Letter from the Merlin Knights

The next day, Ivan arrived at the Great Hall early to enjoy his first breakfast of the school year.

Harry and Ron looked distracted, as if something bad was about to happen, and only responded when Neville called out to them.

Hermione, on the other hand, was furious at their escapade the previous day and did not look pleased.

Shortly after, there was a loud whirring noise outside the Great Hall, and Ivan looked up to see a large flock of owls streaming in from outside the castle, heading for their respective targets and delivering letters and objects to the long tables of the four houses.

Nearly half of the owls flew at Ivan, and several of them collided in mid-flight, spilling envelopes across the sky.

Ivan frowned and tapped it with his wand. The envelopes that had fallen to the ground flew over and floated in front of him.

This anomaly quickly attracted the attention of a group of lesser wizards,

"Wow! So many letters? Who sent them to you?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It's probably an order for Wolfsbane, isn't it?" Yvonne said casually, then added, "It's odd that I told them to send it to the shop."

Picking up one of the envelopes, Ivan hesitated, as he realised that it was different from the others. It was white with gold trim and had a strange circular design in the centre.

Its celebrity was Richard Goshawk, a name never heard of.

Efraim's interest piqued, she opened the envelope and examined the contents.

[Honoured Mr Harls:

Due to your invention of the Wolf Venom Potion, which improved the survival of werewolves and contributed greatly to the wizarding community, we are pleased to inform you that you have been inducted into the Order of Merlin, and will soon be the youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin, Second Class, in a thousand years!

At the suggestion of your nominee, Sir Albus Dumbledore, we will send a specialist to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to award you the Order of Merlin, Class 2!

Captain: Richard Goshawk (Grand Master of the Order of Merlin, Vice-President of the International Confederation of Wizards, recipient of the Order of Merlin, Class I)

For the love of God!"

"It seems to be a letter from the Order of Merlin…" Ivan said with a shrug, handing the envelope to a curious Hermione.

Hermione checked the contents of the envelope and exclaimed happily.

"Congratulations, Ivan!"

Yvonne nodded, her mind elsewhere.

He estimated that he would receive Legendary Points for this award. After all, winning the Order of Merlin had a much greater impact than the small-scale fights he had had in school during his first year.

However, the awarding of the medal was delayed until around Hallowe'en, and was held at Hogwarts.

In Ivan's opinion, however, the Order of Merlin was rather scrupulous.

He even planned to spend several months tracking the effects of the Wolfsbane Potion and getting a report on the status of the werewolf wizard in order to evaluate his contribution to the wizarding community.

As for the rest of the envelopes, they were filled with ordinary contents, which Yvonne skimmed through. Most were letters from fans, most of them werewolves.

The remaining letters were presumably from wizards who disliked or opposed werewolves.

This was because it was full of threats and insults, and stated that werewolves were extremely evil beings, and that the only way to solve this problem was to destroy all werewolves.

Ivan could not be bothered with the retards and crumpled up the letters to throw them in the bin.

Harry and Ron joined them to see a letter from the Master of the Order of Merlin.

Before Harry could say anything, however, he saw a newspaper on the table, along with a pile of envelopes.

The front page showed a magical car driving through the city, with two figures in it.

"Jesus, Ron, we reported it!" Harry exclaimed.

He didn't need to be reminded that Ron's eyes were fixed on the newspaper with fear in them, and he suddenly felt that the trouble might be bigger than they thought.

Overhead, a trembling owl approached with a red letter dangling from its beak. It flapped its wings weakly and flew so slowly that one wondered if it would suddenly topple over.

Luckily, the grey-black owl managed to complete its task and deliver the contents to Ron, even though it crashed into Hermione's jug of milk…

Ivan immediately pulled Hermione back a few feet and covered his ears.

"What is it?" Hermione asked curiously.

"That's a Howler, and I advise you to be like me!" Ivan warned her, turning to look at her.

The young witch didn't know what was going on, but she copied Ivan and covered her ears, and the Gryffindors who knew what was happening ran away.

Harry swallowed hard and stared at Ron in horror. He had seen the power of the Howler during his first term, and it was loud enough to wake the entire Gryffindor Lounge.

Ron's expression was equally sour, and he looked on the verge of tears… as he slowly opened the envelope with trembling fingers.

Ron originally intended to destroy the Howler, or simply throw it into the lake.

However, Neville stopped Ron, as there would be worse consequences!

Anyway, don't ask him how he knew…

As soon as Ron tore a small hole in the envelope, the letter began to move of its own accord, folding itself into a large red mouth, and its booming voice echoed through the hall, making the nearest couple feel as if they were going deaf!

"Ron! How dare you do this without telling us?! Huh? How dare you drive that magic car to school without permission!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they fired you for it, see how I deal with you. You probably never even considered how your father and I felt when we found out the car was gone…"

Mrs Weasley's voice was usually very loud, and when amplified a hundred times by the Howler, it created a sound wave that caused the cups on the table to rattle.

Everyone in the hall heard it loud and clear, trying to see who had received the Howler, and Harry and Ron were mortified.

Being publicly executed was not a pleasant experience, not to mention the possibility that Arthur would be expelled from the Ministry for implicating them!

The roar lasted for more than ten minutes before it finally stopped. Immediately after, the envelope spontaneously combusted and turned into ashes…