days at Hogwarts

Chapter 781 Draco: I'm not bald!
We chatted until noon, almost lunch time.

"Mr. Kohaug, let's stop here today."

Loren interrupted the conversation and said goodbye: "If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to write to me."

"..."

Kou Haoge nodded, his expression still a little dazed, as if he was still immersed in the conversation just now. It took him half a minute to recover from the shock. He smiled bitterly and said, "Loren, you are really..."

He did not say the rest of the sentence. He shook his head and sighed, "I have to admit that this plan is completely beyond my imagination. I cannot promise you right away, but I will think about it carefully after I return and give you an answer before the International Wizarding Conference."

"Looking forward to your good news."

The two agreed to meet again next year, and Kou Haoge opened the window, waved his magic wand, got out of the speeding train, and disappeared into the vast snow.

No matter how you look at the back figure, it looks like someone is fleeing in panic.

Loren looked away and couldn't help but smile.

It was lunch time when I returned to the original compartment. A witch pushing a cart happened to pass by. Nearly half of the snacks and pastries on the cart had been sold. The most popular ones were hot drinks such as pumpkin juice and butterbeer. The other one was ice cream, the same kind that emitted white steam. I didn't know what my classmates at Hogwarts thought.

He stopped a cart and picked out some snacks and candies. Half a bag full of them cost only ten silver Sickles, which was even slightly lower than the market price.

It seems that the school train has not been affected by modern business thinking. The prices at these monopoly stalls are tripled or quadrupled, and they shout out their wares back and forth. When they are about to arrive at the station, they lower the prices or sell at the original price. The profits are so great that they make the shop owners in Hogsmeade envious.

In the compartment, Hermione was silent for a while. She looked at the only two snacks in front of her, and then looked at the candies piled high next to her. She couldn't help but ask Loren, "Don't you just want pumpkin juice and chocolate frogs?"

"Isn't this just a coincidence that we met on the way back?"

"You-well..."

Loren peeled a nut and stuffed it into the girl's mouth. He waited for the right moment and gave her a hazelnut chocolate after she swallowed the nut, blocking her mumbling words back into her stomach.

Hermione turned her head several times but failed to avoid it. She glared at him with her beautiful eyes and could only give up the matter of snacks for the time being. She said in a vague voice: "Has Mr. Colehaug left?"

"He jumped out of the car and left. He is still very agile despite his age."

"..."

Hermione frowned and began to question: "It sounds like he left in a hurry, which shouldn't be the case. What did you talk about? Was it something important?"

"Promoting new space devices is not that important for now."

Loren answered sincerely.

According to his rough plan, the new space device is only a preliminary design now, and the subsequent improvement and adaptation work is still tedious and lengthy. When all the designs are complete and can be put into production, that is the time for the pure-blood families to come in to help, and then they will join forces with Kouhaog to promote it to the world. The whole process will take several years even if it is pushed forward with full force. If there are any problems or accidents, it may take even longer.

Hermione looked at his expression, her eyes sparkling: "Are you hiding something and planning to tell me later?"

"Yes."

"When will it be in the future?"

Hermione opened her eyes slightly, with curiosity on her fair face, she was very pretty. Although she was full of doubts, she didn't force any questions, and the more she looked, the prettier she became.

"After graduation, I don't want these things to affect your career choice."

"..."

Hermione looked thoughtful.

Career choice. It seems that what he discussed with Mr. Colehaug involved the Ministry of Magic, or the entire wizarding world. If it was just the promotion of a new space device, it would obviously not reach this level...

What would that be?

Just as Hermione was lost in thought, another piece of sweet and fragrant candy was handed to her mouth. Without much thought, she opened her mouth and put it in.

The filamentous tentacles kept shaking, and the slender legs were covered with neat and dense protrusions, which hooked onto the tongue and the inner wall of the mouth and crawled around, as if trying to crawl into the stomach through the mouth, or crawl out from the connected nose.

"Cockroach pile!"

The familiar touch made Hermione's scalp tingle. After Loren's coaxing and temptation in previous years, she had tasted it many times and was no longer as resistant as the lower grades. But when a lively insect with antennae and thin legs suddenly appeared in her mouth, she still shivered from the stimulation.

Until the chocolate on the outside melts and the lemon syrup inside bursts, the sweet fragrance gradually soothes the discomfort in your mouth.

"Loren Morgan!"

Hermione stared at the man with wide eyes.

Loren blinked his eyes with an innocent look on his face, holding another pile of cockroaches in his hand and about to feed them.

Then there was domestic violence.

……

Life back in London was peaceful and comfortable, but also a bit boring.

The Grangers' clinic has closed for the holiday, but they can't rest. They have to attend various dinners and dances every day. As Christmas approaches, adults' main work has stopped, and their social work has become busy, some of which are invitations from clinic patients, and some are invitations from various medical associations. Grandpa Bates has similar tendencies. I don't know when he got involved in so many interest exchange groups, some of which are even in the form of clubs. He is even busier than the dentist and his wife.

In the next few days, Loren and Hermione were busy decorating the house and driving Grandpa Bates' car to buy holly and mistletoe branches, as well as food. Sometimes, the traffic police, seeing that they looked young, would knock on the window to ask about their age and driver's license, and then they would be fooled inexplicably.

The decoration was completed just before Christmas, with a sparkling Christmas tree and a few abstract snowmen in the courtyard, and holly branches hanging on the walls and ceiling.

In order to comply with traditional customs, there are basically no berries on the mistletoe branches, so you can only look at them bare.

It was not until Christmas Eve that the two families finally had some free time to gather around the dining table to enjoy delicious food and experience a rare moment of reunion.

Monica pinched an egg tart with a crispy shell and took a big bite. The filling was soft, tender, fragrant and smooth, almost flowing. She couldn't help but sighed with satisfaction and looked up and asked, "Loren, when are you going back to school?"

"Late January."

"What about summer? When will you graduate and leave school?"

"Mid to late June, what's the matter?"

"Have you decided on a job after graduation?"

"Well, Hermione plans to join the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic, and I plan to go to the Center for Alchemy Research."

Grandpa Bates, who was cutting steak, suddenly said, "You're about to graduate from magic school, and you've decided on a job in the magic world. You've decided not to go to a regular university, is that right?"

Loren and Hermione nodded.

"Then we can start preparing for the wedding."

"Cough! Cough!"

Wendell and Hermione were choked and coughed continuously, and they only recovered after drinking half a cup of milk. Monica looked at the two of them with a smile, and didn't seem surprised.

Loren looked at Grandpa Bates silently with a gloomy look in his eyes.

The retired soldier seemed a little radical. Wendell looked up, his cheeks flushed: "They are only 17 or 18 years old. It's too early to talk about this now!"

Hermione buried her head in her plate, pretending to be an ostrich.

"According to the wizards' age counting method, one becomes an adult at 17. After completing education and finding a job, the next step is to start a family."

Bates had a smile on his face, his expression gentle and calm, as if he was saying something very normal, making people want to kick this guy out.

But Bates himself doesn't think so. In his heart, as Loren's only parent and relative, he is fighting for his child's marriage and doing his best to fulfill his responsibilities.

"I don't care. They are wizards, and their families are still normal families. They can't follow wizard customs!"

Wendell was shouting and yelling. He had originally liked the two fishing friends and was planning to take them ice fishing during the Christmas holidays, but now he was just angry and wanted to throw them into the frozen lake to use as bait for fishing.

"OK then."

Bates had no regrets. This was just the first feint. The two children were still young and the battle was long. They just had to take it slow. "Let's talk about their life after graduation. After graduation, Hanhan and Crookshanks lived at home. Other owls would come and stop by to receive letters. They were engaged in the magic industry and invited wizard colleagues to visit their home. These things would inevitably reveal some magical traces... If they continue to stay in Hampstead, they might be noticed by the neighbors. What do you think?"

"What do you want to say?" Wendell stared at him warily.

"In order to make it easier for them to perform magic and live their lives, I plan to buy them a quiet mansion."

"what?!"

Now everyone present was surprised.

Loren was a little choked by the chicken leg meat. He quickly swallowed a mouthful of milk and said, "Grandpa Bates, let's talk about this after graduation."

"Are you really not going to settle? There are several manors for sale near London recently. The locations are great and the castles are well maintained..."

"Don't be so anxious. Wizards basically have no shortage of these things. Many pure-blood families will also sell their vacant properties in the near future. I will pay attention to the news when I return to school... Let's wait until Hermione and I have thought it through before we make a decision."

"Ok."

Grandpa Bates felt quite sorry.

Monica stared at the two of them, a smile always on her lips.

Only Wendell was furious, looking back and forth at Loren with an unfriendly look.

Hermione buried her head, as if she had returned to the lower grades. Shyness filled her heart and she didn't dare to look up at them.

……

"Where is the tearoom?"

"Sixth floor."

Draco asked the therapist in a steady voice, nodded after getting the answer, and turned around to go to the tea room to have a drink. The smell of medicine wafting in the closed ward made his nose and throat slightly tight and uncomfortable.

Not far in front of him stood his parents, Lucius and Narcissa.

The Malfoy family has always been at the top of the donation list for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and all the donations are genuine gold Galleons. Therefore, they are treated preferentially by the hospital. Even if a patient is under house arrest in a closed ward with strict guard under magical order, they can still find time to visit the ward.

But sufficient safety measures had been taken, as the patient had just taken the Living Hell Decoction and was in a deep sleep.

In addition to several high-ranking wizards from the hospital accompanying the visitor, there were also several therapists who were skilled in dueling standing nearby, perhaps to prevent the patient from suddenly attacking and injuring others, or perhaps to guard against visitors.

Draco turned and left, followed by a young therapist who showed him the way, saying that the hospital was complicated.

He walked out of the closed ward expressionlessly and glanced at the bed. The person on the bed changed out of the dirty and worn robe in his memory and put on a hospital gown. Her originally thin figure had become a little fuller, and she was lying peacefully on the bed. But the most eye-catching thing was the metal prosthetic hand in her hand, which was slightly glowing silver.

There was a name tag above the bed: Bellatrix Lestrange.

That was his mother's sister and a senior Death Eater awaiting trial.

As a child of the Malfoy family, Voldemort fell shortly after he was born, and he had no impression of his aunt Bellatrix until Voldemort made a comeback and began to really contact his mother's sisters.

There is more disgust than affinity.

I walked through a few double doors and stepped onto the solid wooden stairs. The wooden boards creaked and swayed slightly, as if they might fall apart at any moment.

"With so many donations every year, can't you spare a few Galleons to repair the stairs downstairs?"

"Donations should be used for patients. The stairs can still be used, right?" the young therapist named Augustus Pye whispered back.

"..."

Draco glanced around. There were many portraits of therapists hanging on the wall. Almost all of them were elderly scholars with untidy beards and unkempt appearance. Some even had hideous faces, like medieval madmen.

As he climbed the stairs, the healers shouted at him, diagnosing all kinds of strange diseases and coming up with horrifying treatments.

"Master! Your flesh is drying up and your hair is about to wither!" shouted a medieval healer.

"what?"

Draco's face was full of question marks. He looked at the young therapist next to him, only to see the young therapist making anxious gestures, indicating that he should not talk to him.

"This is a chronic skin and hair disease, young master. It will cause your hairline to recede, causing your hair to fall out gradually and never grow back. It will become even thinner than it is now, until you become bald."

"Who are you calling bald?" Draco suddenly became anxious.

"The only way to cure it is to mix the saliva of a poisonous snake with the mucus of a toad in a certain proportion, apply it evenly on the top of your head, and then hang upside down like a bat on the edge of a tower wall when the moon is full. "

“I’m not bald!”

"But your hairline is floating, sir."

"That's hereditary, it's the same in our family!" Draco shouted, looking a little angry and embarrassed. "Go back to your own picture frame and stop bothering me!"

"..."

When I arrived at the teahouse, I gulped down several cups of strong tea, but I still felt that my anger had not subsided.

When going downstairs, Draco was worried about encountering those crazy portraits again, so he deliberately chose another staircase, and his mood became a little better.

Back in the closed ward, his parents were communicating with the hospital.

"The patient is currently in good condition. Apart from the gradual weakening of the magic power in the prosthetic limb, there are no other symptoms. The baby in her belly is developing healthily. If all goes well, the baby will be born on the second Sunday in April."

"On Easter?"

"Yes." The healer felt a little uneasy when thinking of the dark magic that cannot be named, but he still comforted her, "After a joint consultation between our healers and experts from the Ministry of Magic, no signs of dark magic were found. We all think this will be a healthy and normal child."

"..."

Lucius was silent for a long time, then spoke slowly: "Please tell the Ministry of Magic that if this is really a healthy and normal child, the Malfoy family is willing to adopt him, but the news must be kept secret..."

(End of this chapter)