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Chapter 918: Goodwill from Slytherins
🕑 Added 2023-11-01 09:38:52 +0000 UTC"Well, see you at school later!" Evan waved his hand and looked at Astoria's expression. Then he thought of something and added, "By the way, if you like to read Hogwarts Magic, I can give you a copy of each issue. And if you have any good articles, you can also contribute in the paper."
"I'll think about it, thank you!" said Astoria, smiling at Evan and hurriedly running away.
Literary and artistic young men were always popular with girls, and Astoria obviously had some good feelings for Evan.
Regarding the beautiful girl who was brought to the door, Evan seemed to have no reason to refuse contact.
However, he wasn't naive enough to think that Astoria was genuinely engrossed in reading the newspaper and just happened to be delayed in the compartment when he encountered her.
There had never been such a coincidence in the world, and it was not...
"Some people can't sit still. Maybe they want to take this opportunity to express their position to Dumbledore and me!" Evan muttered to himself.
He saw Astoria board into a carriage and lean out to wave to him.
Dangerous Slytherins! One could never guess what their true thoughts were.
Regardless of identity and other factors, Astoria was a very cute little girl with dimples when she smiled.
Maybe there was a lot of scheming in her words and deeds, just like other Slytherins, but it wasn't annoying.
At least, Evan didn't feel any resentment, and he didn't reject the goodwill from a Slytherin.
With the news of Voldemort's return confirmed, the Slytherins were also divided into several factions. Not everyone supported Voldemort or believed that he would win the final victory. The war was about to start, and it was time for forces to be reshuffled. However, direct contact with Dumbledore might not necessarily be accepted.
It was a good idea to let the children show some goodwill...
Evan thought about it, and climbed into the carriage. Harry and the others were discussing how the carriage moved.
Hermione told them she’d read in a book that Thestrals were pulling the coaches, but she couldn’t see them like everyone else.
Luna could see them, but she didn't participate in the discussion, just humming a weird little tune, staring at everyone with her wide, silvery eyes.
In the original plot, Harry could see Thestrals, but this time he did not witness Cedric's death.
On the contrary, Evan had witnessed the loss of many lives in his prior trip to the giants’ tribe. He gave them a description of what a Thestral looked like.
Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road.
When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, the topic shifted to Hagrid again, and everyone knew from Evan that he had gone to the giants’ tribe and had not yet returned.
Harry looked at the dark grounds, worried that Hagrid would encounter any danger.
Apart from Hermione, Evan did not tell them that Hagrid had brought back a giant. He just said that he had met his mother and brother there. As for the matter of letting Grawp settle down in the Forbidden Forest, he should let Hagrid tell everyone himself.
Beyond the woods passing Hagrid's cabin, Hogwarts Castle loomed ever closer: a towering mass of turrets, jet-black against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery bright above them.
Ten minutes later, the carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors, and everyone got off.
Harry and Ron even reached out to touch the Thestrals in front of the carriage, and exclaimed when they sensed their real existence.
If they could see the terrifying appearance of the Thestrals, they would probably not be so interested!
Luna watched from the side, and Evan led Hermione and Ginny over, letting them both touch a Thestral’s head.
This Thestral was motionless, standing quietly in the chill night air, letting them surround it, its blank white eyes gleaming.
"All right, let's hurry up. These Thestrals live near Hagrid's cabin, and are neighbors with the Hippogriff. We have plenty of time to see them in the future," said Evan.
They joined the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
The entrance hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long House tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows.
Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another’s new haircuts and robes.
Again Evan and Harry noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as they passed.
They kept talking about Cedric’s transfer, the return of Voldemort, and Evan becoming the Head Boy.
These things had been discussed for more than half a year, but everyone still found them incredible and hard to accept.
In particular, the main party involved in the incident, Evan, returned to Hogwarts and became the youngest Head Boy ever, which brought public opinion back to the top, and various gossips and rumors followed one by one.
With Voldemort hiding out of sight, Hogwarts was now the focus of the entire wizarding world.
Although on the surface it was exactly the same as usual, Evan clearly felt that there was a storm coming...
Luna drifted away from them at the Ravenclaw table, and they sat down at Gryffindor's.
Colin helped them occupy their seats. Just after they were seated, Nearly Headless Nick came out from under the table. On the other side of the table, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown gave Evan and Harry airy, overly friendly greetings that made them quite sure they had stopped talking about them a split second before…
Lavender must have learned a lot of information from Ron, but she was still not satisfied. She and Ron had been in contact by Owl mail during the summer vacation.
Ron kept saying that Lavender was too boring and wanted to break up with her, but he couldn't make up his mind.
"I want to know who is the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year?" Hermione bit her lip and scanned the staff table back and forth.
"To me, they should let Evan teach this course!"
"Wait a minute, look!" Hermione said sharply, pointing to the middle of the staff table.
