Chapter 215 You have to live! (On the first day of the Lunar New Year, for all book friends (page 1)
Because Peter Pettigrew might have infiltrated Hogwarts, a rare large-scale cleaning campaign was organized in the castle.
However, the house elves living in the big kitchen felt great panic about this, because the cleaning was done personally by professors from various colleges and senior prefects.
In the end, it was Professor Sprout who took the initiative - according to Hogwarts' "power distribution map", the area of the kitchen belongs to the traditional sphere of influence of Hufflepuff House - and briefly revealed some information to the house elves. The news partially dispelled their worries.
Of course, the consequences of doing this are:
In the following period, all the little wizards discovered that their dirty clothes, which were taken away after going to bed every day and then returned the next day after being washed, disappeared as soon as they were changed out every day, and they disappeared very quickly. It will be washed and returned to its original location;
The mottled walls in the school, which were originally meant to highlight the ancient atmosphere of the castle, were carefully wiped clean with the most powerful magic stain remover at some point, and every gap in the walls was sealed with cement to make them tight. , even flies and mosquitoes can’t get in...
But even so, after a week or two of work, Dumbledore and the professors still found no trace of the existence of Peter Pettigrew.
"Either he is hiding deeper than we thought, or he has escaped from Hogwarts Castle."
The group of Ministry of Magic Aurors headed by Kingsley were very convinced of Dumbledore's judgment.
It is precisely because of this that their patrol schedule has become more intensive, and they are afraid and unwilling to gamble on the 1/2 possibility.
October is here, and the humid cold air begins to spread out of the Forbidden Forest and gradually penetrates into the castle.
A cold suddenly broke out among the staff and students, causing Madam Pomfrey, the talker of the hospital wing, to scramble.
Her pick-me-up potion has an immediate effect, but those who drink it will have smoke coming out of their ears for several hours.
Ginny Weasley had been feeling ill recently, and was forced by Percy to drink some refreshing potions. As a result, steam came out from under her bright hair, and her whole head felt like it was on fire.
"The Hogwarts Quidditch League is about to begin. By then, you will have to go to the stage to cheer for Harry and the others. You don't want to appear in front of Harry looking sick, do you?"
If Percy hadn't said so, Ginny would never have wanted to drink that pick-me-up again.
In this way, for several days, Percy coaxed his little sister to drink a course of medicine. During this period, bullet-sized raindrops "crackled" hit the windows of the castle and did not stop for several days. The water in the Black Lake rose, and there was a muddy flow in the flower beds. Each of Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of a flower shed.
However, Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular Quidditch training has not diminished, and the Hogwarts Cup is really about to begin.
At the end of each training session, when the Gryffindor Quidditch team returned to the castle, every player was wet and their clothes were stained with mud.
As for their training intensity, Slytherin was the only one left among the remaining three academies.
"Flint is going crazy."
This was information that Fred and George found out together. They didn't know how they got into the Slytherin training ground, but they just got in anyway.
(Twins: "Thank you nature for giving us the Marauder's Map.")
Fred and George had been scouting the Slytherin team for several days in addition to heavy training.
Slytherin and the others did not train on the pitch. Instead, they found an open field large enough for Quidditch skills training on the lower level of their underground common room.
The twins saw with their own eyes the speed of those new broom light wheels 2001. They came back and reported that the Slytherin team members were now just seven blurry light green shadows, whizzing around like jets, and that they had also specially participated in obstacle avoidance training.
They revealed to the Gryffindor players with lingering fear: "...because it is actually a venue for playing 'ancient German bollard play' and 'overhead cauldron', so the Slytherins are still using venue props to practice their fundamentals. Techniques that are not in keeping with the spirit of the Quidditch game!"
The ancient German bollard game, in which an inflatable dragon bladder was placed at the top of a twenty-foot pole, was protected by one player while the other players took turns trying to pierce it with a sharpened broomstick handle. It died out in the 14th century.
Broomstick racing is a sport that originated in Scotland and is considered the most dangerous of all broom sports.
During the competition, athletes ride broomsticks with a cauldron strapped to their heads. When a trumpet or a drum sounds, movement begins, and a hundred enchanted blocks of rock and stone, which had been suspended until then, are thrown down to the ground from a height of a hundred feet.
Competitors need to rise and fall in the field and catch as many stones as possible with the crucible on their heads.
In the eyes of many Scottish wizards, this sport was the greatest test of manhood and courage, so it was quite popular in the Middle Ages.
However, this sport has also caused many deaths due to its high risk. According to an 11th-century poem, it was common for only two to survive a campaign of twelve.
As a result, the game was outlawed in 1762, but it was the inspiration for the Bludger in Quidditch.
Due to the information brought by the twins, the pressure was suddenly placed on Gryffindor, and Wood also trained his players more rigorously.
A week passed like this, and on a Saturday morning, the Hogwarts Quidditch League finally started.
In order to adjust the team before the game, Professor McGonagall even suspended her Transfiguration Club once and went to the Gryffindor Tower in person to give her team tactical tips.
In particular, she wanted to tell Harry again about some of the experiences and lessons she learned while trying out the Firebolt broom... Well, no, she was checking out the Firebolt broom.
The team did not go to the Great Hall for lunch, but ate food delivered to Gryffindor Tower by house elves alone - safe and hygienic - and also avoided unnecessary trouble.
Eleven o'clock gradually approached, and all the teachers and students of the school began to go to the Quidditch stadium.
It was a hot and humid Saturday, with faint thunder in the air. As Bourne and Harry were about to enter the dressing room, Ron and Hermione hurried over to wish him good luck. The players all put on bright red Gryffindor uniforms and then sat down to listen to Wood give them his customary pre-game pep talk.
"Our brooms are better than Slytherin's, that's undeniable, and the people on our brooms are better than them.
We train harder than them and have flown in all kinds of weather conditions—"
("You're right," said George Weasley, whispering quietly on the bench, "my clothes haven't been dry since August.")
"——Therefore, we have to show our momentum, and it is best to start this year's league journey with a crushing score!"