Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry adopted a fully boarding, closed-off model.

Therefore, for most families, the total amount of time they got to see their children each year was limited to two periods:

Christmas holidays and summer holidays. If compared to the school schedule in Eastern countries, the Christmas holiday was roughly equivalent to a one-month winter vacation.

During this one-month "small" winter vacation, some Hogwarts students would choose to go home, while others would choose to stay at school or go out to play.

However, this year was clearly a special case—due to the "castle cleansing" plan, all students had to leave the castle, and the parents had naturally received the news in advance.

The only difference was that the Granger and Abbott couples, upon receiving letters from Hogwarts, also received a "notification" letter from their respective daughters.

Obviously, Hermione and the others couldn't possibly reveal in their letters that they had become "Major Arcana Trainees." However, if they wanted to stay in the castle, they had to find a way to reassure their parents—so, under Eileen's "enticement," the little witches gathered together and came up with several reasons to fool their parents...

"Eileen invited them to our place... for Christmas? The entire holiday?"

Mr. Benitez repeated the sentence with a strange expression, his angular face filled with confusion.

Unlike other parents, the owl that was supposed to fly to him encountered a small problem and accidentally lost the letter.

Therefore, the news he received was still the same as last year: Hogwarts was on normal vacation, and Eileen chose to stay at school and celebrate Christmas with her classmates.

"...Well, maybe, uh... they didn't make it clear, like... staying at school for the holidays this year?"

Mr. Benitez hesitated for a moment, looking at the two parents whose faces had darkened, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Isn't Christmas at Hogwarts Castle great? I heard Eileen say before that they have a huge Christmas tree, magical snowflakes, all kinds of decorations..."

"Not this year. Mr. Benitez, haven't you received a letter from Hogwarts?"

Mr. Granger interrupted sternly, looking around at the castle walls, frowning as he recalled the contents of the previous letter from Hogwarts.

"I heard that this year is exactly the one-thousandth anniversary of the founding of Hogwarts, and the castle is going to undergo extensive renovations, so—"

"Oh, that's just an excuse, Mr. Granger. The Ministry of Magic and the school came up with that reason temporarily to clear the place."

Mrs. Abbott shook her head, narrowed her eyes slightly, pointed to the ground beneath their feet, and lowered her voice unconsciously.

"A basilisk is entrenched beneath Hogwarts Castle... uh, a very dangerous, terrible monster that has caused the deaths of many students at Hogwarts—" she glanced at Mr. Granger standing next to her, and added with a solemn expression, "I heard they were all Muggle-born wizards, uh, like Miss Granger, whose parents are both Muggles..."

"Wait, there's such a monster hidden in this castle?!" Mr. Granger's face changed drastically. The professor didn't mention this when he enrolled.

"Don't worry, it's dead now. The report has been on the newspaper for several days."

Mrs. Abbott looked at Mr. Granger, whose expression had changed greatly, and gently comforted him.

"Not long ago, a Hogwarts professor discovered the basilisk's hiding place and immediately worked with the Ministry of Magic to formulate a plan to eliminate the basilisk."

"They eliminated the basilisk here this Christmas, and clearing the place in advance was to prevent students from being affected by the aftermath of the battle—"

"So..." Mr. Benitez frowned, thoughtfully, "Their last Christmas holiday probably wasn't spent in Hogwarts Castle either?"

"I hope not—that's a basilisk, that monster can even kill you just by looking at you!"

Mrs. Abbott said with a serious expression, her voice mixed with a hint of lingering fear and anger.

"If they were really hiding in the school, then they can only say they were lucky this time. If something had gone wrong, they..."

"But, uh... on the other hand, if they weren't at school..."

Mr. Granger's face also darkened, and he looked at the little witches in the distance who were still laughing and playing.

"Where exactly did they go to play for a whole Christmas holiday? This issue must be clarified, otherwise I'm worried that there will be big problems sooner or later."

With the exchange of information among the parents, the little witches' lies were easily exposed.

What followed was obviously almost complete anger and worry.

You know, even Hermione, the oldest of the four, has just turned thirteen this year.

"Uh—uh—ah—"

Xenophilius Lovegood looked at the three parents who were united against the enemy, opened his mouth hesitantly.

As a Major Arcana who knew the whole truth, he should obviously do something now, but it seemed like there was nothing he could do.

"Well, do you have anything you want to say, Mr. Lovegood?"

Mrs. Abbott turned her head and looked at the editor-in-chief of *The Quibbler*, who had been silent since just now, and asked curiously.

"Speaking of which, how did Miss Lovegood explain to you in her letter... uh, sorry, I just want to understand whether these kids are colluding—"

"Uh—"

Xenophilius blinked, his gaze sweeping over the witches in the distance who were still playing around.

Obviously, it was not a wise move to publicly criticize Eileen in front of everyone.

On the other hand, temporarily fabricating lies, or even taking the blame directly, didn't seem right—if they got caught, things would only become more troublesome.

Since Lockhart temporarily stepped down as the leader of the "Dark Wizard" operation, as his successor, he was responsible for memory wiping and organizational secrecy.

According to the rules, the most correct thing for him to do now was to pull out his wand and cast a *Obliviate* spell on each of the other three parents, but if he really did that, perhaps he would not receive praise from the Major Arcana Council, but endless embarrassment from "Miss Fool"... or even worse, because he might offend not only Eileen alone.

After all, with Dumbledore's "voluntary disappearance," there were now few wizards who could restrain that terrible little witch.

"Actually, well..."

Xenophilius considered his words for a moment and said slowly.

"Luna said in her letter that she wanted to take advantage of the fact that no one was around to accompany Eileen to find monsters in the castle... I thought about it and agreed."

"What?!"

"You agreed to that?!"

"So, it's really Eileen?!"

Sure enough, before he could finish speaking, the decibels of the other three parents instantly increased.

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Not good——