If there's one thing that's most depressing, it's coming up just short.
However, sometimes, coming up just short makes a huge difference.
Ravenclaw House still couldn't snatch the win, remaining in second place for the House Cup by a mere five points until the year-end feast. It would certainly be a lie to say Ravenclaw students weren't depressed.
That evening, Albert and his roommates went to the Great Hall for the year-end feast.
The Great Hall was already elaborately decorated with the red and gold of Gryffindor, and a huge banner depicting the Gryffindor lion hung on the wall behind the high table.
The Gryffindor students were talking loudly, their words filled with the joy and confidence of winning the House Cup.
Compared to Gryffindor, their neighbors, the Slytherinstudents, showed no joy at all. It was no wonder they couldn't be happy; Slytherin House had won the House Cup for four consecutive years, and now… now their streak was broken, and by their most hated Gryffindor, no less. It would be strange if they were in a good mood.
The Ravenclaw students were probably the most conflicted and depressed ones present. They were only a few points away from the championship. No one picking up the slack left Ravenclaw feeling regret, but they were also happy to see Slytherin's crushing defeat.
As for the Hufflepuff students, they hadn't won the House Cup in a long time, so they didn't care much. Anyway, seeing the crushing defeat of Slytherin, who didn't like fair play, was something to celebrate.
Shortly after, Dumbledore hurried in. He stood on the dais, raising a hand to signal for quiet, and the noise in the Great Hall gradually subsided.
"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, "Before you enjoy your delicious feast, you certainly wouldn't want to hear an old man like me ramble on. However, we still need to have the House Cup award ceremony. The final scores for each house are as follows: Fourth place, Slytherin, two hundred and fifty points; Third place, Hufflepuff, three hundred and ninety-five points; Second place, Ravenclaw, four hundred and thirty-nine points; First place, Gryffindor, four hundred and forty-four points."
At this moment, a thunderous cheer erupted from the Gryffindor table, the sound deafening. Some students were so excited they shouted themselves hoarse.
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan all stood up with the crowd, cheering and applauding loudly. Albert also clapped hard, pretending to be very excited. In his mind, however, he couldn't help but mutter, "What an inauspicious score."
Lee Jordan, while cheering, nudged Albert with his elbow and pointed to their neighbors. The Slytherinstudents' faces were grim, as if they had just been punched in the nose.
In the Great Hall, everyone except the Slytherinstudents was applauding, whether celebrating Gryffindor's victory or Slytherin's crushing defeat.
Professor McGonagall at the high table also stood up and shook hands with Professor Snape, a joyful smile on her face.
The feast offered a rich variety of delicious dishes. During the meal, Fred and George invited Albert to visit their home during the summer holidays.
Unfortunately, Albert politely declined the invitation because his family already had their own summer plans. Herb had written to Albert a while ago, telling him that the whole family was going to France for the summer.
Fred and George were disappointed, as they had always wanted to thank Albert for saving them. The Weasley family family apparently had similar thoughts.
Everyone at the feast ate their fill, except for Fred and George.
After all, eating and drinking until full makes one sleepy. If they missed tonight's revenge operation because of that, they would never have another chance to get back at Filch this semester, which was clearly not what the Weasley Brothers wanted.
They had waited so long for Gryffindor to win the House Cup, and now that they no longer needed to be cautious, how could they give up?
After midnight, Fred and George began their operation. Using Albert's Disillusionment Charm, they first created some noise in the Castle to lure Filch, who was about to rest, to the armor Hallway on the fourth floor of the Castle.
Then, George seized the opportunity to sneak into Filch's office and smear the garlic-flavored beeswax in the corners of his office. And indeed, the smell was truly pungent, even more astonishing than the effect of Dungbombs.
After all, with a Dungbomb, you can see the source of the smell, but once beeswax is smeared into corners, it's impossible to find, let alone remove the source of the smell. In just a short while, the entire office, plus Filch's bedroom, was filled with a choking garlic smell.
After Fred saw George return to the Gryffindor Common Room via the marauder's map, he immediately withdrew, leaving Filch still desperately searching for them on the fourth floor.
Upon realizing he had been tricked, Filch returned to his dormitory to rest, seething with anger.
When Filch opened the wooden door of his office, he immediately shivered from the strong garlic smell. He furiously rushed into his office, trying to find the source of the odor.
Moments later, Filch's angry roars echoed through the caretaker's office. As for his Madam Norris, she stayed far away from the garlic-filled caretaker's office.
"Do you think this might have been a bit too much!" George asked Fred, turning his head, as he listened to Filch's roars.
"If I were you, I'd get rid of the garlic smell on myself first, lest suspicion fall on you two," Albert appeared silently in the common room, reminding the two who were discussing.
"Oh, you're right!" George also smelled the garlic on his hands and quickly ran to wash them.
The next morning, news of Filch's retaliation spread throughout the Castle. Everyone speculated which brave soul had filled Filch's office with garlic smell.
However, no one sympathized with the caretaker; rather, there was more schadenfreude.
Albert and his group also pretended not to know about it. In fact, most of their attention was focused on their final exam results.
Hogwarts would announce students' final exam results on the last day.
"Look, you really are the top student in this year," Fredsaid, nudging Albert with his elbow, smiling.
"Your grades are also very good."
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan all passed the exam with very high scores.
"I already guessed you'd be first," Sanna said, walking over with a smile to talk to Albert. "But I bet Katrina is furious."
Albert smiled and shrugged, indicating that there was nothing he could do.
He personally didn't feel much about coming in first. There were only so many students in this year, and being first didn't seem like much to be proud of. His goal was to complete the panel tasks, and fortunately, the tasks "In the Name of Genius" and "All-Round Crushing" had already been completed.
Although Katrina said she wanted to compete with him to see who had better grades, and Albert eventually refused, this competition still seemed to be valid, at least according to the panel's judgment.
Katrina came in second in this year, also with all Outstanding grades, but in terms of points, she was still a little behind Albert.
At this moment, Katrina, also standing in the crowd checking her grades, was staring at Albert with an incredibly annoyed gaze.
She was angry, angry at herself for losing to that guy who didn't even study properly for the final exams.
While everyone was still excitedly discussing their exam results, Professor McGonagall appeared with a stack of notices.
She asked the first-years to sign a pledge promising to abide by "the decree for the reasonable restriction of underage sorcery" outside of school.
After signing, she also handed out notices and warned everyone not to use magic during the holidays.
"I really wish they'd forgotten to give us this," Fred Weasley said regretfully, shaking the notice in his hand. Not being able to use magic during the holidays was simply torture.
"You don't have to worry at all. In Wizard families, the Ministry of Magic can't figure out who is using magic, so even if you use magic at home, you won't be warned by the Ministry of Magic," Albert explained with a slight curl of his lip. "As long as you use magic in a Wizard-dense area like Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic can't determine if it's you using magic, because the trace can only locate and monitor whether someone is using magic within a certain range around you."
"You seem to know a lot about this?" Sanna was a little surprised that Albert knew these things.
"Of course he does," Lee Jordan couldn't help but laugh. "After all, a certain someone was tricked by him."
"A certain someone?"
"Truman from Hufflepuff," Fred kindly reminded him. "So, you're saying that as long as we stay at home, we can use magic without any worries?"
"Exactly, as long as you're at home. Students born into Pure-blood Wizard families can only be monitored by their families' self-supervision," Albert said disdainfully, feeling slightly unhappy that he couldn't use magicduring the summer holidays.
"According to you, the Ministry of Magic relies on the trace to determine if we use magic, but when did they…" Sanna asked, puzzled, "secretly use the trace on us?"
"Secretly use?" Albert's expression was a little strange. "They didn't, actually."
"Didn't what?"
"Didn't you just sign it? The magic contract," Albertreminded.
"You mean… that pledge?" Not only Sanna, but the others also understood what was going on.
"According to what I heard from Professor Brood, the pledge we just signed is a magic contract, which is what they call the trace. Of course, that thing also has loopholes."
"Why didn't you say so earlier? I wouldn't have signed it if I'd known," Lee Jordan said, looking depressed.
"Not sign?" Albert repeated softly. "Could you not sign?"
"What happens if you break the contract?" Fred asked curiously.
"The Ministry of Magic will know immediately and send an owl to warn you."
"What about the loophole?" George was more curious about this.
"It can't figure out who exactly used the magic," Albertgave a simple example. "Suppose you live in a community full of Muggles. When someone around you uses magic, the Ministry of Magic, upon detecting it, will assume it's you using magic.
"Is that how Truman was tricked by you back then?" Fred asked curiously.
"Yes, that's the loophole I was talking about. The Ministry of Magic can monitor your location through the trace. When you are in Diagon Alley, or at home, and someone around you uses magic, the Ministry of Magiccannot determine who exactly used the magic, because the Wizards coming and going in Diagon Alley and your family members could all be using magic."
"That's great! So we don't have to worry about being discovered by the Ministry of Magic when we use magic," Fred and George high-fived in celebration.
"But you need to worry about your family finding out," Lee Jordan said crossly.
Everyone returned to their dorms to pack, only to find their wardrobes empty, all their belongings already packed into their trunks.
"It must have been the House-elf who helped pack," Fred explained to everyone.
"I figured as much," Albert nodded. "Come on, let's not miss the train."
As everyone dragged their luggage towards the Entrance Hall, Filch suddenly sprang out from a hidden Hallway, his two red eyes glaring at Albert and the others. He said hoarsely, "It was you, wasn't it!"
The four looked at each other, all putting on an expression of "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't think I don't know, it was definitely you who did it, that garlic smell in my office."
"We don't know what you're talking about!" the Twinssaid in unison.
"We went to bed very early last night," Lee Jordancoughed lightly, defending himself. As for whether "we" included the Weasley Brothers, that was unknown.
Albert shrugged helplessly, indicating he knew nothing about the matter.
"You planted garlic!" Filch's eyes gleamed with anger.
"Oh, you mean that!" Fred said with an expression of realization, smiling, "Last time, Albert made it into garlic scrambled eggs, and it tasted pretty good."
"If you don't believe me, you can ask the House-elf," George added. "That dish was made by the House-elf."
The four passed by a bewildered Filch, suppressing their laughter, and boarded the carriage to the Hogwarts Express.
Along the way, the group discussed Filch, predicting whether he would cause them trouble next semester and how they should deal with it.
Actually, only Fred and George had this kind of worry.
As the train passed through Muggle towns, they were eating bertie bott's every flavor beans provided by Lee Jordan, seeing who had the worst luck.
When the train stopped at Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station, they took off their Wizard robes and changed into Muggle jackets and short tops.
There was an old guard at the ticket barrier, allowing only two or three people through at a time. It took Albert a long time to queue and walk out of the platform.
"Over here, Albert, we're here!"
As soon as Albert walked out of the platform, he saw Nia waving at him.
"Nia has become a lady," Albert complimented his sister with a smile.
"I've always been a lady," Nia complained unhappily.
"Where's Tom?" Albert asked.
"He's temporarily staying with your Grandpa Luke," Herbsaid, taking Albert's luggage and casually explaining, "You know, we're going to France for the summer holidays, and we don't have time to take care of him. Your owl is also temporarily staying with Grandpa Luke."
"Oh, dear, I must write to Grandma Sansa and tell her not to feed Tom too much food," Albert couldn't help but cover his face with his palm. He seemed to foresee that when he saw Tom again, he would have been fed into a fat cat.
"There's nothing wrong with a cat being a little fat," Daisy comforted. "I think it's quite cute."