Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures Chapter 23

The punishment for the fight was decided quickly, and everyone involved in the fight was sent to detention.

Harry, Ivan, and Hermione helped Lockhart respond to his admirers because Lockhart wanted help, while Ron, Colin, and Neville helped Filch clean the trophies in the trophy room.

Malfoy had to clean up Snape’s office, while Slytherin and Gryffindor’s Quidditch team had to clean up the Quidditch field since Fred and George threw too much dung.

At dinner, Harry looked frustrated, he told the others that it was the worst punishment, he preferred to help clean the trophies or clean the Quidditch field.

Hermione was even more frustrated than Harry, she said with a sullen face, “Look at everything you’ve done, there’s only a day left before the official release of the newspaper and everyone is in detention. Ivan, you shouldn’t be so impulsive and Ron you’re still spitting up slugs for Malfoy’s sake.”

Hearing Hermione’s complaints, Ron didn’t know what to say.

Ron whispered to Harry with his head down, “When we were fighting, Hermione looked more excited than anyone else. Of course, his voice was shallow, so except for Ivan who was seated beside Harry, no else heard him.

“Don’t get  angry, Hermione!” said Fred comforting her, “After all, we won, didn’t we?”

“This was the first time we used Dungbombs to attack others, the effect was amazing!” said George while looking at Slytherin’s long table with satisfaction, There was stench everywhere, so no one wanted to go near them.

“To celebrate this victory, we should have a party.” said the two in unison.

“I should write and tell your mother about this,” said Hermione while looking at them angrily.

“Let them be, Hermione!” said Ivan quickly, “They helped us after all, it was Malfoy who called us Mud Bloods.”

“What does that mean?” asked Harry, of course, he could tell it was something vulgar.

“It is an offensive remark. The word Mud Blood is a pejorative term for people who are muggle-born with no recent magic ancestry.” Explained Ron, “Some wizards, like the Malfoy family always feel superior to others because they are so-called purebloods.”

“Discrimination based on ancestry.” Ivan added, “Voldemort used this reason to slaughter Muggles.”

After hearing the name of he who must not be named, everybody at the table shuddered, especially Ginny, she looked terrified.

“Let us change the subject, what are we going to do now?” asked Hermione.

“I have a way to persuade Professor Lockhart to let us leave early.”

“Really, Ivan!” said Harry excitedly

“Of course, Harry, but you need to be the sacrifice and stay with him.”

When Harry heard what Ivan said Harry went back to being depressed.

When they arrived at Lockhart’s office after dinner, Ivan asked Lockhart to let him and Hermione go back and finish the manuscripts because there was only a single day left until the official release of the Hogwarts’ Magic newspaper, and they still had a lot of work to do.

Lockhart very readily agreed to Ivan’s request, after all, in Lockhart’s eyes he was the center of attention of the newspaper.

Ignoring Harry’s pitiful look Ivan and Hermione rushed to the library with a pile of paper.

“This will be a lot of work!” said Ivan while smiling, “We can find Ginny to help us since she shouldn’t be in detention.”

“She went to help Fred and George clean up the Quidditch field, there i

s still traces of Dungbombs left, with two brothers like that I feel bad for her,” said Hermione.

“Well, Hermione!” sighed Ivan, ” Fred and George are good people, and we all like them.”

“I’m not saying they are bad people, but they are just too mischievous, perhaps…….”

“Well, Hermione, I just wanted to ask, What are you going to write?” Seeing that Hermione was going to go on forever, he changes the subject of the conversation.

“An article that calls attention to school violence.” answered Hermione with a slight pause, “But after hearing you talk about Mud Bloods, I am going to change it to The legitimate rights and interests of Muggle-born wizards, that is my task, so the rest is up to you!”

Afterwords Hermione got up and searched for books related to her article.

Ivan rearranged the front page and put the fighting incident as the headline.

Time passed, and the Gryffindor’s were still in a festive mood.

A lot of people heard about the fight Saturday, though the end result was close, at the sight of the smelly Slytherin students, people knew that Gryffindor came out on top with a few cheap tricks.

The gossip was spreading everywhere, and Ivan was once again the focus of attention, there was gossip about him everywhere, there were a least ten versions of him taking Malfoy on.

Ron was also the subject of discussion since he is spitting out slugs, so everybody is talking about what kind of spell can do this, so a lot of the library’s books on charms have been borrowed.

The four houses were regretting not seeing the group fight with there eyes.

As a result, people were full of anticipation for the upcoming first issue of the Hogwarts’ magic newspaper because the newspaper had details of the battle and the spell Ron used.

On Monday morning, Ivan woke up early and came to the Great Hall with a newly printed newspaper.

Following his strategy, the first issue is free, it had all the staff, article author’s name and order method on it. Fred and George made a song, but Professor McGonagall made people stop singing it. But this didn’t stop everyone’s enthusiasm, except for Slytherin’s boycott of the newspaper, all the copies were soon taken by the other houses.

Inside the great hall, everyone was looking through the newspaper or discussing the articles.

The Slytherin long table was out of tune with the other three since they didn’t speak but just ate breakfast with a gloomy face. It was like a funeral at Slytherin’s long table, the atmosphere was scary and chilling.

Ivan set aside a bunch of newspapers after he printed them for the teachers. He took over ten thick newspapers and gave them to every professor.

Dumbledore happily accepted it, while Professor McGonagall just nodded but looked a little proud of Ivan, and Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout smiled and picked it up; as for Lockhart he took it and immediately turned it straight to his pictures and started giggling, and asked Ivan to send him a few copies.

The trouble was Snape, he glanced at Ivan with a gloomy face, he seemed to have no intention of talking to him, like the Slytherin students.

Ivan pretended to be careless and dropped it where Snape could see the article about Lily, but Snape still showed a disgusted face while looking at it.

Chapter end