Chapter 345: The Magical Effect of Confinement

The O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts exams are over, and the fifth and seventh grade students are finally relieved. While waiting for the holiday, they were either playing chess and chatting in the lounge, or going to Hogsmeade to pass the time, or lying on the green grass, covering their faces with newspapers or magazines to block the The sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, allowing a few flying insects to fly around them. On a sunny day, if the Quidditch field is not booked by any team, some students will take out brooms from the broom shed, fly around the goalposts several times, and throw peppermint candies the size of Quaffles to each other. and a Bludger transformed from a teapot.

Meanwhile, students in other grades prepare for their final exams. More than once, Anthony heard students in class complain about how envious they were of seniors who had nothing to do.

"I have received the final answer sheets from some of you." Anthony said before teaching the fourth grade. "I want to remind those who may have forgotten that the assessment method for this school year is to buy one in the Muggle way. Tickets - Vouchers do not count as 'tickets'. People who have already submitted their tickets to me can decide at their own discretion whether they still want to attend the review sessions in the coming weeks or if they want to submit a new ticket before the end of the semester. "

Before he finished speaking, there was already a buzz of conversation in the classroom. Everyone is trying to find out who finished their finals early (and how they snuck out of school), hoping for some pointers.

"This week you will receive the application for leaving school for the Muggle studies assessment. Please remember to bring it to your guardian and dean for signature." Anthony raised his voice slightly, "Please note that entrusting others to buy on your behalf and helping others to buy on your behalf It will all be regarded as cheating——"

"What?" Fred protested, "That's not fair!"

George chimed in, "Professor, you should have told us before we gave you the tickets!"

Angelina turned around abruptly: "Have you already obtained the tickets? Both of you?"

Fred said triumphantly, "Of course."

"And Roger and Emery." George said, "If you give us a small reward, we can also..."

Anthony motioned for them to be quiet.

"Which of you commissioned the purchase, gentlemen?" he asked. "I do find that you gave me train tickets for the same day."

"Well..."

"We don't know."

The Weasley twins raised their heads and stared at Anthony with identical, frank and slightly confused expressions.

"You didn't use a Confusion Charm, right?"

"No," the two assured, "we just stood on the side of the road very pitifully and very politely."

"Then a gentleman asked us what happened."

"We said we wanted a ride but we didn't have any money."

Anthony said, "Tell me you didn't..." He didn't want to hear at the end of the semester that all of his students had become amateur liars, beggars, or bums.

"The gentleman told us we should go find Qiancha and then left."

Anthony relaxed slightly and corrected him at the same time as another student: "Police."

"Yes, police, Muggle beaters and Aurors. Then, an old lady came over and asked us if we needed help."

"We told her we made a bet to see if anyone would help us buy tickets. We didn't care where the next stop was as long as it was four train tickets."

Anthony said: "Oh..."

"Then she taught us that we should not casually participate in things like betting, while taking us to the station and buying tickets for us."

"This shouldn't be considered cheating, professor!" After noticing Anthony's expression, Fred put away his smug and sly smile and spoke faster, "It's not like we didn't offer anything! We talked nice things around her, Complimented her hat and earrings; we carried her shopping bag of vegetables and gave her some toffee and buttery peanut brittle.”

"And she's happy," his brother added.

Anthony thought for a while, smiled and shook his head: "Okay, you convinced me. You didn't use magic, there was no conflict, you communicated with Muggles, and then you got the ticket - good job."

Fred grinned and nudged George with his shoulder in celebration.

Anthony said, "But I must remind you that you got the ticket because you met a kind person and she believed in you." He turned to the students, "I know everyone understands that trust is not something that can be played with. . So I attribute Mr. Weasley's success - his success in getting votes - to their sincerity and kindness, please don't forget that."

He glanced at a student in the row in front of him who looked eager to try. The other student smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"In addition, Mr. Filch would like me to emphasize again that leaving the school grounds without permission is against school rules." Anthony said, "Gentlemen, Professors McGonagall and Professor Flitwick will arrange your confinement."

…

Throughout the class, every time Anthony glanced over the Weasley twins, he could see them whispering with their heads down, red hair next to red hair. As soon as the bell rang for the end of get out of class, the two of them grabbed their bags and nimbly jumped out of the door.

Anthony and the other students watched them disappear, shrugging, lowering their heads and packing their things, occasionally responding to the students' farewells. He suddenly heard a somewhat chaotic sound, raised his head and saw that the window was pulled open, and the heads belonging to the Weasley twins poked into the classroom one after another.

"Professor Anthony," Fred said slightly out of breath, holding on to the window sill, "We passed the final exam, right?"

Anthony was a little surprised: "Of course."

"Great."

The two groups of red hair disappeared again. Anthony shrugged, put the lesson plan into his bag, and handed a bag of crumpled popping chocolate beans to the students passing the podium. He heard Angelina commenting on the Weasley twins - "They should have done this later" - and the consequences of confinement - "Wood would have eaten them if it was scheduled during training time".

"Unless the confinement happens to be cleaning bathrooms," her friend said.

"That's Filch's favorite method of punishment." Another person interjected, "But how did they leave Hogwarts? Umbridge's investigation team has been wandering around recently..."

Anthony raised his head and reminded: "If you are also planning to buy tickets from Muggles, remember to sign the school application form."

Several students were startled, exchanged glances with each other, smiled and stopped talking.

“Most of the tickets I get are from the Christmas holidays,” Anthony said, without mentioning how many of them were for Christmas market admissions (a few of them looked like they had been picked off the ground). “It has to be admitted that , I didn’t consider how difficult it would be for you to leave school.”

"What did you want us to do, Professor Anthony?" Angelina asked. "Just walk in front of a Muggle?"

Anthony nodded: "Go to the Muggles. I think... I hope... after last year's practical activities, people will understand that there is not that big a difference between Muggles and wizards, at least the difference is not so big that it hinders our communication."

"But the secrecy laws—"

"You have gained my trust. Moreover, I originally thought you would consult your Muggle-born friends." He suddenly became curious and asked the still worried student, "I remember you said that among your roommates One of them comes from a Muggle family, right?"

"Yes, Richard - but I won't see him all day," the student replied, sounding a little indignant. "Umbridge gave him a month's detention just because he threw it into her water glass." There's a toad in there! And Filch and Snape, they're either going to make him sweep the corridors without magic, or they're going to make him spend the whole night picking out beetle eyes."

"He has three confinements a week?" Anthony confirmed.

"Four times. Twice Umbridge, once Filch, once Snape."

Another student lamented: "Hell of a life!"

"We have been helping him write his paper, but I think Professor McGonagall has begun to doubt... Oh..." The student who spoke regretfully raised his head, looked at Anthony, and begged, "Can you not tell her, Anthony? Professor? Richard can't be locked up anymore."

"What?" Anthony said, "Can you please say it again? I'm afraid I was so focused on packing my things just now that I didn't pay attention to what you were saying."

Everyone laughed. Anthony laughed too, nodded to them goodbye, and left the classroom.

Most people went to the auditorium for lunch. Anthony didn't feel hungry, so he just walked slowly along the empty corridor and headed downstairs, thinking about his own things. The fifth grade O.W.Ls are over, but he hasn't heard any news about the results yet; Professor Boubaji has been busy again recently, and it seems that the opposition to the Muggle Protection Act in the Ministry of Magic has become louder; Arthur ·Weasley did not mention these things in his letter, but instead asked Anthony enthusiastically about the principles of the subway...

"Please drink as much as you can. May you have a strong stomach and a strong body!" A portrait shouted to him, holding up the wine glass, looking a little drunk.

"Don't you dare disobey me, your majesty," replied Anthony.

He thought about Scrimgeour's visit to him again, and secretly wondered whether the Ministry of Magic had found Voldemort's wand; he had not seen relevant news reports in the newspapers, and the professors had not discussed this matter; it sounded nonsense. Mrich directed those people to Myrtle's bathroom, and he didn't know why...

Perhaps thinking of Myrtle, he felt that he actually heard a familiar cry.

He recalled the last time he had spoken to Umbridge, who had even hinted that she thought Anthony was paying too much attention to the bathroom; but Anthony hadn't seen Myrtle much lately, since she and Nick had attended Lockhart's club together, She was keen on reading Lockhart's adventure series while sitting on the toilet seat, and she only got angry and cried once when Peeves snatched the book away...

Ruoyouruowu's crying still did not disappear, and even became clearer, mixed with vague mumblings with childish voices. Anthony suddenly came to his senses and realized that someone was really crying.

He hardly hesitated, walked lightly, walked back and forth a few times, determined the direction and walked quickly towards the source of the sobbing - the loud sound of blowing his nose helped him a lot - and after a while, he On a remote staircase, I saw a lower-grade student sitting with his head bowed, crying and muttering some unpleasant words like "old witch".

"Mr. Creevey?" he asked uncertainly.

Colin Creevey raised his head in fright and looked at Anthony standing under the stairs. His hair was a mess, his nose was red and shiny, and his face was covered with tears. He pulled up the hem of the wizard's robe and wiped his face randomly: "I'm sorry, Professor, I'm going to class right now."

"It's not time for class yet," Anthony said, still standing with his head raised. "Have you had lunch, Creevey?"

Colin sniffed and shook his head.

"Then you should go eat." Anthony said, slowly walking up the steps and stopping in front of Colin. "I heard that today's lunch is sausage and mashed potatoes, but I suspect they have almost eaten the sausage now. Just mashed potatoes. Do you like mashed potatoes with peas?"

Colin thought for a while and said angrily, "I don't like it."

"What a shame." Anthony sat down next to him, "What happened?"

"I--it's Umbridge!" Colin's originally calm tone became agitated again, and he shouted dissatisfied, "She always arranges my confinement during lunch or dinner time, and asks me to serve her Wax the floors in the room, or mop those cat dishes!”

"What?"

"But I got into an argument with her today. I was hungry, so I yelled at her and broke some of the plates." Colin's high-pitched little boy's voice echoed in the stairwell, and he sounded Somewhat proudly, "She was so angry that her face was distorted! If Fred and George hadn't come, I could have broken more!"

"Fred and George?"

"That's Ron's brother - Ron is Harry's friend. They threw a firework into Umbridge's office through the crack in the door and almost set her hair on fire! Umbridge said they were going to be locked up Confinement, they said Professor McGonagall had put them in confinement, and then they ran away. Umbridge started writing to Professor McGonagall, but she started talking to me again."

Colin sniffed again. Anthony asked softly: "What did she say?"

"She said I followed Harry around all day, but Harry had long since grown tired of me. She also said that Harry would probably thank her because I didn't have time to pester him now... She said it was uncultured for me to take pictures everywhere. Performance, saying that my family are all ignorant Muggles, so they don’t do much How strange... He also said that sooner or later I would be expelled from Hogwarts..." Colin's voice trailed off, "I don't know what happened, but I suddenly started crying." He pursed his lips in embarrassment. He closed his mouth, as if he felt it was embarrassing, and wiped his eyes with his robe.

"She's not very polite." Anthony said, fumbling with the tissue paper used to wrap the candy and turning it into a handkerchief. "Here, Creevey. Those are all lies, but I can understand why you are angry."

Colin took the handkerchief, held it in his hand, and after a while he said in a tearful tone: "But - but I think what she said is true!" He burst into tears.

"Then don't think so," Anthony suggested.

Colin cried a few more times, and gradually stopped crying out of confusion: "What?"

"Don't think so." Anthony repeated, "Ask Mr. Porter what he thinks, ask the people in front of your camera what they think, if they don't like it, then change it until you are both satisfied. But no matter what That doesn’t mean you are a bad person, and it has nothing to do with whether you come from a Muggle family.”

Colin asked: "Really?"

"Really uneducated people, Mr. Creevey, will not worry about bringing trouble to others." Anthony said, standing up, "Oh, by the way, and you will not be expelled. However, if we still If we don’t leave, we really won’t be able to have lunch today.”

Colin smiled, wiped his face with a crumpled handkerchief, stood up holding on to the railing, and nodded towards Anthony.

"You just said that Ms. Umbridge often arranges your confinement during lunch or dinner time?" Anthony walked downstairs with him. "Does Professor McGonagall know about this?"

"I haven't told her." Colin said briskly, jumping down the steps. "It's not a big deal. I only cried a lot in confinement recently - I'm not usually like this, Anthony. Professor! And there are more problems with confinement. I heard that Richard, who is in fourth grade, ends late at night, and Melinda and Gregory, who are in fifth grade, are always distracted. I don’t want to talk for a few days…”

As Anthony listened to Colin rattle off the names of the students who had been given solitary confinement by Umbridge, he realized just how many people she had punished. This is a bit strange. Normally, professors believe that confinement is a more time- and effort-consuming form of punishment than deducting points, so they will only be arranged when necessary (or very angry). But it sounds like Umbridge is literally shutting down students around the clock.

He silently counted these students in his mind, and suddenly realized something unusual. There were no Weasley twins on the list, no Roger Davis, no Emery Sheen, not even Harry Potter...even the third to fifth years he was most familiar with, Colin mentioned All of them were names he was not very familiar with.

In his class, there were no three types of students: those who did not meet the grade level, those with pure-blood tendencies, and those of Muggle origin.

"Mr. Creevey," Anthony said softly, "are all these people from Muggle families?"