Chapter 103: Howling Letter

After the sorting ceremony, Professor Sprout packed up the tools needed to treat the plants and came to the Whomping Willow.

"Oh, the poor little willow tree, it has suffered such a serious blow!" She looked at the large piece of bark that had been scraped off and the Whomping Willow note on the ground, covering her mouth and saying distressedly.

Dracula was also standing under the tree at this time, turning to look at Professor Sprout.

"To tell you the truth, Professor Sprout, this Whomping Willow probably needs to calm down a bit." Dracula shrugged and said to her, "Actually, only the knocked-off bark is It was two troublemakers, Potter and Wes, who actually took down the branches on the ground..."

"Did you drop it yourself?" Professor Sprout was a little confused.

"Yeah, it might not be in a good mood after being hit by that car. It would go crazy and hit the sky, the ground, and the car with its branches..." Dracula said, "After all, it's its wood. It’s still not very strong, and it becomes like this after being smashed.”

"Okay, I have to admit that the Whomping Willow species is indeed prone to irritability." Professor Sprout said as he walked towards the Whomping Willow, "But if someone hit it hard for no reason, don't talk about it. , even I will be angry."

"That's true." Dracula chuckled, "But if I were the Whomping Willow, I wouldn't be able to let myself get so irritable that I would start hitting people without even looking for their opponent's weaknesses."

"If it were me, I would smash the car glass, then use two thicker branches to imprison the whole car and block the door. In this way, the people inside the car will be at my mercy."

Professor Sprout glanced blankly at Dracula's interested smile and couldn't help but shudder.

Thinking about it this way, it's fortunate that the Whomping Willow is a fool and won't pick on weaknesses. Otherwise, wouldn't the two little guys, Harry and Ron, have no way out?

"Ahem, Professor Dracula, do you also know the weakness of the Whomping Willow?" She quickly changed the subject and refused to discuss with Dracula how to hit people more effectively. "It looks like this right now. It’s pretty quiet.”

[A book-chasing app recommended to me by an old book friend I’ve known for ten years! It’s so easy to use. I rely on it to pass the time while driving and before going to bed by reading and listening to books. You can download it here ]

"Does the Whomping Willow have any weaknesses?" Dracula raised his eyebrows. "I haven't noticed that it doesn't get angry when it sees me. It seems that I don't need to understand its weaknesses."

"..." Professor Sprout raised his forehead.

She silently walked to the Whomping Willow, jumped up high, and stretched out her hand to press on the branch.

Although she was a little short in height, she jumped quite high and just landed on a knot. It seemed that she had specially practiced high jumping in order to control the Whomping Willow.

The effect was very fast. The Whomping Willow, which was still swaying gently, immediately entered a still state after being touched by the knot, as if it had turned into an ordinary willow tree.

"It's quite an interesting tree." Seeing Professor Sprout's movements, Dracula chuckled, "But I have a problem here -"

"Since you have to get close to the Whomping Willow to touch its weakness, what should you do if the Whomping Willow is already in a irritable state? In this case, there is no need for a wizard who can touch the Whomping Willow. Find its weakness, and the wizard who wants to find the weakness can't get close to it."

"So...what's the point of this weakness?"

Professor Sprout's face stiffened.

"Is this really the case?" She scratched her head, "Unless someone can accurately hit the Whomping Willow's knots with a magic spell or a pebble or something outside the attack range of the Whomping Willow. I will definitely be able to press down the knots.”

"No, when I talk about the Whomping Willow in class next time, I have to tell those naughty little wizards to stay away from the angry Whomping Willow. We can't let them think that they can handle it smoothly if they master its weaknesses. .”

While muttering, Professor Sprout quickly took out a series of plant therapy supplies and was busy bandaging the broken branches of the Whomping Willow and the trunk that had been damaged by a layer of bark, so as to prevent it from being fragile. The location was bitten by mosquitoes.

Seeing Professor Sprout entering working mode, Dracula shrugged casually and walked back to the castle.

He could guess that the two naughty boys Harry and Ron had probably been punished by Snape or Professor McGonagall.

But Dracula is not worried about the future of the two of them at all.

Dumbledore is also preparing to train Harry and make him the main force against Voldemort! Therefore, it was naturally impossible for the two of them to be expelled. Even because it was just the beginning of school, the college points were not deducted.

Dracula estimated that based on the heartless temperament of the Gryffindor little lions, Harry and Ron, who drove to school without having their house points deducted, might even be regarded as heroes!

…

Dracula was as expected.

The news that Harry and Ron drove to school spread unknowingly. Except for Percy and Hermione, two good students, all the little lions in Gryffindor thought this was an extremely exciting and long-faced event. things.

The two "heroes" returned to the door of the Gryffindor common room. As soon as the portrait of the Fat Lady guarding the door opened, a burst of thunderous applause erupted in the room.

All the students in Gryffindor House were still awake and crowded into the circular common room waiting for them. Many hands enthusiastically stretched out from the hole behind the Fat Lady's portrait and pulled Harry and Ron in. Instead, Hermione, who had picked them up, could only crawl in by herself.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed the twins' roommate Lee Jordan. "What a brilliant way to do it! Drive a flying car into the Whomping Willow, you'll be talked about at Hogwarts for years." !”

"Well done!" said a fifth grader who had never spoken to Harry before.

Others were patting Harry and Ron on the back as if they had just won first place in a marathon.

Fred and George squeezed through the crowd and asked in unison: "Why don't you call us back? It's so embarrassing!"

Ron's face was flushed and he smiled radiantly among the crowd.

Percy, the most upright person in the entire college, stood behind some excited freshmen with a stern face, trying to squeeze in and scold them. However, there were too many little lions surrounding the two of them, and he couldn't squeeze in at all.

Another two minutes passed, and when Percy finally approached Harry and Ron, Harry spotted him.

So, Harry poked Ron in the ribs with his elbow and twisted his head towards Percy. Ron understood immediately.

"Yawn - I'm going upstairs." Ron's radiant red face changed color instantly, and he covered his mouth with his hand and pretended to yawn, "I've been flying all day today, I'm a little tired..."

Harry also pretended to be extremely tired and squeezed towards the door at the other end of the lounge, where there was a spiral staircase leading to their bedroom.

He was pretending very well because he was really tired. The various twists and turns of the day made him a little exhausted.

"Good night." Even though Harry was tired, he didn't forget to call back to Hermione. She shared Percy's scowl.

It took a lot of effort for Harry and Ron to finally squeeze to the other end of the lounge, while someone was patting them on the back.

Outside the door at the other end was a secluded staircase. The two ran up the stairs in one breath and arrived in front of their dormitory door. The sign at the door of the dormitory that originally read "First Grade" has now become "Second Grade."

They entered the familiar round room and saw again the five four-poster beds decorated with red velvet and the tall, narrow windows. Their boxes had been magically moved up by the house elves and placed beside the bed.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at Harry with some shame, "I know we shouldn't feel proud about this, but..."

The dormitory door opened, and Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom rushed in. They were the other second-year Gryffindor boys.

"I can't believe you guys actually drove over here!" Simo gave a thumbs up.

"Cool!" Dean said.

"It's amazing!" Even Neville, who has always been honest and honest, said in admiration.

"unbelievable", "azing"...the three of them almost used all the common adjectives used to express shock!

Harry couldn't hold it in any longer and smirked along with Ron.

…

Of course, it's hard for them to be complacent for long.

During dinner the next morning, Harry and Ron felt a little uneasy.

Harry tremblingly picked up the bowl and began to drink the porridge.

As a chaotic sound of flapping wings sounded overhead, hundreds of owls poured in from the windows above the auditorium, hovering in the air of the auditorium, dropping letters and packages into the conversing crowd.

In the professor's chair, Dracula came for a rare breakfast, and he felt a little irritable when he saw this messy scene.

"I still don't understand, why does Hogwarts allow owls to deliver messages during meals?" He turned his head and asked Professor Flitwick, who was sitting on two chairs. "What if the dirty feathers on the owl's body are... If it falls into the rice, how can we eat it?"

"After all, there is only meal time when all the little wizards are here during the day." Professor Flitwick looked like he was used to it, and he used the levitating spell to make a feather that was about to fall on his head fly elsewhere. "Especially on the first day of school, many careless little wizards forget to take things."

Dracula depressedly put down the blood pudding in his hand, lost his appetite, and began to look at the reactions of the professors and young wizards around him.

Snape seemed to be very dissatisfied with the fact that Harry was not expelled or even deducted points. At this time, he was staring at the Gryffindor table intently, thinking maliciously about how to give the two The little wizard is having a hard time finding it.

At this moment, there was a "pop" and a pool of gray liquid fell from the sky onto Snape's plate.

Snape was startled, looking away from the Gryffindor table and looking at his plate.

"Hey, Severus, you seem to have won the lottery." The elderly Professor Kettleburn never missed an opportunity to tease Snape. He stuck his head over and said, "Do you want me to explain it to you? This is From the bird droppings, it can be seen that this owl caught a mouse last night..."

"Stop talking!" Snape clutched the wand tightly, as if suppressing the desire to massacre the owl.

"Alas, Severus, young people are easily distracted." Professor Kettleburn said with a smile, "Hogwarts professors should have long been accustomed to paying attention to the top of their heads during breakfast. How could you forget this?"

Snape couldn't resist him and gave Harry and Ron a hard look. He didn't even eat anything and walked out of the Great Hall angrily.

Watching his leaving figure, Professor Kettleburn clicked his tongue, "Young people are easily irritable and reckless."

The professors around him all raised eyebrows at these words——

'Professor Kettleburn, you are clearly the most reckless one after having been on probation for more than sixty times...'

The trouble caused by the owl's collective letter delivery was obviously not just the professor's seat.

Some problems occurred at the Gryffindor table that Snape had been paying attention to -

A big gray owl seemed to have drunk fake wine. It could not fly smoothly and suddenly fell into the milk jug in front of Hermione.

Suddenly, milk and feathers splashed all over Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Errol!" Ron shouted hurriedly when he saw the owl struggling in the milk jug.

Taking Errol's talons, he pulled the wet owl out of the pot and placed it on the table.

Errol slumped beside the milk bottle, his legs stretched stiffly in the air, and a wet red envelope in his mouth.

"Oh, no..." Ron covered his face in pain.

"Don't be too sad, Ron, it's still alive." Hermione shook the milk out of her wizard robe, then stood up and gently poked the unconscious Errol with her fingertips.

Errol's bird talons moved, as if to show that he was still alive.

"No, I'm used to Errol being like this." Ron said sadly, "What I'm worried about is that -"

He pointed to the red envelope Errol was holding in his mouth.

Harry and Hermione looked at the ordinary-looking envelope with puzzled expressions, but Ron and Neville next to them frowned and leaned back, as if they thought it would explode.

"What happened to this letter?" Harry asked confused.

"Well...Mum sent me a howler letter," Ron said weakly.

"You'd better open it, Ron..." Neville said fearfully, "It's worse not to open it... My grandma sent it to me once, but I ignored it, and the result..."

He breathed, "That's horrible."

Harry looked at the horrified looks on both of their faces, and then looked at the red envelope.

"What is a howler letter?" he asked.

But Ron's attention was all focused on the letter, sweat was dripping from his forehead, and he didn't pay any attention to his idleness.

At this time, the four corners of the envelope began to smoke, and the inside of the envelope began to bulge at the same time.

"Open it quickly," Neville urged. "It only takes a few minutes, or it will blow up, which will make the noise even louder..."

Ron looked at the envelope, took a deep breath, and suddenly shouted: "Fred, George! Help!"

"

The twins heard Ron's voice and looked over curiously. They were accompanied by a large group of Gryffindor wizards who were watching the fun.

"Wow! You really didn't disappoint us, Ron!" Fred patted Ron on the shoulder with a look of relief on his face.

"We knew you were definitely our biological brother, Ron." George also had a happy smile on his face.

"There's no time, you two should think of a solution!" Ron was about to burst into tears, and said loudly to the two of them, "When you went to pick up Harry at Privet Drive, didn't you say you had learned something about howling in order to deal with it... ...Avoidance spell? Now it's time to use it!"

"First of all, that curse is an avoidance spell." George held out a finger to Ron, "We don't know of any other avoidance spells in the wizarding world."

"Okay, okay, avoidance spell! I beg you to use it as soon as possible!" Ron's voice was filled with tears.

"Secondly," Fred held out two fingers beside him, "the avoidance spell is used to block the location of the wizard. It can only prevent the owl from finding the addressee. Your howling letter has been delivered. , then the avoidance spell is useless."

"Finally," George spread out three fingers and said happily, "have you forgotten? Neither of us has learned the avoidance spell at all!"

Ron's lips trembled as he looked at Fred and George talking to each other.

"Then just tell me that it can't be used. Why are you talking so much?

" he roared.

Finally, the red envelope was almost swollen to its limit, and Errol could no longer hold it in his beak. Seeing this, Harry quickly took out the envelope from Errol's mouth and handed it to Ron's hand.

Looking at the envelope in his hand, Ron gritted his teeth and said, "Harry, you are really my good brother."

The next moment, the envelope exploded with a bang, blowing Ron's hands and face into red, and then suspended in mid-air.

The postmark on the envelope had been opened after the explosion, and the opening opened and closed, like a ferocious mouth.

Neville quickly plugged his ears with his fingers and ducked under the Gryffindor table.

"Isn't the explosion over?" Harry looked at his actions in confusion.

But he immediately knew why.

The next moment, a huge sound filled the entire auditorium, shaking the dust from the ceiling.

"...Stealing a car! If they fire you! I won't be surprised at all! See how I deal with you then!

You probably haven’t even thought about it! How did your father and I feel when we found out that the car was gone..."

Dracula had just regained some mood to eat, and then he was startled by the loud roar of the letter. His excellent hearing became a complete burden at this time, as if there were a bunch of bombs exploding in his ears!

"It's so early in the morning, can't we let people have a good meal?"

Dracula casually threw the spoon onto the plate, stood up coldly, raised his hand and shook it in the face of the Gryffindor table——

The milk in Hermione's milk jug floated out of the jug, and instantly formed a soundproof shield, wrapping Harry and Ron in it.

The auditorium suddenly became quiet, but the faces of the two little wizards instantly turned purple.

…

…