You Can't Beat Him, So You Hit Me?

"And who is your master? Tell me!" Harry shouted, grabbing Dobby by the wrist.

"Dobby can't say, sir! No more questions, no more questions about poor Dobby…" Dobby murmured, blinking his bell-sized eyes at Harry.

"All Dobby could tell him was that the school was going to be very dangerous, because Dobby had seen the young wizard open the dangerous thing…

"At Sir's side! Dobby tried to take that dangerous thing away from him, but Dobby was just a poor, puny house-elf, and he was no match for him."

'So, you can't beat him, so you hit me? Throw me out?'

Harry rolled his eyes and had to endure Dobby's horrible screams as he shouted, "Then tell me who the little wizard really is!"

Dobby hesitated as to whether or not he should tell her. After all, as far as he was concerned, that was his master's plan and he should not reveal it.

Dobby's concern for Harry Potter won out and he opened his mouth to speak.

The next moment, however, as if he had sensed something, Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Harry reached out to grab him, but missed, as footsteps sounded outside the door, and he quickly lay down and pretended to be asleep.

Click…

When the front door of the hospital wing opened, Harry's eyelids fluttered open a little, and he saw Madam Pomfrey, presumably attracted by the noise.

As a matter of fact, Madam Pomfrey walked over to Harry's bed, glanced strangely at the fallen pillow and jar, tidied them up, and left again.

Harry's eyes flew open and he whispered Dobby's name.

…

Early the next morning.

When Ivan entered the Great Hall, he saw a large crowd of people gathered around the scoring pool, and when he glanced around he saw that the Gryffindor scoring pool was empty.

However, this was normal. It had only been a short while since school started, and Professor McGonagall had deducted two hundred points at once. Naturally, she had deducted all of them and lost quite a few points.

Was this perhaps the first time since Hogwarts was founded that a negative score had been awarded?

Ivan considered this, and was surprised when the Slytherin House next door's scoring pool was also empty.

"Professor Snape was willing to deduct points from the Slytherin house?" Ivan asked curiously, remembering that Snape was quite protective.

Ron, who was eating hot porridge, looked up and gloated.

"Of course. I heard Snape was furious when we beat the crap out of those Slytherins on the Quidditch pitch…"

'So that's it…' Ivan realised that Slip was probably angry that Slytherin had lost points to Gryffindor in the melee.

George and Fred joined them, grinning. "Anyway, you were so cool yesterday! We all saw you go up and knock a dozen Slytherins out of the way. If you hadn't been there, we might not have won…"

"It was all right, that's all," Ivan said casually.

As far as he was concerned, there was nothing to be happy about after knocking out a bunch of brats…

Hermione couldn't help but interrupt.

"You should have calmed down yesterday instead of fighting Slytherin on the Quidditch pitch without knowing what was going on.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have had two hundred points deducted from us by Professor McGonagall! We definitely won't get the House Cup this term!"

Hermione was furious, as she and Ivan had worked so hard to score extra points for Gryffindor, and now Yaoyao was in the lead.

If nothing went wrong, he would be able to get the School Cup this semester. Now that this had happened, it was most likely over.

Ravenclaw House was most likely the one who profited the most from this incident, surpassing Gryffindor and Slytherin to claim the top spot!

George and Fred were immediately silenced, having been stripped of all their Hogwarts points. Even the usually mischievous George and Fred felt guilty when they mentioned it.

Ivan did not mind,

After all, he was at Gryffindor House,

Score is high! Deduct whatever you want!

Dumbledore will be back by the end of term anyway…

Even as Ivan thought this, he quickly realised that this year's Boss Tom Riddle was under his control.

Harry loses a thrilling adventure, and Dumbledore can't seem to find a reason to give him points…

Was he really going to lose the House Cup this year?

Ivan scratched his head, unable to think of a solution.

After breakfast, Ivan packed up for his Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

Along the way, Ivan noticed that Harry seemed distracted, but did not take it to heart, thinking that perhaps Dumbledore had come to talk to him.

After class, Lockhart stood on stage as usual and performed the story with Neville.

Today, it's about how he subdued a vampire hidden in a crowd on Halloween,

However, he was met with looks of distrust from the wizards below. Some of them even gossiped loudly about Lockhart being knocked out on the Quidditch pitch, causing a lot of laughter.

For a moment, the classroom was filled with joy…

Lockhart tried to explain that he had simply been out of sorts the day before, but was met with more jeers, and even Hermione was reluctant to defend him.

Lockhart appeared calm and collected on the surface, but he was actually quite agitated.

He could not bear to live like this, so after the lesson, he found a reason to bring Ivan to his office.

Bang!

Lockhart locked the office door behind him and turned to Ivan anxiously.

"Hales, when will those things you mentioned be done…"

"It'll take at least a month, and I haven't even had my supplies delivered yet," Ivan said, throwing up his hands in exasperation.

"But I can't wait a month!" Lockhart was pacing the office so anxiously that Ivan was beginning to feel faint.

"Then give me five hundred Galleons and I'll try to get it done in two weeks!" Ivan said after a moment's hesitation.

"Okay, five hundred Galleons in two weeks!" Lockhart nodded without hesitation.

Ivan's mouth twitched at Lockhart's quick agreement. He had underestimated Lockhart's wealth. He should have added more…