The days at Hogwarts

It is very difficult to make the ripened and sugared pumpkin taste bad. Even if you pick it directly and eat it with your mouth, your mouth will be filled with sweet fragrance. The aroma of the pumpkin in the iron pot fills the outer part of the forest, and you can feel the sweetness of the air with just one breath.

Even Hermione, who had the smallest appetite, ate a whole soft-cooked pumpkin, and her belly was bloated. Hagrid finally drank up all the pumpkin soup.

After dinner, Loren and Hermione sat on a small bench outside the house to digest their food, and helped clean the pumpkin pulp with pumpkin seeds in the middle, took the pumpkin pulp out of the pumpkin, and spread it on the wooden board to dry. In addition to keeping some of the pumpkin seeds left after drying as seeds for next year, they can also fry them and keep them as snacks in winter.

Hagrid cut open a pumpkin and found, instead of pumpkin pulp, a nest of slugs wriggling in a sticky mess.

This made him very angry, and he breathed heavily and gathered all his strength, throwing the pumpkin and the slug family out. He threw them so high into the sky that not even their shadows could be seen.

"It must be that Weasley kid. Last time I took them to visit my pumpkin patch, he vomited several slugs into it."

"This bad boy must have done it on purpose. Next time I see him, I'm going to plant him in the pumpkin field." Hagrid sat down cursing and continued to deal with the pumpkin angrily.

Loren and Hermione looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

Hermione teased, "Come on, Hagrid, Ron will definitely come with Harry. Forget about planting him in the ground. You'll probably have to get the biggest and sweetest pumpkin to treat them both."

Hagrid was not happy and retorted without confidence, "No way! I don't know how many pumpkins have been ruined. If I say plant him in the ground, then plant him in the ground."

"What about Harry, do you want to treat him to pumpkin?" Loren asked.

Hagrid turned his back, not wanting to look at them. "Harry didn't harm my pumpkin."

Loren and Hermione laughed together: "Hahahaha..."

By the time the sun hangs under the clouds in the west and dyes half the sky the same yellow as a pumpkin, the pumpkin seeds are almost processed.

Hermione stood up and went to the sink to wash her hands. The pumpkin juice was sticky on her hands, and some places on the back of her hands had formed a transparent hard crust, which melted away when she rinsed with water.

Loren said goodbye to Hagrid, then sauntered behind and walked slowly to Hermione's side, washing his right hand.

Although she didn't study today, Hermione still felt that her day was fulfilling. The golden clouds hanging in the west were filled with the sweet aroma of pumpkin.

There was only one thing that was not satisfactory. Hermione rubbed Loren's body with her wet hands and complained, "You are always mysterious. You even sent me away to talk this morning."

Loren cried out in injustice: "It was Headmaster Dumbledore who sent you away. What does it have to do with me?"

"I don't care, it's your fault." Hermione rubbed it a few more times and wiped all the water off her little hands.

"Okay, okay." Loren hummed twice, put his left hand behind his back, and said to Hermione with a sly smile on his face, "Do you know what the main purpose of coming out today is?"

"What is it?"

"It's to tell you," he whispered, leaning closer to Hermione -

"I've learned how to Apparate!" Loren yelled, and quickly touched Hermione's face a few times with his left hand covered in pumpkin juice.

The sweet smell of pumpkin filled her face, and Hermione was stunned, completely stunned. She was stunned for a few seconds, and then she screamed miserably.

"Loren Morgan!"

Hagrid and Fang were so frightened that they trembled all over and slowly turned their heads to look over here.

"You're dead!" Hermione reached out to grab Loren.

"[Apparition]"

Loren turned around and disappeared with a "bang". He instantly appeared not far behind Hermione and looked at her with a smile: "Look, this is Apparition."

Hermione, who had come up empty-handed, threw away all her rationality and calmness. She now had only one thought in mind - to teach this person a severe lesson!

After wiping the pumpkin juice off her face, Hermione started running after him.

Loren didn't just sit there and wait for death. He turned around and ran towards the castle.

Hagrid looked at the two people running in the sunset and sighed with emotion: "This is the beautiful youth!"

Looking at the figure moving forward, Hermione gathered her strength to catch him, determined to pin him to the ground and give him a good beating.

Uppercut!

Whip the leg!

With each movement, Hermione ran faster and closer to Loren. She felt that she was running faster and faster, faster than ever before. Her physical strength seemed to have improved again.

The distance between her and Loren was rapidly closing, getting closer and closer... Hermione's eyes widened, and a smile slowly formed at the corners of her mouth. She would be able to catch this bad guy soon.

"[Apparition]"

boom!

Loren teleported a long distance away again. He turned his head and showed a bright smile: "Want to learn? I'll teach you."

Feeling that this person was even worse, Hermione was so angry that her teeth were about to break. She said nothing and walked faster.

Naked hanging!

Cross solid!

guillotine!

In her inner fantasy, the ferocity of the beating increased several levels, and the names of the fighting techniques in her mind made her burst out with endless energy and tirelessness.

The evening breeze in the forest brought a cool breath, and the breath was filled with the fragrance of grass and moist water vapor. Under the setting sun, the boy's shadow was very long, longer than the branches of the Whomping Willow, longer than the path on the grass, and extended all the way into people's hearts.

In this way, one chased another, and the person in front occasionally teleported to create a distance, and ran into the hallway with blazing torches.

"Apparate" Loren turned back, but this time he was unable to teleport away like before.

"Oops!" He had forgotten that Apparition was prohibited within Hogwarts.

Hermione took the opportunity to move closer, she put one arm across Loren's neck, clamped it with the other hand, and tried to strangle him, but without using any force, with a triumphant smile on her face.

Although I wanted to hang him up and beat him for three days and three nights when I was chasing him, I wanted him to admit his mistake when I really caught him.

Hermione's face flushed with joy that her goal had finally been achieved. She panted in Loren's ear and said, "Tell me, how many times have you teased me, and I caught you every time? And you still refuse to change!"

Of course, Loren, who still had his wand in his hand, could use some magic, such as repelling spells, binding spells, stunning spells, etc. Hermione was caught off guard, and a sneak attack would definitely succeed. But this was not a life-and-death duel, and it didn't have to be a life-and-death duel, not to mention that he was the one who smeared pumpkin juice on her face first.

Loren did not struggle, he was willing to accept defeat, he had to be prepared to be caught before committing suicide. And struggling would only make his neck hurt more, he was silent, like a kitten with life holding its neck.

Hermione shook his head. "Hmm? Tell me, do you know you're wrong? Will you tease me again?"

"I was wrong. I'll do it again." Loren was honest.

Hermione laughed angrily: "What did you say?"

"I was wrong. I will never dare to do it again."

It was impossible to expect him to promise not to do it again, so Hermione held him in this way and slowly recovered her strength. Loren also took a break to catch his breath, and the two of them fell into a strange state of peace.

I don't know how long it took, Loren said faintly: "If you don't let go, I'm going to scream."

Hermione was stunned for a long time before she calmed down her shock. She stretched her stiff neck and said with mixed emotions: "You are more embarrassed to be watched by others."

"I'm not afraid of embarrassment." Loren spread his hands, "But you are."

Hermione was completely speechless. She was indeed afraid. For a moment, she was helpless against this scoundrel. But she felt so aggrieved that she could do nothing.

Pulling Loren's cheeks, Hermione twisted them hard: "If you tease me again, my face will be swollen!"

This was the most ferocious threat Hermione had ever made, but Loren still smiled, held down her hand, and pulled her towards the hall.

The aroma of dinner food was already wafting through the corridors, and the Hogwarts kitchens were also cooking pumpkin tonight.

"Did you hear that? You're still laughing! Stop laughing!"

"I heard it."

……

Chapter 173 Weeping Myrtle

The girls' bathroom in the middle of the corridor on the second floor of the castle.

Normally, people at Hogwarts would not describe this bathroom as "the girls' bathroom in the middle of the second floor corridor", but rather as "Moaning Myrtle's bathroom".

Meanwhile, Loren was dealing with the short, fat ghost girl, half of her body sticking out of the stall door, while the back half remained inside the stall.

The straight long hair covered her cheeks, the large pearl-colored framed glasses covered her upper face, and a melancholy and gloomy feeling emanated from her mouth and nose, making it difficult to imagine what this face would look like when smiling.

"I'm really not a pervert. I'm here to wait for someone, and this bathroom is abandoned, okay?" Loren explained with his hands spread out.

He and Dumbledore had agreed to meet here in the evening. He arrived at the bathroom a while early and was pestered by Myrtle.

"You're right. Who would want to see me if I lived here?" Myrtle suddenly became depressed and sobbed. "Even when I was alive, no one missed me."

Why is she crying... Loren looked at her helplessly. He had heard that Myrtle was difficult to deal with, but he didn't expect her to be this difficult.

As Myrtle's crying sounded, the toilet seemed to have turned on some switch, and the sound of flushing was heard, but the water did not flow down the sewer, but overflowed from the toilet.

A shallow pool of water flowed out from under the wooden door of the cubicle and gradually spread over the entire bathroom floor.

Loren frowned at the deafening sobbing and the water overflowing from the toilet. He walked towards Myrtle on the clean floor without water and pushed open the wooden door of the cubicle.

Moss has grown in the cracks of the old-fashioned toilet, and clean water is constantly flowing out of the water tank and overflowing onto the ground.

Myrtle huddled into the corner, her eyes wide open and she wanted to scream at Loren.

"I heard that you often stay in the flush toilet?" Loren interrupted her. Although he didn't know what the living conditions for ghosts were, this toilet definitely did not meet them.

Inexplicably, Myrtle felt that she was cared for. She did not complain to Loren and then throw a tantrum like she did to other little wizards. She answered with a choked voice: "Yes, Myrtle lives here. Myrtle has nowhere to go. Ghosts and wizards all despise her, so she has to hide herself in the toilet."

Loren's temple twitched a few times: "Why don't you call someone to fix it?"

Myrtle felt even more aggrieved. "This bathroom was originally abandoned, and some little witches said that I lost my temper and splashed water everywhere. So this place became my territory, and Filch asked me to deal with it myself."

This bathroom hadn't been used for decades, so it couldn't be that debris had clogged the pipe. Loren guessed that it was probably a section of air that had come back up from the sewer and had been blocked in the elbow, so the air couldn't be exhausted and had clogged the pipe.

He waved his wand and used Transfiguration to manipulate the water and air, coordinating with each other to expel the air stuck in the curved pipe. Soon, there was a roar of air being expelled from the pipe, and the water that kept overflowing flowed smoothly into the sewer.

The water tank had only a loose joint inside, and Transfiguration was used to solve the problem. The moss was also pulled out with a spell and flushed down.

"Okay, the water won't overflow anymore." Loren put away his wand and walked outside. Although his hands were clean, he felt uneasy if he didn't wash them thoroughly with water.

Myrtle's eyes behind her thick glasses were filled with surprise. Her ghostly body jumped back and forth happily between the water tank and the toilet, screaming, "It's fixed! It's fixed! It won't be wet here anymore!"

She made a fuss for a while, and then she heard the sound of turning on the faucet outside to wash hands. She staggered to Loren and said gratefully, "What's your name?"

"Loren, Loren Morgan." Loren shook off the water droplets on his hands and looked at Myrtle, who looked much more normal, with mixed feelings.

Most ghosts are like this. After their bodies die, their souls cannot rest and are transformed into ghosts that are neither dead nor alive. They cannot feel heat or cold, touch entities, or taste food. The ultimate enjoyment is to smell moldy and wormy cheese. Many ghosts are tortured by their fake bodies and become insane over the long years.

The ghost that Loren came into contact with the most was Professor Binns, who taught students the History of Magic course but was just repeating his behavior in his previous life. He couldn't call out most of the students' names, couldn't tell about the recent major events, and the final exam questions every year were exactly the same as those in previous exam papers.

Nearly Headless Nick, Ms. Grey, Bloody Baron and this Moaning Myrtle, they are normal most of the time, but when they are not normal, they are completely neurotic.

"Loren Morgan, Loren Morgan! I will remember you!" Myrtle repeated happily, flying around in the space like a joyful bird.

"Can you tell me about yourself?" Loren chose his words carefully, fearing that he might touch upon Myrtle's sorrow. "I mean - about the cause of your death."

Myrtle had a happy smile on her face. She didn't feel sad at all. Instead, she felt happy and even honored that someone asked about the cause of her death.

"Oh, oh, it was a horrible thing," she said with relish. "I remember it very well. It was right here, in this bathroom, that I died. Olive Hornby laughed at my glasses because they looked like four-eyed dogs..."

This is a simple and uneventful story. To be honest, it is not exciting at all. There are no twists, no scares, and nothing worth singing about.

Myrtle's full name is Myrtle Warren, a Muggle-born witch from Ravenclaw College. Because of her old-fashioned thick glasses and acne-covered face, people often make fun of her appearance.

One day in 1943, the insulted Myrtle hid in this bathroom and cried as usual. She was attacked and killed by a mysterious monster. Before her death, only a pair of terrifyingly large yellow eyes were seen.

"Even when I was alive, no one cared about me. It took them a long, long time to find my body..." Myrtle's voice rose and fell, trying to make the story more exciting.

But there isn't any plot worth writing about.

A girl who had no sense of existence when she was alive, who would only be pulled out and scolded when someone needed to vent their emotions, and no one noticed her death. Myrtle, who turned into a ghost, sat in the bathroom to digest the reality of her death.

"Olive Hornby came into the bathroom and she said, 'Are you sulking here again, Myrtle?' 'Professor Dippet sent me to see you—' and all of a sudden she saw my dead body!"

Myrtle suddenly became excited and proud, "Oh! She will never forget that scene in her life, even before she died..."

Loren listened in silence.

Myrtle, who had turned into a ghost, was unwilling to accept her death. She did not know the cause of her death and could not swallow the breath in her heart. She began to follow Olive Hornby in the form of a ghost. Olive Hornby soon found the Ministry of Magic to restrain Myrtle's behavior.

Later, Myrtle stayed at Hogwarts. She usually stayed in the bathroom where she died, and occasionally she would be washed into the lake when she was not prepared.

Later, this bathroom was gradually abandoned and few people came here.

As the story is told, memories buried deep in the soul are awakened, and with them surges of emotions.

Myrtle murmured under her breath, "How can the Ministry of Magic care about a dead person? How can they care about a ghost?"

“Why didn’t anyone take care of me when I was alive?”

"Why doesn't anyone keep Olive Hornby in check?"