bacchusnovels Chapter 119 Hermione with Milk on Her Lips
Chapter 119 Hermione with Milk on Her Lips
Chapter 119 Hermione with Milk on Her Lips
(The previous chapter has been suspended; it will likely be released tonight.)
Compared to Sean's high spirits and Tonks's predicament, Hermione had a very painful day.
From the moment we had breakfast in the Great Hall that morning, things took a sharp turn for the worse.
The enchanted ceiling was a somber gray today, while the long tables of the four colleges were laden with a sumptuous breakfast: bowls of steaming porridge, plates of tempting pickled herring, mountains of bread, and dishes of golden eggs and salted meat.
Hermione sat at the Gryffindor dining table, with Harry and Ron beside her.
She opened the book "Traveling with Vampires" and placed it on the milk jug, then turned to look at the two of them.
"Good morning." Hermione's tone was a little stiff.
She didn't understand why the two of them always managed to do something unexpected.
This was the case last semester, and it will be the same this semester.
There are even signs that this semester will surpass the last semester—creating such a sensational event on the very day of school registration.
Can't the two of them really settle down and study hard like she did?
She expressed strong skepticism about this.
If she hadn't known that Harry used to live in a tiny cubicle of just a few square meters every day with the Dursleys, she would have suspected that Harry had the Muggle disease her father called "ADHD."
However, on the other hand, she was in a bad mood today, and the Harry and Ron issue only accounted for a small part of it.
The key lies in yesterday's course selection phase.
When she tried to choose Professor Sean's elective course, she learned that elective courses were a "privilege" for third-year students.
At Hogwarts, starting from the third year, young wizards must take at least two elective courses in addition to their compulsory courses.
Hermione believes this rule is completely inhumane.
The younger wizards wanted to use their free time to learn more.
Is there anything wrong with that?
So, she has maintained this awkward expression since last night.
Harry and Ron, sitting to the side, knew exactly what Professor Sean meant to Hermione.
They didn't dare to add fuel to the fire in this particular situation, so they simply replied with a "Good morning" and began to concentrate on eating their breakfast—often, silence is the best response in such situations.
Neville Longbottom greeted them with a beaming smile, seemingly oblivious to Hermione's bad mood, and plopped down opposite the three of them, then cheerfully began to speak.
"The postman should be here soon—I think my grandma will send some things I forgot to bring."
Just as Hermione picked up the sandwich to turn her grief into food.
Hundreds of owls swarmed in, circling above the auditorium and dropping letters and packages to the people who were talking.
A bulging package suddenly slammed down on Neville's head, while another dusty package fell directly into Hermione's milk jug, splashing milk and feathers everywhere.
Although Hermione dodged very quickly, some milk inevitably splashed onto her, so she quickly waved the spell "Clean Up" to give herself a quick clean-up.
"Errol!" Ron exclaimed as he grabbed the wet owl by its claws and freed it from the milk.
Errol slumped on the table, his legs dangling in the air, a wet red envelope dangling from his mouth.
"Oh no—" Ron exclaimed in surprise.
Even though Hermione was a little angry, she couldn't bear to see the half-dead owl, so she suppressed her anger, gently poked Errol with her fingertip, and whispered, "It's okay, it's still alive."
"No—not this one," Ron said, pointing to the red envelope.
The envelope seemed unremarkable to Harry, but Ron and Neville saw it as a bomb about to explode.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked curiously.
"She—my mother sent me a screaming letter," Ron replied weakly.
“You’d better open it quickly, Ron,” Neville suggested shyly in a low voice. “It’ll be worse if you don’t. My grandma once sent me one, and I ignored it, and then—” He took a deep breath, “it was horrible.”
Hermione looked at their horrified expressions, then at the red envelope.
"What is a Roaring Letter?" she asked curiously.
But Ron was staring intently at the envelope, which was already starting to smoke from its four corners.
"Hurry up and open it," Neville urged, "Time is running out—"
Ron reached out with trembling hands, carefully removed the envelope from Errol's mouth, and then quickly tore it open.
Neville plugged his ears with his fingers, and Hermione quickly understood why.
At first, she thought it was an explosion; the huge noise filled the entire auditorium, causing dust to fall from the ceiling.
"—You stole a car! I wouldn't be surprised if you guys got fired! Just wait and see how I deal with you then! You probably never imagined how your dad and I would feel when we found the car was gone."
That's Mrs. Weasley's voice, a hundred times louder than usual!
The sound made the tableware on the table clatter, and the echoes from the surrounding stone walls were deafening.
Everyone in the auditorium turned around to see who had received the shouting message.
Ron huddled in the chair, his forehead the only visible part of his face.
"After receiving Dumbledore's letter last night, your father was so ashamed he almost fainted! We raised you with so much care, and we never imagined you would do something like this! You and Harry almost lost your lives—"
Harry, who was sitting to the side in a daze, kept an eye out for when his name would appear.
He tried to pretend he hadn't heard the deafening rebuke.
"...This is infuriating! Your father will be investigated by his workplace because of this, and it's all your fault! If you don't behave, we'll take you home right now!"
The roar finally stopped, but its echo still lingered in my ears.
The red envelope that had fallen from Ron's hand to the ground began to burn, curling up and turning to ash.
Harry and Ron sat there blankly, as if they had just been washed by the waves.
Hermione, however, took another cup and filled it with a new glass of milk.
Seeing someone speak up for Harry and Ron on her behalf seemed to slightly alleviate her frustration.
As for being shocked, she had never felt that way before.
She had gotten used to it without realizing it.
After an unknown amount of time, the people at the long table next to them finally came to their senses, and a few of them couldn't help but laugh out loud. The sounds of conversation around them gradually picked up again.
This, of course, included Sean, who was having breakfast at the faculty seating area.
In fact, he had been secretly watching what was happening at the Gryffindor Long Table.
As for when it started—perhaps it was when the owl fell into Hermione's milk jug and splashed milky white liquid all over her.
He noticed that the little witch had milk on her face and the corners of her mouth, making her look extremely cute.
This amused him greatly.
As for the shout letter, Sean had never received one, but he had seen his classmates receive them when he was in school.
Compared to the howling letters Mrs. Weasley sent, the howling letters they received could almost be renamed "whispering letters."
God knows how Mrs. Weasley could have such a loud voice.
After breakfast, when Sean walked into the classroom with a book in his hand, he was greeted with thunderous applause, as always.
The applause was so long and enthusiastic that it seemed like it would only stop when the roof was blown off.
"Classmates, we meet again." He smiled, gently placed the book in his hand on the podium, and then glanced at the whole class. Looking around, he saw almost all the faces were very familiar.
For example... Zhang Qiu.
"How was everyone's summer vacation?"
This sentence seemed to be a universal opening line for Sean.
When he was in school, at the beginning of each new semester, the teacher would use this sentence to break the silence and shorten the distance between himself and his classmates.
Moreover, judging from the reactions of the young wizards below the stage, this statement seemed surprisingly effective.
Upon hearing Sean's question, the audience immediately became lively.
"My family and I went to the countryside!" a young wizard shouted excitedly, his face full of joy and satisfaction.
"I went to America!" another little wizard laughed triumphantly.
Amidst the cacophony of voices, one girl's voice stood out sharply as she excitedly exclaimed, "I went to a Setina Warbeck concert!"
"Looks like everyone had a great holiday," Sean joked. "Unlike me, I stayed home all summer, doing nothing but sleeping and eating."
Upon hearing the word "eat," the fans in the audience seemed to have pressed some kind of button, their eyes instantly lighting up.
In fact, this lesson was for third-grade Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
Previously, the elective course "Muggle Studies" was considered an unpopular course. It taught about Muggle daily life, various Muggle inventions and their use of electricity, and also included Muggle art and Muggle music.
This holds little appeal for young wizards, especially those born into wizarding families. For them, learning more interesting spells is more valuable than understanding Muggles. As for those born into Muggle families, they already know enough about Muggles and don't need to spend time deliberately learning about them.
So this course became like a chicken rib – tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
Because of Sean's appearance, the number of people signing up for this class reached a record high.
Given this situation, even if Dumbledore himself were to teach the course, he wouldn't break the enrollment record.
Moreover, Sean believes that his course, like the Douban rating of the popular variety show "Go Fighting!", will become increasingly valuable as viewers progress through the course.
After all, only a select few with a long-term vision in the wizarding world can recognize the importance of this course. For the magical world, understanding people from non-magical worlds is a very important matter.
Besides Sean, other notable figures who share this mindset include Percy Weasley and... Tom Riddle.
Yes, Voldemort also attached great importance to the course "Muggle Studies".
Even in the original story, during the 1997-1998 school year, when he led the Death Eaters to control the British Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts, he still made this course a compulsory subject.
However, his course content is extremely anti-human, or rather, anti-Muggle—Muggles and Muggle-born individuals are described as non-human and deserving of persecution.
This is like selling dog meat under the guise of mutton; the original intention of setting up the course had a completely opposite effect on the intended outcome.
However, Sean had an even more interesting idea...
"Have you all heard about what happened to Mr. Potter yesterday?" Sean gradually steered the conversation toward that matter.
"Of course." The young wizards in the audience nodded in unison.
Many of the young wizards present witnessed the "Howl Letter" that morning, and Mrs. Weasley's thunderous voice still echoes in the ears of some of them.
They will never forget what happened.
To some extent, the news of "Harry Weasley's flying car crashing into the Whomping Willow" even overshadowed the news of Lockhart becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
"Today, our lesson is about Muggle cars..."