A Few Things Before Summer Vacation

If there's anything that's most depressing, it's coming close.

Sometimes, however, a close call is a long way off.

Ravenclaw House failed to pick it up in the end. Until that day, End-of-Year Feast still ranked second with a five-point difference between House Cup and Ravenclaw. It must be a lie to say that the students of Ravenclaw are not depressed.

That night, Albert and his roommates went to the Great Hall to attend End-of-Year Feast.

Great Hall has been finely decorated with red and gold colors representing Gryffindor, and a huge banner with the Gryffindor lion hanging on the wall behind High Table.

The students of Gryffindor were all talking loudly, and their words were filled with the joy and confidence of winning House Cup.

Compared with Gryffindor, the students of their next-door neighbor Slytherin were not at all happy. No wonder they couldn't be happy. Slytherin had won the House Cup championship for four consecutive years, but... it was broken just like this, and he still lost to Gryffindor, whom he hated the most. It was strange that he was in a good mood.

The students of Ravenclaw were probably in the most complicated and depressed mood. They were only a few points away from the championship. Ravenclaw felt sorry for not being able to win, but they were also happy to see Slytherin's disastrous defeat.

As for the students of Hufflepuff, they haven't obtained House Cup for a long time, so they don't care much about it. Anyway, seeing Slytherin, who doesn't like fair competition, lose miserably is something worth celebrating.

Soon after, Dumbledore arrived in a hurry. He stood on the podium and raised his hand to signal everyone to keep quiet. The noise in the Great Hall gradually subsided.

"Another year has passed!" Dumbledore said happily, "Before you enjoy the delicious food, you definitely don't like to listen to my old man's nonsense. However, we still need to conduct the House Cup award ceremony. The specific scores of each college are as follows: The fourth place, Slytherin, has two hundred and fifty points; the third place, Hufflepuff, has three hundred and ninety-five points; the second place, Ravenclaw, has four hundred and thirty-nine points, and the first place, Gryffindor, has four hundred and forty-four points."

At this moment, a thunderous cheer erupted from Gryffindor's dining table, the sound was deafening, and some students shouted themselves hoarse with excitement.

Fred, George and Li·Jordan all followed the crowd and stood up to cheer and applaud loudly. Albert was also clapping vigorously, pretending to be excited. But mentally he couldn't help but mutter, "What an unlucky score."

Li·Jordan cheered, nudged Albert with his elbow, and raised his hand to point to his next door neighbor. Slytherin's students had ugly expressions on their faces, as if they had just been punched in the nose.

In the Great Hall, except for the students of Slytherin, everyone was applauding, whether they were celebrating the victory of Gryffindor or the tragic defeat of Slytherin.

Professor McGonagall on High Table also stood up and shook hands with Professor Snape, with a happy smile on his face.

The dinner was full of delicious food. During the meal, Fred and George invited Albert to visit their home during the summer vacation.

Unfortunately, this invitation was declined by Albert, because their family already had their own summer vacation plans. Herb wrote to Albert a while ago and told Albert that the whole family was going to France for their summer vacation.

Fred and George felt sorry for this. They had always wanted to thank Albert for saving them. Weasley family obviously had similar thoughts.

At the dinner, everyone was very full, except Fred and George.

After all, it's easy to feel sleepy after eating and drinking enough. If they miss tonight's revenge action, they will never have the chance to retaliate against Filch this semester. This is obviously not a situation that Weasley Twins wants to see.

After finally enduring it until Gryffindor got House Cup, I finally no longer had to worry about anything. How could I give up?

After twelve o'clock, Fred and George began to take action. With the help of Albert's Disillusionment Charm, they first made some noise in the castle and attracted Filch, who was about to rest, to Armor Corridor on the fourth floor of the castle.

Then, George took the opportunity to sneak into Filch's office and smeared the bottle of garlic-scented beeswax on the corner of Filch's office. Not to mention, the smell was really bad, and the effect was even more amazing than Dungbombs's.

After all, Dungbombs you can still see the source of the smell, but once the beeswax is smeared in the corner, you can't even find it, let alone remove the source of the smell. In just a moment, the entire office and Filch's bedroom are filled with a choking smell of garlic.

After Fred discovered through Marauder's Map that George returned to Gryffindor Common Room, he immediately withdrew, leaving behind Filch who was still searching for their whereabouts on the fourth floor.

After knowing that he had been tricked, Filch returned to the dormitory to rest in annoyance.

When Filch opened the wooden door of his office, he immediately shivered from the strong smell of garlic. He rushed into his office angrily, trying to find the source of the smell.

For a moment, Administrator's Office echoed with the angry roar of Filch. As for his Mrs. Norris, he stayed far away from Administrator's Office, which was full of garlic smell.

"Tell me, is this going to be a big deal?" George listened to Filch's roar and turned to Fred.

"If I were you, I would get rid of the smell of garlic first, so that no one would be suspicious of you." Albert appeared quietly in Common Room, reminding the two people who were discussing.

"Oh, you're right!" George also smelled the smell of garlic on his hands and hurried to wash his hands.

The next morning, the news of Filch's retaliation spread in the castle, and everyone was speculating on which tough guy made Filch's office smell like garlic.

However, no one sympathized with the administrator, but rather took pleasure in his misfortune.

Albert and the others also pretended that they did not know about this matter. In fact, they focused more on the Final Exam score.

Hogwarts will announce the students' Final Exam results on the last day.

"Look, you are indeed Top of the Grade." Fred nudged Albert with his elbow and said with a smile.

"Your grades are also very good."

Fred, George and Li Jordan all passed the exam with very high scores.

"I had guessed that you would be number one." Shanna smiled and walked over to talk to Albert, "However, I think Katrina must be very angry."

Albert smiled and shrugged, saying that there was nothing he could do.

He himself doesn't really feel anything about winning the first place. The current students are just that kind of people. The first place seems to be nothing to be proud of. His goal is to complete the panel task. Fortunately, the tasks of "in the name of genius" and "crushing in all aspects" have been completed.

Although Katrina said he wanted to compete with himself to see whose score was better, but was rejected by Albert in the end, the competition seemed to be effective, at least in terms of the panel's judgment.

Katrina won the second place this year, and was also excellent in all aspects, but in terms of score, it was still a little behind Albert.

At this moment, Katrina, who was also standing in the crowd checking his results, was staring at Albert with extremely annoyed eyes.

She was angry, angry with herself, angry with herself for actually losing to that guy Final Exam who didn't even study hard.

While everyone was still discussing the test results enthusiastically, Professor McGonagall appeared with a bunch of notices.

She asked the new students to sign a pledge stating that they would abide by the "Reasonable Restraint of Minor Wizards" outside of school.

After signing, everyone was given a notice and warned not to use magic during the holidays.

"I really hope they forgot to send this to us." Fred·Weasley shook the notice in his hand regretfully. It was a torture not being able to use magic during the holidays.

"You don't have to worry at all. In a wizard's family, Ministry of Magic can't figure out who is using magic, so even if you use magic at home, you won't be warned by Ministry of Magic." Albert curled his lips and explained. "As long as magic is used in a place like Diagon Alley where wizards are densely packed, Ministry of Magic cannot determine whether you are using magic, because Trace can only locate and monitor whether anyone is using magic within a certain range around you."

"You know it very well?" Shanna was a little surprised that Albert actually knew these things.

"Of course he knows." Li·Jordan couldn't help laughing, "After all, someone has been tricked by him."

"Someone?"

"Truman of Hufflepuff." Fred reminded kindly, "So, as long as we stay at home, we can use magic without any scruples?"

"That's right, as long as you are at home. Students born by Pure-blood wizard can only rely on the conscious supervision of their families." Albert said disdainfully, feeling slightly dissatisfied that he could not use magic during the summer vacation.

"According to you, Ministry of Magic relies on Trace to judge whether we use magic, but when did they..." Shanna asked in confusion, "Did they secretly use Trace for us?"

"Use it secretly?" Albert's expression was a little weird, "No."

"Nothing?"

"Didn't you just sign it? Magical Contract." Albert reminded.

"You mean... that commitment letter?" Not only Shanna, but others also understood what was going on.

"According to the information I got from Professor Broad, the commitment letter we just signed belongs to Magical Contract, which is the so-called Trace. Of course, there are loopholes in that thing."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? If I had known it, you wouldn't have signed it." Li·Jordan looked depressed.

"Don't sign?" Albert repeated softly, "Can you not sign?"

"What if you ruin the date?" Fred asked curiously.

"Ministry of Magic will know immediately and send an owl to warn you."

"What's going on with the vulnerability?" George was even more curious about this matter.

"It cannot figure out who used magic." Albert gave a simple example, "If you live in a community full of Muggle, and when someone uses magic around you, then Ministry of Magic will detect it and think it is you who is using magic.

"Truman was you tricked like this back then? "Fred asked curiously.

"Yes, that's the loophole I'm talking about. Ministry of Magic can monitor your location through Trace. When you are in Diagon Alley, or when you stay at home, and someone uses magic around you, Ministry of Magic cannot determine who used magic, because the wizards and your family members in Diagon Alley may use magic."

"Great, so we don't have to worry about being discovered by Ministry of Magic's use of magic. "Fred and George high-fived each other.

"But you need to worry about your family finding out. "Li·Jordan said angrily.

Everyone returned to the dormitory to pack their things, only to find that their closets were empty and everything was packed into their suitcases.

"House-elf should have helped clean it up. "Fred explained to everyone.

"Guessed it. "Albert nodded and said, "Let's go, don't miss the train."

When everyone was dragging their luggage to the Entrance Hall, Filch suddenly jumped out from the hidden corridor, stared at Albert with two bright red eyes, and said hoarsely, "You did it, right?"

The four of them looked at each other, all pretending to be "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't think I don't know, it's definitely you who caused that garlic smell in my office."

"We don't know what you're talking about! "Twins said in unison.

"We went to bed very early last night. "Lee Jordan coughed lightly and defended. As for our package here, we don't know if Weasley Twins is included.

Albert spread his hands helplessly, saying that he had no knowledge of the matter.

"You grow garlic! "Filch's eyes flashed with anger.

"You said that! "Fred looked like this, and said with a smile, "Last time, Albert turned it into Garlic Fried Eggs, and it tasted pretty good."

"If you don't believe it, you can ask the domestic House-elf. "George added, "That dish was fried by House-elf."

The four of them passed by Filch, who had a look of astonishment on his face. They suppressed their laughter and boarded the carriage to Hogwarts Express.

Along the way, several people were talking about Filch, predicting whether the other party would cause trouble for them next semester and how they should deal with it.

In fact, only Fred and George have this kind of trouble.

When the train passed through Muggle town, they were eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans provided by Li·Jordan to see who had worse luck.

Before the train stopped at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station, they took off their wizard robes and put on the jackets and jackets that Muggle usually wore.

There was an old guard guarding the ticket gate, and only two or three people were allowed to pass at a time. It took Albert a long time to line up and walk out of the platform.

"This way, Albert, we're here!"

As soon as he walked out of the platform, Albert saw Nia waving to him.

"Nia has become a lady. "Albert smiled and praised his sister.

"I've always been ladylike. "Nia complained dissatisfied.

"Where is Tom? "Albert asked.

"The temporary supplies are at your Grandpa Luke. "Herb reached out to take Albert's luggage and explained casually, "You know, we are going to France for vacation during the summer vacation and we don't have time to take care of it. Your owl is also temporarily fostered at Grandpa Luke."

"Oh my God, I must write to Grandma Sansa and ask her not to feed Tom too much food. "Albert couldn't help but cover his cheeks with his palms. He seemed to foresee that when he saw Tom again, it would have been fed into a fat cat.

"There's nothing wrong with a cat being fat. "Daisy comforted. "I think it's quite cute."