Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 948: Letter from Sirius

Harry had to go to Umbridge’s office every night for detention, which left him no time to finish his homework.

As it was the O.W.L. year, there was an extra load of assignments for the fifth-year students, evident from the first week of school.

Snape’s essay on the properties of moonstone and its use in potion-making was particularly challenging, not to mention Professor Binns’s paper on the Giant Wars, Umbridge’s essay on ‘The Case for Non-Offensive Responses to Magical Attack’, Professor Flitwick’s requirement to work out a countercharm, Professor McGonagall’s Vanishing spells, finish the Bowtruckle drawing for Professor Sprout, and Professor Trelawney’s diary to record dreams every night.

With all these assignments piling up, it was an overwhelming task. Fred and George had said that the O.W.L. year was going to be tough, and they were certainly not wrong at all.

Every fifth-year student was complaining, even Hermione found it challenging, spending more time in the library than ever before.

And then there was Harry, who had been in detention in Umbridge’s office every evening. He returned to the Gryffindor common room exhausted in the early hours of the morning, with no energy left to spare. But he couldn’t go to bed right away; instead, he opened his books and started working on his assignments.

On Tuesday, he completed the assignments for Professor Binns, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Trelawney.

On Wednesday, Harry had to write until three o’clock in the middle of the night because the paper on the moonstone that Snape had assigned was due on Thursday. By the end, he had no idea what he was writing, and just mechanically copied the words from the book.

He had done a poor job, but there was no help for it; unless he had something to give in he would be in detention with Snape next.

He then dashed off answers to the questions Professor McGonagall had set them, cobbled together something on the proper handling of Bowtruckles for Professor Grubbly-Plank, and staggered up to bed, where he fell fully clothed on top of the bed covers and fell asleep immediately.

It was conceivable that in his state the next day, he might faint at any time.

Joining Harry in his drowsy state was Ron, who was preparing to try out for the position of Gryffindor’s Quidditch Keeper, so he had to practice every night.

To avoid being mocked by Fred and George, he usually waited until everyone was asleep before sneaking out.

Ron didn’t want anyone to know, but he couldn’t hide it from Harry, who was staying up later and later, and also Evan found out.

The Fourth years didn’t have as much homework, but there was a lot of research Evan needed to do here.

Apart from the existing subjects of magical studies, he also needed to add the black quill and make a new broom. Evan had already reserved his weekends to accompany the first-year students on campus tours and help Hermione and the others practice magic on Sundays to improve their skills.

So after Ron’s first practice session, they knew what he was doing sneakily in the hallway with a broom.

After repeated questioning, Ron finally said the matter with some embarrassment.

No one laughed at him; both Evan and Harry encouraged Ron to participate in the Keeper tryouts.

Evan even helped him bewitch Quaffles to fly at him.

The magic power might have been too strong. The following day, Hermione knew that Ron was secretly practicing, because his face was bruised and swollen, showing marks of the Quaffles’s heavy impact;  and there was no way to hide it.

In addition, Evan also promised Ron that he would make the first broom before the fifth week.

Now that the main body was complete, Hermione and Ginny were responsible for the rest of the assembly, and Colin joined in with great interest.

The traditional brooms were typically named after celestial bodies to signify their unimaginable speed.

After discussion, they decided to name this newly made broom “Starcatcher“.

Currently, the Starcatcher was still in its experimental stage, but its performance had already generated high expectations.

What was also worth mentioning was that Evan’s letter requesting Rawya’s help was also mailed out. When he went to the Owlery early in the morning to find the owl for Egypt, Filch, the caretaker, came wheezing into the room.

There were purple patches on his sunken, veined cheeks, his jowls were aquiver and his thin gray hair disheveled; he had obviously run here, and the purpose was very clear, just to intercept the letter Evan was about to mail.

Filch gave a laughable reason, claiming to have received a tip-off that Evan was intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs.

In a self-satisfied hiss, he asked Evan to hand over the letter for him to check.

Evan ignored him and let the brown owl leave in front of Filch.

“I can’t hand it over, it’s gone!” He said calmly, watching the owl flying farther and farther.

“You, you, you…” Filch stuttered, his face contorting with rage. “How dare you let the owl leave?!”

“Because your tip-off is inaccurate, I didn’t order Dungbombs. This is just my personnel letter. And there is no regulation in Hogwarts, allowing the caretaker to check the students’ private letters,” said Evan.

“Nonsense, that letter was the evidence that you ordered Dungbombs. I have my sources,” said Filch.

“I believe that as Head Boy of the school, my position guarantees that I won’t order such things.”

“I will report this to the professor if I get so much as a whiff of a Dungbomb.” Filch finally backed down and stumped off down the stairs.

Mrs. Norris cast a last longing look at the owls and followed him.

There was no doubt that Filch had sided with Umbridge, which was just one of many crazy changes that were under way at Hogwarts.

After the Basilisk incident, Filch had been getting along with Evan pretty well.

He would turn a blind eye to some mischievous deeds, but at the beginning of this term, he had completely taken a stand against Evan and his friends.

Umbridge must have asked him to spy on Evan and the others, checking their private letters. There was really no bottom line!

For now, they managed to hide some things and avoid direct inspections, but it wouldn’t be long before they started magically intercepting the owls in the sky. Mad-Eye’s warning was right on point. The Hogwarts postal system was currently under the surveillance of the Ministry of Magic. They hoped to gather information about the Order of the Phoenix from Evan and Harry.

They had been advised not to correspond with members of the Order of the Phoenix and to avoid contacting them as much as possible. That was something they had to be careful about.

But as soon as Evan returned to the Great Hall, he saw a letter in Harry’s hand, a letter from Sirius Black…

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