Good Night, Ronnie
The red envelope in Errol's beak suddenly began floating by itself, and its seal popped open as a sound came from it on its own, carrying a familiar voice.
"Oh, my poor little Ronnie. You must have been so frightened, weren't you?" came Mrs. Weasley's unmistakable voice, making the noisy Great Hall suddenly fall completely silent as everyone turned to see where the voice was coming from.
"When Dumbledore sent me a letter saying you were safe at Hogwarts, I was so relieved. So I immediately sent Errol to deliver this letter to you. Don't worry, even though you must have been terribly scared, thankfully you didn't do anything foolish and listened to the adults. We already know you're afraid of the Knights. You even dreamed about them once and wet the bed when you were little. But don't worry, Ronnie, they're not that bad. You've already met Mr. Adrien," Molly's voice continued, making everyone turn to look at Ron while desperately trying not to laugh.
Of course, Fred and George weren't part of that group.
They had already started laughing and pounding the table in delight, as though they had been expecting something exactly like this.
The worst part was that this Howler, which somehow seemed even worse than a normal one, continued speaking in Molly's sweet, gentle motherly voice.
"And then you had to use the Floo Network... it must have been such a tiring day for my big boy. But it's all over now. You're safe, surrounded by your friends. Even though you're already a big boy... you'll always be my little Ronnie. So close your eyes, get plenty of rest, and tomorrow have lots of fun with Harry, Percy, Tyson, and everyone else. Don't forget to eat a good breakfast, bundle up if it's cold, and write to us when you have time. Good night, sweetheart. Mommy loves you very much."
The letter leaned forward and planted a loud kiss right on the forehead of the frozen Ron, whose face had become as red as his own hair, as though he'd gone into complete shock.
He didn't even seem to feel it.
But the letter wasn't finished.
It remained floating silently in front of him for several seconds.
Then, out of nowhere, it began humming a very simple melody.
It wasn't a long song.
Just the same lullaby Molly used to sing to them whenever one of them was scared or couldn't fall asleep.
Fred lowered his forehead onto the table while continuing to pound it, barely able to breathe from laughing so hard.
George, sitting beside him, was trembling as he tried to hold back his laughter.
Percy Weasley had escaped quite a while ago to flee this unbelievably embarrassing situation, while Ginny had simply hidden her face behind her glass of juice, even pulling her own Sorting Hat down over her hair so nobody would recognize her as another Weasley.
Harry looked at all the Weasley siblings and realized they all knew that melody.
And that special Howler.
The melody ended a few seconds later.
For several long moments, nobody said a single word.
The silence was so crushing that it somehow made everything even worse.
Until Harry finally broke it.
"...Ron?"
The redhead didn't answer.
"Did your mum just sing you a lullaby in front of all of Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
Ron remained completely motionless, saying nothing, as though he'd been Petrified in his chair.
Percy, having finally finished wiping the porridge off his clothes, couldn't help adding,
"Would it help if I told you the song wasn't that bad?"
"...No."
The Great Hall exploded into laughter, making Ron's face turn an even deeper shade of red, to the point where it looked as though steam might start coming out of his ears at any moment.
"I'm going to kill Errol!" he shouted furiously, realizing that the stupid bird was supposed to have arrived last night, according to what the Howler had said, instead of right now in front of the entire castle.
The owl, which had looked half-dead in Percy's bowl, suddenly seemed to sense the danger.
As though it had been miraculously healed, it leapt to its feet, shook all the porridge straight into Percy's face once again, then spread its wings and flew away as fast as it possibly could.
Faster than at any other point in its entire life.
"Fantastic," Percy muttered as he was once again drenched in his own breakfast.
Then he turned to look at his brother.
"You going to eat that?" he asked, pointing at the bacon in front of Harry.
"Go ahead," Harry said with an amused smile.
Percy simply grabbed the bacon with his hand and ate it with a completely neutral expression while the rest of the Great Hall continued laughing at Ron, who desperately wanted to crawl underneath the table.
Fortunately, Ron's public humiliation didn't last very long, as Professor McGonagall walked down the aisle between the Great Hall tables handing out everyone's class schedules, giving Ron the chance to snatch his and bolt out of the Hall at top speed, probably looking for a hole to hide in or something like that, leaving his friends no chance of keeping up with him.
Harry took his own schedule, noticing that their first lesson today was a double Herbology class with Hufflepuff.
Then he, Hermione, Percy, and Neville walked together toward the greenhouses where the castle's magical plants were grown.
...
Professor Sprout was a short, plump witch who wore a patched hat over her loose hair, and whose clothes were almost always covered in potting soil.
She was also Tyson's Head of House, Hufflepuff.
When she arrived where the students were waiting outside the greenhouses, she wasn't alone.
For some reason, she was being followed by the famous Masked Hero, who continued talking to her with the smile visible beneath his mask, which seemed specially designed so his smile would always remain visible.
Meanwhile, Professor Sprout, who was usually friendly and easygoing, now wore an expression of complete exhaustion and utter frustration.
It honestly looked as though answering questions over and over again would be more pleasant than continuing to listen to the Masked Hero.
"Hello, dear students," the Masked Hero greeted them, flashing them one of his charismatic smiles. "I'm sure many of you know me and have read my autobiography, so you'll also know that I was once a student here at Hogwarts. I was just chatting with dear Professor Sprout to see whether she could guess who I really am. Perhaps the answer would surprise her," he said, sounding genuinely excited by the idea of someone discovering his true identity.
Professor Sprout, however, didn't seem the least bit interested.
Or rather, it almost looked as though she already knew perfectly well who this Masked Hero really was and didn't need to guess.
"Today we'll be working in Greenhouse Three, students," Professor Sprout announced, sounding very obviously displeased.
She immediately unlocked the greenhouse door and ushered the students inside as quickly as possible, apparently eager to get away from the Masked Hero, who seemed determined to pester every professor until they guessed his secret identity.
The students entered as soon as the door opened, encouraged by the professor's gesture.
The Hero looked ready to follow them inside while saying,
"Or perhaps I could demonstrate my talent for Herbology—a subject I'm actually quite skilled in—to give the professor a better chance of figuring out who I might be..."
But before he could even take a single step inside, Professor Sprout shut the door directly in his face.
Or rather, directly in his mask.
The loud slam made every student inside the greenhouse jump slightly before turning toward Professor Sprout, who immediately returned to her usual cheerful mood.
"I don't think Professor Sprout likes Mister Masked Hero all that much," Percy commented as he watched the professor let out a sigh of relief now that she no longer had to listen to him, walking toward a nearby flowerpot.
"Oh, really? What gave it away?" Harry replied, having noticed exactly the same thing.
But Professor Sprout immediately interrupted their silly conversation, pointing toward the earmuffs lined up on several tables, one set for each student. Each workstation had two pots: one with a plant growing inside it, the other completely empty.
"Everyone take your places, because today we're going to be repotting Mandrakes," she said with a gentle smile.
But the moment they heard that all-too-familiar name, both Harry and Percy turned completely pale.
They immediately remembered the deafening plant Grover had pulled out in the Underworld, which, to them, was basically a weapon of mass sonic destruction.
And according to Harry's description of it...
It could even be deadly.