Time flew by.
It felt like only a few days had passed, but the volatile weather of the Scottish Highlands had been cycling outside the castle's stone walls for two full weeks.
Autumn was deepening. The morning mist grew heavier and damper, often hiding the distant mountains behind a dreary curtain of rain.
Even when the sun occasionally broke through the clouds, its light carried a biting chill.
Inside Hogwarts Castle, however, the familiar, inexhaustible warmth and lively energy remained entirely untouched.
Roaring fires in the hearths chased away the damp cold, and the sheer vitality of the young wizards filled every corridor.
Over the past two weeks, three major events had become the absolute talk of the castle.
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The first event was the bizarre "disappearance" of two House Ghosts.
The Grey Lady of Ravenclaw Tower, always cloaked in melancholy and arrogance, and the Bloody Baron, the grim, silent specter of the Slytherin dungeons, had both stopped appearing around the castle at almost exactly the same time.
At first, only a few observant students noticed. But soon, the news spread rapidly, rippling outward like a stone dropped in a still pond.
The other ghosts seemed incredibly conflicted about the situation, displaying a mix of genuine blessing and deep regret.
Madam Pince even complained twice in the library about not being able to find the Baron to help chase away students causing trouble near the Restricted Section.
This almost sparked a minor panic. Could ghosts actually meet with some sort of accident?
It wasn't until breakfast one morning that Headmaster Dumbledore stood up. Using that calm voice of his that could instantly quiet the entire Great Hall, he explained the situation to the faculty and students.
He announced that the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron—two of the most famous ghosts in Hogwarts' thousand-year history—had finally resolved the obsessions and emotional knots that had bound them for centuries. They had chosen to "move on."
He didn't elaborate on what those obsessions were or how they had been resolved.
Instead, with a gentle and deeply respectful tone, he praised their long years acting as guardians and witnesses of Hogwarts, wishing them peace on their "new journey."
Following that, Dumbledore publicly extended an invitation to the castle's remaining ghosts, looking to recruit new volunteers willing to take up the duties and honors of being the "House Ghosts" for Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
His speech sparked a relentless, buzzing debate across the Great Hall.
Ghosts "moving on"? To many of the young wizards, this was an entirely alien and somewhat heartbreaking concept.
They were used to Peeves' destructive pranks, Nearly Headless Nick's endless chatter, the Fat Friar's jovial nature, and yes, even the Grey Lady's coldness and the Bloody Baron's terrifying presence.
The ghosts felt like an eternal, unchanging part of the castle, just like the moving staircases and the talking portraits.
Now, with two heavyweight ghosts leaving simultaneously, many students—especially those in Ravenclaw and Slytherin—felt a sudden emptiness. It was as if a living page of history had quietly been turned.
Speculations about their obsessions, debates over what "moving on" actually meant, and guesses about who the new House Ghosts would be...
These topics dominated the common rooms, corridors, and dining tables for days.
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The second event concerned the Boy Who Lived and his "Return to Manhood."
Following that mind-boggling potions accident at the start of the term—which was privately being dubbed "Tom's Curse"—Harry Potter had spent the last month and a half living as a girl.
Finally, under the continuous, "meticulous" treatment and "collaborative research" of Severus Snape, Britain's youngest Potions Master, Harry had successfully reverted to his male body by the weekend of the second week of October.
When Harry walked into the Great Hall again, wearing his boys' robes and sporting that mop of messy black hair that refused to be tamed, he drew stares and whispers from practically every student in every year.
But the most obvious changes following Harry's return to boyhood happened in Potions class.
During that period where Harry had "enjoyed" Snape's special attention due to his "unique research value"—a phase that made Ron Weasley green with envy, wishing he could turn into a girl too, and left Harry himself with incredibly mixed feelings—the special treatment abruptly ended the moment his body recovered.
Professor Snape instantly retracted that rare, awkward "patience" of his. He snapped right back to being the giant, terrifying bat he always was: billowing black robes, ice-cold glares, and spraying venom without an ounce of mercy.
However, to the surprise of many, Harry didn't seem too disappointed by this.
On the contrary, under that month and a half of "high-pressure intensive training," his genuine talent for Potions—previously buried under fear and bias—had been fully drawn out and ignited.
He was no longer just mechanically following the textbook instructions step-by-step.
He had begun to actually understand the underlying principles of how potion ingredients reacted with one another. He could feel the unique rhythm and beauty of magic flowing, fusing, and elevating within the cauldron.
When Harry, back as a boy, relied on his own understanding and newfound proficiency to brew a near-perfect Calming Draught in class...
Even though Professor Snape picked him apart from head to toe for ten agonizing minutes with his hawk-like glare, and practically used a microscope to check the potion's color and transparency, all the man could manage was squeezing out a grudging, barely-passing "Acceptable" through gritted teeth.
With a darkened face, Snape then doubled down, unleashing all his pent-up, fault-finding fury onto the two boys next to Harry.
Ron Weasley, who had breathed a sigh of relief seeing Harry succeed only to mess up his own brew and send yellow smoke billowing from his cauldron, caught the brunt of it. Neville Longbottom, whose hands shook so badly from nerves that he added the wrong porcupine quills, caught the rest.
Watching his friends suffer his old "treatment," Harry felt a wave of relief. Yet, deep down, he also felt a bizarre sense of affection toward that bubbling cauldron in front of him.
It seemed the world of Potions had genuinely opened a brand-new door for him.
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The third event was more of an urban legend circulating within a very specific circle of the castle.
The hyperactive troublemakers of Hogwarts—the ones who lived to break rules and manufacture "surprises"—had noticed something strange.
Their newly minted, highly respected "Big Boss," Care of Magical Creatures Teaching Assistant Tom, and their original two ringleaders, Fred and George... had all suddenly vanished without a trace.
Normally, you could always find them huddled in a dark corridor corner, an abandoned classroom, or some secret base near the kitchens. They'd be animatedly discussing new prank ideas or field-testing little gadgets that screamed, changed colors, or exploded.
But for the past two weeks, Boss Tom's elegant silhouette was rarely seen strolling through the castle, and the twins seemed as though they'd been hit with a permanent Disillusionment Charm.
On the rare occasions someone bumped into them at meal times or rushing to class, the twins were always in a very bizarre state.
They had massive, dark bags under their eyes and their faces screamed sleep deprivation.
Yet, within those identical blue eyes burned an intensely hyperactive light—as if they had just struck gold.