When Dudley returned to the Gryffindor common room, he found many students gathered there, none of them sleeping, all waiting for news from outside.
"Dudley's back! What's the situation outside now?"
Ron saw Dudley walk in from the corridor, exclaimed, and ran over. Harry and Hermione immediately followed, along with other students who were curious about the excitement, all gathering around.
"Dudley, quickly tell us about the situation outside," Harry asked.
"Are there dark wizards invading Hogwarts?" Neville asked in terror.
"Dudley, are they about to break in? Do we need to join the fight?" The twin brothers said in unison.
Even some older students came over, but since they weren't familiar with Dudley, they didn't dare speak directly.
"Nothing major happened. Someone accidentally triggered ancient magic in Hogwarts Castle, causing these prohibitions to appear. Professor Dumbledore has already resolved it, and everything outside has returned to normal," Dudley said simply.
"It's already resolved? That's great." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
However, quite a few people showed disappointed expressions, including Fred and George, who enjoyed watching excitement and found such prohibitions amusing. Earlier, after learning about the prohibitions, they had gone to conduct various experiments. For example, would crawling on the ground result in punishment, or did rolling around on the ground count as walking, and so on... They had practically treated this crisis as a large-scale practical activity, having great fun.
"What a pity, we probably won't encounter such fun things in the future," Fred said regretfully.
"Not necessarily. Someone might trigger such prohibition magic again in the future," George immediately said.
"Then we can look for loopholes in the prohibitions."
"Exactly."
The two hit it off immediately, excited beyond measure.
Dudley's mouth twitched slightly. These two troublemakers—the Trunsoest Brass Book might indeed activate again in the future, and even Dudley couldn't predict what kind of rules would appear then. Of course, this was also because they didn't understand how terrifying such prohibitions could be. If they knew that once such prohibitions developed, they would gradually become stricter and stricter, even to the point of execution punishments, they definitely wouldn't be as relaxed as they were now.
Just as everyone was discussing this matter animatedly, the door to Gryffindor Tower opened again, and Professor McGonagall walked in. The common room immediately fell silent, and everyone looked toward Professor McGonagall.
Dudley glanced at Professor McGonagall and noticed that her originally disheveled hair had been meticulously and immaculately arranged again. The damaged robe on her body had also disappeared, replaced by a dark green wizard robe, making her look serious and shrewd.
"Did she just go change clothes?" Dudley thought to himself.
"It seems Mr. Dursley has already told you what happened outside, so I'll talk about some other matters," Professor McGonagall said straightforwardly.
"The castle has returned to normal, so everyone needn't worry too much. Regarding the troll in the dungeons, fortunately, our Mr. Dursley single-handedly killed that adult troll, preventing it from bringing disaster to the school and protecting Hogwarts' safety. For this, Professor Dumbledore has awarded Gryffindor one hundred points."
Before McGonagall finished speaking, the entire Gryffindor common room erupted in exclamations.
"What? There was such a thing?"
"What troll? Wait, there was indeed a troll."
"Single combat with a troll, and killed it too?"
"A first-year student is incredible!"
"Who is this Dursley? He's actually so amazing."
"He's Harry's cousin. I only paid attention to Harry Potter before, never thinking Harry's cousin would be so impressive. Really unexpected."
"So he's Harry Potter's cousin, no wonder!"
Everyone exclaimed in amazement, especially the older students. They knew how terrifying trolls could be. Even with their current level of magic, facing an adult troll would be extremely dangerous.
"We thought we had to keep it secret, but it spread so quickly," Ron said to Harry.
After they returned, they hadn't mentioned a word about Dudley's single combat with the troll.
"Dudley actually wanted to keep a low profile, but unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore wouldn't allow it," Harry laughed.
Hermione sniffled lightly. The points she had worked hard to earn for Gryffindor over half a semester weren't as many as Dudley earned in one go. However, Hermione had also come to terms with it by now. She seemed to understand how to get along with these companions. Points were important, but not that important. What was important were people, were friends.
"Big D! Big D! Big D!" Fred and George started chanting. Immediately after, the entire Gryffindor erupted in the same chant.
Dudley rubbed his forehead. This really wasn't necessary.
"Alright." Professor McGonagall had originally wanted to endure it, but ultimately couldn't. The cheering gradually stopped.
"Besides this, Professor Dumbledore has confirmed Dudley's identity as Hogwarts Sheriff, which is a position given to him based on Dudley's contributions to Hogwarts and his own talents. From now on, his privileges are equivalent to a prefect's, and he has the right to interrogate."
The common room erupted in cheers again. Many people looked at Dudley in surprise, not expecting such developments. After all, this was a change Dumbledore had specifically made for Dudley—no one had ever heard of Hogwarts having a sheriff before.
"It's Interrogator now, Professor." Dudley made a small correction to Professor McGonagall's title.
"Very well, our Interrogator Dudley." McGonagall didn't argue, but looked deeply at Dudley and said, "Just remember: be cautious, don't abuse your power!"
"Understood, Professor McGonagall." Dudley immediately replied.
"Alright, everyone should rest early." Professor McGonagall said nothing more and left Gryffindor Tower.
The common room erupted in cheers again. Many people ran over wanting to greet Dudley and ask about the details of what had happened. The entire process lasted a full hour before Dudley could escape and return to his dormitory.
Lying in bed, Dudley was already very tired, but he had one more important thing to do. Calming his mind, he entered a meditative state.
Dudley saw within his body a light blue, semi-transparent hexagonal prism, with threads of light seeming to flash through it, like lightning from the depths of consciousness.
Interrogator Beyonder characteristic!
Without hesitation, Dudley immediately absorbed it into his body and began his advancement.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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