of Magic.

Moreover, Slytherin is also the house with the smallest number of returning students. Almost half of the seats are empty, and most of the owners of these seats have supported Voldemort either openly or covertly.

Of course, Professor McGonagall did not exclude students because of their few words. As long as they did not specifically harm their classmates, she sent owls to them all equally.

Those who didn't come, I don't know whether they didn't receive the letter or because of other reasons.

The remaining Slytherins were too embarrassed to join the carnival for various reasons and could only watch from the sidelines, which also made the atmosphere here more and more embarrassing.

But no one cares here.

Everyone knows that just because Professor McGonagall doesn't care, it doesn't mean that everyone can pretend it never happened. No one from Slytherin participated in this war, but they remember it.

And if the outcome of the war had been changed, Slytherin's celebration would have been even crazier than theirs.

At this time, everyone did not jump over and beat them up, it was all because of the strict observation of the professors.

Professor McGonagall stopped five Weasley magical fireworks thrown towards Slytherin, including three sludge bombs.

Just as the name describes, after this kind of fireworks explodes, they will spray special sludge indiscriminately around them - the reason why it is called special sludge is because Fred and George considered that others would also want to When eating, I remove the smelly grass in advance.

Otherwise, this thing is just an enhanced version of the big shit egg.

But even the weakened version was ruthlessly confiscated. Professor McGonagall couldn't possibly watch a Slytherin student become the target of public criticism.

Even if they made some wrong decisions, this does not represent everyone, nor does it represent Slytherin House.

Slughorn participated in the whole war, as did Severus Snape, and Diana the Silent, who came behind and was also a Slytherin graduate...

In a sense, Slytherin also made a huge contribution in this war.

The banquet lasted longer than ever before, with plate after plate of desserts, cookies and petit fours being served.

And when the show was about to end, the sudden appearance of the Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones, pushed the atmosphere to the top.

It seems that the minister came here specially to show his face after hearing about this incident.

Because she didn't stay long, she ate a piece of cake, drank a glass of pumpkin juice with Professor McGonagall, and left in a hurry.

By late at night, when the banquet finally ended, the auditorium was already in a mess.

"It's really good——-this kind of activity can be done more times." Fred stood on the field outside, a little unsatisfied.

Also following were George, Kyle, Connor and Cedric, and they were reunited at Hogwarts again.

"Are you going back? Or stay here for one night." Kyle asked, "If you want to stay, you can ask the house elves to move a few more beds into my cabin."

"Forget it, we don't want to live in a shabby wooden house." Fred deliberately looked at Kyle with a look of disgust. He didn't know whether he disliked Kyle or the wooden house.

"We have more important things." George shook the thick parchment in his hand.

"We just received a new order."

“Customers can’t wait to receive their desired products.”

"We promise to deliver it tomorrow."

"So tonight, we might be having Christmas all over again."

"Send all these goods, at least a hundred owls are needed."

They stroked their foreheads, showing expressions of pain and joy.

"In that case, why don't you use the Seamless Stretching Spell?" Kangna stood next to Kyle and suggested: "First pack everything together and send it to the customer, and then find someone to help deliver it to the customer.

"It's not difficult for you, right? The people are all ready. If you hire Ron, you only need two galleons."

"It's a good idea," Fred said, "but it'll be a lot less surprising."

"surprise?"

"It's the excitement that little customers feel when they see an owl flying towards them." George said, "This kind of surprise is also part of our products."

"That's—okay."

Although Kangna didn't understand the difference between the owl and the things Ron sent, since they said so, they naturally had their reasons.

"And the most important thing, let's stick to the owl -" Fred said mysteriously.

George understood immediately, "Even if it's two galleons, we don't want to give it to Ron."

"Hey!" The two of them showed a wicked smile at the same time.

"Ron being your brother is really his retribution." Kyle twitched the corners of his lips, and he suspected that this was the main reason.

"No, no, no, I should say it's luck." Fred shook his finger.

"This is special care from my brother." George said seriously, "You know, we are willing to pay more than ten times more galleons for him."

""..--Fortunately Ron is not here. Cedric couldn't help but say, but he had long been accustomed to the unique family relationship of the Weasley family.

And this thing seems to be of the same origin.

He still remembered that when Charlie gave them batsman training when they first entered school, they used real Bludgers.

Normal batters would use magic quaffles for their first training, but when faced with two first-year students who couldn't even participate in the team, Charlie directly brought out real bludgers.

Fred is also said to have set a record for the furthest he was knocked back, nearly thirty feet.

Yes, the batter, Fred, was blown thirty feet by a Bludger, but not only was he not angry, he even showed off for a long time.

Maybe this is the Weasley family's unique way of getting along.

After Fred and George left, Kyle looked at Cedric on the other side.

‘I have to go back too. Cedric shrugged, "There is still a lot of work in the ministry, and I can't leave it all to my father. Besides, I have to go to St. Mungo's to pick up Qiu from the hospital tomorrow morning." "

"Wait, what did you just say?" Kangna was stunned for a moment, "Why is Qiu at St. Mungo's? Didn't she leave the UK with her family?"

"What, didn't I tell you?" Cedric blinked.

"Not really." Everyone except Cedric said at the same time.

"Okay." Cedric shrugged, "Originally that's what they thought, but then Qiu's parents changed their minds and stayed."

"But, I don't seem to have seen her at Hogwarts." George whispered, "Did I not pay attention?"

"No, Qiu did not come to Hogwarts." Cedric explained: "After the war at Hogwarts started, Minister Bones also went to war with the traitors in the Ministry of Magic. At that time, Qiu and her mother happened to I also have something to do with the ministry.”

"That's it." Kyle nodded suddenly.

When the war started before, the Ministry of Magic did join in a little late.

"How's Qiu?" Kangna asked with concern.

"Qiu is fine." Cedric shook his head. "The main reason is that her mother was injured. Later, she was arranged by Minister Bones to stay at the Ministry of Magic. Qiu had to stay and take care of her."

"Can we go see her?"

"If you want, of course."