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The end-of-year feast at Hogwarts has concluded.
As the graduating students dissolved into tears during the final chorus of the school song, the remaining students finally felt the semester coming to a close.
Leaving the Great Hall, the seventh-year students lingered in every corner of the castle, greedily touching and gazing at the familiar surroundings, as if trying to imprint them deep within their souls, until Argus Filch, brandishing his lantern, began to shoo them away, reluctantly returning to their respective common rooms to pack their luggage.
It seemed that suddenly, all the wardrobes in the dormitories were empty.
Magical books, clothes, utensils, paper, pens, and various trinkets were all crammed into suitcases. Seamus Finnigan intended to cast a spell on his suitcase to make it lighter, but unfortunately, something went wrong, and he almost set his bed on fire.
On another note, vacation notices were also distributed to each student, warning them not to use magic during the holidays.
According to Grindelwald, this was the only improvement the Ministry of Magic had made in recent years.
Each notice carries a contractual form of magic, or rather a "Trace." From the moment young witches and wizards read this notice until they reach adulthood, the Trace will continuously monitor the magical activity around them.
This is a surveillance measure and also an extremely effective protective measure. It can accurately sense spells cast by wizards under seventeen. If a young wizard or someone around them casts a spell, as long as they are still within the UK, the Ministry of Magic can quickly detect it - and even discern the content of the spell.
Of course, this is mainly aimed at children living in non-magical communities.
For young wizards from wizarding families, their parents only need to make a prior report to the Ministry of Magic (in most cases, the school will handle this when they enroll). The Ministry of Magic will then pay less attention to the disturbances of the Trace around these children—unless the Trace shows traces of the Unforgivable Curses being cast around them.
However, in any case, the colorful and exciting Hogwarts school life has temporarily come to an end.
In the Hogwarts Great Hall, breakfast time was over. Dumbledore did not return to his office as usual but remained seated in the staff area, looking forlornly at the empty hall.
Although the old wizard had experienced such things for decades,
every time the holidays came and the students left the school, Dumbledore couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness, hoping that the long summer vacation would pass quickly so that the students could return to the castle again.
The Hogwarts Express departs at ten in the morning, in Hogsmeade.
Albus Dumbledore didn't need to stand on the balcony to imagine the scene at the gates of Hogwarts.
Undoubtedly, the school gates were crowded with students waiting to ride the Thestral carriages to Hogsmeade Station. Earlier, the new students had already boarded the boats with Hagrid to cross the lake.
Judging by the time, they should be arriving at Hogsmeade Station soon.
Boom! Bang!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just then, a loud explosion echoed faintly from outside the Great Hall.
Before the old wizard could react, a house-elf suddenly appeared in front of Dumbledore in the central aisle of the hall, holding a letter and looking at Dumbledore with trepidation.
"P-Professor Dumbledore, I just received a letter from Miss Caslana..."
The poor house-elf swallowed hard, speaking cautiously.
"Miss Caslana said in the letter that a magical brawl covering four houses might occur at the gates of Hogwarts this morning. In order not to delay everyone's boarding time, she will maintain order on the spot, so please don't worry..."
"A magical... brawl? Covering... four houses?"
Dumbledore's expression faltered slightly, repeating the phrase in confusion.
Immediately afterward, the old wizard instantly realized the meaning behind these words, and the scene that might be unfolding outside the door. He abruptly stood up, drew his wand, and hurriedly ran out of the hall, his face contorted.
Eileen Caslana, that little devil, what has she done now...
…
At the same time.
The gates of Hogwarts.
"Attention Hufflepuff students, if you want to participate in the arena combat, please choose the camp you want to join; if you want to observe the first Lion-Serpent Battle, you can stand outside the red line and be sure to cast protective spells on yourselves; if you want to go to Hogsmeade Station, please queue up on my right side to wait for the school carriages..."
Eileen held the magical megaphone that Lee Jordan usually used to commentate on Quidditch matches, like a conscientious arena NPC, quickly explaining what was happening to avoid causing panic among the students.
Not far in front of her, red lines divided the area into a huge combat zone.
Just a few minutes ago, the Gryffindor and Slytherin students had entered it and started to resolve the grievances they had accumulated over the year, or even over the past few years, in the wizarding way.
Compared to the traditional single duels in the wizarding world, this time it was a free-for-all team battle mode.
Each wizard only has one chance to play. Once defeated, they will be immediately removed from the arena by the waiting house-elves and transferred to the "graveyard" area for treatment and recovery. The winning condition is also very simple: whichever side has the last wizard standing in the arena represents that side has won.
At Eileen's request, everyone must swear with their wand before entering the arena:
"Regardless of victory or defeat, regardless of what happens in the duel, all grievances will be written off after this arena is closed. Any attempt to continue the hatred or retaliate afterward will be despised by everyone."
Both Gryffindor and Slytherin were very satisfied with this arrangement.
Although Gryffindor, with their rich practical experience, was slightly better in dueling skills, with the Ravenclaw boys led by Roger Davies joining the Slytherin camp, the strength of both sides was almost evenly matched.
In the beginning, Ravenclaw’s “Miss Peach”, Penelope Clearwater, and others also wanted to immediately help their boyfriends, but they were all politely refused by the proud little lions.
According to George Weasley - "This is a conversation between men and men."
However, as the Weasley family's boys were successively knocked down by dense magical barrages, the Ravenclaw girls standing beside them could no longer hold back. After briefly asking about the rules, they excitedly drew their wands and joined the battle.
As for the Hufflepuff students, naturally some of them couldn't resist the call of friends in the arena and joined both sides according to their preferences - anyway, Hufflepuff doesn't fight Hufflepuff. As for Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw, the badger has never forgotten the days they steal vegetables and scrape the ground.
The entire arena quickly became a complete mess. The students of the two huge camps of "Green-Yellow-Blue" and "Red-Yellow-Blue" clashed together, with people constantly falling, disappearing, and new students filling into the battlefield.
The only fortunate thing was that Eileen stipulated that it was strictly forbidden to use fists to fight.
Any little wizard who attempted to challenge this rule would suddenly have a hole appear under their feet and swallow them, directly counting them as casualties, and then being transferred to the graveyard area by the house-elves for placement.
The total number of students at Hogwarts is not too large, and the number of people willing to participate in the PvP arena is naturally even smaller. Under Eileen's control of the "graveyard rules" and "plot kills," a small-scale magical battlefield of two or three hundred people could not last too long - after all, most little wizards are still glass cannons with high attack and low defense in essence.
Therefore, by the time Dumbledore arrived at the school gate, the battle was almost over.
"Stop! Stop it, all of you!"
"Yo, Professor Dumbledore, you're here."
Eileen glanced at the panting Hogwarts Headmaster, revealing a sweet smile.
"Don't worry, everything is under control, this duel will be over soon... well, okay. Since you insist, I declare - time over - this round of the match is over!"
Catching the murderous gloomy expression on the old wizard's face, Eileen shrugged her shoulders helplessly, and waved her wand gently. Dozens of cylindrical earthen pillars slowly rose in the center of the open space.
As Eileen's magic divided the entire arena, the confrontation stopped almost instantly.
After this period of high-intensity practice, Eileen is now no less skilled in simple site modeling than most wizards specializing in Transfiguration. After all, her casting method is slightly different from conventional Transfiguration.
"You see, I told you, it's not dangerous at all—"
The little wizards turned their heads in confusion, looking at Eileen standing at the gate of Hogwarts.
Noticing the surrounding gazes, Eileen suddenly picked up the metal magical microphone, turned her head, and shouted loudly at the group of dazed students before Dumbledore could fully figure out the logic.
"What are you still standing there for? Quickly get on the carriage to the train station, or do you want to stay and be caught by Professor Dumbledore and given a summer detention?! It's summer vacation, run!"
With Eileen's voice, the little wizards gathered in the center of the arena instantly scattered in all directions.
The changes brought about by this semester are not only reflected in the students' knowledge or abilities, but also in how to quickly evacuate after causing trouble, or how to cleverly dance on the loopholes in the rules...
Subtly, the Hogwarts students are already drastically different from the well-behaved children of a year ago.
"Ahem, well then, Professor Dumbledore, we'll see you next semester..."
"Miss Caslana, you don't need to take the train today. I'll personally take you home later."
Albus Dumbledore reached out expressionlessly, stopping a certain white-haired furball who was preparing to take advantage of the chaos to slip away with the crowd. A cold light flashed across the crescent-shaped lenses.
"About this matter, I think we need to have a good chat..."
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