Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Chapter 552: Chapter 174: Boggart and the Fish Tank (Part 2)

”The way to deal with a Boggart is the Ridikulus Spell, but if your mind is confused and your willpower is weak, standing with others is also a way to cope!”

Professor Trokka walked back and forth in the classroom, repeatedly emphasizing the way to deal with Boggarts in a cold tone, and made everyone review the spell several times. After more than half of the class time had passed, they began to practice again.

This time, the students lined up neatly, going up to challenge one by one, and things finally became much more orderly.

However, whenever the centipede ghost appeared, it still caused a small stir of exclamations.

...

As Vid expected, the ”fish tank” incident soon spread in a small scope.

During dinner, the SSC members sat near Vid, eating with an expression of wanting to ask but afraid to speak, which seemed somewhat painful.

The Weasley Twins, however, were not bothered by others’ potential ”fragile hearts,” and loudly walked over with a fish tank, which even contained a small fish probably caught from the Black Lake.

”Look, Vid! The most terrifying thing in the world!” Fred said with a wink and a grin.

”Get over your psychological shadow! If you’re scared, we’ll help you get through it together!”

George mischievously patted the fish tank, placed it on the long table in front of Vid, while Theo and Leian quickly moved several plates away.

”Hey, you guys!”

Hermione ran over angrily, but before she could reprimand, Vid poked the fish tank and said:

”Who said I’m afraid of this thing? You’d better put this perch back in the lake; it’s very particular about its living environment and easy to die.”

The twins looked at each other in confusion and said, ”Eh? But we heard... the Boggart turned into a fish tank in front of you?”

Seeing quite a few curious people around, Vid wanted to explain, so he patiently said:

”The vast starry sky, every star could be a sun or even a galaxy. We live in the Solar System, and the world outside is so big, bigger than you can say, there’s no boundary.”

”Oh...” Harry asked blankly, ”What’s that got to do with the fish tank?”

Vid said, ”A Muggle scientist once raised a question—if there are many alien civilizations in the universe, why haven’t we discovered any signs of alien life?”

”It’s like in a vast body of water, under what circumstances would there be only one fish?”

”Either there is great danger in the water area, all other fish unfortunately died out, and only this fish survived under extremely accidental and fortunate conditions.”

”Or—”

Vid tapped the transparent fish tank and said:

”The seemingly vast world is actually just a small fish tank, and this fish is kept here by someone—the keeper only wants to raise one fish.”

”The small fish looks free and easy swimming in the water, but in fact, it spends its entire life trapped in this fish tank, never able to leave. It doesn’t even know there are eyes outside the fish tank observing it.”

He spoke calmly, but whether it was rich imagination or overly sensitive emotions, suddenly several people shuddered.

”I kind of understand why you fear that kind of thing...” Harry murmured.

He imagined himself as the ”only fish in the fish tank,” suddenly feeling that even staying with the Dursleys was better than that.

”Why can’t it be that the sea is too vast, and the fish is too small, swimming too slowly, so it hasn’t met other fish?”

A dazed voice came from behind, Vid turned around to see Luna, who somehow stood behind, interrupting after listening for a while, saying seriously:

”And what you said just now isn’t right—not only are there creatures on Earth! Someone flew to the moon once and brought back a bag of shiny moon frogs. If we could fly to Mars, fly to the sun, maybe we’d discover more magical life!”

”Oh, Luna! Don’t say your crazy stuff! You’ll be laughed at.”

A girl from the same dormitory as Luna covered her face with one hand, reaching out to pull Luna away.

Vid smiled and said, ”Maybe you’re right...I’ve never seen the world beyond Earth with my own eyes, so I can’t be sure there are no other forms of life. But if one day...”

He paused, and said: ”One day, this small and slow fish really meets other fish, will they coexist peacefully? Or will it immediately become prey for a predator?”

Luna blinked, slowly saying: ”...How can we know that?”

”Yeah...” Vid looked at her and said: ”That’s the crux of the problem.”

Silence ensued for a while.

Especially in Ravenclaw, quite a few students furrowed their brows, pondering unsolvable questions like ”if the universe is barren,” ”the keeper observing the fish,” ”why do we exist.”

Luna was lost in thought as her friend pulled her away, her gaze seemed even more dazed, as if she was immersed in a half-dream, half-awake state.

When Vid turned back, he found the large fish tank in front of him had been moved by someone, and Theo had placed quite a bit of food on his plate. When Vid looked over, a thick toast had just landed.

”Theo, what are you doing?” Vid asked, puzzled.

”I heard that being hungry makes people pessimistic, easily falling into negative emotions.” Theo said with a troubled expression: ”Vid... eat more for dinner.”

Vid looked at him, then at the plate.

He turned to Leian and said: ”Is he mocking me?”

Leian stifled a laugh and added another potato to Vid’s plate, silently expressing support for Theo.

While everyone else was silent, the only thought of the two Hufflepuffs was—why bother with such thoughts? Scaring oneself.

...

Malfoy angrily discovered that the topic he spread with great difficulty—”Vid Gray is actually afraid of fish tanks” was quickly drowned, replaced by grand and empty propositions.

Even in Astronomy class, Professor Sinistra had added a white fish tank pattern to the hat and told tales of various constellations while observing the starry sky, ultimately saying these were all people’s random fabrications.

During Magic History class, Pansy suddenly sighed and said: ”If our world is just a huge fish tank, then I will always love you, Draco. I don’t care if someone is observing our feelings.”

A confession that would usually make Malfoy feel sweet now made him furrow his brows.

—Why do they take seriously the few random words of Vid Gray? That guy thinks about these problems to the point of madness, even making the Boggart turn into a fish tank, do you all also want that?

—Speaking of which, why did the Boggart really turn into a fish tank with eyeballs? Compared to a guess, isn’t the centipede ghost more terrifying?

Malfoy vaguely felt it was a bit strange but couldn’t say why.

Still, he didn’t really want to delve into Vid Gray’s thoughts and let it go after a moment of thinking, eagerly awaiting the afternoon.

Last semester, during Hagrid’s first Care of Magical Creatures class, he brought some Hippogriffs, which Malfoy angered, and both he and Harry Potter were scratched by the creature.

Afterwards, due to the threats of ”certain people,” Malfoy had to tolerate and refrain from encouraging his father to think of ways to expel Hagrid. In exchange, Hagrid promised to take him to see a Fire Dragon.

But every day since, Malfoy had to go to professors for detention due to almost killing Crabbe earlier, unable to find a chance to see the Fire Dragon.

Only recently, after Malfoy’s repeated urging, Hagrid finally made an effort to ”snatch” a detention opportunity from Professor Snape for Malfoy.

Feeling the time was right, Malfoy happily headed towards Hagrid’s hut, trying to restrain his steps from jumping, but when he got closer to the hut, his expression suddenly turned grim.

—Why are those most annoying few guys all there?