Chapter 316 Easter Owl

In his laughter, Harry's somewhat annoyed and serious look faded, and he grinned.

Ron laughed too. He bumped Harry's shoulder, squinted his eyes and motioned for him to look at Hermione, who had a straight face, and made a face with a smile on his lips. Harry quickly stopped smiling.

Hermione looked at them coldly, raised her head, picked up the magazine and placed it on the top of the pile of books.

"Have a nice afternoon." She said politely to Hagrid and Anthony, glanced at Harry and Ron, and strode away with the book in her arms.

"Oh, God. Here we go again," Ron complained. "Do you think Lockhart is secretly placing a curse on people?"

A smile flashed across Harry's face again, but he just shrugged, said goodbye to Anthony and Hagrid, and chased in the direction Hermione left with Ron, who was still mumbling.

"What's wrong?" Hagrid watched in confusion as they half ran, half walked across the lawn and caught up with the figure with loose brown hair. "Is Hermione angry?"

Anthony said: "Maybe some."

They saw Hermione turn around and seemed to say something. Harry and Ron slowed down a little, and soon caught up with them. After a while, Hermione's pace also slowed down, and the three of them walked slowly towards the castle.

"They're fine." Anthony explained, looking away.

Hagrid looked in the direction of the castle uneasily: "Why is Hermione suddenly angry?"

"Well..." Anthony said, "At least they're reconciled now. What about you, Hagrid, how are you doing lately? I haven't visited you in a while."

"Oh, great!" Hagrid immediately turned his head and smiled down at Anthony, "Very busy, but great... I have been spending most of my time recently -" He looked around and turned his head He came closer and lowered his voice, "You know, build a zoo."

Anthony also lowered his voice: "How is it going?"

"I can't say, it's still a secret. But," Hagrid puffed up his chest, "I tell you, Henry, you'll be surprised."

Anthony suddenly became worried: "You didn't put a fire dragon in it, right?"

"Well..." Hagrid hesitated, his eyes a little evasive.

Anthony was startled: "Right?"

Hagrid lowered his head and said angrily, "Not yet." He looked a little unwilling.

Anthony reminded: "Pay attention to Ms. Umbridge, okay?"

At the mention of Umbridge, Hagrid became more energetic.

"She can't get in." He waved his big hand, "Professor Flitwick put some defensive spells on the fence... Besides, there is Lu Wei guarding the door..."

"Lu Wei?"

"Three-headed Fluffy," Hagrid said. "That three-headed dog - the one in the corridor on the third floor - it's mine. I got it from a guy from Greece... that one The Greek guy specializes in breeding these magical animals. I suspect he sometimes sells Chimera eggs, but I've never met a cunning guy on the black market."

Anthony sighed: "Stop buying things on the black market...at least not for this period of time, okay? Minerva already has enough troubles."

"But I need to buy medicine to get rid of flesh-eating slugs..."

"Umbridge just deducted forty points from Gryffindor and sent the Weasley twins to Mr. Filch for confinement until a week after Easter." Anthony said, " Minerva was unhappy because Wood had rushed to her office to protest, and both Gryffindor batsmen were unable to attend training. In addition, she had to respond to Dumbledore's letter from the Ministry of Magic. The professor seems to be busy visiting Ilvermorny, and has left some of the school affairs to Minerva..."

Hagrid was furious: "But May is the game between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff! That vicious hag!" He slammed the brush back into the tar bucket, almost knocking it over. "Okay Well, I won't let her cause us any more trouble - those slugs can wait."

Anthony paused, nodded and said, "Great."

…

After leaving Hagrid to the small boats still swaying in the waves, Anthony turned back along the shore of the Black Lake and decided to try his luck in the greenhouse again.

This time he found Professor Sprout in the greenhouse on the west side of the Forbidden Forest.

Red-brown soil was scattered around her, and a pile of large and small glass jars floated on the ceiling. Flames danced inside each one, heating most of the greenhouse. But far away in the shadows of the glass jars, a cool breath magically seeped out of the moist, dark-brown soil.

A beam of light fell out of thin air from what looked like a skylight, shining on several small baobab-like plants. They are twisting happily to ensure that the sunlight can fall evenly on each branch.

Professor Sprout was handling a plant that looked like dead wood. She heard the door open, held up her hat, and looked up.

"Henry!" she greeted with a smile, "Why are you here, come and see this - oh, be careful over there!" Anthony stepped over some crumpled purple things, "Wrinkled figs, Wagado What was sent is probably a sample from Albania - don't worry about that pile, it's sphinx dung, they seem to be using it to replace dragon dung - "

After bypassing some kind of thorny plant with blood-red flowers and passing several golden cacti, Anthony squatted next to Professor Sprout while listening to her happily introduce the handling precautions of this herb with a long and convoluted name. matter, handing over the shovel or scissors at her signal.

It wasn't until "Weed with a Very Long Name" was planted in a flower pot and the flower pot was buried in the soil that Professor Sprout stood up and patted the dust on his body: "Thank you so much, Henry. It's Minerva Did I ask you to come here?”

"Well, no. It's gillyweed."

"What?"

"Have I misremembered the name?" asked Anthony, taking from his pocket the herbs Mr. Lynde had sent him.

"No, you didn't." Professor Sprout laughed. "Give it to me - I just didn't expect to hear that word from you."

Anthony asked: "This is indeed a gillyweed, right?"

Professor Sprout wiped his hands on his clothes, took the rat-tail-like thing, put it under his nose and smelled it, looked at it carefully for a while, and rubbed the slippery mucus on it.

"That's right, and it's very fresh." She affirmed, "See the gray-green stems here? Mediterranean gillyweed - it is the most effective gillyweed currently known. It only takes one ounce. You can stay underwater for more than an hour—oh!”

"What's wrong?" Anthony asked.

"Look at this, Henry!" Professor Sprout whispered in surprise, "This is a ball of elf gillyweed! Very rare, very precious..."

"Elf gillyweed?" Anthony moved closer, observed where Professor Sprout indicated for a while, and confessed without finding anything, "I didn't see the connection between this and the elf."

There were neither translucent wings nor floating gold dust. In fact, it still looked like some kind of worm or rat tail, with only the slippery slime reflecting the bright greenhouse light.

"It's called elf gallweed because it's extremely rare and has only been found in Cornwall, so some people have joked that Cornish elf planted it," Professor Sprout said. , “They would say that Cornish elves bring the gillyweed from the shore to lakes, or into the water in caves that are not exposed to the sun. Of course, this statement is more to show how powerful this gillyweed is. rare."

She gently separated the tangled gray-green plants and picked out a slightly red gillyweed: "Look, a typical elf gillyweed. You know why it has this unusual appearance. Color?"

Anthony stared at the light red mouse tail for a while and said without any hope: "Because it was planted by elves?"

"Okay, Henry," Professor Sprout encouraged in a guiding tone, "gillyweed is a Mediterranean aquatic plant, which means it usually lives in..."

"In the sea." Anthony said, laughing. "Okay, I understand. Is there any difference between gillyweed growing in fresh water and seawater?"

"They're a beautiful light red color," Professor Sprout said.

"I mean, does it - I don't know - turn people into mermaids or something?"

"Of course not!" Professor Sprout warned him, "You must never say that in front of the mermaids - they are quite proud of their identity, and like the centaurs, they would rather join the 'beasts' than fight with the vampires. species were magically transformed into human beings."

"I can understand that. I'm not too happy about being classified as human alongside vampires either."

"Hmm... that makes sense." Professor Sprout said, "In any case, no, there is no difference in efficacy between elf gillyweed and common gillyweed."

Anthony asked, "So what makes them so valuable?"

Professor Sprout said slightly reproachfully: "Because they are a beautiful light red, Henry."

…

After Anthony replied to Mr. Lynde ("This is a beautiful specimen of reddish gillyweed"), the Easter holidays came.

The library is full of sighing students, writing piles of homework and looking longingly at the sunshine outside the window. Most of the professors assigned more homework than usual, just to prevent students from having too much energy to deal with Umbridge - she was still sending out reports with "A" or "E" one after another. However, The news of England's entry into the European Quidditch Championship has occupied most sections of the Daily Prophet, and Anthony has not seen more inflammatory reports for a while.

It was in this fragile calm that a bulging, round package arrived at Hogwarts.

Holding it was a thin owl. Under the watchful eyes of Anthony, Professor McGonagall, Umbridge and Filch, it flapped its wings laboriously, flew up and down, staggered towards the Gryffindor table, and then He threw the package next to Harry's dinner plate, almost smacking it into a plate of bacon. Harry quickly caught the package, while Hermione and Ron looked on curiously. The little owl hovered proudly above them, chirping happily.

Anthony glanced at Umbridge. Her hands were raised in the air, and her bulging eyes were looking over there intently, like a toad that had discovered its prey.

"Oh, dung bombs..." Filch whispered happily.

Professor McGonagall undoubtedly discovered it too. A hint of impatience flashed across her face, and she winked at Anthony, then turned to talk to Umbridge about a new rule about animagus ("I heard Mr. Hill was very much in favor..." "). Umbridge had to look away and discuss it with her instead ("Yes, Minerva, Mr. Hill believes this will help people realize the need for registration..."). Anthony quickly put down his knife and fork and walked towards Harry and the others.

Harry turned the package over and looked at it, but didn't seem to find a signature identifying the sender.

"Take it apart and take a look!" Ron encouraged.

Hermione said doubtfully: "Wait, what if there is something dangerous inside..."

But Harry had already torn the wrapping paper away. A huge, colorful egg rolled out from inside, and on the green lawn with red and yellow flowers blooming, a big black dog was painted crookedly.

Anthony's footsteps stopped. It looked like there was nothing worth covering up. No one would say that a godfather should not send gifts to his godson. He smiled at the students beside him who looked up at him, leaned over and took a fruit tart from their table, then walked calmly back to the staff table. The students looked at him confused.

"Oh my God, Henry!" Professor McGonagall whispered as he sat back down. She still had a straight face, but Anthony could tell she was amused.

Anthony said to Umbridge and Filch, who were staring at him: "That fruit pie looks very good. If you want, you can also go to the headmaster's table and get one."

…

"Sirius!" Harry said happily. A warm feeling rose from his chest. Even though he had watched Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon stuff a large basket of Easter egg chocolates into Dudley's hands every year before, he had never imagined that he would receive Easter eggs. Along with the Easter eggs, there was a gift that made him even happier.

"Why did Sirius think of giving you an Easter egg?" Hermione said with interest, "Oh, there's another letter here!"

"Sirius always wants to give Harry presents," Ron said, leaning in next to Harry to read the letter with him.

//Dear Harry,

//I hope you are well. I've heard that Muggles think Easter has something to do with that guy who can turn water into wine, and rabbits and the eggs that rabbits hide - maybe that guy's animagus is a rabbit, I guess. No idea - anyway, I guess it never hurts to send you an Easter egg.

Ron looked up: "What's an Easter egg, Hermione?"

Hermione sighed and was about to explain when Dean on the other side of the table said, "It's the eggs at Easter--"

"Egg-shaped things," Hermione added.

"Uh...yeah, sometimes it's eggs, sometimes it's chocolate. You draw on it, and then it's an Easter egg."

Hermione said: "Some people think this is because the egg symbolizes birth and is therefore associated with spring, which symbolizes new life."

"Wow, Sirius didn't send you a Chimera egg, did he?"

Harry raised the egg and shook it: "I think this is a gift box. Listen, there is something inside."

//I know that Hogwarts usually doesn't allow students to leave the school at Easter, so I decided to send you something interesting to make this holiday feel more like a holiday...

"But how do you open it?" Seamus asked.

"There might be a mechanism -" said Hermione.

//...Just smash it open. I used a little magic so that only the Potters could open it - hello to you, Ms. Umbridge and Mr. Snape, if you're watching.

"Sirius said I should break it open." Harry read the letter.

Ron stuffed the Easter egg into his arms: "Then what are you waiting for? Break it open and take a look."

"No, Harry!" said Hermione.

//Besides that, Harry, please feel free to contact me no matter what happens to you. You know, this house is boring as hell, and I have a lot of time on my hands - and most importantly, I will always be on your side.

Harry put the letter aside, looked at the painting on the eggshell, and tentatively knocked the egg on the corner of the table. Nothing happened. Under the gaze of the people around him, he hit hard——

boom!

Everyone in the hall stopped talking and looked in their direction. A plump, golden-red firework jumped into the air and bloomed above the dining table.

Immediately afterwards, countless white, brown, and fluffy rabbits appeared in the Mars, floating slowly down. As soon as they landed on the ground, they started jumping around, jumping up and down from the benches amidst the exclamations of the students, picking up food dropped under the table, nibbling the tassels hanging from the college flag, and eating what the students fed them broccoli and spinach.

The owl flapped its wings dissatisfiedly as it avoided the rabbit. In the confusion, Neville picked out a feather from his oatmeal and looked at the bowl with a depressed expression, unsure whether to continue eating. Before he could make a decision, a rabbit fell into the mashed potatoes in front of him and went on a rampage, knocking over his bowl. The little owl that brought this chaotic bomb chirped excitedly, flying above the broken eggshells, narrowly avoiding rabbits. Ron reached out and grabbed it beside him.

The Weasley twins took off their hats during the farce and dumped the bunnies jumping around in the huge bread tray. When Professor McGonagall walked past them with a stern face, they bowed to her pretentiously and reached out to take a handful of rabbits from the hat.

Professor McGonagall ignored them: "Mr. Potter, I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation." She shook her wand and the rabbits in the hall disappeared. Several students who held the rabbits in their arms sighed in disappointment.

"I-I'm sorry." Harry said, "I didn't expect it to be like this, I didn't know-"

"Lies!" Filch said with spit flying, "Born to lie! I know students like you, who mess up everything and then pretend not to know!"

Hermione blushed with shame. The little owl was still making noises.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Ron whispered to it, "Ouch!" The little owl pecked Ron happily, as if he thought he was teasing it.

Umbridge said in a high, thin voice, "The lying child should be taught a lesson, right? Let me see, ten points from Gryffindor, how about that?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione said in unison: "But--"

"Not much," said Professor McGonagall coldly, turning to face Umbridge. Umbridge was startled, staring at Professor McGonagall with her mouth slightly open, as if Professor McGonagall had not rejected her but punched her in the face.

"Minerva--"

"If you notice that I'm dealing with this matter, I hope you won't give out punishment before I make a decision, Dolores," said Professor McGonagall, who seemed to have vented all her anger on Umbridge recently. "Anyway, I think I'm the Potter Headmaster. I don't think he's lying."

Umbridge's chest rose and fell violently. Professor McGonagall looked down at her, not flinching.

The hall fell silent. The students beside them quietly moved away, looking at Professor McGonagall and Umbridge in awe and expectation. Neville was shaking with fear. Anthony put his hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.

"Thank you for your understanding," said Professor McGonagall, nodding coldly at Umbridge, whose eyes were burning with cold anger.

"Oh, you're welcome." Umbridge said in a fake soft voice, without a trace of smile on her face, "Excellent, Minerva, I look forward to your handling of the matter."

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow and turned to Harry: "You said you didn't know what this was?"

"Yes - I mean, I know it's an Easter egg, but I don't know what's inside it."

"Didn't you order it, Mr. Potter?"

"No. It was...it was given to me by Sirius." Harry glanced at the letter at hand.

Professor McGonagall's eyes fell on the big black dog on the eggshell. She sighed slightly, and her tone softened a little: "I hope you will be more cautious next time you receive a package of unknown content, Mr. Potter."

"But Sirius is my godfather." Harry said in defense of Sirius, "He will never hurt me-"

"You will be surprised how easy it is to forge a letter." Professor McGonagall said sternly, "Well, continue to eat your breakfast." She glanced at the little owl in Ron's hand with dissatisfaction, and turned away.

Anthony whispered: "I thought you would lose points, Minerva."

"I do think they should lose some points for the mess they caused." Professor McGonagall replied calmly, relying on her sharp gaze to make the two students who wanted to exchange homework lower their heads and pretend to eat carrots palely, "but Dolores seems to have done it enthusiastically."

"For the wrong reasons."

Professor McGonagall thought for a while, then continued to move forward: "It doesn't matter. Miss Granger will explain to them."

...

"Sirius almost got you into trouble!" Hermione whispered with a little dissatisfaction, "Professor McGonagall almost deducted points from us, if it weren't for that Umbridge..."

"Maybe he warned me." Harry said quickly, "I haven't finished reading the letter yet... Oh, Ron, he also said-he said-"

Hermione also leaned over to read the letter: "What? 'If your friend Ron is willing to adopt it, this little owl belongs to him'-Great, Ron-'To express my apology for not killing Wormtail earlier and preventing him from escaping to the Weasleys'-Oh."

Ron looked at the little owl suspiciously. It was still chirping excitedly, turning its head in his hand to look around. Neville turned sideways and moved his milk further away. The owl pecked Ron's hand affectionately again, causing him to grimace in pain, gasp, and let go. The little owl stumbled around them a few times and landed on Ron's slightly red hand again.

The Weasley twins, several seats away, turned to Harry and said approvingly, "Those are really nice fireworks. Do you know the address of the store, Harry?"

Percy said, "Behave yourself, Fred, George!"

His brother seemed not to have heard at all: "And, can you help turn off that alarm clock, Ron?"

"Alarm clock?" Ron said.

"That furry alarm clock," said the other twin, "our silly little brother."

Percy agreed with a rare approval, "It's too loud."

Ron looked down at the little owl that was calling to him.

"Okay, you're mine." He said decisively, holding the owl, "Remember to help me deafen these guys."