Dumbledore: Are You Gellert's Favorite Student?

Ron instinctively doubted Harry's words, but he had no evidence.

Seamus stood to the side, suppressing a laugh, his shoulders shrugging.

Draco, who stood to the side with his arms crossed, coldly watched them and snorted. He strongly suspected that Harry and Seamus were behind this.

"Actually, I thought your teamwork was quite good just now."

On the way back, Harry asked, "Have you considered forming a team to participate in the subsequent trials?"

"I'm not teaming up with Weasley," Draco sneered repeatedly. "He'll only hold me back."

"Ah, yes, yes, yes," Ron nodded. "I wonder who it was that used the Reductor Curse to help the spider put out the fire—if Harry hadn't arrived in time, we two would have really turned into spider dung!"

Draco's room.

There's no way to solve this; there's simply no answer.

No matter how much he tries to deny it, he can't hide the fact that he used the Reductor Curse to blast open the wall of fire.

"Alright," Harry said, "Let's go back and not have any more pointless arguments."

After saying goodbye to Draco, Ron finally couldn't hold back anymore.

He cleared his throat and gave Harry a resentful look.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, sounding a little guilty.

"These spiders," Ron asked resentfully, "Were you behind this?"

"Hahaha, hahaha?" Harry put his hands behind his head and whistled at a 45-degree angle to the upper right, clearly feeling very guilty.

"I knew it!" Ron said through gritted teeth. "I'm saying, next time we do a surprise like this, can we please not be so... scary?"

"Was it scary?" Harry asked curiously. "You guys handled it pretty well, didn't you? Except there were definitely a lot of spiders—I really didn't expect that pheromones could attract so many spiders—"

"Ha!" Ron pointed at Harry, "I knew it was you! It really was you!"

Harry shrugged. "I wasn't planning on hiding it anyway—the whole family agreed and wanted to see how you two performed—look, I've already uploaded the video to the website; you can see what your family and friends are saying."

Ron immediately took out his phone, opened a video website, and found the video Harry posted on the official Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry account.

The title is quite straightforward. "Night Patrol in the Forbidden Forest: The Potential and Limits of Temporary Partners (and a Minor Spider Problem)."

The cover features a close-up of him and Draco back-to-back, facing a sea of spiders, a moment of terror mixed with a forced composure.

The two terrified faces staring at the screen were indeed quite comical.

Ron's lips twitched, and his fingers trembled slightly as he opened the comments section.

Sure enough, the comments section exploded shortly after the video was uploaded.

The top-pinned comment is from the official Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

"A warm greeting from your brothers: Dear Ronnie little darling, we were so proud of your bravery in facing the guests brought by Professor Snape's Potions! (Note: The brand new Spider Party "Scare Box" is coming soon, containing a small amount of the same Potions, lasting for five minutes—surprise your friends! Pre-order now!) PS: The fire wall tactic was good, but the operational details could be improved. - Love, Fred and George."

"Is this how they show their love for me?" Ron was starting to break down. "My two older brothers, are they showing their love for me in this way?"

The second top comment is from "Miss Toothsmith": "From a tactical perspective, the combination of 'Water-Making Spell' and 'Combustible Material Transformation' demonstrates excellent adaptability. Also, Ron, your Protego showed a clear Magic Fluctuation at 05:27; I suggest you have some individual training with me. Furthermore, Malfoy's Oil Conversion Oil Spell is an advanced application of Defense Against the Dark Arts; he mastered it quite well."

"Yo yo yo." Harry saw the comment too, and said sarcastically, "Special training 'alone,' it seems some people and some people—yo."

"Hey!" Seamus joined in the jeering.

Ron's face turned as red as a pig's kidney. He hurriedly continued scrolling down and saw an extremely eye-catching ID.

"An old professor from Hogwarts who wishes to remain anonymous" —Ron immediately recognized his commentary style.

"This farce, a product of recklessness, stupidity, and disastrous Charms control, saw Mr. Weasley attempt to extinguish a raging inferno with a splash of water, while Mr. Malfoy perfectly demonstrated how to use Reductor Curse to clear a path for the enemy—the only redeeming quality being Mr. Potter's efficient cleanup at the end, though it felt more like dealing with the mess he himself created. If I were the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, I would deduct fifty points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin —for this utterly idiotic performance."

When Ron saw this comment, he not only didn't get upset, but he also grinned.

"Oh, I'm alright. Look how pathetic Malfoy is, a perfect demonstration of how to use the Reductor Curse to clear a path for the enemy. I also suspect he's actually a spy sent by the Spider."

Further down were comments from many other classmates, who all cheered, while Luna commented that Draco and Ron had Wrackspurt on their heads, but everyone ignored her comment.

It's worth mentioning that Luna's ID is "Wrackspurt".

Finally, there's a person named "Gellert Grindelwald," with a blue checkmark next to his name—an officially recognized label.

"As expected of my favorite student, well done, Ron!"

This has gone viral! Gellert himself showed up to endorse and praise the video's male protagonist, even mentioning that one of him was his student!

Still my favorite student?

Oh, and below, a user named "Old Bee Who Loves Sweets" replied with a question mark.

Harry watched all this and thought to himself, "This is truly a case of the gods turning upside down."

Gellert used to ask Newt that question, but now Dumbledore is asking Ron, right?

What makes Gellert Grindelwald like you so much?

"Gellert Grindelwald?" Ron looked puzzled. "When did I become his student?"

"Oh, that's really hurting his feelings," Harry sighed. "Didn't your third-year Assistant Gale, teach you Defense Against the Dark Arts and Dueling Techniques for a while? Have you forgotten all that?"

"He is... he is Gellert Grindelwald?!" Ron gasped, having made a huge contribution to stopping global warming.

"Of course," Harry shrugged. "But I'm still very happy with the cover, you see—"

It seems someone even uses your photos as their profile picture!

"They—they all saw it!" Ron wailed, burying his face in his hands. "My image is ruined! And Fred and George! They're actually going to use this as merchandise!"

Harry suppressed a laugh and patted him on the shoulder, "Look on the bright side, Ron. You and Draco are celebrities now, with tons of clicks. And you two really do work well together; a lot of people have seen it."

"Do you want this kind of fame?" Ron asked through gritted teeth.

"Oh," Harry shrugged. "I'm not really against it."

"You have to treat me to chicken legs for a month!" Ron said bitterly, "during my holidays—as compensation—"

"Okay, okay, no problem." Harry coaxed Ron in a tone used to soothe a child, "It's just a month's worth of chicken legs, right? Don't say a month, even ten months is fine - you can eat as many chicken legs as you want! No problem!"

After promising him many benefits, Ron finally smiled broadly.

Back in their dorm room, they didn't rush to sleep; instead, they planned to play on their phones for a few hours first.

Anyway, I don't have class tomorrow morning.

"I saw it all," Neville exclaimed excitedly, jumping out of bed as they entered. "I saw it! Ron's Flame Charm are really impressive! It's just that Malfoy is such a noob; he actually used Reductor Curse to blast the fire ring apart. No wonder Professor Snape was being sarcastic towards him."

"What do you think?" Ron asked gently, trying to persuade him.

"So cool!" Neville exclaimed, waving his hands excitedly. "Ron, he really is cool!"

"Oh." Ron looked at Harry and said, "Harry —look, I think Neville seems really interested in participating in something like this, don't you think—"

Without saying a word, Neville fell asleep immediately, snoring loudly.

Ron couldn't help but burst out laughing.

He never imagined that Neville would fall asleep so easily to avoid the raid.

"Alright, Neville," Harry said, "The raid is only for Draco and Ron. Get up, I'm planning to take a Baal-killing mission. Want to join me for some leveling up?"

"Come on!" Neville suddenly sat up, which caused another burst of laughter from those around him.

When Ron woke up the next morning, his classmates were all looking at Ron differently, trying not to laugh. Colin even went up to him and pulled Ron to take a picture with Draco.

"Go away, go away," Ron shooed Colin away. "Don't cause trouble, I'm telling you—I don't want any interviews or anything like that, it's not something to be proud of—look, my photos are plastered all over the place!"

"That's great!" Colin said. "It shows that Ron, you're quite famous now—first, listen to me, go and take a picture with Mr. Malfoy. I think you two should have one as a souvenir!"

"Then I'd rather not," Ron said politely, "I'd rather take a picture with Bloody Baron than with Malfoy!"

"You called me?" Bloody Baron asked, turning his head from the Slytherin's long table.

"He wants to take a picture with you," Colin said, pointing to Ron.

Bloody Baron's eyes lit up. He immediately floated over and landed next to Ron, asking curiously, "You want to take a picture with me? Come on—you're the first wizard in all these years to ask for a picture with me."

"Yeah," Ron said with a fake smile, standing side by side with Bloody Baron, and had Colin take a picture.

"I'll develop it later," Colin said, waving his camera. "I'll develop it after I take a picture of you and Mr. Malfoy together—you've already taken a picture with Bloody Baron, so what's one more Malfoy?"

Ron pursed his lips and remained silent.

"I have a question," Neville said in a low voice. "Why do you think Ron and Malfoy get along so badly? I don't remember them being this sworn enemies before. I always felt it was just Ron who really disliked Draco."

Harry chuckled inwardly; everyone knew why.

But he didn't want to say.

"And what do you think?" Neville asked Seamus when Harry didn't answer, "Do you have any inside information?"

"Me neither," Seamus said with a forced smile. "I really have no news at all."

Clearly, he didn't want to say it outright, preferring Neville to speculate wildly on his own.

In the afternoon, they had a lesson on Transfiguration Spell.

"Not bad, Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall praised Draco with a smile when she saw Draco. "Although your Transfiguration Spell Reductor Curse was somewhat lacking, your Water-to-Oil Transfiguration masked that flaw quite well."

"Thank you, Professor." Draco was somewhat flattered; he hadn't expected Professor McGonagall to praise him individually.

"Also, you did very well, Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall Ron, "You would have been perfect if you had a little more control over the flames."

After saying that, she smiled and said, "Each of you has earned twenty points for your college."

A moment of silence fell over the classroom, followed by a burst of cheers.

No one expected that Professor McGonagall would suddenly give them extra points.

Even in sixth grade, their emphasis on House Points did not diminish; on the contrary, it became even more obsessive.

Gryffindor wasn't as obvious, after all, they had won the House Cup for five consecutive years, but Slytherin was different; they hadn't seen what the House Cup looked like for five years.

Since Harry thwarted Quirrell's plot and successfully absorbed the Philosopher's Stone in their first year, Slytherin has never had another chance to win the House Cup.

There's nothing we can do, it's not that we don't try, it's just that...

The other team is cheating!

How can you play if you're cheating?

In class, Professor McGonagall, caught up in the moment, gave everyone an in-depth analysis of the Charms that Water-to-Oil Transfiguration, and explained in detail the flexible application of Transfiguration in actual combat, leaving everyone completely bewildered.

After all, they're all just students; very few are exceptionally bright, and how many can truly understand how to incorporate the Transfiguration Spell Charm into actual combat?

Those who can truly understand and master the Charms are already extremely rare.

This did remind Harry that he should indeed incorporate some Transfiguration into his combat practice.

There's no other reason than that it's both practical and undeniably cool.

Imagine this: while others are randomly throwing Charms, you're simultaneously casting Charms and summoning several stone knights to charge at them. The sheer pressure from that is unmatched by ordinary Charms.