Hagrid eventually sent the baby dragon away safely (and it turned out to be a Norwegian backbone...... Well, "all right" might be a misnomer, he cried so much that night that he couldn't recognize his parents, and the three of Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to sneak out to the hut in their invisibility cloaks after the lights went out to comfort him.

The three of them finally learned the real reason why Hagrid had been absent from work all this time, and realized that they had been worrying about it all along. But seeing him fall on the bed and cry heartbreakingly, no one mentioned it again.

In fact, if Hagrid hadn't made too much noise and almost summoned Filch, who happened to be out on a whim that night to get some air during the night patrol, this incident could have ended in a rather warm way. However, Lady Loris, attracted by the noise, smelled the smell of the living ("If you dare to say that this is the smell of chicken legs, I'll fight with you, you know"), and led her master all the way after her.

Having just released the vulture in the owl hut and letting it carry its infant Noble - yes, Hagrid had been mysteriously brewing for a long time, and finally only came up with such a name, I heard, it was cool - Neil, who had flown to the snowy mountains, had to rush back to save the scene, making a movement in the other direction to attract the attention of the janitor.

This job was more difficult than expected, because under the influence of the trolls***, Filch, who often patrols alone and lacks the ability to defend himself, finally gets the permission he dreams of - to carry weapons during the night watch. Professor McGonagall's intention was undoubtedly to hope that he would use it to protect himself in case of danger, but Filch was clearly more inclined to use it to hunt students.

Out of nowhere, this good-hearted man got himself a magic crossbow, and the arrows he shot would chase people like a hound, and like a real dog, he could track his prey by means other than visually...... Not surprising at all, right?

In order to cover Harry's safe return to the dormitory, so as not to vomit back the score that had not been hot for a short time, Neil took Filch around the small half of the castle all the way, and walked the old man until he was out of breath, and could only rest against the wall before he slipped away with his voice in peace.

This is to be reckoned with Hagrid,

- Oh yes, by the way, Noble is the head of the female dragon. Neil only noticed this when he was taking it to the owl hut, but he wasn't going to tell Hagrid about it, so as to save him a strange sense of guilt that he had given the "sweet little girl" a man's name.

The rest is actually easy to say.

Two weeks later, Ulysses, who had been sent back to the sect for repairs, was packed up and sent back, looking in good condition, all the torn silver rings had been replaced with new ones, and there were no signs of damage at all. Malfoy spoke highly of Neil's work with a "hum" full of praise and gratitude, and said nothing else, except to stretch out his arm for Ulysses to climb and turn away.

Considering that the other party was generous in tipping, Neil was willing to believe that it was just the result of an ill-expressed attitude. As for the letter of protest that came from the Ministry of Magic, he decided to pretend that he didn't see it—who let those idiots turn every package brought from Kunlun Mountain upside down, and what did it matter to me that I was bitten by a snake...... I mean, if you have to pull its teeth out to see if there's any contraband hidden in it, do you expect it not to resist?

I warn you sincerely, that Mr. Lucius Malfoy will not be happy to know that you are going to mess around with the things of his family members like this...... He's a celebrity today, you know what that means? It means that if I were a little clerk like you who paid a salary, I wouldn't offend him for such a frivolous triviality.

Harry's round-the-clock training paid off - yes, he used training as an excuse to prevaricate Hermione's invitation to review with him and actually ran to the Quidditch pitch - and he shone against Ravenclaw, catching the Snitch in record time.

Snape, who deliberately asked to be the referee for revenge, didn't even have time to blow the black whistle off the pitch.

However, this also led to an embarrassing situation: the gap between the two teams did not have time to widen, and Ravenclaw swept Slytherin by an overwhelming score in the last game.

Therefore, even though the two sides are both two wins and one loss, Gryffindor is still in second place due to the overall point difference, and once again missed out on the trophy.

The players weren't happy with the result, but Harry wasn't to blame – from the moment they saw Snape take the initiative to stand off the pitch, they felt they could give up their hopes of winning the title this year. I also know that this shameless old guy will definitely do everything he can to make Gryffindor foul, give the opposite side free throws, and even use worse means to directly manipulate the game...... It is already very difficult to win in such a situation, and it is a pipe dream to maintain a big lead.

The Gryffindor team is still very young, the oldest member Oliver Wood is only in his fourth year, and the Seekers who are the Stars of Hope are still freshmen, so they still have a long time to grind and improve, so there is no need to rush it.

Another episode that diluted the sadness, and even cheered the mood, was when Marcus Flint, who had a grudge against Gryffindor, wrapped himself in a turban and put on the appearance of Quirrell before the game, wandering around the Gryffindor team's common room, trying to influence the players' state of play in this way.

It has to be said that Flint's move was clearly beyond his level of intelligence, and when everyone was looking up to Harry as the hero who stopped Quirrell, he was the only one who learned to think backwards and decided that this must not be a psychological shadow that could be easily overcome. The students didn't know if Quirrell had escaped, died, or been sent to Azkaban, but Flint was sure that the presence of an enemy who would never have been here would have scared Potter out of his seat, and he couldn't sit still on a broomstick.

As you can imagine, Professor McGonagall angrily charged him with almost every charge that could have anything to do with it, from endangering school safety to insulting the deceased ("What?!"). So he's really dead? I- but I don't know...... Hey! Wait, that's not fair!" Everything, this hapless bastard's confinement needs to be kept from now until the summer vacation. Even Snape, who had always been partial to himself, made an exception and did not intercede for him - if you had to ask who in all of Hogwarts hated Quirrell the most, it would have to be Snape.

Then, the final exams came.

In any school, the day of the final exam is equated with the end of the world, and it has nothing to do with whether or not you are a wizard or not. In the last two weeks before the start of the exam, sales of Yiqi Pill skyrocketed by five times compared to usual, and Matt had to say goodbye to his warm broom shed for a while, and stay in the shop twenty-four hours a day to help collect money and keep accounts.

- For your own good, old horse, you can't continue to hang out with those sleek, flowy broom brooms like this all day. What is a female broom called? Matt couldn't even say it himself. However, it has indeed been nested in the broomstick shed for a long time since it was repainted, so it is not particularly reluctant to be sent this time.

It's just that some people think that the broomstick must not be very smart, so they rack their brains to think about how to play tricks when paying, which makes it very annoyed. At times like these, Matt envied the broomsticks with pedals, which he could easily poke into someone's belly. Fortunately, although it has no pedals, it has a better friend than that—the well-behaved glass bird is always happy to use its pointed beak to teach those misbehaving students and vent evil for his good friend.

As for Neil, he was only taking a symbolic few days of schoolwork while taking care of his business, and as he had told Hermione before, he wasn't much interested in how many "Excellent" or "Good" (E) he could take, as long as the grades weren't so bad as to be embarrassing.

Ravenclaw, who was fighting at night per capita, had to say that he was indeed an outlier, and Michael Corner briefly worried about his grades out of friendship, and dragged Neil to the library for a few days. But he soon discovered that this kid's passive attitude was confident, except that the tone of the mantra was a little strange, and his homework was actually better than his own.

"I should have thought of that!" Later that day, Michael complained indignantly to his other friends, "He usually writes his homework three times as fast as I do, and I always thought he was scribbling, but on second thought, Snape read what he handed in."

I never said anything after the article......

This discovery made Michael deeply ashamed, and felt that losing to someone who was not interested in working hard in the score was his own failure as a member of Ravenclaw, so he redoubled his energy into learning, which in turn led to a strange increase in the enthusiasm of the whole grade.

Professor Flitwick was happy to see this happen, though he couldn't figure out how it had begun.

On the other hand, this atmosphere made Hermione, who stubbornly believed that if she didn't get first in her grade, everything would be worthless. She didn't care about Harry and Ron at all now ("Oye!") Whether he is eating or walking, he holds a book in his hand, and it is said that he constantly recalls the history of the War of the Giants in his dreams.

Fred quietly expressed his schadenfreude to the others, saying that if a person did this from the first grade, it was hard to imagine how she would spend the next six years.

Fortunately, the result finally paid off, and she finally won the coveted first place with a fairly generous advantage. However, to Her's great anger, Harry and Ron, who had barely studied, also passed with pretty good scores, and Snape did his best to drag them back on the Potions class transcript, but perhaps because everyone hadn't forgotten the Philosopher's Stone, the other professors seemed to be a little more relaxed than usual when they gave them two grades.

"Even that doesn't make sense!" Hermione held a fork in each hand and kept pouring the cut apple pie into her mouth with a puff, "The two of them are so ...... Oh, I'm angry when I say it!"

Gryffindor was having an informal banquet at her table to celebrate the release of her exam results, and she couldn't stand the smug glances on the two of them, so she took refuge at the Ravenclaw table once more.

"Don't do that, Miss Granger." Neil grinned and poured a cup of tea and handed it to her, "The first grade is jealous of the two middle and upper students."

"I'm not jealous! I just think it's so unfair...... Look at Neville, he's probably the one who spent the most time in his first year besides me, but he almost didn't pass it, and Harry barely worked hard!"

Several Ravenclaw students eavesdropping on the side nodded approvingly, including Michael Corner, who had experienced the humiliation of competing with the geeks this year. The proportion of practical skills in the first-year exams was not high, and Neil Wan, who specializes in memory, effortlessly made a big splash.

"Yes, yes, there will always be a gap between people and people......" Neil nodded perfunctorily, pretending not to see Michael's resentful expression, "but isn't that what it is?" Hard work will always pay off. Come, Miss Granger, have a cup of tea, I know the English are not used to drinking tea at dinnertime, and that a sweet tooth should be a little bitter - I would have suggested that you try the unique stomach drink, but Mr. Weasley almost got down on my knees last time for it......

Thinking of the sight of Ron kneeling down with a blank face, almost causing Hermione to squirt the pie out of her mouth, she quickly covered her mouth with her hand, coughed twice and finally swallowed the food.

"By the way, how are you going to spend the summer vacation? Back to your hometown? Can an owl fly there? I'd like to find time to write a few letters, but I don't know if you'll be able to receive them."

"It's not decided yet, I might have something else to do here...... By the way, please take care of your owls, they will die of exhaustion if they don't freeze to death." Neil loosened his shoulders as if he didn't care, "I didn't just come to England to study at Hogwarts...... There are also some annoying things that have to be handled by the poor Baba Special Agent in consultation with your Ministry of Magic - in case you don't get it, that hapless guy is me. So don't talk about going back, and in the end this year you may not even have time to visit the real Royal Opera House in London – oh my God, Miss Granger, do you say this is life? How desperate."

More desperation was yet to come, and the next morning, an owl from the Ministry of Magic brought Neil the news that he needed to be questioned at the Ministry this summer, and that he might be arrested depending on the situation.