Roger Davies was utterly dumbfounded.

He simply couldn't fathom how sneaking into the Gryffindor garden to pilfer a potato had escalated into the current chaos—half of the Ravenclaw orchard was in ruins, and a growing crowd was converging on the scene.

A kaleidoscope of spells zipped through the air, accompanied by the furious incantations of Ravenclaw girls…

And, of course, the anguished cries of Gryffindor wizards, who were scattering in disarray.

From the heights of the Ravenclaw tower, a stream of young witches and wizards peered out, while others surged from the main entrance below, with the more hot-tempered among them even grabbing their broomsticks and leaping from the windows.

Further away, the besieged Gryffindor lions were gradually consolidating into a defensive circle, stabilizing their fractured formation as more and more curious onlookers arrived to join the "battle."

Let's rewind the clock a bit, to about fifteen minutes earlier…

Hogwarts, at the edge of the Quidditch pitch.

Taking advantage of everyone's attention being focused on the wizards in the stadium, Roger Davies tiptoed into the Gryffindor potato patch, carefully selecting the ripest specimens.

Since Hogwarts had implemented a system of assigning vegetable gardens to each house, Ravenclaw had been feasting on a week-long diet of fruits and vegetables. While they did receive a small amount of bread, it was divided so thinly among the entire house that each student received barely a tenth of a slice per day.

This was, of course, a delight to most of the girls, but it was a torment for the few boys.

While Elina hadn't restricted the quantity of meat available to the students, the prolonged lack of starchy staples had led to mild hypoglycemia in many Ravenclaw wizards.

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team members, in particular, who were used to high levels of physical exertion, felt weak and often experienced lightheadedness and dizziness. The aroma of potatoes and beef wafting from the Gryffindor table next door was a particularly agonizing temptation.

Unsurprisingly, in the place with the highest concentration of clever individuals in all of Hogwarts, even if the Ravenclaw wizards didn't understand the nutritional science behind it, they were able to employ the "control variable method" to figure out what was going on.

The Ravenclaw wizards quickly identified the factor most likely to be influencing their situation: potatoes, though bread also played a role—but compared to grains, which needed further processing, potatoes were the clear priority.

And at this moment, they learned that the Gryffindor house had an entire plot of land dedicated to potatoes.

Naturally, Roger Davies and a few other boys huddled together to devise a plan: they would take turns visiting the Gryffindor potato patch, surreptitiously "borrowing" a few potatoes to satisfy their hunger.

Grilling – it was the most basic human cooking skill.

Even without any formal culinary training, grilling a potato or two was simple.

After evening classes, even the most demure witch found it difficult to resist the saliva pooling under her tongue, drawn to the intoxicating aroma of potatoes in the common room, and would willingly come to the fireplace.

With only a few roasted potatoes each night, the Ravenclaw boys finally felt a semblance of house standing – their housemates were finally willing to talk to them.

Ravenclaw, despite having the most girls in Hogwarts, had the fewest girls who actually chose boyfriends from within their own house, because most were already dating students from the other three houses.

With all of these factors mixed together, even though they vaguely knew that what they were doing might not be entirely ethical, the Ravenclaw boys bravely founded the "Vegetable-Stealing Squad."

After all, they reasoned, the other three houses had been the first to lay hands on their "garden."

Unlike the other houses' assigned vegetable gardens, Gryffindor's potato plot was, as Wood and the Weasley twins had initially said, the easiest and most effortless to maintain: simply bury the potato sprouts in the ground, cast a spell, add some fertilizer, and then forget about it.

As a result, the Gryffindor garden was maintained less frequently than any other in Hogwarts, making it easy to predict the rhythms of the garden. Avoiding peak morning and evening hours meant that the rest of the time, it was deserted.

Furthermore, with such a large potato patch, even if a potato or two went missing, the Gryffindor wizards wouldn't notice. The carefree lions were hardly likely to count their watermelons or keep track of the peaches stolen from the trees, the way the Ravenclaw house members would.

Therefore, all prior operations had gone smoothly.

The Ravenclaw wizards had brought the potatoes back to the common room unnoticed, and surrounded by the admiring gazes of their housemates, they roasted the round, plump potatoes in the warmth of the crackling fireplace, using the most rudimentary methods.

Then, they peeled back the cracked skin, sprinkled a dash of artistic coarse salt on the fragrant, steaming surface of starch, and snuggled up with the gentle Ravenclaw ladies, taking bites back and forth… Er, sorry, that final step was still just a plan.

In short, as time went on, everything seemed to be improving.

Until this time, when Roger Davies drew the short straw…

"Stop! What are you doing!"

Just as Roger Davies crouched down, parting the soil to grasp a plump potato, a suspicious voice suddenly rang out above him.

Already feeling guilty, Roger Davies jumped, turning quickly to face the direction of the voice.

Just above him, Oliver Wood, dressed in Gryffindor gold and red robes, was looking at him with a confused expression. As Roger Davies turned around, Wood's expression gradually shifted from confusion to surprise, and then to understanding and rage.

"Davies, it's you… wait, could you be…?!"

No further explanation was needed. Facing the Ravenclaw Quidditch team captain below, still clutching a potato, Oliver Wood's mind immediately supplied the perfect term to describe the situation: caught red-handed!

"Put down that potato! Davies, I can pretend I didn't see anything…"

"Hey! Stop right there! *Petrificus Totalus!*"

With an agile roll, Roger Davies dodged the light emanating from Wood's wand, clutched the potato tightly in one arm, and unhesitatingly drew his own wand, pointing it behind him.

"*Rictusempra!*"

Compared to casting spells while flying on a broom, the accuracy of casting spells while standing on the ground was clearly far greater.

Roger Davies' spell accurately struck Oliver Wood, who was flying in the air. The moment the Tickling Charm hit him, Wood shuddered all over, gasping and laughing, spiraling down from the sky.

"Sorry, Wood… I… I'll buy you an orange tomorrow."

Roger Davies hesitated for a moment, glanced at Oliver Wood, who was laughing so hard he was limp and could only glare at him helplessly, and then delivered a final blow with his wand.

"*Petrificus Totalus.*"

Giving up was impossible; returning empty-handed was unacceptable to Roger Davies.

This wasn't just about a potato; it was about his reputation and standing in his house.

The boys who had come before him had all succeeded in bringing potatoes back to the Ravenclaw common room.

As the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, he couldn't be outdone by the other boys, and he couldn't imagine the disappointed looks of the young witches. If he failed, his girlfriends might become someone else's next time.

Roger Davies took a deep breath, dusted off his clothes, and ignored the angry look in Wood's eyes as he bent down again, beginning to search for the most attractive potatoes in the soil.

For the Ravenclaw wizards, especially the girls, looks were just as important as taste.

However, Roger Davies didn't have time to choose any more potatoes, because Wood's appearance usually meant that the poor Gryffindor Quidditch team would be subjected to impromptu training sessions, which meant…

"Wood?! What happened to you!"

"Roger Davies?! What did you do?!"

At that moment, Roger Davies heard two voices, speaking in unison, coming from above him. The Weasley twins, identical red-haired wizards, were flying toward him on their broomsticks.

"Uh, this…"

Roger Davies glanced at Wood lying on the ground, then at the menacing Bludgers, and his mouth twitched.

In this situation, it was unlikely that he would be able to explain the whole story calmly. It seemed he had no choice but to retreat back to his own territory for the moment. With one large potato, at least he wouldn't be returning empty-handed.

"Oliver, I'll borrow this for now; I'll return it later."

Without the slightest hesitation, Roger Davies grabbed Wood's abandoned broomstick, held the potato in his arms, and flew toward the Ravenclaw tower without looking back. At worst, he would give Wood an extra peach later.

The Weasley twins watched the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain fly away, thought for a moment, and then decided to land and check on Oliver Wood, asking him what had happened.

"Oliver, what's going on?"

"Yeah, didn't you say you were training? Why did you end up in the potato patch?"

After the Weasley twins helped him release the spell, Oliver Wood stood up, kicked the shallow pit beside him, turned his head to look at the receding figure in the distance, and his face was particularly terrifying.

"Obviously, our potatoes have been stolen by Ravenclaw. George, Fred, what are you waiting for? Tell everyone that today's training goal is to surround and annihilate Roger Davies and those vegetable-stealing thieves!"

"Potatoes? Vegetable-stealing thieves?"

George Weasley glanced at the pitted potato patch and nodded in sudden understanding.

Meanwhile, his twin brother had already flown to the Quidditch pitch and was loudly calling out to the other Gryffindor team members and the Gryffindor wizards who were watching, preparing to go on the warpath with great excitement.

"Don't worry, Captain, we'll definitely get justice for you! Let's go, everyone, we're going to pick fruit over at Ravenclaw."

For the Gryffindor lions, finding a plausible reason to cause trouble was much more interesting than a simple Quidditch training session, not to mention that they had long coveted Ravenclaw's orchard.

For an entire week, the only things on the table had been potatoes. Not a single piece of fruit or vegetable had been seen, not even a dish of blueberry jam or strawberry jam. The only thing to spread on their bread was mashed potatoes.

Now that Ravenclaw had made the first move on their potato patch, the Gryffindor house, as the creditor, naturally had every reason to plunder some fruits and vegetables to relieve the monotonous potato feast of the past week.

…

"Phew, did I finally escape…"

Roger Davies glanced behind him, saw no sign of the dreaded gold-red figures, and breathed a sigh of relief. He adjusted the direction of his broom and floated slowly toward the Ravenclaw tower.

Fortunately, it seemed that those guys from Gryffindor had given up. It was only a potato, after all…

*Swish!*

At that moment, a flash of silver flew past his ear, the searing heat of the spell making his ear slightly red.

"*Impedimenta!*"

"*Leg-Locker Curse!*"

"*Turn him into a pig!*"

Then, accompanied by various incantations, several more rays of magic light flew from afar.

Fortunately, because of the distance, most of the spells were quite inaccurate, so Roger Davies, the core of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, easily dodged the spells coming from the distance.

Looking in the direction from which the spells had come, Roger Davies' face froze. He had only stolen a potato; it was as if he had stolen Gryffindor's ancestral Quidditch trophy. In the area behind and to his right, all he could see was a sea of gold and red figures.

Friday afternoon was a recognized free time, and many young wizards would choose to take their brooms and fly around the Quidditch pitch.

Therefore, in addition to the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, there were also many older Gryffindor students who had brought their brooms to Hogwarts, and even the figures of those Gryffindor freshmen who had been selected for the first-year Quidditch team were appearing in the sky…

For example, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley…

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Guya. A four-thousand-word chapter! Current progress (3/5)

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