Ron's Scream

In the pitch-black night, ghostly carriages moved on their own without any wind, heading towards the towering Hogwarts Castle in the distance.

Not far away, the small boats on the lake looked particularly eerie under the light of the lanterns on them.

Not to mention the black forest, and the faint howls of wolves echoing from the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

All of this made the second-year students, who were not yet used to the scenery outside the carriage, only dare to look at their classmates in the same compartment, gossiping about the new semester, trying to relax.

However, at that moment, a high-pitched scream came from all around them.

The scream was like a torch falling into a haystack, and then screams rose and fell from the convoy.

"What's wrong!"

"It's Werewolf! The Werewolf from the Forbidden Forest has come out!"

"It's ghosts! The ghosts from the Shrieking Shack have come out!"

However, a few words that were completely different from these others rang out from the crowd.

"Hey, Lee Jordan! Guess what the first sound sounds like to me?"

"I know! The scream our little brother made when his toy turned into a spider!"

"Yes, that's him!"

"That's true, there's a faint smell of mustiness and straw in this carriage—"

"It's perfectly normal to have a spider there!"

The playful dialogue, enhanced with Sonorus and Sonorus, attracted everyone's attention.

The screams gradually subsided.

With a sudden shout of "Well done, Fred, George!", the convoy returned to silence.

Damn Percy!

"I can recognize his voice!"

"Fred and George know not to mention my name!" Ron's face was almost as red as his hair.

Under Ron's incessant muttering curses, Harry could only take advantage of the effect of the Ryan Spell and keep staring at Thestral without saying a word.

The same goes for Ryan and Hermione.

They all knew that Ron needed some personal time.

They could only look ahead, where a pair of magnificent cast-iron gates stood, flanked by many stone pillars, with winged wild boars at the front.

After passing through the iron gate, there was a long, sloping road. The Thestral increased its speed, as if it had realized that it was almost at its destination.

Sure enough, many corner towers and towers gradually approached them; they had arrived at Hogwarts!

"That's Ron Weasley! The one who just screamed!"

"Isn't he the bane of Care of Magical Creatures poachers! He defeated one of the Three Musketeers the You-Know-Who? How could he be afraid of spiders!"

"I think it must be Harry Potter's doing. I wish I were Harry's friend!"

After getting off the bus, the surrounding students looked in Ron's direction, pointing and whispering among themselves.

For the first time, Ron hated his fiery red hair; it was so striking.

"Ron, are you alright?" Draco and his friends bypassed the stone steps leading into the castle and the crowd, and walked towards Ron and his companions.

"Nothing? I just saw that damned Thestral!"

"They really are a scourge!"

"Look! My semester is over!" Ron said dejectedly.

"What are you looking at!" Ron yelled at a Ravenclaw dark-haired witch whose features were completely obscured by the darkness.

But Ron still spotted what was on her chest. "A supporter of the Tutshill Tornados, huh? They were nobody before."

"Another one who follows the crowd and jumps on the bandwagon!"

"Many people only start paying attention to a team after they start winning!" Ron said, pointing to the Tornadoes badge on the girl's chest.

He was completely different; he was a true member of the Chudley Cannons.

"Her name is Cho Chang, and she is a year ahead of us."

"She's been supporting Tornadoes since she was six!" Hermione suddenly said, referring to a conversation she'd had with Cho Chang in the common room.

Cho Chang had promoted the Tornadoes to her.

At that time, the Tornadoes was not yet famous.

"Her? I remember Jonny once said she was a great Seeker, if it weren't for me," Harry said thoughtfully.

"She was just looking at Harry."

"As a future member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team —look to the captain," Ryan added.

"Fine, fine! It's all my fault!" Ron muttered.

Seeing that nothing was wrong, Draco was led away by Pansy, and Crabbe and Goyle followed Draco like doormen and disappeared as well.

Cho Chang disappeared into the crowd.

Ryan and his companions joined the crowd climbing the stone steps, passing through the massive Oak Wood door, and entering the deep foyer.

The foyer was brightly lit by torches, and a magnificent Marble Staircase led upstairs. The door on the right leading to the Great Hall was open, and Ryan and his companions followed the crowd into the hall.

"Ron, are you all alright? The students suddenly screamed, so I rushed over. The Prefect used paper cranes to let us know it was nothing serious." It's Lupin!

"It's nothing, I just saw Thestral," Ron said weakly.

"Thestral? — What about you? — Oh, right, I remember your uncle Bilius died." Lupin misunderstood something.

Ron wasn't in the mood to explain that he hadn't actually witnessed his uncle's death.

So they continued following the crowd to the Great Hall and sat down at Ravenclaw's table.

What just happened?

"Is it really Ron?"

Is it a spider?

"I think Fred and George are joking," Neville and the other guys in the dorm said.

Dean Seamus at the Gryffindor table turned around, Lavender grew ears.

"I only saw Thestral!"

"Do you understand Thestral?"

"A mouthful of fangs, a dragon's head, dead white pupils, skin and bones, and black skin."

"They're the ones that pull our carriages," Ron couldn't help but say.

"I saw it too."

"They can only recognize me as my grandfather if they've seen a dead person," Neville said tremulously, as Ron's description of the Thestral seemed to have stirred up terrifying memories in him.

"I know! They're very, very unlucky!" Lavender Brown suddenly let out the same scream Ron had just made.

She was a witch who, like Ron, was passionate about and knowledgeable about all sorts of superstitions.

That's why, in the original world, Lavender was madly pursuing Ron.

"That's not true at all. That's just superstition. There's nothing unlucky about it. They're very clever and useful."

"You know what, my relative Tina Goldstein is the lover of Newt Scudderman, the master of Care of Magical Creatures!" Anthony hadn't boasted about this in a long time, suddenly said.

Perhaps because of his kinship, he was very knowledgeable about Care of Magical Creatures and had long ago read through Newt's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in its entirety.

"Even if they aren't unlucky, they're still bad things!"

"Look! My reputation is ruined because of seeing them!" Ron slumped dejectedly onto the table.

He felt that the semester was over.