Homecoming from Hogwarts

The next morning, Harry got out of bed and found the corner of his clothes dragging out from under the bed. Only then did he vaguely remember what happened last night. He jumped out of bed and half-crouched on the ground, squinting at the dim bottom of the bed. The two rows of stacked lunch boxes made Harry speechless for a moment, and he finally confirmed that everything that happened last night was not a bizarre dream.

"Dobby and Winky sent you a bunch of pies and cakes last night?!"

Harry couldn't wait to share this with Ron and Hermione as he left the common room and rushed to the Great Hall for breakfast, but Ron, as Harry expected, got the point wrong as usual.

"I knew it wasn't an illusion. I just smelled the aroma of pie. Why didn't they bring some for me too?"

Ron said angrily,

"I gave Dobby a pair of socks last Christmas!"

"It's not about the food, Ron—"

Harry nimbly jumped past Angelina and greeted her. Then he tilted his head to look at Ron and Hermione.
"The key is the crisis that Winky and Dobby talked about. Dobby said that Hogwarts is facing a crisis comparable to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. What does this mean?"

"It means Hogwarts may face closure."

Hermione's stern words almost made Harry and Ron slip on the stairs.

The two boys, supporting each other, finally stood firm. They looked at Hermione at a loss, who always gave them the right advice and could always see the truth. Harry expected to see a joking expression on Hermione's face, but unfortunately, Hermione's pure brown eyes flashed with seriousness, telling Harry that she was not joking.

"You're kidding, Hermione."

Ron gave his evaluation directly.

"Hogwarts may be facing closure. Oh, didn't your book 'A History of Hogwarts' tell you that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has existed for a thousand years, and no one can make it go bankrupt. Moreover, Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine are here now, so even the You-Know-Who dares not mess with this place."

Ron's words implicitly revealed the true reason why wizards who believed that the Dark Lord had been resurrected and returned to the world were not panicking.

"Well, actually, A History of Hogwarts tells me more than you think, Ron -"

The three of them began to run again, Hermione's fluffy curls expanding and contracting rhythmically in the morning breeze like seaweed floating in the water.
"The Ministry of Magic, the Senior Deputy Minister of Magic still failed to enter Hogwarts even after getting the support of the Board of Directors. Her wand was broken by Neville and she was admitted to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Sins. Do you think they will be willing to let it go, Ron?"

"But what can they do?"

Ron disagreed.

"They can't do anything to Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine, can they?"

"If you had read Hogwarts: A History, you wouldn't be so optimistic, Ron -"

Hermione said grimly.

"I guessed they might do something bad. Oh, it seems I guessed right again."

Harry asked eagerly, but Hermione was unwilling to say more and just said coldly,
"Just wait and see, Harry, soon everyone will know."

Three people ran into the auditorium from the entrance hall. Harry immediately looked anxiously towards the faculty table and found something wrong.

First of all, Professor Blaine disappeared into the teaching team again, Professor Dumbledore was not there either, and the remaining professors no longer had their usual cheerful expressions. Professor McGonagall did not touch the breakfast in front of her, but looked at the children below with a sad face.

The auditorium was still bustling, but a lot quieter than usual, and many people had left their seats to go to the classroom.

"When did you learn to keep secrets, Hermione?"

Ron frowned and complained about Hermione, then quickly pulled out a bench and sat down.

Ron, muttering "I'm starving", touched his stomach and prepared to eat a big meal, but when he saw the food on the table, Ron's brows suddenly raised.

Compared with the rich food that usually fills the table, today's food selection is much simpler.

The few plates on the table contained toast, fried eggs, and mashed potato pies, and the few plates with sausages had been cleared by the young wizards who had arrived earlier. "What's going on?"

Ron looked at Neville, who was trying to swallow a piece of dry bread, in confusion, and handed him a glass of pumpkin juice.
"Who ate all the food?"

Neville took Ron's pumpkin juice, nodded gratefully, then gulped down the pumpkin juice and let out a relieved sigh.

"That's how I came down—"

Neville said with some complaints,
"I was woken up by hunger, so I came down early to look for food, but there wasn't much food on the table. I had a hard time grabbing a plate of grilled sausages from two second-year students."

Harry's expression changed subtly. He came to his senses and looked at the Hufflepuff table next to him and the Ravenclaw table further away, and found that the situation on the tables was similar.

Harry looked at Hermione and asked in surprise,

"The Ministry won't let people sell food to Hogwarts?"

"Oh, maybe it's worse, Harry."

Hermione sighed, feeling a little helpless about Harry's dullness.

"Don't ask, Harry, I'm not sure yet."

Many details proved that something unusual had indeed happened, but Harry was not sure whether his guess was correct.

The bland breakfast made Ron lose his usual appetite. After hurriedly finishing breakfast, they went to the basement with Neville.

The Potions classroom was a dark and damp room located underground. When Harry walked into the classroom, most of the Slytherins had already arrived. Some people were gathered around Draco Malfoy, whispering something. Most of them were in physical education class. These people looked embarrassed, and Malfoy, who was in the center of the crowd, also looked very ugly.

Harry paused subconsciously; he had a feeling that what they were discussing was related to some predicament that Hogwarts was currently facing.

Draco soon noticed Harry's peeping. He coughed heavily twice, and drove away the people around him with an impatient look on his face. Then he sat up straight and lowered his head to look at his Potions textbook.

Harry also withdrew his gaze in disgust.

The last time Malfoy caused trouble was when Hermione was elected as the champion. Since then, the two have not had any conflicts. But after Voldemort was resurrected, Harry's resentment towards Malfoy increased again.

Lucius Malfoy was undoubtedly one of the Death Eaters, and he was personally named by Voldemort during Voldemort's resurrection ceremony.

Not only him, but also Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini and Nott, their fathers were all "hardcore fans" of Voldemort. Slytherin is a den of dark wizards.

So, will Draco and the others follow in their fathers' footsteps and join the evil forces following Voldemort?

Harry walked silently to his seat, surprised that he had just thought of this question.

The Ministry of Magic tried its best to send that toad-like woman to Hogwarts to monitor Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine, but the more evil Voldemort naturally had a lot of spies in Hogwarts?

Harry suddenly felt an urgency in his heart. He wanted to remind Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine to beware of these Slytherin people, but then he thought again that Professor Braine had seen everything he saw at Voldemort's resurrection ceremony, so...
Why doesn't he kick these people out of the physical education class? Keeping them in the class is equivalent to cultivating enemies for Hogwarts.

Harry was deeply immersed in these thoughts, but a sudden pain in his ribs woke him up. He looked up in shock and found that Snape had appeared on the podium without knowing when, with cold eyes and a lazy sneer on the corner of his mouth.

"Ah, it seems that Mr. Potter has finally woken up from his dream of saving the world?"

(End of this chapter)