The next day, Dudley and the others arrived at the Great Hall together for breakfast.
Hermione had already begun previewing the new courses, especially those books authored by Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Dudley, have you read the new Defence Against the Dark Arts textbooks?" Hermione asked immediately upon seeing him.
There were so many books, and even though Hermione had read through them all once, she hadn't memorised much of the content, which made her somewhat anxious about falling behind.
"No," Dudley shook his head simply.
"You haven't read them yet?" Hermione showed a genuinely surprised expression.
Based on her understanding of Dudley, he should have finished reading the new textbooks long ago.
Dudley glanced at the book in Hermione's hand. It was Lockhart's "Voyages with Vampires".
"Forgive my bluntness, Hermione, but rather than calling these books textbooks, I think they're more like adventure novels. There's absolutely no need to study them seriously," Dudley pointed out without reservation.
Originally Dudley had wanted to carefully read through these books, but after flipping through a few pages, he discovered they were complete rubbish. Expensive rubbish.
Hermione looked at Dudley in surprise, saying somewhat incredulously, "Don't you think Professor Lockhart is amazing? His books record many dangerous adventures, and these experiences could be quite helpful for us in resisting Dark Magic."
"Oh, come off it, Hermione. Who knows if what's written in those books was actually done by him?" Ron complained from beside her.
Harry also nodded in agreement. They had encountered Lockhart at Flourish and Blotts before, and both had mediocre impressions of him, especially Harry, who had been forcibly dragged over for photographs, making him very uncomfortable.
"I trust Professor Lockhart completely. He describes things in such vivid detail. It must have been done by him personally," Hermione said with obvious displeasure at their scepticism.
Dudley didn't pursue the argument further.
He hadn't had much direct contact with Lockhart, but on the book list sent by Hogwarts, seven out of eight books were written by this person himself. And each one was ridiculously expensive while containing virtually no practical content, which made it hard for Dudley not to think this was forcing students to buy his own publications.
Moreover, judging from the actual content, Dudley felt there wasn't much useful knowledge inside, and consequently, he suspected Lockhart himself was quite shallow.
Of course, he'd only know for certain after actually taking this teacher's classes.
Everyone began eating breakfast quietly until a chaotic noise came from overhead.
"The owls are coming. I think my grandmother should have sent all the things I forgot," Neville said, looking up at the enchanted ceiling.
Quite a few people in the Great Hall raised their heads, waiting for owls to deliver the packages and letters they needed.
Soon, hundreds of owls flew in, circling above the Great Hall, looking for their owners, then dropping packages and correspondence.
Unsurprisingly, Neville received the largest package among all the students. When that owl dropped the heavy bundle, Dudley felt it was remarkable that the bird could stay airborne.
"Errol!" Suddenly, Ron cried out, looking at a familiar owl in the sky.
Dudley also recognised it immediately. It was the Weasley family's ancient owl.
However, Dudley quickly noticed that the owl had a red envelope hanging from its beak, completely different from ordinary letters.
At this moment, Dudley suddenly had an ominous premonition about what was coming.
Bang.
Errol spotted Ron and then crashed down headfirst, knocking over the pumpkin juice on the table.
"Oh! No!" Ron completely ignored the pumpkin juice splashing on him and cried out in dismay.
He stared at the red envelope on the table with terrified eyes, as if seeing the most frightening monster imaginable.
"This is..." Harry looked at the letter in confusion.
"Look, Ron received a Howler!" someone shouted, and immediately all eyes in the Great Hall turned toward Ron.
"My God, it really is a Howler!" "He's absolutely done for. Poor Ron." "This is my first time seeing a Howler!"
There were already many students eating breakfast in the Great Hall, and now everyone was looking toward Ron, eagerly waiting to witness the spectacle.
"Ron, open it quickly," Neville urged with obvious dread. "If you don't open it, the consequences will be far worse."
Neville seemed to recall some terrible memory, his entire face turning pale with remembered trauma.
"Ron, did you think driving a Muggle car to school was cool? Now you should know what price you have to pay. Hahaha, I heard from my family that the Ministry of Magic has already started investigating your father. If they fire your dad, how will your Weasley family with so many children survive?" Malfoy's mocking voice carried from across the hall, laughing so hard he was doubled over with malicious glee.
"Oh, they won't end up on the streets, will they?" Crabbe chimed in from beside him.
"Very likely," Malfoy laughed with cruel satisfaction. "They might not even be able to pay tuition fees."
The surrounding Slytherin students were also watching this scene unfold, their faces showing amused smiles at Ron's obvious distress.
Ron's face was deathly pale as he frantically picked up the Howler with shaking hands. His hands were trembling visibly, his entire mind blank with terror.
"RON WEASLEY!" BOOM!
An explosion-like sound echoed throughout the entire Great Hall, and quite a few people immediately covered their ears in pain.
Mrs. Weasley was obviously extremely angry. If Ron had been in front of her right now, she might very well have torn him to pieces with her own hands.
"Muffling Charm!" Just then, Dudley raised his hand and waved his wand with practised precision.
In an instant, a thin, shimmering curtain appeared out of nowhere, isolating the area two metres around Ron from the rest of the hall.
"Stole the car! I wouldn't be surprised if they expelled you both! Just wait until you get home! Did you even think about how your father and I would feel?" Mrs. Weasley's furious voice continued echoing from the Howler, though only Ron and Harry could hear it now.
As one of the instigators, Harry needed to hear Mrs. Weasley's righteous fury. He couldn't let Ron bear everything alone when he was equally responsible.
Dudley had originally wanted to immediately dispel the magic on the Howler entirely, but considering this was Mrs. Weasley disciplining her own child, he couldn't interfere too directly, so he chose this compromise method instead.
In the Great Hall, everyone stared wide-eyed at this unexpected turn of events.
The Slytherins who had been preparing to mock Ron mercilessly were now completely dumbfounded by this development.
They could see Ron and Harry behind the gauze-like magical barrier but couldn't hear any sound from inside at all. The taunts that had been on the tip of their tongues could no longer be spoken.
Putting away his wand, Dudley continued eating with a perfectly calm expression.
"They're the ones being punished, not us," Dudley said matter-of-factly to the still dumbstruck Hermione beside him.