Those Who Offend Our Great Hogwarts Shall Be Punished, No Matter How Far Away They Are

After the midnight duel, the young wizards' relationships quickly grew closer. Hermione and Neville had now joined Harry and Ron's little group.

Harry and Ron recognized Hermione's strength, while Hermione came to understand her two friends' kindness and courage. As for Neville? At least he was cute, wasn't he?

And so, a story began circulating throughout Hogwarts:

"In Gryffindor, there are four Heavenly Kings at the very top. They commit every evil imaginable, bully boys and girls, and burn, kill, and plunder.

Draco Malfoy of Slytherin provided powerful testimony, claiming that they had forced him and three other Slytherin companions to stand on their heads in the Great Hall and eat pig trotters.

They were:

The 'Knowledge Heavenly King,' Hermione Granger: She was so active in class that students from the other three Houses never had a chance to answer questions.

The 'Herbology Heavenly King,' Neville Longbottom: He was unrivaled in the field of Herbology. It was said that he had once wiped out all of Hufflepuff with a single Biting Cabbage.

The 'Wizard's Chess Heavenly King,' Ron Weasley: He was the incarnation of the devil. Not only did he love challenging people to Wizard's Chess everywhere he went, but after winning, he would belittle his opponents until they were utterly worthless.

The 'Quidditch Heavenly King,' Harry Potter: He deceived the masses in the name of the Savior. In truth, he was a demon. During a Quidditch match, he used four strange objects floating around him to knock all seven Ravenclaw players off their brooms.

If a brave warrior from one of the other three Houses was lucky enough to defeat the Four Heavenly Kings, then he would face the deepest despair:

The fifth Heavenly King, the 'Detention' Heavenly King, Horatio Quibble: Rumor had it that he was cruel by nature and delighted in tormenting young wizards. Professors from every House called him a little troublemaking devil, and even the headmaster could do nothing about him.

The good news was that, in order to keep this little devil from harming the school, the great Professor McGonagall always gave him detention. So if he wasn't in detention, he was on his way to detention.

—Exclusive report from two unknown red-haired twins."

"This is way too ridiculous." Hermione set down her knife and fork and looked around at the young wizards watching them with awe.

A vacuum had formed around the four of them. The young wizards did not dare approach them at all.

"Horatio was the one who punished Malfoy. Why is it being pinned on us?" Hermione said indignantly.

Neville sighed. "I thought the protective belt Horatio gave me was that armor from last time, so I wanted to show it to Hannah.

"I never expected Biting Cabbages to pop out instead—and they were Biting Cabbages that could split apart.

"They wiped out Hufflepuff in one go. Hannah still doesn't want to speak to me."

Ron added, "That Wizard's Chess set Horatio gave me is pretty fun, but those pieces keep yelling about how much they want to fight.

"If I don't satisfy them, they crawl into my bed at night with weapons and poke my butt.

"The worst part is that the winning pieces mock the defeated young wizards, while the losing pieces curse the defeated young wizards too. I don't even know whether I should win or lose anymore."

"Ron, if you ever drag me into playing that damned Wizard's Chess of yours again, I'm ending our friendship," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, Harry. Everyone else avoids me, so I could only ask you for help." Ron looked apologetically at Harry. "By the way, what happened to you? Why are the Ravenclaws looking at you like they want to kill you?"

Harry gave a bitter smile. "It's that thing Horatio gave me, the Free-Floating Cannon or whatever it's called. As soon as I get on a broom, it automatically deploys. Even if I lock it in a cabinet, it doesn't help—they just destroy the cabinet and fly out.

"During the last Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, those things wiped out every Ravenclaw Quidditch player, including the substitutes. Now I have to take a detour whenever I see a Ravenclaw student."

Ron turned to Hermione. "What about you, Hermione? Didn't Horatio give you something too?"

Hermione said coldly, "He gave me a feather quill with search and automatic recording functions."

"Isn't that pretty good?"

"I thought it was convenient at first, until one day I discovered that it had a secondary quill. Whenever I used it to do homework, it would synchronize with that other quill. It was basically making me do Horatio's homework for him."

"Maybe we should return the things to Horatio," Neville suggested.

"You think I haven't tried? Look here." Hermione took out the feather quill and pointed at a tuft near its tip. Written on it were:

Sold goods cannot be returned;

Soul-bound, cannot be discarded;

To destroy it, please use Fiendfyre;

A Quibble Group product is always a quality product.

In the end, Horatio still took back those items, because Hermione went to Professor McGonagall.

"I really don't understand. You obviously have such great talent, so why don't you use it for studying?" Hermione said.

Horatio looked at Hermione speechlessly. "Hermione, do you know what your biggest problem is? You're always trying to teach people.

"Haven't you noticed that a lot of Gryffindors can't stand you? What you think is helpful assistance may actually hurt others. At first, they might think you're amazing, but over time, they'll start to think you're arrogant.

"Taking the initiative to help others is certainly praiseworthy, but sometimes you need to learn how to wait—wait for others to ask you for help."

Before Horatio could finish, Hermione angrily shoved past him and strode away.

Horatio scratched his head and sighed.

At the Halloween eve feast, Neville asked Horatio, who was sitting beside him, "Have you seen Hermione? She's been missing all afternoon."

"No." Horatio picked up a slice of crispy roast duck, placed it inside a pancake, spread sweet bean sauce over it, and stuffed it into his mouth with a blissful expression.

"I just heard Parvati tell Lavender that Hermione is crying sadly in the girls' bathroom and won't let anyone comfort her." Harry copied Horatio's actions and ate a piece of crispy roast duck as well.

Professor Quirrell suddenly rushed into the Great Hall, his face full of terror. "Troll—in the dungeons!" After saying that, he fainted onto the floor in the middle of the Great Hall.

The Great Hall immediately descended into chaos. Dumbledore had to make several bursts of purple fireworks shoot from the tip of his magic wand before everyone finally quieted down.

"Prefects, lead the students of your Houses back to their dormitories," Dumbledore said. "Teachers, come with me."

"Is there really a troll?" Horatio walked over to Professor Quirrell, who was pretending to be unconscious in the middle of the Great Hall, and tried to lift his turban with his magic wand.

Quirrell instantly could not keep pretending. He rose while holding down his turban and said, "There really is one, in the dungeons. Horatio, hurry back to your dormitory."

"Tch. What's so scary about a mere troll?"

Horatio took a silver-white glove from his cloth bag and put it on. "I shall sortie in Gundam Form."

Blue, white, and red metal covered Horatio's entire body, and a golden V-shaped antenna appeared above his head.

A roughly three-meter-tall RX-78 baby Gundam appeared in the center of the Great Hall.

As the machine landed, powerful flames burst from the thrusters on its back. It smashed through the Great Hall doors and flew down the corridor.

The young wizards present were dumbfounded. Harry asked, "Do we still need to go back to our dormitories?"

In the girls' bathroom, Hermione was curled up against the wall opposite the door, looking as though she might faint at any moment.

A twelve-foot-tall troll with gray skin like granite was closing in on her.

It raised its huge club and smashed it toward Hermione.

Just as the club came down, a blue-and-white figure crashed through the bathroom wall and shielded Hermione beneath it.

Clang! The club struck metal with a deafening sound.

Hermione opened her eyes and saw a blue-and-white Gundam protecting her. Tears immediately streamed down her face. "Horatio..."

The Gundam spun around and drove an uppercut into the troll's jaw. Before it could recover, it leaped high into the air, pressed its right hand against the troll's head, and slammed it into the ground, creating a huge crater from the impact.

Then it grabbed the troll by the thigh with its left hand, lifted it high overhead, and hurled it out of the girls' bathroom.

It then drew the beam saber from its back and, aided by its back thrusters, rapidly closed in on the troll as it got to its feet before slashing at its neck.

The troll's head flew high into the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

Horatio piloted the Gundam over to Hermione and held out a hand. "Miss Granger, would you be willing to have a pre-Halloween dinner with me?"

Hermione laughed through her tears and placed her small hand in the Gundam's large one. "Of course, Mr. Quibble."

The young wizards in the Great Hall were still filing out in an orderly manner when a massive roar came from deep within the corridor.

A blue-and-white mech flew out of the corridor, holding Hermione in its right arm and the troll's head in its left hand.

It flew over the young wizards' heads, entered the Great Hall, and landed steadily.

It placed Hermione beside the Gryffindor table, then strode toward the teachers' table.

As it drew near, it tossed the troll's head down in front of the table. The machine then began shrinking into a white glove.

Horatio put away the glove, planted his left foot on the troll's head, and said to Dumbledore, who had not yet left, "Troll subjugation complete. Time taken: five minutes and sixteen seconds. Those who offend our great Hogwarts shall be punished, no matter how far away they are."