Chapter 178 - 178 Consecutive defeats

Chapter 178: Chapter 178 Consecutive defeats

"Did you understand what Ms. Granger repeated to you, Potter?"

Dracula asked after Hermione finished repeating the spider banishing spell.

"Professor, I understand." Harry said with a quick nod, "Sorry for the delay in your lecture, you may continue on."

He urged Dracula to continue his lecture without a trace, thinking in his heart that maybe Professor Dracula would forget his punishment for walking out of class after lecturing for a little while?

However, he failed to realize that the admittedly careful Professor Dracula obviously wouldn't just forget his punishment for not paying attention in class.

"Potter, you don't seem to be in a very good state of listening to class these past two months." Dracula suddenly thought of some interesting punishments and said to Harry with a smirk, "I'm curious what interesting things have been happening lately, want to share them?"

Harry immediately shook his head no.

His secret had always been hidden in the deepest recesses of his heart, he hadn't even told his best friends Ron and Hermione, so how could he possibly be willing to tell his classmates from both houses about it?

"Don't want to talk about it do you, I won't force you." Dracula nodded casually.

'When did Professor Dracula become so nice?'

Harry froze for a moment.

Dracula's next paragraph, however, brought Harry's perception of him back again.

"The punishment for walking out of class still needs to be there, if each and every one of you don't pay attention because you're walking out of class, then where will I put my face?" Dracula said carelessly, "I'm going to give you two options below, you can choose either one as your punishment."

"The first: your written assignments for the semester, as well as practical assignments outside of the course, are quadrupled through and through!"

Harry gulped.

Normally Professor Dracula didn't assign much written work, so doubling written assignments wasn't much of a challenge, and this doubling was the least of the punishments, even if it was quadrupling.

It wasn't this that gave Harry a headache, it was that one practical assignment-

Practical assignments, as the name suggests, were assignments that had to be practiced in order to be completed, and used in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, they were assignments that required fighting.

Now that Hogwarts had a dueling club hosted by Dracula, many of the practical assignments were hooked up with the arrangements of the dueling club.

There were times when Dracula would have students complete practical assignments in the dueling club for their Black Magic Defense class, for example: for new novels

Using only a specific spell during a duel, or successfully defending against an opponent's attack during a duel, or dodging a certain number of attacks with flexible positioning ...

Practical assignments such as these were usually not too difficult to complete every day at the dueling club as long as you paid more attention, so few people would complain about them.

However, when quadrupled, things would look very different ... That is to say, Harry would have to fight four duels in the dueling club every time he wanted to complete his homework, and each of them also had special restrictions!

"What about the second option?" He was still holding out for a chance.

"The second option well ... would be to share in front of your classmates the reason why you've been in such a poor state of listening lately." Dracula slowly hooked up the corner of his mouth, "Remember not to make up blind stories out to lake us, I know very well whether you are telling the truth or not."

"I'll take the first option!" Harry said decisively.

If he had to say something so embarrassing in front of his classmates, it would be a social death, right?

It would be embarrassing ...

"Are you sure?" Dracula's smile flattened a bit.

"I'm sure!" Harry didn't hesitate.

"Alright then." Dracula smacked his lips a little regretfully, "I'll arrange the dueling matches for you tonight, you're not allowed to leave until you've finished all four duels!"

...

By the time he got back to his dormitory in the evening, Harry was completely exhausted.

In the dueling club high intensity with others after four duels, just after dinner did not rest for two minutes, was pulled by Wood to go to the Quidditch pitch and another wave of Quidditch training, training after the end of the Harry feel that his whole person can not ...

"Harry, are you okay?" Ron asked heartily as he looked at his nemesis who had collapsed heavily onto the bed, "Wood is really something too, you're exhausted like this and he's still asking you to attend Quidditch practice!"

Harry didn't want to move a single finger and grunted as he lay on the bed and responded, "I'm feeling pretty good ... I can't die at least for now."

"Well give it a rest then, hopefully you'll still be as optimistic as you are today when you're all sore tomorrow." Ron looked at him with a face full of sympathy, "Say, how many days did Professor Dracula say that quadrupling your practical work would last?"

Harry then noticed that in order to take the basket, he had likewise held his hand on the basket's carrier and inadvertently touched it with Ginny's.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to." He apologized in a hurry.

Ginny's cheeks burned as if she had blushed so much that she couldn't speak, and she just shook her head vigorously.

Her long fiery red hair whipped up behind her like a clump of brightly colored spring flowers.

"Hey Ginny, why are you just bringing Harry food." Ron came over and gave Ginny a somewhat suspicious look, holding out his hand and asking, "Where's mine?"

"You didn't play four duels in one day or train for Quidditch, so why would I bring you food?" Ginny glanced at Ron, "And don't you usually eat enough, I don't want an obese brother."

The undercurrent of her being the Weasley family's group pet instantly returned when she spoke to her older brother.

"Walter F..." Ron's expletive almost came out of his mouth, but finally swallowed it back at Ginny's 'I'm going to tell mommy' look. "After I can beat Fred and George, I'm going to make them look good!"

"It's all because those two make fun of me all day long, and I can't believe they've brought you down!" He cursed.

"Don't worry, you'll never be able to beat Fred and George in your life," Ginny's words were like a knife in Ron's shoulder, "We don't have any wizards in our family who are more gifted in fighting than these two."

Ron: "..."

After Ginny left, Harry, Ron, and the other three roommates sat down for a late night snack.

There was so much and hearty food in the basket that it was impossible for one person to eat it all, so even though Ginny wasn't going to bring the food to her brother, Ron dabbled in the meal along with the other roommates.

"Ginny has been a particular admirer of yours since she was a little girl, Harry ... Well, actually there are very few young wizards in the wizarding world who don't admire you." Ron, who had a mouth full of cheese, mumbled to Harry, "We all grew up on stories of boys in great distress."

"But Ginny's a bit different, the rest of us gradually turn our childhood admiration into friendship after meeting you, you know what I mean?" He managed to swallow the contents of his mouth and continued.

Harry nodded.

"But unlike us, instead of seeing you as a friend like we did when Ginny grew up and met you, she began to worship you more and more." Ron said, "My mom told us that Ginny has been talking about you all year since she met you at King's Cross Station last year."

"But ... but I don't deserve to be worshipped like that." Harry put down the fork he was poking at the chunks of banana in his hand and said, somewhat bewildered, "I don't even know how Voldemort was defeated by me at the time ..."

Ignoring the horrified expressions of his four roommates when they heard Voldemort's name, he continued, "I'm just a perfectly ordinary little wizard who couldn't even win a simple Quidditch match, how do I deserve to be worshipped by Ginny like that?"

"Don't say that Harry, you're number one in Defense Against the Dark Arts!" Neville didn't quite feel like eating what Ginny had brought for Harry, taking a small piece of apple and nibbling halfway through it, "That alone is way beyond me, I've always been envious."

Harry didn't respond, just cried and shook his head.

No one else knew about the whole Riddle's journal thing, but that didn't mean Harry himself couldn't recognize himself.

He'd always thought that he'd gotten first place in his Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam last year all because of Riddle's tutoring, or else Professor Dracula had made the Patronus how it should have been Hermione's.

"Harry, you'll be fine, you're the soul of the Gryffindor Quidditch team!" Ron said as his mouth filled up again, patting Harry on the shoulder as he chewed, "You were just in bad shape last game, just win the next one back!"

All the young wizards were confident in Harry, after all he was the youngest ball finder in the history of Hogwarts!

...

But things didn't go as well as the other young wizards expected.

Even as Harry gradually adjusted over the rest of the semester, he lost his next Quidditch match.

Harry had actually anticipated this event himself, and that was because, the match was between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

Autumn Chang, as the ball finder for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, had held all of Harry's thoughts from the very beginning of the match.

Because of this, the youngest ball finder in the history of Hogwarts on the Gryffindor team, every now and then during the course of the match, he would look over to where the opposite ball finder was located-

Not to observe the opponent's movements, nor to prevent the Golden Flyer from appearing in the vicinity of the opposite ball finder and being caught, but simply to be able to take a look at Autumn Chang's beautiful face.

Throughout the match, instead of Harry as the ball finder looking for the Golden Flying Thief, it was more like he was looking for Autumn Chang's figure ...

With such a lack of focus, Harry actually still had a chance to help Gryffindor win the match.

Because he was overly concerned about Ravenclaw's ball finder, even though he never seriously searched for the Golden Flying Thief, he still reacted in an instant and drove his broom to chase after him the moment Autumn-Zhang spotted the Golden Flying Thief.

Autumn-Chang wasn't a fast flyer, and with Harry chasing after her, she soon caught up and flew to a shoulder-to-shoulder position with her.

Harry, however, hesitated.