Chapter 277: Pranks and New Professors

Mike didn't care too much about Professor Flitwick putting him in solitary confinement.

After all, although it was solitary confinement, Professor Flitwick would not really put him in solitary confinement. At most, he would just learn spells and drink tea with Professor Flitwick every day.

But what Mike didn't expect was that Professor Flitwick was so eager that he dragged Mike into solitary confinement before the new semester started.

This was not right, because although it was solitary confinement, it was more like a retreat.

It was a retreat about spell casting with only Professor Flitwick and Mike.

During the time when Mike was forced to be in solitary confinement, many things happened outside.

The biggest one was the change in the direction of public opinion.

Since Mike was released by the Ministry of Magic, all mainstream media have changed their direction, from catching the Ministry of Magic and spraying it to death at the beginning to washing it with all their might.

Like Mike was imprisoned as a hero at the beginning, it was said that Mike took the initiative to cooperate with the Ministry of Magic's investigation.

The injured Muggles were in the camp because the staff of the Ministry of Magic who was responsible for maintaining the Muggle-Repelling Charm near the venue secretly went to watch the game, which caused the Muggle-Repelling Charm to fail. After the staff who was not sure whether it was a temporary worker was suspended, the matter was over.

As for the key thugs in this incident and the Voldemort follower who released the corpse reappearing curse, although the Ministry of Magic has not caught them yet, it still put forward several scapegoats.

After the scapegoats were executed, the resentment of the people gradually subsided.

After all, everyone has their own lives, and not everyone is idle all day long to criticize the Ministry of Magic.

However, although the Ministry of Magic seems to have handled this incident well, the damage it caused still exists.

The first is the international image.

Foreigners don't care how many reasons you have, they only see that there was a terrorist attack at the Quidditch World Cup, so the Ministry of Magic in the United Kingdom is estimated to be the object of ridicule of other countries for many years to come.

On the other hand, there is the influence of those thugs.

Those thugs were all powerful people, so the Ministry of Magic would not arrest all of them and expose them to the public.

But so many celebrities suddenly disappeared, and people with discerning eyes had already seen the trick.

In the eyes of these people, the majesty of the Ministry of Magic had long disappeared.

Of course, these things had nothing to do with Mike.

At this moment, he had already ended his short retreat with Professor Flitwick and got on the Hogwarts Express to go to school to start his new semester.

This time, the treatment Mike received was obviously different.

Those members of the mutual aid society actually occupied an entire carriage early, which served as Mike's exclusive carriage.

Mike was naturally not polite, and directly sat in a compartment in the carriage with Penelope under the leadership of Benjamin.

And in the compartment, there was already someone.

This was a boy (girl?) who looked a little thin. From his skin color and hair, it can be seen that he should be Asian.

But the long black hair and slightly feminine face made Mike really unable to tell his gender.

"Is he the one you said?"

Mike turned his head to look at Benjamin, and when he saw him nod, he continued to ask:

"Why is he here?"

"I don't know either. I received the Hogwarts admission letter inexplicably at the end of the summer vacation." Benjamin said excitedly, "But this is also a good thing. It is always good for children to read more books."

After that, Benjamin stretched out his hand to touch the child's head, but the other party avoided him with disgust.

Benjamin was not annoyed, but just smiled awkwardly at Mike.

Mike said nothing. He could understand Benjamin. The child in front of him was the faceless monster they had caught in the East End of London before.

Originally, they planned to send him to Mike as soon as possible, but after Benjamin found out that the faceless monster was actually just a child, he had other ideas, such as asking the faceless monster to help them hunt other dark magic creatures.

There is no doubt that they succeeded and achieved very good results.

Therefore, in Benjamin's eyes, this faceless monster is a treasure.

Or perhaps, Benjamin may have raised this guy as a younger brother or son.

Mike didn't care about the twists and turns here. He took Penelope and sat opposite the child and asked:

"What's your name?"

The child didn't seem to like to talk. He didn't respond to Mike's questions. He just lowered his head, making it difficult for people to see his expression.

"Hey, what did I teach you? Be polite. Mr. Tangli is asking you a question!"

Seeing this, Benjamin hurried forward and gently pushed the faceless man's arm. After that, the faceless man reluctantly said in a very small voice:

"Zhou Hong."

"Zhou Hong? Are you Chinese?" Mike was a little stunned when he heard this. There were not as many Chinese people going abroad as more than ten years later. There was only Qiu Zhang, a Chinese in the entire Hogwarts. "This is really rare."

Facing Mike's question, Zhou Hong was silent again.

Benjamin originally wanted to remind him to be polite, but Mike stopped him.

A name is enough to explain everything.

Seeing this, Benjamin said nothing more and came to Zhou Hong to sit down.

At this moment, Mike noticed that the boy named Zhou Hong suddenly showed an excited smile on his face.

Before Mike had time to think about the meaning of that smile, Benjamin had already sat down. Then, Benjamin let out a scream and bounced up with his butt covered at a speed several times faster than sitting down.

"Hahahaha" Zhou Hong laughed.

"You...you are really getting more and more excessive!" Benjamin pulled out a thin needle from his butt and said to Zhou Hong, "There must be limits to pranks! You even used a weapon this time! You! I will punish you by not allowing you to eat sweets for a month!"

Zhou Hong's laughter stopped abruptly. With a look of horror on his face, he hugged Benjamin's head and rubbed it against his chest, saying:

"I was wrong! I was wrong! Sorry! Sorry!"

Zhou Hong's accent was strange, and the words he used were very monotonous. It seemed that he had not learned English well.

Seeing Zhou Hong's sincere attitude of admitting his mistakes, Benjamin's expression also eased. He touched Zhou Hong's head and said:

"Forget it this time. If you do it again next time, it won't be so easy."

Zhou Hong didn't react to hearing this, but continued to rub against Benjamin.

At this time, Benjamin also realized that something was wrong. He forcibly pulled Zhou Hong away, and saw that his white shirt was already soaked with snot and saliva.

"Zhou Hong!"

Benjamin roared, reaching out his hand to catch the culprit.

However, Zhou Hong had already run out of the box with laughter.

Penelope on the other side had already laughed so hard that even Mike's face showed a smile.

Seeing this, Benjamin scratched his head awkwardly, took out a magic wand and used it on himself to clean himself up, and said:

"I'm sorry to both of you, Zhou Hong is a kid who likes to play pranks, but he's very good otherwise."

Mike smiled and shook his head, he had seen it.

The kid named Zhou Hong in front of him didn't like to play pranks at all, he was clearly a naughty kid!

The train was still running fast, and the previous turmoil did not affect Mike. After laughing, he started talking and laughing with Penelope again.

And Benjamin, when he found that Mike didn't have much nature to chat with him, he left the carriage, leaving this somewhat narrow compartment for Mike and Penelope as a world for two.

After leaving the carriage, he didn't find another place to sit down, but stood like a door god not far from the door of Mike's compartment to ensure that no one would disturb Mike.

It was because of Benjamin's hard work that Mr. Mike arrived at Hogwarts very smoothly, and no other changes happened during the period.

After getting off the train, Mike, accompanied by a group of members of the mutual aid association, went to the storage location of the Thestrals, ready to take the carriage to the castle.

Benjamin, however, left the group and told Zhou Hong over and over again like an old mother not to make trouble on the boat, or he would catch a cold if he fell into the Black Lake. (Freshmen need to take a boat when they come to Hogwarts for the first time)

Before leaving, he put the Ravenclaw scarf on Zhou Hong's neck under Zhou Hong's disdainful eyes.

This move made the other freshmen around him envious. The scarf with blue and white stripes and the Ravenclaw emblem on it may not be a big deal to the old students, but it is very attractive to these freshmen who have not yet been sorted.

"Wow! Your brother is so nice to you!"

"Hey, my brother is from Gryffindor, but he never lets me touch his clothes and wand!"

"This is so beautiful! Can I touch it?"

...

After Benjamin left, the freshmen around him gathered around him, chattering non-stop, and many of them stretched out their hands to touch the legendary Ravenclaw badge.

"He is not my brother!"

Zhou Hong said in broken English with his neck stiff.

His expression was still full of disgust, but his hands were always protecting the scarf from beginning to end.

None of those who wanted to touch the scarf succeeded.

...

The hall of Hogwarts was brightly lit, and professors and classmates who had reunited after a long time gathered together. Everyone talked and laughed about the interesting things that happened during the holidays.

Among them, the Quidditch World Cup was mentioned most frequently.

When everyone talked about the Quidditch World Cup, their eyes could not help but drift to Mike.

Obviously, Mike's deeds of standing up and defeating the mob during the World Cup were well known.

Mike always ignored these looks. At this moment, he was concentrating on searching the teacher's seat. After checking back and forth several times and not finding the familiar figure, he retracted his gaze and sighed deeply.

Lupin left after all.

This is not surprising. Due to Snape's continuous hints, many students in Hogwarts have actually guessed Lupin's identity. It's just that everyone kept silent because of the intervention of Mike and the members of the mutual aid association.

But paper can't cover fire. Although this problem was not exposed last year, it may be exposed this year.

So Lupin was replaced.

The key to the problem is who is his successor.

Just as Mike was thinking about the problem, the door of the hall was pushed open, and a group of little wizards with curious eyes poking their heads in, led by McGonagall, walked in like an old hen leading a group of chicks.

"Every time I see new students enrolling, I will think of the year when you walked in like this."

Penelope said to Mike's ear, and then she couldn't help laughing.

"I didn't look so embarrassed back then, did I?"

Mike said, looking confused, pointing at Zhou Hong and another boy in the crowd who still had some water plants hanging on their heads.

"But you were very nervous back then, more nervous than everyone else, which made you look like a duck when you walked, hahahaha! My sisters and I were laughing at you at the time! Hahaha!"

Mike touched his nose awkwardly, speechless.

Can I blame you for this?

Can people control nervousness?

On the other side, Benjamin slapped himself on the forehead.

He warned Zhou Hong so many times, but Zhou Hong still fell into the Black River!

Damn it, couldn't you take the water plants off your head first? Didn't you see that Professor McGonagall's eyes were about to spit fire?

Zhou Hong naturally couldn't hear Benjamin's inner roar. At this moment, he was talking excitedly with the boy who had just fallen into the Black Lake with him about his experience, and he didn't even hear Professor McGonagall calling his name.

Finally, it was a girl next to him who patted him on the shoulder that finally brought him to his senses.

Facing Professor McGonagall's murderous gaze, Zhou Hong straightened his chest and raised his head, and put the Sorting Hat on his head without fear.

With the loud sound of the Sorting Hat's verdict, thunderous applause rang out from the long table of Gryffindor.

Professor McGonagall's pursed lips trembled.

She could almost foresee that her life might be very difficult in the next seven years.

Seeing this, Benjamin's mood also became a little depressed. He still hoped that Zhou Hong could be sorted into Ravenclaw.

But according to his temper, it didn't seem strange that the Sorting Hat sorted him into Gryffindor.

After the sorting ceremony, it was time for the headmaster's speech.

All the old students were quite confident in the speed of their headmaster's speech, so as early as when Dumbledore stood up to prepare to speak, many people had already picked up their knives and forks, and started to feast on the food as soon as it appeared.

But this time, Dumbledore did not end the battle as quickly as they wished, but said seriously:

"I believe some careful students have noticed that there is an empty seat in our teacher's seat this year. I regret to inform you that our beloved Professor Lupin has applied for resignation due to health reasons." There

was an uproar in the audience, and many young wizards who did not know Lupin's true identity were very sad about Lupin's departure.

"But I have invited an equally outstanding professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for you. Let us welcome the former senior Auror, Alastor Moody!"