The Twins Get Played, Debt Transferred / The Manor Dungeon, a Shadow Lurks

On August 25, 1994, a week before Hogwarts officially opened, the long-awaited History of Magic O.W.L. Exam began.

Harry truly embodied the phrase "ignoring everything else and focusing solely on his studies." Even as rumors about him spread like wildfire, he remained focused and diligently wrote in the examination hall.

The older students taking the exam together would often glance in Harry's direction every few minutes, and some of the gloomy-faced Slytherin looked on with resentment throughout—after all, just the day before yesterday, Harry had publicly humiliated their parents in front of the whole world.

Even so, Harry remained calm and composed, writing with lightning speed.

Such performance even made the invigilator, Professor Tofudi, secretly sigh in admiration... Harry is indeed a prodigy, not only is his mental fortitude as steady as a rock, but he also single-handedly dragged down the entire exam score despite doing absolutely nothing.

However, to be fair, Professor Tofudi gave Harry's arguments on the exam paper extremely high praise.

The wand legislation, the Goblin Rebellion of the 18th century, a list of violations of the Statute of Secrecy, and the reasons for the founding of the International Confederation of Wizards... Being able to recite these contents from memory word for word is not actually a remarkable skill; it simply shows that Harry's performance at his age was quite astonishing.

What truly amazed the old professor was Harry's sharp commentary... or to put it bluntly, his scathing remarks following these 'historical facts'.

For example, one of the questions was an essay question about whether the medieval practice of burning witches was pure nonsense.

This topic actually appeared in the regular History of Magic exam in the third year, but as a major theoretical section that highlights the superiority of wizards over Muggle, it was definitely going to be shown off again and again.

In the general understanding of the Wizarding World, the practice of burning witches in the Middle Ages was completely meaningless.

People outside the Wizarding World at that time—that is, ordinary people—were particularly afraid of magic, but were not good at recognizing it.

When they occasionally capture a real wizard, the ordinary stake is ineffective, because the wizards will cast Flame-Freezing Charm, a basic magic that can freeze the flames, while they are being burned.

In this way, they can enjoy the gentle tingling from the flames while pretending to scream in pain.

The most famous example is the Divination Wendelin the Weird, a sadistic witch with a penchant for burning at the stake who had herself captured in various disguises and tied to the stake a total of forty-seven times...

Well, History of Magic Bathilda Bagshot's grandmother was a loving elder to Harry, he still has to say... the 'historical facts' about burning witches in <A History of Magic> are purely the self-indulgent fantasies of a bunch of ordinary wizards, and this part will definitely be drastically revised when <The New History of Magic> is completed.

In fact, the Wendelin the Weird who escaped being burned at the stake for forty-seven times, is a classic example of survivorship bias.

While ordinary people in the Middle Ages were indeed not good at recognizing magic, they could recognize wands. Once their wands were confiscated, wizards were no different from ordinary people.

In the entire Wizarding World, only a very small number of people can Wandless Magic. Even when it comes to Apparition, the vast majority of wizards still need to use a wand.

Once captured, these wizards were practically powerless to resist or escape... Hogwarts provides two perfect examples: Nearly Headless Nick and the Fat Friar, both of whom died in the same way.

Admittedly, Wendelin the Weird may be a powerful witch, capable not only of casting Flame-Freezing Charm without a staff, but also of Apparition without a staff.

If she wanted to play around a bit more, she would need to be able to perform deceptively realistic Transfiguration and Confundus Charm without a staff. Because after being enchanted with the Flame-Freezing Charm, the temperature of the stake would not be enough to ignite the wood, so she would have to be able to continuously produce fake fire and smoke in order to fool the ordinary people watching the execution.

And, if she ultimately wants to fake being burned to death, she'll need to know how to conjure up a charred or ashes corpse... and the appearance has to be passable, otherwise the deception will be exposed.

So the question is, how many wizards of Wendelin the Weird's caliber can be found in all of Europe?

The answer is obvious: they are extremely rare.

Most wizards, like Nearly Headless Nick and the Fat Friar, are almost certain to die after losing their wands.

There were a few rare cases where people managed to escape imprisonment, such as Lisette de Lapin, the France witch who was arrested and sentenced in Paris in 1422 on charges of witchcraft.

But on the night before her scheduled execution, she disappeared from her cell.

She escaped death because she was an Animagus. After her wand was confiscated, she transformed into a rabbit and slipped through the bars of her cell window, then crossed the English Channel in a large, Cauldron.

She eventually even became a trusted advisor to King Henry VI of England, but at the cost of... she never regained her human form in public again.

Such survivorship bias can give contemporary wizards, especially children studying the History of Magic, the illusion that medieval Muggle were foolish, that their witch hunts were essentially self-destruction, and that the 'witches' who died were actually Muggle women.

In reality, during the centuries-long witch hunts, witches suffered just as many casualties as ordinary women, especially children from witch families. Because they lacked the ability to control magic underage, they were often easily exposed...

Exposure means death!

The idea of burning witches is nonsense... Harry's reason for refuting this argument is essentially to encourage wizards to face history and accept reality.

From the Middle Ages to the present, ordinary people have become countless times more powerful than before, but wizards have stagnated or even regressed!

As the saying goes, if wizards continue to cling to isolated cases like 'Wendelin the Weird' and 'Lysette', arrogantly believing that ordinary people pose no threat to adult wizards, then they will truly soon be completely abandoned by the world.

In 1692, the International Confederation of Wizards forcibly implemented the Statute of Secrecy, which finally managed to pull the wizards out of the increasingly deep vortex of conspiracy and allowed them to recover their strength somewhat.

But three hundred years later, if a similar conspiracy were to arise again, these current wizards would likely...

"Hmm, why did you stop writing?" Professor Tofty couldn't help but wonder when Harry finally crossed out the words related to conspiracy.

What kind of 'conspiracy' did this child witness?

"It's nothing, I'll go off-topic if I keep writing." Harry shook his head lightly and handed in his exam paper before the time limit expired.

He wanted to argue against the one-sidedness of the 'UMNO' theory, but if he wrote too much, it would touch a nerve with many people.

Medieval witch hunts, innocent civilians suffering, the mastermind behind this catastrophe, and the Sorcerer's Stone that Rowena utterly despised...

Harry doesn't want to get involved in a conspiracy of this magnitude right now.

Chapter 582 The Twins Get Scammed, Debt Transfer

After an exam, close friends often get together to check their answers. This tradition is probably common all over the world, and Hogwarts is no exception.

Although Harry skipped a grade to take the exam, he still had friends in the exam hall with whom he could check the answers.

For example, Cedric Diggory, and the Weasley Brothers.

However, the Weasley Brothers comparing answers with the two before them would seem a bit like... asking for trouble.

The reason, of course, is that both Harry and Cedric Diggory are top students.

In contrast, while the Weasley Brothers were quite adept at inventions and unorthodox alchemy, when it came to purely theoretical knowledge like the History of Magic, they were absolute dunces.

"Ahhh, I made a mistake!" Finally, after realizing that he had even misspelled the name of the first Supreme Mugwump, Fred decisively chose to give up.

"Exactly! We were already in a bad mood, and after comparing answers with you guys, we're in an even worse mood now!" George also looked dejected.

"No... what's there to be upset about between you two?"

Harry frowned in confusion; in his opinion, the two brothers should have been having a very pleasant time.

With their eldest and second eldest brothers back, Percy wouldn't be giving them the cold shoulder every day.

Besides, they earned a lot of money working for Harry, so even if their exam results weren't great, Mrs. Weasley wouldn't scold them too much.

And most importantly, they had just won over a thousand Galleon at the Quidditch World Cup, which was not only enough to pay off Harry's debts, but also left them with a large sum of money.

By all accounts, they must be having a blast lately.

"Hey, don't even mention it! We got screwed over by that bastard Ludo Bagman!" Fred said through gritted teeth. "We've written him countless letters these past few days, but he hasn't replied to a single one!"

"I got scammed... why?" Harry was taken aback by the question.

"It's all about the gambling winnings! He didn't pay us the full amount!" George exclaimed indignantly. "That guy did give us a whole suitcase full of money at first, but when we checked later, we found that all the money was gone!"

"Gone... Could it be that he gave you Leprechaun coins?" Cedric Diggory, who was clearly familiar with Leprechaun, quickly figured out why the Weasley Brothers had been tricked.

"Heh, now you know what 'nine out of ten gamblers lose' really means, right?" Harry shook his head as if to say, "You two deserve it." "Gambling isn't just about your luck; it's also about the dealer's character."

"Damn it! If we ever run into that bastard..." "We'll definitely make him pay!"

The two brothers stomped their feet indignantly, but both Harry and Cedric Diggory knew very well that with their combined power, trying to get their winnings back from Ludo Bagman was practically a pipe dream.

They were still just kids; if the other party kept refusing to pay, they were completely helpless. They couldn't possibly expect the Auror to get involved in such a mess, could they?

"Sigh, what a pity about that money..." After sulking for a while, Fred said helplessly and apologetically, "Harry, we're afraid we won't be able to pay you back the thousand gold coins we owe you anytime soon."

"Yeah, school's about to start, so we can only try to save money little by little when we have free time to work," George said with a bitter face.

"I see... I have something I'd like to know. When you two placed bets on each other, did you get a receipt from him?" Harry asked curiously after Harry for a moment.

"Of course there is!" Fred hurriedly pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "Didn't you say before that for any transaction involving money, we must ask the other party for a written receipt? So we not only recorded the principal and odds in Ludo's notebook, but we also asked him for a note."

"And we haven't even told him that he's supposed to take this receipt back and destroy it after we receive the money," George said excitedly, but then his face fell. "But it's no use saying anything now. Even if we had this, he probably wouldn't pay us..."

Indeed, receipts in this situation are only effective against honest people, not against dishonest ones.

Since Ludo Bagman has done something as despicable as using Leprechaun gold to make up the difference, no matter what evidence the Weasley Brothers have, he is not going to obediently return the money.

However, the fact that the Weasley Brothers couldn't get the money doesn't mean this receipt is useless to Harry.

"Hmm... I think we should do this: since your purpose in winning this money is simply to pay off your debts, I'll forgive your debts." After some thought, Harry suddenly 'generously' waved his hand, making a decision that left both brothers speechless.

"What... what did you say?"

"Harry, you don't need to do this. This is Ludo's problem; you don't need to bear the loss!"

When the two brothers heard that Harry wanted to cancel their debt, they were grateful but couldn't help refusing. As for Cedric Diggory, he secretly thought that Harry was indeed a good friend, being so generous to the Weasley Brothers.

But soon, the three realized they had misunderstood, and their initial sense of admiration immediately plummeted to an even lower level than before.

"You two are overthinking it. What I mean is, you can give me this receipt, along with the debt owed to Ludo." Harry shook his head slightly, casually snatching the receipt from Fred's hand. "In other words, from now on, we're even over that thousand Galleon."

"After this, how I get my money back from Ludo is my business, and it has nothing to do with you. As for the few hundred Galleon left over after deducting the debt from the gambling winnings, I won't give them to you either; consider it a lesson learned."

"In that case, it doesn't seem like a bad idea..." Fred for a moment and felt that the suggestion was actually quite reasonable.

Harry is far more capable than the two brothers; if he goes to collect the debt, he might actually be able to get the money back.

"Besides, we didn't actually lose anything. After all, even without Harry, we might not have gotten those extra few hundred Galleon, and we still have to pay back the thousand Galleon we owe."

George shared the same thought, feeling that he and his brother had simply worked for nothing. Although they had lost several hundred Galleon in net income, their original goal was actually to pay off their debts.

"Since you all agree, that's all for now, bye~"

Seeing that neither of the brothers had any objections, Harry decisively waved goodbye, took the receipt, and quickly left the spot.

"Um, let me interject..." Cedric Diggory said hesitantly after Harry left, "Didn't you two pay any money upfront when you placed bets at that betting place?"

"What... what did you say?"

"Principal?!"

Upon hearing this, the Weasley Brothers were immediately dumbfounded.

The next second, the two of them immediately chased after Harry, causing chaos throughout the corridor.

"Harry, you stop right there! Give us back those ninety-odd Galleon!"

"There's also a fake wand!!"

Well, now they finally know what kind of money Harry was paying for his so-called 'lesson'.

Chapter 583 The Manor Dungeon, The Hidden Shadow

Honestly, given Harry's relationship with the Weasley Brothers, it's perfectly normal for them to joke around occasionally.

So that bet of nearly one hundred Galleon...

He absolutely will not return it to them.

Gambling is risky; bet with caution. Harry is determined to teach the Weasley Brothers a lesson this time, to make them remember... not everything is something to be taken lightly.

They were lucky this time; Harry happened to be very interested in Ludo Bagman, which is why he was willing to cover for them.

But what if they encounter an even bigger problem in the future, and Harry can't help them? What will they do then?

"Fine, fine, I'll learn my lesson." After arguing and making a scene in the hallway for a while, Fred, realizing he wouldn't get his money back, could only helplessly accept reality.

"Harry, do you know, sometimes you really look like Percy when you're like this," George said, making a face at him with a hint of disdain.

For the Weasley Brothers, saying someone is 'like Percy's is an extremely poor compliment.

"Hey, Harry, look!"

As noon approached, the three of them, having finished their exams, walked towards the cafeteria when Fred suddenly gestured with his lip to the side.

That was a fifth-year Slytherin student who kept staring at Harry; he had also come back early for his exams.

Harry had noticed him too; after all, ever since they entered the exam hall, this guy's gaze had been fixed on Harry.

The Weasley Brothers, of course, knew why the other man was looking at them like that. They had witnessed the whole thing that night; Harry had beaten this guy's father to a pulp, and that feat of taking on over thirty men single-handedly was still fresh in their minds.

"Hmph, isn't Slytherin House supposed to be very united? How come they're starting to fall apart?" George sneered dismissively. "These guys usually stick together, but now that something's happened, they're all alone."

"Aside from a few individuals whose IQs are truly lacking, most Slytherin House parents are actually quite astute in observing situations," Harry explained calmly. "Demonstrations and tormenting ordinary people are simply violations of the Statute of Secrecy, and even if they are held accountable, the consequences wouldn't be too severe. But the Dark Mark that day, coupled with my previous disclosure that Voldemort had already escaped Albania, completely changes the nature of the situation. At times like these, getting too close to these offending families can easily be perceived as wanting to join Voldemort."

"Indeed... Dad later said that the Dark Mark that day was actually most afraid of those Death Eater who betrayed Voldemort." Fred nodded in deep agreement. "Looking at it this way, the Crabbe family is really brave!"

"So, to commemorate his bravery, how about we launch a new product?" George's eyes suddenly lit up, clearly he had a new mischievous idea. "Edible Dark Marks! One bite, and it'll make you feel nauseous all day!"

"Haha, that's a great idea! Let's go and look into it!"