The Consequences of Angering the Vinegar King

Harry knew, of course, that his mother Lily's favorite person was Veratia, her mentor and best friend.

Moreover, when his mother briefly returned, she learned about his relationship with Veratia and even gave him a thumbs up.

Lily was incredibly proud to have won over such a beautiful and outstanding girl.

The pigs are really something else; they root up the freshest cabbages in the garden.

After spending a week in Grimmauld Place, they embarked on their journey to Hogwarts.

First, as in previous years, if you want to go to Hogwarts, you need to go to King's Cross Station to catch the train.

Mr. Weasley arranged for a car with Ministry of Magic license plates—the kind that are under the Ministry of Magic's jurisdiction—to take everyone to King's Cross Station.

This is the official vehicle that Sirius introduced after he took office. As the Minister for Magic who keeps up with the times, Sirius has carried out many interesting reforms.

In addition to these buses, he also installed many telephones in the Ministry of Magic, enabling him to quickly contact important figures such as the Hogwarts Headmaster, not only within the Ministry of Magic.

Furthermore, Sirius also gave a general pay raise to the staff and officials of the Ministry of Magic. Now, apart from a few people with ulterior motives, most people have a lot of praise for the new Minister for Magic, Mr. Black.

At King's Cross Station, you can see many Auror standing guard and on duty. Harry can almost immediately tell who the Auror are from the crowd.

After all, their attire was quite out of place among Muggle; they looked like people from the 1940s or 50s.

But Ron clearly couldn't tell the difference and thought there was nothing wrong with their clothes.

Wizard

As in previous years, Harry passed through the Fog Wall and arrived at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

There were also many Auror standing on duty at the platform.

Of course, they also saw Professor Lupin.

—Oh, now we should change the way we address him. He is Mr. Lupin, the deputy director of the Auror Office.

"It's a pleasure to see you all, Harry, Ron, and Hermione," Professor Lupin greeted them with a smile, wearing a grey trench coat.

"Professor Lupin!" Ron said with delight, "I heard you're now the deputy director of the Auror Office? Congratulations!"

Lupin chuckled and patted Ron on the shoulder.

After chatting for a while, Lupin had to go outside the platform to check on the Auror on duty. After Lupin left, Ron and Hermione also had to leave first.

"We'll head to the train first," Ron said to Harry. "You know, Prefect, well, the Prefect all have to go to the Prefect' car for a meeting first. We'll come find you after we're done, Harry."

"Go ahead," Harry nodded.

He watched the two get into the car, when suddenly a familiar voice came from behind him.

"Hey, Harry!"

"Neville?" Harry turned around and saw a round-faced boy struggling to squeeze his way in.

"Hello, Harry," said a long-haired girl behind Neville, her large eyes looking misty.

"Luna, how are you?" Harry greeted her.

"That's great, thank you," Luna said.

She pressed a magazine to her chest; the cover prominently proclaimed that it contained a free pair of Spectrespecs.

"I heard from Neville that you went to Antarctica during the summer vacation?" Luna asked with a smile. "He said your trip was great—except for a little discomfort when you passed through the Roaring Forties. What are the Roaring Forties?"

Harry thought for a moment, but still couldn't come up with a solution.

No matter, he took out the Crystal Ball, found an explanation of the Roaring Forties in the search engine, and showed it to Luna.

"So that's how it is—" Luna exclaimed, her eyes wide with wonder, "Nature is truly amazing—"

"Is the Quibbler still doing well?" Harry asked, though he actually quite liked the magazine.

"Yes, circulation is steadily increasing," Luna said happily. "Dad is very happy about it—of course, thanks to you, Harry."

Harry should definitely be thanked, as Harry has mentioned the magazine in public before.

"Let's find seats," Harry said, pulling Anne, who was gazing at the distant mountains. The four of them squeezed past the dumbfounded wizards and walked down the aisle.

Finally, they found an empty private room and quickly crawled inside.

Neville and Luna sat opposite each other, while Harry and Anne sat together. Anne leaned against the wall of the carriage and closed her eyes to rest as soon as she got on the train.

"She must be a little tired," Harry said to Neville and Luna. "She went to bed quite late last night."

Luna glanced at Harry, then at Anne, but said nothing.

"Did you see that? They're all staring at Luna and me—including the parents," Neville said, referring to Luna and himself, "Just because we're with you!"

"They know you're members of the Dueling Club," Harry said, twirling his fingers so that Luna's suitcase flew up and shoved itself into the luggage rack. "Of course, maybe it's because of the Daily Prophet interview? Remember? Rita Skeeter's interview with us after we got rid of Umbridge? I bet they all saw it."

"Yeah, I thought Grandma would be angry if she told everyone," Neville said. "But she was really happy, saying I'm finally living up to my father's name. She even bought me a new wand! Look!"

He pulled out his wand and handed it to Harry.

"Cherry wood, Unicorn Hair," he said proudly, "And Grandma didn't even scold me when I lost my old wand..."

"Why would she blame you?" Harry said with a chuckle. "I bet she's proud of you right now."

"So, are we still having the Dueling Club party this year, Harry?" Luna asked, taking a pair of brightly colored glasses off from between the pages of * the Quibbler *. "Cedric and the Weasley brothers have both graduated from Hogwarts, right? Shouldn't we bring in some new students?"

However, before he could answer, a commotion broke out outside the private room.

A group of fourth-grade girls were whispering and giggling outside the glass window.

"Go ask him!" "No, you go!" "I'll go!"

One of the girls, who looked quite bold, pushed open the door and walked in. She had big, dark eyes, a prominent chin, and long, jet-black hair.

"Hello, Harry, I'm Romilda, Romilda Vannie," she said confidently in a loud voice. "Why don't you sit in our box? You don't need to sit with them."

She spoke in a low voice, yet deliberately made sure others could hear, and pointed to Neville and Luna, who was now wearing the free glasses and looked like a colorful, disoriented owl.

"They are my friends," Harry said expressionlessly.

At this moment, he did indeed resemble a famous person—with a very obvious sense of distance.

Perhaps he was too gentle and approachable before, which led many people to not have a proper understanding of him.

"Oh," the girl said, sounding quite surprised, "Oh, okay."

Then she stepped out and closed the sliding door behind her.

"People think you should have more exciting friends than us," Luna said without any embarrassment, once again demonstrating her ability to bring up the most sensitive topics.

"You guys are really something," Harry said briefly. "They're not involved in any of our anti -Umbridge activities. You're the only ones who're truly loyal to me. Of course I know who my friends are."

"That's very pleasing to the ear." Luna immediately beamed, pushed her Spectrespecs up her nose, and buried herself in reading "The Quibbler".

"You should really hear what my grandma thinks of you," Neville said, rubbing his round little face. "My grandma says that Harry Potter is more powerful than the entire Ministry of Magic when Fudge was in charge. I suspect she would give anything to have you as her grandson."

"Don't say that, Neville," Harry said, shaking his head. "Don't think of your grandmother like that. In her eyes, no one is more important than you. No one, you're her grandson."

"Maybe," Neville said with a shrug.

"That's how elders are," Luna said without looking up. "There's always someone else's child who's better, it's an age-old truth—can you understand that feeling? Oh, Neville, you're being harassed, see? They're flying around your head."

"Where would you find something like 'Healers '?" Neville protested.

Luna smiled.

"Healers —they're invisible, they float into your ears and mess with your mind," she said. "I just saw several buzzing around here, and they seem to really enjoy bothering you—"

She clapped her hands in the air, as if trying to shoo away an invisible giant moth.

Harry smacked his lips.

If he didn't know who Luna was, he would have really thought Luna was crazy.

The weather outside the car window was unpredictable, alternating between sunny and cloudy, just like all summer long.

Having just passed through the cold fog, they came into view of clear but faint sunlight. When the sun was almost high in the sky outside the window, Ron and Hermione finally entered the box.

"I really hope the food delivery truck comes soon, I'm starving," Ron said expectantly, plopping down next to Harry and rubbing his stomach. "Hi, Neville, hi, Luna —and Anne?"

He was a little unsure, after all, Anne was currently covering her face with her hat, so he couldn't see her face at all— Ron had guessed it from Anne's Slytherin school uniform.

"Who else could it be?" Harry glanced sideways at Ron. "You think Draco is lying here?"

"How could it be Malfoy?" Ron chuckled. "We just saw him sitting in the box with some classmates. When they saw Hermione and me, they were playing pranks on me with those bad boys."

"What did I tease you about?" Harry asked curiously.

Ron blushed immediately.

"No, why are you blushing?" Harry asked, puzzled.

Ron remained silent, only blushing.

Harry looked up at the window and thought to himself, "I was wondering why it wasn't raining, and it turns out you're the one who made me speechless."

Just then, Anne pulled the hat off her face.

"I'm hungry." She looked at Harry pitifully, like a poor little kitten.

"Wait a minute," Harry said, rubbing Anne's soft belly. "The food cart will be here soon, okay?"

"Mmm," Anne murmured softly.

Just then, the door to the private room was pushed open again, and several fourth-grade girls appeared.

But when they saw Harry rubbing a Slytherin girl's stomach, they walked away looking embarrassed.

"They seem to be your admirers," Ron said gleefully. "Hermione and I overheard them talking about Potter on the way here. And let me tell you, they're all young people—I really can't imagine what would happen if Miss Grindelwald knew you had so many admirers."

"No way," Harry waved his hands. "You absolutely mustn't tell Veratia, I'm really afraid she'll set Hogwarts on fire with Fiendfyre."

"How could that be?" Hermione said with a look of disgust. "How could Veratia be that kind of person? Besides, they just admire you."

"Really?" Anne suddenly laughed, laughing breathlessly for a while, then slowly explained under Hermione's puzzled gaze, "Back then, because Harry wiped out the poachers' hideout, many girls at Hogwarts were flirting with Harry. Do you know what Veratia did?"

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Veratia hung the girls who dared to flirt with Harry, especially those who wrote him love letters, on the spire of the West Tower." Anne looked out the window, as if the girls hanging there were right there. "But if you ask me, it wasn't just Veratia who did this. Many of those girls came from wealthy families, but they were all suppressed by a mysterious force. I can't think of any other explanation besides Cassandra's family exerting their influence."

"That's not right," Hermione asked, frowning. "I remember Miss Malfoy and Veratia were sworn enemies, so why would she help Veratia?"

"The reason is simple, Hermione," Anne said, rubbing her forehead. "Because she doesn't like those swarms of suitors Harry either. Cassandra was overjoyed that Veratia taught them a lesson, so why would she try to trip Veratia up? With those guys blocked, Veratia was the only one left to compete with her."

"And what about you?" Luna, who always brings up the most awkward topics, suddenly asked.

Anne glanced at the embarrassed Harry, then gave a self-deprecating laugh, "Back then, I was under Dark Magic Curse and didn't know when I would die. How could they possibly think I was in danger?"