days at Hogwarts

Chapter 585: One Month into School

Late September.

Hogsmeade Week was originally scheduled for the first weekend in October, which happened to be the last day of September and the first day of October.

The weather in early autumn was changeable. It rained for several days in a row, and then it was cloudy for a while.

When the school started, the cicadas in the woods buzzed all day long. Sometimes when I tossed and turned late at night, I could hear the cicadas drifting into my pillow through the window cracks, disturbing many students' sweet dreams. In just one month, all the insects disappeared, and only the chirping of birds remained in the forbidden forest.

The morning we arrived at Hogsmeade was sunny, and a cool breeze swirled around the courtyard.

After breakfast, the young wizards lined up in front of Professor McGonagall and the administrator Mr. Filch to check the long list of students whose parents or guardians had signed their consent. Mrs. Norris walked around the team with her head held high, her posture dignified and her eyes arrogant, but the young wizards didn't pay much attention to her.

They walked between tall stone pillars with wild boars with spread wings carved on top, turned left after leaving the school gate, and walked into the village along the flat gravel road. The cool breeze kept blowing their hair, and their bangs swayed in front of their eyes.

At nine o'clock in the morning, in Honeydukes Candy Store, Hermione was standing in front of the window looking at the newly posted posters and notices, while Loren was standing beside them trying the food, with a bulging brown paper bag on his waist and a portion of imitation snail candy in his hand.

New products from Mr. Ambrosio Froome.

The outer crispy shell is made of chocolate, a mix of black and white, and the design inside is more delicate. The main part of the snail meat is slightly soft toffee, and the internal organs and intestines are also colored and shaped by a variety of different candies. The most surprising thing is the black intestine with a little green, coffee candy mixed with mint candy. Not only is the color ugly, but the taste is also terrible. It is bitter and astringent when you take a bite. It is really amazing.

After feeding a fizzing honey candy into Hermione's mouth, Loren leaned over to look at the candy store's cashier counter and found that this snail candy was quite popular. Every third-year student who came to Hogsmeade for the weekend for the first time had a bag in hand. Some of them were trying to trick their good friends who didn't come to the candy store to try it, while others were planning to send it home for their families to try.

In short, the purpose is not pure.

After melting the outer sugar shell, the strange taste of the internal organs and intestines made Loren's eyebrows tremble. He swallowed the still squirming snail candy in one gulp, stuffed a honey candy into his mouth, and moved closer to the little witch's head to read the notice.

The main content is similar to the one in school, briefly explaining what happened before and after Umbridge was attacked, warning merchants and customers in Hogsmeade to pay attention to safety in the near future, and collecting clues of suspicious persons in the long term...

Loren turned his head and glanced at the door of the Quidditch boutique next door. The boss was still the same eccentric boss, squatting at the door chatting with students and analyzing the strength of the schools in the new season after the unified brooms. The young clerk had changed, and his face was somewhat similar to his. I wonder where he was kidnapped from.

Loren stuffed the brown paper bag on his waist into Hermione's arms, wandered to the door of the next store, grabbed a handful of loose nuts in his hand, and said to himself: "Sir, where is the notice on your door?"

The shop owner sucked his gums. For the sake of being a Gryffindor, he didn't put the nuts away. He pointed at the glue marks on the glass window and said, "Well... that is, it is blocking the latest model of flying brooms. The little guys have torn it down to only this little bit. When the Ministry of Magic patrol comes in the evening, they will put a new one on."

"Just let them post like this? Don't you feel offended?"

"The large-scale search in the past two years is not offensive? Dementors are trained to search morning and night, is it not offensive?" The shop owner curled his lips, "It's just posting a notice, that's already very good!"

"..."

Loren nodded thoughtfully and chatted with the shop owner for a while until he finished the nuts in his hand. The owner didn't seem to have any intention of going into the house to get more, so he waved and turned back to look for Hermione.

The shop owner watched him go away with a resentful look in his eyes. This guy had been chatting with him since the third grade, and now he was in the fifth grade, but he had never bought anything from the store. Instead, he packed a lot of food for free.

He turned around and nudged his nephew who was slacking off next to him with his elbow. "Go, go to Honeydukes and get some free snacks."

"Tsk tsk..."

The new clerk curled his lips, took off his uniform, and quietly blended into the flow of people in the next store.

Loren returned to his original position and saw Hermione still looking at the Ministry of Magic notice. She was mumbling something about community management, not looking very smart. He rolled his eyes around and took back a paper bag of snacks.

"Hermione, have some candy, ah..."

Loren picked up a snail candy and passed it to her mouth. Hermione's brain had already reacted to the fact that something was wrong, but she still subconsciously opened her mouth and immediately felt a small piece of sticky and wet thing sliding into her mouth, which stimulated her to punch him immediately.

"Don't do it!" Loren held her shoulders and advised seriously, "There are chocolate and toffee outside, it's sweet!"

Hermione put down her fist and looked at the smile on his lips with a little surprise. There was a gleam in her brown eyes and a thoughtful expression. Could it really be an ordinary candy?

After waiting for a few seconds, the man quietly stepped back a step or two, looking at her expectantly with an unconcealable smile on his face.

First, a cool mint flavor appears on the taste buds, followed by a strong bitter coffee flavor.

Hermione had no idea what strange aftertaste there would be, and she wasn't curious at all. She held her breath, took a lunge, leaned forward quickly, reached out with both hands to grab his collar, bent her arms, and stretched her neck forward...

The series of actions were smooth and continuous, and before the person on the other side could react, the strange candy in his mouth was passed to him.

……

Hogsmeade, The Three Broomsticks.

Harry and Ginny stood at the door of the pub, brushing their robes against their bodies, even letting the cold wind blow for a moment to make sure there was no trace of Madam Puddifoot's tea shop perfume left on them.

The two looked at each other, their cheeks flushed lightly at the same time, and they avoided each other's gaze at the same time.

"..."

Harry let out a long breath, pushed open the door of the pub, and walked into the steaming pub from the slightly cold autumn wind. He glanced around and quickly locked onto two familiar figures at the round table by the window, and walked over with Ginny behind him.

"Ok?"

Harry stood beside the two people sitting opposite each other and saw Loren sipping his butterbeer silently, with Hermione looking smug next to him. He was stunned for a moment: "What's wrong with you?"

"He ate some weird candy that tasted like snail shit," Hermione replied calmly without changing her expression.

“Snail shit…”

Harry was silent for a moment. "Are all weird-tasting candies so weird now?"

"Stop talking about this, come sit down, when is Ron coming?"

"I don't know, we separated a long time ago..."

"Ok."

Harry stood up and went to get a drink from the bar.

Hermione pulled Ginny aside and started chatting with her in private. Although her voice was very soft, Loren had sharp hearing.

"Went to Mrs. Puddifoot's tea-shop? Did he kiss you?"

"Oh... Hermione..."

(End of this chapter)