Chapter 555

When he woke up, Felix was startled by the immense emotions throughout the castle.

He shook his head as the castle in front of him seemed to possess an emotion of its own. He knew it was an illusion, but it was quite a fascinating feeling; Felix thought as he washed up, it was like every brick in the school had come to life, and couldn’t wait to be part of today’s occasion.

It is the last weekend of November and the day the school has promised to let student clubs that have been vetted by the student body to recruit new students. Although Felix didn’t think there is much need for it – many clubs had already started grabbing people a few days in advance and had probably recruited enough by now – the emotions he felt when he first woke up seemed to indicate that he had guessed it wrong before.

As Felix packed up and led Valen to the great hall, he realized that he had underestimated the enthusiasm of these students.

The great hall was packed and already full of students. Felix subconsciously switched to a dementor’s point of view to observe, and as far as he could see, he felt as if he is in a sea of joy. Four long tables were stacked up against the wall, and in their place were booths that looked like reefs, with waves of water carrying strong emotions stirred up around them. Everyone seemed to be filled with multicoloured flares as they raised their voice in jubilant emotion.

Felix paced to the corner of the great hall where Professors McGonagall and Flitwick stood together, Professor McGonagall’s face looking a little stiff, she could hardly ignore the violations that were happening all around her.

“Oh, Minerva, don’t be too strict.” The good-humoured Professor Flitwick said, taking out his wand and waving it through the air a few times like a conductor, and from the tip flew a colourful silk ribbon, and flocks of chirping birds flew out as they glid through the air in a neat formation, and occasionally would find a fallen student and hover around that student to help him.

Felix narrowed his eyes; did they appear to be a flock of eaglets? Beneath the soft golden plumage, there is a fine layer of bronze feathers.

He was dazed, as he suddenly remembered a similar modification he had made in the great hall at the start of his first year, when he had conjured up a large emerald green snake on the ceiling, with Severus in it… Felix grinned and pointed his finger out as a huge Occamy coalesced in the air.

Bird head, thin neck, blue-green feathers, with freely stretched wings and shimmering plumes, and as it bent down it revealed a pair of serene amber eyes.

The students in the great hall went quiet for a moment, then burst into even greater murmurs, and chattered noisily.

“An Occamy! I’ve only seen it in pictures, I never thought it would be so beautiful in real life.” Justin Finch-Fletchley said with a look of awe.

“I’ve seen them in classroom seven,” Susan Bones said, but she too was staring up at the ceiling in fascination, “They’re hidden in the bamboo grove, beside the ceramic town.”

“What’s that?” Justine asked.

“A town entirely made of porcelain, and Professor Hap’s memory body invited me in to play around a little, saying it was -” Susan Bones thought for a moment, “a beta test. Yes, that’s the word.”

” A beta test?” Justin more or less understood the meaning of the word, “Sounds interesting, I wonder when it’s going to open.”

On the other side, Professor McGonagall gave Felix a stern look, and felt quite uncomfortable with his polite yet provocative glance, her chest puffed out and with a sudden swipe of her wand, the chairs in the corner magically flipped on their heels and burst out, transforming into large and small golden-furred lions.

When Dumbledore appeared, the great hall looked like a chaotic mess: golden eaglets soaring around, occamy with blue-green feathers carrying a few students overhead, and a group of badgers hunkered down beside the wall, staring unblinkingly at the Peeves Ghost above.

Peeves floated around in midair, fully dressed in his usual silly costume, and he miraculously did nothing to spoil the occasion.

This could only mean one thing, the emotions of the students in the great hall were causing Peeves to feel happy.

Dumbledore’s feet were met with a brushing sensation, and he lowered his head to see, as a small fluffy lion tilted its head up to meet his gaze.

Dumbledore smiled and took out his wand and pointed it downwards, turning the dark, cold floor into a grass-green carpet with him at its centre. Amidst a roar of cheers, Dumbledore courteously walked away, looking through the crowd as he went, and he soon found the very conspicuous figure.

“Severus,” Dumbledore said as he stood side by side with Snape, taking in the bustling scene in the great hall, and shook his head as he did so, “I would never wear a black robe if I had planned to attend a fête.”

” Unfortunately, this is the only colour I have to wear.” Snape said coldly.

“Sometimes it’s nice to change things up, what do you think of silver? Or green?” Dumbledore concluded and gazed at the students walking around the great hall, and after a while, he softly whispered, “Keep an eye on Felix.”

“Who?”

“Felix, Felix Hap.” Dumbledore said in a near whisper.

“Are you mad, Dumbledore?” Snape bellowed. A dozen feet away, a student holding up a muggle film poster shook his hand in shock and the poster fluttered and landed at his feet, Snape stared at the name of the film on it with a disgusted look on his face, “Lion King?… The Lion King?”

The student picked up the poster with trepidation and ran away in a huff.

Snape calmed down, but his tone became even snarkier as he lowered his voice and said, ” Have you grown old and senile?”

Dumbledore showed a helpless expression, “I am indeed old, but not quite senile.” But Snape still peered at him as if to see, if he is someone else in disguise, there was nothing wrong with that hawkish nose any way he looked at it.

Knowing he had to give an explanation, Dumbledore looked at the Weasley twins waving a huge banner in the distance and said with a sigh, “Felix is doing something very dangerous.”

“What is it?” Snape asked subconsciously, “Breaking the laws of the Ministry of Magic? Has he been doing something more illegal than that?”

“No, Severus, it’s much more serious than that,” Dumbledore said, ” It involves a very dangerous man, that’s all you need to know: in a way, he’s more dangerous than Voldemort … In short, I can’t make an accurate judgement. You were his teacher, you’re the only one who knows him best.”

“No one will ever understand Felix Hap.” Snape said spitefully, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly cast a Killing Curse on you one day.”

“To be honest, I don’t really care about that.” Dumbledore said with a grin on his face, ” Well, just keep an extra eye on him, will you?”

…

Fred and George stood on a wooden trunk with a row of empty butterbeer bottles in front of them, and seven or eight young lower grade wizards crouched in front of the bottles, looking at the clusters of fireworks that continued to explode in them with envious expressions.

“Fireworks in a bottle!” Fred said cheerfully, “Just sign up, and you can get one for free.” He reached out and pointed to a poster that dangled at one side with big colourful letters flashing on it – “Swear to Defend School Rules Club!”

A student reads carefully the introductory section below the big letters: still struggling to understand the cumbersome school rules? Or have you been deducted of your house points and detained for breaking school rules and been too ashamed to see anyone since then? Have you ever been teased by your classmates for your lousy rule-breaking attempts? If you’re wondering the exact same thing, the answers can be found in the ‘Swear to Defend School Rules Club’, where you can learn all about school rules and the authoritative analysis of the new rules added each year! It will make your seven years at school much easier!

The student had a feeling that something was wrong and when he looked up, he saw a face with a big smile. “Well?” George squeezed his eyes and said, “Are you intrigued? Still on the fence? It’s a rare opportunity my friend, you can sign up first, we offer three training sessions for free and if you have the talent you will soon be able to comprehend the key points …”

Two minutes later, the boy left in a daze, clutching a butterbeer bottle.

“Be careful not to break the bottle!” George warned kindly behind him, then sighed contentedly. A deliberately low voice suddenly heard in his ear, “What are the consequences of breaking the bottle?” Startled, George turned his head to look at the two students who were keeping themselves tightly cloaked.

“Harry? Ron?” George muttered in surprise.

” Yeah, it’s us.” Harry muttered.

George looked them up and down for a good while before he suddenly burst out laughing, “Hermione’s been looking for you guys …”

“Yeah, we know,” Ron said vaguely, “we’ve avoided her twice.”

Harry’s gaze went over his shoulder and he could see ‘The Frontline Lookout’, ‘S.P.E.W.’, ‘Crumple-Horned Snorkacks Certainly Exist’, and ‘Harry Potter Fan Club’ all four booths grouped together in a loose square where the Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Creevey brothers were working feverishly.

Harry shivered, as he knew that pictures of ”Harry Potter’s” face were hanging all over a curtain in the Creevey brothers’ booth. The picture of him fighting the dragon hung at the top, and he wondered how Creevey had managed to capture it, his head occupied a good one-third of the picture, while the other two-thirds consisted of hideous Hungarian Horntail, with Ron and Hermione clapping their hands in the corner like spectators who had stumbled upon the scene by mistake …

A crowd of people gathered around and pointed. To Harry’s horror – Draco Malfoy was staring and sizing up his picture with undisguised contempt on his face, and not far from him, Mafalda excitedly pulled Dennis Creevey in to ask questions, and Dennis enthusiastically introduced it to her, as she pulled out a small green notebook and quill afterward.

“Do you mind if I take notes?”

“Oh, of course not.”

Two sharp voices bore through the bustling great hall and reached Harry’s ears.

If he had to choose, between Malfoy and Mafalda, Harry wasn’t sure who he wouldn’t want to see more here, if it was before this school year, that person would definitely be Draco Malfoy since he would surely make up a bunch of nonsense to taunt him, but now Harry hesitated, he had absolutely no idea what story Mafalda would make up.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He then noticed something even more alarming as Professor Hap and Sirius walked over in pairs, stopping in front of the ‘Harry Potter Fan Club’ and surveying the pictures on the curtain with interest, Sirius’s eyes seemed to glow …

“Hi, Harry.” Harry was jolted by the sudden tap on his shoulder. He looked back to see it was Luna.

“What are you doing here?” Harry asked in a lowered voice. Mentally regretting for the millionth time that he hadn’t taken a small sip of Felix Felicis before coming here.

“Hermione has been looking for you.” Luna said, “I saw she was too busy and volunteered to help.”

“A lot of people signed up?” Ron asked in surprise. Is S. P. E. W. that popular?

“Yeah, they can barely keep up with it.” Luna said with a big smile.

Even though he couldn’t hear the accusation in Luna’s tone, Harry was flooded with a faint sense of guilt towards both Hermione and Neville. After all, he was the one who had founded ‘The Frontline Lookout Club’, but he now had dumped all the responsibilities on someone else.

There was a slight hesitation in Harry’s mind, but it was immediately thrown out of the window when he saw Professor Hap walking past, he would die of absolute shame if the professor asked him about the ‘Harry Potter Fan Club’.

…

“Can I interview you?” Mafalda asked.

“What? Me?” Dennis Creevey looked at her with a confused expression on his face and Mafalda nodded, “Oh, okay.”

“What grade are you in?”

“Second year.”

“So you enrolled last year?” Mafalda asked with great interest.

“Yeah, and I was the one who took that picture.” Dennis pointed proudly at the picture featuring the Hungarian Horntail.

On the other side, Sirius signed the enrolment form with gusto, ” So is that all?”

“Of course!” Colin Creevey replied with excitement as he dug under the booth and pulled out a large box, “All the photos are in there, all of them personally hand-picked by me.”

Sirius left happily with a full set of photographs of his godson.

“Dennis! I can’t believe we’ve recruited a professor to our club!” Colin exclaimed sharply, he turned back to hug his brother only to find Dennis was missing, he looked around twice and found Dennis being led by a girl towards the deserted S.P.E.W. booth as they chatted.

Hermione was handing out ‘Frontline Lookout Club’ leaflets with Neville and Ginny, occasionally answering the question “What is the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks beast?” or something like that. Hermione’s face looked exasperated, she had decided to put the two club booths together in order not to delay things, but her booth was completely deserted, none of the three freshmen who had previously agreed to come today didn’t show up! On the contrary, the ‘Frontline Lookout Club’ was very popular, with a steady stream of people inquiring about it, and the registration forms soon filled up to the brim.

Hermione looked around the chaotic great hall and thought sadly to herself that the music, films, magical drawings, and violent duelling were more appealing than a society that promotes the rights of elves.

At that moment, a small, black, round creature suddenly jumped up onto the table.

“Kee?”

“Valen?” Hermione looked back to see Valen holding a custom-made wand and waving it around in one hand, the tip of which glowed with Lumos glow brightly and looked like she was waving a glow stick around to cheer her up. “Wow.” Hermione’s heart warmed, and she picked up Valen and rubbed her cheek against her face, ” Smack-” a small palm-sized book fell out of her Niffler pocket and spread out on the table.

“A Diary of a Grandmaster?” Hermione could barely make out the crooked letters on the book, and she looked at Valen in confusion as Valen struggled out of her grasp in embarrassment and picked up the small book she had dropped. She then turned her head and slipped away. Hermione pondered where she stood for a few seconds, then pursed her lips with a smile.

“What’s this about?” A voice asked.

“Frontline Lookout Club, you can think of it as the Auror training club, it’s self-driven in nature, but we do provide professional training as well as …” Hermione subconsciously recited the lines, “Er, Professor? ”

Felix smiled and nodded at her.

“No one asked for it?” He asked, surveying the stack of blank registration forms on the table.

“It most likely does not match the current trend.” Hermione said, hanging her head in sadness.

“If you just want to attract some members, you could try what the Weasley twins did,” Felix said. He and Hermione looked together in the direction of the ‘Swear to Defend School Rules’ club, which looked packed, in stark contrast to this side of the room.

“But I don’t want to-” Hermione said, biting her lip, looking stumped.

“Hello?” A voice interjected, and Mafalda probed at them; she had just made an appointment with Dennis for an interview and then proceeded to carry out her scheduled plans without stopping. “Can I get a sign up a form?”

Hermione looked at her with wide eyes, “You’re joining S.P.E.W.?”

Mafalda shrugged, “If you’re okay with that-”

“I do!” Hermione instantly said, “You’re interested in house elves too? What were your thoughts on that? I actually think the name is a bit outdated, but it’s the first objective of this organization… I mean, contrary to my original vision, now I want to bring equal rights and benefits to all creatures with human-like intelligence with a new constitution that unites them all. Now the wizards have the absolute superiority over the other creatures in terms of power, making this the right time to show our grace. …”

Felix twirled his quill in his hand and listened in silence as his own assistant seemed to keep refining his ideas. In his opinion, equal rights and benefits are unnecessary, and he wouldn’t do such a thankless chore in any way. But nevertheless, it is worthwhile to eliminate hatred and build a pan-magical alliance led by wizards.

After thinking about it for a moment, he took a registration form and filled it out.

Mafalda is not quite used to Hermione’s enthusiasm, “Oh, er,” she stammered, “there’s something I think you should better be aware of. Counting your club, I’ve joined a total of twenty-seven clubs …”

The joy on Hermione’s face froze.

“Are you kidding me? Or have you joined every club you can possibly sign up for?”

“Of course not!” Mafalda said angrily, “I made sure to have a chat before I signed up, at least to make sure they didn’t create it on a whim …” Her voice grew smaller and smaller, as she sounded quite less convincing.

The two stared blankly at each other for a while before Hermione finally gave in. She said tiredly, “Okay, here’s the form … wait, someone already filled this one out … Professor?” Hermione looked around, only to see Harry and Ron sneaking around from the other side, they had pretty much wrapped themselves up like a mummy.

“You guys – STILL – know – to come back?!” Hermione yelled at them.

“The Professor left?” Harry and Ron’s eyes dodged, not daring to look at her. Harry blurted out sheepishly, “Great, er, I mean … what are you doing here?” He turned his head to glare at Mafalda.

Mafalda raised her face up in a condescending manner.

————

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