Chapter 178

On the morning before school started, Felix sat in a relaxed manner eating his breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron bar, flipping through that day’s newspaper in the meantime.

“Gee, Sirius Black, how come it’s been on the front page for so many days?”

Felix stared at the man in the picture, his face hollowed and his long black hair tangled. He had wax-like skin and looked a bit like a vampire.

The newspaper didn’t spare the ink to retell his crimes over and over again, including the fact that he supported the dark lord, as well as blowing up half a street, killing thirteen people, and currently on the run when he got driven to the edge.

The words “extremely dangerous” and “most notorious prisoner” appear several times in bold red letters.

“Is it really hard to escape from Azkaban?” Felix took a sip of coffee and took two seconds to simulate the scenario.

Step one, take out the spare wand and, well …

‘First, the assumption itself won’t happen, as I would never let myself be captured or cornered, so why bother?’

‘But at least it explains, why Fudge is so on edge about Harry.’

While this is happening, Harry yawned and walked down the stairs, Dobby followed him carefully with a worried look on his face, as if he feared which step he would take and roll down the stairs.

“Harry, Dobby, here.” Felix tilted his head at them, “Morning, Professor.” Harry sat down in the empty seat across from him, and to his surprise, Dobby sat down as well, sticking to his chair.

“Dobby, don’t you need to greet the guests?” Harry asked.

“Mr. Potter, Dobby resigned from The Leaky Cauldron, this is Dobby’s last day here, and the boss approved that I don’t have to do anything.”

“Oh, uh …” Harry, obviously not quite sober yet, his mind not functioning for a moment, froze as he half-heartedly asked, “But where are you going?”

“Mr. Hap has offered Dobby a job, and Dobby’s willing to do his friend a favour! Dobby, Dobby, feels honored.” The elf stared at Felix with big eyes.

Harry turned his head as well, and Felix said briefly, “I hired Dobby to act as my spokesman for some book publishing matters.”

“Dobby, congratulations,” Harry said sincerely.

Felix finished his breakfast and said to him, “Harry, I will not arrange training tasks today, you have reviewed the shield charm, the stupefy charm, the Tongue-Tying Curse, and additionally learned The Incarcerous Spell over the past few days, it is more than enough at the moment to give you an advantage.”

Harry listened in silence, he knew this special training coming to an end.

The incantation of The Incarcerous Spell is “Incarcerous”, the effect of which is shooting a thick rope from the tip of the wand to bind the target. The advantage of this spell is that it can be cast from a very long distance, allowing him to attack from across a corridor.

He had only managed to learn it last night and was only barely able to cast it, but the attack distance reached twelve or thirteen meters, already more than the majority of spells he had mastered.

‘I have to thank Ron for learning this spell.’ Harry thought to himself, after many failures, he remembered the way Ron learned the disarming charm, so Harry let Professor Hap use the Incarcerous spell upon him, hoping to get a closer ‘feel’ of its mysteries.

And Professor Hap is also very interested in this, “I have long wanted to tie someone, but never got the chance.” The result was that he was tied up again and again with thick ropes comparable to a Devil’s Snare, binding him into an all-pervasive cocoon, and he felt like a large Shaved Caterpillars.

In the desperate struggle in between, he also finally mastered the magic, the cost is a full-body bruise, like being hung up by the Whomping Willow and whipped for half an hour.

Speaking of Whomping Willow, he couldn’t help but think of Mr. Weasley’s car. Last year at the beginning of the school year, Dobby blocked the platform entrance, and in order to return to school on time, he and Ron flew halfway across Britain in Mr. Weasley’s privately modified magic car, only to pass through the forbidden forest, the car became too overloaded and fell face down on the Whomping Willow.

Mr. Weasley, therefore, came under investigation, for which he felt guilty, for a long time.

Now the ‘culprit’ not only shared breakfast with him, but also became his friend, which made Harry wonder at the marvels of the world.

There is a buzz from outside the bar, and a large group of people suddenly come into the bar. Most of them were redheads, carrying suitcases and cages of all sizes.

“Daddy, is Harry here?” A little girl with fiery red hair asked, tugging on her father’s arm.

“This is the seventh time I’ve answered you, yes, Ginny.” Her father said as such.

Harry already revealed an expression of surprise – it is the Weasley family, and next to them stood a couple dressed in ‘muggle’ clothes, and Harry is no stranger to Hermione’s mom and dad.

But nothing could catch Harry’s eye more than his two best friends, and he couldn’t wait to share his experience –

“Over here! Ron, Hermione!” Harry waved vigorously, jumping out of his seat and running towards them.

Ron looked exotic in his strange outfit, Hermione’s skin tanned, and they had big smiles on their faces.

Ron hammered Harry in the chest and grinned, “Hey Harry, did you really blow up your aunt?”

“I didn’t mean to do that.” Harry said, noticing that Hermione’s parents were looking at him in a very peculiar way, and he subconsciously explained, “I lost control of, you know, the accidental magic burst …”

But things seemed to get worse as he twisted his head to look at Professor Hap, who approached him and asked him for help with his eyes.

Ron also realized he had said something wrong, and Ginny kicked him through Percy.

Felix nodded at them as he looked over at Harry: “accidental magic is a result of extreme emotions, and I’m surprised you managed to retain an ounce of composure while you were out of control, to say the least.”

He turned to face Hermione’s parents: “Hello, I’m Felix Hap, Professor of Ancient Runes at Hogwarts, and I know a fair bit about the world of ordinary people.”

Mrs. Granger looked at him with a smile, she heard her daughter mention this professor. Instead, Mr. Granger looked at him with a surprised look, “I’ve seen you before, before much earlier. A strange client, huh? I didn’t realize you were a professor at the school … is just too young.”

Felix passed over the subject with a remark, “Yeah, the wizarding world doesn’t care about that.”

Hermione greeted in a small voice: “Hello, Professor Hap.”

Felix nodded at her, “Hello, Miss Granger.” He turned to Arthur Weasley, “Mr. Weasley, we should have exchanged letters before.”

Arthur Weasley slapped his forehead, “That’s right, I asked you some questions about Muggle technology … Ah, Molly, come on, it’s just simple research.”

Mrs. Weasley glared at her husband and said enthusiastically to Felix, “Professor Hap, thank you for Ron’s Christmas present, it is a bit pricey, to be honest … but little Ronnie is loving his new wand.”

“Mom!” Ron said with some annoyance that she always called him by his nickname, regardless of the occasion.

But Mrs. Weasley ignored him, “Ron kind of adores you, and he took your class this year, and of course-” she looked at Harry and Hermione, who nodded in sync, “and these two little ones, both naughty kids, who don’t let anyone worry about them.”

She rambled: “We got the news from Dumbledore very early, Arthur and I got giddy, trembling, but we didn’t dare to write a Howler for fear of affecting Ginny, after all, it’s dark magic …” she said vaguely through it, “also about the chamber, her brothers have shown her a bad example.”

“Mom, this didn’t involve us!”

“Yeah, we didn’t get into any trouble this summer.”

The twins next to her desperately cried foul, as Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips and looked at them with a stern expression. “And you guys, don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been studying …”

Percy stepped forward, puffing out his chest with a shiny silver badge – the symbol of the perfect- “Mum, Ginny has me as her brother, who is a good role model.”

With a sour look on their faces, the twins lowered their heads and muttered.

‘Perfect, right?’

‘How about Big Head Boy instead?’

The two quickly showed heartfelt smiles.

Felix watched the extended family’s interaction with interest and waited for them to stop before he said, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Weasley, I know them all fairly well …”

The hunchbacked old Tom came over, his mouth filled with teeth, “A few guests, looks like you need a big table?”

He moved his fingers and the three tables in the bar were put together, and a dozen small round stools landed next to the table.

“And then, do you need something to eat?”

“Don’t need to think about me, Tom.” Felix said, “I’ll leave now.”

He gave a small nod toward the crowd, “Excuse me.” Turning to greet Dobby, “Let’s go, I need to get you a new outfit.”

Dobby excused himself toward Harry and bounced after him as he waved goodbye and followed Felix.

———-

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