Chapter 11

I'm sorry this chapter is a bit short. I'm running out of time to devote to the story these days. I'm also now using deepl to help me with translation.

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October 31, 1942

In the morning, after breakfast, on my way to Transfiguration class, I was watching the Halloween decorations at Hogwarts. There seemed to be an infectious joy and happiness on everyone in the school. The corridors, Common rooms and the Great Hall were decorated with Halloween decorations. Big pumpkins, bright lights, etc. The cheerful atmosphere even affected me.

 To be honest, I was quite worried in the morning, my biggest worry was Basilisk. I know how much the basilisk has suffered over the past months and I don't know how much longer the basilisk can resist Riddlle, whose resistance is about to be broken. Considering Hogwarts' bad record on Halloween, I was initially quite worried today, but as I said, the cheerful atmosphere spreads to people faster than a contagious disease. So by the end of breakfast even I was smiling and cheerful.

 I would later find out that this was due to a bit of magic. Magic energy is affected by emotion, so when a large group of people feel the same emotion, the energy around them resonates with that emotion and affects others. A skilled occlumens might be able to resist this, but unfortunately I was not yet at that level of occlumency, especially since such an effect is stronger in places like Hogwarts where magical energy is concentrated.

 I took my seat in the Transfiguration class and waited for the class to start.

 As I focused on the teapot in front of me, I tried to visualize a turtle, a perfectly normal four-legged turtle with a brown and black shell, certainly not with a flower pattern on its shell like the ones in my teapot. I took a deep breath and said the magic words while pointing at the teapot with my wand.

 The teapot bent, twisted, crushed into itself and spun around wildly. When it finally stopped, there was a turtle in front of me. The good news was that it looked almost exactly like a turtle. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, except that the patterns on its shell looked a bit like flowers, until it opened its mouth and started steaming.

I sighed in exasperation and went back to the beginning and kept trying, determined to make the damn transformation by the end of this class.

 The most difficult part of the transformation from inanimate to animate was your knowledge of the target creature. The better you knew the creature, the easier the transformation was. If you didn't know the creature well enough, the transformation was not possible. I hope I succeed until the end of the lesson.

Good news, I succeeded at the end of the lesson.

I'm sitting in Charms class trying to cast a heating spell on the frying pan on my desk. The idea is to enchant the frying pan to the appropriate temperature. To be honest, at first it seems like the opposite of the cooling spell we did in the first week, but in fact they are both simplified versions of a higher level spell, one cooling the objects and the other heating the objects. I think in the future they will be combined into one talisman that both cools and heats objects.

 Once I made the connection between the two charms, everything became easier and I succeeded in my next attempt.

"Ten points for Gryffindor. Would you like to tell us the secret of your success, Mr. Hagrid?"

"Of course, professor, it was what we did the first week. I thought about the cooling charm and realized that both charms do the same thing, even though at first they seem different: change the temperature of an object. Once I understood this connection, the process became simpler."

 Professor Steffonson continued with a big smile on his face.

"Finally someone made the connection. I give Gryffindor another 5 points."

The whole class was looking at me with big puzzled eyes. Okay, this is getting a bit insulting. Since the beginning of this year, thanks to the legendary performance of old Hagrid, every time I performed well academically, everyone reacted as if I had grown a second head. It was fine at first, but as time went on it became more and more insulting.

The professor noticed this and reacted.

"Why are you staring blankly. Why don't you take notes or do you already know everything about talismans." Then he turned to me and continued. "Keep practicing, Mr. Hagrid. If you meet the required standards by the end of the lesson you can continue with the advanced temperature change charm."

After practicing the same charm for a while, the professor allowed me to move on to the heat manipulation charm, an advanced version of the cooling and heating charms.

October 31, 1942

I was sitting in the great hall waiting for the banquet to start. Nothing had happened at school until the evening. I hadn't been able to shake the feeling of uneasiness I'd had all morning. I hoped I was just imagining things and that there wouldn't be an attack today. I hardly ever dared to be alone today, making sure that whatever I was doing in the corridors or anywhere else, there were a few people around me. At first, in the morning, I was able to ignore the feeling of unease because of the cheerful atmosphere, but in the afternoon it was back in full force, and it didn't help that I found out that one of the Oggs, the caretaker, had killed all the roosters in the school last night. I hope there won't be an attack today.

As I looked around with mixed emotions, the joy of Halloween and the nervousness of a possible basiliks attack, Dippet, the headmaster, stood up from his seat and gestured with his hands for everyone to quiet down while he spoke in his magically amplified voice.

"Silence."

His voice echoed throughout the great hall, causing the noisy atmosphere to suddenly quieten.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all once again for another Halloween feast. I hope the students who joined us for the first time this year will also enjoy the Halloween feast. Without further ado, I will continue with a small announcement. As every year, the first Hogsmeade trip will be organized in the first week of November. This means that the students who will go to Hogsmeade next Saturday-Sunday must hand in their permission slips to their house leaders by the end of class tomorrow evening at the latest. Otherwise they will not be allowed to go to Hogsmeade next weekend. Finally, let the feast begin." 

With Dippet's last words, the tables were filled to the brim with food. Everyone was eating and talking about the weekend's trip to Hogsmeade.

As I was eating I felt someone nudge me from behind and I turned around to see Fawley smiling at me.

"Hagrid, are you coming to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"I honestly don't know, Fawley. I haven't spoken to Professor Dumbledore about it yet, I hope he'll let me."

"Why do you need to ask Dumbledore... Oh, sorry, I apologize for my rudeness."

I waved my hand as if to say it was nothing and continued, "It's nothing. Why were you curious?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out in Hogsmeade with the other kids on the train, and if Dumbledore will let you, come over and hang out with us, we'll probably be on three brooms. I heard from Hufflepuff that Rosmerta's, her family runs it and they make a damn good ale."

"Are they letting us drink cream ale?"

Fawley nodded as if to say trust me and then spoke.

"Rosmerta will smuggle some for us. Not too much, but enough to savor and enjoy." He winked playfully and moved to another corner of the table to talk to someone else. From what I heard, he was inviting her to join in the fun. I hope the weekend won't be a problem. I don't think the professors would like a bunch of third year students wandering around drunk.

The banquet continued for about another hour. Gradually the students began to leave the big hall. Among them was the future dark lord Riddle, whom I had been watching for almost an hour. From the moment I saw Riddle leave the great hall, cold sweat began to pour down my back.

After half an hour of tense waiting, I felt an intense hunt with voxnaturae. I knew what it was. I had felt it many times before. The Basilisk was in pain. Fifteen minutes after the sensation of pain, there was a scream in the corridors. A short while later a student ran into the great hall and went straight to the principal. I couldn't hear what was being said, but it doesn't take a genius to guess. When the student finished speaking, Principal Dippet stood up and began to speak in his magically amplified voice.

"Silence!!! The house presidents will take all the students to their dormitories immediately. The other professors will come with me."

What followed was chaos. The students were screaming and trying to find out what was going on, while the professors and prefects were trying to line us up and take us to the dormitories.