With extraordinary comprehension, I built a floating city at Hogwarts.

Page 455

They tacitly avoided mentioning Ginny.

In fact, Ginny's plan was only half successful. She did humiliate Ron on the court, but she failed to get Ron dropped from the draft.

The reason is simple: she performed too well.

As a Chaser candidate, she certainly wasn't just competing against Ron, the goalkeeper candidate. She also made all ten of her shots against the other goalkeeper candidates, which made Ron seem less incompetent.

.... .... ....

“But Hooper’s always grumbling and complaining about the smallest things,” Harry argued for his friend. “As for Vicki, she has too many social activities. She admits herself that if training conflicts with her ‘Levin Fan Club’ schedule, she’ll put Levin first.”

He paused, then added, "And, you know, Ron didn't play to his full potential today—a bunch of people were interfering with him off the court, affecting his performance."

"What if this happened in a real game?" Angelina wanted to ask Harry.

But considering Harry's importance as the Seeker, and that Vicki Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper weren't much better than Ron Weasley, Angelina ultimately dropped the argument.

“Alright, Harry, I trust your judgment.” She nodded. “Let’s choose Ron then. I hope he can perform even better with some training.”

After Harry's persistent efforts, Ron finally got his wish and became the goalkeeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

This result greatly pleased Ron, and Harry was also happy for his friend.

Just as they were about to celebrate, Fred suddenly pulled a purple nasal candy from his pocket. His movements froze, and a hint of panic flashed in his eyes.

He turned around abruptly and looked at Katie, whose nose was still bleeding profusely. The color drained from his face instantly.

"Fred, what's wrong?" George noticed Fred's unusual behavior and asked anxiously.

Fred answered in a trembling voice, "I...I wanted to let Katie try this newly developed fast-acting nasal candy yesterday, so...I tricked her into taking one. At the time...there was no reaction, and we thought we needed to improve the formula, but...but now it seems the effect is delayed until today."

His voice grew softer and softer until it was almost a muttering to himself.

They were both terrified and quickly put the nasal blood glucose solution back in their pockets, pretending nothing had happened.

Ron almost got screwed over by them.

------------

The photo shows Jin Nifan.

Chapter 513 Umbridge's Little Secret

As night fell, Levin did not go into the workshop to continue his research as usual.

Instead, he sat in a comfortable chair in his study, in front of a magical television that shimmered with light, playing training videos recorded during the day. Levin watched them, patiently taking notes and analyzing every detail.

Just then, the sound of flapping wings suddenly came from outside the window, and Hamer flew in from the night sky, carrying a huge package in its beak.

Levin took the package and immediately saw the signature on it—Penny Harwood, Deputy Director of Aufa United Television.

He opened the package with anticipation, only to find stacks of neatly arranged black round boxes inside.

These boxes were designed by Levin himself, for storing video discs.

These discs have quite a history. A few days ago, Levin specifically asked Ludo Bagman to make a copy of all the exciting matches that took place at various Quidditch stadiums equipped with live streaming systems.

After being carefully edited by the television station staff, these videos were sent to Levin.

These training replays and highlights of exciting matches will become Levin's secret weapon for training the Quidditch team this semester.

In an era without live streaming systems and the Arcane Eye, wizards could only rely on rudimentary textual descriptions and static images to understand the competition.

Although the wizards' photographic magic can give them a brief dynamic effect, the fragments captured in these photos are often extremely limited, at most a fleeting glimpse of ten seconds, which is far from conveying the intensity and excitement of the competition.

For Quidditch players eager to learn from classic historical examples in their training, this is undoubtedly a thankless and arduous task. They mostly rely on oral traditions, vague memories, and fleeting fragments, a method of reconstruction that is often inefficient and yields unsatisfactory results.

What's worse, in an era without live broadcasts or replays, every mistake and oversight on the training field could only be caught and corrected by the coach's keen eyesight and exceptional memory.

This greatly increases the uncertainty of training results, and many subtle errors and flaws are often overlooked unintentionally.

Against this backdrop, Levine's innovative methods undoubtedly brought about a revolutionary change in the way Quidditch teams trained.

He cleverly utilized the convenience of modern magical technology to present those precious and detailed video materials to the players, increasing training efficiency by more than double.

Being able to see vivid and complete match videos not only allows players to experience every moment of the game firsthand, but also enables them to draw on the tactical inspiration and skill essence of their predecessors.

In the replay of training, any mistakes or shortcomings made by the team members are clearly visible, making it easier to develop targeted training plans.

Imagine if Levin were to be even more extravagant and equip the team with a few more magic TVs, then the Ravenclaw players could even use their spare time to train and reflect on their own games by watching replays, essentially giving each player a one-on-one coach.

Next, as long as he can train Zhang Qiu to become a qualified vice captain, his coaching work will be much easier.

This semester's Quidditch training has been very challenging for Levin, but at the same time, he is finding his regular classroom learning somewhat overwhelming.

He used to be able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his magical research in the tower, but those days are gone forever.

With the successful conclusion of the Triwizard Tournament, his privilege as a referee—the benefit of not having to attend regular classes—was naturally revoked.

This forced him to readjust his schedule to adapt to a life that required both training the team and attending classes.

What made him even more uncomfortable was that the course schedule at Ravenclaw College had changed significantly this semester.

They used to attend classes with their old partner, Hufflepuff House, but now they are spending more time with Gryffindor House.

For the lessons that were clearly too easy for Levin, he could only listen patiently, and the noise and commotion of the lion cubs only made him feel more irritated and bored—the only good thing was that he could be with Hermione.

However, a scene during the magical creature protection class cheered Levin up.

That day, as he walked across the grass toward the classroom, he saw Dolores Umbridge standing there in the distance. She was holding her writing board, smiling as she asked Professor Glapland something, while Professor Glapland's expression clearly revealed her impatience.

As Levin approached, he discovered that Umbridge was subtly trying to extract information from Professor Glapland.

She seemed very interested in the whereabouts of Hagrid, the previous professor of magical creatures, and kept subtly inquiring about him. Levin immediately realized that Umbridge must have some ulterior motive for doing this.

As Levin approached, he discovered that Umbridge was trying to get information out of Professor Grappleland, hoping to find out where Hagrid, the previous professor of magical creatures, was.

Levin immediately realized that Umbridge must have had ulterior motives for doing this.

Sure enough, he quickly deduced her intentions from Umbridge's few words.

It turns out that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, had sent several wizards to follow Hagrid and Maxim, but they cleverly managed to shake them off.

Umbridge thus concluded that Dumbledore and his associates must have been up to something behind the scenes, so she wanted to start with Hagrid to get more information.

Of the two, Mrs. Maxim was of high status, shrewd, and a foreigner, making her not a good person to gather intelligence from.

In comparison, Hagrid was much better. He was a true-blue Indian, straightforward and honest, without much scheming or calculation. It was precisely because of this that Hagrid was targeted by Umbridge.

Dumbledore probably knew this too, which is why he chose to replace Hagrid with Professor Grappleland to teach the Conservation of Magical Creatures class, leaving Hagrid in the Isle of Man protected area.

"Did you get these little darlings from Hagrid?" Umbridge stood by the table, her gaze fixed on the Bowtruckles. "They're so robust; you could only find them deep in the mountains. I'm so curious, where did Hagrid get them?"

Then they came to the long shelf table, where the hunchbacks were happily scrambling for the ground beetles, just like countless living branches.

Grapland picked up a burrowing beetle and gently guided the hunchbacks protecting the trees to disperse.

“Oh, these cute little creatures?” she said somewhat impatiently. “They didn’t come from Professor Hagrid. In fact, I caught them myself in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. You can go and look for them in the Forbidden Forest if you’re interested.”

Just then, Levin walked over. He nodded to Professor Glapland and Umbridge in greeting, then deliberately said to Umbridge:

“I heard you’ve been asking about Hagrid? Hagrid is certainly very skilled at raising magical creatures. He’s not only a former professor of the Conservation of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts, but also a specially hired expert for the Magical Creature Preservation Area on the Isle of Man. He’s currently on the Isle of Man taking care of those giants. If you need, I can help you contact him and arrange for you to meet on the Isle of Man.”

Umbridge's smile was like a blooming flower, sweet and beautiful. She praised Levin repeatedly, yet a hint of unease lingered in her words.

She understood that Levin's words contained an unspoken threat—go ahead and try your tricks, but my people are well protected; come and try if you dare.

Levin glanced at Umbridge with a half-smile, and through that saccharine smile, he saw the true thoughts in the heart of this seasoned young woman.

She harbored deep disdain for Levin, believing that he was hindering her plans simply because of a big, dumb, half-giant.

Just as Levin had predicted, Umbridge didn't stop there. She turned and left Hogwarts, heading straight to the Ministry of Magic to tell Minister Cornelius Fudge, embellishing the story of what had happened in the Protection of Magical Creatures class that day.

She hoped to gain the minister's support and further authorization to continue her schemes.

However, to her surprise, Fudge did not offer her the support she had hoped for. Instead, he reprimanded her severely.

“Dolores,” he said sternly, “I’m warning you, don’t mess with Levin Green again. When dealing with him, try to go along with him and fulfill his requests as much as possible. Our goal now is to avoid pushing them into Dumbledore’s camp.”

Fudge braced himself on the long bedside table, leaning forward with a sharp look in his eyes at Umbridge.

“Dolores, I don’t want to hear any more news about you causing me trouble. The most important thing now is to bring Stoddill Podmore to trial as soon as possible; he’s one of Dumbledore’s men. We need to use this trial to weaken Dumbledore’s influence, not get bogged down in these trivial matters.”

Chapter 514 Conflict with Dumbledore

Losing the privilege of not having to attend classes made Levin feel trapped in endless classes, with a lot of time being wasted on content that was of no benefit to him—even if that content was quite important for the future OWLs exams.

He longed to gain deeper knowledge and inspiration from the professors' lectures, but unfortunately, the professors' teaching often only catered to those young wizards with weak foundations.

For Levin, the knowledge points taught in class were already deeply ingrained in his mind, and he was even able to explore and extend them further.

Such a class was nothing short of torture for him; he had to endure the torment of boredom and tedium while also dealing with unchallenging assignments.

Although he always completed his assignments faster than anyone else in the school, the accumulated assignments from all subjects still took up a lot of his time.

This time could have been used to study areas that interested him more, or to conduct more challenging practical explorations, but now he is forced to waste it on things he already fully understands.

After a week of lessons with the young Ravenclaw wizards, Levin found it increasingly unbearable to waste his time.

He felt as if he were trapped in an inescapable loop, repeating the same boring and meaningless tasks every day.

Therefore, after dinner on the first day of the second week, Levin went to the teachers' table without hesitation.

His goal was clear—to find Headmaster Dumbledore and try to regain his privilege of exemption from classes.

Umbridge was also there, slowly savoring a steak as if it were the finest delicacy in the world. Her gaze lingered on Levin for a moment before returning to her own plate.

Levin ignored her and walked straight to Dumbledore.

"Levin, what's this?" Headmaster Dumbledore turned his head slightly, somewhat surprised by Levin's sudden visit.

As they went their separate ways, the boy in front of him never looked for him again.

“Headmaster Dumbledore, I would like to request the same privilege of free time management this semester as last semester. I can guarantee that I will get all O's in my OWLs exams at the end of the semester.” Levin got straight to the point, stating his purpose directly.

Just then, Professor Felius Flitwick put down his meal and rushed over to them, speaking in Levin's voice in his high-pitched tone:

“I can attest to Levin’s abilities, Albus. His performance in class has far exceeded our expectations. I also believe that the course content is too basic for him, and these introductory courses are indeed hindering his studies. In fact, I firmly believe that even if he took the seventh-grade NEWT exam now, he could easily get straight O’s.”

Levin glanced gratefully at his dean, Professor Flitwick, who had always been kind to him and, at this crucial moment, had once again stood by his side.

Headmaster Dumbledore listened quietly to Levin and Professor Flitwick's words, his hands clasped together in front of him as if he were contemplating an important decision.

After a moment, he adjusted his glasses and slowly said, "I trust your judgment, Felius."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Levin.

"Levin, my dear child, I have always seen your talent. But please forgive me for not being able to grant you this request."