The sudden muffled sound surprised the professors.
"Has Hogwarts been attacked? Are there Death Eaters breaking in?!" Compared to the professors' astonishment, the young wizards in the audience were terrified.
Soon, the whole auditorium became a mess.
Professor McGonagall, holding the brand new Sorting Hat in her hand, looked gloomy and shouted:
"quiet-"
The auditorium gradually became quiet. The freshmen stood at one side of the auditorium, feeling nervous and uneasy, not knowing what was going on.
"There is no problem with Hogwarts Castle right now, there is no need to panic. The Sorting ceremony will go on as normal." Professor McGonagall tried to calm the little wizards, and at the same time turned around and winked at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore smiled knowingly, turned to look at Snape, and said to him: "Severus, could you please go and see what's going on outside?"
Snape nodded, and when he was about to stand up, Dracula stood up before him.
"I'll go." Dracula said happily, "It's boring to watch the same Sorting ceremony for the second time. Maybe I can find some other fun by going out and taking a look."
Before Dumbledore could react, he drank the wine in the goblet, straightened his robes, and jumped down from the podium of the professor's seat.
"I'll go with you." Snape followed closely, walked down from the professor's seat, and walked towards the door of the auditorium with Dracula.
Dracula glanced at Snape and found that his eyes were fixed on the Gryffindor table, looking back and forth.
"Professor Snape seems to care a lot about Gryffindor?" Dracula asked with a chuckle.
"No." Snape said, silently retracting his gaze, and the action of gritting his teeth made it seem as if he was speaking through his teeth. "I just have some opinions about the house that stole the Slytherin House Cup."
Dracula looked with interest at the place where Snape's gaze had lingered the longest - that was Hermione Granger, who looked flustered and anxious, while the two seats beside her were empty.
Then, he thought of Fred and George's abnormal behavior, and a hint of understanding appeared in his eyes.
"Are Harry Potter and Ronald Weiss here?" Dracula thought, and couldn't help but curl his lips. "Things seem to be getting interesting."
He quickened his pace, passed Snape as if flying close to the ground, and rushed towards the direction where the muffled sound came from.
Looking at Dracula who was moving so fast that he didn't even wait for him, Snape's mouth twitched and he couldn't help but quicken his pace.
His large cloak swayed behind him, and he really looked like a giant bat.
…
Dracula saw a dancing, or rather mad, willow tree from afar.
It was the Whomping Willow, and it had been planted at Hogwarts for decades.
At this moment, the Whomping Willow kept waving its thick or thin branches, swinging them towards a dilapidated car with holes all over it.
Countless twigs as thick as finger joints hit the front window of the car violently like hail, shaking the windshield. A branch as thick as a battering ram was hitting the roof of the car frantically, and several nimble willow leaves reached into the broken car window, trying to beat up the two little wizards sitting inside.
"This tree hits people so hard, let's run!" Ron shouted in the car and pushed the door with all his strength.
But just then a branch came through the broken window at an angle and gave him a vicious uppercut, knocking him down onto Harry's legs.
Ron was stunned, staring blankly at the roof of the car gradually collapsing under the attack of the branches as thick as a battering ram.
"We're done!" he groaned, looking at the roof of the car.
At the critical moment, the bottom of the old Ford suddenly vibrated - the engine started again.
"Hurry, back up!" Harry shouted as hope rekindled in his heart.
The car "whooshed" backwards.
The tree was still trying to hit them, lashing its branches at the fleeing car, nearly tearing its trunk apart and creaking at its roots as it bent its body to get its longest branches to the old Ford.
"Merlin, that was close!" Ron panted as he lay on Harry's lap after leaving the Whomping Willow's attack range. "Good job, car."
But the old Ford seemed to have reached its limit of patience with Harry and Ron sitting in the car. With two "bangs", the door suddenly popped open.
Then the seat tilted to the side, kicking Harry and Ron out and leaving them on the wet ground.
After two more loud noises, the two men's luggage was thrown out of the trunk of the car in the same way.
A very humane thing is that Hedwig's cage was not thrown directly on the ground, but thrown into the air - driven by inertia, the cage door was opened and Hedwig flew out.
It let out a loud cry of anger and flew towards the castle without looking back.
After completing these actions, the old Ford car, with scars and dents all over its body and a roof that was almost sunken into the seat, rumbled into the darkness, puffing steam, with only its taillights still shining angrily.
"No, you can't leave!" Ron opened his eyes wide, waving his broken wand that had just been broken in the car accident, and shouted from behind, "Come back quickly! Dad will kill me if you lose the car!"
After Ron finished speaking, the car really stopped moving.
The light from the car's taillights gradually grew bigger and brighter, and its position gradually moved back towards Ron.
"Yes, yes, that's it, come back to me." Ron breathed a sigh of relief and said with satisfaction.
"Ron, there seems to be something wrong with the car." Harry said to Ron, carrying his suitcase in embarrassment.
The old Ford was suspended in the air, its taillights flashing angrily, its wheels spinning rapidly, its invisible boosters making the soft grass behind it whirring, and Harry and Ron's hair swaying in the wind.
"It seems like... it's struggling?" Ron said uncertainly, watching the car's performance.
"That should be right." Harry nodded. "Can't it disobey its master's orders and just run back at your command?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Harry," said Ron. "My dad owns the car."
Even though the car was struggling, it still stopped in front of Harry and Ron, who looked confused.
As if realizing that he couldn't get free, the old Ford simply gave up struggling, turned off the engine and lights, and fell to the ground as if resigned to his fate. The shaking doors, trunk and hood made a "bang" sound.
"Insting—"
A voice suddenly sounded behind Harry and Ron, startling them both.
Harry turned his head stiffly and looked at the figure standing in the darkness, almost blending into the night, and saw a pair of eyes with a wine-red light.
Seeing those eyes, he felt instantly relieved.
"Professor Dracula, you are going to scare us to death..."
Dracula ignored them and just looked at the bruised and battered old Ford with interest, his eyes bright.
"Is this the car that Mr. Weasley modified?" he asked Ron.
"Ah... That's right!" Ron was stunned for a moment, then replied nervously, "Is there something wrong with it?"
"It's okay, it's fine now." Dracula laughed.
Harry and Ron took one look at the battered and shabby old Ford, then looked at Dracula's interested expression, which had an expression that said, "I'm not well-educated, so don't lie to me."
"Really, I'm not lying to you. This car is in better condition than ever before." Dracula walked up and patted the hood of the old Ford, and suddenly there was a clanging sound of parts falling from the car.
Harry and Ron looked at each other, feeling that Professor Dracula's idea was indeed... unusual.
"It's really amazing that such a simple magic-modified car can unexpectedly give birth to a faint consciousness." Dracula was still looking at the old Ford car from front to back.
"Do you feel dissatisfied that I caught you?" he asked old Ford.
"Is there something wrong with the professor's brain?" Ron glanced at Harry secretly and asked in a very low voice.
Harry nodded in agreement, a worried look on his face, "It's over. Even a wizard as powerful as Professor Dracula has a problem with his brain. This world is too scary."
However, just as the two were talking in a low voice, the headlights of the old Ford suddenly lit up, as if responding to Dracula's question.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything to you." Dracula chuckled, "Such a rare intelligent being... Well, even if it only has a little bit of instinctive reaction, it is still very impressive."
He stretched out his hand, starting from the hood, and touched the roof, windows, and trunk of the old Ford...
Every time he touched a part of the vehicle, the dented, scratched, and torn shell of that part would automatically repair itself. Gradually, the old Ford car seemed to have turned into a new car.
"I can't tell how your weak consciousness was formed, so I didn't repair your internal parts." Dracula continued, "If you want to repair the internal parts, just flash your headlights at me twice?"
The old Ford's headlights flickered.
Just a flash, meaning that repairing the appearance was enough.
"Very good, then I will leave a mark on you that will allow me to locate you, and then I will let you go." Dracula said, "If you can accept this, turn on the headlights."
The old Ford's headlights flickered again.
"Very sensible." Dracula nodded with satisfaction and reached out to draw a devil wing mark on the inside of the car.
After the mark was formed, a red light appeared and then disappeared into the car.
"Okay, you can go now." Dracula patted the restored car window and chuckled, "I'll come over from time to time to check on your condition. Remember not to hide from me then."
When old Ford heard this, he started the engine with a "hum", turned on the headlights, and soared high into the sky.
It turned to face Dracula and shook its front end as if nodding to him.
Then, without looking back, it galloped towards the forbidden forest, and its bright taillights disappeared into the night.
Harry and Ron stared at the car going away with blank eyes. They didn't know how to understand the conversation between Professor Dracula and the car. They just felt that even in the wizarding world, this was too magical...
It was not until he could no longer see the taillights of the car that Ron suddenly woke up from his dream.
"Professor, we can't let it go!" he yelled. "My dad will kill me if he knows I lost my car!"
"You are his son, he won't kill you." Dracula glanced at Ron and said casually, "At most he will beat you up, maybe even beat you half to death."
Ron's face fell.
“It’s over… The car is gone, what should I do…” he said absentmindedly.
"Professor, can you think of a way... to just let Ron's car leave like this?" Harry hesitated for a long time and asked.
"Didn't you see it just now? This car has gained a little bit of consciousness due to your series of operations. I want to observe it for a while longer." Dracula shrugged.
Then he thought about it and decided that it was not appropriate to just let go of someone else's property, so he added, "Forget it, I'll cover your losses. Tell me the address and a new car will be sent to you tomorrow."
Ron's dazed look suddenly came to his senses and he asked, "Are you telling the truth, Professor?"
After receiving a positive answer, Ron jumped up in surprise and quickly told Dracula the address of the Burrow, thinking that this way he could escape the punishment from his family.
Dracula noted the location of the Burrow, and then he finally looked at Harry and Ron.
"Now that the car issue has been resolved, shouldn't you explain something else to me?" Dracula asked with a sneer, "Why didn't you two take the Hogwarts Express back to school, but drove here instead?"
"Do you think riding the school bus isn't exciting enough and want to find a more interesting way of transportation?"
Speaking of "excitement" and "fun", Dracula's cold expression suddenly changed and his eyes lit up.
Harry looked at Professor Dracula's suddenly interested expression with trepidation. He could swear that when Professor Dracula sent a new car to the Weiss family, he definitely wanted to buy one for himself!
Ron also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After a year of getting to know each other, the students at Hogwarts basically knew that as long as they could make Professor Dracula look interested, he would become very easy to get along with.
"It seems that we have passed the hurdle of Professor Dracula." Harry and Ron looked at each other with relieved expressions.
However, things did not go as they wished. Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, another sticky, greasy voice sounded behind them -
"It's been a long time since we last met. Here comes the famous Harry Potter and his good friend Weiss."
Harry and Ron turned their heads stiffly and saw a large hooked nose and greasy hair draped over the man's shoulders.
Snape seemed a little out of breath. It took him quite a while to get from the great hall in the southwest of the castle to the Whomping Willow in the northeast.
However, even though he was breathing heavily, the malicious smile on his face still told Harry that he and Ron were in a very bad situation!
"Good evening... Good evening, Professor Snape." Harry greeted Snape with a smile uglier than crying.
"It's a bad evening, Potter," said Snape coldly. "I see that the school's very precious Whomping Willow appears to have suffered considerable damage."
"That tree did more harm to us than we did to it..." Ron blurted out.
"Quiet!" Snape snapped.
"You two, come with me." He looked at the boxes in the two people's hands, and his mood became cheerful again. "What a pity, you are not students of my college. I have no right to make the decision to expel you. Otherwise, I will definitely kick you out of the school directly, so that you don't even have to pack your luggage."
Harry and Ron looked at Dracula pitifully for help.
However, Dracula seemed to be interested in the Whomping Willow again at this time. He stood under the willow tree with many broken branches and looked at this violent plant, completely unaware of the gazes of the two people.
They found that the Whomping Willow, which originally had a very bad temper, was as well-behaved as a harmless and weak weeping willow in front of Professor Dracula, allowing him to stand beside the trunk and stroke its broken branches.
"What are you two still standing there for?" Snape urged.
Seeing that Professor Dracula had no intention of rescuing them, Harry and Ron dejectedly followed Snape's footsteps and walked towards Hogwarts Castle.
…
…