Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
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News of Oren quickly spread throughout the wizarding world.
The Daily Prophet described him as an extremely evil and insane dark wizard, dedicating an entire page to his wanted poster.
The remaining pages were filled with praise for the Ministry of Magic's heroic rescue of two students during the operation.
Although very few people would actually read this.
Many parents wrote to the school requesting an early holiday.
What if Oren was still hiding in the Forbidden Forest? They were worried about leaving their children there.
Dumbledore agreed; students could take the Hogwarts Express home that day, and their report cards would be delivered by owls in the following days.
In just one day, Hogwarts was a third less crowded, and the castle seemed empty.
However, Kyle didn't leave, nor did Cedric and the others.
Chris returned, arriving at Hogwarts travel-worn, and thoroughly checked Kyle from head to toe several times before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
He then led Kyle to an empty classroom and said sternly, "Didn't I tell you not to get involved in this?"
"It was an accident," Kyle said honestly. "I'll be more careful next time."
Chris was clearly not satisfied with Kyle's answer and scolded him for a long time.
Throughout the ordeal, Kyle didn't try to defend himself, only nodding, his attitude of admitting his mistake was excellent.
As the two left the classroom, Newt also happened to come out of Dumbledore's office. Chris asked him if he wanted to go back together.
However, Kyle refused, saying he wanted to take the train back with his friends. Chris thought about it and didn't insist.
To Kyle's surprise, Diana also arrived the next day.
Unlike Chris, however, she first went to the Forbidden Forest and then went straight to the Headmaster's office on the eighth floor.
What happened after that is unknown, but during this time, many students noticed unfamiliar faces on the portraits in the castle corridors, and these faces claimed to be past Hogwarts Headmasters.
Also, the gargoyle on the eighth floor was gone.
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Kyle didn't know when Diana left.
That evening, he and Cedric attended the year-end banquet. The Great Hall was divided into two parts: the left side was decorated in green and silver for Slytherin, and the right side in yellow and black for Hufflepuff.
It's worth noting that Oren's points from the Forbidden Forest were still valid.
Combined with the Quidditch championship... Hufflepuff's house points were now tied with Slytherin's, putting them in first place.
The two sat down at the Hufflepuff table, and Kyle noticed that Connor was still absent.
A while later, Dumbledore arrived. Kyle couldn't quite place it, but he felt Dumbledore's nose looked even more crooked than before.
The noise in the Great Hall gradually subsided.
"Another year has passed!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "Before you all enjoy these delicious dishes, I must trouble you to listen to an old man's cliché.
Although there were some minor hiccups at the end, it has undeniably been a wonderful year, and your little minds are certainly richer than ever... You have a whole summer to digest all this and clear your heads before the next term begins..."
"Now, let's proceed with the House Cup awards ceremony. The scores for each house are as follows:
Fourth place, Gryffindor, 101 points; Third place, Ravenclaw, 332 points; Slytherin, 497 points; Hufflepuff, 497 points."
The expected cheers didn't come. Hufflepuff and Slytherin stared intently at each other, both somewhat dissatisfied with the result.
There's only one House Cup; it can't be awarded to two houses at the same time!
The remaining two houses quietly watched the drama unfold.
"Yes, both houses performed well," Dumbledore cleared his throat. "However, a recent event must also be taken into account, Kyle Chopper…"
All eyes turned to Kyle.
"He not only rescued another student in the Forbidden Forest, but also found the Dark Wizard hiding in the school, demonstrating fearless courage and extraordinary bravery.
For this, I have decided to award him the Special Contribution Award and reward Hufflepuff with two hundred points!"
Although the number of people attending the banquet was much smaller than before, the cheers were still deafening. If someone were standing outside the Great Hall at this moment, they might think there had been an explosion.
There was no need to calculate any points anymore; Hufflepuff had successfully stopped Slytherin's six-year winning streak and won the House Cup!
And most importantly, there was the Special Contribution Award.
Fred and George excitedly stood on their stools and shouted to Kyle, "Don't worry, Kyle, when you go into detention again, we'll make sure to clean your trophy thoroughly!"
"And cleaner than anyone else's..."
Professor McGonagall glanced at them coldly, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion.
"This means…" Dumbledore roared, "We need to make some minor changes to the decorations here."
He clapped his hands, and the green ribbons turned yellow, the silver turned black, and a huge banner depicting a Hufflepuff badger appeared on the wall behind the main seating area.
Snape was shaking hands with Professor Sprout, his expression calm, naturally displaying his signature smile, seemingly without a hint of anger.
Before leaving school, the exam results were released.
Kyle achieved a very high score, becoming the top student in his grade.
Cedric looked at Kyle's report card and exclaimed in surprise, "Merlin, your score is much higher than mine last year, and you were only one point away from a perfect score, what a pity…"
Kyle also felt a little regretful.
He had written down thirteen uses for dragon blood instead of twelve during the exam, which resulted in a point deduction.
It seemed the professors didn't consider dragon blood a suitable ingredient for cooking.
Apart from this minor flaw, he received perfect scores in all his other subjects, including potion brewing.
Snape gave his boil medicine a perfect score, a treatment rarely received even by Slytherin students.
Kanna came in second in her year, and Cedric came in first in second year… Hufflepuff certainly had a major show of success this year.
Professor Sprout even stopped going to the greenhouse, spending most of her time hanging around the other professors.
[End of the chapter]