Hogwarts: Becoming the White Lord from Breathing

Chapter 43 What is a friend?
"Thanks for your help, Grandma."

Damon followed Augusta out of Dumbledore's office and thanked the old man again.

"Don't thank me, I should thank you. From now on, you have to take Neville to play with you more often. Can you do that, kid?"

"I will."

"Very well, if you need any help, have Neville write to me, or go to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and ask for Tom, the innkeeper.

Although the Longbottom family has fallen from grace as one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, we have not lost the glory and power of purebloods."

"Thank you for your promise. I'll remember that. Do you want to go with me to see Neville?"

Damon didn't care about the so-called pure-blooded half-blood that the old woman talked about, and just regarded her as a somewhat strict old lady.

"I went straight back. Please tell him for me that he did a great job on this matter. I am proud of him."

After saying this, the iron-blooded old woman left without a pause, as if she had just heard about this from a professor she was friends with and had immediately set off to Hogwarts.

"Then I'll go back to class too."

Damon left with a relaxed mood - although it didn't matter to him whether he was put in detention or not, it just meant that he would miss out on the fun of bickering with Snape.

He was not naive enough to think that Snape would give him extra lessons during detention. Given the old bat's temper, he would probably make him deal with a lot of disgusting potion materials and keep mocking him.

And behind Damon, there was a door between them.

Dumbledore finally stared at Damon's back through the door, with great concentration, and the expression on his face seemed as if he was thinking about something extremely important.

He already had a general understanding of the child's character. In time, he would surely be a great helper in Harry's fight against Voldemort, but he still had to wait and see - to see what choice he would make when faced with a crisis?
Dumbledore had seen many people who were extremely courageous in normal times, but when faced with life and death, they chose to kneel before Voldemort, revealing their ugly side.

Is Dimon that kind of person?
The next day, the "Duel Prince's Blitz on Malfoy" incident began to ferment and the situation changed slightly.

More and more students are spending less time in bed and coming to the hall early to eat - they are afraid that they will miss out on some excitement again because of their laziness.

The enthusiasm of the young lions ebbed, and they began to come to their senses - they began to feel bad about their college cup scores.

Yes, what Damon did was indeed cool, but losing 150 points also made them lose face - Gryffindor fell from first to fourth in the college cup. Every time they passed the scoring office on the first floor, they felt empty in their hearts.

Some strange voices began to spread within the small group.

The looks they gave Daemon were no longer always full of respect, but gradually became subtle, and a strange atmosphere spread among the first-year students.

Harry and the others clearly sensed this change and were secretly worried about Damon, but Damon remained the same. Except for breakfast every day, he was not seen at other times. On weekends, he completely disappeared and didn't even come for breakfast.

"I really don't understand, don't you really care at all?"

Hermione finally couldn't help it and asked Damon a question under the obscure prying eyes from all around.

"What do you care about?"

He was not reading the newspaper today, which was a rare occurrence. A magic notebook and a quill were floating beside him. Whenever an inspiration struck him, he would write it down with the quill. He was trying out a theory he had seen in "Transfiguration Today" before, and had recently found some clues and prototypes. Perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps next month, he would be able to make a breakthrough.

All it takes is a flash of inspiration.

"Why do I care? All the Gryffindor students are talking about the points we lost in the House Cup, and you ask me why I care? Do you know that our scores are already at the bottom now?
Damon—don't you have—even the slightest sense of collective honor?"

"Why, Hermione, do you think what I did before was wrong?"

"Of course you're right - but, can't we change the format? You could even challenge Malfoy to a duel at midnight, why do you have to do it in public?" Hermione felt like she must be crazy.

She didn't expect that the words "midnight duel" would actually come out of her mouth.

At this moment, Ron and Harry were looking at her with wide eyes, as if they were meeting her for the first time.

What made Hermione even more crazy was that even in this situation, Damon still looked nonchalant and said lightly:
"Because I wanted to do it at the time and I thought it would be better this way, that's all."

He finished the last mouthful of noodle soup, stood up and said to Hermione:

"Don't worry, I will earn back the lost 150 points before the end of the semester, and Gryffindor will still be the first in the House Cup."

"But—how?"

"You don't have to worry about it."

"Why not? Tell me, I can help—"

"By the way, if you haven't found any news about Nicolas Flamel, you might want to check out Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card."

Damon left immediately after he finished speaking. As for the College Cup, he would naturally win it back after his paper was published.

Damon's movements were so smooth that before Hermione could finish the first half of her sentence, he had already walked away, leaving Hermione alone to sulk.

"That's not what I meant at all! Why would he say that?"

Ron and Harry looked at Damon's graceful departure, wanting to laugh but not daring to. They looked at each other and saw the admiration in each other's eyes.

As for Hermione?

Damon's behavior clearly told everyone that he didn't care about other people's opinions. Hermione was obviously on the wrong side of the fence when she questioned him at this time - Harry and Ron never thought Damon did anything wrong.

Beating Malfoy in public and making him lose face so that he could no longer act recklessly was far more important than any point in the House Cup, but Hermione seemed unable to understand this.

"Relax, Hermione. At least we have some information about Nicolas Flamel, right?"

Ron didn't attack Hermione's stance, but instead comforted her softly.

Hermione looked at him in surprise and said dejectedly again:
"I feel like Damon is getting further and further away from us. Aren't we all friends?
Aren't friends supposed to help each other?

If he is the only one who helps solve our problems but we can't help him at all, can we still be considered friends?
I've never met a friend who didn't speak to me more than ten times in a month."

"Oh - don't take it too seriously. Actually, it depends on your definition of a friend."

Ron comforted Hermione, thinking that you were not like this when you were devoted to the library before, but he did not say this out loud.

As he spoke, he winked secretly at Harry.

Harry understood instantly and said:

"Yeah, Damon told me that there are many kinds of friends--" Seeing Hermione looking at him, Harry suddenly stuttered. In fact, he just thought it made sense at the time, but he had forgotten the content.

"A-Anyway, why don't we go see what's on the Chocolate Frog card?"

(End of this chapter)