Chapter 95: Professor Dracula published a book?
No. 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging.
Harry was picked up in a flying car by Wes's three brothers, Fred, George and Ron.
Listening to Uncle Vernon's angry roar from the window, he happily rolled down the window and let the evening breeze flap his hair.
Harry couldn't believe it - he was free!
"See you next summer!"
Harry stuck his head out of the window and shouted to Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Cousin Dudley who were standing blankly at the window.
The Wesley brothers laughed, and Harry leaned back in his chair, grinning from ear to ear.
"Harry, can you tell us what happened during this holiday?" Ron asked impatiently after the car flew completely into the night sky. "You didn't even reply to a letter. I was really worried to death. At first I thought something was wrong with Errol..."
"Who is Errol?" Harry asked.
"We have an owl at home," Ron explained. "It's old and exhausted when delivering letters. So I wanted to borrow Hermes -"
"Who is Jémes?"
"The owl that Percy's parents bought for him when he became a prefect." Fred, who was sitting in the driver's seat, turned around and said. Harry was afraid that he would accidentally drive and hit something.
"But Percy wouldn't lend it to me," said Ron, "saying he wanted to use it himself."
"Percy is very weird this summer," George complained with a frown. "He asked Hermes to send a lot of letters, and he always locked himself in the room... I don't understand. The prefect's badge needs to be polished. So many times... You're driving too far west, Fred."
As he spoke, he pointed at a compass on the dashboard.
Fred turned the wheel.
"Then you drove the car out. Does your father know?" In fact, Harry had already guessed the truth before asking this question.
"Oh, I don't know," Ron said, "He's working overtime tonight. I hope we can drive the car into the garage quietly without my mother finding out. Otherwise, my father will be killed badly by us..."
Harry mentally observed two seconds of silence for Mr. Weasley.
Suddenly, Ron seemed to realize something and turned to look at Harry with wide eyes.
"...Wait a minute, were you changing the subject just now?" he asked.
"Ah, I didn't..." Harry turned his head in embarrassment when the truth was revealed and looked at the big moon outside the window.
"You're just changing the subject!" Ron said firmly, "Tell us quickly, what did you do during the holidays?"
Harry instinctively didn't want to tell others about the diary, so he hesitated and concealed Tom's role in the incident.
"I locked up my Hedwig in order to take revenge on the Dursleys, so I ruined a big business of Uncle Vernon..." he muttered, "Then I was completely nailed to the room, and only Two meals and only two chances to go to the toilet..."
"They are too abominable!" Fred clenched his fists and waved angrily.
His movements frightened George next to him and quickly reached out his hand to help straighten the vacant steering wheel.
"Hedwig was imprisoned by them, so it's understandable that you didn't send us a letter." Ron nodded thoughtfully, "But why can't Errol find you?"
"What? He couldn't find me?" Harry's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, at first I thought Errol had painted the lake. It wasn't until Hermione wrote to tell me that her owl couldn't find you that Fred and George realized something was wrong." Ron said, "It's because of this problem that we decided to secretly come to your house to see if there is anything wrong with you."
"That's right, the reason why the owl can't find you is probably because of a spell called the avoidance curse." George said from the passenger seat. "Fred and I used to do something to prevent our mother's roaring letters from coming to our door. I’ve researched this spell, but unfortunately it didn’t work.”
He showed a very regretful expression.
"This is a very advanced spell. Wizards who don't want to be disturbed by owls or found by others will use this spell." Fred said, "But if this spell appears in the Muggle community, and it's It’s been covered for a whole month, which is very wrong!”
"Anyway, Fred and George were right!" Ron said happily. "If they hadn't realized something was wrong, I might not have found out that you were locked up until school started."
A happy smile also appeared on Harry's face.
The flying car sped along, and when the four little wizards approached the destination of their trip, a faint red glow appeared on the eastern horizon.
The rising sun gradually turned the clear, cloudless sky into a rose-like color. This rosy red glow seemed to indicate that a beautiful day was about to begin.
The village of Ottery St. Catchpole, arrived——
Fred skillfully landed the car next to a shabby garage. It was obvious that this was not the first time he had stolen Mr. Wesley's flying car.
There is a small yard surrounding the garage. This small courtyard seemed to have been a large pigsty built with stones. Later, some rooms were added here and there, and it was built up to several stories high, crookedly.
No serious architect would build such a house, and such a crooked house would be completely impossible to appear in the Muggle world. After all, even the Leaning Tower of Pisa cannot violate physics so seriously, let alone be so different from human aesthetics!
Then there is only one answer. This house is pieced together by magic...
The four of them got out of the car quietly. Harry saw four or five chimneys standing on the crooked red roof. A sign was inserted diagonally in front of the house that read "The Burrow".
"It's not that good here, Harry." Ron said uneasily, "I know the construction here... um... is a bit crude, but I promise, the house will never fall down suddenly while you are sleeping!"
"What a shame!" Harry shook his head and said excitedly, "On the contrary, this place is great!"
After escaping from the prison of No. 4 Privet Drive, he felt that everywhere was paradise! What's more, this "burrow" owned by Wesla's family completely matches his yearning for all kinds of strange facilities in the magical world.
After hearing Harry's comments, the three brothers Wes came to the house were very happy.
They decided to go upstairs quietly and wait for Mrs. Weiss to surprise her when she called them for breakfast.
However, the next moment, Ron's words of introduction were stuck in his mouth, his face suddenly turned green, and his eyes were staring straight in the direction of the house.
Fred and George felt something was wrong and turned to look where Ron was looking.
Mrs. Weasley walked quickly from across the yard, frightening the old hens and the big roosters in the yard and fled in all directions.
What surprised Harry was that Mrs. Weasley, a fat, kind-hearted woman, could be as fierce as a grinning tigress!
"Not good," Fred said.
"It's not just bad, it's dead," George added.
Mrs. Weasley stopped in front of them, with her hands on her hips, looking at the guilty faces of Fred, George and Ron one by one.
This atmosphere made Harry feel guilty and lowered his head silently.
Mrs. Weasley wore a floral apron and carried a wand in her pocket.
"Okay, you three," she said.
"Good morning, mom." George winked and said cutely in what he thought was a relaxed and cute tone.
"Do you know how anxious I am?" Mrs. Weasley ignored him and said in a heart-stopping low voice.
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"I'm sorry, Mom, but we have to..."
Mrs. Weasley's three sons were all taller than she was, but when her anger broke out, they were all too frightened to answer.
"The bed is empty! No note was left! The car is gone... Maybe there was a car accident. I'm going crazy!" She scolded loudly, "Have you ever thought about it? I have so many children in my life, but you are the only one. The three are the most troublesome! Let's see how your father deals with you when he comes back. Bill, Charlie and Percy have never had anything like this happen..."
Mrs. Weasley lectured them for what seemed like an hour, and Harry stood nearby, listening with trepidation.
During the scolding, seeing that his mother had entered a state of selflessness, Fred quietly nudged George's hip with his elbow.
"George, you are 14 years old and you are not cute at all." His lips almost did not move, but the words he spoke were clearly transmitted to George's ears, "There is no use being cute anymore. Mom won't Take this trick. The only one who can save us now is Harry."
George understood immediately and bumped Harry's left arm, who was standing on his right, with his hip bone, startling him.
"Harry, our lives are all in your hands!" His lips barely moved, but Harry heard his voice, "Now it's your turn, Harry, talk to mom. Say hello and make her aware of your presence.”
"Mom will be very happy to see you as a guest. She will soon forget about us secretly driving..."
Harry's lips moved.
Looking at Mrs. Weasley who looked like an angry tigress, he hesitated a little. He didn't know if interrupting her lecture would make her even more angry, and he didn't know if his face would really be that useful. .
In short, he was a little timid.
"Quick, Harry, the sooner you divert mother's attention, the sooner she will let us go." George's voice sounded again.
Harry gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind.
After all, it was Wes's three brothers who rescued him from that cage. What's the big deal about getting scolded for them!
So he stood up as if he was dead.
"Um...Hello, Mrs. Weiss," Harry said weakly.
Harry's voice immediately attracted Mrs. Weasley's attention.
"Ah, nice to see you, dear Harry," she shouted for a long time. Her voice was a little hoarse, but it was completely different from the rage just now. She said to Harry very kindly, "Come in and eat." Let’s have some breakfast!”
She seemed to have forgotten about scolding the three boys who came to Wes's house, and turned around and walked back into the house with a cheerful face.
Harry glanced nervously at Ron and the three of them, and found that they all gave him a thumbs up. The expressions in Fred and George's eyes could be seen at a glance, as if they were saying to him——
"Well done!"
…
Life at the Burrow was very different from life at Privet Drive.
The Dursleys like everything to be in order, but Wes's visit is full of magic and surprises——
The mirror on the kitchen mantelpiece startled Harry.
The first time he looked in the mirror, the mirror suddenly shouted: "Tuck your shirt into your pants, you are so sloppy!"
There are also a few ghouls living in the attic of the Burrow. Whenever they feel that the home is too quiet, they will howl loudly and bang on the pipes.
In addition, there were always small explosions in Fred and George's bedroom, which was considered completely normal by the Weasley family... Harry couldn't help but think of Fred and George whispering at last year's Christmas party The lofty ideal discussed - they want to create a firework that can engulf the entire Hogwarts Castle!
‘You can’t really make them both succeed, can you? ’ Harry was a little worried about the safety of Hogwarts Castle.
But none of the above is the most unusual thing about the Weiss family.
In Harry's opinion, the most unusual part of Wesla's life is not the talking mirror, nor the knocking ghouls, nor the twins' bedrooms that make explosions all day long... but everything here Everyone seems to like him!
Mrs. Weasley very thoughtfully mended his old socks that had holes in them and Dudley couldn't fit them in; she forced Harry to add more to every meal several times, complaining that he was too thin. When you are growing, you must eat more; Mr. Weasley likes to let Harry sit next to him when eating, and keeps asking Harry about Muggle life, asking him about the plug and the post office. …
About a week after arriving at the Burrow, one fine morning, Harry received a letter from Hogwarts.
"Letter from the school," said Mr. Weasley, holding in his hand several letters from Hogwarts' public owl.
Harry and Ron both received an envelope of yellow parchment with green writing on it.
"Harry, Dumbledore already knows you are here." He said with emotion, "Nothing can be hidden from this man."
Mr. Weasley handed the little wizards' letters to their corresponding owners and looked at them with a look of relief.
No one spoke for a while, everyone read their own letters.
Harry's letter told him that he would still take the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross Station back to Hogwarts Castle on September 1st.
Attached to the letter is a list of new books for the second grade——
"Standard Spells (Level 2)" by Miranda Gorshak
The Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
A Thousand Miracle Herbs and Mushrooms by Phyllida Spohr
…
Except for "Standard Spells" written by Miranda Gorshak, which has been changed from level one to level two, the other books are basically the same as the first-grade book list, and there is nothing that requires additional purchase.
But when he saw the last line, Harry's eyes widened.
The last line of the book list reads——
"Randomly Picked Mistakes from Dark Arts: A Guide to Self-Defense" by Brad Dracula
The title of this book does not look like a serious textbook at all, but more like a critical book that uses the influence of other authors. Generally, this kind of book is the least popular.
But the crux of the matter is not here.
"Professor Dracula wrote a book?" Harry looked at Ron sitting beside him with a blank look on his face.
"No way, a person as lazy as Professor Dracula actually wants to write a book?" The look of confusion on Ron's face was no weaker than Harry's. "He clearly didn't even bother to correct his homework. It seemed like he didn't even bother to correct the last one. None of the papers were written by him."
After hearing Ron's words, Mr. Weasley looked up from the newspaper in his hand and frowned.
"So, you have met another unreliable Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?" he said, "Really, Hogwarts has not recruited many reliable Defense Against the Dark Arts professors in the past few decades. professor!"
"No, Dad, Professor Dracula is the most reliable Defense Against the Dark Arts professor I have seen in the past five years!" Percy retorted after reading his letter, "He told it in class , there are some problems in the book "Black Magic: Self-Defense Guide", and this book may be published this year to help us correct the problems."
"Wait, you mean...this Professor Dracula has been re-elected for the second year?!" Mr. Weasley opened his mouth wide, and the newspaper in his hand fell on his knees.
Mr. Weiss was shocked to see the children in the living room nodding in unison.
"Hiss—" he took a breath, "This Professor Dracula is too scary. I have never seen a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who can be re-elected for a second year in my life!"
"Actually, there's nothing surprising about it." Mrs. Weasley, who started clearing the table, gave Mr. Weasley a rollicking look and said to him, "I met Professor Dracula when I attended Lockhart's tea party at Mrs. Puddy's Teahouse. , he looks like an extremely powerful wizard at first glance! More importantly, he is also very handsome!"
Mrs. Weasley had stars in her eyes.
"It's such a pity that I was deceived by that liar Lockhart for so many years." She said sadly, "If Professor Dracula hadn't captured Lockhart at that tea party, Dumbledore would have exposed it himself. His scandalous act of robbing other people’s memories, I didn’t even know Lockhart could be such a despicable and shameless villain!”
"And have you forgotten? Professor Dracula also asked us to take something with us, which is the crystal ball we sent to Brown Castle when we went to Romania to visit Charlie!"
Mr. Weasley suddenly understood and slapped his thigh hard.
"So, Professor Dracula must be terrifyingly powerful!" He looked at Ron and said, "In that case, wouldn't it be great if he could publish a book?"
"Okay, it's indeed very good...but I always feel that writing a book is not in line with the professor's style." Ron spread his hands.
Just then, Fred and George walked over side by side.
"Actually... the two of us know the reason why Professor Dracula published the book."
The two held their heads high and spoke inscrutably.
…
…
