Chapter 558

The club recruitment event in the great hall came to an end.

December brought more snow and cold wind, and one morning Felix was watching outside from his window, Black Lake is frozen thick enough to support hundreds of young wizards skating and sledding on it, with students having snowball fights around the rocks and willows on the shore not far from the lake.

Someone made a big scene, using magic to conjure up a seven-foot-tall snowman that chased students around, and Felix stared at it for a while before realizing it was a student who had unfortunately been affected by a Sticking Charm and later got hit by snowballs.

“Kee?”

Valen who is sitting on his shoulder looked around, as she was amazed by the bustling scene on the black lake, and then she turned her head to look at the Great Demon Lord for permission.

“Well, don’t forget to eat, I’ll be staying over at Severus’ place the whole day.” Felix said as Valen happily jumped down and rummaged through her pockets for her gear, as she has to maintain her reputation as a combat Niffler. Valen has been around Felix for a long time now and has been influenced by his occasional mischief, or a bad sense of humour, coupled with the great demon king’s strong backing, caused Valen’s notoriety in this area to gradually spread.

Presently, she draped herself in a small cloak and selected one of her seven exclusive wands which were jewelled with gems a size of a rice grain, as she glided down through the window facing the black lake. The little cloak opened behind her, rippling with light, and carried Valen off into the distance.

Valen waved her wand excitedly in the air, a blue and a green gem lit up under the vibrations of a specific frequency of her magic, as a snowman Nifflers formed quickly under the magic of the gem, and they followed Valen in mid-air all the way across the sky towards the black lake.

The sound of students exclaiming and laughing in the distance put Felix in a good mood as he gathered his things and headed down the revolving staircase, past the entrance hall, and towards the Potions class office on the basement level. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice–

” I never imagined, that I would kind of miss Professor Grubbly-Plank one day; Hagrid actually got the latest magic projector, I’m really worried that future classes will consist of teaching Grawp how to adjust the buttons on the projector.” Ron kicked and stomped his way outside, and then he seemed to have tripped and fallen, with snow caked all over his clothes.

“I tried to talk him out of it, but he thinks it’s all under control.” Hermione’s voice was slightly muffled. She carried a snowman Niffler in her arm.

“Miss Granger?”

Felix called out to them and Harry, Ron, and Hermione paused, Hermione was startled and dropped the snowman Niffler in her hand to the floor, which jumped up and hit her a few times – “Ouch!” Hermione yelped and watched as Niffler Snowman stormed out of the entrance hall and ran off after a large group.

Felix couldn’t help but laugh.

Hermione turned red, “We saw Valen pass by in the sky and there were so many more on the ground … everyone picked up one …” she stammered.

Felix blinked, so Valen hadn’t flown very far before the army of Niffler she had high hopes for had been intercepted by the little Hogwarts wizard? He felt a little sorry that he hadn’t seen that scene, and Harry and Ron turned their heads sideways and laughed, as they had wanted to do so for a long time.

Hermione gave them a stern look and asked in a stammering tone, “Professor? Is there something wrong?”

“Ah, yes,” Felix retracted his smile and took a pouch of gold coins and a piece of parchment out of his ring, “the money for the New Solutions to Runes Magazine has arrived, help me distribute it to the students according to the list … ”

“Is it still five galleons each?” Ron asked eagerly.

“That’s right Weasley,” Felix said, “I remember you published several articles under the name ‘Frontline Lookout’?”

” Yup.” Ron said happily.

“Then you guys can have a nice Hogsmeade weekend.” Felix said, turning his head to Harry who had been silent, “I saw the article you wrote about incorporating the Rune ‘Sun Wheel’ into the Patronus Charm to make the Patronus stronger … Genius idea. ”

Harry grinned a little, “I was just trying it out, didn’t you suggest me to work on the Patronus Charm more when I had the time, before I put most of my energy into the Occlumency, but now there is no need for that, so I am spending my time working on the Patronus.”

“The scar didn’t hurt again in the last two months?” Felix asked.

Harry nodded. Something suddenly occurred to him, “Professor, I’ve tried quite a few ancient runes, but this is the only one that worked, and I’ve never been able to figure out why …”

Felix thought for a moment and said with uncertainty, “I would suggest you to try more runes that lean towards the spirit and will, after all, the Patronus itself is a product of positive emotions.”

Harry looked down in thought when Hermione blurted out, “So Harry was able to pull it off because the Rune ‘Sun Wheel’ symbolizes a positive rising process and also indicates a change of will under the influence of magic … ”

Felix nodded approvingly.

“In that sense, the ‘tranquillity’, ‘enthusiasm’ and even the ‘light’ rune you have learned can be tried out with the charm. Well, when the Christmas break is over, I will have a look at your club …”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief when Felix left. Thankfully, the Professor hadn’t talked to him about anything else. He had been avoiding meetings with Professor Hap lately and was on the edge since meeting him now. It was simply because the scene of the Professor’s reviewing the Harry Potter Fan Club at the start of December was too awful to look back on for the rest of his life.

If there is a spell that uses an emotion like an embarrassment to cast it, Harry thinks he would surprise everyone by casting it very powerful beyond his mastery.

I wonder who – Harry seriously suspected it was Snape – who had put the ‘Harry Potter Fan Club’ together with ‘Frontline Lookout Club’ in a very conspicuous place, so he was forced to stand expressionlessly in a corner of the great hall and listen to the Creevey brothers talk about the significance of the Harry Potter Fan Club in front of a crowd of professors, “Harry Potter is the bravest man I’ve ever met, he fought the Basilisk and outsmarted the You-Know-Who… “The Creevey brothers spoke on stage in a high, staccato voice, like a duet, and Harry was leaning against the cold wall, praying that he would sink into it, preferably without anyone finding it.

At least he didn’t have the courage to look which of the three, Snape, Sirius, or Professor Hap, had the most excited expression on their face… Not to mention that all of Harry’s professors who were teaching his classes had come over to join in the fun that day, and he didn’t know how he’d gotten through the last two weeks.

“Harry, you could fry an egg on your face.” Ron commented at that time.

Even though the memory was really unbearable, Harry had secured 120 galleons for the ‘Frontline Lookout’ activities. Hermione was jealous as she only received a stipend of 10 galleons for her meticulously Prepared S.P.E.W. speech which Snape interrupted nastily, “This is not the venue for the Minister of Magic’s campaign, Miss Granger. If you want to achieve even a tenth of your vision, you’ll have to wait till you graduate.”

Hermione was exasperated for a few days, and at one point fantasized about using a Permanent Sticking Charm to stamp the new S.P.E.W. slogan on the door of Snape’s office. Even Harry and Ron, who had been upset with Snape, were startled and were forced to persuade her with facts and reason.

In addition to a substantial amount of gold galleons, the ‘Frontline Watch’ had well over fifty members, for which the school had given them a spacious abandoned classroom as an activity area. -It wasn’t until later that Harry learned from Professor McGonagall that the house-elves would help with the cleaning up, but they hadn’t had the chance to do it yet due to lack of manpower.

Hermione insisted that the house-elves should not help, saying condescendingly, “I can do it myself.” Ron snickered, “Who said otherwise, it’s just a broom room … anyway,” and he paid for it, spending most of the afternoon on thick dust and stubborn paint.

But I am innocent, I didn’t say anything about it, Harry couldn’t help but complain that day.

There was another change.

Mafalda had made an appearance at the ‘Frontline Lookout Club’ and, in fact, there were several new faces at the club that he hadn’t expected to meet, such as the Greengrass sisters, and he almost thought he would also meet Draco Malfoy.

Then Mafalda told him that Malfoy hadn’t even joined a club.

” Well, he will just wait and see, it’s a Malfoy family tradition that they won’t make a stand easily …” Ron hit the truth right on the head.

To Harry, Mafalda’s change in attitude towards him was purely a surprise.

He speculated secretly that it was probably because he had defended her that day that Mafalda had finally given up on making up stories about him in her little essay, and in her words, she had simply “matured to do something more meaningful.”

“It’s just a campus gossip tabloid,” said the equally sociable Fred: “She fills it with news she gets from thirty-seven clubs. It supposedly sells well.”

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

” Is it popular?” Hermione asked with mixed emotions.

“There were quite a few submissions from people,” George said, ” along with advertisements and anonymous love letters.”

“You guys wouldn’t be one of them, would you?” Ron asked with a squint.

“We’re paid for it, a full two Sickles.” Fred said, first with some indignation, then with a look of admiration, “To be honest, I kind of like her, that’s not a bad business to run …”

“We both felt like we were outdated.” George said with a thumbs up.

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