School Starts, Then Break Begins; Something Seems Off / Brothers Quarrel, Men of Genuine Feeling ...

"That was... real lightning?!"

Professor Tofty was so shocked he almost ripped his hair out. In his eyes, the arc of electricity was exactly the same as lightning in the sky in terms of shape, color, and sound!

Although it may have shrunk by tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times, it was undoubtedly lightning!

Harry wasn't lying; those Muggle really could create lightning using a power called 'science'!

What surprised him even more, and even made Charity Burbage exclaim in surprise, was that Harry actually used that arc of electricity to light up the lamp again!

This time, the light wasn't fleeting, but rather flickering intermittently, like the stars in the sky above the Great Hall, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

"Professor Tofty, is the demonstration finished here?" After stopping the experiment, Harry approached the still-astonished professor. "I think everything I mentioned before has been proven in this experiment."

"That's right! Harry, you've brought us a miracle!" Professor Tofty excitedly grabbed Harry's hand. "What you did today is absolutely crucial for wizards to rediscover the Muggle community! Don't worry, I will record this truthfully, and in a few days, we will send your Muggle Studies NEWT certificate to Hogwarts!"

At this moment, the old professor truly believed from the bottom of his heart that Harry's experiment had come at the perfect time!

As a humble and wise old wizard, Tofudi absolutely refused to believe that Muggle capable of creating 'lightning' couldn't amplify this tiny arc of electricity to make it as powerful as real lightning!

So... those Muggle have truly mastered powers that wizards have never even touched!

"I can't wait any longer, Headmaster Dumbledore! Please make sure Harry teaches Muggle Studies... no, I mean General Social Cognition with me!"

Burbage, however, was incredibly excited. She had even begun to imagine what amazing 'Muggle powers' Harry would bring to the classroom in the future.

"I would be more than happy to do that... Harry did a fantastic job with this experiment, and I look forward to him teaching more students in the future, helping them understand the Muggle world that we have so many misconceptions about."

Dumbledore finally nodded. He was in a terrible mood for failing to restrain Harry, but he had to admit that everything Harry had done today would have a huge impact on the entire Wizarding World, prompting countless wizards to learn about Muggle, whom they had previously paid no attention to!

Muggle are never ignorant or stupid; they have countless world-changing inventions and weapons powerful enough to threaten all wizards.

They also possess electricity, a magical power perhaps unique to Muggle...

Magic.

Chapter 595 School Opening and Holiday Break, Suspicious Situation

September 2, 1994, the first day of the new semester, the whole school was on holiday...

The reason for the holiday is that today is Friday, and the weekend is just around the corner. In addition, Harry's science experiment last night caused everyone's bedtime to be pushed back by a few hours. Therefore, after considering the "public opinion", Albus Dumbledore decisively approved a one-day holiday for the whole school.

That's right, it's exactly the same as last year.

Harry thought it was utterly outrageous.

Just how obsessed is Hogwarts with September 1st? Did the school's successive headmasters think this date was particularly auspicious, so much so that they couldn't even be bothered to turn the calendar and stubbornly clung to it?

If they continue like this, they'll definitely do the same thing when the next school year starts.

Because if we keep pushing back, September 1st, 1995, would be a Friday, and there would be no doubt that it would be a holiday the next day, without Harry even needing to do anything special.

But complaints aside, holidays are always a welcome addition.

Especially for Hogwarts students who have just started school, they really need a day off when everyone else is at work, to deal with all the little things that come with the start of the school year.

For example, catching an owl.

On the first day of the new term, the storm that has lasted for several days may subside, but the owl will definitely stir up another storm; this is common knowledge throughout Hogwarts.

Students usually receive items from home at the beginning of the school year. For example, Draco Malfoy receives candy and cakes from his doting mother every year, while Neville, who has a poor memory, often receives luggage he left at home before leaving for school.

The Weasley Brothers seemed to have been visited by owls again this time, but when the letter was opened, the people having dinner realized that it was actually Howler from Mrs. Weasley.

The two brothers' numerous failing grades in the OWLs exams incurred Mrs. Weasley's wrath, who unleashed a torrent of abuse in Howler, sternly pointing out that their disgraceful jokes were the culprits behind their poor performance!

"Hmph, Mom doesn't understand at all. These joke products are the future of the world!"

"Exactly! We even paid for Ron's new dress. How can she take our money to help with household expenses while constantly complaining to us?"

Clearly, Fred and George didn't take the Howler to heart at all. They just complained a bit and then went back to talking to their friends about how to cheat in the Triwizard Tournament.

From their conversation, Harry overheard words related to 'age' in the distance.

Harry also saw his owl at the same time, and the package Hedwig was carrying in her talons. The packaging was full of exotic charm that he was very familiar with, and it was obviously an international gift sent from the East.

Sure enough, after opening the package, Harry found that it was a letter from Elder Kong.

In his letter, Elder Kong said that the Mr. and Mrs. Granger had settled in and were adapting to their new life in China with Dobby, and that Harry should not worry.

His adoptive parents had already told him these things through Two-Way Mirror, but Elder Kong still wrote a letter explaining them in great detail.

In addition, he also sent a set of the Classic of Mountains and Seas with the letter, which seemed to be a special gift prepared for Harry because he knew that Harry had this kind of interest.

Hmm... I should definitely go back to China if I have the chance, at least I can go with Zouwu to find out where the legendary 'Lin Clan Kingdom' is.

"Look, the new 'The Quibbler' magazine, the articles in it are quite interesting."

Hermione and Luna Lovegood arrived at the Great Hall together. The two clever girls waited until the owl rain had stopped before appearing, thus avoiding the feather and other bombardment, and remained looking beautiful the entire time.

Luna Lovegood handed Harry the latest issue of the magazine, in which Harry saw what was clearly a 'experimental explanation' that Percy and Rita Skeeter had rushed out overtime.

It describes in great detail how Harry flew without assistance, the entire process of him catching the lightning, and how the lightning killed the Dementor.

Rita Skeeter even wrote an irresponsible analysis, suggesting that the reason the two Dementor had been causing trouble for two days without anyone resolving the issue was because the Ministry of Magic was deliberately stalling.

They were originally sent by the Ministry of Magic. The reason they were allowed to attack ordinary people was to lure Harry, who lived nearby, into fighting them, and then frame Harry for violating the Statute of Secrecy.

After reading this article, Harry has to say that while Rita Skeeter isn't exactly a good person, her journalistic skills and intuition are truly exceptional.

He had caught the Dementor without telling anyone at the magazine, but Rita Skeeter managed to figure it out through her own analysis.

Looking across the entire Britain Wizarding World, Harry really couldn't find a reporter more impressive than her.

However, as Harry continued flipping through the magazine, he was drawn to another article by Rita Skeeter.

The Ministry of Magic is in trouble again.

It seems the Ministry of Magic's troubles are far from over. Recently, besides their disastrous performance in the Quidditch World Cup final, Mr. Weasley. Arthur Weasley, the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, seems to have plunged the Ministry of Magic into a new and embarrassing situation.

It is reported that Mr. Weasley was involved in a dispute with several police officers (law enforcers among ordinary people) the night before, which stemmed from a large number of aggressive dumpsters. Mr. Weasley appeared to be going to help Mad-Eye Moody, but it turned out to be a false alarm; Mr. Moody had simply triggered a false alarm.

Mr. Weasley was ultimately forced to alter the memories of several police officers to extricate himself from the situation, but this also embroiled the Ministry of Magic in this pointless and thorny incident, forcing them to rack their brains for an excuse to cover up the truth.

Harry had heard a little about the trouble Moody had caused the night before, but it was just something the Weasley Brothers had casually mentioned. However, after reading Rita Skeeter's article, Harry felt that things were not so simple.

Since it concerns the Ministry of Magic, Rita Skeeter's article is bound to contain some exaggeration, but Harry knows her style; the news she releases, at least the framework of the events, is certainly true.

Alastor Moody just developed paranoia as he got older; he's neurotic, not mentally ill, and there's no reason he couldn't handle those dumpsters and the police!

Furthermore, Rita Skeeter added an important piece of information that the Weasley Brothers hadn't mentioned: Moody had actually sent out a distress signal!

The Weasley Brothers didn't understand Auror, or perhaps their father hadn't explained it in detail, but Harry knew perfectly well... For an Auror, sending out a distress signal with their wand meant they were in extreme danger!

Admittedly, Alastor Moody may have a history of getting into trouble due to his neuroticism, such as pointing his wand at people or even casting spells haphazardly...

But Harry absolutely did not believe that Auror like himself would joke about his entire career!

Chapter 596 Brothers' Dispute, People of Passion

After carefully reading Rita Skeeter's article, Harry suddenly became suspicious of Moody.

Although Harry hadn't had much direct contact with this legendary Auror, he had both experience fighting and cooperating with him. In addition, he had gathered information from Tonks and others, so he had a relatively comprehensive understanding of Moody.

Without a doubt, Moody is a perfectly qualified teammate, and if he were an enemy, the level of difficulty in fighting him would definitely be above hard.

Moody's wouldn't be so neurotic as to cause trouble and then be unable to clean up the mess, nor would he recklessly release extremely important distress signals.

So... was Moody really fighting someone at that time?

If this speculation is true, then where did the guy who fought Moody go after Mr. Weasley arrived?

Feeling that the magazine article was somewhat vague, Harry decided to go find the Weasley Brothers to see if they could help him get some more details.

So in the morning, Harry found the Weasley on the playground... and coincidentally, there were four Weasley.

Not only Fred and George, but Ron and Ginny were there too.

Ron seemed to be arguing with the twins, waving a brand new copy of "The Quibbler" in his hand, his face red and neck bulging, his emotions unusually intense.

Ginny, standing to the side, looked at him hesitantly, seemingly wanting to dissuade her hot-tempered brother, but then realizing that it would be pointless to say anything.

"What's going on with you two?" Harry asked, puzzled. "Why are you arguing all of a sudden?"

"We... Humph!" Ron snorted resentfully, but said nothing, simply turning his head to the side.

"It's nothing serious~", "It's just that the kid is a little upset."

The twin brothers chuckled in unison, their faces bearing the same awkward smiles, clearly finding it difficult to speak.

"Then forget it." Since the other party was unwilling to elaborate, Harry didn't intend to pry further and simply stated his purpose. "Fred, George, could you do me a favor? I want to know as many details as possible about what happened when Mr. Weasley went to help Moody."

"Sure, we'll write a letter to Dad." Fred readily agreed, considering it a small favor that wasn't even a trivial matter.

But Ron, who had just been arguing with them, suddenly widened his eyes upon hearing this!

"Fred, what other details do you want to ask?" he angrily questioned one of the twins. "Hasn't this magazine already smeared Dad enough?!"

"No... I just can't explain it to you clearly," Fred said, scratching his head in exasperation. "This article in the magazine was written to target the Ministry of Magic, not to target our father."

"That's right, that's exactly the point." George quickly chimed in to dissuade him, "The real intention of this article is to make readers believe that the Ministry of Magic only cares about these trivial matters, not that there's anything wrong with Dad himself!"

"I don't understand any of this, and I don't want to!" Ron waved his hand irritably. "All I know is that this magazine published an article smearing Dad, and you guys are still helping to collect dirt on him! Besides, Dad is a member of the Ministry of Magic, he's different from you guys and Percy who work for Harry! If something happens to the Ministry of Magic, Dad will definitely be implicated!"

"So, you two were arguing because of this article?" Harry looked at Ginny beside him, who nodded affirmatively with a mix of excitement and helplessness in Harry expression.

Well... Harry finally understood; he was actually the culprit behind this argument.

The youngest brother wanted to protect his father's reputation, but the two twin brothers thought it was no big deal. Harry's arrival to inquire about the details only added fuel to the fire.

Well, Harry didn't actually think there was anything wrong with Ron's reaction.

This child is a very emotional person, but sometimes he doesn't think things through and is prone to acting on impulse, so he often appears too impulsive.

He simply couldn't comprehend the complex, three-way investment strategy employed by the Weasley family, especially.

Therefore, Harry wouldn't blame him, and it wouldn't hurt to apologize to him.

"Ron, I admit the content of this article is somewhat inappropriate, but as your two brothers said, it's not primarily aimed at Mr. Weasley," Harry explained calmly to Ron. "Of course, your father will certainly be affected to some extent, and I apologize for that. But I'm not here today to dig up any more dirt on him; I have something very important I want to know..."

"Hmph, you guys are having a good chat~"

Just as Ron's expression softened slightly because of Harry's apology, a harsh, mocking voice suddenly drifted over.

"Malfoy?" Ron suddenly turned his head and glared, his face instantly turning even uglier than before.

Draco Malfoy was standing not far away. After the series of events during the summer vacation, the number of his followers had not decreased, but rather increased by several.

Besides Crabbe and Goyle, there were several other Pure-blood Family children, including Nott, and without exception, all of them had parents who had been beaten up by Harry.

Judging from their even more obsequious and servile attitude towards Malfoy than before, Harry could roughly guess that this was probably the result of Narcissa Malfoy's skillful maneuvering.

Although the Malfoy family was greatly weakened after Lucius Malfoy's death, it was still a force to be reckoned with and remained the main power within the Pure-blood Family for a short period of time.

Now that Harry has exposed a large number of former Death Eater, the Pure-blood Family's 'empire' is in grave danger. If Narcissa Malfoy remains on the sidelines, she will inevitably become a lone commander, and her fate will only be to be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy.

So if Harry were her, she would definitely try every means to mediate and smooth things over to try to calm the trouble for the Pure-blood Family involved.

If they're lucky, the Malfoy family might use this as a stepping stone to return to their former glory.

The reason these Death Eater descendants fawned over Draco Malfoy so much was clearly because they hoped his mother would find a way to help their bear parents.

"What, are you begging Harry Potter to let you become one of his underlings like your three brothers?"

Currently surrounded by admirers, Malfoy seemed quite proud and smug, even disdainfully raising his nostrils at Ron: "Speaking of which, your Weasley family is really willing to grovel before this savior, isn't it? You're all so eager to be bossed around by him. Especially you, Ron Weasley, he's smeared your father so badly, and you still want to be his follower!"

Upon hearing this, the faces of the four Weasley present simultaneously darkened.

Chapter 597 Moody Takes Action, Teaches Them a Lesson

In fact, Malfoy saw all the expressions on the faces of the Weasley siblings, but he didn't seem to care.

Because he was just there to vent his frustrations and had no intention of going any further and courting disaster.

Malfoy is no longer afraid of provoking Harry to this extent in front of him, because his repeated rebukes have gradually made him understand Harry's bottom line.

As long as he doesn't actively target Harry, avoids saying forbidden words that would instantly infuriate Harry, and learns to stop when Harry is around, he'll basically avoid getting beaten up.