Peeves, Please Don't Cause Trouble

Back at the castle, Evita followed Sirius's letter and soon found the painting of the fruit bowl. After a bit of effort, a green handle emerged, just as he had said. She took off her cloak, straightened her clothes, and walked in to find a host of House-elves, all beaming as they bowed and curtsied.

The House-elves all wore matching tea towels bearing the Hogwarts crest. They eagerly asked, "Miss, would you like something to eat?"

"Hmm..." Evita looked around the kitchen. "A beef pie?"

The House-elves were terrifyingly enthusiastic. They brought not only a beef pie, but also jelly pudding, roast lamb chops, and other food.

"No, no, no," Evita hurriedly protested. "That's too much. I can't eat it all. How much is it?"

"No money needed, miss, none at all!" The House-elves looked utterly panicked.

Evita was a little taken aback. She recalled that House-elves were a lowly race, bound to serve their masters for generations.

"Then please take this." She pulled out a large box of fudge hidden in her robes. "If you don't, I won't accept the pie either."

The House-elves' enormous eyes were full of panic, so Evita firmly pressed the fudge into their hands, took two pies, and removed her hat to wave it. "Thank you. See you next time."

She left to the sound of the House-elves' loud sobs and returned to her dormitory to sleep.

After exploring the Forbidden Forest and the kitchen that day, Evita gradually began spending more time studying, roaming the castle at night, and visiting the kitchen for food, since there was little else a first-year could do. Fortunately, she was young enough to handle it all.

That evening, Evita put on the Invisibility Cloak again and crept through the castle. She carefully skipped a certain step, pushed open a classroom door, and saw Peeves busily drawing faces and writing insults on the blackboard.

Hmph, Peeves, she thought. Peeves, always causing trouble and playing tricks on people.

Her wand slipped silently down to her cuff. After Peeves left, Evita whispered as quietly as she possibly could, "Aguamenti."

A steady stream of clear water washed away every trace on the blackboard, leaving Peeves dumbstruck when he returned to admire his handiwork.

"A bad student's sneaked out to play! A bad student's sneaked out to play!" Peeves shouted. "Come and catch the naughty bad student, Filch!"

Snitch!

Evita peered through the crack in the door and thought with feigned regret and genuine glee, What a shame I've already run away.

Mr. Filch, the caretaker, arrived carrying a lamp, with Mrs. Norris at his side. "Where's the student breaking the rules?" he asked gruffly.

"Oh, sir, your attitude isn't very nice. Peeves refuses to answer."

"Please tell me, where's the student breaking the rules?!" Filch shouted angrily.

"Sorry, Peeves doesn't know either," the hateful prankster replied, his black eyes darting around.

Mr. Filch's eyes bulged, and he swore in embarrassed fury.

Evita hurried away from the scene and returned to her dormitory, where she flopped onto her bed and rolled around laughing. Holding the Phoenix in her arms, she said, "Fini, Peeves can be quite funny sometimes too, can't he?"

"Oh, right." Something suddenly occurred to her. "I remember you and Fawkes are good friends. Do Phoenixes communicate with one another?"

Fini looked at her and slowly nodded.

"So you're still communicating with each other now? It looks like you've been friends for a long time." As Evita spoke, the smile on her face gradually stiffened.

She remembered her feat of roaming the castle at night for half of her first week at school. Swallowing, she asked cautiously, "You wouldn't mention me to Fawkes, would you? You're a good Phoenix. You wouldn't secretly tell on me..."

Fini slowly nodded again, watching her with eyes as clear as glass beads and looking very sincere.

Great. Evita breathed a sigh of relief, though she still decided not to take any more risks for the time being.

In the blink of an eye, the last day of the first week arrived.

They had a Dark Magic Defence class that morning, a notoriously cursed subject. Evita knew that Hogwarts went through Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors at a tremendous rate, so she had been wondering who would teach them and had even wagered more than a dozen Knuts on it.

"I think it'll be Professor Dumbledore," she declared confidently, indulging in a fanciful notion. "He used to teach Dark Magic Defence, so he might take the job on as well."

"I don't think so," a Hufflepuff classmate said. "Professor Dumbledore is so busy being headmaster. How would he have time to teach us?"

That's true... Evita thought it over and concluded regretfully that she probably wasn't going to win her bet.

Sure enough, the wizard who came to teach them was a complete stranger with "waiting to die" written all over his face. Word was that the Ministry of Magic had forced the appointment on him, leaving him no choice but to come and teach.

After all, being Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor could even be compared to being thrown into Azkaban by an Auror. Looking back over the past professors, not even half of them were still in one piece: they were either dead or seriously injured. Any professor who could come away from the class unscathed had to be an exceptional wizard.

"But comparing it to Azkaban is going too far!" Evita couldn't help speaking up. "Isn't that a huge exaggeration? There's a lot of embellishment in that."

"No, Lorand, you don't understand." Another Hufflepuff student shook their head mysteriously.

"Yes, you really don't understand." Several nearby students lowered their voices. "The older students have seen a new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor every year... They're really worried about their grades."

At the front of the classroom, the professor who had been forced to come listlessly introduced the students to some dangerous creatures and explained how to defend against them.

Evita promptly sat up straight and began paying close attention.

Time flew by. A few hours after Dark Magic Defence ended, she went to the last class of the first week, Astronomy, the only subject taught at midnight. It was a rare class that resembled something in Muggle culture, and the students had to observe many stars.

The subject was taught by Aurora Sinistra, a clever-looking witch whose explanations were humorous, engaging, and easy to understand. Before they knew it, her students had learned quite a bit about Astronomy.

As Evita took notes, she prayed that Professor Binns would change in the same direction and stop lecturing about everything from Troll attacks to the Goblin Rebellion, a subject he never seemed to finish.

Even if he has to keep talking about the Goblin Rebellion, couldn't he at least change the way he puts it? she thought in despair. Can anyone really stay awake through Professor Binns's class?