Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 628 Christmas Ball
Although Tierra managed to subdue Peeves in time, for some reason, word got out that Harry wanted Luna to attend the Horace Slughorn Christmas Ball.

This suddenly put Luna's popularity in jeopardy—

The girls who had previously confided in her, treated her like a sister, and were deeply devoted to her suddenly became indifferent. Not only did they stop talking to her, but they also started calling Luna by her nickname again behind her back. This time, in addition to "crazy girl," they also added the nickname "scheming bitch." It seemed that many girls were unhappy that Luna Lovegood was able to win Harry's favor.

However, thanks to Tiera's rigorous academic standards, strict school rules, and high standards of learning, the girls' ostracism of Luna Lovegood was limited to gossiping behind her back and ignoring her when they met. For the time being, no one caused trouble for Luna because of this, such as hiding her schoolbag, textbooks, clothes, shoes and socks, or deliberately cutting her hair.

Harry even went to apologize to Luna for this.

After all, Luna didn't have to go through any of this; it was Harry who wanted to find someone to take the blame, which resulted in Luna Lovegood getting involved.

“It’s alright, Harry.” After listening attentively to Harry’s apology, Luna smiled and said nonchalantly, “They never liked me anyway.”

However, their resentment quickly dissipated.

Because Tierra appeared.
Or in other words, the Tierras appeared, finally emerging from the various secret chambers created by the Room of Requirement.

More than fifty Tierra seemed interested in attending the Horaceslughorn Christmas Ball, and by casting a wide net of invitations, more than fifty spots were suddenly available.

Naturally, no one was fixated on Harry Potter's spot anymore.

However, despite this, a large number of students still did not receive an invitation.

Even after Tiera emerged from seclusion and, as a professor of dark magic, proposed to hold a joint Christmas ball with Horace Slughorn, and sent invitations to her outstanding students in her dark magic class, some students, such as Ron, were still unable to attend Horace Slughorn's Christmas ball.

Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Tyrell all believed that the problem was primarily Lavender's.

Ron has grown up now, tall and slender with long arms and legs, and with his flowing golden-red hair. Coupled with his brilliant performance in Quidditch, many girls want to invite Ron to Horace Slughorn's Christmas ball.

But Lavender Brown refused.

During this time, Lavender Brown stared at the other girls like they were thieves. Any girl, including Hermione, who dared to get close to Ron would receive a gnashing gift from Lavender Brown.

Over time, Ron could only spend Christmas Eve alone with Lavender Brown.

To prevent Luna from being bullied, Harry personally went to the Ravenclaw dormitory at six o'clock on Christmas Eve to pick her up.

After all, it was Harry who dragged Luna into this mess. Although the girls stopped bothering Luna because of Tierra's appearance, Harry still felt he should take responsibility as a boy and personally invite Luna to the Christmas ball.

When Harry saw Luna, he breathed a huge sigh of relief—

Tonight, Luna wore a silver robe decorated with sequins, which drew snickers from many onlookers, but on the other hand, she was still very beautiful.

Harry was glad she wasn't wearing her red earrings and cork necklace.

"Hi!" Harry greeted Luna cheerfully. "Can we go now?"

“Oh, of course,” Luna said happily. “Where is the party being held?”

“The Room of Requirement,” Harry said, leading Luna down the marble stairs away from the stares and whispers of the crowd. “That’s why you need an invitation from Horace Slughorn to attend the Christmas Ball. These invitations were developed by Tyrell during… well… experiments with Professor Horace Slughorn. With just this invitation, you can stand at the door of the Room of Requirement and go straight into the ball.” “Cool,” Luna exclaimed.

Harry's words seemed to ease the tension between them a little, and the two of them started talking non-stop, chatting and laughing on their way to the Room of Requirement.

Harry noticed that, in addition to the Tyrells, the transfer students who had been warned by the Tyrells as potentially dangerous at the beginning of the school year were also on the Horace Slughorn Christmas Ball invitation list.

“Harry, my child,” Slughorn called out almost as soon as Harry and Luna entered the Room of Requirement. “Come in, come in, I have so many people to introduce you to.”

Slughorn held Harry's arm so tightly that it seemed as if he wanted to detach it from Harry, and he purposefully led Harry into the party.

Harry, on the other hand, grabbed Luna's arm and dragged her along the whole way.

“Harry, I’d like you to meet Eldred, one of my old students, the author of Blood Brothers: My Life with Vampires, and of course, his friend, the vampire Sanny,” Horace Slughorn introduced.

A short, fat man grabbed Harry's hand and shook it warmly.

The vampire, Sanyuni, simply nodded slightly.

Although Tiera promoted legislation on equal rights for magical creatures with near-human intelligence in the Magical Union's legislation, it will still take some time for those non-human intelligent magical creatures to truly integrate into wizarding society.

They generally do not enter human dwellings except in public areas outside Diagon Alley.

Of course, the vampire Sanyonie was obviously an exception. It was clear that Sanyonie and Eldred had established a very good friendship a long time ago, which was why she was able to enter Hogwarts to attend Horace Lugghorn's Christmas Ball.

“Darkness, Harry Potter! I’m so happy! I was just talking to Professor Slughorn the other day, ‘Where’s the Harry Potter biography we’ve been waiting for?’” said the short, fat man.

“Uh,” Harry said, “you mean?”

“You’re as humble as the professor describes,” Eldred said in a very light tone. “But honestly, if you’re prepared to do some of my interviews, maybe four or five hours, then we can finish this book in a few months. Kid, you can’t even imagine how many Galleons you could earn.”

“I, I really have no interest!” Harry said firmly. “Oh! I just saw a friend of mine, sorry.”

With that, Harry pulled Luna into the crowd. He had indeed just seen a head of long, bushy brown hair that looked like a broom.

"Hermione! Hermione!" Harry called out.

“Oh, Harry, where are you? Thank you, Merlin. Hello, Luna!” Hermione greeted. “Long time no see!”

“Long time no see, Hermione,” Luna replied.

I sincerely apologize to all readers, as there has been a positive case of COVID-19 in my neighborhood, so I have been under home quarantine for the time being.

Although I'm in home quarantine, I haven't missed a single day of work. I need to finish processing the GWAS analysis data from the previous three years. Every day, I sit in front of the computer from morning till night screening genes, leaving me with a sore back, aching shoulders, and aching back. After finishing my work, I don't want to touch the computer at all; I just want to lie down. That's why I haven't been updating much these past few days. I hope you'll forgive me.

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(End of this chapter)