Christmas

Everyone was carefully considering William's words.

After a moment, Fred, whose lips had become less swollen, patted William's thigh and laughed, "Why think so much? Can't we just ask about the Marauder's Map?"

"The map shows..." Fred tapped his wand again.

"Gentlemen of the Marauders, have you noticed that the four of us have disappeared from the map?"

Soon, the handwriting on the Marauder's Map changed:

"The Prongs was very curious about this unknown place and believed it could pass the test."

Immediately afterwards, lines of new text appeared below:

Padfoot approves of this magic.

"Moony agrees."

"The Wormtail has no objection."

While Fred was still in shock, all the writing on the Marauder's Map was suddenly erased, and then a row of green characters appeared on the parchment.

"Marauder's Map Activation Code: I solemnly swear I have not done anything good."

End of secret mission: Mischief Managed.

The group looked at the parchment with some helplessness, not expecting the secret codes for opening and closing the map to be like this.

George exclaimed excitedly, "Looks like we'll have something to do for a while!"

The things he referred to, aside from pranks, were just nighttime outings.

As time goes by, Christmas is just around the corner.

One morning in mid-December, everyone woke up to find that the surroundings were covered with several feet of snow and the lake was frozen solid.

George and Fred were in trouble; they tried to break into Snape's medicine storage room but were trapped by Dumbledore's magic, and then Professor McGonagall caught them red-handed.

Professor McGonagall punished the two students by making them clear the snow from the castle gate with their bare hands.

The ground here is too slippery; many young wizards have slipped and fallen.

While the two were clearing the snow, they built a Troll Yeti and stuffed a big stick into Yeti hand.

The young wizards surrounding them clapped; the Troll's appearance was truly lifelike.

Soon, the young wizards from all four houses ran over to Yeti.

There are all sorts of them: giant Scotland round-faced fat chickens, Grindylow, dragon fruit, Bobocha...

Professor Snape has not returned yet; everyone assumes he has been imprisoned in Azkaban and will at least spend Christmas there.

Madam Pomfrey was still the same as always, but she finally promised to teach everyone how to brew Potions, because a flu epidemic had broken out at Hogwarts.

Drinking Potions you brewed yourself didn't sound like a good decision, so everyone listened very attentively, which pleased Madam Pomfrey.

Several owls flew through the snowy sky to deliver mail. After a long and arduous journey, they needed Hagrid's care to recover their strength before they could take off again.

The weather is getting colder, and everyone is eagerly anticipating the holidays. Although the Ravenclaw Common Room and Great Hall...

The fire blazed brightly, but the corridor, drafty with a through wind, became bitterly cold, and the classroom windows rattled and creaked in the biting wind.

William will be home for Christmas, as will Cedric and Autumn.

Charlie and the Weasley Brothers won't be going back; Mrs. Weasley is taking Ron and Ginny to Egypt to visit Bill.

Charlie staying here instead of going back is a good thing, as it allows him to take care of Fluffy.

The twin brothers will continue their adventures at the school, where they will need to check the security of several other secret passages and, incidentally, keep an eye on who attacked Professor Snape's medicine pantry.

They all agreed that the man would definitely make his move during the Christmas holidays.

When William and Qiu finished their Potions Class and left the underground classroom, they found that the corridor in front of them was completely blocked by a large fir tree.

Seeing the two large feet sticking out from under the tree and hearing the loud panting sound, they knew that behind the tree must be Hagrid.

"Hey, Hagrid, need any help?" Qiu asked, as the girl peered through the branches.

"No need, I've already taken care of it," Hagrid said. "Let's go to the restaurant and take a look."

So William and Cho followed Hagrid and his fir tree into the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy decorating for Christmas.

"Ah, Hagrid, we've brought in the last tree too—can we put it in that corner over there?"

William looked around and found the Great Hall to be beautiful and magnificent.

The walls were covered with cascading ribbons of holly and mistletoe, and twelve towering Christmas trees stood throughout the room, some adorned with glittering icicles and others sparkling with hundreds of candles.

William was surprised to find that the Christmas atmosphere at Hogwarts was much stronger than the Chinese New Year atmosphere in his previous life in the Celestial Empire.

When he transmigrated, fireworks had been completely banned, even shops had been shut down, and there was no festive atmosphere left for the New Year.

Compared to that, Hogwarts is still pretty good.

However, William had a question: why did these wizards celebrate Christmas?

It was truly strange; William couldn't understand his sister at all.

Two days later, the semester finally came to an end.

The next day, the young wizards took the train back to London Station, emerging from Platform 9 in twos and threes.

Qiu's father was from the Celestial Empire. He had a square face, a kind and approachable demeanor, and spoke standard Chinglish.

William found it very comforting; his spoken English in his previous life was even worse.

This made Cedric, who was trying to get closer to Cedric, feel somewhat uncomfortable.

However, he still greeted Qiu's father in broken Celestial Empire, which he had learned from William.

Qiu's father, on the other hand, communicated with Cedric in a colloquial language that conformed to the Celestial Empire grammar.

The two chatted enthusiastically.

As for why William speaks Celestial Empire fluently, even more so than Qiu, does the world of geniuses need explanation?

Cedric's father was a red-faced wizard with a short brown beard.

He was shaking hands with Roy.

"I've heard Ced mention your William many times. He's a good young man, it's a shame he's not in Hufflepuff."

"It's alright, as a senior, Ced can teach William a lot, right?"

"I heard that Ced joined the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team and became the Seeker, just like I was when I was young..."

Cedric was somewhat embarrassed.

He was desperate to have such a show-off as his child!

After they parted ways, William got into the car, and the family drove home.

Bobocha sat in Anne's lap, rubbing its head and making purring noises. Anne was overjoyed as she rummaged through William's pocket and found a lot of snacks.

Throughout the journey, William kept telling stories about the interesting things that happened at Hogwarts.

Family is a different kind of emotion, completely different from that at Hogwarts. Because of William, they are all particularly interested in the magical world.

Even his father, who had initially opposed his going to the magic academy, laughed heartily after hearing William's stories about the academy.

William really enjoyed this lifestyle.

(Second update, one more tonight, please vote!)