Chapter 672 It’s Holiday

On the top floor of the west tower, on the narrow spiral staircase, a figure walked up the steps.

The Owlhouse is also known as the largest staff dormitory in Hogwarts. There are hundreds of owls gathered there. Some are brought by young wizards from home, some are employed by the school for a long time, and occasionally take over Hogsmeade temporarily. Earn some extra money from small jobs to improve food.

The shed is regularly cleaned and tidied by the house elves, and the owls raised by the wizard are very intelligent and do not have the bad habit of urinating everywhere, 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 entering the shack, the sound of the flapping owl's wings was heard. The spectacled owl with gray-brown feathers flapped its wings. Shi Shiran landed on the figure's shoulder and nuzzled his face and hair with its beak affectionately.

"Goooo! Goooo!"

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

Loren smiled and combed the owl's hair one by one, from the head to the base of the tail. Hanhan shivered with comfort, "You are already a mature owl. You should learn to be steady. What do you mean when you pounce on someone... "

"Goooo! Goooo!"

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

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand. When the weather warms up, I'll find you a partner and let him take care of you."

At this point, Loren showed a thoughtful expression and put his chin on his hand as he looked up and down at the idiot, "I remember you are a female. You owls probably won't develop abnormally, but they are magical animals after all. Maybe you can learn from me. The information is different, let me check..."

"Goo!"

Hanhan's round eyes suddenly widened, and when he saw the hand that was stroking the hair on his back reaching down, he screamed and flapped his wings, and gave the man a few big tricks indiscriminately.

"Hey, I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I won't watch it, I won't watch it!"

"Goo!"

"It's really a joke!"

"..."

In the end, Loren had to take out five strips of dried white rat meat to apologize, and Hanhan calmed down. However, this did not mean that he had been forgiven. The spectacled owl still continued to curse in a low voice.

Loren carried his owl and walked inside, arriving at its staff dormitory in Hogwarts, a clean and tidy straw nest.

There are some owl collections piled inside, and the bits and pieces are all exquisite, small, and brightly colored things: mini collection quills from Literary Residence, ink bottle caps, the badge of Gryffindor House...

"Tsk..."

Loren clicked his tongue and looked around. Seeing the sharp eyes of the Spectacled Owl, he wisely did not make any comment. He coughed and cleared his throat: "Hanhan, I came here to see you today because I want you to fly to London."

"Gugu?"

"Not going home, going to Diagon Alley."

"Gu?"

"You know Tuofan clothing store, yes, yes, it's right next to the Eela Owl store. I know the weather is cold and the journey is long. When you come back, you will have enough dried white rat meat..."

I told you what to pay attention to and handed over the shopping order.

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

…

The main building of the castle, inside the library.

Hermione was sitting in the corner by the window, with bookshelves behind her and walls and windows next to her. When she paused to collect her thoughts, Hermione raised her head and saw two heads opposite each other whispering together, and Mrs. Pince in the distance. Look this way.

"..."

The girl sighed silently, then 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 for various subjects spread out on the table. Between them were several rolls of parchment, all of which were assignments for each subject last week.

It has been six years since they attended Hogwarts. The two of them have mastered the skills of borrowing homework. Instead of ensuring that the homework is passed and will not be discovered by the professor, they try to minimize their presence during the borrowing process so as not to attract the attention of their friends who are top students. and plans are more important.

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

Mainly borrowing from the first half of Loren's content, the latter part is too profound for his level to write. Adding some of the contents from the textbook, cutting off the beginning and ending, and then moving and splicing them together, a qualified paper that is neither good nor bad and has average grades is freshly released.

Ron smoothed out his thesis and felt quite accomplished.

Looking at Harry next to him, Ron couldn't help frowning 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 knitted together tightly, his expression a little uncomfortable.

Why did this person sneak away quietly?

We agreed to be scumbag students together, but you actually made progress behind my back?

His own degradation is certainly shameful, but his roommate's progress is even more worrying.

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

He gritted his teeth and decided to delete some reference content. If there was not enough space, he planned to look through the reference books and look for arguments and examples from extracurricular books to supplement it.

Once he started typing his own content, his writing 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 full of accomplishment.

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

Loren took the parchment and looked at the empty seat opposite Hermione. After a moment of hesitation, he sat down next to Harry and started reading with a pencil: "Analysis of bezoars based on Gorbalot's third law." Similarities and Differences with Universal Antidote…

“Many complicated narratives can be replaced with academic language, standardized terminology... As for other aspects, there is innovation, but it is not systematic enough. It involves too few key analysis contents and too many descriptions of non-key and non-core contents. , such as this argument for the third law, why write it in such detail..."

Loren circled his spelling mistakes while reading. He was a little surprised as to why he was so concerned about this assignment. His mind was spinning and he vaguely guessed something. He stopped the pen in his hand and looked up at him: "Are you trying to use the paper to solve the problem?" To get closer to Slughorn, and then test the memory of the Horcrux? "

Harry grinned, "What do you think of that idea?"

"If that's the case, then don't revise this paper and just hand it in."

"ah?"

"When the time comes, you can bring your paper to him and ask him for advice in person. Wouldn't it be more convenient?"

"!!"

Harry opened his eyes wide with approval and admiration.

The brain of a top student is easy to use.

Thinking like this, Harry still wrote down all the questions Loren asked just now, intending to go back and study them carefully. He couldn't help but imagine that when Slughorn asked these questions, he would give the answers after thinking for a while...

Wow! He looks like a genius in potions!

Seeing that the man in front of him suddenly smiled stupidly and looked very unintelligent, Loren stood up silently and came to sit next to Hermione.

At this time, Hermione had finished translating the document and was checking whether the semantics were fluent against the context and whether some words could be replaced.

Loren saw that she didn't hold the quill, so he naturally put his arm around her shoulders and leaned his head 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 holding her. Hermione looked helpless: "I'm done."

"Do you need my help with proofreading?"

"Need not."

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

Hermione put the checked homework into a book, put away the quill and ink bottle slowly, and said in a calm tone, "Where have you been, and what have you been doing for so long?"

"To the Owlery."

"..."

Loren cast a dissatisfied look: "Why didn't you ask me what I was doing at the Owlery?"

"What were you doing in the Owlery?"

"Go find Hanhan."

"What are you doing looking for Hanhan?"

"Looking for Hanhan to send shopping orders!"

"?"

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

"Ha, you thought I was going to send a letter to Grandpa Bates, but actually I was going to Owl Mail Order." After Loren said this, he closed his mouth and gave the girl a "you know" look.

Hermione felt a little helpless: "What about mail order?"

Loren raised his chin: "You ask me, do I have to answer?"

"..."

Hermione couldn't help rolling her eyes and reaching out to push his hand away.

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

Hermione wanted to continue asking, but seeing the smile in his eyes, her cheeks felt inexplicably warm, so she suppressed her curiosity and kept the question in her mouth, lowered her head and silently packed away the books and stationery on the table.

But the man refused to give up and continued to make an annoying voice: "The order has been sent to Tuofan Clothing Store."

"What could it be?

"Maybe a scarf, maybe a few pairs of socks...

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

Listening to this man's weird imitation of her own voice, Hermione couldn't help but hit him with Liba Xiu Pollachi's "Advanced Potion Making", but she was not very angry in her heart, and she only felt it was funny.

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

Loren didn't feel any pain after being hit, and still smiled: "I'll tell you quietly, it's a formal dress."

Hermione quickly reacted: "Professor Slughorn's Christmas party?"

"Yes, although it will be more surprising if you leave it on Christmas Day, but I'm worried that you don't know that I'm ready and will buy another one foolishly. It's not that I look down on your aesthetics and I'm afraid you'll buy a dress with a monotonous color and an old-fashioned style. It's just that I chose It’s more in line with my aesthetic..."

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

"Wouldn't the size be inappropriate?"

"Just cut it appropriately."

"Why are you being so mean to yourself?"

"It's frugality."

"I'm too lazy to pay attention to you. Fortunately, I bought it."

"..."

Hermione lowered her head to put away the books and heard him humming twice. There was no melody, and he seemed to be in a very happy mood. The hand holding her couldn't help but shake slightly.

Maybe that dress really suits his aesthetic.

"What do you think about us buying a suit every Christmas, and then taking photos to record it. When we are old, we can put it in a display case at home to appreciate it. From young like now to white hair like Dumbledore, the magic photos will still move. Wow! It sounds very romantic..."

Hermione's packing action slowed down unconsciously. Listening to his words, the same picture seemed to emerge in her mind, and the corners of her mouth curled up.

...

This week's homework was handed in, and the next week's homework was assigned again. It goes on and on, and there is no end in sight.

But this time there are fewer complaints.

The little wizards were relieved from the heavy burden of schoolwork. It was not that the professors had a change of heart and reduced the amount of homework, but Christmas was approaching and the holidays were coming. Most students planned to leave their homework for the holidays.

The little wizards who were preparing to go home took advantage of their free time to pack their luggage. The students who stayed in school stayed in the common room with nothing to do. Looking at their busy figures, they actually felt a subtle 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 start Quidditch training again."

"Oh, Harry, what's wrong with you? The holidays haven't 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 of the team 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 want to invite me. He cares more about you good students with a future..."

"Don't say that, Ron." Harry comforted.

Hermione frowned slightly and said noncommittally: "I asked Parvati, there are very few girls staying in school during the holidays. You'd better send an invitation before the holiday. Maybe there is still time to apply to Professor McGonagall to stay in school."

"Oh." Ron's smile froze. Although he pretended not to care on the surface, he felt very uncomfortable when he thought of his friends attending the lively party and staying alone in the lounge.

"By the way, Lavender will stay in school this year." Hermione said casually.

"I have broken up with her."

Hermione glanced at him: "Christmas party is not a couple's party, what does it have to do with breaking up with you?"

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