After the dinner, everyone returned to their respective common rooms.
On the way, Cedric was still pondering over what had happened earlier,
"Why do you think Professor Snape was so angry?" He rubbed his chin and mumbled to himself, "Could it be that someone stole something from his storage room during the Christmas holidays?"
Professor Snape has a private storage room, which is no secret at Hogwarts, and many students know about it.
There are rumors that his storage room contains extremely rare potion materials, and even the carpet is made of Fire Dragon skin. You could blindly grab something and exchange it for a pile of Galleons in Diagon Alley.
Judging by Snape's appearance just now, if his anger was indeed related to that storage room, then quite a lot must have been stolen.
"Don't think too much about it, maybe he just received a Christmas gift he didn't like." Kael took out his wand and tapped the wooden barrel at the door of the common room.
"That little minded guy, receiving gifts and still not satisfied."
Cedric glanced at Kael sideways, his eyebrows slightly raised.
The passage opened, and the two walked into the common room together.
They had returned slightly late, and the common room was already packed with people. They were sprawled over the wooden tables, furiously making up their holiday homework.
Not only on the tables but also on the floor, quite a number of people were lying down, and the number kept increasing.
In the large common room, you couldn't even find a place to step.
Kael was somewhat taken aback.
Is this a collective activity of Hufflepuff? Will I seem out of place if I don't join in...
But he had already finished his homework a long time ago. He certainly couldn't write it all over again,
"Don't be surprised, it was like this last year too."
Cedric patted Kael's arm from behind and said, "Our prefect once said that holiday time is very precious, and it's a waste to use it for homework."
The prefect Cedric mentioned was also the captain of the Quidditch team, Harris. He was also one of the homework catch-up crowd, currently sprawled in the corner, writing furiously.
He originally had a table to use, but just now he gave it to a few first-years.
He deserves to be the prefect.
Even the common room is like this; the library must have been full long ago.
Kael carefully avoided all the parchment and ink on the ground, cautiously moving to the dormitory door.
Just as he was about to push the door open, Cedric suddenly called out to him.
"Kael..." Cedric stood at the second-year dormitory door, looking at him from a distance and said, "I really liked the Christmas gift you gave me."
"Your gift was amazing too!" Kael replied.
The two exchanged a glance, simultaneously putting on a standard fake smile.
...
The first class after the start of the term was Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Class.
Not even five minutes into the class, Hufflepuff had already lost twenty points.
It was clear that their "one pen, one lamp, one night, one miracle" operation last night had not succeeded.
Even Kael lost two points.
The reason was that he lent his homework to Mikel and Ryan, but they copied it word for word, not even sparing the names.
"If you lend them your homework again next time... I'll take twenty points from you!"
Professor McGonagall glared at Kael, then returned to the podium,
"The holidays are over, get your heads together.
Today we are going to learn how to turn a mouse into a snuffbox, which is the most important content of the year. I can tell you in advance, it will definitely be on the final exam.
If you don't pass at that time, don't blame me for not telling you..."
Hearing that it was related to the final exam, the students quickly got serious, each one watching Professor McGonagall intently, and taking very detailed notes.
Hogwarts final grades are still quite important. Take Fred and George for example, if they can just get two "O's" on their report card, they can enjoy a whole summer vacation comfortably.
This is especially true for the young wizards from Muggle families. Their parents don't understand magic, only grades.
If their final grades are too poor, they can't explain it.
After class, those who hadn't finished their homework were all held back by Professor McGonagall, while the others quickly left the classroom.
They still had other class assignments unfinished, and time was very tight.
There was only one class in the morning, and Kael initially planned to go to the library to read for a while before lunch, but by the time he got there, it was already packed.
The common room was the same way.
Helplessly, Kael could only improvise by reading for a while in the auditorium, treating it as waiting for lunch.
Lunch was scones and fried pork chops, which was a combination Kael quite liked, but he'd hardly taken two bites when Mikel and Ryan approached him.
"Kael, your Charms class homework..."
"No, not lending!" Kael took a bite of his scone, glanced at them, and said, "I don't want to be called out by Professor Flitwick again."
"Don't worry, this time we definitely won't!"
Mikel raised his hand, promising earnestly, "We were just too tired last night, today we will definitely revise it before handing it in."
Kael was deeply skeptical of his words.
Last night, he lent all his homework to Mikel and Ryan, but they only completed the Transfiguration class homework.
And when they returned to the dormitory, their spirits were remarkable, showing no sign of wanting to sleep.
Even before Kael fell asleep, they were happily playing Wizard Chess.
With this track record, there was no way Kael could easily trust them again. He certainly didn't want to stumble over the same stone twice.
Besides, there's less than two hours left before Charms class, even copying would be a rush. He figured Mikel's so-called "revision" was most likely just changing the names.
After lunch, Mikel and Ryan still showed no signs of giving up, trailing closely behind Kael.
Only when Kael found a chance to cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself did he finally shake them off.
Watching his roommates brush past him, Kael was immensely grateful that he learned the Disillusionment Charm.
This spell is simply too useful. Forget Avada Kedavra, forget Expelliarmus, invisibility is the true magic.
Praise the Disillusionment Charm.
Soon, Mikel and Ryan disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
The dormitory was certainly not an option, so Kael thought for a moment and decided to go directly to the Charms class classroom. After all, he just wanted a place to read, and anywhere would do.
Besides, compared to other places, the Charms classroom was undoubtedly much safer.
Since outside of class, Mikel and Ryan would never approach here.