The House-elf looked at him with clear, childlike eyes.
"Is Wade Gray sad?"
"Uh—" Wade paused, then sighed, twirling the magic beans in his hand. "Not exactly sad, I guess? I just suddenly realized my thoughts were a bit too—"
Dark.
He swallowed the word, saying, "—I should say, paranoid? I was speculating with very bad thoughts about a professor who was nothing but kind to me…"
"Wade Gray is not wrong!" Zoe suddenly declared loudly.
"—Zoe?"
"Professor Murray is a good person, but Wade Gray is right to be careful." Zoe nodded forcefully. "Zoe knows one Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who tried to have an inappropriate relationship with a third-year girl and went to Azkaban. Zoe also knows another Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who used dark magic on students and also went to Azkaban. And another Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who used students' trust to invite them to a party, then contacted dark wizards to kidnap the students and extort ransom."
Wade chuckled. "He's also in Azkaban?"
Zoe shook her head. "A wrong spell made his wand explode, and he died."
"They're all Defense Against the Dark Arts professors… that position is truly cursed," Wade muttered.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts professors change very quickly, many bad people. Quirrell is also bad. Wade Gray must always be careful," Zoe said seriously.
Wade sighed. "I will."
...
Waking up that morning, Wade first waved his wand to check the time.
Golden text appeared: 07:00am.
Today was Friday, and they had no morning classes, so most students wouldn't be up early. As Wade walked through the common room, only two fifth-year students were sitting by the fireplace, reading.
—Poor seniors.
Wade felt a pang of sympathy.
He conjured a blue flame with his wand and put it into a bottle. Carrying it like this would keep him from getting too cold, even outdoors.
Tomorrow, Wade would be leaving school by train. He decided to go to the library after breakfast and borrow as many books as possible so he wouldn't waste time once he got home.
After spending the morning at the library, Wade returned to the Great Hall to find Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick there, busy setting up Christmas decorations. He immediately went over to help.
"Ah, Wade, thank you," Professor Flitwick said happily. "We need to hang all those ribbons on the walls."
The trio worked together with their wands, hanging colorful garlands on the walls. Twelve towering Christmas trees stood on either side, and hundreds of candles lined up, spiraling around the Christmas trees under Professor Flitwick's direction, burning quietly. Golden bubbles even sprayed from the tip of his wand, hanging on the branches.
Professor McGonagall gently tapped the ice crystals hanging from the branches with her wand, transforming some of them into sparkling little animals or tiny bells. The students in the hall watched her effortless Transfiguration with admiration.
More students came to help, fully exercising their creativity. Some conjured golden stars, some conjured proud, prancing deer, and others made several sleighs run through the air above the Great Hall, demonstrating impressive magical skill that earned their houses many points from the two professors.
Of course, there were also Transfiguration failures. A Slytherin boy had only wanted to conjure a few candles, but the spell went wrong, and the tip of his wand suddenly exploded, blackening his entire face and making everyone burst into laughter.
Soon, the Great Hall was completely transformed. Michael, coming downstairs for a meal, said with conflicted emotions, "You know, Wade, I really miss my family. But—"
He poked a branch with his finger, and the ice hamster hanging there immediately squeaked.
"Christmas at Hogwarts seems really fun too…"
He looked as if he desperately wanted to stay.
"Wade, Michael, good that you're both here." West, the sixth-year male prefect, strode over, pulling out two pieces of paper and handing them over. "Here, sign these."
Michael took it. "A Holiday Magic Prohibition Notice? Why do I have to sign this? I'm a wizard!"
"Yes—an underage wizard." West nodded perfunctorily, urging, "Hurry up, I still need to find Anthony and the others."
Wade looked down at the notice—
According to the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Wizardry Act, underage wizards must observe the following prohibitions during the holidays:
Firstly, wizards under the age of seventeen are considered underage and are prohibited from using magic outside of school;
Secondly, underage wizards must conscientiously observe and uphold the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Any magical activity that might attract the attention of non-magical people (Muggles) is considered a serious violation;
Thirdly, knowingly and willfully using magic in front of Muggles is a criminal offense and will result in a warning from the Ministry of Magic; severe cases may lead to expulsion…
There were still seven or eight more prohibitions listed, but they all essentially said the same thing—no using magic, and no revealing any information about the Wizarding World to Muggles.
Wade had read in books on A History of Magic that Muggles began to hunt wizards on a large scale starting in the 15th century. Although individual wizards were often more powerful, their social structure was completely decentralized. Wizards relied on the Muggle world for almost everything except travel, which often led to their identities being exposed.
For over two hundred years, many wizards were persecuted and killed by Muggles. Especially wizard children, who couldn't control their magic, were easily noticed and subsequently arrested, imprisoned, or even burned to death. To protect the wizarding community, the Statute of Secrecy was established in 1692 and continues to be strictly observed to this day, serving as an ironclad rule of the Wizarding World.
Of course, wizarding books only documented the persecution of wizards by Muggles, but did not record the reason for the sudden deterioration of relations between the two sides, nor did they record the wizards' counterattacks and retaliations against Muggles.
Now, perhaps to ease the hatred between Muggles and wizards and avoid escalating conflict, their textbook, A History of Magic, was vague about this period of history, focusing instead on the deeds of the eccentric Wendelin—a very peculiar and powerful witch who enjoyed the feeling of being tied to a stake and burned, deliberately transforming into different appearances to be captured forty-seven times.
A History of Magic used this particular example to prove that burning witches was completely baseless. In reality, however, many witches were indeed tied to stakes and burned to death.
Of course, even more ordinary women were mistakenly burned as witches, or rather, the vast majority were.
Wade looked at the notice—complex magical runes appeared on the seemingly ordinary parchment. Under West's urging, he didn't have much time to study it, so he could only pick up the quill and sign his name.
As he signed, Wade felt something invisible, like a contract, bind itself to him.
"Don't think you can secretly use magic at home," West warned finally. "Underage wizards all have a Trace on them. The moment you use magic, the Ministry of Magic will immediately know. Every year, two or three idiots receive warning letters from the Ministry, and I hope you won't be one of them."
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