"Thank you, Professor McGonagall," Dudley said warmly.
Feeling the beyonder characteristics being digested, the smile on Dudley's face became even more satisfied.
At this rate, he might only need about a month to complete the acting of Briber and Interrogator, thus completing his advancement.
Honestly, Dudley felt that the acting effect in this magical world was much easier than in that otherworldly realm before.
This might be because Dudley had already acted once and successfully digested the potion. Now, he was just re-digesting these beyonder characteristics, making the entire process much smoother.
Even with the advancement of his sequence, Dudley clearly felt that even without deliberately acting, the beyonder characteristics were slowly being digested. As long as there was enough time, his strength was improving every minute and second, just not at such a rapid pace.
This was the legendary "just lying low and continuously absorbing beyonder characteristics to become stronger."
However, Dudley indeed couldn't be satisfied with this passive absorption speed. If possible, he still hoped his strength could improve in the shortest time possible.
After all, this magical world wasn't particularly peaceful.
That Voldemort, those mysterious organisations hiding in the shadows collecting magical artefacts – all these required Dudley to deal with them.
Some things couldn't be avoided just by not participating.
As Harry's cousin, he was naturally drawn into the turmoil of the magical world. To survive, he had to improve his strength as quickly as possible.
"Alright, don't pull these little tricks anymore," Professor McGonagall said, lightly tapping the toffee Dudley had given her with her fingertip.
"Just some candy. I'm honoured to share it with you, Professor McGonagall," Dudley said with an innocent smile.
Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together and said nothing more.
"So when do we start the lessons, Professor McGonagall?" Dudley asked eagerly.
"Tomorrow," Professor McGonagall said. "Aren't you going to join the celebration later? Gryffindor just beat Slytherin, and your cousin was the biggest hero."
"It's fine. Learning Apparition is more important," Dudley said immediately.
"But I'm going to the celebration!" Professor McGonagall said with obvious enthusiasm.
"Well..." Dudley found himself momentarily speechless.
Professor McGonagall really was a devoted Quidditch fan.
"Alright, Dudley. Tomorrow evening at seven o'clock, Transfiguration classroom," Professor McGonagall said with a knowing smile.
"Yes, Professor," Dudley nodded and left Professor McGonagall's office.
In the office, only Professor McGonagall remained.
She picked up the candy Dudley had given her, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth.
The milk flavour was rich, the sweetness abundant. It really was delicious candy.
"Was I bribed by Dudley? I actually agreed to his request," Professor McGonagall smiled and shook her head.
"Dudley's talent is indeed very high, but can he really learn Apparition at his current stage?"
"I'm actually starting to look forward to it."
"Perhaps this is the sense of accomplishment from teaching a genius."
The celebration was held in the Great Hall.
Almost all Gryffindor students were there, mixed with some students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
Although it wasn't their own teams that had won the match, they all had a common opponent: Slytherin.
Seeing Slytherin lose made them genuinely happy.
From this alone, you could see that Slytherin's popularity at Hogwarts was indeed questionable.
Dudley joined the celebration with everyone else and chatted with Luna, who had come to support Gryffindor.
During this time, Professor McGonagall came over to say a few words, praised Harry and the others' efforts, then left.
She knew that with her there, everyone couldn't have as much fun.
After the celebration in the Great Hall ended, everyone felt they hadn't had enough fun, so they moved to Gryffindor's common room to continue celebrating.
Fred and George secretly ran to the kitchen to get quite a lot of delicious food to share with everyone in the common room.
"Dudley, we really need to thank you today," Wood, the Quidditch team captain, specially came over to toast with Dudley.
"Just lending a hand. Besides, I was just ensuring my own safety," Dudley smiled and winked at Wood.
"Exactly," Wood laughed and nodded.
The other Quidditch team members, seeing this, also came over to toast with Dudley to show their respect.
They knew very well that Dudley's intervention to shatter that Bludger during the match was a crucial winning move. Without Dudley's clever methods, Gryffindor might not have won today's match.
Or even if they had won, they would have paid a considerable price.
"Dudley, you were absolutely amazing today," Ron said with obvious admiration.
"I was so focused on thinking about how to avoid that crazy Bludger that I didn't think of having Harry lure it over and then directly smash it. That was brilliant," Ron said.
"Ron! Dudley was just protecting our safety," Hermione quickly shushed Ron while looking around to prevent anyone from spreading this information.
"Oh, right, right, just for our safety," Ron quickly nodded.
Harry, watching this scene from the side, couldn't help but laugh.
"You don't know how nervous I was today. Being on the field for the first time was already stressful enough, but then that Bludger went crazy chasing me. If you hadn't told me at the crucial moment to lure the Bludger over to you, I wouldn't have known what to do next," Harry said with genuine emotion.
"You were flying just fine..." Before Dudley could finish his sentence, his expression suddenly changed dramatically as he sat up from the sofa.
"What's wrong?" Seeing this, Harry and the others' expressions immediately tensed with a bad premonition.
"The Chamber has been opened again!" Dudley's expression was extremely grim.
Without much thought, he immediately rushed outside.
"Dudley!" Harry and the others quickly called out, but Dudley had already run out of Gryffindor's common room.
"Quick, Ron, go tell Professor McGonagall!" Harry said immediately, while chasing after Dudley out of the Gryffindor common room.
"Wait, it's dangerous outside!" Hermione tried to stop Harry and Ron from rushing out, but it was useless.
Gritting her teeth, Hermione also rushed out, only to collide head-on with a figure entering Gryffindor.
"Oh! Ginny... sorry, I don't have time to talk; I have to go," Hermione looked apologetically at Ginny, who had been knocked pale-faced by the collision, and rushed out of Gryffindor's common room.