The days at Hogwarts

They got up early on the first day of school, and as usual, Bates and Wendell sat in the front row, with Monica in the back with the two children.

Because of Hermione's sack and Loren's suitcase, they didn't have to worry about their luggage. They arrived at King's Cross Station at ten o'clock. When they came to between platforms nine and ten, it was time to say goodbye.

Hermione buried her head in Monica's arms, clinging to her mother's arms like a kitten. The two of them were intimate for a long time before saying goodbye.

Loren and Bates stood aside and watched the Granger family.

"Like I said last time, I won't worry about you." Bates' voice was still as cheerful as ever. "Remember to take good care of Hermione. She is a girl."

Loren felt that his left nose was a little blocked, maybe he had a cold, and he said in a nasal voice, "I know."

"I'll be at home on Christmas, remember to come back and visit."

"Oh!"

Finally, under the watchful eyes of the three adults, Loren and Hermione ran all the way into the 9-3/4 station.

Outside the platform, Bates and the Grangers looked at each other, looked into each other's slightly red eyes, and smiled at each other.

Thus, the summer vacation of 1992 ended and Loren and Hermione's second year began.

It is still the same red-painted train, with the industrial style of decades ago, and it looks as bright as new.

The two of them easily found an empty cubicle, sat down opposite each other, and simultaneously propped up their heads with their hands and looked out the window, which helped them ease their emotions of separation.

The strange thing is that after Loren got on the train, he always felt that he had forgotten something, but he couldn't remember it. He could only figure out bit by bit whether he had forgotten to bring anything.

Fantasy book, brought it.

I have brought the magic robe.

I brought the cola and bitter dark chocolate for Dumbledore.

Thinking of cola and chocolate reminded Loren of those interesting magical snacks.

Hermione sniffed, looked at his changing expression, and asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, a lot." Loren curled his lips, "Chocolate Frog, Licorice Wand, Bibiduo Strange Flavoured Beans——"

Before she finished counting, Hermione was amused: "You're already thinking about snacks before the train even leaves."

"After all, I haven't eaten for a whole summer. I still remember when we were eating a pile of cockroaches last year, Neville thought I was bullying you."

"Oh~ don't mention the cockroach pile anymore." Hermione still couldn't accept that thing.

"You obviously ate a lot!"

"You still said that!"

……

That's it. Hermione felt that Loren always had a special infectious power that could make people laugh at any time.

Chapter 160 School Dinner

White clouds of steam billowed out of the chimney and the bright red-painted express train slowly started its journey towards Hogwarts along a secret railway.

After the departure, occasionally there were little wizards wandering in the aisles of the carriages. After not seeing each other for a summer vacation, they visited each other and shared their joy of reunion and what they saw and heard during the vacation.

"Long time no see! Loren, and Hermione, you too!"

Seamus and Dean said in unison, hooking their arms around each other's shoulders and skipping past the cubicle. Before they could answer, they were already in the next cubicle, like two happy little lions.

The young wizards in other grades were also similarly cheerful and keen on visiting each other. Only the first-year students mostly sat in the carriage, chatting with the friends they had just met.

Loren and Hermione stayed in the carriage, greeting people passing by from time to time.

Just then, a special guest came outside the glass of the compartment.

She was a very peculiar girl, with messy, dirty, waist-length dark golden-brown hair, very light eyebrows, and a pair of big, silver, lively eyes, which were blinking and staring at him curiously.

She wore a pair of owl-rimmed glasses on her forehead, and a necklace made of half a string of butter beer corks hung around her neck. The necklace looked half-finished, as the remaining half of the cork seemed to be missing, so it was empty.

Hermione felt that there was something indescribably strange about this outfit.

"Hello, is there any room in this cubicle?" Luna Lovegood asked in a light voice.

She didn't care about her unique dress at all, and her indifferent expression gave off the feeling that this was just a normal outfit. The little girl looked at Loren, her eyes focused on those blue eyes.

Loren recognized Luna at a glance. A compartment could seat four people. He nodded first, then asked curiously, "The compartment for freshmen is at the back. There should be enough space. Didn't you find a compartment?"

"My father and I were delayed on the way, so we arrived late and couldn't find an empty compartment. There was already someone in the compartment, and they didn't want me to sit next to it." Luna climbed onto the seat naturally and sat next to Hermione, as if she was talking about something insignificant.

Loren didn't ask any more questions and introduced them: "I'm Loren Morgan, this is Hermione Granger, we're both from Gryffindor."

"Hello." Hermione was still looking at the necklace of half-finished butterbeer corks.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Luna Lovegood." Luna kept looking into Loren's eyes.

This feeling of being stared at was quite strange. Thinking of Luna's story, Loren couldn't help but ask, "Why are you looking at me? Is there a harassment fly on my head?"

As for Luna, he didn't think she was a crazy girl, maybe just like his magic vision, she could see things that others couldn't see.

Luna's eyes lit up, and her silver eyes burst into a dazzling brilliance: "You also know about the harassment fly?"

"What's a harassment fly?" Hermione asked as well.

"They're invisible, they'll buzz into your ears and mess up your brain." Luna seemed to have always spoken like this, light and calm, with no ups and downs in her voice.

She turned to look into Loren's blue eyes. "But you don't have a harassment fly on your head. It's a butterfly with blue wings."

"Butterfly?" Loren touched his eyes in surprise, and felt the soft touch of his eyelids.

But Luna noticed the peculiarity of his eyes at a glance, and it was hard to say that it was a coincidence.

"Yes, a butterfly with blue wings and beautiful patterns, it is protecting your eyes with its wings," Luna said as she observed.

Hermione also knew that Loren's eyes were different, so she didn't doubt Luna's words. She stared at Loren's eyes carefully, trying to find traces of a butterfly there.

Of course, I saw nothing.

Loren couldn't see his own eyes, but he had an idea: "I can't see, but maybe I can try to look at the reflection of your eyes."

Luna tilted her head and thought for a moment, her smart silver eyes twinkling: "This is a really good idea, I never thought of it before."

The two of them put their hands on the table and slowly moved their heads closer, one wanted to observe the butterfly carefully, the other wanted to see the butterfly. They looked into each other's eyes, very seriously and carefully.

Hermione looked at this strange scene, looking at Loren on the left and Luna on the right, and she felt something was wrong.

After half a minute, she couldn't stand the weirdness in her heart any more, so she stood up and sat opposite him, pulling Loren back to his seat. Her reason was very justified: "This may be a special ability that can't be seen through optical vision."

"Maybe so." Luna looked at Hermione. She seemed to feel a harassment fly on the girl's head just now.

Loren turned his head to look at Hermione, and the girl's cheeks were slightly flushed. Hermione's eyes moved nervously, occasionally meeting Loren's gaze, and then quickly turned away.

For some reason, Loren suddenly felt happy, as sweet as if he had eaten some fizzy honey candy.

Skipping this little episode, the conversation among the three continued in a subtle way all the way to the magic school.

"Do you know any other strange creatures?"

"Oh, what I want to find most is the Scimitar-Horned Snorlax..."

"what is that?"

……

The freshmen had to take a small boat to cross the lake. After Luna got off the boat, she heard Hagrid's call and followed the large group of freshmen away.

Loren and Hermione followed the seniors, crossed a flat road, and got into a black-gray carriage parked on the side of the street. It was called a carriage because they didn't see the horse pulling the carriage, the reins were empty, and there was nothing in the tow bar.

As they are no longer freshmen, they naturally would not be foolish enough to ask what drives the car. After spending a school year, they more or less know about the existence of the Night Star.

Only those who have seen death, who have accepted it, can see the Thestrals. Loren didn't know if he had seen death, but he certainly could.

It was a black creature that looked like a horse, with a pair of broad, black, featherless, bat-like wings. The black fur clung to its skeleton so tightly that every bone was clearly visible.

Their heads are very similar to those of dragons. Their eyes are entirely silvery white, with no distinction between pupils and whites of the eyes, and they appear somewhat hollow, yet with a hint of divinity in their emptiness.

Perhaps because of their nature of being linked to death, a group of Thestrals stood quietly in the darkening night, quiet and eerie.

"Can you see the Thestrals?" Hermione's eyes flashed with worry. Witnessing death is not a good thing.

"These are my eyes. Thestrals are also magical creatures." Loren said.

Hermione was clearly envious. "What are they like? Are they really black? Do they have scales?"

Seeing that she was really curious, Loren pulled her forward a few steps, brought them to the pole, and guided her hand to touch the mane on the night star's neck.

To be honest, it was a bit scary to feel the warmth of a creature's fur from nowhere. Hermione's hand was stiff as she was led to touch the Thestral, and it took her a while to gradually get used to it.

In Loren's vision, Ye Qixu squinted his eyes, enjoying the tickling-like comfort. He even arched his neck and rubbed their hands.

"Although I can't see it, I can feel that it is a gentle animal, not at all the ominous one as described in the legend." Hermione stroked it, responding to the Thestral's kindness.

"I think I feel some bones. Are they thin?"

"He was so thin that you could see the outline of his skeleton."

"Perhaps we should suggest to Hagrid that we feed them more food."

Loren sighed and Hermione started again.

After getting on the bus, Hermione was worried about whether the Thestrals were malnourished and whether they had enough food. She was still worried about this when she entered the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table, chattering non-stop.

Countless candles taller than people were suspended in the air, illuminating the auditorium brightly and brilliantly, with stars shining brightly on the dome.

Last year, they were still the anxious freshmen next door, spreading rumors about the branch.

“Do they really have enough food?”

Loren slammed Hermione down on her seat and said earnestly, "Hagrid loves these little cuties the most. He won't let the animals starve, don't worry!"

Hermione then quieted down.

"Hey, loving couple!" George and Fred changed seats and sat next to Loren. This sentence made Hermione blush with shame.

"Did you see our good brother on your honeymoon?"

"And Harry, we haven't seen them since we got in the car."

Harry and Ron!

Flying car!

Whomping Willow!

Loren's eyes widened suddenly, he remembered, he remembered everything. In order to prevent Harry from returning to school, Dobby used magic to isolate Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. In desperation, the two chose to drive the flying car back to school, violating the Statute of Secrecy, and eventually crashed into the Whomping Willow.

He stood up suddenly, then sat back down... Never mind, it's already this late, the car might have been released into the forbidden forest.

"What's wrong?" George asked hurriedly.

"No, we didn't see them either." Loren shook his head. They wouldn't be fired anyway, so they might as well take it as an adventure.

George was disappointed when he didn't get any useful answers: "Tsk, I'll tell you."

Fred nodded, and the two walked away together, spitting together, "Addicted to beauty."

Loren and Hermione were both embarrassed. They didn't notice that their two friends were missing. Especially Loren, he didn't even think about it until he knew the plot. It's really a bit...

In the guest of honor seat, which was also the staff seat, Lockhart, wearing a blue and gold robe with silver embroidery, was more conspicuous than Dumbledore. He always showed a perfect smile from every angle, and his white teeth could even reflect the candlelight.

Sitting next to Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout had a teasing smile on his face: "What an outstanding Ravenclaw graduate! A best-selling author, adventurer, traveler, and a professor at Hogwarts."

Poor Professor Flitwick, he was short to begin with, and only his head was visible when he sat in the seat. After hearing what Professor Sprout said, he even shrank his head and could not be seen.

"I really don't know why Dumbledore hired him as the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts." Helpless sobs came from under the table.

Although they had only been together for a few days, talent, like pregnancy, could not be hidden or faked. Any professor who chatted with Lockhart could see the grass core stuffed inside his gorgeous skin.

The shame is that this idiot graduated from Ravenclaw, and Professor Flitwick is the Head of Ravenclaw.

It was not until long after the Sorting had begun that Harry and Ron appeared at the door and peered into the Great Hall.

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and the Saviour of the World, had violated the Statute of Secrecy by driving a prohibited modified Muggle vehicle. The crime had been committed in the morning, and some of the responsive evening papers had published the news that day.

After Hogwarts' sovereignty was established, such matters were left to the school to handle. After the Aurors dealt with the memory issue, the Ministry of Magic transferred the documents directly to the school.

It can be said that before Harry and Ron drove to school, his criminal files and the consequences caused by them were determined. From a certain perspective, the administrative efficiency of the wizarding world is quite high.

Professor McGonagall's face turned dark, but she was sorting the freshmen and couldn't leave, so she could only keep a straight face and continue calling the freshmen's names.

Looking at the embarrassed Harry and Ron, Dumbledore smiled and said, "What a courageous age! When I was their age, I couldn't do such a thing."

Lockhart smiled brightly and praised in response, "Yes, just like me back then, if you're not careful you'll do something extraordinary. Your ability and talent are like light, they can't be concealed!"