During the Easter holidays, some Hogwarts students will choose to go back and celebrate the holiday with their families.
Albert didn't come home.
After all, the end of the semester is approaching and so is summer vacation.
Moreover, not many students go home for the Easter holiday, which is related to the heavy holiday homework assigned by professors to students before the holiday.
Whether I go home or not, I have to do a lot of holiday homework, and... I can't borrow books from the school library if I go home.
Although most of the holiday assignments may just be prepared by professors so that students can prepare well for exams.
Daisy was disappointed that Albert didn't come home for the holidays, but she still sent him some Easter eggs.
On Easter Day, Sheila brought Easter eggs to Albert, and a photo was included in the package.
Albert picked up the photo and grinned.
In the photo, Tom is squatting in a basket of Easter eggs incubating them.
For some reason, Albert always found this scene very funny.
By the way, Tom seems to have gained weight again.
Is it an illusion
Sheila, feeling left out, yelled at Albert in dissatisfaction.
"Sorry." Albert immediately took out some owl nuts from his robe pocket and fed them to Sheila. He then unwrapped the Easter eggs, broke the chocolate shell, picked up a piece and put it in his mouth.
Like every Easter, Daisy would buy Easter eggs from a familiar candy store. The shell of the eggs was made of chocolate and contained Albert's favorite chocolate-flavored toffee.
"Would you like some toffee?" Albert handed his roommate half an Easter egg filled with toffee.
"Try my Easter eggs, too." Lee Jordan had already used his fingernails to pry open an ostrich-sized Easter egg filled with fudge.
"It's actually fudge." Albert picked up a piece of fudge and threw it into his mouth, and couldn't help but sigh.
"Otherwise, what do you think it would be?" Li Jordan couldn't help but roll his eyes at Albert.
"Bibi Multi-Flavor Beans!" the twins said in unison.
"Who the hell would put Bibi Every Flavour Beans in Easter eggs?" Lee Jordan couldn't help but complain, "Do you want some jelly beans?"
"Of course." Fred ate a fudge, pinched a chocolate toffee and threw it into his mouth. He muttered, "George, do you think Mum will remember to send us Easter eggs?"
"Maybe she forgot," George said. "She's too busy after all."
"Mom never forgot your Easter eggs." Percy walked over and handed the Easter eggs to Fred and George, then turned to Albert and said, "Professor Broad asked me to remind you to go to him at six o'clock in the evening. Don't get the time wrong."
"Six o'clock in the evening?" Lee Jordan repeated in confusion.
"It's an invitation." Albert explained casually, "Professor Broad invited me to... Actually, I don't know what the professor invited me to do. I think it might be afternoon tea."
"Have you ever seen anyone having afternoon tea at six in the evening?" George couldn't help rolling his eyes. "There should be a limit to my nonsense."
"By the way, you didn't tell us about this." Fred's eyes widened and he looked at Albert in disbelief. "I bet it was a party or banquet."
"I am often invited by Professor Broad to his office for tea, and at most a snack."
"Why do I always feel weird when I hear you say that?" Li Jordan muttered.
"When I come back, I will tell you whether it is a banquet or a tea party." Albert did not dwell on this matter.
He certainly knew what he was being invited to.
The so-called academic gathering.
"By the way, is this a Bludger?" Lee Jordan pointed at the Easter egg in Fred's hand that looked like a Bludger.
"Don't you want to open it and see what's inside?" Albert reminded.
"Charlie must have told our family that we would become batsmen." George opened the outer egg, and a strong smell of milk emanated from inside.
Their Bludger eggs were filled with milk-flavored toffee, apparently homemade by Mrs. Weasley.
"Would you like to try some?" Fred threw one into his mouth and chewed the toffee slowly, mumbling incoherently, "It tastes good."
Albert and Lee Jordan each took a toffee from the pile and threw it into their mouths. After chewing it, their mouths were filled with the rich aroma of milk.
The taste is pretty good, but you can't eat too much toffee.
"Look over there..." George exclaimed, "What happened to Shanna?"
Albert looked up and saw Shanna being hit on the head by textbooks, school bags and ink bottles, so he picked up his wand and waved it gently to remove Madam Pince's spell.
"Are you okay?" Albert had already guessed what was going on.
"Just now in the library..." Shanna said breathlessly: "I forgot that you can't eat in the library."
As expected, it was Madam Pince who was driven out.
"Thank you, Albert." After a moment, Sana finally recovered. "That's really tough. Would you like some candy?"
Shanna's Easter eggs were filled with various flavors of candy. She was just eating candy in the library and was kicked out by Madam Pince.
The egg was very large, with a clear commercial label on it. It was purchased from the same candy store as Albert's.
Albert ate a piece of candy, which was strawberry flavored.
"It's fine as long as Madam Pince doesn't see it." Albert winked at Shanna, "I often eat hard candy secretly in the library."
"That's a good idea." Shanna chuckled.
"Ouch, stop pecking." Albert felt pain in his elbow and immediately withdrew his hand.
"What's wrong with your owl?" Shanna looked at Sheila in confusion.
"It's urging me to write back." Albert muttered. He took out a quill from his schoolbag and began to write a letter home, not forgetting to remind Nia not to feed Tom too fat.
Watching the owl fly away, Albert focused his attention on reviewing again.
I have been concentrating on ancient magic writing lately and feel that I have been a little lax in other subjects. I haven't replied to Mr. Fusco's letter yet.
"What are you thinking about?" Sana asked with a raised eyebrow, a little dissatisfied that Albert was distracted while talking to her.
"Nothing, I was just wondering how much homework I have left to do." Albert said casually.
"You are the least qualified to say that." Fred said resentfully.
"Let's go first, we have something to do later." George took Fred away.
"Recently, Fred and George have been acting mysterious, and I don't know what they are up to." Albert retracted his gaze and continued to discuss homework with Sana.
Professors once mentioned which questions were important and would be on the exam. Li Qiaodan was always interested in this, as it made reviewing much easier for him.
…
"It's almost time. I'm leaving now."
Albert took out his pocket watch, glanced at the hands on it, stood up and spoke to the people around him.
"Where is he going?" Sana looked at Albert's receding back and asked in confusion, "We'll have dinner soon."
"Professor Broad sent him an invitation." Li Jordan sorted out his class notes and explained casually, "Invite Albert to dinner."
"Professor Brod?"
"Don't you know?" Li Jordan was a little envious of Albert's treatment and whispered, "Albert is Professor Broad's most proud student, no doubt about it."
"I thought it was Professor McGonagall." Shanna said in surprise.
"Some time ago, Albert went to Professor Broad's office every week..." Li Jordan began to reveal some trivial matters about Albert to Shanna.
"Has anyone seen Fred and George?" Angelina sat in the seat vacated by Albert and interrupted their conversation.
"You said Fred and George..."
Albert had no idea what Li Jordan had said to everyone else. After returning to the dormitory and putting down his schoolbag, Albert tidied himself up in the mirror and went to Professor Broad's office alone.
Professor Broad seemed to be waiting for him, and when Albert knocked on the door, the wooden door of the office opened quickly.
"You are always so punctual." Professor Brod said to Albert with a faint smile on his face, "Well, we should go now. Don't keep others waiting too long."
"Where are we going?" Albert asked.
"At McDougal's house." Professor Broad reached out and picked up a small box from the fireplace, handed it to Albert, and made a gesture of invitation to him.
"What is this?" Albert looked at the shiny powder in the small box and immediately guessed what it was.
"Floo powder. Oh, I almost forgot. You haven't used Floo powder before, right?" Professor Broad suddenly remembered this and began to introduce: "The use of Floo powder is very simple. First, you have to walk to the stove, then throw the powder into the flame. After the flame rises, walk into the flame. At this time, you must clearly state the place you want to go. The place we are going to is called the Lake House."
Albert took a pinch of shiny powder from the small box, walked to the stove and threw the powder into the flames.
With a whoosh, the fire turned green and rose higher than Albert.
Albert hesitated for a moment, then stepped into the fire and called out, "Lake Cabin."
In the blink of an eye, Albert was engulfed by flames and disappeared.
The trip on the Floo powder was equally unpleasant. Albert felt his body spinning rapidly. He squinted his eyes and a series of furnace doors flashed blurry in front of him. He could vaguely catch a glimpse of the room outside the fireplace.
The swirling green flames made Albert feel dizzy. He heard the whistling wind in his ears and felt like he was moving at high speed.
In the blink of an eye, the rotation stopped, the whistling sound also disappeared, and Albert felt himself falling to the cold ground.
“It’s really terrible.”
Albert fell to the ground in a mess, and someone seemed to help him up.
"Welcome, Mr. Anderson."
A sharp voice sounded in Albert's ears. Albert, who had just stood up and was about to dust off the ashes on his cloak, was stunned and looked in the direction where the voice came from. It was a house-elf.
A few seconds later, Professor Brod also climbed out of the fire and stood on the carpet in the hall, brushing the ashes off his robe.
"Gentlemen, please come this way. Dinner is ready." The house elf said sharply.
"Dinner?" Albert looked at Professor Broad suspiciously.
"Of course it's the dinner. Let's go, don't keep everyone waiting too long."
The house was huge, not small at all, and it was almost ridiculous to describe it as a lake house.
Led by the house-elf, they left the hall, walked through the corridor and stairs, and came to a carpeted sunroom with transparent walls.
The dinner was held in this spacious room. There were already three people in the room. Except for McDougal, the other two looked quite old.
Among them, the oldest one was probably over a hundred years old, and the other was at least eighty. They were all looking at Albert with curiosity.
No ill intentions, just curiosity and friendliness.
"Albert Anderson, the genius I introduced to you, is good at ancient magic runes." McDougal pointed at Albert and introduced him to the other two, "Of course, there is also Transfiguration. I just read Albert's article on Transfiguration Today a while ago. Professor Broad said that Albert's level in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms is also very high."
"I'm Albert, nice to meet you all." Albert looked a little reserved and nodded slightly to several people.
"Tiberus Ogden, an expert in spells and magic runes." McDougal pointed at the older man and introduced him to Albert. "The 'Magic Theory' that you are using now actually has some credit for Tiberus."
The old man stretched out his hand and shook Albert's hand gently.
"Gerber Smith." McDougal pointed to the man in his eighties and said, "He is good at Transfiguration, Divination and Ancient Magic Runes. He is also an expert in alchemy."
Albert felt a little uncomfortable after shaking hands with Mr. Smith.
But he couldn't tell what was wrong.
The dinner was very sumptuous, but the food was relatively light. The five people ate and chatted, still using ancient magic runes.
As McDougal said, they are all experts in ancient magic runes, and they are very powerful. McDougal also received their help when he wrote the book on ancient magic runes.
Smith and Ogden were equally surprised that Albert could use the ancient magic runes so skillfully.
As expected, seeing is believing.
Albert was well fed, and they sat in soft armchairs, talking about ancient magic runes.
To be honest, it felt really weird for a young kid to be among a group of old people discussing academic theories.
But you have to admit that they are all a group of very capable people. They have rich knowledge of magic and are very good at speaking ancient magic.
If an uninformed person came here, they would think they had accidentally traveled back a thousand years ago.
The friendly conversation continued until nightfall.
Albert also expressed his interest in alchemy to Gerbersmith and asked about the use of ancient magic runes.
Gerber looked at Albert's wooden bracelet and said with a smile: "There is actually nothing wrong with the protective bracelet you made. The reason for the failure is that you are still unable to inject power into the runes."
Albert was a little confused.
"Runes are a kind of mysterious text that contains mysterious magical power. However, what you are doing now, just carving it, cannot make the runes have power." Gerber Smith explained, "Concentrate your mind and inject your magical power into the runes you carved. This is why runes are called magical texts."
When wizards use this magical text to cast spells, the spells used will become more powerful, and only those who are proficient in ancient magic words will truly realize this.
Perhaps, some wizards were vaguely aware of something, but they did not understand what was going on. They just skillfully used the ancient magic runes and unknowingly mastered the method of using it.
Therefore, wizards believe that ancient magic is more powerful, although that is true.
Unfortunately, the old man’s energy was limited, and the conversation between the two parties ended there.
However, Gerber Smith and Tiberus Ogden indicated that they could establish friendly relations with Albert through correspondence in the future.
The banquet was declared over at around ten o'clock in the evening, and Albert returned to school via Floo powder.
Albert, who had just stood up from his chair, realized that something was wrong.
He looked to the right from his side. McDougal was in his forties or fifties, Professor Broad was in his sixties, Gerbersmith was in his eighties, Tiberus Ogden was ninety or even a hundred years old, and what about himself
Twelve years old!
One person is missing.
There was one less wizard in his twenties or thirties, so perhaps there should be another genius in his twenties or thirties to fill the gap between himself and Mr. McDougal.
This is the only way to follow a pattern.
"Am I overthinking?" Albert murmured.
Before returning to school through the fireplace, Albert suddenly asked, "Professor Broad, is there someone missing today?"
"Why do you ask that?" Professor Broad was stunned for a moment and asked in confusion.
"Nothing, I just feel like there's someone missing from this party." Albert murmured.
"No, there are no fewer people." Professor Brod repeated doubtfully, "No, there are no fewer people. I said last time that the gap between the generations of ancient magic runes is a bit serious. So, it's not that there are fewer people, but that the generations are broken."
Albert always felt that there was something else behind Professor Broad's words, so he slowly returned to the Gryffindor common room, which was still very lively at this time and no one had gone to bed yet.
Albert covered his yawn and went straight back to the dormitory, while his other roommates had not returned yet.
He held the wooden bracelet in a daze, thinking about what Gerber Smith said.
It was almost half past eleven when Li Qiaodan returned to the dormitory. He seemed to have had a great time.
"Where are Fred and George? They're not with you?" Albert frowned slightly as he looked at Lee Jordan returning to the dormitory alone. Hogwarts had a curfew after eleven o'clock.
"No, I haven't seen Fred and George since a while ago. I thought they went back to the dormitory to rest." Li Jordan also frowned slightly.
"Fred and George are not in the common room?" Albert suddenly had a bad feeling.