On the evening after Valentine's Day, despite the drizzle and the low evening temperature, Lawrence followed Fred and George to the muddy Quidditch pool to watch the Gryffindor team practice.

"Merlin......" George groaned, he looked at the figure in the sky holding a bat, because of the force was too strong, not only did not swing the Bludger, but even let the bat in his hand fly out,

"It's good," Fred tugged at his hair in pain, "it took a few weeks for them not to fall off their broomsticks, and I just hope they can at least hold their bats by the end of the week."

After watching a few more rounds of practice, hearing several shrill whistles, and after several take-offs and landings back and forth between the players, it was completely dark, and the Gryffindor team had to stop this practice.

They landed from the sky in twos and threes, and then walked into the locker room together, everyone's expressions were depressed and helpless, and the captain Angelina looked like she was about to cry, but she still had to work hard to encourage each player.

The twins and Lawrence, who were sitting in the stands, moved their stiff hands and feet after a while, and when they left the stands, Fred and George were dead in the face, as if they had just attended a funeral.

They deliberately walked very slowly, and before they were ready to enter the dining room, Lawrence probed to make sure that none of the Quidditch players were in the dining room, and then beckoned the twins into the hall.

After dinner, by the time they returned to Gryffindor Tower, there was no longer a single player from the Quidditch team in the lounge, and they approached the corner where Harry and Hermione were.

"We've been watching them practice," Fred sat down in a chair near Hermione, "I think they're dead, and they can't do anything without our help."

"But I think Ginny flies great," George said fairly, as he sat down next to Fred and Lawrence next to Harry, "and to be honest, I don't really know, how can she fly so well?" We never let him play Quidditch with us."

"Ginny told me that since she was six years old, she opened the broomstick cabinet when you weren't looking.

Take your broomsticks one by one and take them for a test flight." Hermione buried her head in the tall pile of ancient magic reference books, which made her voice a little unclear,

"Oh," George was a little moved, "I think that says something."

"How's Ron doing? Will he be able to save the ball?" Hermione looked away from the Magic Word Chart and looked up from the stack of books and asked,

"Ugh...... I said well, if no one was looking at him, I think he could still do it," Fred rolled his eyes, "It looks like on Saturday, as long as someone is flying towards him with a Quaffle, we're going to try to get everyone to turn around."

Fred stood up a little irritably, walked to the window, and looked out the dark window,

"Quidditch is the only thing worth staying in this place, but now ......," Fred sighed, and George agreed with him,

"You're about to take exams." Hermione said sternly, glancing at Lawrence, who was absent-minded on the other side,

"We don't really care about that, Hermione," Lawrence said as Hermione met her gaze, "Personally, I don't think a person's worth is how much he gets on his exams."

"Tsk-" Hermione was clearly not happy with the answer, Harry blinked and exchanged a look with Lawrence, they were not at all surprised by Hermione's reaction,

George yawned a lot and looked back from the dark clouds outside the window.

"And don't forget, their opponent is Diggory." Harry said in a dull voice, he obviously still hadn't forgotten that he lost to Diggory in a Quidditch match in his third year due to the influence of the Dementors.

But in fact, everyone knows that the reason for Harry's low mood may not only be Quidditch, Diggory's girlfriend, that Ravenclaw Zhang Qiu may also be a part,

"Diggory's Hufflepuff is pretty good." Lawrence said objectively, "I think there's a good chance that they'll win this year."

"You're leaving me unsure if I want to watch this game or not." George said sullenly,

"But they're always going to be crazy when they meet Ravenclaw, right?" Fred said hopefully, "If we can lose a little less, we might even be lucky enough...... A small win?"

"I'm more afraid of our fiasco," said George pessimistically, "and don't care about Diggory for now, no matter what, if we let Zakaris? That guy Smith beat us, and I'm probably going to jump from the stands and kill myself."

"On the contrary, I will definitely kill him." Fred spoke his decision in a resolute tone,

"That's Quidditch's biggest problem," Hermione said disapprovingly, turning her gaze back to her homework on ancient magical texts, "It makes the students of the different houses look at each other badly, creating tension and antagonism between the houses."

The atmosphere froze, and when Hermione looked up again to find her Grimric Dictionary, he found Harry, Fred, and George, all staring at her with expressions of disbelief and annoyance.

"That's what it is," Hermione said impatiently, "but it's just a sport, isn't it?"

"Hermione," Harry shook his head helplessly, "You do know a lot of things, and you have a lot of great ideas, but you don't know Quidditch at all."

"Perhaps," Hermione replied calmly, turning her attention back to her homework, "but at least, I don't have to base my happiness on Ron's ability to save the ball."

Harry obviously had a hard time agreeing with such a point of view, and he was obviously more willing to jump from the Astronomy Tower than admit it, but Fred and George grimaced because they were completely unable to refute the fact,

By the time of Quidditch on Saturday, the Gryffindor season had almost come to an early end, and although they had won the first game by 160 to 40 Slytherin, Hufflepuff had won by a huge margin of 350 to 60 points (Note 1)

In the Quidditch House Cup standings, although in the first game, Slytherin lost to Gryffindor, but slaughtered the opponent in the duel with Ravenclaw, and the total number of points was first,

However, their lead was not secure, only one game against Hufflepuff, and the score was closely behind.

Gryffindor was barely third, and Ravenclaw only managed to score a poor defeat and could only finish fourth.

By next month, when Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff match, Gryffindor will likely fall to the point of last place.

As long as the Hufflepuffs don't score too few points, they have a good chance of taking the lead, (Note 2)

It must be fair to say that as a temporary substitute, Ginny's performance was remarkable, but she was taken care of by the Hufflepuff batsmen, and in the end, Diggory also took advantage of his hand length to catch the Golden Snitch first.

"There's nothing more frustrating than this." On the way back to the castle, Fred kicked the small pebbles on the side of the road hard,

"Not to mention harassing opponents," George said indignantly, "our players don't get decent protection at all."

"They'd better sit on the broom first, or don't knock our team down." Fred said that everyone knew he was talking about the performance of Gryffindor's two new batsmen.

"But we just can just watch, we can't do anything." George shook his fist in the direction of the Quidditch pitch,

"That's what the old woman in Umbridge wants, to let everyone know what she's going to do—" Fred said loudly,

"Worse still, there's nothing we can do against her," George said, a little dejected.

Lawrence didn't know how to cheer up the two frustrated friends, and after Fred and George had vented their emotions, the three of them slowly walked towards the castle.

The atmosphere in the saloon must be very low right now, so they don't really want to go back there.

───────

No one could have imagined that something uplifting could come so soon, and on Monday morning, Harry Potter received a large number of owl letters.

It turned out that Harry accepted Rita. Skeeter's interview published the fact of Voldemort's return in the cemetery last year in the wizarding magazine "Singing Contradiction".

There were so many letters from the owl that everyone helped Harry open the letters and told Harry what was written in them.

"So you were doing this at Three Brooms that day?" It dawned on Lawrence, and after reading a letter in support of Harry, he said, "Why didn't you look for me?"

"I think you had more important things to do that day than Voldemort's return." Harry looked pleased, and he joked,

"You've convinced another person, Harry," Hermione shouted excitedly, reading out the letter aloud,

Ron, on the other hand, crumpled up a piece of paper that he thought Harry was talking nonsense, and then he discussed with Harry with great interest another letter with a photo......

But Umbridge appeared behind them without a doubt, and when she understood what Harry had done, her crumpled face, like moldy dough, mixed with gray spots, was even more distorted, and an unhealthy violet was added to it with anger.

Although Gryffindor was deducted fifty points for this, and Harry was forced to perform a week-long labor service, everyone including Harry thought it was worth it, and they were still to be surprised.

After the first class in the morning, Umbridge plastered the "Education Order 27" all over every corridor of Hogwarts, and everyone knew that Umbridge forbade everyone to read a magazine called "Singing the Opposite".

"She's stupid, too." After carefully reading the announcement, George commented,

"I think all the students at Hogwarts will have read that article tonight." Fred said happily,

"We should make a poster and put it in the saloon of Gryffindor." George suggested, and Fred flicked his finger on the cover of the issue of "Singing Backtrack", which was a photo of Harry smiling shyly.

They were so mobile that the next night, the huge poster hung on the ceiling of the saloon, and from time to time they would shout in loud voices such as "The Ministry of Magic is an idiot" or "Go eat, Umbridge",

But they did not rejoice for long, and Umbridge's revenge came on the evening of the third day after the publication of the magazine. Professor Trelawney, who became the first teacher to be fired by Umbridge under the Twenty-third Decree of Education,

Just as Professor Trelawney was about to be kicked out of the castle, Professor Dumbledore arrived, and Lawrence noticed that he had returned from outside the castle, not from the stairs in the hall.

Professor Dumbledore always seemed to be good at turning the tide, and in the face of the aggressive Umbridge, Professor Dumbledore just faced it with a relaxed smile,

"Of course, of course, Professor Umbridge, of course you have the power to fire my teacher, but I'm afraid you don't have the power to kick him out of the castle," Professor Dumbledore bowed politely, "It's obviously my headmaster's power, so I want Professor Trelawney to stay at Hogwarts."

Professor Dumbledore then announced that he had found a new professor of divination, which was obviously completely unacceptable to Umbridge, and when she moved out of the Twenty-Two Articles of Education to put pressure on Professor Dumbledore, Dumbledore took a step ahead of her and said,

"The Ministry of Magic has the right to—only if the Headmaster can't find a suitable candidate," Dumbledore turned to face the open castle gates, "let's welcome our new professor of divination."

There was a sound of horses' hooves, and to the exclamations of the students, a beautiful centaur stepped out of the thick fog of the night, his upper body was a man, with white-blond hair, beautiful blue eyes, a hoof-shaped bruise on his chest, and a cream-colored horse body below the waist, Umbridge was completely frightened,

"This is Ferenzer the centaur," Dumbledore happily introduced to everyone, "and we'll find that he's up to the job."

Away from the crowd, Lawrence and the twins stood on the stairs, watching from afar at all that was happening in the entrance hall of the castle.

"You see, there is still a way to fight her." Lawrence said to Fred and George,

"It's hard, Lawrence," Fred said, "Professor Dumbledore is the Headmaster."

"Remember?" Lawrence reminded, "The time we blew up the school toilets?"

"Evidence?" George's eyes lit up,

"She must have evidence to deal with us—" Fred rolled his eyes,

"We've been so busy growing our business," George said whimically, "that we've almost forgotten our old ways."

"Anyway, the worst-case scenario is expulsion." Fred said, "What if—"

"If we're not even afraid of being expelled," replied George, "then why don't we have some fun and enjoyable little mess?"

"But you're our boys' council president—" Fred looked at Lawrence deliberately, and George nudged him with his elbow before Fred grinned, "Sorry I forgot, you're only a prefect now."

"I didn't say anything," Lawrence smiled slyly, "I just- remind you what we did in third grade."

"So?" George raised an eyebrow,

"This should be the last time?" Fred sighed and pulled out his wand, "Hopefully we won't be found until the end."

"I don't think she's that stupid," George pulled out his wand, "I just hope we're fired, Mom won't kill us."

"It's going to be a long fight, I think as long as we're careful," Lawrence raised his wand, "we should still be able to graduate?"

The wands of the three of them touched lightly, as they had been for many years, and the brilliant sparks flashed away,

"The prank begins."

───────

Note 1: The original ratio was 240 to 230.

Note 2: There is no result of the match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw in the original book, but according to the original book, after the match, Slytherin became the house most likely to win the Quidditch House Cup.

Therefore, the total score of Gryffindor's two games in the original book is 390 points (160+230), then Slytherin, who only scored 40 points in the first game, should score more than 350 points against Upper Ravenclaw in order to be called the house that is most likely to win the cup.

But because of Diggory, things changed here, and Hufflepuff won more points.