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"What is wrong with the Dementors? What are they trying to do?"
Panic swept through the Great Hall. The students, especially the younger ones, were affected the most.
The older students turned their eyes toward the professors, while the professors looked at Dumbledore, who sat in the center.
Dumbledore looked furious.
Fudge had promised him that the Dementors would patrol outside the castle at most, and would absolutely not enter Hogwarts.
The Minister had only just left, and the Dementors had already come inside.
At the entrance of the Great Hall, the figures of Dementors gradually emerged, radiating a nauseating aura. One, two, three...
A full fifty Dementors crowded the entire passage.
Dumbledore stood up. He removed his half-moon spectacles. His blue eyes were like sharp blades, releasing a piercing light, and an astonishing presence radiated from him.
For the first time, he took out his wand.
Straight, slender, fifteen inches long, with knobbly protrusions along each section. Overall, it looked unremarkable.
But that was no ordinary wand.
"Out."
Dumbledore merely uttered one word.
He raised his hand slightly. The wand moved gently, and a sudden brilliant white light rose, bright but not dazzling. It formed a whirlwind of light that roared forward, swept all the Dementors together in one motion, and threw them out of Hogwarts Castle like rubbish.
With a thunderous boom, the doors of Hogwarts shut. Hogwarts was a magical castle, and when its doors closed, a protective barrier formed, shielding it from intrusion to a degree.
By the time Dumbledore lowered his hand, the entire process had taken less than two seconds.
Overwhelming.
Peerless.
Unmatched.
Unrivaled.
Those words automatically appeared in Dudley's mind.
This was the first time he had seen Dumbledore act, and the first time he had witnessed the power at the top of the wizarding world.
The strength of a truly powerful wizard.
Between Dumbledore and ordinary wizards lay an enormous chasm that was almost impossible to cross. To put it simply, Dumbledore's magic felt as if it belonged to a different world from everyone else's.
'This is a true spellcaster. The kind of spellcaster I aspire to become. Sooner or later, I will become a spellcaster like this.'
'Calm, unhurried, powerful, and invincible.'
Dudley stared at Dumbledore on the platform, his eyes burning.
In front of Dumbledore, other wizards seemed like street performers doing tricks.
He did not know how much strength Dumbledore had used this time, but this was what he yearned for.
Of course, for the students of Hogwarts, this was also the first time they had seen Dumbledore act.
That suffocatingly powerful force left an indelible impression in their hearts.
A full fifty Dementors were not roadside garden gnomes.
Being able to deal with one Dementor alone was already enough to count as an outstanding wizard.
And Dumbledore had dealt with fifty at once.
And this had only been a casual move.
The Slytherin students exchanged uneasy looks with one another, seeming to consider how they should treat Dumbledore from now on.
'Is my father an idiot? Was he so bored that he kept provoking someone this powerful?'
Among the Slytherins present, Malfoy's face looked the worst. Thinking back on his father's habit of stirring up trouble, especially how he had confronted Dumbledore face to face last year, Draco once again condemned his father's lack of judgment in silence.
Dumbledore might currently obey the rules, but if he laid his cards on the table and overturned everything, the Malfoy family would be the first to suffer.
Do not think that was impossible. Magical history clearly recorded many such events.
The deeper one studied magic, the more reverence one felt toward powerful wizards.
That was exactly how Malfoy felt at that moment.
'Father cannot remain head of the family. He is too reckless!'
To be honest, Dumbledore's last public display of power had been many, many years ago. Never mind the students; many former students who had already graduated from Hogwarts had never seen it. Time could erase many things, so much so that most wizards had already forgotten the terrifying side of Dumbledore.
An old madman who spoke nonsense and behaved eccentrically.
That had become the general impression people had of Dumbledore in recent years.
Yet he was the one who had captured Grindelwald alive. Even at the height of the Death Eaters' power, he had made He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named feel fear and retreat.
Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the twentieth century.
"I believe we can continue."
After driving away the Dementors, Dumbledore's attitude immediately became gentle again.
After seeing Dumbledore's power, the students also began listening to his speech seriously.
"The first is Professor Lupin, who has agreed to fill the vacancy in Defense Against the Dark Arts."
This was the man Dudley had seen on the Hogwarts Express, the one who had used a wolf-shaped Patronus to repel the Dementors.
Following Dumbledore's announcement, enthusiastic applause rang out below, especially from the Slytherin table.
They might not care about Lupin himself, but after that display, they absolutely had to show respect for Dumbledore.
There was nothing wrong with worshiping the strong.
"As for the second teacher we have appointed..."
"I regret to tell you that our Care of Magical Creatures professor, Professor Kettleburn, retired at the end of last year. The new professor will be Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to fill the vacancy while continuing his duties as gamekeeper."
This news rather surprised the students.
Aside from the new first-years, the students in other years were not unfamiliar with the name Rubeus Hagrid. Anyone who had ever tried to enter the Forbidden Forest would definitely know him.
Although some students expressed doubt about Hagrid becoming a professor, to them, it was the same no matter who became professor. Right now, whatever Professor Dumbledore said was what mattered.
The applause below was thunderous and did not calm down for a long time.
Hearing such enthusiastic applause, Hagrid became visibly emotional, his eyes reddening.
"I now declare the feast begun."
Delicious food appeared across the long tables, making the already starving students even hungrier.
Question: when did food taste best?
Answer: when you were hungry. Especially when you had been hungry for an entire day.
At the Slytherin table, plates of meat vanished before everyone's eyes as Dudley emptied them one after another. Even Malfoy, who was usually elegant, was clearing the food on his plate at an extraordinary pace.
After spending so much time with Dudley, Malfoy's appetite had become several times larger than before. The main reason was that long-term training caused him to consume more food.
Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other.
He seemed to be eating even more than the two of them.
On the other side, at the Gryffindor table, several big eaters had also appeared. The most exaggerated one was Ron, who dual-wielded chicken legs and ate until his mouth was covered in grease, thoroughly enjoying himself.
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