Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 221 Hermione Granger VS Luna Lovegood
"Sorry to bother you guys."

Harry looked apologetically at Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley beside him.

"No way!" Ginny waved her little fist and said angrily, "Those people are just talking nonsense!"

"Harry, we are friends."

Cho Chang looked at Harry with a smile and said, "Helping each other when we encounter difficulties is something I should do."

Harry looked into the two pairs of eyes and was deeply moved.

Ron: This... ((*)ゞ→→

Why do I suddenly feel like I shouldn't be here?
After the train started moving, Hermione looked out the open window.

Harry, Ron, Cho Chang, and Ginny were waving at them from the station.

However, due to the accelerating train, their figures quickly shrank.

Hermione didn't look away until the train rounded a bend.

"Is he sick?"

She expressed her dissatisfaction with her classmates without any reservations:

"Just because Harry can speak Parsley, they consider him a Slytherin successor based on that alone?"

How superficial!

"My dear Hermione, if you weren't Harry's friend, you'd probably think the same thing."

Do I need to remind you, 'Based on all the information we have now, you are very likely to be his successor'?

"That's what you said to Harry back then."

"..."

Hermione found herself unable to refute Sherlock.

But is it really necessary to say this?
The train sped up, and the houses outside the window rushed past, making them sway as they stood still.

"You're right. Let's find a private room first."

Hermione looked at Sherlock with expectant eyes.

As far as I can remember, this was the first time I had ever ridden the Hogwarts Express alone with Sherlock.

This feeling is very novel.

Sherlock is perfectly acceptable.

The two walked with difficulty down the corridor, peering through the glass doors into the private rooms.

Because we were delayed saying goodbye to Harry and Ron, the place was already full of people.

Hermione noticed that many people were watching them during the process.

Several people even nudged the people sitting next to them with their elbows and pointed at the two of them.

She only realized what was happening when several carriages in a row were in the same situation.

At this point, most people returning home by train believed that Harry was the heir of Slytherin and that he was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets and released the monster.

In this context, Sherlock and Hermione, as Harry's best friends at school, naturally attract attention.

This made Hermione feel very uncomfortable.

She hated the feeling of being pointed at and talked about.

It also reminded her of how she felt when she was isolated by her classmates when she first entered school last year.

She involuntarily turned to look beside her, only to find that Sherlock seemed oblivious, as if he didn't care about anything at all.

There's no need to pretend; he simply didn't care about it at all.

Hermione couldn't help but look on with envy.

She also longed to be like Sherlock, ignoring the opinions of others.

But she can't do it!

Fortunately, when they arrived at the last carriage, they met Neville Longbottom.

As Sherlock's roommate and fencing partner, he was one of the few classmates who believed that Harry was not a Slytherin successor.

At this moment, he was holding his struggling toad, Leif, tightly with one hand, his round face covered in sweat.

“Hey, Sherlock,” he said breathlessly, “Hermione…it’s packed everywhere…I can’t find a seat…”

Since he started learning fencing from Sherlock and attending the anniversary party with Hermione, he has changed how he addresses Sherlock and Hermione.

He used to call them both Holmes and Granger.

"no?"

Hermione's mood improved considerably upon seeing Neville. She squeezed past him, glanced into the box behind him, and said:

"There's still room here, there's only one girl inside."

"Shh!"

Neville quickly made a shushing gesture, "That's the crazy girl Lovegood!"

"You mean Luna Lovegood?"

Hermione clearly knew the name too, and seeing Neville's nervous expression, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't be silly, she's alright, right, Xia..."

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Sherlock open the door and walk into the private room.

Hermione: '(°ー°〃)
What's going on?
Is she really that proactive?

She followed Sherlock inside, filled with doubt.

Seeing Sherlock and Hermione enter the box one after the other, Neville gritted his teeth and followed them in.

"Hello, Lovegood, may we sit in these seats?"

Out of politeness, Hermione spoke up.

The girl sitting by the window looked up.

She had messy, dirty, waist-length dark blonde hair, very light-colored eyebrows, and protruding eyes.

As a know-it-all, Hermione had heard of the Crazy Girl before, but this was her first time meeting her so closely.

At this moment, she understood why Neville would rather continue searching for other targets than let this private room go.

Because Luna Lovegood clearly exudes a strange, ethereal quality.

Perhaps just to be on the safe side, he stuck the wand behind his left ear.

Perhaps it was because she was wearing a necklace made of corks from butterbeer.

Perhaps it was because she was reading a magazine, but she was holding it upside down.

In short, the girl in front of me clearly exuded a kind of crazy and eccentric energy.

To Hermione's surprise, even though she was greeting Luna, Luna's gaze swept past her and landed on Sherlock.

A few seconds later, she spoke as if she were an old friend she hadn't seen in years:

"Sherlock, it's been a long time."

“Not long ago, less than a month since we last met.” Hearing Sherlock’s reply, Luna tilted her head and then admitted, “In that case, it really hasn’t been long.”

Neville almost burst out laughing at this Sherlock-esque answer, but he managed to hold it in.

But when he heard Luna seriously agree with Sherlock's statement, he couldn't help but laugh out loud again.

"Haha~"

Luna immediately turned her light-colored eyes to him: "I don't know who you are."

“I’m just a nobody,” Neville said quickly, startled.

"You... know each other?"

Hermione, however, focused her attention on the conversation between Sherlock and Luna.

"Exceptional intelligence is one of humanity's greatest treasures."

Luna spoke in a singing voice, holding up the upside-down magazine to cover her face, and then fell silent.

Hermione: "..."

She took a deep breath, feeling somewhat annoyed.

Not only did he give me an irrelevant answer, but he also acted like he didn't want to talk to me. What was going on?
With that in mind, she could only turn her gaze to Sherlock.

The latter nodded slightly to her, "We met once a month ago at the school gate."

Okay, so in that sense, they are indeed people I know.

However, Hermione finally understood the meaning of the saying "seeing is believing".

This girl...something's not right.

The train continued its clattering journey, passing through the vast countryside and endless hills.

The weather today is rather strange, which means that the train carriage is sometimes filled with sunshine and sometimes overcast with dark clouds.

"Sherlock, do you think Malfoy was the one who opened the secret room?"

Neville not only didn't believe Harry was a Slytherin successor, but he also immediately focused his attention on the person he considered most suspicious.

“My dear Neville, you’re overthinking it,” Sherlock chuckled. “He doesn’t have that ability yet; this can be determined even without reasoning.”

"Ah, why is that?"

"If it really was him, given his personality, he would probably let the whole school know that he did it."

"Uh……"

Neville thought about it carefully and realized that it made sense.

Judging from Malfoy's behavior during this period, he seems to be more angry that people think Harry is the successor of Slytherin, not him.

"So who could it be?"

Seeing Neville frowning in thought, Hermione laughed:

“Neville, stop thinking about it. If it were that easy to figure this out, Sherlock wouldn’t have gone home for the holidays; he would have stayed at school and solved the mystery.”

"It seems...that's how it is!"

Seeing Neville's belated realization, Sherlock, Hermione, and Luna all laughed.

Unlike the others, Luna laughed particularly loudly, emitting a series of sharp and piercing sounds.

Hermione stared at her in surprise. "Lovegood, what are you laughing at?"

"so fun!"

She pressed her hand to her chest, breathing heavily, staring intently at Neville, her bulging eyes brimming with tears.

Neville was completely baffled, looking at Sherlock and Hermione with a puzzled expression.

Sherlock and Hermione didn't find it funny at first, but now they were amused by Neville's bewildered expression and Luna's endless laughter.

Luna, in particular, laughed so hard that the magazine in her hand fell off her lap and slid to the floor.

Sherlock's eyes lit up when he glanced at the magazine.

He took out his wand and tapped it, and the magazine jumped onto the table.

The magazine is called "Singing the Quibbles".

What attracted Sherlock was a cartoon on the cover.

As we all know, comics are meant to exaggerate the characteristics of characters.

So even though Sherlock had never met him in person, he immediately recognized the cover figure as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge.

He had seen the Minister of Magic's picture more than once; he was short and had a head of fluffy white hair.

The outfit on the cover features a pinstripe suit, a bright red tie, a long black cape, and purple pointed boots.

What's most eye-catching is the dark green top hat on his head.

In the comic on the cover, Fudge is holding a bag of gold in one hand and a goblin by the neck in the other.

The comic also has a title at the top:

How far is Fudge from taking over Gringotts?

Sherlock opened the magazine and began to read it page by page.

Seeing this, Neville also came over, and then looked surprised.

"Ah this!"

Neville made that expression because of the magazine's table of contents.

Ancient Runic script revealed.

A flying broom that returned from the moon.

The Minister of Magic who turned fairies into pies and baked them.

Corruption within the Quidditch League: How the Tornadoes wreak havoc.

……

Apart from the first story, the other stories exude a strong Lockhart style just from their titles, even more so than the first.

"Sherlock, this..."

Given Neville's limited language skills, he really didn't know what to say at that moment.

"Don't be surprised."

Seeing Neville's expression, Hermione sneered and said, "Everyone knows that 'The Quibbler' is a bunch of..."

Before she could finish speaking, Sherlock suddenly looked at Luna: "Is the editor of this magazine your father?"

Luna's voice suddenly became clearer, no longer as dazed as before. She looked at Sherlock in surprise: "You knew all along?"

"I'm just speculating."

Sherlock pointed to the name Xenophilius Lovegood in the editor's column and said.

Hermione was startled by what she saw, but then secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)