Rita Skeeter, you have made it all the way......

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Knight of Gold (reversed): The zeal of being struck.

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Hogwarts, England

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Soon, the Triwizard Tournament, which had completed the first event, came to an end for the time being, as the next event would not start until February of the following year, so the students in the three schools at Hogwarts were all free at the moment.

Well? You ask the Golden Egg about it?

That's something that brave people need to worry about, and ordinary students don't care about it at all.

As December fell, strong winds and sleet arrived at Hogwarts. However, there is always a lot of wind in the castle in winter, but the hot fires and thick walls can finally offset some of the negative effects.

For the students of Durmstrang and Bloombottom, who have already moved into Hogwarts, whether it is a big ship bobbing in the wind or a huge carriage, it is definitely not a good place to live in the winter in England, so although they are still picky about the corresponding dormitories they are assigned, at least they will not complain about it.

What's more, both Slytherin and Ravenclaw students are very compatible with Durmstrang and Blombottom, and they prefer to communicate more with their neighbors to the left and right than Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

Incidentally, Hagrid's steeds to Madame Maxime kept supplying them with their favorite single malt whisky. The smell of alcohol wafted from the feed trough in the corner of the makeshift stable, and the students in the Magical Beasts Protection class were a little dizzy. This has aroused the resistance of some students and professors.

And what made Harry feel the most amazing was that he didn't know what method Opal used to successfully convince Hagrid to replace the demonstration creatures in the Fantastic Beasts Protection class.

At least compared to the fried snails, Harry and the students at other houses thought that the fluffy fluffy was cuteer and more friendly, and that it was much easier to feed than the fried snails - provided that they weren't licked by them.

[Just helping Hagrid put a solidified thermostatic warmth spell on the stable.] ]

As for Harry's question, Opal shrugged his shoulders and said with a nonchalant expression, but the content made Harry look sideways - the magic power and magic knowledge required by the solidified warmth charm are definitely not something that an ordinary student wizard can afford, and it is probably better than Opal to make this kind of thing so simple, right?

Although he couldn't tell from his appearance, he could only think that Opal looked gentle and good-natured, kind and beautiful, and didn't look like a Slytherin at all.

It's just that because the end of December is the Christmas holiday, the students in each college are somewhat absent-minded. Directly caused

"Y'all give me a little serious."

Professor McGonagall's annoyed voice crackled like a whip in Thursday's Transfiguration classroom, "I have a few words to say to all of you. ”

The class is coming to an end. They had done what their teacher had assigned them: the guinea fowls they had turned into guinea pigs were now in a large cage on Professor McGonagall's podium (Neville's one still had feathers on it); The homework on the blackboard, which they had also copied in their notebooks ("Give an example of how the Transfiguration Charm must be adjusted when transmuting").

Because of Professor McGonagall's words, everyone looked up at her.

"The Santa Ball is just around the corner – it's a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and a great opportunity for us to socialize with foreign guests. Well, the ball is only open to students from the fourth grade onwards - but you can invite a junior if you wish—"

The students in the audience were in an uproar, and Harry was struck by lightning.

"Put on your gowns and robes."

Professor McGonagall continued, "The ball will be held in the auditorium at 8 p.m. on Christmas Day and will end at 12 a.m. Listen! ”

Calmly looking at the class, Professor McGonagall smiled suddenly, "The Yule Ball undoubtedly gives us a chance to—well—spread our hair and relax. ”

She said in a disapproving tone, but it was, after all, Professor McGonagall's hair was always tied in a tight bun, and she never seemed to have her hair loose.

"But that doesn't mean we're going to relax our behavior requirements for Hogwarts students. I would be very sad if one of the Gryffindor students disgraced the school in any way. ”

At this time, the bell rang for the end of class, and everyone, as usual, stuffed the books into their school bags, and then threw the school bags over their shoulders, and the classroom was busy for a while.

Professor McGonagall raised her voice and shouted in a noise, "Potter - please stay, I'm going to say a few words to you." ”

Harry, who had guessed something, walked listlessly towards the podium. Professor McGonagall waited for the class to run out before she said, "Potter, the brave men have ......."

"Your own partner?"

Harry's excuse for doubt.

"It's great that you know."

Professor McGonagall nodded, "Remember to invite in advance, as is traditionally the dance party is held by the Warriors and their partners. ”

It was rude, but Harry's mind suddenly remembered himself in a black top hat and tuxedo, and a girl beside him, wearing a frilled skirt that Aunt Petunia wore to Aunt Vernon's father's ball.

I have to say that this kind of picture really feels too discordant.

“…… I got ......."

Harry replied listlessly, and at the same time secretly regretted that he hadn't listened to Opal and prepared in advance—although he could handle the opening dance or something after being trained by Opal, this dance partner ......

A week ago, Harry would have said that finding a dance partner was a piece of cake compared to dealing with a Hungarian tree wasp.

But now that he had defeated the Tree Bee and was faced with the challenge of finding a girl to dance, he suddenly felt that he would rather fight the fire dragon for another round.

"I'll see...... Opal definitely can't, she's going to jump with her fiancé...... In the same way, Pansy is absolutely impossible. ”

As he pondered, Harry walked down the common hallway.

Harry didn't know many of his classmates who had registered for Christmas at Hogwarts. After all, he himself always stayed in school for Christmas—if he didn't, he would have to go back to Privet Road—but there were always very few people who stayed in school before.

This year was different, all the students from the fourth grade and above seemed to be staying, and it seemed to Harry that they were all very obsessed with the upcoming prom - at least all the girls, and he was suddenly surprised to find that Hogwarts had so many girls that he hadn't even noticed before. The girls were laughing and whispering in the hallways, the girls were laughing loudly whenever a boy walked by, and the girls were excitedly exchanging ideas about what to wear on Christmas night......

“…… Thereupon...... Is it only Hermione? ”

Counting the girls he knew, after excluding a series of conditions such as "taller than himself, older than him, unfamiliar, not because of fame", Harry found that he seemed to have only one choice left.

Then Harry suddenly found that he seemed to be starting to become popular.

A third-year Hufflepuff House curly-haired girl, whom Harry had never spoken to before, offered to invite Harry to join her to the ball. Harry was so surprised that he refused without even thinking about it. The girl walked away, looking hurt.

Throughout his History of Magic lesson, Harry had to endure the sarcasm and ridicule of the girl from some Gryffindor students he knew. The next day, two more girls invited him, one in the second year and the other (to his horror) the fifth year, who looked like Harry and would knock him unconscious if he dared to refuse.

This made Harry wonder if the girls who had invited him to dance with him would have been willing to go to the ball with him if he hadn't been a school warrior.

Overall, Harry had to admit that despite the embarrassment of having a ball in front of him, life had changed a lot since he had passed his first project. He didn't encounter as many unpleasant confrontations in the hallways anymore, and he got less and less ridicule.

Although I don't want to say it, this world only respects the strong after all.

Speaking of which...... Why haven't you seen that gossip girl active around lately?

The gossip girl in Harry's mouth refers to Rita Skeeter.

[She is too busy to take care of herself.] ]

That's how Opal explained this, [Riddle was angry because of her false reports.] And I don't know who found out that Rita is an unregistered illegal Animagus, she is now under investigation by the Ministry of Magic, and she will not be able to come out to make trouble anytime soon. ]

You definitely hide a lot of things that you didn't say, absolutely!

Looking at Opal's smile, Harry could only be so sure - with what he knew about Opal, those messy reports of some kind of love triangle would definitely make Opal cautiously hold a grudge and fall into the stone.

In fact, Harry had guessed correctly, someone had already said that Rita's Animagus was a beetle, and then poked out her address, and attached a permanent and irremovable solidified indicator to her - at the moment Rita was struggling to escape her previous false reports of victims.

According to the grapevine, there is a wizard noble clan bounty that indicates that Rita's body parts are needed, and there is one that is the same, and it is best to disperse them. Remuneration is paid on a case-by-case basis. (Celestial sound: Root wax for Rita.) ）

Of course, Opal innocently said that she only offered a prototype potion that she had researched after consulting with Professor Snape to solidify the wizard's body shape to prevent the other party's Animagus from changing, or using a polyjuice potion to sprinkle the effective prototype potion. It's really not a grudge at all!

Forget it, it's not him who is being retaliated against anyway, as long as he doesn't get harassed.

For Harry at the moment, his biggest headache is the issue of the dance partner at the Santa Ball.

The nearest school is getting more and more lively and noisy day by day. There were rumors about the Ball, but most of them Harry didn't believe - for example, Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of Essence Mead from the Three-Broomed Rosmerta. However, it is possible that his premonition of the Strange Sisters is true.

Harry didn't know who or what the Weird Sisters were, as he had never heard of Wizard Radio, but judging by the excitement of their classmates who had been listening to WWN since childhood, the Weird Sisters seemed to be a very well-known music group.

Some veteran teachers, such as the small Professor Flitwick, simply stopped teaching when they saw that their classmates were obviously absent-minded. He allowed them to play in his class on Wednesday, and he spent most of his time talking to Harry about the wonderful flying spell Harry used in his first event in Triwizard Tournament.

Other veterans are not so good at talking. For example, Professor Binns's attention could not be diverted, and he continued to trude through his pile of goblin notes—and his classmates speculated that since Professor Binns had not allowed his death to stop him from continuing to teach, it was impossible for a small matter like Christmas to distract him.

It's strange how he can talk about the bloody, thrilling goblin as boring as Percy's crucible report. Professor McGonagall and Moody also didn't let the students sit idle until the last second before class ended. Not to mention the period, he would rather adopt Harry as his godson than have his classmates play games in class. He looked at the class with a gloomy gaze and told them that he would test their antidote in the last class of the semester.

Of course, this news is definitely bad news for students, especially Gryffindor students.

"That's enough for that greasy bat."

That night, Ron angrily said in the Gryffindor common room, "Test us on the last day." Spend a lot of homework on the last bit of the bad semester. ”

His words echoed him, and the criticism of Professor Snape began.

Ron and Harry were now drifting apart, and it was only in the common room that they could meet and say a few words.

Harry didn't want to comment on that at all.

"Are you sure?"

Hermione ignored Ron selectively, looking up from her Potions notes to look at Harry on the side.

"It's Christmas, Hermione."

Hugging his pillow in a daze, Harry said lazily as he sat in an armchair by the fire, reading "Flying with the Artillery" for the tenth time.

"Harry, I think you'd do something more creative, even if you don't want to learn the antidote."

Hermione looked at him with serious eyes again.

"Like what?"

Harry asked, watching as Joe Jenkens of the Artillery Team slammed a Bludger into one of the Barry Bats' chasers.

"The golden egg!"

Hermione gritted her teeth and whispered.

"Alright, Hermione, I can rest until February 24th."

Harry wasn't worried about that at all, he was more worried about the Christmas Ball at the moment. The golden egg was now in his box upstairs, and he hadn't opened it since the first project's celebration was over. Anyway, it would be two and a half months before he needed to know what that piercing scream meant.

"But it could take weeks to solve that mystery!"

Hermione said, "If everyone else knows what's next, you're going to be a big fool if you're left in the dark!" ”

"Compared to that ......"

After a moment's hesitation, Harry looked at Hermione and pretended not to care, "Do you want to be my dance partner at the Santa Ball?" I remember you had a very good dance, and it was perfect for the opening dance. ”

“……”

This time it was Hermione's turn to be speechless, "Didn't I tell you?" ”

"What did you say?"

Harry froze for a moment.

"I've agreed to be Victor's dance partner."

"That Victor from Durmstrong?!"

Harry almost jumped out of his chair, "When did it happen, how did I not know?!" ”

The news that his friend had been invited to be a dance partner for another warrior made Harry feel bad.

"In the library just 3 hours ago, could it be that I could only be your dance partner?"

Hermione snorted, "Opal is right, some people take things too seriously. Or Victor is more interesting, I can talk to him quite a bit. ”

She had to admit that Harry's performance at the moment was really happy. It was the right thing to do.

“……”

Harry could only silently grit his teeth in his heart at the moment - did you dismantle your friend's desk like this? Opar, where the hell did I provoke you! Can't I change it?!