days at Hogwarts

Chapter 782: Seamus: Sweating
"jingle!"

The bluebell bell on the door frame was tilted, hanging in the air and swaying lightly, and the copper bell core hit the outer wall, making a crisp and pleasant sound.

There were bells ringing everywhere in Hogsmeade, with ribbons and green branches hanging everywhere. The whole village was decorated in a Christmas style.

Most of the shops along the street had their doors half-closed, leaving only a few clerks to look after them, while the rest of the people gathered with their relatives and friends in a lively atmosphere, preparing to welcome Christmas and New Year.

In the residential alley behind the commercial street, a figure was clearing the snow in front of the door. He didn't notice that the person behind him pushed open the door and stood at the door watching quietly.

The wizard who was clearing the snow was wearing a gray-brown robe. He was not handsome, but his gentle and calm demeanor made him very attractive. Unlike other neighbors, he did not cast a spell to make a whirlwind blow the snow to the roadside. Instead, he carefully shoveled the snow and piled it next to the drain, then waved his wand, and the melted snow water dripped into the pipe.

The person at the door was tall, with beautiful pink hair. She was wearing a cashmere leather jacket. A tight sweater outlined her figure. She had a neat temperament, but her body was a little bloated and her belly was slightly bulging, which added a bit of motherly tenderness to her.

Lupin Remus put down the snow shovel, turned his head and smiled gently:
"Why did you come out? Why aren't you in there warming up by the fireplace?"

"I want to get some fresh air."

"Let me open a window for you." Lupin took her arm and walked inside. "We bought this house in a hurry. The windows and corridors still need to be renovated. We will repair them again after the baby is born. Please write down any needs."

Tonks sat on the sofa and looked around the furnishings in the room, still a little dazed: "From now on, this is our home."

"Yes, this is our home."

Lupin said softly, his tone also somewhat emotional: "In fact, I would rather buy a house in London. It is closer to the Ministry of Magic and more convenient for you to travel back and forth."

"Don't mention it." Tonks waved her hand and frowned. "I shouldn't have told them that I was pregnant. At first they just didn't allow me to participate in field activities. Now they don't even allow me to participate in the training of new personnel. I stay in the office all day reading documents. I think the baby in my belly is going to mold."

"You don't want to take your child with you to hunt down dark wizards, do you?"

"You can either participate in the containment operation or let me train the new recruits."

"Ugh……"

Hearing Tonks's thoughts, Lupin found it funny and helpless, but he did not ask her to rest carefully or anything like that. He just rubbed her swollen hands and said, "Go out and move around if you want. Just make it clear to Kingsley and the others. There are only a few months left. By then, Harry and the others will graduate and join the Auror Office, and you can train them."

"After giving birth to a child, who would train new people..."

Tangx paused for a moment, feeling that her pregnancy had slowed her thinking. She had to think carefully before she could come up with a new idea. "When the dark wizards are almost driven away, I will go find Mungdons and ask him to share some information about smuggling and reselling, and then beat up those wizards who took advantage of the situation."

"Ok."

Lupin's expression remained gentle and calm.

With Voldemort and the Death Eaters defeated, there is no major danger in the entire country.

Tonks became an Auror during the most severe days of the situation. She had experienced those cruel wars and faced bleak and bloody scenes, but she remained tenacious and resilient. Even if they became husband and wife, he was unwilling to let this blooming wild rose become an orchid in a greenhouse.

"I wonder who this child will look like when he grows up?" Lupin murmured softly.

"oops!"

Tonks knew what he was thinking from his expression and slapped his hand away from his belly, "Don't worry, werewolf disease is not hereditary. You know the research in New York best, and you've read the report yourself. You're still hesitating and doubting... Don't let your child be like you, indecisive.

"Oh, that's right. That's why you didn't accept my confession. I feel angry when I talk about this. And what about the wedding? You still owe me a wedding..."

"..."

Lupin fell silent.

Witches are like this, always bringing up old grudges for no apparent reason. Pregnant witches become even more emotionally unstable. They would be scolded for no apparent reason even though they were just expressing their feelings.

"jingle……"

The doorbell rang again, and this time there were guests visiting.

Lupin and Tonks couldn't help but stop their conversation and turned to look at the door.

"Remus! Remus!"

Sirius' voice came from the other side of the door, "Open the door! I'm bringing your goddaughter to see my godson."

Then there was a series of rapid knocks on the door. The bell rang so fast that it made people's heads hurt. What did he mean by his godson? The child wasn't even born yet. And when did he say he wanted to recognize him as the child's godfather?

……

“It’s so beautiful here.”

The red-haired girl was looking out the window. There was a little dust on her fair cheeks, but it did not affect her pretty face. She rested her hands on the gray window sill, leaned forward slightly, and looked at the village outside the window.

The church in the distance is brightly lit, the stained glass windows are sparkling, the warm yellow street lights quietly illuminate the path, and there seems to be twinkling stars as the goose feather-like snowflakes fall.

Next to him was a boy with a scar on his forehead, who was also leaning against the windowsill, also leaning over to look at the lights in the village. His green eyes revealed a nostalgic look, and no one knew what he was recalling.

"Are you planning to live here after graduation?" Ginny turned to look at him. "Actually, Mom has always hoped that you could move to the Burrow. Bill and Fleur have moved out. Charlie has returned to Romania to take care of the dragons. Percy and Dad go out early and come back late. George and Fred often stay in the store and don't come home at night. Mom always says that the house is so quiet and she can't find anyone to talk to."

Harry smiled and consoled, "Loren said that all parents are like this. They miss their children when they are not at home, and they get bored when they are at home."

"..."

Ginny frowned and thought, and felt that what Loren said made sense. When they just returned home for the Christmas holiday, their mother loved them very much, cooked all their favorite dishes, and had a smile on her face. Christmas had just ended, and the children at home had not returned to school or work yet, but their mother had already become impatient and was scolding them all day long.

"Don't worry, we still have Ron. He will be at home with Mrs. Weasley after graduation."

"..."

Ginny bowed her head in silence, mourning for Ron and her mother, hoping that they would not fight at home.

"Now just give the house a quick clean and take out the broken furniture. Replace it with new ones after graduation. From now on, this will be my home... my own home." Harry said softly.

"Your own home," Ginny repeated quietly, suddenly feeling a little sad.

"Well..." Harry nodded, "The sofa, table and chairs in the living room need to be replaced, as well as the tableware in the kitchen, the wardrobe in the cloakroom... This is the bedroom, the curtains are completely unusable, and need to be replaced with new ones. By the way, what color curtains do you like?"

"Why are you asking me?" Ginny spat softly, looking away calmly, "What does my favorite color have to do with you?"

"I think it has something to do with you, and it has a lot to do with you."

Harry stared straight into her eyes and slowly moved closer. At this distance, he could feel each other's breath, which was warm and began to heat up.

"Squeak!"

The old loose-leaf pages suddenly made a sharp hissing sound.

Harry and Ginny were startled and turned their heads quickly. The door was pushed open and a furry head with a freckled face poked in.

The three of them looked at each other. Ron frowned and looked at the two men's expressions. He shouted angrily, "This is too much! I'm working hard outside to clean the house, and you are making out inside! What do you mean? Speak!"

"..."

Harry suddenly felt a little regretful.

Why did they call Ron?

"Who is going to move into this room after graduation? You two! No, only you. Mom won't agree to Ginny moving out..." "The two of us..."

Listening to his noisy shouting, Harry's eyes at the window couldn't help but soften, revealing a bit of longing.

……

“The purchase price, the cost of repairs…

"Property tax items, maintenance standards..."

Bates sat on the sofa, his back straight, looking down at the printed document in his hand, every wrinkle on his face showing his concentration. This was the information that the bank manager had found for him, detailing the amount of money needed to buy those castles.

"Grandpa Bates, looking at houses again?"

"Why are you back so early?" Grandpa Bates temporarily turned his eyes away from the documents and said gruffly, "The Christmas holiday is about to end. Take advantage of these few days to accompany Hermione around and have fun. Otherwise, the school will be closed again when we return, and it will be another half a year before we can come back again."

"School is not a prison."

"..."

Bates lowered her head and continued to read the information, not bothering to pay attention to him. After a pause, she still reminded him: "If you have free time, go fishing with Wendell to relax. If Hermione's parents are happy, things will go much more smoothly after graduation."

"Don't mention this in front of him. I should be doing better."

"If I don't tell you, who knows how long you plan to postpone it? Young people nowadays..."

"Yes, yes, you are right."

Loren went upstairs perfunctorily, returned to his room, and immersed himself in the fantasy book.

With the help of Professor Babeling, the rune array was optimized and improved, making great progress in the fine control of spatial magic and the stable output of the magic stone. That's why he was able to engrave the complex new device inside the pumpkin lantern and successfully complete the short-distance movement test, but this test also found some defects.

The new space device can remain stable when a single pumpkin lantern is moved or teleported, but when multiple pumpkin lanterns are moved or teleported at the same time, there will be a deviation in the landing point. After careful observation and discussion with Flamel, it was initially believed that the multiple magic arrays interfered with each other when they were activated at the same time.

Loren has not yet found a way to eliminate this interference. He can only start from the stability of the magic circle and try to reconstruct the structure of the magic circle while maintaining the rune basis.

However, he and Flamel had little confidence in this method and just wanted to give it a try.

Snow is flying outside the window.

At the neighbor's house next door.

Hermione held the hot tea in both hands and sipped it in small sips, pretending to taste it carefully. Perhaps the tea was too hot, causing the girl's lips to be particularly red. She lowered her eyes slightly, hiding her crystal eyes and the two blushes on her fair cheeks.

Wendell was in the kitchen preparing bait for fishing. There was a loud clanging and chopping sound, as if it was corn and frozen meat.

Monica pretended to concentrate on making tea and tasting pink macarons, but she was actually secretly looking at her daughter. Seeing her daughter's round eyes rolling around, a smile quietly appeared at the corner of her mouth.

Mom's smile was a little strange.

Hermione held the hot tea and took another sip. In fact, she couldn't taste the flavor of these teas. She felt that they all seemed to be the same. Perhaps adding some honey or sugar would make it taste better.

"..."

It seems like my taste has been diverted by Loren.

Just as Hermione was hesitating whether to add another piece of sugar, she saw her mother across the sofa put down her teacup and wipe her mouth. Then she asked softly, "Where did you go to play just now?"

"Cinema."

"During the holidays, there are a lot of people, right?"

“There was no one else in our group.”

"..."

Monica stared at her exceptionally rosy lips and fell silent.

Okay, now she understood.

The dentist stood up and sat next to her daughter, put her arm around her shoulders, and began whispering in her ear.

"..."

Hermione curled up in her mother's arms, listening to her talk about the Granger family's love skills, silently repeating them in her heart.

Based on past experience, these techniques are very useful.

……

The holidays always end unknowingly, and it is late January in the blink of an eye.

Winter is coming to an end, but the weather has not warmed up, but has become colder, and the snow around Hogwarts has frozen even more solid.

As the countdown to Christmas break approached, Seamus made a point to spend at least three hours a day in the library.

The days at school during the holidays were too leisurely. Besides playing board games in the common room, he would go to the frozen Quidditch field to skate and play snowball fights. Unfortunately, he lacked the experience of staying in school and was not very accustomed to the field. He was always beaten in snowball fights. During this period, he even accumulated experience in getting beaten in snowball fights and figured out a few techniques to release the force after being hit by snowballs. He also always lost in wizard chess and Gobstones, which was really a bit shameful.

Since he couldn't compete with these experienced students who stayed in school in entertainment, Ximo decided to surpass them in study and complete the accumulated homework at the same time.

It was just that Madam Pince didn't look too happy.

Several outstanding students who loved to hang out in the library had gone home, and there was basically no one in the library during the holidays. He was the only one sitting here facing Madam Pince's vigilant gaze, which made people feel uneasy.

Fortunately, Madam Pince didn't always stare at him, and occasionally she would chat quietly with the portrait on the wall.

"Violet, thank you for coming with me."

"..."

"Yes, Miss Know-It-All and her boyfriend did not stay at school and are going home for Christmas this year."

"..."

"I heard that Miss Granger plans to work in the Ministry of Magic and her boyfriend will go to the Alchemy Research Center."

"..."

"You're right. It's really emotional. It seems like it was just yesterday that they were sorted into their freshman house. In the blink of an eye, they are about to graduate."

"..."

"What, some students are still the same as they were when they first arrived, oh Violet, you can't say that."

"Who are they talking about?"

At this moment, Seamus was holding a quill, looking down at his homework with unfocused eyes. He was listening to Madam Pince and the others' conversation, his mind full of random thoughts.

"It shouldn't be me, right?"

(End of this chapter)