End of Term

Is he a good person?

Harry thought about it for a moment, but in the end, he didn't refute it.

To be honest, Headmaster Black wasn't exactly a bad person.

Seeing that Harry didn't refute her, Anne suppressed a laugh and said, "Yes, he's a good person."

If Headmaster Black heard this, he would surely stand tall with pride.

After all, since Umbridge came to Hogwarts, he was no longer the most unpopular person in the history of Hogwarts —of course, he was still the most unpopular Headmaster.

Sometimes Harry feels a bit sorry that Umbridge didn't become the Headmaster and didn't take away the title that Headmaster Black cherished most.

The holidays have arrived as scheduled, and the students of Hogwarts are once again enjoying their break.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Professor Lupin will remain the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts next year—a fact the students have already confirmed with Dumbledore.

Several days before the holidays, Harry and Ron ran into the Twins brothers who had returned to Hogwarts to promote their shop.

Ron was clearly shocked by the sudden appearance of his two older brothers—or rather, by the Twins ' attire.

He stared wide-eyed at the punk-style Twins and exclaimed in surprise, "Hey you two, your jackets look so cool!"

"Top-quality Dragonhide, my little brother," Fred said, zipping up his jacket. "Our business is booming, and we figured we should treat ourselves a little better."

As he spoke, Fred took out some flyers and slapped them at Ron: "Now, it's time to need you, Ronnie little darling —if you help us hand out these flyers, we'll buy you one too."

Ron took the flyer without hesitation and turned to leave.

"We've graduated," Fred and George said to Harry and the others after handing out the flyers. "We've rented a shop in Diagon Alley and plan to sell some magical gadgets there—I'll send you invitations once it opens."

"Did Mom agree?" Ginny retorted. "Don't wait until Mom finds out and flies into a rage, then smash up your magic gadget shop."

"Oh, don't say that, Ginny," Fred said, shaking his head. "Can't you hope for something better for us? Or, deep down, do you want to see this happen?"

"I never expected our youngest sister to be such a fun person," George said with a grin. "You won't see this, Mom has already approved our plans to open a shop, and she and Dad will be there to celebrate in a couple of days."

On the eve of the holidays, they were still in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, welcoming the annual end-of-term assembly.

The Gryffindor red and gold decor style was used for the fifth time in the Great Hall, and the students were already used to it.

Apart from the sixth and seventh graders, no one had ever seen the color scheme of the other houses in the Great Hall at the end of the semester.

The seventh-year students had clearly given up, while the sixth-year Slytherin students were secretly encouraging themselves, planning to make Slytherin great again next year.

But it's clear that next year Gryffindor will no longer have the Weasley twins, a major source of points deductions, and if they want to catch up with Gryffindor's momentum...

It would take Professor Snape's powerful hand to exert its influence once again.

As usual, Dumbledore addressed the students, and also specifically praised the Gryffindor students for their outstanding performance this semester.

Even without extra credits, Gryffindor's scores this year are far ahead of the other houses.

The holiday arrived as scheduled, and students dragged their suitcases, left their respective college's Common Room, and walked onto the platform.

"What are your plans for the holidays?" Draco asked Harry on the platform. "After the 0. WLs exams, I feel like I've lost my sense of purpose. How about we do something exciting and intense during the holidays?"

"There are no plans yet," Harry said. "I'll let you know with the Crystal Ball when the time comes."

Now, Mr. LeMay's seventh generation Crystal Ball has been successfully launched. The standard version only requires two Galleon, the advanced Pro version requires twenty Galleon, and the ProMa Crystal Ball requires two hundred Galleon.

The wealthy Malfoy family naturally wouldn't let their child leave empty-handed; Draco received the latest Crystal Ball, the 7 Pro Ma.

"I understand," Draco said, waving to Harry before boarding the train.

Harry, Anne, Ron, and Hermione boarded the train and found a compartment to sit in.

As he passed Lady selling snacks, Ron bought a huge pile of Cauldron Cake and Pumpkin Pasty.

"Food is something you can never miss out on." Ron was still reminiscing in his seat in the private room when he grabbed Cauldron Cake and stuffed it into his mouth.

He got up a little late this morning and hasn't eaten yet.

"I think you're the embodiment of the seven deadly sins, gluttony." Hermione looked away from the Daily Prophet, glancing pityingly at Ron who was gorging himself, and shook her head in dismay.

Neville and Ginny also entered the box, and Harry noticed that Neville was holding a Mimbulus Mimbletonia instead of his toad Trevor.

The name "Mimbulus Mimbletonia" sounds cute, but it's not actually like that.

This is a rare magical plant from the ancient Assyria region. It has the appearance of a small gray cactus, with its surface covered with regularly pulsating, healing-like protrusions.

This plant has a unique self-defense mechanism; when attacked, the boils will spray out a foul-smelling, viscous liquid.

This plant was actually a birthday gift from Neville.

"Where's your Trevor?" Ron asked curiously.

"It got away," Neville said sadly. "It slid into the Black Lake, and I've waited for it for so long, but it hasn't come back up. I really don't know what's attracting it to the Black Lake." "You have to take it easy, Neville," Ginny comforted him. "Out with the old, in with the new—"

But she didn't say much more, after all, it was Neville's pet that he had raised day and night for five years.

Neville kept his head down and didn't answer. He reached out and stroked Mimbulus Mimbletonia, which made a strange groaning sound when touched.

After failing to comfort Neville, Ginny pulled out "The Quibbler" and started doing the little quiz.

"I heard from Luna," Ron mumbled—because he was chewing on Cauldron Cake— "that later this year,

"The Quibbler will come with some fun gadgets, like glasses that allow you to see Healers."

"You should know, Ron," Hermione looked up again, "That so-called ' Healers ' is just a Magical Creatures Luna made up; it doesn't exist!"

"I think it's worth a try, just in case you can see," Ron said, swallowing Cauldron Cake. "Wearing it won't hurt you anyway."

Hermione snorted loudly through the back of her nose and didn't reply.

Clearly, she had strong reservations about Ron's acceptance of Luna's nonsense.

Ron shrugged, took a few more Cauldron Cake, and then pulled out the Wizard Chess.

"Harry," he said, "Let's play Wizard Chess, we've got nothing better to do anyway."

Harry was also feeling a bit bored, and playing Wizard Chess was indeed a pretty good way to pass the time.

Anne sat next to Harry, watching intently as the two played Wizard Chess, occasionally offering Harry pointers on how to play.

"Hey!" After Anne directed Harry to devour Ron's castle, Ron finally couldn't hold back any longer. "Don't talk while watching, my dear Lady?"

"Alright, Anne," Harry said, suppressing a laugh, "Don't annoy Ron— "

"The Daily Prophet is almost becoming a second-rate magazine like the Quibbler." Hermione put down the Daily Prophet and sighed heavily. "Look at what's written here! They even published a story about someone saying the Dark Lord passed by their house? I really can't imagine what the editors of the Daily Prophet were thinking, publishing something like this—"

"That's one kind of head too, Hermione," Ron said without looking up. "The Daily Prophet is a magazine, after all; they won't miss out on this kind of head."

No sooner had Ron finished speaking than he discovered that his knight had been eaten by Harry's minions.

But Ron's chess skills were clearly still quite good, and without Anne's support, Harry quickly fell into a disadvantageous position again.

"Speaking of which," Ron scratched his head, continuing his chess game, "Ginny, how are things going with Michael Corner? I think you were dating him, weren't you?"

"Never again." Ginny put away the Quibbler magazine. She had already finished her quiz. "During the Quidditch match, he didn't like Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw, so he was upset—just because of that little thing, he got angry, so I decided to ignore him."

After saying that, Ginny scratched her nose with the tip of a feather, flipped through "The Quibbler" haphazardly, and started checking the answers. Ron seemed very happy to hear this.

"Very well, I've always thought he was a bit of an idiot," he said, forcing his queen into Harry's crumbling castle. "This is good for you—you can find someone better later."

"Yes, I've chosen Dean Thomas," Ginny said with a smile, clearly pleased with her choice and the test results. "Don't you think he's a better choice? After all, he's Gryffindor too."

"What did you say?!"

Ron roared, standing up and accidentally knocking over the chessboard. "Who did you choose? Dean Thomas?"

"Yeah," Ginny, clearly not seeing anything wrong with her behavior. "It's just a date, why are you making such a fuss?"

It's clear that Ron doesn't really like his sister dating Dean Thomas— in fact, as an older brother, Ron always feels uncomfortable seeing his sister on a date.

After seeing Ron's reaction, Anne gave Harry a meaningful look.

The train was approaching King's Cross Station and its speed slowed down.

After a long and bumpy ride, Harry felt like he was about to fall asleep.

"Let's go, get out of the car." Ron put away the chessboard, seemingly still upset about his sister's date with Dean Thomas.

My sister is so beautiful, how could Dean Thomas possibly be a match for her?

But such things obviously didn't go according to his wishes. As the saying goes, "If it's going to rain, it'll rain; if a mother wants to remarry, she'll remarry." Ron could only accept this fact.

When the ticket inspector signaled that Harry, Ron, and Hermione could safely pass through the magical barrier between Platforms 9 and 10, he discovered something unexpected waiting for him on the other side: a group of people he had never expected were standing there to greet him.

There was Mad-Eye Moody, who wore a bowler hat pulled low, obscuring his magical eyes, and looked just as menacing as when he wasn't wearing the hat. He held a long wooden staff in his rough, tangled hands and wore a large travel cloak.

Tonks stood behind him, sunlight streaming through the dark glass ceiling of the platform, her bubblegum pink hair shimmering in the light, wearing patched jeans and a bright purple T-shirt with a graphic of the Weird Sisters band.

Next to Tonks was Lupin, whose face was ruddy, his hair was gray but neatly combed, and he was wearing a brand new overcoat.

It's clear that Lupin has been living a good life lately; you can tell from his appearance.

Standing in front of them were the Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred, and George. The Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were wearing their best Muggle clothes, while Fred and George were still wearing their new jackets made of dark green, scaly material.

"Ron, Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley rushed forward and hugged her children tightly. "Oh, and my dear Harry— how are you?"

"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley," Harry smiled and nodded to her. "So—why are there so many people here?"

"We just happened to receive an invitation from the Minister," Mr. Weasley said with a grin. "He invited us to visit Grimmauld Place, Number 12, and since we were going that way anyway, we thought we'd pick you up here first, so Ron and Ginny wouldn't be disappointed, would we?"

"Looks like Sirius's work in the department is going well?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Still working overtime," Mr. Weasley said. "But even when he's busy, he still manages to find time to get together with us, doesn't he? Besides us, it seems Sirius also invited Professor Dumbledore. Of course, I heard he also invited Professor Snape, but it looks like Professor Snape didn't accept Sirius's invitation."

"You know they've never gotten along, Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley turned and glared at Mr. Weasley with displeasure.

"Oh—" Professor Lupin began, "But as far as I know, Professor Snape seems to have accepted the invitation."