Chapter 175: Establishing Home-School Connection, Course Selection
The reason Ethan went to the Room of Requirement now was because at this point in time, no one was in the Room of Requirement.
After returning to the castle by carriage, Ethan saw two red-haired students sitting together in the Great Hall.
Therefore, after dinner, Ethan greeted Fred and George and chatted for a while on the lawn outside the castle.
Ethan first shared some relatively normal-tasting snacks with them and also gave them the photos he took.
Then, Ethan asked very directly: "Are you still going to the Room of Requirement tonight?"
Ethan's main purpose in finding them this time was to ask when they were going to the Room of Requirement, because he was going to put the Vanishing Cabinet back in its original place tonight.
"We won't go tonight. Except for the time spent doing homework, we have been staying inside for the entire holiday. Tonight we are going to relax properly." Fred projected the photos Ethan gave him, looking at the bustling scene in the shop, and answered casually.
George looked at the projection and proposed a suggestion: "Since Wizarding Cards are so popular now, how about we organize a Wizarding Cards battle tonight? Go to the kitchen to get some food later, eat and play."
"Using our newly invented fireworks as rewards for the winners, what do you think? Our fireworks happen to need an advertisement."
Fred's mind turned, thinking of the new products they just made, feeling they could add some rewards for the competition and promote the products by the way.
"Good idea!" George felt this idea was simply fantastic, killing two birds with one stone. The two hit it off instantly.
"I'll add five Galleons as prize money. The money isn't much, but as a small incentive for Wizarding Cards promotion, it's enough."
Ethan also felt this idea was not bad, just that only a little firework as a reward wasn't attractive enough, so he extra took out some Galleons as prize money for the winner.
"That makes it even more attractive. In this case, the second and third places can also be given some of our small inventions, and these Galleons can be distributed to them partially." The brothers calculated a bit and decided to expand the scope of rewards.
Moreover, these Galleons given out, estimated that eventually a part would turn into money to buy card packs, returning to their pockets.
"If it's like this, holding a temporary event tonight is a bit hasty.
"We'd better prepare in advance and hold a Wizarding Cards event involving the four houses.
"Start officially next week. First hold an internal duel within the four houses, finally hold a duel of the four champions. For the final overall champion, we issue him a certificate and give more rewards.
"Generous rewards, confrontation between houses, can attract more people to participate." The more the two discussed, the more interesting they felt it was.
"If it can really be held successfully, we can even apply to establish a Wizarding Cards Club, specially holding this kind of event a few times every school year, finally making it a traditional school tournament." Ethan also liked this conception very much.
When Wizarding Cards were first created, for promotion, they also organized small competitions in the common rooms of each house.
But after all, it was the promotion stage then. Their card packs were also in short supply, so the number of participants wasn't actually that many, and there was no prize. Finally, it was confined within each house, becoming irregular small events.
Later, after the shop opened during the holiday, although various competitions were often organized in the shop, the few people never thought of transplanting these competitions into the school because they were all very busy.
Needless to say for Ethan, he didn't pay attention to Wizarding Cards matters anymore. And the twin brothers, except for going to Hogsmeade to replenish card packs once a week, had also not paid attention to the development of Wizarding Cards in school for a long time.
However, since the twin brothers took the initiative to bring it up this time, Ethan also discussed the feasibility of this tournament with them for a while.
Of course, Ethan was only responsible for proposing his own ideas. The subsequent arrangements were all their responsibility.
After discussing the holding time of this Wizarding Cards tournament and the amount of rewards and such things, the two returned to the Gryffindor common room to write the proposal.
After walking back and forth in the corridor a few times, Ethan entered the familiar messy storage room again. He first placed the repaired Vanishing Cabinet in the position where he took it away.
Then, he put a letter written in advance inside, waiting for Cyril's reply after receiving the letter.
Before returning to school, they had already agreed that tonight Ethan would find a chance to install the Vanishing Cabinet at Hogwarts.
The reason why it had to be tested tonight was because Ethan wanted to know if the Vanishing Cabinet could really achieve such a long-distance transmission from London to Hogwarts.
If it couldn't be done, they would have to continue testing, determine the transmission limit of the Vanishing Cabinet, and find a suitable place to install the other cabinet.
Actually, on the day they got the Vanishing Cabinet, after conducting the live animal test, in the afternoon they conducted several tests between Croydon and the villa.
Several tests were very successful, but the two were not as joyful as imagined.
They were very happy about the successful test between the Croydon vacation villa and the Chelsea villa.
Because although this was only a dozen kilometers, the little bird used for testing still passed through this channel alive, which showed the Vanishing Cabinet was indeed fine.
But in the subsequent tests, Cyril and Ethan got a piece of not-so-good news.
When testing between Shafiq Manor and the villa, this transmitted little bird directly appeared inside Shafiq Manor, which was protected by the Fidelius Charm and should have been invisible, unmappable, and soundproof.
This result made the two look at each other in dismay.
Therefore, Cyril, who originally wanted to put the Vanishing Cabinet in Shafiq Manor, finally installed the cabinet in the basement of his villa.
He also set up many internal-oriented protective measures just in case.
"Wait a while. In another ten minutes or so, Grandpa should see the letter." Ethan glanced at his watch and began to browse through the "collections" discarded here over the years in the Room of Requirement.
The reason why Ethan had to install the Vanishing Cabinet first and then let Cyril reply, rather than Cyril sending him a letter and Ethan replying, was because they didn't dare to take risks.
They also discussed whether they could let Cyril put the letter in the cabinet when the time was about right, letting Ethan reply.
But after serious consideration, the two still abandoned this idea.
Because this practice might allow the Vanishing Cabinet to receive transmitted letters when placed in the Undetectable Extension Bag.
Neither dared to be certain whether the interaction of these two magics with spatial attributes would cause damage to the two magical items.
Therefore, it was finally decided that after Ethan installed the Vanishing Cabinet, he would send the letter.
And to ensure receiving the message in time, Cyril would open the cabinet door every half an hour starting from seven o'clock tonight, checking if there was a letter inside.
While waiting, Ethan rummaged out a few books stolen from the library by someone unknown from the storage room.
"No wonder. The matter of me replacing Blood, Madam Pince most likely discovered it, but she had no reaction at all. Turns out there are precedents for this." Looking at the Hogwarts crest on the title page, Ethan shook his head.
These books should all be books from the Restricted Section, because the content was mostly Dark Magic or other highly dangerous potions, spells, etc. Anyway, mostly what Ethan had never seen.
He casually flipped through them, on one hand to pass the time, on the other hand attempting to find some useful spells to learn.
However, this one in his hand had very heavy smearing marks. Some key places were illegible. Ethan dared not learn from this kind of highly defective book.
"Why are most of them like this?"
Ethan looked at a few other books; almost all were like this. Either missing pages, or blurry handwriting. The only complete one was actually a gaudy wizard travelogue.
Ethan continued picking and choosing among a pile of junk, finally not finding a few readable books.
Seeing the time was about right, Ethan opened the cabinet door and took out a plain white piece of paper.
Only a few words were written on the paper: "Letter received successfully."
"Done." Ethan was very happy. This represented he had opened the connection between Hogwarts and home. Next time he wanted to go home, he wouldn't need to trouble Dumbledore anymore.
Folding the white paper a few times to indicate he saw the reply, Ethan put the letter inside, and began to disguise the Vanishing Cabinet, which was too exquisite and somewhat incompatible with other furniture.
He first took out an alchemy rope found from the family vault, tied the cabinet up, confirming others couldn't open it easily.
Then he used magic to raise some accumulated dust on the ground, spreading it evenly on top, finally covered it with the tattered cloth that previously covered it.
After Ethan's careful disguise, he was sure the current Vanishing Cabinet, just like numerous inconspicuous dilapidated furniture, wouldn't attract the attention of elves or students wandering in here by mistake. Only then did he leave the Room of Requirement satisfied and walked toward the fifth floor.
In the library, Ethan just sat down. Hermione, watching him come in, asked softly, "What electives do you plan to take?"
"Talk later." Ethan lowered his voice, indicating with his eyes at the same time.
The girl turned her head, just happened to see Madam Pince walking past her.
She instantly stopped talking, lowered her head and continued reviewing History of Magic content.
Harry beside them had a piece of parchment placed in front of him, while he was writing furiously on another piece of parchment.
A few minutes later, he finished copying the homework, put down his quill, glanced at Madam Pince's position, and whispered, "Hermione, lend me your Transfiguration homework to 'look' at. I only have this subject left."
Hermione didn't even look up: "No. Do it yourself. Our first Transfiguration class is on Wednesday. There is plenty of time."
"I still have to do Quidditch training these few days. The match is coming soon. I really don't have time to write homework." Harry begged bitterly.
But the girl was unmoved: "This is not an excuse for you not to write homework. Lending you the Charms homework due tomorrow, I already feel sorry for Professor Flitwick. I absolutely won't lend you the Transfiguration homework."
Seeing Hermione had put it this way, Harry didn't do useless work anymore, turning to beg Ethan instead: "Ethan, can I borrow your homework to take a look?"
"Sorry, I didn't bring my homework, and we have Transfiguration class tomorrow, so I think it should be very difficult to lend it to you." Ethan shrugged.
"No!" Harry let out a wail in a low voice.
"The Transfiguration homework isn't much either, is it? Only four essays and a Transfiguration spell casting movement practice. Two days' time is enough for you to complete it."
"Stop talking. I get it." Under Ethan's consolation, Harry was even more desperate. He had to take out the Transfiguration textbook, thinking hard about how to quickly complete the four essays.
Ethan continued reading the books he was interested in, completely not in a hurry to review lessons.
Soon, closing time arrived. Hermione and Harry packed up their things, followed Ethan to an empty classroom.
With a wave of Ethan's wand, the lights in the classroom were instantly lit.
Cleaning the desks and chairs, the three pulled a chair respectively, sitting on three sides of the table forming a triangle.
Ethan asked, "Have you chosen the classes you want to take?"
"Not yet." Hermione shook her head:
"We actually don't have a very deep understanding of these classes. Although the list briefly introduced the content of the courses, we still don't know what exactly they teach.
"Therefore, during the holiday, we asked some upper-year students, including Percy, Fred and George, etc.
"They gave us some suggestions and also talked about the content of their respective elective courses, but we still can't make up our minds.
"So, we want to ask about your choice as a reference."
Although they had asked some upper-year Gryffindors and they all gave suggestions, they still wanted to know what Ethan, as a peer, thought.
Hermione and Harry both took out a course list.
Ethan looked at the list full of marks in the girl's hand, then looked at Harry's blank one, besides being somewhat curled from being placed in the bag, otherwise a brand-new list, and tapped the table.
"My choice? I want to hear the suggestions they gave you first, and tell you later."
Hermione said, "As a prefect, Percy has many people consulting him.
"He said to let us think about our future plans first before making choices. For this, he gave us examples of family members."
Harry nodded and said, "Yes.
"According to him, Mr. Weasley chose Muggle Studies, a course that seems very stupid to others, because he wanted to deal with Muggles.
"And Charlie, whom we saw raising dragons in Romania last time, chose Care of Magical Creatures because he likes outdoor activities."
Ethan asked, "What did Percy and Fred say? I remember Fred and George both chose Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures."
"Mm, Fred and the others meant somewhat the same. They said the reason they chose these two courses was that Ancient Runes is a must-learn course for their alchemy, and Care of Magical Creatures is because they are very curious about the situations of these creatures."
"So, they all suggest you choose based on needs or interests, right? I actually think so too."
Ethan felt this train of thought was very correct. Although there was a small interlude in the middle, finally he still chose courses based on this thought.
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