I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 277 So Many Gentlemen

Poisoning Solanlian... no, feeding her canary cookies will have to wait. The most important thing right now is to make sure the ball goes well.

Tonight's dinner was a feast! Because of the cold weather, the house-elves prepared a series of hot stews, and Louis especially loved the potato stew.

To be honest, this potato stew was one of his favorites. The pork, with its alternating layers of fat and lean meat, was diced and stewed with potatoes until it became a thick, mushy broth. Taking a spoonful and putting it in his mouth was pure bliss. In his previous life, as a Seresian, Louis had mastered the core technique—tearing bread into pieces and dipping them in the broth—it was incredibly satisfying.

"Look at you, eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you..." Catherine affectionately took out a handkerchief and wiped the food off Louis's face. "Honestly, I've noticed you're becoming less and less polite every year."

"To hell with etiquette," Louis shrugged. "So-called etiquette is just a way to cover up some shortcomings. Look at my aunt, she holds the wine glass directly when she tastes wine, does anyone say that's impolite?"

He wasn't making fun of his aunt. The old lady often grabbed whatever she could and stuffed it into her mouth. The last time he went to Buckingham Palace, he saw his aunt holding an apple and munching on it with great gusto.

Yes, he didn't go to Buckingham; there weren't that many gentlemen there.

Louis usually has someone peel the apple for him before eating it, because if he eats it whole, his gums often bleed for no apparent reason. So he absolutely will not eat a whole apple unless it is absolutely necessary.

Of course, apples are neither food nor medicine, and there's no real need to eat them.

Louise had just eaten two pieces of bread when she heard Hermione calling her. Turning around, she saw Hermione standing behind her with Harry and Ron, beckoning her to come outside.

"Where are we going?" Louis asked, puzzled. He saw that Harry and Ron looked equally confused.

"You'll see when we get there." Hermione looked very happy, radiant, even happier than when she found the money.

Ron pouted and asked in a muffled voice, "What's wrong with you? You're so happy, you look like you ate bees... or honey..."

He learned that phrase from Louise, but he realized it wasn't quite right after saying half of it—Hermione would definitely kill him if he said it out loud.

Of course, Louis didn't invent that phrase himself; he learned it from the brigade commander.

Something was definitely off along the way; Hermione was trying to lead the three of them to the kitchen...

As Harry charged into the kitchen, Hermione turned around excitedly and called out, "Harry! Look who's here!"

Harry looked down, his fist hardening...

Isn't this Dobby? The culprit who got himself into trouble with Uncle Vernon during the summer break after first grade, the bastard who smashed the cake on Mrs. Mason...

However, Harry behaved with great grace and manners, simply responding with a curt "Oh," and saying indifferently, "Oh, it's Dobby, hello there..."

His tone was dry and harsh, and you could clearly tell that he was suppressing his anger.

Ron didn't recognize the house-elf, but that didn't stop him from hearing Harry's tales of the elf's glorious deeds. He coughed and whispered to Louis, "Is this the... house-elf who got into trouble with Harry?"

Thankfully, I didn't say "runt" out loud.

Louis nodded in agreement.

Dobby was very perceptive; seeing that Harry didn't seem to like him, he yanked hard on his ears and pounded his fists against his head, shouting, "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby! You've upset the great Harry Potter! Dobby's a bad elf!"

Hermione quickly pulled him back, preventing him from harming her further. At the same time, she turned and gave Harry a look, signaling him to say something.

"Hey, that's all in the past, Dobby." Harry was a kind-hearted and soft-hearted person. Seeing Dobby like this, he was already a little less angry. He went over to comfort Dobby and said, "Don't worry, Dobby, I'm not unhappy because of your appearance, but... well, Professor Snape has been watching me tidy up lately, which has made me feel really bad. I've already forgiven you for the little unpleasant thing that happened between us before."

It was Harry and Ron's standard practice to pin the blame squarely on Professor Snape—they both believed in the principle of always shifting the blame to Snape, since no one would dare to confront him.

Harry is a complex person. You could call him a saint... but he's also quite vengeful; you could call him petty, but he's also very forgiving. He's quite complicated.

"Really?" Dobby looked at Harry with bright, expectant eyes.

"Of course it's true." Harry even believed his own words. "Dobby, you're my friend. You risked your life to save me."

"Oh! The great Harry Potter has forgiven Dobby! The magnanimous Harry Potter is Dobby's friend forever!" Dobby cheered, jumping for joy. "Dobby has finally gained Harry Potter's approval at Hogwarts!"

After watching him jump around for a while, Louise leaned over to Harry and whispered a few words to him. Once Dobby calmed down, Harry also raised the question that had been on his mind.

"What are you doing at Hogwarts? Where's the Malfoy family?"

"Master gave Dobby a sock, Dobby got it for free!" Dobby said excitedly, followed by another cheer. He excitedly recounted what had happened earlier, his words seemingly disjointed.

It was probably during one of Lucius and Narcissa's arguments that Lucius, in a fit of anger, shoved the sock Narcissa had thrown at him into Dobby's hands...

The plot is ridiculously melodramatic.

Normally, a house-elf would see this as a misunderstanding, but Dobby, a house-elf with a naturally rebellious streak, would choose to use this opportunity to his advantage and escape from Lucius's house, never intending to return.

This was a good thing for Dobby, but a different story for the Malfoys. Lucius had to buy another house-elf from the black market, and thankfully, he received a substantial share of the profits from Louis, otherwise, this would have been a real financial blow.

Louis neither particularly liked nor disliked Dobby.

"Won't Dobby be in trouble?" Hermione asked doubtfully. She had asked Louis to come over to ask him about this.

"Don't worry, it won't happen," Louis said with a smile. "If you have any questions, just let me know anytime, and I'll talk to Lucius."

"I'm relieved to hear that, Louise," Hermione said with a beaming smile.

"Come on, I'll be satisfied if you stop trying to outsmart me a couple of times," Louis said, waving his hands repeatedly.

After dinner, Louis began preparing gifts for everyone in his office. Meanwhile, owls would occasionally dart into the office to deliver carefully prepared gifts from his classmates and friends.

Harry gave him a pair of non-prescription glasses, but he could use them to observe his surroundings from different perspectives—for example, when lying down, he could use this function to see in front and to the side.

Ron gave him a bag full of dung bombs and told him to throw them at whoever he didn't like. So Louis immediately stormed into the Gryffindor common room and threw three stinking dung bombs at Ron.

Hermione's gift was very much in line with her character. She gave Louis several books, all of which were Serith's history books—oh, it looked like several books, but it was actually a set. Louis was a little confused. Why would this little girl give him the Zizhi Tongjian?

Just kidding, I don't govern countries...

Draco had given him a bunch of high-end snacks and treats from the wizarding world, all rare and expensive items that couldn't be bought elsewhere. It seemed like he put a lot of thought into it. Louis casually opened a box that looked like pudding, took a bite, and found it quite delicious, with a subtle coffee flavor that melted in his mouth, leaving a pleasant aftertaste.

Dumbledore gave him a big box of candy, with all sorts of flavors: Chocolate Frog, Super Bubble Gum, Honey Bubble Gum, Lemon Olaf—oh, thankfully Professor Dumbledore remembered that he didn't like cockroaches and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, otherwise Lewis would have definitely "carefully selected" a gift in return.

Professor McGonagall gave him a transfiguration notes, just like Professor Flitwick's, both being notes on their respective subjects. Hagrid gave him a pair of dragonskin gloves, supposedly made from the hide of a black dragon. When Louis opened them, Kristastha leaned in, exclaiming in astonishment that it was indeed the hide of a black dragon.

"A black dragon?" Louis laughed. "Is it really necessary to make such a fuss? It's just the Hebrides Black Dragon..."

"No, these are black dragons from the Black Dragonflight..." Kristastha frowned, reaching out to touch the glove. "No, not just black dragons, there are bronze dragons, green dragons, red dragons, and blue dragons too. My god, what kind of twisted creations are these..."

"Let me see..." Louis said, snapping a picture of the Eye of Recognition.

Tight dragon skin gloves

Provides a 15% strength bonus to armor.

+20 spell power

+20 Stamina

Equipment: Increases your chance to critically strike with spells by 1%.

Equipment: Restores 600 mana every 5 seconds.

When you place your hands on these gloves, you feel a chill; they seem to be made of the skin of young dragons—the skin of many young dragons…

"It really is. This must be one of Nefarian's creations." Louis held up the pair of dragon-skin gloves. "It's strange that Hagrid has something like this. Logically, it should be stored in Nefarian's 'Blackwing Lair' in Blackrock Mountain, guarded by Chromaggus..."

"How do you know so much?" Christa asked, somewhat incredulously.

"I am your master." Louis patted Christa's little face. "Learn, there is no end to learning."

"Hmph." Christa gave a coquettish snort.

"These gloves—do you want them?" Louis asked, holding up the gloves.

Christa shook her head dismissively. "I think I'll pass. Would you really want to wear a glove made entirely of human skin?"

"That's true." Louis nodded, casually tossing the dragon-skin gloves to Sakuya, who was standing beside him. "Keep these safe and put them away for now."

"Yes," Sakuya replied.

Continuing to rummage through the gifts, there were also some from Grandpa, um... it was for Catherine, it seemed to be a family heirloom necklace, the pendant box containing a silver-white swan about to take flight.

It doesn't have any special attributes; it's just a simple family heirloom.

"I love it," Catherine said, carefully hanging the necklace around her neck.

It's worth mentioning that Aunt Molly's gift this year was quite special. Although it was the usual sweater, Catherine's was green with a lifelike Hungarian wood bee on it, along with a bunch of homemade meat pies. It's estimated that Aunt Molly saw Rita Skeeter's boast in the Daily Prophet, or perhaps Solanian had bragged about her good daughter when she visited the Weasleys.

Emma took the pie, saying it was Molly's favorite dish.

After finishing collecting the gifts, Louis, along with Catherine and two maids, wrapped them up and arranged for the owls to deliver them back. They didn't finish their work until dawn the next day.

"I'm so sleepy..." Louis yawned, glancing at Catherine. "Actually, I've wanted to sleep for a while now, but if it weren't for you guys still being so busy..."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Catherine patted his head and smiled gently. "Come on, let's go to sleep. There's a dance tonight."

In the winter at high latitudes, it gets light very late. Before going back to his bedroom, Louis glanced at the time and found that it was already past six in the morning.

Everyone was busy receiving gifts in the morning, so no one bothered Louis. Around noon, Catherine woke Louis up, and in a daze, he was given a bottle of energy potion.

The energy potion didn't taste very good; it was a bit like bitter almond milk. Louis sniffed, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that it was his mother who was giving him the potion. Catherine was watching him worriedly from behind, looking like she wanted to stop him but didn't dare to.

The one holding him down was Vitalie, and seeing her fawning over Emma, ​​Louis felt a little like punching her.

"Glug glug... You really are my mom... glug glug..." Louis struggled to break free from this suffocating maternal love, but his mom clearly didn't want to let him go.

"Stop fooling around, drink this up. What if you get sleepy at the ball tonight?" Emma poured almost half a bottle down before putting down the delicate little bottle.

After being released, Louis gasped for breath. For a moment, he even thought he was going to choke to death on the energy potion...

This tastes awful... Louis secretly vowed to himself that he would go to Professor Snape later and ask him to improve the formula of the energy potion; it couldn't taste this bad...

But then again, how can a medicine that doesn't taste bad be effective at keeping you alert?

(End of this chapter)