A Surreal Turn of Events
This was the first time Harry felt as if he had returned to the Dursley family; none of Rita Skeeter's previous reports had made him feel this way.
How could he be so foolish as to forget the Invisibility Cloak? It was Deathly Hallows, his father's keepsake, and he just forgot about it at the Astronomy Tower. What would he do if it were lost like that?
Ron was worried that his parents might find out about this, and Percy would definitely tell on him.
Draco was the most relaxed, but he was still immersed in the pain of being separated from Norberta. In terms of feelings for Norberta, Draco was no less than Hagrid, but he was better at controlling his emotions, just like how he used to suppress his compassion and bully others.
This also explains why Harry, and the other two remained silent on the way back to their dormitories last night, as Filch escorted them back.
Harry suddenly snapped out of his worry about the Invisibility Cloak and thought about the points he had lost, which made him a little envious of Draco.
Draco deducted 20 points from their house, while Harry and Ron, being two separate individuals, lost 40 points in total.
Even more fortunately, the Slytherin Common Room was in the basement, allowing Draco to get away from Filch beforehand and avoid having to endure Filch's strange gaze and incessant chatter along the way.
Back in the dormitory, everyone else was already fast asleep, and even Harry and Ron's return couldn't wake them.
Harry was unable to sleep almost all night.
What will happen when the other Ravenclaw students find out what they've done?
Will the Quidditch team still see him as the future captain? But that might not be a bad thing; it would make things easier for him, Harry thought.
Thinking about this made Harry less worried about tomorrow, but Harry was still a little unhappy. Unlike him, Ron fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, which made Harry a little envious of Ron again.
Sometimes, Draco might be telling the truth. How did someone as thick-skinned as Ron get into Ravenclaw?
Thinking of this, he smiled and finally drifted off to sleep.
The next day, when the Ravenclaw students passed by the giant hourglass that recorded the House Cup scores, they thought something had gone wrong.
How could they suddenly score forty points less than yesterday?
Then, the story slowly spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, the hero of two Quidditch Match, caused them to lose so many points, along with two other foolish first-year students.
However, no one paid attention to this, leaving some people with ulterior motives completely baffled.
More people are interested in who the other two are: Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom.
Even Harry hadn't anticipated this trend. Nobody was interested in his lost points; they were all curious about why they went there, wondering if it was because of jealousy.
Rita Skeeter's previous report has been dug up again.
Harry was once one of the most popular and respected figures in the school. After ups and downs, he was no longer surrounded by people like before, but now he is back to the situation at the beginning of the school year.
Ron has once again regained the popularity he had at the beginning of the school year.
Ron initially attracted a lot of attention because everyone thought they could get the Doraemon gold card from him through hard work. But after seeing Ron's performance, they realized that there was no hope at all.
The subsequent reports about Rita Skeeter only gave him a brief period of fame, but the hype was short-lived, and Ron quickly returned to being largely ignored.
Ron had been holding his breath for this, and now that he was in the spotlight again, he was determined to become the superstar of Hogwarts!
So, under Harry's astonished gaze, Ron began to make up different versions of the story and told them to everyone he met.
In his story, he discovered the Phoenix that had disappeared from Ravenclaw Tower for several years, living in seclusion in the Astronomy Tower, living with a Demiguise.
They don't appear because of the poachers hiding among the older Slytherin students.
The Astronomy Tower is closed during after-school hours because of these things.
Ron uncovered the mastermind's plot and, together with Draco's brilliant strategist and Harry's brute force, thwarted the conspiracy and sent them to their deaths.
The only regret is that they didn't find out the real identity of the mastermind, were reported, and were eventually caught by Professor McGonagall.
The other versions of the story are all similar, the only difference being that Ron himself takes on an increasingly larger role.
At Harry's insistence, it was also added that the Phoenix and the Demiguise were no longer at the end of the Astronomy Tower (to prevent anyone from going there and discovering the Invisibility Cloak).
Eventually, the story even reached Professor McGonagall's lips.
"Come on, I seriously doubt why you would believe this ridiculous story."
"Potter and the others were arrested because Dumbledore said someone was loitering around the Astronomy Tower. He knew I had a habit of staying up late, so he told me to go and check it out."
"The idea that someone was reported by a mastermind is utter nonsense," Professor McGonagall said coldly during a Transfiguration.
"But Professor, do you know why they went to the Astronomy Tower?" asked an unknown badger.
"They didn't say anything," Professor McGonagall said irritably.
"Could it be that Dumbledore is trying to hide the secret of the Phoenix? The headmaster himself has a Phoenix! That's why he did something so out of character for him!"
"This story—" Just as a heated argument was about to break out below, Professor McGonagall warned Hufflepuff by deducting 10 points from their score, thus ending the discussion.
Not all schools are interested in romantic relationships between several boys.
But if you add a Phoenix, or even Demiguise, to this story, it becomes something extraordinary.
Now, Ron's story, spread by various people, has become logically sound and flawless.
Some even confidently asserted that Ron's swollen right hand was injured because of this, and that Hagrid's Hut had been suddenly closed, and that Hagrid was now constantly looking mournful.
As we all know, Hagrid loved Care of Magical Creatures, and he was certainly saddened by the departure of the Phoenix and the Demiguise.
However, because of this, the relationship between Harry and his friends has once again become a topic of little interest.
Meanwhile, there were also a few students who tried to break into the Astronomy Tower and were penalized— Filch had been waiting there with premeditation ever since the story spread.
This made it difficult for Harry to find time to retrieve the Invisibility Cloak.
He could only focus his attention on studying and Quidditch for the time being, glancing at the Astronomy Tower from time to time.
However, his occasional glances at the Astronomy Tower added further evidence to Ron's story, and Ron also got the result he wanted from this story— Rita Skeeter's latest report mentioned this incident, using it to criticize Hogwarts' education, questioning why a school would produce Care of Magical Creatures hunters. She ignored the fact that the mastermind behind Ron's story was a Slytherin student, and listed several Muggle-born upperclassmen who were good at Care of Magical Creatures as suspects.
Things are getting more and more surreal; Ryan never expected things to develop this way.