The days at Hogwarts

Loren repeated it three times, tapping his palms on the table quickly and lightly, "Just explain the meaning of the prophecy directly. I hate old people like you who beat around the bush the most."

This anxious look made Dumbledore laugh. He was apparently very leisurely when eating. "Oh, Loren, I think as a wizard, you should have enough patience."

"Urgent, very urgent!" Loren kept urging.

"Well," Dumbledore ate another lemon sherbet, "if your Christmas present to me surprises me, I will tell you."

"You are already a hundred years old!" Loren reminded Dumbledore, asking him not to be so childish.

Dumbledore looked at Loren with a smile, "Of course, when I am with you young people, I always feel younger."

Loren realized that this man would not tell him until after Christmas, so he jumped off the chair, patted his butt and was ready to leave.

"Goodbye Loren, I look forward to your gift." Dumbledore smiled at Loren's back.

Loren turned his back and waved at him, "I'll give you a box of cockroaches and put a real cockroach in it."

Dumbledore's face froze. Just imagine the scene. It would be a scary prank.

Walking down the stairs to the fourth floor, Loren met Ron.

"Why are you here?" Loren was surprised. He thought Ron should be in the lounge at this moment and couldn't wait to get into the chessboard.

Ron looked as if he had just done something remarkable. With a smug smile on his face, he proudly boasted to Loren, "I just protected the Philosopher's Stone!"

Harry was not in school, and it was not certain whether the Philosopher's Stone was in that room. Ron's guarding might have been to say hello to Fluffy or something like that.

"Oh."

Loren didn't ask anything and continued down the stairs. Having just suffered a loss at the hands of Dumbledore, he wanted to transfer Ron's smile to his own face.

"Why don't you ask me what I did?" Ron quickly caught up and asked Loren.

"I don't want to know." Loren felt happy. The law of conservation of happiness was indeed the truth. The netizens were not deceiving me.

"That's the Philosopher's Stone, you really don't want to ask?"

"I don't want to ask."

"No, you want to ask me how I protected the Philosopher's Stone."

……

As the two of them pulled each other along, Loren's smile became more and more cheerful, and the smile on Ron's face disappeared.

In the afternoon, Ron learned another piece of bad news, which made him even sadder.

After returning from fishing yesterday, Ron had intended to keep the fish in a wooden barrel, but he ended up placing the barrel in the courtyard outside the castle.

After a night of wind and snow, the carp was frozen to death in the ice, with its eyes open and a strange light flashing in them.

Ron was in a heavy mood, and his sorrow was even greater.

Loren and Rolf didn't know how to describe their feelings when they heard the news. They could only stand beside Ron and try not to laugh out loud.

Ron didn't pester Loren to play chess for the rest of the time, and he kept talking about it until he went to bed.

"How could I have forgotten Red outside?"

Red is the name Ron gave to the carp. He thought the name was suitable for the festive atmosphere of Christmas.

"Red is so cute, it's all my fault."

……

The day before Christmas.

After Ron got up, he still missed his fish. He couldn't muster up any energy and even ate listlessly.

Only then did Loren realize the seriousness of the problem. Ron couldn't even eat. Xiaohong's death was a huge blow to him.

In order to comfort Ron, Loren dragged him to play Go for a whole day. His CPU burned out. Ron had no space in his mind to recall Red. The words he muttered changed from Red to black and white, stealing...

When I woke up the next morning, there were packages piled beside my bed.

"Merry Christmas!" Ron was already awake. There were packages piled beside his bed, and he was about to unpack them.

Chapter 76 Christmas Gift

Some time ago, Loren was worried about preparing gifts for a long time. He wanted to prepare novel and unconventional gifts for everyone that would express his heart.

After thinking about the meaning of various gifts for a long time, I still couldn't decide what to give. I accidentally heard Ron's words, and he said that the Christmas gift he most wanted to receive was a Christmas gift box from Honeydukes Candy Store.

Only then did Loren realize that there was no need to think too much about giving gifts to each other among friends, as long as they were happy.

The Christmas gift box of Honeydukes Confectionery contains 9 best-selling magic candies, including Jelly Slugs, Candy Cane Quills, Mint Toads, Chocolate Frogs, Super Bubble Gum, Fizzy Bee Candy, Licorice Wands, Ice Mouse, and Bibi Many Flavour Beans.

There are no cockroach piles on the list, proving that there are still more normal wizards in the magical world.

But Loren was not a normal wizard. He filled the gift boxes he ordered with cockroaches and gave one to each of his friends.

When Loren placed the order, he was still sighing that Uncle Ambrosio, the owner of the candy store, was still too young and didn't know how to cater to the preferences of his boss. If cockroaches were put on the list, Dumbledore might be so happy that he would let him open a small branch in the castle. That would be like a sack of Galleons.

Loren stuffed a few pairs of wool socks with butterfly lace embroidered on them into the gift box for Dumbledore. They were women's socks, and Dumbledore would definitely like them. Loren wanted to put cockroaches in the cockroach pile, but he finally gave up the idea.

The Christmas gift for Hermione is the Potions Notes summarized by Loren. The main content is the sorting out of some potion theory systems, which can make Hermione learn more easily. I believe it will be of great help to her.

As for Grandpa Bates, Loren didn't prepare any gifts. The two of them had depended on each other for so many years, and every Christmas they would just have a sumptuous dinner, with nothing else special about it.

……

"Thank you Loren!"

Turning around, Ron was holding a Honeydukes Christmas box that was bigger than him, and cheers came from behind the box.

Ron quickly opened the gift box, took out Bibi's every-flavor beans and put them into the box. These were his chess pieces.

I opened a chocolate frog and put it in my mouth. Just as I was about to open other gifts, my eyes suddenly noticed the pile of cockroaches in the gift box.

Ron looked at the pattern of a cockroach with its legs moving on the wrapping paper and thought for a moment.

"You eat too." He piled a whole box of cockroaches in front of Loren and quickly walked away to open other gifts.

"Ah."

Who doesn't understand this little trick? Loren sneered, "Even Dumbledore likes to eat cockroaches, don't you understand?"

"Know what?" Ron's head popped out from behind a bulging paper bag, looking confused.

"Dumbledore loves to eat piles of cockroaches. He is the most powerful wizard. I like to eat piles of cockroaches. I learn spells very quickly. Hermione also eats piles of cockroaches. She learns the best." Loren seriously spit out a series of examples.

Ron's eyes widened and his mouth opened in surprise, "Could it be?"

"Yes, a pile of cockroaches can make people stronger." Loren stared into Ron's eyes and sincerely conveyed a message of encouragement to him.

Ron's gaze fell on the box of cockroaches again, his eyes were sometimes firm and sometimes hesitant, his brows were twisted and then spread out, he wanted to become strong but didn't want to eat a pile of cockroaches.

Loren's voice became erratic, "Give it a try, why not?"

He unpacked the cockroach pile, took one out with one hand and put it in his mouth, and handed the rest to Ron, "The secret of magic lies in it."

Ron followed Loren's words and subconsciously grabbed one and put it in his mouth. The feeling of the arthropod's limbs moving around in his mouth was too much for Ron to accept. His eyes became terrified and he wanted to spit it out.

Loren covered Ron's mouth and persuaded him, "It has come to this, don't you want to become stronger?"

Ron felt as if it was indeed the case, his cheeks moving as he chewed, the chocolate shell breaking open, the aroma of cocoa beans filling the air, the bitterness not yet rising, the lemon snow core syrup inside flowing out, coating his tongue, sour and sweet.

"Honestly, this tastes better than I thought." Ron said, his expression confused, as if something was taken away from him.

"Do you remember now that the first Minister of Magic was Ulric Gamp?" Loren asked.

This is misleading. The question and the answer are both in this sentence. You didn’t remember it before, but you remember it now.

Ron nodded, as if he had indeed heard this.

"You can even recall such obscure knowledge of the history of magic. That's the power of cockroach piles." Loren held back his laughter and brainwashed Ron. Without waiting for Ron to think about it, he returned to his bed and continued to open his presents.

Ron was finally fooled. His eyes wandered between the pile of cockroaches and the gifts. Finally, he put the pile of cockroaches into the cabinet.

Loren lowered his head to open the gift, laughing from time to time, and seemed very satisfied with the gift he received.

What Hermione gave Loren was a summary of knowledge points in the history of magic.

The Christmas card said that she was not worried about Loren's other subjects, but Loren always slept in the History of Magic class, and he might get a big P at the end of the term. The beautiful handwriting spread across the entire page, warning Loren to study History of Magic seriously.

The last paragraph reads: We will always be best friends.

Loren looked at the greeting card and imagined Hermione muttering to the students to listen carefully in class and study hard. The little witch's pretty face was tense and her eyes were fixed on him.

Loren couldn't help but smile.

The next gift was unexpected to Loren. It was from Snape, who gave him a standard-sized No. 2 copper crucible.

Compared with pewter crucibles, copper crucibles can effectively speed up the process of brewing potions. They are not cheap. A standard size No. 2 copper pot in Patchy Crucible Shop is priced at 25 Galleons.

Snape was indeed rich.

The rest were gifts from classmates, mostly candies, quills, etc. Loren spent some time counting them.

Ron walked up to Loren's pile of gifts with a dark purple sweater in his hand and looked at the bulging paper package on top. "I think I know what this gift is?"

Loren looked at the sweater in Ron's hand, and his heart moved. He used both hands to open the paper package. It was a sky blue hand-knitted sweater and a box of Mrs. Weasley's homemade fudge.

The sweater felt soft and warm, the yarn was very smooth, and it looked even better than Ron's, so Loren thought it was a great gift.

Ron blushed. He felt that his mother's gift was a bit old-fashioned. "If you don't like it, you don't have to wear it."

"How come?" Loren said as he put on the sweater. It was a little too big, but it made it more comfortable.

The door to the dormitory burst open and George and Fred burst in cheerfully, both wearing identical dark blue sweaters with a big yellow "G" on one and an "F" on the other.

"Merry Christmas!"

"Hey, look - Loren got a Weasley sweater too!"

The two looked at Loren's sweater, which was obviously more finely made, and said with a smile in a funny tone:

"It's obviously better than the Weasleys."

"My mother is more attentive to outsiders."

Chapter 77 Hehehe

"Why don't you wear yours, Ron?" George patted Ron on the shoulder. "This is a Weasley specialty."

The word "specialty" made Fred laugh, and the two of them giggled as they pulled Ron into his sweater.

"I don't like burgundy," Ron complained half-heartedly, his head popping out from under his collar.

The four of them chatted while eating fudge.

The three Weasley brothers complained that their parents were partial to them and that they went to see the dragons, leaving them at school to spend Christmas.

Loren couldn't help laughing when he heard this. It turns out that you don't care about not being able to go home for Christmas, but about not being able to go see the fire dragon together.

"What are you arguing about here?" Percy Weasley poked his head in through the crack in the door and scolded the twin brothers with an unhappy look on his face.

Fred noticed that Percy also had a bulging sweater draped over his arm, and he exchanged a glance with George.

"Put it on now!"

"We all wore them, even Loren."

The twins walked towards Percy, grabbed his sweater, and without thinking, forced the sweater over Percy's head.

"I—don't—want—to—wear—" Percy struggled incoherently.

"Look, there's a 'P' in front of Percy," Fred exclaimed. They thought their mother had put letters on their clothes to distinguish the twins.

"This P doesn't mean Percy, it means class leader!" George seemed to have discovered a big secret.

Everyone else was amused by this interpretation.

The twins grabbed Percy's sleeves, which were not yet put on, and tied him up, pushing him out of the room:

"You are not allowed to sit with the prefects today."

“Christmas is a time for family reunion!”

The laughter gradually faded away.

The ribbons in the corridor were cast with all kinds of colorful magic, as if lights were hung on the dome. The lights of various colors were like flowing water, gathering towards the auditorium. Various flowers floated on the wall, and the flowers held candles and were blown by the wind, swaying up and down. In the middle of the auditorium stood 12 huge Christmas trees, and next to each Christmas tree was a golden brazier, with flames swaying like ribbons. Magic candles floated among the branches and leaves, sprinkling dots of light from the scattered gaps.

At noon, the Christmas banquet officially began.