MTL NOVEL Chapter 24: Chapter 24
[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
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The Gringotts break-in should have been considered a major event in the wizarding world, but most young witches and wizards at school didn't care much about it.
Except for a few, like Harry, most students didn't have money deposited in Gringotts. While many wizarding families kept their wealth stored in its vaults, as long as their parents were alive, those treasures remained out of reach.
First-years, in particular, were the least concerned, some of them didn't even know which direction Gringotts' entrance was in the United Kingdom.
Harry and Ron were among the few who paid attention to the incident. Harry was mostly concerned about his own belongings, while Ron was worried because his older brother, Bill, worked at Gringotts.
Ron often talked about Bill, and in his words, Bill was the most promising child of this generation of the Weasley family. He had excelled in school, earning twelve distinctions in the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s).
During his time at Hogwarts, Bill had been a Prefect in his fifth year and the Head Boy in his seventh. He was also a Beater on his House Quidditch team, though not as skilled as his younger brother, Charlie Weasley, the second-oldest Weasley sibling. Harry had heard from Ron and other wizard-born students that if Charlie hadn't pursued a career in dragon studies, he could have made it onto the national Quidditch team.
After graduating, Bill joined Gringotts, thanks to his outstanding academic performance.
Harry was stunned by what he heard.
In the Muggle world, this would be like being one of the top students, a key player on the school's football team, scoring perfect grades on A-levels, and landing a job at Standard Chartered Bank.
A bigger, more accomplished version of Percy?
That's what Harry thought. After all, Percy had excellent grades and was also a Prefect. Unfortunately, he wasn't great at Quidditch.
As Harry left Hagrid and returned to the castle, a thought suddenly struck him. When Hagrid had taken him to Gringotts, he had retrieved something, something that seemed to be on Dumbledore's orders.
Harry had asked about it, but Hagrid had said it was a secret and refused to explain.
Back then, Harry and Hagrid weren't that close yet, so he had been hesitant to press further. Besides, there were so many new things in the wizarding world that had fascinated him at the time, so he hadn't given it much thought. But now, it came back to him.
Had the person who broke into Gringotts been after whatever Hagrid had retrieved?
While lost in thought, Harry and Ron made their way back to the castle.
The moment they stepped inside, they were stopped by two sudden appearances, the Weasley twins, Fred and George.
"Harry, I heard Snape docked 50 points from you?" One of the twins looked at him with a serious expression. The other did the same.
"Uh..." Harry suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
Sure, showing off had felt great at the time, but facing the consequences afterward? Not so much. He'd be lying if he said he had no regrets. Harry actually had a bit of a competitive streak. This week, he had earned eight points for Gryffindor in other classes, second only to Hermione's eleven.
And now, Snape had taken away fifty all at once.
"Well..." Harry began apologetically, "I was just being impulsive at the time..."
Before he could finish, the twins cheered in perfect synchronization.
"Wow, that's amazing!" One of them grabbed Harry's hand. "Harry, you probably don't realize it, but you're now the hero of Gryffindor! Do you know how many people, how many people."
"How many people have suffered under Snape's tyranny?" the other twin continued seamlessly.
"But no one dared to stand up and challenge him!"
"Until you came along, Harry. Oh, the great Harry Potter..."
"You didn't just put him in his place, you left him speechless!"
They spoke in turns, perfectly in sync. Their voices were identical. If you closed your eyes, you'd never guess it was two different people talking.
People said twins had a kind of telepathic bond, and at first, Harry had been skeptical. But the Weasley twins seemed to prove it true. It was almost magical. Then again, at Hogwarts, magic was just another kind of logic.
"Brilliant!" They clapped again.
Harry was stunned.
He had already realized the twins weren't exactly the most responsible people, Hagrid had warned him about them.
These two troublemakers frequented the Forbidden Forest, a dark, mysterious woodland of unknown size near the castle. And given the word "forbidden", its meaning should have been pretty obvious.
So, Harry had been mentally prepared for whatever antics they'd pull. But when he finally witnessed their recklessness firsthand, he couldn't help but sigh. It seemed like they really didn't care about House points.
That said, the twins were far from incompetent. Their grades were actually quite good, and they were exceptionally skilled in magic. The small pouch of Galleons in Harry's pocket was proof of that, the twins had made it themselves when they were just second-years.
"Hey, Gryffindor has been losing for years, it's not a big deal," one of the twins shrugged off Harry and Ron's unease. "It's either Ravenclaw or Slytherin who wins anyway."
"There's nothing we can do about Ravenclaw, they're all bookworms. They get top marks; it's unavoidable. But Slytherin? Well, you've seen their Head of House, haven't you? Heh."
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Harry thought the twins were the only Gryffindor students who didn't care about losing House points. Well, maybe their best friend, Lee Jordan, the one with the dreadlocks, wasn't exactly the most reliable person either.
On his first day at Hogwarts, Lee had brought his new pet: a black spider larger than an adult's palm, and venomous. He had scared several younger girls on the train until they cried.
However, Harry soon realized his assumption was wrong.
While not everyone in Gryffindor was indifferent, it seemed like only two people clearly cared about the lost points: Hermione and Percy.
When Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room, several older students were throwing a celebration, organized by none other than Lee Jordan.
The moment Harry and the others walked in, Lee Jordan cheered, "Ohhhh! Our heroes have returned!"
Another round of applause echoed through the room.
"Well done, Jordan!" said one of the twins, grinning.
"Who put Snape in his place?" the other twin shouted.
"Harry!" answered Lee Jordan and the first twin in unison.
"Who left Snape speechless?"
"Harry!" This time, even more students responded, louder than before.
"Who's our hero?"
"Harry!"
And with that, the celebration kicked off, and nearly every Gryffindor student Harry knew joined in, except for Hermione and Percy.
Even Percy, the ever-dutiful Prefect, simply frowned but didn't try to stop the party.
Apparently, even Percy didn't like Snape very much.
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If there was one thing at Hogwarts that surprised Harry, besides the infuriating Potions class and Professor Snape, it was the amount of homework.
The professors showed no mercy just because the students had only been there for a week. There was already a mountain of assignments to tackle, thanks to the heads of the four Houses.
Apart from Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff and teacher of Herbology, who gave relatively little homework, the other three heads, Professor McGonagall (Transfiguration), Professor Flitwick (Charms), and Professor Snape (Potions), all assigned loads of work.
Even though first-year homework wasn't extremely difficult, it wasn't easy either, especially not for Ron.
Harry, on the other hand, managed fairly well. Ever since he had unknowingly started practicing the Chain Meditation Method, his memory had become remarkably sharp. In a Muggle school, having an excellent memory was an advantage. It turned out to be just as useful at a magic school.
Still, Harry decided to drag Ron along and head to the library with Parvati Patil early in the morning to work on their homework.
While Harry did quite well in Transfiguration and Charms, earning a few extra points for Gryffindor, the theoretical assignments for both subjects were challenging. And Potions and History of Magic were even worse.
It wasn't just Harry, almost everyone in Gryffindor struggled, except for Hermione. She seemed to be the only one who handled the work with ease, showing no signs of stress.
Harry and Ron had initially thought about asking Hermione for help. After all, they had met her on the train and were on relatively good terms.
But ever since Harry had lost 50 points for Gryffindor, Hermione had been avoiding them.
For an eleven-year-old like Harry, who had outgrown the "troublemaker" phase but was still in his primary school years, her silent treatment was irritating.
If you're ignoring me, should I be the one to break the ice?
That was how Harry and Ron saw it. So instead of asking Hermione, they turned to Parvati Patil, who just so happened to be the prettiest girl in Gryffindor.
Of course, it wasn't because of her looks. Harry might have started to notice girls a little, but it wasn't anything serious yet.
However, like most Gryffindors, Parvati wasn't much help either.
The real assistance came from Padma Patil, Parvati's twin sister, who had been sorted into Ravenclaw.
Just like the Weasley twins, Parvati and Padma looked identical. If not for the fact that they wore different House colors, Harry and Ron wouldn't have been able to tell them apart.
At least their different robes saved them the embarrassment of accidentally mistaking Fred for George, something they still hadn't figured out how to avoid.
Ravenclaw, being a haven for the academically gifted, was filled with brilliant students.
And despite being twins, after just one week in separate Houses, Parvati and Padma were already showing their differences.
The homework that frustrated Harry, Ron, and even Parvati seemed almost effortless for Padma.
Though she refused to let them copy her work, she was kind enough to show them which books to reference and where to find the information they needed.
That helped, a lot.
Following Padma's advice, Harry went searching for a book on wizard dueling rules from the Middle Ages.
It wasn't easy.
The Hogwarts library was massive, with countless books, but the indexing system was terrible. It was far less organized than the public library Harry had once visited in the Muggle world.
The librarian, Madam Pince, didn't assist the students in finding books. She simply decided whether or not they were allowed to borrow the ones they found.
Worse still, once students checked out books, they often returned them in the wrong places, leaving the shelves in complete disarray.
That made it incredibly hard for the next person to find what they were looking for.
Though, thankfully, every night, the books magically returned to their correct spots, thanks to a bit of library magic.
Harry and his friends had arrived early, so the shelves were still relatively organized. After a bit of searching, Harry finally found the book he needed.
Just as he reached for it, though, a thin booklet beside it caught his eye.
"Learning Techniques and the Basics of Occlumency."
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