Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 387 Defection - Weasley's Joke Shop

As soon as Hera returned to Hogwarts Castle, she sensed an abnormal commotion. This was the unique privilege of being the headmaster. He could perceive most of the things that happened in the school—of course, it was not clear, he could just feel a large group of students gathered in the hall.

"Harry, we'd better go downstairs quickly, something seems to have happened downstairs." Hera ignored Harry completely, and hurried towards the door as soon as she came out of the fireplace.

Down the stairs came the sound of shouts and footsteps from the hall.Hera ran down the marble stairs, only to realize that most of the school had gathered in the foyer—much more than he had perceived.

It's really like the night Trelawney was fired.Students formed a large circle along the wall, some of them covered in what looked like stinky juice.Teachers and ghosts are also in the crowd.Among the onlookers, the most conspicuous were the members of the investigative action team. They all appeared to be in high spirits. Peeves floating above people's heads was staring at Fred and George below.

"Good!" said Umbridge triumphantly.She looked at her prey with contempt again. "Okay—you guys thought it would be fun to turn one of the school's corridors into a swamp, didn't you?"

"Excuse me, can anyone tell me what happened?" Hera shouted through the crowd.

"Oh, we were just having a little joke, and apparently Professor Umbridge thinks it's a little too much," said Fred rather cheerfully, without any sign of fear.

Filch pushed his way from the crowd to Umbridge, almost crying with joy - he probably thought the "little babies" in his office were finally being used.

"Professor Umbridge, I—" Hera had just started speaking, but was interrupted by Fred and George.

"Hera, we know what we've done," Fred said, turning to his twin beside him. "George, I think we're out of full-time education."

"How do you want me to explain to your mother like this-" Hera could only say this, he vaguely guessed what the Weasley brothers were going to do.

"She'll see," said George cheerfully. "Fred and I have always thought so."

"Now it's time to test our talents in the real world, don't you think?" Fred asked.They almost didn't give Hera a chance to intervene, and they seemed to have made their choice long ago.

"Exactly!" said George.

Before Hera could say a word, they raised their wands and said at the same time.

"Flying broom!"

There was a loud crack in the distance, and Fred and George's broomsticks darted down the corridor towards their masters, one with the heavy chains and bolts Umbridge had used to fasten them to the stakes trailing from the tail of one.They turned to the left, flew down the stairs, and came to a stop in front of the twins, the chains clattering loudly on the flag-marked stone floor.

Hera opened her mouth slightly and looked at what was happening before him. He knew that he might soon receive Molly's screaming letter—Dumbledore had only left Hogwarts for a few days, and her two sons had escaped from school. This was definitely Hera's responsibility.

Maybe she won't resort to aggressive shouting letters, but I'm afraid some questioning will be necessary.

"You guys can really cause me trouble." Hera sighed, looking at Fred and George.

"We won't see you again," Fred said to Umbridge, stepping onto his broomstick.

"Of course I'm not talking about you, Hera. I look forward to our next meeting." George waved at Hera, indicating that Fred's words were not aimed at him, and then got on his broomstick.

Fred looked around at the silent, wary students huddled around him.

"Anyone who wants to buy a portable swamp, the one demonstrated upstairs, just go to 93 Diagon Alley - Weasley's Magical Joke Shop," he said loudly, even at this hour, not forgetting to advertise his shop, "That's where we are."

"Hogwarts students can enjoy a discounted price as long as they swear to use our products to drive away this old bat." George added, pointing at Umbridge.

"Stop them!" Umbridge shrieked, but it was too late.As the investigative team closed in, Fred and George kicked off the floor and into the air fifteen feet, with the iron bolts swinging menacingly below.Fred watched as the mischievous Peeves, at his own height, floated over the heads of the crowd across the hall.

"Send her to hell for us, Peeves!"

Peeves froze. He looked at his twins, and lowered his head to glance at Hera unobtrusively. After receiving Hera's nod, he suddenly waved his funnel-shaped hat to salute Fred and George. They turned sharply amidst the enthusiastic applause of the students below, and flew out of the open front door into the dark night sky.

"Lestrange, you are the headmaster, you must do something!" Umbridge roared, and she rushed to Hera and shouted ferociously, and the Weasley twin brothers' humiliation to her completely tore off her disguise.

"Oh, I have to do something." Hera turned a deaf ear to him. He pulled Professor McGonagall beside him and said loudly: "George and Fred are riding Gryffindor's brooms. I'm afraid I have to write a letter and tell them that they must return Hogwarts property, otherwise I will deduct points from their house—oh, they have dropped out and are no longer Gryffindor students—I'm afraid I can't even deduct points."

"If you want, I'd like to buy two brooms for Gryffindor College." Professor McGonagall smiled, and she glanced at Umbridge contemptuously, and followed Hera towards the castle.

"Oh, that would be great. I've been meaning to say that Gryffindor's brooms are too worn out." Hera walked unhurriedly along the marble steps towards the auditorium. "But the necessary procedures still have to go. I have to write them a letter, Minerva, what's their address?"

Professor McGonagall puffed up his chest, and said in a volume loud enough for every student to hear clearly: "No. 93 Diagon Alley, Weasley's joke shop, Mr. Principal."

"Oh, it's this address, I almost forgot it." Hera pretended to be suddenly enlightened, which made Professor McGonagall couldn't help laughing, and she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

Umbridge watched Hera and Professor McGonagall go farther and farther away, but there was no sign of going away. She was completely angry. She gritted her teeth angrily. She had no choice but to deduct a few hundred points from Gryffindor—but Gryffindor's points were basically always hovering around zero points. When "The Quibbler" published Harry's interview, he once broke through the barrier of [-] points, but almost all of them were deducted in less than a week.

On the second day, a copy of Hera's "condemnation letter" to Fred and George was posted on the bulletin board in the foyer and in the common room of the four major colleges. It was not so much a condemnation as a compliment. Hera only used a small space to "rebuke" how irrational their behavior was, and at the end ordered them to return the two broomsticks in extremely small fonts.

It's hard not to suspect that Hera was just trying to make the address of 'Weasley's Joke Shop' more eye-catching, because he reserved a large blank space for 'No. 93 Diagon Alley', everyone will definitely be attracted by the huge address at the first sight of the notice.

In the next few days, the story of Fred and George flying to freedom was retold countless times, and Hera believed that it would soon become part of the Hogwarts legend—if the portraits of the previous headmasters were not for the strong dissuasion, Hera even planned to give them a special contribution award—although Molly was not so happy, she was almost pissed off, and her two undisciplined children dropped out of Hogwarts, which was a great insult to her and Arthur.

But considering Umbridge's character, she surprisingly didn't get angry with Hera and the two children, she just couldn't accept all this.

But Fred and George's reply to Hera seemed much happier. They expressed their gratitude to Hera very happily. It was because Hera wrote a letter to their mother to explain before the "Daily Prophet" reported that they did not receive the "education of love" from their mother. Of course, a round of scolding was indispensable.

The rumors kept getting worse, and a week later, even the witnesses who were there were somewhat convinced that they had seen the twins swooping down on Umbridge on broomsticks, throwing a few big dung eggs at her, and then flying out of the gate.As a direct result of their departure, there has been a surge in rhetoric that intends to emulate them.Hera often heard students say things like, "Honestly, sometimes I just want to hop on my broomstick and get out of this place." Or, "One more class like this, and I'm probably going to be a Weasley again."

This made Hera look extremely distressed, and he didn't want to wait until Dumbledore returned to school to find that there were no students in the castle - they had all left on their brooms.

But probably no one is going to forget Fred and George anytime soon.First, they didn't say how to eliminate the swamp that now fills the third-floor hallway.It has been seen that Umbridge and Filch tried various ways to clear the swamp, but without success.At last the place was roped off, and Umbridge, gnashing her teeth with rage, had to leave her office every day in a gondola across the swamp.

No one doubted that teachers like McGonagall and Flitwick couldn't clear up the swamp in the blink of an eye, but they seemed more than happy to watch Umbridge waste their efforts, as they did in the face of Fred and George's mischievous jokes.

Umbridge suspected that it was all Hera's plot to keep the other teachers from helping her out of the swamp.But Hera expressed his innocence. He did nothing, but everyone tacitly refused to provide help.

But Umbridge's troubles are far from over, and encouraged by the role models of Fred and George, there is now a large group of students vying fiercely for the newly vacated seat of troublemaker.Someone was always trying to sneak a fluffy-nosed Niffler into Umbridge's office.It immediately made a mess of the office, looking for something shiny, and jumped on Umbridge, trying to bite off a few rings from her stubby fingers.Dung eggs and stink bombs were thrown into the hallway one after another.

As a result, it has become the new fashion for students to chant the bubble head mantra to themselves after class, to ensure they have some fresh air, but also to make them look weird, like a goldfish bowl with their heads turned upside down.

Hera and the other professors are happy to see what's more interesting than that.Anyway, they were still so honest in class, and that was enough.Even Professor McGonagall complained to Hera: she found that the students' transfiguration spells progressed much faster than in her previous classes.

As for the ban on casting magic in the corridors, it has become a joke.

Horsewhip in hand, Filch wandered the corridors, eager to catch the troublemakers.Hera once thought of expelling him, but considering that Filch spent almost his whole life in Hogwarts Castle - he might die soon after leaving the castle because he didn't adapt to the magic world - believe Hera, Filch's temper is the biggest problem.

In view of this, and the friendship of the previous years, Hera and Filch had a long conversation, the specific content of which was unknown.It's just that everyone could see that when Filch was wandering in the corridor, even though he was still holding a riding whip, he always had a smile on his face. He was no longer so eager to catch troublemakers, and even gave way to them intentionally or unintentionally.

Hera promised Filch that he would consider promotion and salary increase, and he was willing to discuss with Dumbledore to give Filch a 10% salary increase as reward for so many years of hard work, but the price was that Filch had to stand on their side.

Filch figured everything out almost instantly. It was no good for him to side with Umbridge. Umbridge would not return to the Ministry with a Squib, and Hogwarts was always paying him.Offending Hogwarts does no good.

So, Filch's defection - oh no, back on track.

The investigative action team wanted to help Filch, but Filch just shook his head with a smile and didn't accept it.Strange things started happening to their members too.Wallington of the Slytherin Quidditch team is said to have been in the school hospital with a horrible skin disease that looked like he was covered in cornflakes.Draco's little henchman, Pansy Parkinson, also grew antlers and missed several days of lessons.

Now, it's pretty clear how much Fred and George actually sold before they left Hogwarts
(End of this chapter)