Cruciatus Curse!

Peeves was no good, and Harry had known that for a long time.

This poltergeist particularly loved playing tricks on people, especially going against them.

"Acquaintances? There are no acquaintances of yours here!" Percy said angrily. "They're just new students—"

"Really?" Peeves drifted straight over to Harry. "Potter, aren't you going to say hello to an old friend?"

"Peeves!" Percy warned loudly. "Harry is only a First Year Student. Don't harass him!"

"A First Year Student?" As though he had heard some great joke, Peeves clutched his stomach and doubled over in midair with laughter. "Oh, I'll never forget that face as long as I live, Potter..."

"You must have known my father, James." Harry spread his hands, then drew his wand.

"You don't actually expect a spell to drive Peeves off, do you?" Percy asked in surprise. "Honestly, everyone has been looking for a way to hit Peeves with magic, and clearly, as you've seen—so far, there isn't one."

Yet something Percy had never expected happened. The instant Peeves saw Harry draw his wand and point it at him, he grabbed his tie and screamed as he fled.

"Maybe it really works." Harry shrugged.

Percy opened his mouth. The atmosphere felt rather awkward now.

"Maybe he had something else to do," he could only explain. "If you run into Peeves causing trouble again, try not to provoke him. Honestly, you should be on your guard around Peeves."

Percy led them onward. "I don't recommend that everyone try Harry's method. I suggest using Bloody Baron's name to scare him instead. After all, Bloody Baron is the only one who can keep him under control. He won't even listen to us Prefects—we're here."

At the end of the corridor hung a portrait. It depicted a very plump woman dressed entirely in pink.

"Password?" she asked in a low voice.

"Dragon dung," Percy answered.

The portrait swung forward, revealing a round hole in the wall.

They all climbed through the opening, but Neville was rather clumsy and needed someone to give him a pull before he could squeeze inside.

After crawling through the narrow passage, the space suddenly opened up before them. They had arrived at the Gryffindor Common Room.

It was a comfortable circular room filled with plush armchairs. The walls and every other corner were decorated in red and gold—the standard colors of Gryffindor.

Percy began assigning rooms to the new students. "When I call your names, you'll be living together for the rest of your school years—Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, and Seamus Finnegan."

The four boys whose names had been called exchanged glances, but none of them objected.

After Percy had assigned all the boys' and girls' dormitories, he continued, "School rules state that boys are not allowed to enter the Girls' Dormitory."

"What if girls enter the boys' dormitory?" Seamus called out. "Is there no rule about that?"

"I'm sorry, there isn't," Percy said helplessly.

From behind him, however, Fred and George spoke in unison. "Do you even need to ask? You bear the consequences yourself—"

Percy answered them by swatting them with the book in his hand. The two copies of each other ran laughing out of the Common Room.

"Come on, let's head back," Neville said first, still holding Trevor in his hands.

"Aren't you worried you'll smother him?" Seamus said. "I've seen you holding your toad this whole time. Isn't he hot?"

"I'm afraid he'll run away," Neville answered honestly. "I spent the entire day looking for him on the train. Oh..."

When they returned to the dormitory, Neville put away the toad in his hands, and Seamus began talking.

"I'm half and half." Seamus sat on the edge of his bed, swinging one leg. "My Father is a Muggle. My Mother didn't tell him she was a witch until after they got married—it scared him half to death."

Everyone burst out laughing. Rubbing his eyes, Harry said, "It's normal for Muggles not to believe in magic. My uncle, for instance—he's incredibly resistant to it. Even if I performed magic right in front of him, he'd refuse to believe it."

"Oh, I think he's just lying to himself," Seamus said with his arms folded.

Then he turned and asked, "What about you, Neville?"

"I was raised by my Grandmother." Neville looked a little troubled. "Grandmother is a witch. From what she's told me, my parents were both wizards too. Unfortunately, they fell ill and have been hospitalized at St Mungo's Hospital ever since I can remember."

"But then again, for all these years, my family thought I was a Muggle. My great-uncle Algie always tried to catch me off guard and force me to show some magic—once, he pushed me off the Black Lake pier and nearly drowned me, but nothing happened."

"Until I was eight. One day, my great-uncle Algie came over for tea and dangled me upside down by my ankle out of an upstairs window. Just then, my great-aunt Enid handed him a piece of cake. He slipped and lost his grip on me, and I bounced—flew over the whole garden and landed in the road. They were overjoyed. Great-aunt Enid was so happy that she even cried."

"You should have seen their faces when I got my acceptance letter. You see, they thought my magic wasn't strong enough for me to get into this school... My great-uncle Algie was so thrilled that he even bought me a toad as a gift."

As if someone had opened the floodgates, Neville began pouring out all his experiences to his classmates. After hearing Neville's story, Harry suddenly felt there might have been a reason the Magical World had not come to rescue him from his misery all these years.

Just look at Neville. Even his own great-uncle treated him like that—pushing him off a pier, dropping him from the second floor...

"What illness do your parents have?" Seamus asked with concern.

"They were tortured by the Cruciatus Curse. They've never woken up," Neville said quietly.

"I'm sorry, Neville." Seamus had not expected to pry into someone else's painful memories.

The Cruciatus Curse?

Harry had learned it, with Sebastian; he had used it too, on Verathea, more than once.

The pain of Crucio was truly unbearable. It was not only torture for the victim, but also torment for the caster's soul.

"Ah, I remember now!" Ron struck his fist into his palm, then realized that saying Neville's parents' names would only hurt his friend again. So he changed the subject halfway through and said to Harry, "Harry, I just remembered—you still have some snacks in your trunk..."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about those if you hadn't mentioned it." Harry pulled his trunk out from beneath his bed and said to the other three, "I bought quite a lot of snacks in the Muggle world. Have some—"

He urgently needed to change the subject with Ron as well. The memories the Cruciatus Curse had left him were far from pleasant.