Chapter 643 Pre-Party

The next few days were dull. Students discussed enthusiastically how to celebrate the New Year and began to pack their bags, but these had nothing to do with the members of the 'Animagus' class. They collectively chose to stay in school.

Because practicing Animagus transformation still had a great impact on daily studies, no one wanted to waste two weeks of vacation. In the common room, Harry and his friends were still thinking about how to fight with a small leaf and make it obedient.

"There are only two days left before Christmas." Hermione said irritably.

Harry's heart suddenly started pounding. "So we are going to get the Mandrake leaf?" he asked. There was a full moon on Christmas night, which meant that they had to bite the bullet and try regardless of whether they were ready or not.

"Yes," Hermione said to a piece of parchment, "but there are two dinners waiting for us on the way to that small, lovely blade of grass... at this juncture! I have never felt that dinners are so boring as now..." She roughly erased a line of notes on the paper.

Harry knew that Hermione had a fanatical preference for preparation. She had collected suggestions from different people through various channels these days, but no method was foolproof. She even forced Harry to talk to Sirius in advance, and then pretended to appear inadvertently and took out a list of questions prepared in advance like a magic trick.

"Professor Slughorn still refuses to calm down. I wonder what tricks he will have this time?" He said with deep feeling.

Ron shrugged. In addition to the Christmas dinner, they also had to attend a personal banquet hosted by Professor Slughorn tonight because most of the students went home tomorrow.

"In fact, his small parties are pretty good. Not only do we have good food, but we can also meet some very famous wizards..." Ron narrowed his eyes and said with a look of aftertaste: "Do you know Gwenog Jones? He is the captain of the Holyhead Harpies... You should really listen to how he calls me, 'Dear Mr. Weasley'... He also praised me for being young and promising! Although it is true, it sounds very comfortable. It's a pity that you were not there that time."

Unlike Ron who participated in several banquets of the Slug Club, Harry's attitude is to escape if he can.

At first, he used Quidditch training as an excuse. Later, the players couldn't stand it and started to rebel. While he was changing clothes in a single room in the locker room, Harry blocked him in protest. At that time, Harry heard Creevey's voice in horror. In order to avoid the captain of Gryffindor Quidditch becoming the headline of the "Puzzle Wall" tabloid tomorrow, he had to humiliatingly agree to stop the terrible punishment of training every night...

Fortunately, he quickly found an alternative plan-lie that he had an appointment with Professor Bagshot and went to his office for tea. Sometimes he also dragged Neville, who was also not used to the atmosphere of the banquet.

Harry felt quite regretful, because Professor Bagshot was now only willing to discuss magic and current affairs with him, and no longer talked about his past experiences - especially those related to the dark wizard Grindelwald. The last time they talked about the ban on guns for Muggles, and the time before that was the impact of the emergence of exclusive wands on the next few decades.

"...I personally support it. After all, I have benefited from it. If you don't believe me, you can see it-" Grindelwald said, pointing to the copper puppet of an ancient magic professor to the two of them, "I'm just a little worried..."

Harry felt that he was sitting in the History of Magic classroom for a while, and Neville felt the same way, but they privately believed that if Professor Bagshot replaced Professor Binns to teach them, they would most likely pass the OWLs exam.

However, Professor Bagshot hinted to Harry at the time that he found a travel diary deep in the library, which recorded "some interesting things".

"It may be left by students of that era." He explained.

Harry planned to look carefully during the holiday, at least to kill time. He had a hunch that this holiday would become very boring, and many activities would not be possible, such as snowball fights.

"...Sirius and Professor Happ's suggestions are similar," Hermione muttered, "but I personally think that the magic rune amulet is more effective... Fred and George... Oh, Fat Tongue Toffee's suggestion is too stupid. But if it can be improved... No, absolutely not! Madam Pomfrey's suggestion is not bad, the dream potion can obviously improve sleep... But it's not very safe, as for the water of life and death..."

"Water of life and death?" Harry looked at her in surprise and cried out, "Hermione, you won't believe Snape's nonsense?" Ron was also shocked.

"Oh, I won't." Hermione said, "It will delay normal classes."

The discussion of the 'Animagus' class is not low. According to Nick who is almost headless, "Hogwarts has never taught Animagus so ostentatiously since its establishment." Therefore, this topic is not only popular among students (the house scores of the four colleges have dropped sharply during this period), but even professors have participated in it.

So far, Professor McGonagall has devoted half of a class to explaining the requirements of learning Animagus, and the other half to giving examples of the consequences of wizards who overestimated their abilities in history - this part consists of horror stories, which are basically a shortened version of her notes; Professor Flitwick, a short man with goblin blood, introduced students to an anti-eavesdropping magic -

"It works on any creature, and it can also prevent mosquito bites!"

Harry suspected that this spell was aimed at Rita Skeeter, whose beetle form was no longer a secret.

Professor Bagshot followed the public opinion and temporarily inserted the content of "forced appearance".

In addition to what Harry saw with his own eyes, he also heard Trelawney talk about how to use Tarot cards to guard against "sneaky people" in her advanced class. She said that she saw six-legged insects approaching her in the crystal ball. And Snape mentioned in his fifth-year class that if it were him, he would prepare a potion of life and death and sleep for a month.

This was told to him by Ginny.

"He is doing bad things and has bad intentions - anyone with a discerning eye can see it." She said angrily.

Just as Harry checked the time for the third time, an owl flew in through the window, with snowflakes in its feathers, dragging a heavy package and hitting Ron on the head.

"Christmas present? So early?" Harry asked in surprise.

"No," Ron said as he tore open the wrapping paper, "It's Collins. Didn't I tell you she was in Hogsmeade? I asked her to bring me something. She was free anyway... Oh..." He looked at the small card and said in a long tone.

"What's wrong?"

"She's leaving. That Carlotta Pinkstone seems to really plan to spend her retirement at the Three Broomsticks." Ron said, "After all, the Ministry of Magic can't keep two Aurors around all the time, right?" He rummaged out a few quills, magic erasers, socks, and some other miscellaneous things from the package. Harry was about to take a closer look when he was stopped by Ron.

"There's your Christmas present in here," Ron said vigilantly.

At eight o'clock in the evening, they and Neville appeared in Slughorn's office. It had become completely different here. There were Christmas trees covered with icing and candied fruits everywhere, for people to use at will. There were more than a dozen tables without legs scattered around the room. Harry saw a person waved his hand, and the floating table closest to him floated in front of him with a full load of delicious food.

A light and melodious music came, and Harry was 100% sure that it was the Weird Sisters Band.

But the biggest difference was the difference in the number of people. Harry estimated that there were at least a hundred people on the scene, and most of them were adult wizards. He was stunned. Did Professor Slughorn call back all the members of the Slug Club?

These people were dressed in different clothes and shuttled around the office that seemed to be cast with a traceless extension spell. Some male and female wizards were elegant, but there were also many who were quite restrained. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and then he heard Hermione moaning half in surprise and half in shock: "Mom and Dad?"

Harry and Ron hurriedly looked in the direction of her gaze and were both startled. There were too many familiar people. Not only the Grangers, Professor Slughorn seemed to have invited quite a few parents of students (especially those who couldn't go home for the holidays), the Weasleys, the Longbottoms, the Malfoys... Harry also saw Ernie Macmillan and Cormac McLaggen wearing exquisite dresses and bow ties, staying obediently next to a middle-aged couple, and the ones talking to them were Sirius and Amelia Bones.

"Hey, you guys, long time no see." A familiar teasing voice came from behind.

Harry turned around suddenly, and a pair of twins were looking at them lazily. It turned out to be Fred and George! They looked like successful people, with one hand in their pockets and the other holding a goblet, with a smile on their lips, as if they were copied from a mirror.

"Look at your expressions, it seems that no one told you? Oh, these parents are really bad..."

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