Chapter 58 The Ending First Semester
Basil had thought November at Hogwarts was cold enough.
But one December day, he awoke from a dream to find
Hogwarts transformed.
Outside the castle, everything was a blanket of white.
The snow on the ground was several feet deep, and the lake was frozen solid.
Inside the castle, only the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires.
The rest of the area, from the chilling corridors to the classrooms where the windows rattled in the biting wind, was anything but warm.
This resulted in the castle being shrouded in smoke for a while.
This was all due to the sudden cold, which had caused a flurry of colds among the students.
Madam Pomfrey's energizer had an immediate effect on the colds.
This medicine was very effective; one moment a student was listless with a runny nose, and the next, after drinking it, they were instantly energized.
But the consequence was that their ears would feel like they were smoking for hours.
So, for a while, everyone dutifully donned fur cloaks and rarely left the common room unless absolutely necessary, or stayed entirely in the Great Hall.
But there are always exceptions.
The adventurous Gryffindor students weren't afraid of catching a cold.
Whenever they had time, they would have snowball fights outside the castle.
Fred and George were particularly good at it.
They used magic to create several snowballs and teased passing students, chasing them around and throwing them.
But unfortunately, Quirrell, whose teaching level was no longer abysmal, wasn't chased and hit on the back of the head by their magical snowballs anymore.
Voldemort's face was spared.
But Basil, the timely rain, couldn't stand Voldemort being ignored.
So, one day when Quirrell was passing by, a snowball inexplicably hit him on the back of the head.
Voldemort's face, which had been covered up all day, finally got a bit of coolness.
Basil's joy wasn't limited to this.
Last week, as he ate his bacon sandwich and hummed a tune, Professor McGonagall approached.
He then learned that Hogwarts also had terms.
Just like the Sorting Ceremony was kept secret from the young wizards, the holiday was similarly kept from the first-years.
The first term usually ended the week before Christmas, and most students and teachers would "go home."
That is, it was holiday!
In the second week of December, the heads of each house would write down the list of students staying on campus instead of going home for Christmas.
The holiday was quite long; it began on Friday the 20th of the third week of December and lasted until early January 92.
A full 11 days!
Best of all, there was no extra homework assigned during this holiday!
He could practically do whatever he wanted for those 11 days!
Basil happily signed his name on the registration form.
Hermione glanced at Basil with great reluctance and didn't choose to leave her name.
It's worth mentioning that Ron wasn't kept on the list; Basil remembered that he was there at Christmas, but Hermione wasn't.
Until Ron, Percy looked grateful, saying that Basil's money-saving trick had saved their family a lot of money.
The original plan for just the Weasleys to visit Charlie in Romania had become a family trip.
They also got Ron a new wand.
Good grief, he always squanders money when he has it!
This made Ron very happy; he'd been feeling down lately because his investigation into Lockhart had stalled, and Hagrid was avoiding him.
Last Friday after Potions class, they were preparing to leave the underground classroom
when they found the corridor ahead completely blocked by a large fir tree.
Ron immediately recognized Hagrid from the two large feet sticking out from under the tree and the loud, panting sound.
He eagerly peered through the branches. "Hagrid, can we chat? I can lend a hand."
Hagrid, seemingly with unexpected strength, immediately hoisted the fir tree up and disappeared, panting. It seemed
even Hagrid knew about Ron's gossip now.
Fortunately, Ron was able to leave school early after Potions class on Friday morning because he had to go to Diagon Alley to buy a new wand. This
saved him from witnessing a scene that would have driven him mad with jealousy.
It was dinnertime, and the Great Hall looked beautiful and magnificent.
The walls were adorned with cascading ribbons of holly and mistletoe, and twelve towering Christmas trees stood throughout the room. Some trees were hung with glittering icicles, some were twinkling with hundreds of candles, and some had shimmering golden bubbles floating on them.
Compared to the lavish decorations, the Great Hall was much less crowded.
While a large number of students chose to leave school by train on Saturday morning
, a significant number were eager to go home and took the train home immediately after afternoon classes.
However, unlike the three sparsely populated long tables, the Slytherin area was unusually lively.
A group of burly men were gathered around, with a faint golden light flashing in the center.
When Basil led Hermione and followed Harry into the Great Hall, the crowd dispersed.
Draco Malfoy
appeared, holding aloft a flying broomstick and flashing a smug smile at Harry.
"Is that a Nimbus 2000?" Harry immediately recognized the broomstick; he had the same one.
Hermione scoffed uninterestedly, "Boring boy."
Then her eyes were glued to Basil again.
She was leaving the next morning and didn't want to waste a single second with him.
"Ron will go crazy when he sees this," Basil remarked.
At the same time, he secretly felt a pang of regret.
He couldn't go to Diagon Alley with Ron.
Although he could have had Lyra, his house-elf, take him,
both Voldemort and Dumbledore had their eyes on him lately.
Dumbledore was after Basil, whom he believed to be a great wizard, and after his performance in smashing a troll's head.
Voldemort was also after the latter, believing Basil had received the Slytherin legacy from Riddle—the knowledge of the Chamber of Secrets. He was also curious about the chemical reaction this knowledge had caused in Basil, which he didn't understand.
In short, Basil felt that leaving Hogwarts, which was absolutely safe for him, and going to Diagon Alley with an elf without the Weasleys—someone neither the good nor the bad—was too dangerous.
Bringing his diary as a bodyguard would only increase the chances of trouble.
He didn't want to be in a situation where he couldn't control his own destiny.
At Hogwarts, he could find out Voldemort's potion recipe and Dumbledore's underwear color if he wanted to.
"What are your plans for this holiday?" Harry asked from the side.
"Basil isn't like you, all you do is play. He's definitely going to the library to study," Hermione said sarcastically.
Basil, just coming to his senses, was speechless.
When did he become so high and mighty in Hermione's eyes?
He also daydreamed and slacked off in class!
He planned to play all holiday.
He even planned to skip Riddle's classes.
After all this time and effort in this world, couldn't he at least enjoy himself?
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(End of Chapter)