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Lockhart clapped his hands. Through the doors leading to the entrance hall strode twelve surly-looking dwarfs, their large red noses their most obvious feature. Unlike ordinary dwarfs, Lockhart had made all of them wear golden wings and carry harps on their backs.
"My friendly, card-carrying little cupids!" Lockhart said cheerfully, as if he wanted to share his joy with everyone. "They will be roaming the school today, delivering Valentine's cards for you!"
"And that is not all the fun!"
"Why not ask Professor Snape to teach you how to brew a love potion? I believe he is very skilled at that."
"As far as I know, the Love Flowers Professor Sprout has been cultivating will soon bloom as well. We must give them to the people we love before they wither, and then we shall receive love's blessing."
"You may also ask Professor Trelawney to divine your destined other half, if her divinations truly work."
"Professor Flitwick, meanwhile, knows more about charming magic than any wizard I have ever met. Just look at that sly old dog."
With every sentence he spoke, the face of each professor he mentioned darkened a little more. By the time he finished, Professor McGonagall, the only one whose name had not been mentioned, looked so dark that her face seemed to have lost all other color.
Why had he stopped before reaching her?
The students were clearly not going to get the answers they wanted from the professors.
However, the dwarfs were extremely loyal in carrying out their "mission": delivering love letters and reading them aloud in public.
"What sort of public humiliation is this?"
Harry watched as a student struggled to flee, only to be surrounded by the dwarfs. They then read the contents of the love letter aloud in public, leaving the student with the expression of someone whose soul had left his body. Harry could not help sighing.
"I wonder who the second unlucky person will be."
"I see him! It's him! Harry Potter!"
One of the dwarfs pointed at Harry and shouted. His voice was so loud that almost the entire Great Hall heard it.
"It isn't... mine, is it?" The moment Harry heard his name, his body went stiff.
There would not be anything strange inside, would there?
"Potter! I didn't expect you to be so popular."
Malfoy seized the chance and mocked him without mercy.
"Look, there's Malfoy. Perfect. I have three letters for him too."
Malfoy: "???"
He looked as if he had been hit with a Petrification spell. His body became even stiffer than Harry's.
Having love letters read aloud in public?
Too shameful!
No. Absolutely not.
Malfoy's already pale lips lost even more color.
"And Longbottom! Oh, five letters. Quite a lot."
The dwarfs' gazes fell on Neville, who had been watching the show.
'I have some too?'
Neville was completely confused. He was only an ordinary young wizard. Why had he suddenly become popular?
In fact, on the night the Duelling Club was held, Neville had defeated Lockhart with a spell, and he had won the hearts of quite a few young witches.
The dwarfs shifted their gazes again, this time toward Ron, who stood beside Neville.
"Ahem."
Ron cleared his throat and straightened his collar, looking as though he were already prepared.
Then...
"Move aside, redhead. Don't block the way."
The dwarfs shoved him aside roughly.
Ron: "???"
'Where are mine?'
"Dursley! Look, it's Dursley! I found him! A full eighty letters!"
Several dwarfs gathered together, pointed at Dudley, and let out delighted screams. If they handled him, they could complete almost half their work in one breath. How could they not be happy?
"I didn't expect you to be so popular. Let me see who wrote to you."
Hermione poked Dudley and smiled sweetly. Her tone sounded very gentle.
Only...
Crack.
The quill in her hand snapped.
A full eighty love letters.
More than Lockhart.
Yet he was still not the one with the most. The person with the most had a full one hundred and eight.
Madison, a first-year student from Ravenclaw.
Cedric actually had quite a few as well. He could be counted as the most popular wizard below Dudley and Lockhart, but at the moment, he was not in the Great Hall.
"And Miss Granger. Twenty love letters in total!"
Hey, let me see who is so bold.
Dudley's expression turned unfriendly as he looked around.
Not a single member of the disciplinary group was spared. All of them received quite a few love letters.
The dwarfs came over and tried to grab Dudley, intending to force him to listen as they loudly read the contents of the letters. Unfortunately, they had clearly chosen the wrong target.
"Your behavior is seriously disrupting school discipline."
"One of the disciplinary group's responsibilities is to maintain school discipline."
When they heard Dudley's unfriendly tone, the dwarfs surrounded him.
"Hey, big one, are you trying to fight? Let me tell you, we've got numbers!"
"Today, you're listening whether you want to or not."
As they spoke, one of them flexed his muscles at Dudley.
The dwarfs might have been small, but they were not weak.
Unfortunately, this group of dwarfs clearly did not know what the name Dursley meant.
They had only been hired by Lockhart.
"Does having more people mean having more strength?"
Dudley smiled calmly, then lightly snapped his fingers.
A blue whirlwind rose from thin air, and a large crowd of chattering Cornish pixies appeared before everyone's eyes.
"Then I have quite a lot of people now too."
"Throw them out."
Dudley pointed at the dwarfs in front of him.
The Cornish pixies immediately swarmed forward.
Little destroyers, move out!
Although they did not have Pixie's strength or ability, they were still much stronger than these dwarfs. In addition, their numbers were several times greater.
One Peeves had limited destructive power.
A group of Peeves-like troublemakers was a rather terrifying force.
"Stop! Let go of me!"
"Get away!"
"Merlin, my ear!"
At first, the dwarfs shouted threats. Then they cursed. Finally, they wailed.
One after another, they were thrown out of the castle.
The Valentine's Day atmosphere ended before it had truly begun.
Although a few young witches felt a little regretful, most people were relieved.
Lockhart had originally wanted to stop it, but in the end, his mouth opened and nothing came out. He recognized those Cornish pixies. They seemed to be the very ones he had brought in before.
Inside the Great Hall, a pair of eyes filled with hatred was fixed tightly on the disciplinary group.
More accurately, on Hermione among the disciplinary group.
Not long after Valentine's Day, what was bound to happen still happened.
When the professors' patrol team began to slacken because they had not caught anyone for so long, another incident occurred.
This time, it was no longer a cat.
A student had been attacked.
Along with him, a ghost had also been attacked.
Fortunately, neither of them had died.
They had both been Petrified on the spot.
Once again, a line of small words had been left on the wall in chicken blood.
Only this time, the message was extremely targeted.
"You are next, filthy Mudblood!"
"Hermione Granger!"
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