Midnight Duel Challenge!

Midnight Duel Challenge!

"Ding~ Mission triggered:

We Are Champions (Red)

The last time Ravenclaw won the House Cup was before Snape started teaching! Can you just stand by and watch? Let's do this, brothers! Objective: Help Ravenclaw win the House Cup.

Reward: 1300 XP, +1 Intelligence, random card.

The last time Ravenclaw won the House Cup seems like it was last time~"

"Fuck, you're screwing with me!" Ted was completely dumbfounded.

With Dumbledore, a Gryffindor alumnus, around, did anyone else even have a chance of winning the House Cup?

Hermione asked, "Hm? What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just happy for Harriett and Ron."

"Happy?! They lost fifty points, and you're happy?" Hermione's eyebrows nearly shot up. To her, points were life itself! Ted soothed her, "Uh, think about it! They lost points, so doesn't that mean Ravenclaw has a chance to win the House Cup?"

"Er... that doesn't seem right, does it?" Hermione's lips curled upward despite herself.

"Come on, don't hold it in! We don't want that thing!" Harriett shouted, slapping the table beside them.

"Exactly!" Ron echoed.

Jerry: As for little old me, whatever works~ Neville: Actually, I still really wanted it. But I didn't dare say anything.

Hermione finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

The Great Hall was filled with cheerful air~...

Perhaps because the three Slytherins had been publicly KO'd by girls, Malfoy felt utterly humiliated.

But going after Harriett—and "dueling" a girl—was far too disgraceful!

More importantly, he didn't dare to. He couldn't beat her, and the whole thing had left him traumatized. So what could he do?

Pick on the weak! That night, when few people were around, Malfoy stopped Neville and Ron. "Longbottom and Weasley, if you're men, stop hiding behind girls. Eleven-thirty tonight, third-floor corridor. I'll bring one assistant against the two of you. A real wizard duel, not swinging your fists around like Muggles. Do you dare?!"

Neville's face reddened, and before he could say anything, Ron had already agreed. "Ha! Two against two. Anyone who doesn't show up is a coward!"

Jerry, standing nearby, thought: What about me? What about me? Don't ignore me, hey?! Of course, this couldn't be kept from Harriett. Although Ron wanted to play the role of a real man, Harriett saw right through the little secret shared by the three of them.

After some questioning, Neville stammered and dared not speak. Jerry confessed even faster than if he'd been sitting in a "leniency for confession chair," leaving Ron with no choice but to pout indignantly.

Harriett said, "Come here. I have a plan... I have a plan~"

The four Gryffindors planned to teach young Malfoy a lesson with a righteous Gryffindor beatdown.

At the start of term, Sirius had given Harriett her family heirloom, the Invisibility Cloak. But there were four of them now, and even Harriett's cloak couldn't cover them all.

Fortunately, Jerry's racial talent gave him high Stealth. He hugged the walls as he walked, making no sound when he landed. Pretty nice~ Harriett and the other two led the way under the Invisibility Cloak while Jerry sneakily followed behind them.

But in the end, the old silver coin lost to the pigeon spirit—Malfoy stood them up. The four Gryffindors froze for over half an hour and nearly got caught by Filch. They ran for ages before finally escaping back.

Their first nighttime excursion had gone disastrously. It was a terrible start! The next morning, none of the four went to breakfast, and Ted and Hermione worried that something had happened to them.

It wasn't until lunch that they met up and heard about how they'd been stood up the night before.

Harriett was furious! She practically wanted to hit Malfoy with the Cruciatus Curse using only her eyes!

But after the first Flying Class battle, another public fight would be no small matter.

In the end, Ted offered some advice. "You can spread rumors... no, just facts!"

"Spread it among your friends. Say Malfoy is a coward who didn't dare keep the appointment. That he sullied Slytherin's honor. That he even admitted he was a coward..."

For Slytherins, betrayal meant nothing. It could even be considered praise.

But you could not call them cowards, say they were unworthy of being Slytherins, or accuse them of tarnishing their honor.

The old hands were thick-skinned and wouldn't care. Old Malfoy, for instance, only cared about profit. He had no use for pride, much less honor.

But at least for young Slytherins, it was intolerable.

Within just two days, the rumors had spread everywhere. Harriett had a wide network and astonishing "combat power"!

Malfoy was now so furious that he genuinely wanted to duel, but no one paid him any attention. They laughed whenever they saw him, and whispered from afar that he was a cowardly grandson~ The rumors even evolved, claiming he hid under his blankets trembling, had written home to his father asking to withdraw from school, and was too scared to stay here.

After all that, Malfoy was being looked at strangely even among the Slytherins.

Children were easily influenced by group opinion, after all, and cared deeply about what others thought of them.

Malfoy now genuinely wanted to write to his father and pour out all his grievances and troubles.

Saturday of the second week arrived quickly.

During their first weekend at school, no one had done much, since they had plenty of homework.

Other than meeting in the library or the Great Hall, playing Wizard's Chess, chatting, and the like, everyone mostly slept in.

Except for Ted, who ran every morning, what child didn't need a lot of sleep?

Hermione had also tried running with Ted, but she couldn't even make it to the third day. She kept nodding off in class, so she had no choice but to give up.

Speaking of homework, Harriett and Ron had already found a good method.

Other than using Hermione's and Ted's homework as references, they padded everything out! So much padding!

Even if Yu the Great came back to life, he still couldn't control that flood. The two of them could supply a hydroelectric power station all by themselves!

Ted had looked over one of their assignments. Five inches of writing, yet he could barely find a few useful sentences. It read just like official paperwork!

They should work at the Ministry of Magic in the future. They had talent! This weekend, though, was a little different. Everyone had become much more familiar with the school and had started getting restless.

That morning, Anzu had just flown near the Great Hall when Harriett called out to him. "Anzu, where are you going?"

Anzu landed on a lamp stand and answered, "Caw caw, going to the kitchens to grab some fries~"

In two weeks, Anzu had already found Hogwarts' kitchens and made friends with the House-elves, letting him enjoy special meals. What a social butterfly of a bird! "Forget eating for now. Go get Ted and Hermione. There's something fun going on!"

Anzu could only fly back to pass along the message.

When Ted and Hermione arrived, Harriett hurried them along all the way to the third floor of the Left Second Tower, where more than a dozen Little Wizards had already gathered.

Ted spotted three redheads in the crowd. Besides Ron, there were also his two Twin brothers.

"What's going on? What are you doing?" Ted asked.

Ron rushed to explain, "This staircase changes!"

Hermione was dismissive. "Half the staircases in the castle change. What's so interesting about that?"

George stepped forward—Ted could tell the two apart. Though their appearances and mannerisms were identical, the differences in their minds were still there, impossible to hide from a Mind Mage.

He said, "It's not an ordinary change. Just watch!"

As he spoke, he walked up the stairs. When he reached the thirteenth step, the staircase suddenly clicked and became flat—or rather, a slope! Every step flipped over, turning the ascending staircase into a slide, and George whooshed down it. The Little Wizards watching nearby erupted into cheers.

One Little Wizard immediately shouted, "My turn, my turn!" and eagerly climbed the staircase after it had returned to normal.

Ted and Hermione looked at each other. Watching Harriett, Neville, Ron, and the others having the time of their lives, the two of them had the same question—That's it? That's it? That's it? Doesn't the wizarding world have slides?! When Ted returned from his run on Sunday morning, he witnessed another strange sight—a suit of knight's armor was singing.

It was humming a tune, somewhat off-key, but "it" was clearly enjoying itself.

The problem was that its brothers on either side seemed unable to stand it. They glared at it several times, but after stopping for a few seconds, it started singing again.

Finally, the other two suits of armor got angry. They rushed over and each punched the singing armor, smashing it to pieces!

Ted hurried away. He couldn't let Filch see it and claim Ted had done it. That old bastard was capable of it!

Still, it piqued Ted's curiosity, and he began studying the suits of armor in the castle.

Ted knew quite a bit about moving portraits from the original work, but nobody had ever explained in detail the moving armor throughout the castle.

What principles did they operate on, and what were their duties?

After observing them, he discovered that not all armor could move.

Some were merely decorative, or souvenirs.

There was, for instance, Elf armor—a cruel wizard had wanted his Elf to protect him in battle, so he crafted that suit of armor.

Unexpectedly, it still counted as "clothing." The Elf put on the armor and immediately Apparated away.

There was also centaur armor, troll armor, and the like.

Then there were rule-based suits of armor. They moved to particular locations at particular times, likely on cycles of several days or hours, as if patrolling.

Finally, there were the more autonomous ones. The humming armor and the two that had beaten it up were more like portraits, with a high degree of freedom. But they were few in number...