Chapter 221 - 221 Unexpected package

Chapter 221: Chapter 221 Unexpected package

"Oh, almost forgot."

Dracula turned back to Harry and Ron with a smirk, "Now that Ms. Granger has mentioned it, have you two come up with your jokes?"

Ron hesitated, glanced around at the professors and Sirius and Peter, and seeing that there were no Lords of Slytherin House around, he gritted his teeth and told the joke he had made up earlier to prank Malfoy.

"There's a Slytherin graduate who joined the Death Eaters ...

...

The Slytherin graduate rejoiced and said excitedly, 'Yes, yes, that's what I'm going to learn!'"

...

After the joke was told, an eerie silence fell over the faculty lounge.

Feeling a bit embarrassed about losing face, Ron asked awkwardly, "Isn't it funny?"

"Pfft..."

Sirius was the first to laugh.

"Hahahahaha ... That's definitely the funniest joke I've heard lately!" He laughed excitedly, "I've been looking at that Lucius Malfoy for a long time now, but of course, if we could change the main character of the joke to Snape, the joke might be a little funnier."

Sirius passed Ron an encouraging look, "Come on, think of a few more jokes out there featuring Snape as the main character, I've got my eye on you, boy!"

Even with the praise, Ron wasn't much happier and just forced a smile.

But he knew that this Sirius Black had spent more than ten years in that joyless place in Azkaban, hiding in the east after escaping from prison, and surely he had only heard this one joke.

Then this joke of his must be the funniest one Sirius had heard recently, because there wouldn't be a second one!

Ron then reluctantly turned his attention to the others.

Lupin, who was too preoccupied at the moment to have much of an idea of listening to jokes being told, just gave a facetious tantalizing smile.

Peter, who was worrying about his future and was full of bitterness, was even less likely to laugh at any jokes.

Fortunately, Dumbledore's expression seemed to be a bit jovial.

"It's true that the young are still creative," Dumbledore said with a smirk, "but I suggest that you'd better not tell the joke to Mr. Malfoy, or you'll be fighting again. Minerva's been quite busy lately, so it's best not to give her more to do."

Hearing Dumbledore's advice, Ron was a little heartbroken. Because this joke had been heard by Draco Malfoy on the spot where it was thought up, they did almost fight ...

Finally, Ron, Harry, and Hermione all turned their eyes to Dracula.

Only if Professor Dracula approved of the joke would Harry's homework be lightened, and Hagrid and Buckbeak would be helped ...

At Ron's hopeful gaze, Dracula slowly hooked the corner of his mouth.

"It didn't feel that funny, but it was pretty creative." Dracula laughed softly, "I'll count you guys through for now this time!"

"Professor, what about Buckbeak ...," Hermione pressed.

"Don't worry, Buckbeak will be fine!"

Dracula waved his hand and walked out of the faculty lounge.

...

Dracula was still very efficient in acting on what he had promised.

On the afternoon of the next day, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to visit Hagrid at the shed on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they saw an old man with a mess of floppy, flowery white curls and a slightly freckled face sitting opposite Hagrid in the shed, chatting.

"Huh?" Rolf was instantly a bit alarmed, "Why would the professors come to Hogwarts for an inspection? Don't they have classes every day?"

"As far as I know, there's also a group of exchange students who came here together, and those professors will be coming over to visit as lead teachers." Newt laughed, "Maybe some of the students who are going to be exchanged to Hogwarts are also some of your former best friends!"

Ignoring Rolf's tangled performance, Newt focused his attention on Buckbeak.

He first picked up a piece of meat and tossed it aside to get the hawk-headed, winged beast's attention, then while it stood up and was about to go feed, he swiftly grabbed the suitcase on the table and pressed it against Buckbeak's back.

Under the dumbfounded gaze of Harry, Ron and Hermione, Buckbeak's body transformed into a shadow and was swallowed by the open suitcase ...

The opening of this suitcase was much narrower than Buckbeak's entire body in any direction!

"Just a little magic spell." Newt saw the expressions on the trio's faces and told them with a smile, "There are quite a few animals still kept inside this suitcase, Buckbeak will find some good friends here!"

...

Time passed quickly, and snowflakes gradually drifted across the skies of the Scottish Highlands.

In the two months leading up to the Christmas holidays, Harry felt as if his bad luck had been used up by the time before, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Professor Dracula had enlisted the help of a professional Fantastic Beasts for Hagrid and packed the Buckbeak, which needed to be bolted, into a suitcase that looked small but was actually the size of several Quidditch pitches.

That Mr. Newt Scamander also promised that after the Christmas break, he would personally go ahead and dispose of the Magical Creatures Committee and help Buckbeak win that case.

On top of that, Harry easily defeated the Slytherin team in the Quidditch match afterward, giving Gryffindor back its chance to compete for the title.

Because of the Dementors, Harry's Lightwheel 2000 had long since fallen to pieces at that previous Quidditch match, and he had ridden the same sweeping series of brooms as the rest of his teammates.

Even though there was a huge difference in hardware and equipment from the all Lightwheel 2001 Slytherin team, Harry was able to catch the Golden Snitch under Draco Malfoy's watchful eye with his nimble maneuvering and even better flying skills, and the entire match took no more than ten minutes!

The Dementors hadn't left the castle yet.

In his correspondence with Sirius, Harry had learned that the officials at the Ministry of Magic were not entirely satisfied with the evidence presented by Dumbledore that Peter Pettigrew was the culprit, and had decided to make an official announcement as to whether or not Sirius had been cleared of any wrongdoing after the Wizengamot magical council had held its trial.

As a result, Dumbledore also withheld the news of finding Sirius' whereabouts to prevent him from getting into any further trouble.

Although the sight of dementors flying around not far from the castle was still depressing, Harry's progress in learning the Patronus spell in his Defense Against the Dark Arts class seemed to have sped up all of a sudden ...

Harry believes that this is because he has learned who the real culprits of his parents' deaths were, and also possesses some of the courage to face the memories of his early childhood head on, so the Dementors don't affect him as much as they used to.

Instead of passing out immediately after the Dementor Dracula had captured released its breath, he was able to keep his wits about him through the difficult response and managed to raise his wand and recite the incantation of the Patronus Spell - the

The silvery-white mist would dispel the gloom before him, giving him courage and spiritual comfort.

Before he knew it, the time had come for a weekend of Christmas vacation.

It was time for Hogwarts to organize another trip for the young wizards to Hogsmeade.

Harry was in a rare, somewhat gloomy mood as he watched the other students chattering away in the common room, discussing which store in Hogsmeade they should visit.

"We can buy all the Christmas presents we want there!" Hermione said cheerfully, "My mom and dad may be muggles, but they love the furry tooth mints they get from the Honeydukes too!"

At that moment, she saw the look on Harry's face and couldn't help but lower her voice.

"Harry, we can bring you back some if you need anything." She said softly.

"No, there's nothing I want." Harry's tone was a little hard.

"Harry ..."

Just as Hermione was still worried about Harry, an owl suddenly flew in through the window over the Gryffindor common room.

A long package fell from the sky and landed heavily on the couch in front of Harry.