Harry gasped twice, taking the candy and putting it in his mouth.
Its sweet taste came, and he felt that his dizziness seemed to alleviate somewhat, though he wasn't sure if it was a psychological effect.
Soon after, Gareth also appeared by his side.
"Looks like you succeeded, Harry!" Gareth said happily, bouncing with Harry twice. "See, I told you, it's not hard at all, not difficult at all, I don't know why you were nervous, maybe this is just a rookie problem, but don't worry, now that you know how to use this thing, we can totally use it for travel, like going to the hall, or back to the tower, or even to further away classrooms—I know the greenhouse is far, but if we go to the greenhouse this way, it'll save time and effort."
"Flue Powder is really a good invention!" Harry said sincerely.
He took out the package of Flue Powder again and asked, "Is this thing expensive? Gareth?"
"Oh, it doesn't cost money." Gareth said with a grin, "You know, the school encourages students to use this thing, so everyone is given some."
"I see, thank you, Gareth." Harry said gratefully.
"It's nothing." Gareth said with a chuckle.
However, after experiencing Flue Powder, Harry discovered another headache-inducing thing—Ghosts.
Often when Harry was about to open a door, a ghost would suddenly jump out from behind the door, giving him quite a scare.
Nearly Headless Nick was of course happy to guide new Gryffindor students, but if you bump into Peeves, who likes pranks, that's worse than encountering two locked doors plus a trap-filled staircase.
He would put wastebasket over your head, yank the carpet from under your feet, throw chalk at you, or sneak up behind you, seize your nose loudly yelling: "Got your nose!"
Peeves was the prank spirit of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, existing since the school's founding.
His love for creating pranks and chaos always troubled the school and its faculty and students, as the only few who could threaten him were the resident ghost of Slytherin College, Bloodman Barrow, and as for Principal Black? Peeves wasn't afraid of him at all.
And Harry, on his first night, was hit relentlessly by Peeves with chalk, his face covered in white marks.
"I wonder," Harry asked Gareth while wiping his face in the evening, "Why is Peeves so unruly at school, yet no one manages him?"
"Oh, it's not unmanaged, at least in past years... let me think, it was eleven years ago, which is 1876, the then admin Lankoros Karp devised a clever trap to drive Peeves out of the castle." Gareth said with a chuckle: "It was my aunt who told me this, she said Mr. Karp's trap was made up of various weapons as bait, along with a huge, heavily enchanted bell jar. When Peeves got in the right position, the bell jar would fall and trap the prank spirit."
"And then what?" Harry asked eagerly, "Did Mr. Karp succeed?"
"You see the situation now, of course he failed, otherwise how could Peeves still be in school?" Gareth shrugged, saying helplessly: "Things didn't go as planned, because Peeves easily broke the bell jar, walking away with a few scimitars, several crossbows, a large-caliber muzzleloader, and a small cannon—after this, Peeves started shooting randomly for fun, threatening students' life safety. Thus, the castle had to be evacuated for three days."
"Really?" Harry certainly had heard of muzzle loaders and cannons, imagining it, unable to understand, he said, "He got such powerful things? So how was it handled later?"
Gareth shrugged and continued: "Three days later, the then principal Professor Uprasia Moore agreed to sign an agreement with Peeves, advising him to turn in his weapons, in exchange for more privileges granted by the school—being able to swim in the boys' lavatory on the first floor once a week, choosing moldy bread from the kitchen to throw around at will, receiving a new hat specially ordered for him by Lady Bonabelle—this was the most disastrous and the last attempt to get rid of Peeves, and of course, this incident also forced Mr. Karp to retire 'due to health reasons', with his successor being our current administrator, Mr. Gladwin Moen."
Harry swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
So Peeves is such a nuisance at school?
It's really best to stay far away from him; if you provoke Peeves, things could become problematic.
"Peeves is also a headache for Mr. Moen," said a nearby Gryffindor senior student. "Though if Peeves really bothers you, you could use Bloodman Barrow to threaten him."
"Okay, I got it, thank you." Harry said politely.
Mr. Moen didn't just find Peeves a headache, actually Hogwarts' new students also gave him quite a headache.
But Hogwarts' punishment methods are still rather strict, according to senior students, Mr. Moen has somewhat quirky hobbies, his detention makes people nervous because he could use red-hot irons to punish students who violate school rules, he might even lock students in the dungeon with chains.
"I wouldn't recommend violating school rules either." Gareth said chuckling, "Of course, just don't let Mr. Moen catch you."
The first class for new students was Spell Class, taught by Professor Ronan from India.
The vast majority of Hogwarts students didn't like him, as everyone felt this Spell Class professor had no real ability, only using mouth-spin.
Especially Gryffindor's senior students, before new students went to Spell Class, seniors advised the newcomers to be prepared to learn nothing.
Back then Harry didn't think much of it, yet during the first class he noticed something wrong.
"Next, we will learn the Lighting Spell."
Professor Ronan's English accent seemed to carry a hint of curry, no one knows why Hogwarts invited such a professor to teach the spell class, but this curry flavor not only made listening hard to understand, it also made people feel physically uncomfortable.
"Smelly colonial, coming to the British Empire to beg for food!" murmured a Slytherin student, and Harry remembered this person, having seen him during sorting, name was Violet McDowell.
Harry didn't know about the British Empire, but in his impression, Britain's 1991 was kinda hard to describe, not only nearly losing to Argentina, they couldn't even compete with Iceland in fisheries—he always heard Uncle Vernon grumble about this.
Yes, the Britain a century later had already turned into Little Britain and nearly lost Northern Ireland, power nearly voided.
But Britain a century before, it could be said to dominate the seas, truly a Sun Never Sets Empire, unlike the later British Empire.
Even Wizards in the Wizarding World, when speaking of the British Empire, would involuntarily puff out their chests.
But McDowell didn't know, the word "Empire" in British Empire actually comes from India—the law of imperial authority of the British Empire's Empress Victoria, was from India's Mughal Empire.
Could make people leopard laugh.
Then, Harry saw Professor Ronan waving his magic wand, after several attempts, the tip of the wand barely lit up a light spot.
Not so bright, somewhat dim.
"Not as good as me." Gareth whispered to Harry, "Such a level of Lighting Spell, is it really used by a professor?"
Then, Harry heard Professor Ronan's words.
"Slytherin adds 5 points!" he said excitedly, "Miss Malfoy, excellent Lighting Spell!"