Chapter 256: Valentine's Day Cards (Edited)

Thanks to the "surprise" Lockhart prepared for everyone, today's breakfast finally ended after a bit of chaos.

After breakfast, everyone rushed off to their first classes, but many of them were already thinking about what to write on their valentines.

It had to be said that Lockhart's move had worked, at least those young wizards who are full of enthusiasm are more or less grateful for his behavior.

As a Hogwarts school favorite, the absolute pinnacle of wizarding, Fish was stopped by three dwarves disguised as little cupids at the end of the first class, and within two minutes five more had arrived.

Eight dwarves formed a circle and surrounded Fish.

"Mr. Fish McGonagall, I have a love poem to deliver to you personally."

The first dwarf to stop Fish pulled out a greeting card, with a warm, but still ugly, smile on his grim face.

"Yes, Fish is listening!"

(●?ω?●)

Fish, who had received a love poem for the first time in his life, looked at the dwarf with great interest.

"Ahem..."

The dwarf held up the pink letter in his hand in front of him, cleared his throat, and then recited it aloud.

"In my heart lived a tiger-spotted cat, his name was Fish McGonagall.

His fur was a shade of tiger stripes and leopard spots.

He sits all day long, by the fireplace, in the sun or on a trophy.

He sits and sits, he sits in my heart."

Although the exact meaning of the poem escaped him a little, Fish clapped his hands with great dignity.

And when the dwarf finished reading the poem, he handed the card to Fish with both hands.

Fish glanced at the greeting card and discovered that it had no signature.

"Who gave this to Fish? why doesn't it have a name on it?"

?ω?

The kitten looked confused at the dwarf in front of him.

The dwarf shook his head and replied, "The sender didn't leave a name."

"She's probably shy, girls are thin skinned" Dean Thomas explained aside for the unknown girl, "Since people don't want you to know, don't ask any more questions."

"Oh..."

Fish nodded and put the greeting card away.

The second dwarf was next, with a song, but even with the harp, the dwarf's voice didn't sound right.

But Fish was amused and listened patiently to all the greeting cards sent by the nine dwarves (in the meantime one more dwarf arrived).

The nine cards included poems and love songs, and some were simple expressions of their affection for Fish, some anonymous and some were signed, except that most were nicknames Fish had given them, except for Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin, who left her real name.

After receiving the nine letters, it was almost time for the second class, Fish, Harry, and others who had been watching, hurried to Potions Class, but they were still late.

Professor Snape was not going to be polite to them.

"Twenty points off for Gryffindor for collective tardiness."

This was only because Fish was among the late arrivals, otherwise Snape would have deducted even more points.

But he didn't let Harry off easy.

"For those of you who didn't get any valentines, why were you so late?" asked Snape in a mocking tone, narrowing his eyes and scouring everyone but Fish.

"They're listening to the dwarves read their letters to Fish nya."

?(●ΦωΦ●)?

Fish answered honestly for them.

"Heh..."

Professor Snape let out a dismissive snort,

Then he looked at Harry.

"Looks like the famous Potter isn't so popular after all."

The Slytherin students let out a loud laugh, and Malfoy viciously denigrated, "Probably because Potter didn't learn the right way to be famous, from Lockhart."

The laughter, which had died down, erupted again.

Fish scratched his head helplessly, he didn't know why Snape and Malfoy kept targeting Harry, when they were all his best friends.

Fortunately, Professor Snape also noticed Fish's expression, snorted coldly again, then waved his hands, urging, "Sit in your seat, class is about to begin!".

The Gryffindors quickly entered the classroom and took their seats at their desks.

At the end of the hard Potions lesson, Fish, who had planned to go to the Great Dining Hall for lunch, again found himself surrounded by dwarves, and this time, even more dramatically, by the Twelve.

Now Fish was getting a little impatient.

You can send cards, but you can't stop him from eating!

"Stop huddling around Fish, Fish has to go eat!"

?(●ΦДΦ●)?

As Fish spoke, he was about to leave the dwarves' encirclement.

But the dwarves Lockhart had invited were very professional, and although they didn't want to disturb Fish, two of them came over and held his legs firmly, while the others read the greeting card next to Fish.

"Don't go too far, watch out for Fish to hit you!"

?(●`Д′●)?

Warned the annoyed Fish, shaking his little fists.

If he didn't know he was going to be sent a greeting card, the little cat would have already done so.

Besides, Harry and others beside him were also stepping forward, trying to help Fish keep the dwarves away.

It's just that with them, the dwarves won't be as polite as they are with Fish.

As magical creatures, dwarves are not something that low-level wizards like Harry and the others can easily deal with, not to mention the fact that they didn't even use their wands and went straight for the dwarves to compete with their strength....

The result was that Harry and the others fell to the ground at the hands of dwarves who weren't half as tall as they were.

It was Professor Snape, who was also scheduled to go to the Great Dining Hall for lunch, who came to their rescue, or rather, Fish's rescue.

"Ten points off for Gryffindor for fighting in public."

He gave Harry and the others their usual demerit before pushing away the dwarves who had upset Fish.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!"

Snape was not going to be nice to the dwarves Lockhart had invited.

And the dwarves, who had always bullied the weak and feared the strong, scattered when Snape spoke.

"Follow me."

Snape, who had shooed the dwarves away, turned his head toward Fish with an expressionless expression, then walked away toward the Great Dining Hall.

Fish hurried after him.

"Thank you, Severus."

(●?ω?●)?

Fish walked over to Professor Snape and tugged on his sleeve in thanks.

"Um."

Snape nodded silently, still looking expressionless, as if they all owed him millions.

By the time they reached the Great Dining Hall, Fish had said goodbye to Professor Snape and sat down at the long Gryffindor table, the dwarves that had been shooed away had reappeared and continued their work around Fish.

But Fish didn't care at the moment, as long as they didn't interfere with his meal, the dwarves could talk as long as they wanted.

"Surely, Fish is still popular..." said Professor Sprout to Professor McGonagall with a smile on her face at the staff table.

Professor McGonagall shrugged helplessly, in fact, she had no complaints except that, like Fish, she found the dwarves a bit annoying.

After all, they were love letters to her own cat, and Professor McGonagall, as Fish's mother, was a little proud of that.

It was a pity Fish himself hadn't had the idea of sending a greeting card, otherwise it might have helped to keep an eye on things.

Professor McGonagall listened to the unpleasant words uttered by the dwarves below and fell back into the worries of an old mother.

As for the instigator, Gilderoy Lockhart, he could only look at Fish surrounded by all the dwarves with envy and jealousy on his face.

He had thought about sending greeting cards to himself as he did when he was a student, but considering his reputation among the students, doing so would only backfire, Lockhart could only reluctantly abandon this tempting idea.

Probably because word had spread that Fish had been held back by the dwarves, or because it was too embarrassing to read his love letter in public, the dwarves finally stopped reading Fish after seventeen more letters.

Even after Fish finished his lunch and went to the lake to sunbathe, he received no more cards.

Instead, Harry received a message with a soundtrack in the afternoon before class.

Unlike when he had read the letter to Fish, the dwarf in front of Harry was somber and unsmiling, fiddling with his harp and singing without emotion.

"His eyes were as green as a freshly pickled toad,

His hair is as black and sleek as a slate,

I'd like him to be mine, he's so handsome,

He's the warrior who conquered the Dark Lord."

He didn't realize how embarrassing it was when Fish got the love letter earlier, but when Harry himself was stopped by the dwarf, he realized how embarrassing it really was.

And he wasn't as loved as Fish, as when the dwarf was halfway through the song, everyone around him laughed, even his best friend and partner, Ron, who covered his mouth and let out a "pfffft."

Worse, Malfoy had seen it.

"Potter's fans have sent him love letters!"

Malfoy let out a chuckle, spreading the word and speculating, "Or maybe he wrote it himself to increase his fame!"

Harry would rather drink two more bottles of Skele-Gro than be subjected to such a horrible scene.

He would have liked to give Malfoy a bottle of Skele-Gro Potion if he could have.