days at Hogwarts

Chapter 784 School Opens in 1998

Hogwarts, Gryffindor Tower.

Loren woke up in his four-poster bed in the dormitory. The room was warm and comfortable. He could faintly hear an owl hooting outside the window. His roommate Seamus, who had studied hard until midnight last night, was sleeping soundly in the bed next to him.

He tiptoed into the bathroom, washed up, and changed into the wizard robe of the academy.

The school doesn’t have 24-hour hot water supply in winter. I’ll find an opportunity to report this to the principal.

When he walked out of the dormitory, Hermione had already gotten up and was sitting on the sofa in the common room reading a recent Transfiguration magazine. When she heard his footsteps coming down the stairs, she looked up, narrowed her eyes, and revealed a faint smile.

"Good morning."

"It's a little too early..."

Loren yawned, then noticed her dishevelled hair and frowned slightly.

"what happened?"

Hermione blinked. Since school had not officially started yet, she had not taken care of her hair when she got up in the morning, so it was a little messy.

"Just sit here and don't move."

Loren held her shoulders, took out a wooden comb that had not been used for a long time, and began to comb her curly and fluffy hair: "You are too lazy to take care of your hair day by day. When you become the Minister of Magic in the future, you will go to work with this hairstyle every morning, and go to meetings and the International Confederation of Wizards with such a sloppy hairstyle... The Daily Prophet will write that you are a minister with a messy hair."

"Just like Minister Nozzle and Minister Horseshoe?"

"correct."

Both nicknames refer to Faris Spavon, the Minister of Magic in the mid-to-late 19th century. He got his name because he angered centaurs by talking nonsense and was kicked over by horses in public.

Hermione pursed her lips into a faint smile and couldn't help but humming a very light nasal sound. It was the tingling stimulation when the teeth of the comb passed through the top of her head, and also the amusement of being called a girl with a messy head.

Over the past few years, they have been here to do their hair in the early morning. It is a very common thing, but every time he picks up the wooden comb and stands behind her, he still feels full of tenderness.

Loren couldn't see her expression from behind her, but he could feel that she was in a good mood.

After several years of experience, he has mastered the technique of combing hair. He presses his warm and powerful fingers on the top of the head and uses his other hand to hold a wooden comb to smooth out the tangled hair. Occasionally, he presses it slowly with his fingertips, gently and slowly, revealing a reassuring calmness.

……

It was already dark when the train carrying the students arrived at the station.

The hall was lit with torches and candles. Students sat at the long tables of their respective colleges, happily sharing their holiday lives with each other. Some students also quietly discussed their unfinished homework and agreed to learn from each other when they returned to the dormitory at night. You borrow my Transfiguration paper, and I look through your Charms notes...

The school suddenly became lively.

Loren glanced at the guest of honor seat and saw that the professors had not arrived yet, so he leaned over to whisper something in Hermione's ear, then stood up and left the hall, heading towards the bathroom.

A few minutes later.

Loren walked back, flicking his wrists to shake the water droplets on his wet palms against the wall, planning to greet Harry and the others when he returned to his seat and wipe his hands on their robes.

The noisy sounds in the auditorium could be heard in the corridor.

Behind the pillar at the corner of the aisle, two figures stood side by side, each looking at the students inside, talking in a low voice with gentle smiles on their faces.

Loren was a little surprised. He let his hands hang naturally at his sides and greeted politely: "Principal, Professor McGonagall, good evening."

"good evening."

"It's Loren. The dinner hasn't started yet. Come over and chat with us."

Loren walked over, wondering if the principal and vice-principal remembered the confinement, pondering the possibility of getting away with it. There was no expression on his face, and he looked at the two of them honestly, stealthily.

Seamus mentioned last night that Professor McGonagall stayed at school throughout the Christmas holidays and had dinner with them that day.

The white-bearded principal did not show up, apparently having handed over the work to the vice-principal and gone out on vacation.

Dumbledore seemed to see what he was thinking. He tilted his head and asked with a smile, "I heard from Mr. Filch that you returned to school early?" "I came back yesterday evening."

"How was your vacation?"

"That's it." Loren paused, "Nothing special happened, and I didn't go traveling. I stayed at home with my family. It was plain but peaceful."

"An ordinary but happy holiday life." Dumbledore stroked his beard and turned to look at Professor McGonagall. "I have advised Minerva several times, hoping that she would not stay in school all the time. She should be free from the busyness during the holidays. Work is not everything in life."

"Is that why you're pushing the work on me?"

Professor McGonagall glanced at the two of them, turned around and was about to leave when she suddenly said, "One more thing, dear Loren. I hope that the happy holiday life has not made you forget your detention. Remember to report to Mr. Filch."

"..."

Loren sighed secretly, but ultimately he couldn't escape.

There is a certain correlation between a wizard's physical fitness and his magic power. The more powerful the wizard, the more likely he is to be healthy and live a long life. He is also less likely to get sick when he is old. We cannot expect them to be forgetful or confused.

Loren shook his head, quickly accepted the reality, and looked at the white-bearded principal next to him: "Professor, how was your vacation?"

Dumbledore stroked his beard with a smile: "Gellert invited me to go skiing in Switzerland, and by the way, I visited the greatest scientific and technological achievements of Muggles in recent years, the Swiss Royal Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Prize and so on. You should have heard of these."

Hearing these words at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Loren was a little dazed: "Principal, do you understand those results?"

"Do not understand."

Dumbledore answered decisively and calmly, "But there is a brief introduction next to the exhibition hall. Through the text description, we can vaguely glimpse those fruits of human wisdom, as dazzling as Ravenclaw's sapphires..."

He paused for a moment, then suddenly changed the subject: "In fact, many scholars have noticed that the unique ideas of Muggles are influencing the wizarding world. For example, the sales promotion methods of merchants in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, and the cooperation between the Magical Congress of the United States and the Muggle government to protect the rights of werewolves... After the defeat of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, the argument of pure-blood supremacy disappeared, and the academic community began to re-examine the relationship between wizards and Muggles. Some scholars have put forward new concepts."

"What concept?"

"Wizards and Muggles should communicate and share with each other. Magical civilization and technological civilization can be integrated with each other. What do you think?"

“This view has been around for a long time, right?”

Loren raised an eyebrow.

Although the Statute of Secrecy has long constrained wizarding governments in various countries over the past few hundred years, discussions on the issue have never stopped.

Even though the idea of ​​pure-blood supremacy has always been popular among the wizarding community in the UK, Muggle Studies experts have previously proposed the idea of ​​integration, believing that Muggle society and technological civilization are developing at an unprecedented rate, and that wizarding society has fallen far behind. Communication with Muggles will help them learn their systems and ideas and develop magical civilization.

In fact, scientific thinking did give him great inspiration in the process of studying alchemy.

Ilvermorny's teaching and research model is also based on Muggle universities. Many of its systems are very progressive and worth learning and promoting.

Dumbledore nodded and chuckled. "No wizard paid much attention to it before, but it has sparked heated discussions recently. The International Confederation of Wizards will be held soon, and it is foreseeable that this concept will become a key topic... The joint approach to werewolf rights and the missile crisis during the Death Eater War, whether it is positive news or negative news, all prove that the Statute of Secrecy is no longer suitable for this era."

Listening to the old principal's unhurried voice, Loren stared at the snow in the courtyard, a little absent-minded.

Crookshanks had crouched at his feet at some point, his two front paws clawing at the top of his shoes, his eyelids half-closed, his eyes squinting, his ears drooping as he listened to them talk.

Dumbledore looked down at Crookshanks, then at Loren who was thinking quietly, his eyes soft: "Have you communicated with Mr. Colehaug?"

"I met him once."

"Before Christmas break?"

"How do you know?" Loren was a little surprised.

"Mr. Colehaug wrote to me on Boxing Day to inquire about you," Dumbledore paused, "about your character, your experience at school, and my views on the integration of wizards and Muggles."

"Then how did you reply?"

"I just returned to the castle yesterday, and I haven't figured out how to reply yet."

(End of this chapter)