Apart from the comical little Cupids of Gilderoy Lockhart, another thing that greatly frustrated the boys at Hogwarts was the chocolates received by Alaric.
This year's Valentine's Day, Alaric's table, just like the previous year, was piled high with Valentine's chocolates and various gifts—no, even more than last year.
"I dare say, this year at Hogwarts, at least eighty percent of the girls gave you Valentine's Day gifts," Michael, one of Alaric's roommates, looked at the small mountain in front of Alaric with envy.
"The gifts you received alone are several times more than all the other boys in the school combined."
"With so much chocolate, you can definitely eat for a whole year. Let me help you share some."
Terry Boot also showed a longing expression; he had never received Valentine's chocolates from a girl.
"Feel free," Alaric shrugged nonchalantly. "As long as you're not afraid of eating something laced with a love potion."
"I bet the important gifts are definitely not here," Anthony looked at Alaric and said confidently.
"Miss Know-It-All's gift is definitely not among them, and the same goes for the third-year student, Cho Chang, and also our prefect, Miss Penelope, her gifts won't be in it. What did they give you, Alaric?"
"That's none of your business!" Alaric replied impatiently.
"If you want to eat, go ahead. I can assure you that there's definitely no love potion in this."
In fact, Alaric had already exchanged gifts privately with the girls.
Of course, he didn't forget Orianna and Himari.
The former received a pair of earrings that allowed her to enlarge and shrink herself, eliminating the need for Alaric's resizing spell, giving her more freedom of movement.
The latter received a small bottle of catnip extract, but Alaric firmly restricted her daily usage to prevent Himari from becoming a little drunkard at her young age.
Even Lurue received a gift. Alaric prepared a set of horseshoes for her, each enchanted.
A set horseshoes that could interact with each other, providing Lurue with endless enjoyment.
He gave Valentine's Day gifts to even Lurue...
It's truly bizarre... was it still because of the influence of the Dragon Soul?
Unfortunately, happy times are short-lived. Just when everyone thought that peaceful days would continue, another attack occurred.
It was a sunny morning, and Alaric was preparing for the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff.
Due to the attack incident, the Quidditch match had been postponed since the attack on Colin Creevey.
Now, the situation had somewhat calmed down, and there was another piece of good news: the Mandrake plants in the greenhouse were about to mature, and the potion to revive the petrified victims would soon be ready.
Once the victims recovered, they could identify who the attacker was, and the Chamber of Secrets and the Heir of Slytherin incidents could be concluded.
Currently, the school aimed to uplift the spirits of young wizards through the Quidditch match.
This decision had an immediate effect. At least for the past few days, Harry's life had returned to normal.
People were no longer discussing whether he was the Heir of Slytherin, and there was no longer the avoidance and fear directed at him.
Everyone began to discuss Quidditch, speculating how many points Ravenclaw's prodigy could score against Hufflepuff.
However, just before the teams entered the field, Alaric suddenly felt a warning sign, a special message reaching his mind.
The protective talismans he created were activated, and two talismans were activated simultaneously.
What was going on?
Cho Chang was the Seeker for the Ravenclaw team, preparing for the match with him. So it was Hermione and Penelope who were in trouble.
He turned to look in the direction of Hogwarts, estimating the location— the library.
In the morning, Hermione had mentioned that she wanted to find some information in the library and would come to watch his match a bit later.
It seemed that she had encountered the Basilisk after being alone in the library—besides this, Alaric couldn't think of anyone else who would attack Hermione and activate the protective talismans.
But, surprisingly, Penelope was also with her.
He suddenly remembered that after breakfast, they had chatted with Hagrid about the missing chickens. Hagrid complained that someone had killed all his chickens.
Alaric had known about the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, but he lacked clear evidence, so he had never told anyone about his speculation.
The crowing of chickens was fatal to Basilisks, so the Heir of Slytherin had killed Hagrid's chickens. This incident also occurred in the original book.
But because Alaric knew the answer early on, he became less sensitive to evidence, unlike the clever Hermione.
Thanks to Alaric's analysis of the Chamber of Secrets after the first attack, they had a more in-depth understanding of the Heir of Slytherin and the Chamber than in the original book.
Coupled with the clue of the dead chicken, clever Hermione must have immediately thought of something. Probably, she went to the library to confirm her guess.
It's not surprising that Penelope reached the same conclusion.
She was also a top student, although not as outstanding as Hermione, but being older, she had accumulated enough knowledge.
These two girls unexpectedly thought of the answer at the same time. Now Alaric didn't know whether to praise them or blame them for not being careful enough.
However, the priority was to get to the scene quickly. Facing the Basilisk's deadly gaze, his protective talismans couldn't last much longer.
"Sorry, I suddenly have something to deal with and may not be able to participate in the match.
But I believe you can win without me, so I'll leave first," Alaric suddenly spoke, interrupting Roger's enthusiastic pre-match speech, then left in a hurry, carrying the Skyraider.
As he passed by Cho Chang, he whispered in her ear, "This match depends on you."
Watching Alaric's departing figure, everyone in the Ravenclaw team was somewhat dumbfounded.
Alaric had always been their absolute core. If he left, how could Ravenclaw play the match?
The scene fell silent. Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do. A pessimistic atmosphere began to spread within the team.
Surprisingly, the one to break the silence was the originally reserved and not-so-courageous Cho Chang.
"Alaric is right," she mustered her courage and said loudly.
"Even without him, I believe we can still beat Hufflepuff! Are we weaker than Hufflepuff? At least I'm not afraid of Cedric Diggory."
Cedric Diggory was Hufflepuff's captain and Seeker, coincidentally matched up against Cho Chang.
The fact that Cho Chang could say such words showed that, after experiencing the events with the Philosopher's Stone and subsequent Dark Magic defense training, her progress wasn't just in magical skills.
Perhaps encouraged by Cho Chang's encouragement, or ashamed that she had the courage he lacked, Roger immediately became motivated.
"She is right," he exclaimed.
"Should we be afraid of Hufflepuff without Alaric? How many tactics has he made for us?
Just because he's not here in person doesn't mean we can't execute them.
We are Ravenclaw students, and Alaric has contributed so much for us. Now that he's not here, we can't let his previous efforts go to waste!"
Cho Chang's encouragement and Roger's speech had an immediate effect.
The atmosphere suddenly became enthusiastic, and everyone started discussing tactics seriously, vowing not to rest until they defeated Hufflepuff.
At this moment, Alaric was speeding toward Hogwarts Castle on Skyraider.
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