Mysterious Journey
Chapter 954 Free Loading and Choices
Before Hermione could answer, a tall, handsome boy with a straight nose strode up to them.
“Good morning, Cedric.”
“Good morning, Miss Caslana.”
Cedric sighed with some resignation, wearing a troubled expression.
“Ugh, please, can you stop calling me that? Just call me Diggory, or Cedric…”
Ever since his dad loudly called his nickname several times at the social gathering last night, everyone in the house had started imitating Mr. Diggory by calling him "Ced." In fact, it wasn't just the house; after all, the social event wasn't only attended by Hufflepuff students.
Teasing was one factor, but more importantly, compared to the name "Cedric," "Ced" was indeed easier to pronounce.
“Okay, Ced. No problem.”
Elaina said, narrowing her eyes and gleefully adding insult to injury.
Without waiting for Cedric to respond, she continued, "What's wrong? Is there something you need, Prefect?"
She noticed that Cedric was holding a stack of parchment forms.
"Oh, right, this is the new course registration form. The professors said that lower-year students can now choose a few Year Three electives that they're interested in. These are the Year Three electives, and you can choose some of them during your free time—for example, during the second long lesson of the afternoon. You can also choose evening study hall time and free time during the day. Once you've chosen, you can't skip classes. The professors will synchronize the course lists…"
After a few seconds of pause, Cedric looked at Ginny and Hermione, who were watching the drama unfold.
"Here, your registration forms are here too. Weasley asked me to bring your forms over together."
Huh?! They had forms too?!
Ginny was stunned, and she suddenly turned her head to look towards the Gryffindor table.
She met Percy's gaze. Although she couldn't hear what Percy was yelling, from her older brother's gestures, it was clear that he was confirming what Cedric had just said: that stack of course selection forms really did include hers and Hermione's.
"Okay. Thanks—"
Ginny reluctantly took a parchment form.
Cedric smiled at them and walked away.
"I thought I could escape this," Ginny said, sitting down next to Hermione, dragging a plate of blueberry jam toast in front of her, looking dejected. "If Percy was in charge of the statistics, then I'd have to choose at least one subject… otherwise, he'd probably tell Mum. I bet not many people will choose courses, right?"
"Not necessarily," Elaina said casually, cutting a slice of bacon. "I'd guess at least half of the lower-year students will choose courses."
The opening time for lower-year course selection will last for a full week, which, in theory, can cover all lower-year students.
However, most courses have a limit on the number of students, so if you're too slow, you might have to wait until next semester—fighting for electives is one of the joys of a mature teaching system. It would be a pity if Hogwarts lacked this element.
"Who would complain about having too much free time?" Ginny said.
"That depends on the benefit-to-cost ratio—"
Elaina skillfully cut a sizzling sausage into four pieces and placed them on the plates of the witches around her.
"Would you like to have a magical creature as a pet, Ginny? More details cannot be revealed for now, but I suggest everyone take Care of Magical Creatures. There are quite a few spots in this course this semester, and you'll definitely regret missing it."
"Care of Magical Creatures? Hmm?"
Hermione subconsciously looked at the course schedule in her hand, making a puzzled noise.
Only then did she notice that on the course selection form, which was filled with the class times of Year Three students' elective courses, there was no regular Hogwarts elective course called *Care of Magical Creatures*. Instead, there was an unfamiliar course called *Magical Zoology*.
At the same time, there were some subtle differences in the professor column.
Newt Scamander's name was moved above Professor Burne and Professor Grancha, and he was listed separately at the end.
This situation of one course having multiple professors had also appeared in other courses. For example, Potions was written in this arrangement.
If she remembered correctly, this seemed to be called an official teaching group?
However, before this, the official teaching group had always been a new teaching system only for required courses.
Hogwarts' required courses are aimed at seven grades (plus the 'Magic Master in Residence' class makes eight), and the multi-professor system can alleviate the teaching pressure of a single professor, thereby better completing the teaching goals and flexibly responding to possible emergency teaching accidents.
So, by extension…
Hermione thoughtfully tapped the parchment course schedule in her hand, curiously looking at Elaina.
"Elaina, from next semester, won't Care of Magical Creatures become…"
Suddenly, swoosh swoosh swoosh, clatter clatter clatter. Hundreds of owls flew in from the arched windows high in the hall. They landed all over the hall, bringing letters and parcels to their owners, while also sprinkling drops of water on the people eating breakfast.
Obviously, it was raining heavily outside.
The round-faced chubby chickens fluttered their wings on the table, and rainwater splashed everywhere on the table.
Ginny didn't care about continuing to eavesdrop. She quickly stuffed the sausage on her plate into her mouth, and hurriedly moved the orange juice, fried eggs, bacon, bread slices, etc., in front of her. She leaned over in a practiced manner, preparing to protect the safety of the delicious breakfast in front of her.
Protecting food can be said to be the first compulsory survival lesson that most people learn at Hogwarts.
However, the next second, she terminated the activation of this "food protection" skill.
Because she was surprised to find that, unlike the other students in the hall who were scrambling around, whether it was Elaina, Hannah, or Hermione, they didn't seem to care about the owls circling and flying around in the hall. They continued to eat breakfast unhurriedly, while focusing on studying the subjects on the course selection form. That tranquil atmosphere seemed to be in another world in the chaotic and noisy hall.
An invisible cylindrical air barrier seemed to have formed in the area around three or four meters around Elaina.
The owl flock unanimously circled and avoided it when approaching this area—this is…
“Elaina Caslana's No-Fly Zone.”
A strange word suddenly popped into Ginny's mind.
She seemed to have heard George or some other upper-year Gryffindor student say this before, but at the time, it was more of a campus myth. After all, Elaina's dominance in Quidditch was worthy of such a description. Who knew this was actually true?
However, in that case, what if someone wanted to send a letter to Elaina—
Ginny curiously looked up at the sky. She noticed that there were several owls constantly circling around the "No-Fly Zone".
As if to answer her doubts, the next moment, a familiar cooing sound rang in Ginny's ears.
The little owl named "Emergency Ration" drilled out of Elaina's chest and flapped its wings like an arrow into the sky. It snatched the parcels from the owls circling around the "No-Fly Zone" and cheerfully dropped them onto Elaina's lap.
“Thank you, Emergency Ration. Good job—”
Elaina stroked Emergency Ration’s feathers and casually broke off a small piece of toast and fed it to it.
Although Emergency Ration was small, it was obviously much better than other round-faced chubby chickens in terms of speed, strength, and intelligence.
“Th-This is…”
Ginny looked back and forth at the sky and at the parcels that Emergency Ration had snatched back.
When they were playing werewolf last night, she thought that this little guy was easily bullied, so Elaina kept it in the bedroom and carried it with her, but after witnessing that series of robberies just now, she finally understood what the second-year sisters meant when they hesitated to speak.
Based on the combat power shown by this little Emergency Ration just now, even seven Errols combined might not be its opponent, right?
"Oh, it's just responsible for fetching the letters for me, which is very normal in the non-magical world."
Elaina shrugged and replied casually, "Many families raise pet cats, pet dogs, and pet owls to help fetch letters. Of course, it's the same in the magical world, but it's just a routine letter delivery, so don't make such a fuss. You can raise one later."
"But, they seem so pitiful..."
Ginny blinked her eyes and pointed to the other side of the seat, whispering softly.
Not far away, the chubby chickens whose letters had been snatched away squatted timidly on the ground, looking at Elaina pitifully.
Coo coo coo coo—
Coo coo coo coo coo coo coo—
"Obviously, you forgot to pay again, right? Elaina."
Hermione said seriously, looking at Elaina with reproach as she ate chicken legs with peace of mind.
"Ginny is still watching, can't you set a good example?"
"Oh, it's not my fault. First of all, I don't have any bronze Knuts. Secondly, I don't plan to pay a second time."
Elaina said, spreading her hands helplessly, and added an extra explanation.
"These idiots don't understand the meaning of giving change. Last time I threw in a silver Sickle, and then when I was going to get change from their money bags, you also saw how fiercely they resisted, as if I was going to cook them and eat them. So I plan to keep an account first—"
"Oh." Hermione replied calmly, her eyes still fixed on Elaina.
"So, are you really going to freeload in front of a new student?"
"This is not freeloading. I already paid a silver Sickle last time, and under the unanimous opposition of you and Luna, I failed to complete my due reasonable change. This means that the advance payment has been completed. This is a matter of principle—this is not freeloading, this is business."
"But for those owl messengers, you are bullying them."
"I look at the essence of the exchange. As for the deviation in understanding, it is not my responsibility to consider."
Elaina put down the fork in her hand and looked at Hermione, answering calmly.
"Free riding is a very shameful behavior, which will seriously disrupt the basic order of the market, so I refuse to pay them extra remuneration. As for preparing change in advance? Next time for sure."
"You—"
"I have, um… a few bronze Knuts?"
Seeing that the atmosphere seemed to be getting a little tense, Hannah hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
Hannah quickly glanced at the magazines on Elaina's lap, counted out ten bronze Knuts from her small wallet, and put them into the small leather money bags on the owls' feet. The owls flapped their wings and flew away. Ginny seemed to see a trace of relief on the round faces.
"You soft-hearted silly, you're going to inherit the Leaky Cauldron in the future!"
Elaina rolled her eyes at Hannah, who was smoothing things over again, and said angrily.
"If the customers are in debt, or bully you because you can't keep track of the accounts… then the pub will have to be mortgaged to the bank in a few years."
"Hey hey, at least there are still decades left, and there are Hermione and Elaina, so we can't lose money."
Hannah shook like a koala hanging on Elaina, saying heartlessly.
"You guys are so smart, I'll hire you to do the accounting for a lot of money, and then let Luna help with the advertising in the magazine. There will definitely be too many customers to count. These few bronze Knuts are considered advance investment—and those owls really look pitiful."
"Hire Hermione and me? These few bronze Knuts are not enough, unless you mortgage yourself—"
Elaina pinched and rubbed Hannah's small round face, never expecting that this iron-headed girl would take the initiative to come up with the idea of taking advantage of her and the Calculation Machine.
"Hey, do you read… so many newspapers and magazines every day?"
Ginny stared blankly at the thick stack of colorful magazines and asked curiously.
*The Daily Prophet*, *The Wizarding World*, *The Quibbler*, *Transfiguration Today*, dozens of newspapers and magazines that she had seen or not seen. Added together, it was almost half of *A History of Magic*. She usually felt that it was troublesome and boring to read her mother's *Daily Prophet*.
"Well, just reading to pass the time, plus to learn about the world outside of school."
Hermione glanced at the iron-headed girl hanging on Elaina, raised her eyebrows indifferently, and picked up a newspaper from Elaina's lap.
"P-Pass the time?!" Ginny swallowed her saliva.
"The important thing is the point behind that, dear Miss Weasley—there are some subtle messages that the professors or adults are unwilling to actively tell us, and newspapers and magazines are the only way for us students to receive information equally. This is very important."
"News that the professors and adults don't want to talk about? Such as?"
"Such as…"
Hermione unfolded the newspaper, quickly scanned it, turned it over, pointed to a small blurb in it, and said softly.
"Why is Ms. Dolores Umbridge back at school again—"
[To safeguard educational reform, the Ministry of Magic passes Educational Decree Number Twenty-Two]
[Dolores Umbridge appointed as Hogwarts' First High Inquisitor]