The highlight of the feast began when Professor McGonagall announced that the end-of-year exams were canceled.
Around 3:30 AM, Hagrid returned from the Ministry of Magic. This made Harry very happy, and he went over to give him a tight hug.
"I don't really know what happened, but the Head of the Auror Office was quite nice to me," Hagrid said, confused, when asked how things had gone at the Ministry.
Although Lucius had been determined to send him to Azkaban, the Auror Office had insisted on treating him well and even gave him a big bed to lie down on.
It felt more like a vacation at the Ministry than being imprisoned.
"Rufus Scrimgeour asked me to send his regards to Johnny Silverhand, but I don't even know who that is," Hagrid added.
Harry, curious, asked, "Johnny Silverhand? Who's that?"
Hagrid took a sip of beer, savoring the familiar taste, and said, "The owner of the Johnny Silverhand Specialty Shop in Knockturn Alley. You wouldn't believe how popular his stuff is at the Auror Office."
As a frequent visitor to Knockturn Alley, Hagrid collected materials for John and had been to the Johnny Silverhand Specialty Shop sometimes, where the items sold were of a much higher quality than those typically found in Knockturn Alley.
That greedy Mundungus Fletcher was also working there, dressed up and looking presentable, eager to empty everyone's pockets.
"I heard that Johnny Silverhand donated a batch of combat gear to the Auror Office. Hahaha, I guess they got the wrong idea."
Hagrid thought that Rufus Scrimgeour had misunderstood his connection to Johnny Silverhand, but he considered it a good thing.
Because of this, he downed three large mugs of beer, each of which had been enchanted with a refilling charm, so he drank without stopping.
Harry made a mental note of the name Johnny Silverhand; this seemed to be a significant figure.
He shared this information with his friends, and Ron, with a chicken leg in each hand, was eating so much that his cheeks were puffed out.
"Johnny Silverhand? I know him. My dad said he turned in a whole bunch of Dark Magic artifacts to the Ministry. That really helped my dad stand tall at work."
After John raided Borgin and Burkes, he knew he needed to do something to reassure the Ministry, so he handed over half of the Dark Magic items.
This move successfully won the favor of the Ministry, and even Fudge mentioned that if more wizards in Knockturn Alley were as conscientious, they would have two Diagon Alleys by now.
Although no one had seen Johnny Silverhand, it didn't stop the Ministry from having a good opinion of this mysterious figure.
Seeing their interest in the Johnny Silverhand Specialty Shop, Hermione immediately played the role of the concerned mother, warning, "Harry, have you forgotten that you almost got caught by that old witch at the start of the school year?"
"Please, Hermione, don't bring that up."
The Savior's embarrassing history was being dragged out again, and Harry wished he could find a hole to crawl into.
Even Ron joined in the mocking laughter, but was soon silenced by Hermione's scolding, which made him retreat into himself.
"Hagrid and Mrs. Weasley both said we shouldn't go there. It's too dangerous."
"That Johnny Silverhand in Knockturn Alley might even be a Dark wizard."
After repeatedly warning the two troublemakers, Hermione asserted her authority within the group.
...
John sneezed twice in a row. He rubbed his nose, feeling as though someone was talking about him.
...
In April, the Mandrakes matured.
Professor Snape never imagined that he would have to brew a potion specifically for a cat.
During this time, Filch went out of his way to please Professor Snape, as all of Mrs. Norris's hopes depended on him.
With the administration of the antidote, Mrs. Norris returned to normal.
A few days before Easter, Professor McGonagall had them choose their third-year courses.
"Hmm.."
John glanced at the list of subjects.
Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Divination, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures.
There were five elective courses, and John needed to choose the ones he wanted to study.
Ancient Runes, also known as Ancient Script, was essential for John.
Muggle Studies, as a former Muggle, John's understanding of Muggle society could be said to be ahead of the teachers here.
Care of Magical Creatures interested John a bit, as many aspects of alchemy were related to magical creatures.
Arithmancy and Divination were both forms of divination, but they involved different areas.
Arithmancy is a subject that studies the magical properties of numbers, and it's very difficult to learn because it requires memorizing or using a large number of charts.
Divination, on the other hand, differs in that it includes a variety of methods and techniques, such as reading tea leaves, interpreting fire omens, crystal ball gazing, palmistry, tarot card reading, astrology, and dream interpretation.
Divination relies heavily on talent, and even Professor McGonagall couldn't help but mention that it is the least rigorous of the subjects.
"Fuck! Gotta learn them all!"
Given all this, John felt that he was interested in all the courses.
So, he decided to choose them all.
As for potential scheduling conflicts?
It didn't matter. John only needed to excel in one to achieve a perfect score.
He could drop by Muggle Studies once or twice occasionally. Even without attending regularly, he knew more about Muggles than most wizards who were immersed in the magical world.
...
Easter arrived.
During this time, John buried himself in earning points, rapidly boosting Slytherin's score by an extraordinary margin.
Especially in Defense Against the Dark Arts, John's point-earning speed was absurd.
Lockhart was practically giving him a point for every word he spoke.
As the saying goes, "You have a referee on your side, I have external support."
(A/N: other similar sayings:
-You have the home field umpire, I have fans in the stands.
-You have the friend in accounting, I have allies in the halls.
-You have the coach on the payroll, I have backing from the bleachers.
-You have the teacher holding your pen, I have help from the bench.)
With John's relentless pursuit of points, the Slytherin hourglass was catching up to Gryffindor's at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Originally, the confident Gryffindor found themselves on edge, feeling as though they were being pricked by needles, and didn't dare to relax. They quickly entered a hyper-competitive mode to earn more points.
Ravenclaw, of course, needed no explanation.
Though they had been perpetual third-place finishers, their reputation for intelligence meant they were naturally inclined to compete intensely within their house.
The Hufflepuffs, the usual bystanders, noticed everyone else's intense competition and decided that continuing to slack off would be rude. So they also began to work hard.
This phenomenon amazed the professors, who had never expected that canceling the final exams would lead to everyone working even harder.
It even made Dumbledore consider whether he should cancel the final exams altogether in the future.
In short, John single-handedly sparked a competitive spirit across the school. His habit of answering questions in class before Hermione could made her grit her teeth in frustration.
Daphne's secret had been discovered by John, and for a while, she didn't dare to appear in front of him.
She had expected John to react to her, but to her surprise, John was so absorbed in earning points that he couldn't pull himself away.
This both pleased and annoyed her.
...
In the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets.
Now that John knew there was a way to get in through the Forbidden Forest, he no longer needed to bother Harry.
He entered the room inside the statue, and apart from the tracks left by something that had been sliding around for years, the place was relatively dust-free.
"Must be because of magic," he mused.
The room was divided into three levels. The first level resembled a workshop, filled with various fearsome magical creatures preserved in liquid.
Some of them had been smashed, possibly because the basilisk had been hungry.
The second level was an office.
A golden candelabrum stood on the desk, and a silver skull-shaped item was enchanted with some spells.
There was also a long rectangular box, but its contents were missing—either taken by Riddle or removed during Salazar Slytherin's time.
The third level resembled the Restricted Section of the library. John walked in and pulled out a book; it was filled with information about dark magic.
There were also some books on forbidden topics or on the human body—subjects unsuitable for young wizards.
"I wouldn't be surprised if more than half of the Restricted Section in the library was contributed by Salazar Slytherin," John thought.
He leafed through several books, and the content was horrifying.
One book, with an unknown leather cover, contained material that particularly intrigued John. His flipping stopped.
"Blood Magic."
John's eyes gleamed with interest as he closed the book.
He hadn't triggered any inheritance tests in Slytherin's chamber, which made sense—after all, Slytherin's heir was Voldemort.
Given Voldemort's nature, he wouldn't leave anything valuable behind for others.
These books were probably left behind simply because they were too inconvenient to carry.
"Thank you Voldy~" This turned out to be a stroke of luck for John.
For the remainder of the term, John frequently visited Slytherin's chamber.
His knowledge was accumulating rapidly, which caused his pace in earning points in class to slow down. The other students, who had been struggling to keep up, finally breathed a sigh of relief—they were truly exhausted by this "points king."
But even so, John's progress in earning points did not come to a halt.
When May arrived, Gryffindor was horrified to discover that Slytherin had caught up in the points race.
Slytherin erupted in cheers, and even Draco Malfoy, who had been sulking since Lucius lost his position on the Board of Governors, wore a silly smile again.
Everyone knew who was responsible for Slytherin's comeback.
"Hey, hey, easy." Surrounded by his housemates, John frowned and said, "Ehm* We haven't reached the moment of victory yet; we must not get complacent."
His words brought the Slytherins back to their senses.
Indeed, who knew if Gryffindor would mysteriously gain points again before the term ended? This served as a wake-up call for Slytherin.
The earlier cheers were replaced with a renewed sense of determination, as Slytherin burned with an unprecedented fighting spirit.
They were now united, more so than ever before.
______________
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"Hagrid, stop crying. Aragog is gone, and there's no bringing him back."
Inside Hagrid's hut, the burly Hagrid was crying his eyes out.
After he returned, he had been busy tending to his overgrown vegetable garden. When he finally had the time to go into the Forbidden Forest to look for his old friend, all he found were burned spider corpses scattered everywhere.
Aragog had narrowly survived, but he was now very weak from the smoke inhalation.
The trio was there comforting Hagrid. Sniffling, Hagrid said, "I don't know who did it. It's so cruel."
"Uh…"
The trio exchanged glances, and Harry awkwardly said, "Maybe it was just an accident. I mean, the Forbidden Forest is full of dangers, isn't it?"
Hearing this, Hagrid thought it made sense, but he then said curiously, "But as far as I know, apart from centaurs and werewolves, nothing else in the forest uses fire."
Aragog already had cataracts, and since John hadn't gone inside, it didn't know John was responsible.
These words made the trio even more uneasy, and they each started talking about other things to change the subject.
Hagrid finally calmed down.
During this period of intense studying, Hagrid's hut was the trio's only safe haven.
Coming here made them feel like they were stepping out of the endless sea of books.
Suddenly, a dog barked outside.
Fang heard the noise and, after scratching the ground a few times with his paws, finally stood up.
"It's Tom. He's here to play with Fang."
As the dog who controlled Fang's food supply, Tom was always the boss in Fang's eyes.
The door opened, and besides Tom, John was there too.
John, taking Tom for a walk, had come to Hagrid's hut. He greeted Hagrid, "Hagrid, I heard about what happened. I hope you can find some peace."
He brought Hagrid ten baguettes and a big rye bread from his uncle's place. Hagrid didn't like eating food that was too soft.
"Thank you, John. You're so kind."
Talking about the sad event, Hagrid wiped his nose.
John nodded calmly, as if he hadn't been the one to burn the spider's nest.
As soon as Ron saw John, he instinctively put his hand on his head, having developed a conditioned response to this study fanatic.
Hermione, being the only one who could somewhat compete with the study fanatic, asked, "John, how many electives did you choose?"
"I thought they all seemed interesting, so I chose all of them."
John smiled as he said something unimaginable, which made Harry and Ron's faces fill with fear.
Having realized that some classes had scheduling conflicts, Hermione had been hesitating about which ones to choose. Now, after hearing John's answer, she immediately decided to choose all of them too.
Caught between the two, Harry and Ron felt weak, pitiful, and helpless. This situation caused severe emotional trauma to their young minds.
Invited inside for tea, John took a bite of a rock cake.
He realized his biting strength seemed to have increased, as he managed to take a bite out of the rock-hard cake.
John chewed on it; if it weren't so hard, the taste would actually be quite nice.
"John, now.. can you explain about, um, how do you have a... gun?" Harry hesitated for a long time before finally asking the question that had been on his mind for a while.
When they were dealing with Riddle, he had seen John holding a gun.
He couldn't understand why a wizard would have a dangerous weapon like a handgun.
Hearing this, Hermione looked at John in disbelief and exclaimed, "You actually brought something so dangerous into the school!"
John nodded and said, "I do have one, but guns aren't as dangerous as you think."
Without hiding the fact that he had a prohibited item, John took out the handgun, which was already out of bullets.
But for some reason, even though it had been less than half a year since Christmas, the gun was already covered in rust.
"The magical field of Hogwarts causes some damage to Muggle items to a certain extent, and as for a gun, it's not particularly dangerous to a wizard, except as a surprise tactic."
John gave an example, saying, "Being hit by a bullet is a fatal thing, but for wizards, we have potions that can regrow bones, so apart from the pain, it's not necessarily lethal.
Of course, there are some exceptions."
"For example, being shot in the heart or something like that. Wizards are powerful, but essentially they are still human beings."
John spoke lightly about it. He had experimented before—on Riddle, in fact.
Riddle was hit by at least three bullets and didn't make a sound.
John attributed this to the inherently special constitution of wizards, but that doesn't mean that wizards are above Muggles.
On the contrary, if Muggles wanted to eliminate wizards, aside from spending some time and being careful to guard against the wizards' elusive abilities, Muggles could be more deadly. This is why both sides prefer not to interact with each other too much.
The numbers decide everything.
There are far more Muggles, and with any weapon, an ordinary person can possess the power to take a life.
Hearing this, Harry and Hermione reluctantly accepted it.
While Ron was still asking what a gun was, the two dogs playing outside started barking.
John walked out to check, and the fence outside opened two eyes.
It was a Demiguise.
The Demiguise saw John and showed a human-like expression of happiness.
"Tom Stop, he's a friend."
Tom was still barking, and John told him to stop.
"Are you looking for me?"
The Demiguise had clearly come for a reason. John walked out.
The Demiguise pointed towards the Forbidden Forest. From its gestures, it seemed to want John to go with it.
"Go ahead, John. Demiguises are gentle creatures; they won't harm anyone."
Hagrid's eyes widened at the sight of the rare Demiguise. He wanted to talk to it but refrained, fearing he might scare it.
The Demiguise had specifically come for John. Pondering for a moment, John glanced back at Harry and the others, then nodded and said, "I'll go with you."
He parted ways with Harry and the group, asking Hermione to look after Tom.
The Demiguise led the way, with John following behind.
Man and beast entered the Forbidden Forest. After passing through a patch of trees, they arrived under a large tree.
It was a massive tree, home to several Bowtruckles and a bird's nest.
"You want me to go to the bird's nest?"
Seeing the Demiguise hopping up and down, John activated his boots and floated up.
As he approached the bird's nest, the Bowtruckles hissed cautiously.
John signaled that he meant no harm. When he reached the nest, he found broken silver eggshells inside.
"Is this silver?"
Picking up a piece of the eggshell, something flashed through John's mind.
"A Occamy?"
He carefully removed the broken eggshell, revealing a winged Occamy inside.
This was a magical creature whose size could change according to the available space. This particular Occamy had just been born and hadn't even opened its eyes yet.
John understood why the Demiguise and the Bowtruckles were so anxious; the Occamy looked like it was in bad shape.
"Hmm.. I remember Professor Silvanus Kettleburn kept some Occamies; this could be the offspring of those Occamies."
Gently lifting the Occamy, John noticed the Demiguise moving closer.
It pointed at the Occamy and then at John, hoping he could take care of it.
John shook his head and said, "I know someone who can take excellent care of it. Trust me, he's the best."
The Demiguise seemed doubtful, but John reassured it with a promise.
As they left the Forbidden Forest, John kept observing the Demiguise.
By the end of this term, he would gain new magical blood, and he would need the blood of a magical creature to mix with it.
Although he already had the Basilisk's blood, seeing the Demiguise gave him another idea.
"If I use Demiguise blood, would it strengthen my Disillusionment Charm?"
John stared at the Demiguise. Betraying it would be impossible for him.
So, he chose to make a deal with the Demiguise. After leaving the Forbidden Forest, John had acquired some Demiguise blood.
Finding Hagrid, John took out the newly hatched Occamy.
Upon seeing the Occamy, Hagrid almost crushed John with excitement.
A strong hug from Hagrid made John think his bones might break.
With Hagrid, a magical creature expert, around, John wasn't worried about the Occamy's well-being.
The trio gathered around to look at the Occamy.
After leaving Hagrid's hut, John headed to the Gryffindor's Chamber of Secrets.
He felt like his alchemy skills were about to reach level 4.
With plenty of time on his hands, he planned to push forward and reach level 4 in one go.
The Slytherin students were as energized as if they had been injected with adrenaline, even on the Quidditch field.
Malfoy wanted to redeem himself and show that he wasn't just relying on his father's reputation.
Unfortunately, Harry, the natural Seeker, was still a cut above, causing Malfoy to angrily smash his Nimbus 2001 on the spot.
...
Time passed bit by bit, and this term finally came to an end.
Slytherin defended its winning streak with less than ten points, which made Gryffindor feel very sorry.
After two months of tension, Slytherin finally breathed a sigh of relief and shouted John Wick's name.
The student with the highest score(?)
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