days at Hogwarts

Chapter 672 Holiday

On the top floor of the west tower, a figure was walking up the narrow spiral staircase.

The Owl Shed, also known as the largest staff dormitory at Hogwarts, is home to hundreds of owls. Some are brought from home by young wizards, some are employed by the school on a long-term basis, and occasionally they take on temporary jobs in Hogsmeade to earn some extra money to improve their meals.

The shed is cleaned and tidied regularly by the house-elves, and is kept very clean. The owls raised by the wizards are very intelligent and do not have the bad habit of urinating and defecating anywhere, so there is almost no odor.

There were a few scattered straws on the stairs, probably brought down by the owls flying in and out.

Before he even entered the shed, the sound of an owl flapping its wings could be heard. The spectacled owl with gray-brown feathers flapped its wings and landed on the figure's shoulder, rubbing his face and hair affectionately with its beak.

"Goooo! Goooo!"

"Okay, okay, stop rubbing, stop rubbing."

Loren smiled and combed the owl's hair from the neck to the tail, shivering with comfort. "You are already a mature owl. You should learn to be steady. It's ridiculous for you to pounce on people and rub against them..."

"Goooo! Goooo!"

The spectacled owl tilted its head stupidly, looking as if it didn't understand what you were saying.

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. When the weather gets warmer, I'll find you a companion and let it take care of you."

At this point, Loren showed a thoughtful expression, holding his chin with his hand and looking up and down at the silly owl, "I remember that you are a female. You owls should not have abnormal development. But after all, you are a magical animal. Maybe the information you have is different from what I have learned. Let me check..."

"Cuckoo!"

Hanhan suddenly widened his round eyes, and seeing the hand that was stroking the fur on his back reaching down, he screamed and flapped his wings, and gave the man a few big slaps.

"Hey, I was just kidding! I don't want to watch it anymore, I don't want to watch it anymore!"

"Cuckoo!"

"It really is a joke!"

"..."

Finally, Loren had to take out five pieces of dried white rat meat to apologize, and Hanhan finally calmed down. But this did not mean that he had been forgiven, as the spectacled owl still kept cursing in a low voice.

Loren held his owl and walked into its dormitory at Hogwarts, a clean and tidy little straw nest.

There were some owl collections piled up inside, all of which were small, delicate, and colorful: Wenrenju's miniature collection of feather pens, ink bottle caps, and the Gryffindor badge...

"Tsk..."

Loren looked at the spectacled owl with a click of his tongue. Seeing the sharp look in the spectacled owl's eyes, he wisely did not make any comment. He coughed and cleared his throat: "Silly, I came to see you today because I want you to fly to London."

"Cuckoo?"

"Not going home, but to Diagon Alley."

"Goo?"

"You know the Tuofan Clothing Store, right? That's right, it's right next to the Eeyore Owl Shop. I know the weather is cold and the journey is long, but when you come back, there will be plenty of white rat jerky..."

I reminded him of the things to pay attention to and entrusted him with the shopping order.

Loren rubbed the owl's head hard and left the shed contentedly.

……

In the library of the castle's main building.

Hermione sat in a corner by the window, with a bookshelf behind her and a wall and window beside her. When she stopped writing to organize her thoughts, Hermione looked up and saw two heads whispering together opposite her, and Madam Pince in the distance was looking over here.

"..."

The girl sighed silently, looked at the door where no one passed by, retracted her gaze, lowered her head and continued to translate a runic inscription.

Harry and Ron sat side by side, with textbooks and some reference books spread out on the table. Between them were several rolls of parchment, which contained the homework assigned last week.

Having been studying at Hogwarts for six years, the two have already mastered the skills of borrowing homework. Compared with ensuring that the homework is qualified without being discovered by the professor, it is more important to minimize the presence during the borrowing process and not attract the attention and plans of their academic friends.

Ron pretended to look at the reference book, then looked at the lengths of the two papers. He had already made a decision in his mind. He took Loren's paper slowly and lightly and read it carefully.

I mainly drew on the first half of Loren's essay, as the latter part was too profound for him to write. I also added some content from the textbook, cut off the beginning and the end, and then moved and spliced ​​them together. A qualified paper that was neither good nor bad, with a middling grade, was just produced.

Ron felt a sense of accomplishment after finishing his thesis.

Looking at Harry next to him, Ron couldn't help but frown and poked his arm: "Why are you writing your own paper?"

"Oh, the content of the recent Potions class is relatively simple. The Half-Blood Prince's notes gave me a lot of inspiration, so I want to try writing it myself."

"..."

Ron's eyebrows were tightly knitted together, and his expression was a little uncomfortable.

How did this person sneak away?
We agreed to be poor students together, but you made progress behind my back?
Although my own depravity is shameful, my roommate's progress is even more worrying.

Ron turned to look at his paper. He felt a sense of accomplishment just now, but now it seemed a little hot.

He gritted his teeth and decided to delete some of the borrowed content. For the insufficient space, he planned to look through reference books and find extracurricular books to supplement the arguments and examples.

Once he started typing out his own content, his homework speed slowed down. Instead, Harry next to him stopped writing first and put his quill into the ink bottle.

I dusted off the parchment and read it silently from beginning to end, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

Harry saw Loren coming in from the corner of his eye, and he immediately handed over his paper and said happily, "Where have you been? What took you so long? Please help me take a look at the paper. Is there anything that needs to be revised?"

Loren took the parchment, looked at the empty seat next to Hermione, hesitated for a moment, and sat down next to Harry. He picked up a pencil and began to read: "Analysis of the similarities and differences between coprolites and universal antidotes based on Gorbarot's Third Law...

"Many redundant descriptions can be replaced by academic language and standardized terms... As for other aspects, it is innovative, but not systematic enough. There are too few key analysis contents involved, and too much description of non-key and non-core contents. For example, why write such a detailed argument for the third law..."

Loren circled his spelling mistakes while reading, wondering why he was so concerned about this assignment. His thoughts turned and he vaguely guessed something. He stopped writing and looked up at him: "Are you trying to use the thesis to get closer to Slughorn and then test the memory of the Horcrux?"

Harry grinned. "What do you think of this idea?"

"In that case, don't revise your paper and just submit it as is."

"what?"

"Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to take your paper to him and ask for advice in person?"

"!!"

Harry opened his eyes wide with approval and admiration.

The brains of top students are still useful.

With this in mind, Harry wrote down all the questions Loren had just asked, intending to study them carefully when he got back. He couldn't help but imagine that when Slughorn asked these questions, he would be able to come up with the answers after a little thought...

Wow! He looks like a genius in potions!
Seeing the man in front of him suddenly grinning foolishly, looking very unintelligent, Loren stood up silently and sat down next to Hermione.

At this time, Hermione had finished translating the document and was checking the context to see if the meaning was smooth and whether some words could be replaced.

Loren saw that she didn't have the quill, so he naturally put his arm around her shoulders and leaned over to look at her translation: "Have you finished your homework?" This person asked the question just to divert her attention and prevent her from pushing away the hand that was hugging her. Hermione looked helpless: "I'm done."

"Do you need my help with proofreading?"

"Need not."

"Oh..." Loren grabbed a strand of her hair, twisted it around his fingers and fiddled with it, casually continuing to divert attention, "Why didn't you ask me where I was going and what I was doing for so long?"

Hermione put the checked homework into the book, slowly packed up the quill and ink bottle, and said calmly: "Where have you been, and what did you do for so long?"

"Went to the Owlery."

"..."

Loren gave him a disapproving look. "Why didn't you ask me what I was doing in the Owlery?"

"What were you doing in the Owlery?"

"Go find Hanhan."

"Why did you go to see Hanhan?"

“Ask Hanhan to send your shopping order!”

"?"

Hermione stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him in confusion.

"Ha, did you think I was going to mail a letter to Grandpa Bates? Actually, I was going to Owl Mail." Loren said this and then closed his mouth and gave the girl a "you know" look.

Hermione felt a little helpless: "Mail order what?"

Loren raised his chin: "Do I have to answer if you ask me?"

"..."

Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes and reached out to push his hand away.

"Mail order for your Christmas present," Loren replied quickly, then looked down into the girl's eyes and grinned.

Hermione wanted to continue asking, but when she saw the smile in his eyes, her cheeks felt inexplicably hot, so she suppressed her curiosity and kept her questions to herself, lowering her head and silently putting away the books and stationery on the table.

But the man refused to give in and continued to make an annoying sound: "The order has been sent to Tufan Clothing Store."

“What could it be?

“It could be a scarf, it could be a few pairs of socks…

"Or a magic robe, a coat..."

Listening to this man imitating her own thoughts in a weird way, Hermione couldn't help but hit him with Libasho Pollach's "Advanced Potion-Making", but she was not very angry in her heart. She just felt funny besides being embarrassed.

You are almost 17 years old, why are you still so childish?

Loren was not hurt at all and continued to smile: "I'll tell you in secret, it's a dress."

Hermione quickly responded, "Professor Slughorn's Christmas party?"

"Yes, although it would be a better surprise if I kept it on Christmas Day, I was worried that you wouldn't know what I had prepared and would foolishly buy another one. It's not that I look down on your taste and I'm afraid you'd buy a dress with monotonous colors and old-fashioned styles, it's just that the one I picked is more in line with my taste..."

"I have no plans to buy a dress. I plan to wear my old clothes to the party."

"Wouldn't the size be inappropriate?"

"Just cut it appropriately."

"Why are you being so stingy with yourself?"

“It’s thriftiness.”

"I don't want to bother with you. Fortunately, I bought it."

"..."

Hermione lowered her head to pack up her books and heard him humming a few times. There was no tune, but he seemed to be in a very happy mood. He couldn't help but shake his arm around her gently.

Maybe that skirt really suits his aesthetic.

"How about we buy a set of formal clothes every Christmas, and take photos to record it. When we are old, we can put it in a display cabinet at home to admire it. From our youth like now to our gray hair like Dumbledore, the magic photos will still move. Wow! It sounds very romantic..."

Hermione unconsciously slowed down her packing movements. As she listened to his words, the same scene seemed to appear in her mind, and the corners of her mouth curled up.

……

This week's homework is handed in, and next week's homework is assigned, and the cycle repeats itself with no end in sight.

But this time there were fewer complaints.

The little wizards were relieved from the heavy academic burden, not because the professors had a change of heart and reduced the amount of homework, but because Christmas was approaching and the holidays were about to come, and most students planned to leave the homework for the holidays.

The little wizards who were preparing to go home were packing their luggage during their free time, while the students who stayed on campus were sitting in the common room with nothing to do. Watching them busying about, they actually felt a subtle sense of pleasure.

Loren and others sat in their old seats, killing time in boredom, petting cats, reading books, eating snacks and chatting.

"When we return to school after the holidays, we will resume Quidditch training."

"Oh, Harry, what's wrong with you, the holidays haven't even started yet and we have to think about the end of the holidays?"

"Dear Captain Weasley, you don't want the Gryffindor team to lose the next game, do you?"

"..."

"Don't think about next semester for now." Loren scratched Crookshanks' chin and looked at the captain who was being threatened. "Slughorn needs a companion to attend the Christmas party. Ron, have you invited a female companion?"

"No." Ron shrugged his shoulders and said insincerely, "I almost forgot about it. I don't have to attend the party, right? Professor Slughorn didn't even think of inviting me. He cares more about you good students with a bright future..."

"Don't say that, Ron," Harry said soothingly.

Hermione frowned slightly and said noncommittally, "I've asked Parvati, and there are very few girls who stay on campus during the holidays. You'd better send an invitation before the holiday. Maybe you still have time to apply to Professor McGonagall to stay on campus."

"Oh." Ron's smile froze. Although he pretended not to care, he felt very uncomfortable when he thought about his friends attending the lively party while he was alone in the lounge.

"By the way, Lavender is staying at school this year too," Hermione said casually.

"I've broken up with her."

Hermione glanced at him and said, "A Christmas party isn't a couples party. What does it have to do with your breakup?"

Ron was stunned for a moment, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

(End of this chapter)