Chapter 127
"Are you going, Hagrid?" Harry asked, looking up at him.
"Nah, I'm not going. I still have to help with the Halloween feast. My pumpkins have come along wonderfully. Once they're in the Great Hall, they'll definitely set the right mood." Hagrid shook his massive head.
"Right." Harry felt a twinge of regret. It seemed that in the end, he and Hermione would be the only living souls at the Deathday Party.
"What about that Rapid Spell correspondence course you mentioned?" Harry asked, remembering the question he'd meant to ask.
Hagrid replied, "They're supposed to teach you how to cast spells, but they're all scams."
"Filch is a Squib," Hagrid explained. "He's always wanted to use magic but never could, so he's strict with you."
"What's a Squib?" Hermione and Harry weren't familiar with the term.
"A Squib is someone born into a wizarding family but with no magical ability."
They know magic exists but can't cast it, so most Squibs live in the Muggle world. Someone like Filch, who has always lived in the wizarding world, is extremely rare.
Ethan had known this all along.
"Ethan's right," Hagrid said, nodding. "That's why Filch hates you young wizards so much. He's jealous that you can cast spells at will."
"So that's why he never uses magic to clean the castle and always relies on those manual tools?" Harry and the others finally understood why they'd never seen Filch take out his wand to handle any of the castle's problems.
"Yes. That's why he's so keen on catching students who break the rules. Punishing others makes his twisted mind feel better." Even though they were colleagues, Hagrid didn't think much of Filch.
For a moment, no one spoke in the small hut. Only the sound of rain hitting the roof broke the silence.
Ethan looked out the window at the heavy rain, cradling his teacup in both hands as he took a slow sip.
As he swallowed, the hot tea flowed down to his stomach, warming his entire body.
The group stayed in the hut a while longer before leaving.
Before heading out, Ethan cast an Impervius Charm on everyone to keep the wind and rain at bay.
When they reached the castle entrance, they cast Scourgify again to clean the mud off their shoes.
Ethan took out the Communication Card and arranged to meet Fred and George in the Great Hall, then waited for them to arrive.
"Here are the suggestions from Harry and the others after the playtest. Look them over and see which ones are worth implementing."
He handed George a piece of paper with the suggestions and asked again, "You mentioned you'd made some single-charm wands. Do any of them cast Scourgify or Tergeo?"
"No. We originally planned to sell these to first-years who didn't know many charms yet, so we loaded them with slightly more complicated prank charms."
Fred shook his head. "You need that kind of wand?"
"Yes. I need one that casts Scourgify and one that casts Tergeo." Ethan nodded. He planned to give the two wands to Filch to try out.
"The wands you made also require the user to supply their own magic, right?"
"Of course. The first few casts don't require it, but after that you need to supply your own magic or have a wizard charge them." George wondered who Ethan planned to give them to. "But you can't give them to Muggles. That violates the Statute of Secrecy."
"I'm not a Muggle. Rest assured, I'm not that stupid."
"Then that's fine. We can give them to you tomorrow. We still have some in stock. We just need to make a few adjustments."
"Some in stock? It's a massive stockpile. Since we started making these wands, we've only sold one. The rest are piled up in the dormitory." George called Fred's bluff.
"Hey!" Fred spun around and playfully wrestled George.
Seeing that Ethan was just watching from the sidelines with no intention of breaking it up, the two couldn't keep up the charade. They got to their feet and cast Tergeo to dust themselves off.
"Why didn't you pull us apart?" Fred straightened his clothes.
Ethan smiled. "You were so over the top. It would be weird if I couldn't tell you were acting."
"Next time, we'll have to be more convincing," George said, his expression deadpan.
"Hahaha!" Finally, the two couldn't hold back their laughter any longer.
Watching them, Ethan felt his spirits lift.
When he entered the common room, he found Nancy Riddle sitting by the window, gazing out at the underwater view of the Black Lake.
With nothing else planned for the day, Ethan settled into a seat by the common room fireplace. He casually picked up a book someone had left on a nearby table and started flipping through it.
The selection in the common room was the same as always. Ethan had previously searched through several with a treasure hunter's hopeful eye, but gave up after finding only storybooks and travelogues.
But in a quiet moment like this, sitting by a warm fire with some light reading was a genuine pleasure.
After finishing the book and getting ready to head to the Great Hall for dinner, he noticed the black-haired girl was still sitting in the exact same position, staring into the depths of the Black Lake.
"Is she always like that?" Ethan asked as he gathered Draco and the others to head to the Great Hall, glancing over at the girl.
"Who? Her?" Draco paused, surprised. He followed Ethan's gaze, thought for a moment, then replied, "Looks like it."
"Do you know her?" Draco asked. "According to the first years, she excels at every subject, basically a carbon copy of Hermione." He hadn't been wasting his time in the common room.
"I bumped into her once by accident," Ethan said. "She's a very cold girl." He kept it brief.
"Oh?" Draco said. "Rumor has it she's an orphan, raised in a Muggle-run orphanage since she was little." He shot Ethan a strange look.
"Hmm? You even know that?" Ethan asked. "Then who gave her her name? The people there?" He was surprised by Draco's information-gathering abilities.
Draco smiled, rubbing three fingers together. "They can get me most of the information I want, but for a private question like that, I wouldn't know unless she tells me herself."
He briefly weighed the difficulty of the request. "Do you need me to ask around for you?"
"No. Just curious."
"Oh." Draco didn't believe for a second that she was just curious. He made a mental note to keep a closer eye on this girl.
The rain continued for a few more days, finally stopping just before Halloween.
It was Saturday, but since Professor Snape had to leave, Potions class was canceled again.
Breathing in the damp air after the rain and thinking about tonight's Halloween feast, Ethan headed to Hagrid's hut again.
"You've come at just the right time. Look at my pumpkins. They're being sent up to the castle today." Hagrid was busy working outside his hut.
After several days of steady rain, Hagrid's pumpkins had grown considerably larger.
Ethan eyed the pumpkins, which were already the size of small garden sheds. "They're a bit too big. Can you haul them? Or should I use a Levitation Charm to float them all the way to the castle?"
Hagrid hadn't thought of that. He had simply wanted to grow the biggest pumpkins possible.
"Give me a minute and help me get them onto the cart. I'm afraid if I force them, I might damage them. You know I can't use magic, so I try not to make extra work for anyone."
Hagrid wasn't sure he could move pumpkins the size of sheds without magic either.
"Right, we'll figure it out later," Ethan said, nodding. He cast Diffindo to cut the pumpkin vines. Hagrid used large shears to trim the stalks neatly.
With the area finally cleared, Hagrid wrapped his arms around a massive pumpkin and tried to hoist it onto the waiting cart.
"Heave!"
Hagrid's face turned red, but the pumpkin wouldn't budge.
"Allow me." Ethan drew his wand and cast a Levitation Charm, guiding the pumpkin onto the cart. It weighed two or three tons.
Hagrid stopped him immediately. "No, the wheels have sunk completely into the mud."
The rain-soaked ground couldn't support a cart loaded with pumpkins that heavy.
"In that case, I suppose I could just levitate them to the castle gates?" Ethan glanced at the dozen massive pumpkins. He estimated it would take all day to move them.
"Help me move one to the castle. I'll go find Professor McGonagall and ask for her help." Hagrid felt that relying solely on Ethan was asking too much.
Ethan levitated the pumpkin. Hagrid pulled the empty cart along, saving Ethan from having to haul it too.
Ethan didn't find hauling a single pumpkin up to the castle particularly difficult. After all, he had managed to carry five at once last year. Although those were significantly smaller than this year's crop, their combined weight was roughly the same as one of these giants.
Making his way across the mud and uneven ground, he finally managed to drag the pumpkin to the castle entrance.
Ethan placed the pumpkin on the cart and brushed the mud from Hagrid's clothes and boots, watching as the gamekeeper trudged toward Professor McGonagall's office.
A short while later, Professor McGonagall returned with Hagrid to the castle entrance.
"Merlin's beard! What an enormous pumpkin!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, clearly taken aback.
"I put a lot of work into growing it," Hagrid said, his chest swelling with pride. "There's eleven more where that came from."
"I shall have the house-elves bring all the pumpkins down to the kitchens," Professor McGonagall informed him. "The timing is perfect. They were just about to start preparing and carving them into jack-o'-lanterns."
"All right, Professor McGonagall. I'll head back right away and wait for them to arrive." Hagrid nodded.
"Mr. Jones, well done. Five points to Slytherin!" Professor McGonagall looked at Ethan, who had been silent the whole time, and nodded her approval.
"Thank you, Professor."
Professor McGonagall headed toward the kitchen.
Ethan placed the pumpkin at the castle entrance, straightened up, said goodbye to Hagrid, and returned to the Slytherin dungeons.
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4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 125
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