Chapter 176: Teenager’s Troubles
In March at Hogwarts, as soon as the catkins flutter, spring is undoubtedly coming.
New shoots appeared on the thick or thin branches of the whomping willow, as if some new life was brewing.
The ice on the Black Lake first cracked a few cracks, and then melted in the gradually warming spring breeze, turning into pieces of ice slag, floating on the still somewhat chilly lake.
The lawn around the castle once again became emerald green, and the little wizards wearing thin wizard robes were playing and playing on the lawn.
After the Christmas vacation, after just over two months of classes at Hogwarts, the Easter vacation came.
Unlike the Christmas holidays when families reunite, few little wizards choose to go home during the Easter holidays.
This is because this holiday is not long in the first place, and most young wizards are not worthy of traveling across the long distance from Scotland to England to go home.
In addition, Easter is very close to the final exam week in June. Professors often assign a lot of homework during the Easter holiday to prevent these young people with little self-control from playing crazy throughout the holiday and forgetting to study. .
Whenever there is a lot of homework like this, the little wizards who originally complained about Professor Dracula because of the devil's training began to remember his goodness and hoped that every professor would be like Professor Dracula...
Hmm... No way, if every professor arranges devil training like Professor Dracula, wouldn't they die of exhaustion in school?
So the young wizards made a decision, believing that the professors at Hogwarts would be best served by the casual Professor Dracula who assigns homework, the rigorous Professor McGonagall who demarcates the examination scope, and the affable Professor Sprout who teaches. , the tireless Professor Flitwick accompanied the practice...
As for Professor Snape...well, don't do it!
During the Easter holiday, Harry and other second grade students had new things to think about——
They should take third grade courses!
This matter, at least in Hermione's opinion, needs to be treated with caution.
"This will affect our entire future." Hermione said to Harry and Ron very seriously in the Gryffindor common room.
At this time, they were all sitting on the sofa in the lounge, studying the list of new courses carefully and making notes on it.
"I just want to give up Potions class," Harry said bitterly.
Ever since he and Snape had eased their relationship at the end of the last school year and ended up having a falling out, Harry had no idea how to face the Potions Professor who had saved him but was always against him.
After entering the second year, Snape even began to target Harry even more intensely. If Gryffindor was not deducted more than 20 points in any Potions class in which Harry participated, it would count as a penalty. It was Snape's conscience who discovered it!
"Impossible," Ron said in a low mood, "You have to take all the original subjects, otherwise Neville would have abandoned the Potions class long ago..."
He glanced at Neville, who was sitting not far away.
Neville is also a big point-deductor from Gryffindor in Potions class.
Snape found that he was really clumsy with potions, so he spent part of every lesson focusing on Harry and looking at Neville, always ready to find reasons from him to deduct points from Gryffindor.
"But Potions class is very important!" Hermione said in surprise, "Whether you want to be an Auror in the future, or you want to embark on a path such as a pharmacist or a healer, Potions are a must. An indispensable course.”
"According to this attitude, I think Neville definitely doesn't plan to choose these careers," Ron shrugged and said, "I guess Neville will choose a job related to herbalism. He is in Sprout The professor was the most positive in her herbal medicine class.”
Ever since Neville Longbottom experienced Dracula's Defense Against the Dark Arts open class in the auditorium, his personality seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.
Originally, even in the herbal medicine class where Neville was best at it, he rarely raised his hand to speak because of his introversion.
But after that open class on Defense Against the Dark Arts, Neville became very enthusiastic. Whenever Professor Sprout asked a question he was familiar with, he would immediately raise his hand, and even took away a lot of money because of it. Points that originally belonged to Hermione.
Not only that, he also became active in other classes, at least willing to raise his hand to answer questions he could answer.
Of course, Snape's potions class is still the hardest hit area for Neville. His fear of the potions professor cannot be resolved by a few words of enlightenment from Dracula!
At this moment, Neville was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, just like Harry, Ron and Hermione, picking out electives for their third years.
The wizards and witches at home wrote to him one after another, giving him many different suggestions on course selection.
Neville's phobia of choice broke out, he felt a little at a loss and extremely nervous. He sat there looking at the course list, with a troubled face, and asked others if they thought arithmetic divination sounded more difficult to learn than ancient magic texts.
The young wizard sitting next to Neville is Dean Thomas, who, like Harry, grew up around Muggles.
The little wizard really didn't know how to choose a course. Finally, he closed his eyes and used his wand to click randomly on the list, saying "I will choose whoever the little rooster clicks on." Which course did you choose?
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Among the young wizards in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione was probably the calmest.
She didn't follow anyone's advice and signed all the subjects.
After almost everyone had chosen their courses, Harry still hadn't moved the quill in his hand.
Harry always felt that there was nothing he was really good at except Defense Against the Dark Arts - between the five elective courses of Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, he Can't make a decision at all.
Percy Weiss noticed his hesitation and eagerly came over to teach him through words and deeds.
"It depends on where you want to go, Harry." He said, "You must plan for the future early, so I recommend the Divination class to you. This class can provide certain reference for your future."
"Besides that, students say it's stupid to take Muggle Studies courses, but I personally think wizards should have a thorough understanding of non-magical society, especially if they want to work in fields that have close ties to Muggles. As for work - look at my father, he has to deal with Muggle affairs all the time."
"My brother Charlie has always loved being outdoors, so he chose Care of Magical Creatures, and he later went to work at a dragon sanctuary in Romania. So play to your strengths, Harry!"
Percy patted Harry on the shoulder and encouraged.
After Percy left, Harry thought for a long time alone and felt that apart from Defense Against the Dark Arts, the only thing he was really good at was Quidditch.
"Why is there no Quidditch elective course?" He sighed in distress as he lay on the table.
Finally, he took Ron's course selection list and filled in the same elective courses as him.
Harry felt that even if he didn't choose well enough and chose several courses that were very difficult to learn, at least there was one person willing to help him in a friendly way. The two of them could copy each other... No, share the homework!
Speaking of Quidditch, Harry remembered that Gryffindor's next Quidditch match was against Hufflepuff.
Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, insisted that his players train every day.
Because there is a duel club meeting before dinner every night from Monday to Friday, Wood arranged the daily training after dinner, allowing the team members to endure the exhaustion after the duel practice, and then continue playing Quidditch after dinner. Strange devil training.
Wood euphemistically called it enhancing the players' physical fitness and endurance and improving their ability to deal with protracted battles.
Therefore, Harry and other members of the Gryffindor team have little time to do anything else except participating in dueling clubs, Quidditch training and completing homework.
But this kind of high-intensity training is not without its benefits.
The team members were becoming more and more comfortable and understanding in Quidditch training, and Harry's originally thin physique due to not having a good meal at the Dursley's gradually became more angular.
As he walked to his dormitory to put down his broomsticks the night before the Saturday match, he felt that Gryffindor had never been more certain to win the Quidditch Cup!
…
Early the next morning, the weather was clear and the sun was shining brightly.
The pleasant breeze gently blew the surface of the lake where the ice had completely melted, causing slight ripples in the water.
"It's the most ideal weather for a Quidditch game!" Wood said enthusiastically at the Gryffindor table, while adding a lot of scrambled eggs to each team member's plate. "Harry, cheer up, you need a good breakfast."
As the biggest contributor to the Gryffindor Quidditch team winning the Quidditch Cup last school year, Harry was favored by Wood to a great extent. This was clearly reflected in the fact that he only added two extra points to most of the other players. A piece of scrambled eggs, but four more for Harry.
"That's not fair, Wood!" Fred and George protested, "This is naked partiality!"
There was only an extra piece of scrambled egg on each of their plates.
"You can add your own eggs." Wood glanced at the twins, and then once again engaged in a heated discussion with Harry about today's Quidditch tactics.
After the meal, Harry walked quickly to Gryffindor House, picked up his Nimbus 2000, and joined the bustling crowd rushing to the Quidditch pitch.
"The overall strength of Hufflepuff's Quidditch team is slightly worse than ours, but their seeker, Cedric Diggory, is not weak." Wood squeezed through the crowd and continued to play. Harry kept talking in his ear, "Harry, all you have to do is keep an eye on Cedric and catch the Golden Snitch before he does..."
Harry nodded in response and looked around, trying to find a figure. That figure was also a Seeker of the Quidditch team.
As he gradually approached the tall auditorium of the Quidditch pitch, Harry stopped in his tracks.
He saw a very beautiful Asian girl with long, waterfall-like black hair, holding a broom in her hand. The gentle bookishness that was originally lingering around her became more apparent against the background of the broomstick. Full of heroic spirit.
In Harry's ears, Wood's voice seemed to disappear, and all his eyes were focused on the beautiful girl.
Autumn Zhang.
Harry met this beautiful girl at the end of the last school year, when Professor Dracula awarded amulets to the top students in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the first three years.
Later, when I went to inquire about the content of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, I deliberately pretended to have met by chance and chatted with Qiu Zhang once.
However, before the two of them could say a few words, Professor Dracula suddenly appeared and interrupted his good deeds with great interest.
From then on, he never dared to say a word to Qiu Zhang.
But Harry would subconsciously look for Cho Chang on any occasion and in any place in Hogwarts. After confirming her presence, he would hide far away, and even pull Ron next to him to block his sight to avoid being discovered by her.
If Qiu Zhang hadn't noticed his gaze, Harry would have stared at her for a long time. He didn't know what to look at, but he just couldn't get enough of it. If he is discovered, he will immediately turn his head away and his face will turn red.
In addition, Harry also remembered the places where Qiu Zhang often appeared, and he would pay special attention to that special location until Qiu Zhang appeared.
Harry had full confidence in this Quidditch match. He felt that the Gryffindor team had never been so sure of winning the Quidditch Cup.
So Harry's heart was ready to stir again.
He wanted to walk over to Qiu Zhang and say a few words to her, asking her to cheer for the Gryffindor team, and asking her to pay attention to the moment when she caught the Golden Snitch and looked so heroic!
But Harry couldn't move.
"Harry? Harry!" Wood's rough hands shook back and forth in front of his face, his face full of anxiety, "You've been standing here for a long time, is there something wrong?"
After a while, Harry's eyes finally focused, and he turned his head blankly to look at Wood beside him.
"Um...what's wrong, Oliver?" he asked.
"Why are you still asking about me?" Wood said anxiously, "You suddenly stopped moving here. I have no idea what's wrong with you!"
"Oh, I'm fine, Oliver." Harry quickly explained, "I just thought of something suddenly."
"That's good, that's good." Wood breathed a sigh of relief, "Let's go to the stadium together. Don't dare to think like this suddenly during the game."
"Wait a minute." Harry shook his head and refused to go to the Quidditch pitch with Wood. "I still have something to do. You go ahead. I will definitely be there before the game."
Wood looked at Harry suspiciously, fearing that he would suddenly run away alone before the game.
"You must come here on time!" he warned Harry repeatedly.
"Don't worry!" Harry assured, patting his chest.
After driving away Wood, Harry breathed a long sigh of relief, and then immediately looked anxiously towards where Qiu Zhang was just now.
Fortunately, the Ravenclaw girl has not left yet, still standing there with the broom in her hand.
Harry looked at her, and suddenly there was a strange spasm in his heart, as if he missed a step when going downstairs, beating very fast.
Seeing that the Quidditch match was about to start, he gritted his teeth, held his breath as if he was ready to die, and walked to Qiu Zhang's side.
…
"Harry Potter?" Qiu Zhang looked at Harry who was moving towards her with a troubled face, and looked at him curiously, "What do you want from me?"
"Hmm..." Harry faltered.
He desperately wanted to speak out and have Cho Chang cheer for him and the Gryffindor team, but he couldn't.
'Or maybe the two of us can discuss things like Quidditch seekers, and we'll have something in common. ’ Harry cheered himself up.
Qiu Zhang stood there, looking at him with a confused expression.
Finally, Harry gritted his teeth again and uttered an incoherent sentence, without even having time to pronounce the words correctly:
"Today...the ball game...cheer for me?"
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Qiu Zhang didn't understand what he said.
"I mean, today is our Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, can you..." Harry finally organized his words clearly and said.
However, at this moment, a tall, straight and handsome figure walked over from the edge of the arena.
"Harry, what a coincidence?" The figure also walked to Qiu Zhang's side and said hello to Harry, "Today is a competition between our two colleges. How are you preparing?"
"Cedric, why are you here..." Harry asked in surprise.
But before he finished asking, he suddenly saw Qiu Zhang's cheeks blushing slightly, and she excitedly handed the broom in her hand to Cedric's hand.
Is this broom Cedric's? Why did Cho Chang keep the broom for Cedric? What is the relationship between the two of them? …
Harry's words were stuck in his throat, and many strange questions ran through his mind.
This feeling is really weird: a minute ago, he felt that his internal organs were squirming like a snake, and now suddenly, he felt as if he had no internal organs at all...
"What's wrong with you, Harry?" Cedric asked concerned, "Are you okay? Do you need to postpone the game?"
"Although you, Gryffindor, were the defending champions last school year, we Hufflepuffs will not be willing to play against you when you have physical problems. In that case, even if you win, it will be in vain."
Harry felt empty inside and shook his head in confusion.
"I'm fine, thank you." He said softly, turned around and left the scene.
Harry had no idea how he ended up in the Gryffindor dressing room. As he changed into a bright red robe in the locker room, his only solace was that everyone was outside watching the game. Qiu Zhang is also there.
The players walked onto the field amid earth-shaking cheers.
Harry rode his broom up into the sky and saw Qiu Zhang's figure in the audience very keenly.
In her hand she held Hufflepuff's yellow flag.
Harry's guts came back. It seemed to him that they had been filled with lead.
…
…
