Chapter 290

“...they stole a car, and if they expel you, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised—just wait and see how I’ll deal with you. You probably never thought about how my husband and I felt when we found the car gone...”

It was Mrs. Weasley’s voice, a hundred times louder than usual, making the plates and spoons on the table rattle, the echoes bouncing off the stone walls deafening.

Everyone in the hall turned to see who had received the Howler; Ron shrank in his chair, visible only by his blazing red forehead.

Amid the chaos, Wizard Sean quietly rose and left his seat, passing Professor Flitwick on his way, who was distributing class schedules.

Like Professor McGonagall, he was handing out these important items along the tables of his own house.

On the schedules, the students’ study hours had been extended by one additional class.

The latest class had moved from the usual 3:30 p.m. to nearly 5:00 p.m.

Ravenclaw had no classes this morning, but this afternoon they had Transfiguration, History of Magic, and a Herbology lesson.

Herbology was with Slytherin; as expected, they would be repotting the Mandrakes.

Last winter, Wizard Sean and his classmates had already encountered this magical plant—they had been dressing the Mandrakes in clothes and scarves.

Holding his schedule, Wizard Sean made his way to the Hope Hut, where lush plants grew, and at the front stood a planting rack.

Wizard Sean’s wooden cabinet unfolded the moment he arrived, forming a small workbench.

On the windowsill, fallen leaves carried word: another cool, bountiful autumn had arrived.

As it crept silently into Hogwarts Castle, the fir trees’ leaves began to yellow; Wizard Sean slowly lifted his head—his magical refracting mirror was ready.

【Magical Refracting Mirror: Apprentice Level (20/90)】

Its function was simple: to refract external light multiple times before delivering it unchanged into the user’s pupils.

Technically, no magic was needed to achieve this effect—but magic was far more convenient, saving Wizard Sean considerable time.

Now, Wizard Sean only needed to test whether his method would work.

To do so, he had to recall every detail of the Chamber of Secrets—but time had erased the concrete details, leaving only vague outlines.

Wizard Sean had anticipated this, and had already prepared a solution.

The Pensieve.

Yes. The Pensieve was enchanted to replay memories, faithfully reconstructing every detail stored in the subconscious, allowing both the memory’s owner and others to enter and walk through those recollections.

Pensieves were exceedingly rare, for only the most powerful wizards used them—and most wizards dared not.

After all, memories themselves were the wizard’s most private, most precious possession.

Traditionally, a witch’s or wizard’s Pensieve was buried with them, like their wand, for it was considered an intensely personal item.

Fortunately, as a moderately renowned alchemist, Wizard Sean could always find sellers.

A shallow stone basin was spat out by the cabinet, its rim carved with runes and symbols.

Inside, it was filled with a silvery substance, both liquid and gaseous, like clouds.

Wizard Sean raised his wand, and the silvery threads of memory returned to his mind—he could now clearly see the petrified Mrs. Norris.

It was October, the day Nearly Headless Nick held his Deathday Party—the Basilisk would launch its first attack, and the unfortunate Mrs. Norris would be petrified.

That meant: in October, when the Basilisk moved, Wizard Sean could save Mrs. Norris—and at the same time test whether his Magical Refracting Mirror worked.

The cabinet naturally enclosed Wizard Sean; when he returned the Pensieve, the cabinet gurgled and swallowed it deep inside, where Wizard Sean had already cast an emergency auto-destruction charm.

Wizard Sean silently stared at the cabinet before him.

Was it an illusion?

His wooden bookcase seemed to be growing increasingly intelligent.

On the first day of term, the new students were still awestruck by the magical castle—when something even more astonishing happened: clubs began recruiting.

Hogwarts clubs had previously existed in quiet obscurity, relying only on members occasionally recruiting newcomers.

Now, a “terrible” club had gone mad with recruitment, poaching members from other clubs with no regard for decency.

The frenzy forced other clubs to start recruiting too.

“The Castle Cat Club is the largest club in all of Hogwarts!”

Hannah was a shy witch, but since becoming head of the Castle Cat Club, she had forced herself to become far more outgoing.

At this moment, she was gathering a few young witches, speaking earnestly.

Beside her stood shy Neville, head bowed, his face as red as an apple.

Hannah... was right—if you ignored their efforts to poach members from other clubs...

“I’m so glad I can say this again. You’ve all seen the lucky statue on the third floor, haven’t you? That’s one piece of evidence for the Castle Cat’s existence... helping Mr. Green, our brilliant alchemist, avoid failing, and Professor Lockhart, who attends Defense Against the Dark Arts...”

“Can you believe it? All of this happened after someone saw the Lucky Cat!”

She spoke rapidly, leaving the young witches dazed.

It also made Wizard Sean, passing by, quietly quicken his pace—he glanced around; the hall was now filled with clubs recruiting.

Some had hung banners, others were loudly promoting, and some waved crackling wooden rods to attract new students.

There was the Gobstone Club: a niche sport, whose former president was Professor Snape’s mother—Eileen Prince’s name still appeared on the trophy display;

The Quidditch Club: though more accurately, it was the Hogwarts Quidditch Team’s fan club;

The Castle Explorers Club: the club Fred and George Weasley belonged to, dedicated to studying the castle’s hidden passages;

Beyond entertainment clubs, Hogwarts also had magical societies and spell clubs focused on study.

Notably, all these clubs were founded by Ravenclaw.

As for Hufflepuff, nearly all had joined a club Wizard Sean found interesting: the Never-Hungry Club.

“Wizard Sean, I heard your next class is Herbology,”

At that moment, Jia Jia Siting stepped out from the crowd in the hall, holding several Mandrake leaves,

“Could I see your Animagus transformation? I’ve become very interested in it lately.”