Chapter 140: Wind
Chapter 140: Wind
Felix returned to his office late at night, the windows rattling in the wind.
He sat in his chair, his gaze drifting to a stack of photos on the corner of his desk.
Felix picked up the photos and leaned back, quietly examining them. Most of the seven photos were of Helena, always smiling serenely, though from different angles.
Only one was a photo of them together. In it, he had said something that made her laugh, and she was shown covering her mouth.
Felix's fingers traced over the photo, turning her hair a deep burgundy, before he carefully placed it in his ring.
"Safe travels, Helena."
...
The next morning, a strong wind swept through Hogwarts, waking Felix early. He walked out of his bedroom in his pajamas, the office dim and the outside pitch black.
The windows groaned under the relentless wind, struggling to stay in place.
Felix snapped his fingers, and the windows seemed to merge into one solid pane, muffling the noise. However, he couldn't do anything about the wind pounding against the castle walls.
Through the window, he could vaguely see the branches of distant trees swaying wildly.
"This weather is just not something I want to think about", he muttered, lounging lazily on the sofa.
Felix flicked his fingers, and a suitcase in the corner burst open. Boxes of film floated past him, "Tsk! I've already seen them all."
"I remember there was a famous movie series, I wonder if it's out yet. What was it called?"
"The Nagini legend?"
Felix shook his head and summoned a fairy tale book from a cabinet by the wall, The Adventures of Ronnie Kamp—a gift he received at Christmas.
The protagonist, Ronnie Kamp, was a ten-year-old aspiring young wizard.
His parents were both Ministry of Magic employees, often busy with work and leaving him in the care of neighbors. However, Ronnie didn't like the neighbor's cat and would sneak out.
Kamp originally planned to visit Diagon Alley but ended up in Knockturn Alley by mistake, where he was kidnapped by a Dark Witch using Apparition.
Fortunately, the clever Kamp tricked the witch and managed to escape. The story then follows his journey as he evades the Dark Witch's pursuit, makes new friends, and strives to return home.
Felix found that, if you didn't think too much about the logic—like why the witch's minions were three cats named 'Knight,' 'Mashy,' and 'Morry,' and how they always found Kamp first, only to be driven off by his new magical creature friends—the story was actually quite entertaining.
He read with great interest and finished the book in less than an hour.
"I wonder if books like this are popular among young wizards. I should investigate. If they are, I could use it as a reference for my new book."
"As for the plot..." He glanced at The Adventures of Ronnie Kamp on his side, "a ten-year-old aspiring wizard, sent to a Muggle school by his busy parents, living, learning, and making friends in an unfamiliar environment."
"Hmm, this aspiring wizard grew up in a magical family and is unfamiliar with the outside world. Through his eyes, readers can see many interesting things."
"It would be best to include some dynamic photos."
Felix casually concocted the plot as the sky finally brightened.
Harry awoke to the sound of the wind howling. He rubbed his eyes, put on his glasses, and looked out the window.
"The wind has picked up. Makes sense, it's March after all", he murmured.
Ron was still asleep, and it was Sunday, so Harry didn't wake him. He got dressed, grabbed his bag, and headed to the common room.
There was still a lot of Quidditch practice in the afternoon, so he had to finish his homework as quickly as possible.
When he arrived at the common room, it was nearly empty, with only a few people around. But he was not surprised to see Hermione.
She was holding a carving knife, engraving Runic Script. From Harry's perspective, it already looked quite impressive. The tip of the light brown carving knife glowed with scorching Magic, leaving burning symbols on the chestnut wood.
"How's it going?" Harry asked when she paused.
Hermione gave him an ambiguous answer: "Not bad, but I haven't succeeded yet."
"Really?" Harry didn't quite understand her response: "It looks pretty impressive, like something out of a Muggle fairy tale about Wizards."
"Harry, you are a Wizard."
"I mean the Wizard legends from the Muggle world." As for Hogwarts, Harry thought about his frantic rush to finish his homework and found it hard to ponder whether it was mysterious or not.
While Harry was working on his Herbology essay, the howling wind outside the tower kept interrupting his thoughts. This made him quite irritable. He suddenly looked up and asked hopefully: "Hermione, do you think our Herbology class will be canceled if the weather is still like this on Monday?"
Hermione replied, "I think you'd be better off hoping today's practice is canceled. Besides, I'm curious about how the Mandrakes ended up in other pots. Professor Sprout said it would happen soon, and I don't want to miss it."
During the last Herbology class last week, a few Mandrakes in the third greenhouse had a noisy and lively party, which made Professor Sprout very happy.
"When they start moving into other pots, we'll know they are fully mature", Professor Sprout said with emotion. "Then we can revive those poor young wizards in the hospital wing and Filch's cat."
Harry muttered, "Wood won't cancel practice. I have confidence in that."
When Ron woke up, the three of them packed up their things and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Ron pointed at the Ravenclaw long tables: "They don't look very cheerful."
Harry wasn't sure: "Maybe their ghosts have disappeared?" He thought about it; although he hadn't enjoyed Nearly Headless Nick's 500th deathday party, he would definitely be upset if Nearly Headless Nick suddenly vanished.
Just then, a silver figure burst into the Great Hall, throwing pieces of chalk at the Slytherin students.
He laughed loudly and disappeared before anyone could react.
The three of them stared in shock. After a while, Ron said, "Merlin, is Peeves out of control now?"
Everyone knew that only the Bloody Baron and Dumbledore could control Peeves, and he only showed limited respect to professors.
"Still, I think it's pretty good", Ron said, looking at the disheveled Slytherin students, especially Malfoy, and happily speared a piece of bacon.
Hermione worriedly said, "Now Peeves is targeting Slytherin, but who knows what he'll do next."
"That's just bad luck for Slytherin", Ron said optimistically.
(End of Chapter)
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