Winter's Arrival and Midnight Secret

After October came to an end, a cold wave immediately arrived. Perhaps due to the relatively high latitude, the cold at Hogwarts was more of a physical discomfort, and before the damp air could settle in, it had already turned into snowflakes drifting in the sky. By mid-November, winter had arrived. The students in the castle all donned coats and scarves, and Jon, who was not particularly fond of the cold, had brought several thick coats from home when the school year began. After Halloween, he had wrapped up any exposed parts of his body early, and with the constant-temperature magic applied inside his robe, he didn't feel any discomfort.

The Hufflepuff students gradually forgot about the notice for Halloween night, although the notice board was still placed in the corner of the common room. Everyone was drawn to something else - the Quidditch season at Hogwarts had begun. Recently, every morning Jon could see Hagrid, the gamekeeper, wearing a fur coat, defrosting the Quidditch pitch.

Jon wasn't particularly interested in Quidditch. Although he did well in his flying lessons, he wasn't a fan of sports, and he found the idea of flying around and chasing a ball in the air quite boring. He figured it would be better to spend his time researching the single-eye lens (monocle) left behind by Ravenclaw.

Anyway, there were plenty of Hufflepuff students who loved Quidditch, so Jon's absence wasn't a big deal. Stephen and his friends, including Flynn, were excited about it, and even though they couldn't play, they attended every match. Jon was there too, but he had been dragged along by others and sat in the stands like a dummy. Meditating was impossible with all the noise around, and Jon's gaze scanned the Slytherin stands. Thanks to Helga's influence, he "happened" to know that Slytherin had a few students whose magical training methods allowed them to be less affected by their environment, which was more convenient than meditation. But it was unlikely that he could easily obtain those methods. It was a magical heritage of a wizarding family, and if it were that easy to acquire, the magical training methods wouldn't be so precious.

Actually, that was one of the advantages of wizarding family legacies. Their training methods were better than Jon's meditation method, and Jon's meditation had a very short effective period. Right now, Jon felt that the speed of absorbing magical factors during meditation had slowed down.

Jon guessed that by the time he reached his second year, meditation would no longer be effective for his magical training. Of course, it would still be useful for mental recovery. According to Helga, he was already at a third-year level, if Hogwarts allowed skipping grades.

Christmas was approaching, and Jon had prepared an expanded space bag to bring Helga's portrait from the Ravenclaw common room back to his home, where he could display his ancestor in his study. His house-elf butler would certainly be even happier than Jon himself, as Helga had a reputation among house-elves that no other being could surpass. Maybe Jon could use Helga's knowledge to make the house-elf's magical abilities more useful for him. Plus, Helga's reputation... Even though house-elves couldn't betray their masters, Jon could use this connection as a very convenient way to gather information. Jon seemed to see a network of information formed by a group of house-elves waving at him.

"Hey, Jon, what are you daydreaming about?" Jon was brought back to reality by Scali's voice, only to realize that the match had already ended.

"Why so fast?" He blinked and asked, "Which team won?"

"Of course, it's... Gryffindor," Scaly replied with some disappointment. "But it's not that hard to accept that Hufflepuff lost to Gryffindor. It's always like this, better to lose to Gryffindor than Slytherin."

"But it's just a game," Jon said, "Come on, let's go have dinner. Stephen has already gone to save seats."

Flynn also seemed excited. He hadn't seen Quidditch before, so he didn't care much about winning or losing. As long as the game was exciting, he was happy. Jon looked at the two with bright red ears from the cold and pulled out two knit caps from the pocket of his robe.

"Aren't you cold?"

"Wow, why didn't you bring these out earlier!" Scali and Flynn took the hats with a smile, and the three of them headed towards the castle. By now, snowflakes had started falling from the sky.

"By the way, I think I saw Professor Dumbledore just now," Scali said to Jon. "He looked rushed, I wonder where he's going."

"I saw him too, and Snape was with him," Flinn nodded, and it was clear that they both found this situation strange. During such an important Quidditch match, the headmaster and the Slytherin head of house leaving one after the other was indeed unusual.

"Let's stop guessing, even if there is something, it has nothing to do with us."

Jon turned into a corridor and finally felt a bit of warmth. Although it was still cold inside the castle, it was better than outside. Moreover, because Dumbledore had been in the castle during this time, Jon hadn't been to the Ravenclaw common room much. This was a good opportunity.

Night fell. Jon cast an Invisibility Charm on himself and slipped out of the common room. Then, he pulled out the Marauder's Map from his ring. He had tried to copy the magical map before, but the Replication Charm could only create a parchment with none of the map's magical properties. According to Helga, the creation of the map involved magical contracts and oaths, making it extremely difficult to replicate.

Oh well, he would keep it for two years and maybe find a way to give it to Harry later. Jon pointed his wand at the map and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map began to reveal its moving images, functioning like a magical navigation map.

Filch wasn't on patrol, and Dumbledore's office was empty - that was good news. Jon held the map and tucked his hand back into his robe to avoid raising suspicion from any late-night wanderers. He tapped his chest where the storage bag was located and headed upstairs.

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