Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 326 Don't Rub Salt in the Wound
"Don't touch Harry, don't touch Harry, please don't touch Harry!"

"Get out of the way, you stupid woman... Get out of my way..."

"Don't touch Harry, please, kill me, just kill me—"

A sense of déjà vu washed over me.

Even though he only glanced down, Harry felt as if he had fallen into endless darkness.

The sounds coming from afar gradually became clearer.

When Harry first encountered Dementors on the Hogwarts Express, he heard terrifying screams and terrified pleas coming from afar.

But at that time he didn't know who made the sound.

Moreover, when he told others about it, they all said they hadn't heard the sound.

However, this time, as more than a hundred Dementors approached the playground, Harry, still unconscious, once again heard screams and pleas for help.

He finally knew whose scream it was.

That's mom!

That was the voice of a mother in the last moments of her life, the voice of her desperately pleading with Voldemort as she tried to protect herself as an infant!

When he came to his senses, he found himself in tears.

Looking around, he was shocked to find himself lying in the school hospital, surrounded by a whole circle of people, all looking at him with concern.

His voice was a little hoarse: "What...what's wrong with me?"

"More than a hundred Dementors have arrived!"

"You fell off the broom!"

"Everyone was terrified!"

As everyone started talking at once, Harry finally understood what had happened.

His face immediately turned very ugly.

Gryffindor lost.

When Sherlock left with Dumbledore, he heard Hufflepuff captain Cedric Diggory demanding a rematch, but he ignored it.

It was only then that he and Harry learned the result of the match.

Just as Harry fell off the broom, Hufflepuff's Seeker, Cedric Diggory, successfully caught the Golden Snitch.

This is a natural result.

He discovered the Golden Snitch even before Harry.

When Harry is no longer his rival, no one can stop him.

However, Cedric is indeed an upright and honest person.

When he caught the Golden Snitch and then found Harry lying on the ground, he immediately suggested to Mrs. Hooch that this round not count and that they should have a rematch.

Ms. Huo Qi, the referee, refused to agree.

In her view, while the appearance of the Dementors was indeed an accident, Harry's inability to overcome their effects was his own problem.

Everyone was a seeker, so why was Cedric okay?
To take it a step further, out of a total of fourteen team members on both sides, only you, Harry Potter, fell off the broom.

Others were also affected to varying degrees, but not as significantly.

Similarly, the lion cubs are not despicable people.

They accept this result.

Even Wood, who was extremely eager for victory, believed that Cedric's victory was fair and square and uncontroversial.

Since the opponent has already acknowledged it, there is no point in replaying the match.

So the match ended with a score of 150:50, with Hufflepuff winning.

Despite the team members' attempts to comfort him, Harry still couldn't accept the outcome.

Because of their own actions, Gryffindor lost the game once again.

Two years ago, Gryffindor lost their most crucial match because he was in the hospital.

Last year, the remaining matches were cancelled due to the escape room incident.

Even so, prior to this match, Gryffindor had always managed to win whenever he played.

This time, despite participating in the competition, he still lost to his opponent.

As Wood said, Diggory won fair and square.

He... has something to say.

But that's precisely why he felt even worse.

The only consolation for Harry was that they hadn't completely lost their chance.

The Quidditch Cup at Hogwarts uses a points system.

Each team needs to play against the teams from the other three colleges one by one.

According to the C42 permutation and combination method, there are a total of six games throughout the year, with exactly two games per semester.

Therefore, if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw in the second match of the term, and Gryffindor defeats both Ravenclaw and Slytherin, they will still have a chance to win the Champions Cup.

Of course, since Gryffindor lost to Hufflepuff by 100 points in this match, the net points difference between the two sides will need to be calculated later.

For Britons who aren't very good at math, this situation is quite complicated to calculate.

It's a pity there aren't any Chinese football fans among them, otherwise, calculating the scores would be a piece of cake.

Because the discussion became too heated, Ms. Pomfrey, who had just returned to the hospital, resolutely drove them away.

Ron wanted to stay, but Ms. Pomfrey, annoyed by his loud voice, kicked him out as well.

After they left, Ms. Pomfrey closed the door and looked at the muddy mess left on the floor, clearly displeased.

In the end, only Sherlock, Hermione, Luna, Cho Chang, and Ginny remained in the hospital, having kept quiet all along.

Harry didn't want to recall the loss in the game, much less his mother's pleading voice trying to save him, so he quickly racked his brains to change the subject:
"By the way, who took my halo?"

He felt that the topic was rather mundane, which would allow him to shift his focus and shake off his frustration.

Sherlock had accompanied Dumbledore to see Harry off at the stadium, so he was unaware of what happened afterward and, like Harry, looked at the four girls.

Hermione, Cho Chang, and Ginny exchanged quick glances but remained silent.

"what happened?"

Harry looked at the three of them, somewhat puzzled. Was this question so difficult to answer?
At this moment, Luna said in a serious tone, "It's broken."

“What?” Harry was stunned.

“Let’s be frank,” Sherlock said, reaching out to pat Hermione on the shoulder. “Trust Harry, he can handle it.”

He saw a bag at Qiu Zhang's feet and overheard the four girls talking, and had already deduced the truth of the matter.

Harry: "..."

I am so grateful for your trust in me!

However, Sherlock's words were quite effective, and Hermione, who had been hesitant, immediately spoke up:

“Um, Harry… it was blown away by the wind when you fell.”

“And then it just happened to run into that 'hitting willow',” Ginny stammered.

“Professor Flitwick just brought it over,” Qiu Zhang said in the gentlest of her voice.

“So it’s broken,” Luna said definitively.

At this moment, Qiu Zhang also bent down, picked up the bag at his feet, and slowly turned it upside down.

A dozen or so pieces of wood and twigs lay on the bed; these were the remains of Harry's Nimbus 2000, the weapon that had brought him victory after victory.

At that moment, Harry was completely dumbfounded.

Am I Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy?
Malfoy broke his leg during training, and Nimbus 2001 was smashed to pieces by Willow.

During my official match, I fell off my flying broomstick under the influence of the Dementors, and my Nimbus 2000 was still shattered by the Willow of Vengeance. This Willow of Vengeance, it's gone berserk, isn't it?

Sherlock picked up one of the fragments, examined it for a while, and shook his head. "There's no way to repair it."

Harry: "..."

He gave Sherlock a somewhat resentful look.

Dude, can you please stop rubbing salt into my wounds?

Then he saw Luna nod. "Yes, there's absolutely no way to fix it."

Harry: (;Д`)
Seeing this, Qiu Zhang quickly pulled Luna aside:
"Stop talking, stop talking."

Madam Pomfrey easily persuaded the depressed Harry to stay at the school hospital for the weekend.

However, he insisted on leaving behind the Nimbus 2000 wreckage.

He knew he was being foolish and that there was no point in doing so—just as Sherlock and Luna had said, the Nimbus 2000 was beyond repair in its current state.

But that's exactly what he did.

At that moment, he even felt a sense of shared misfortune with Malfoy.

People flocked to see Harry this weekend.

Everyone was trying to find ways to make him happy.

Most people behaved normally, but some people's methods gave Harry a bit of a headache.

For example, Hagrid sent a bunch of centipede flowers, but Harry always thought it looked more like a yellow cabbage.

Ginny blushed and mustered her courage to give Harry a handmade card wishing him a speedy recovery.

Unfortunately, it kept singing in a high-pitched voice, so Harry had to use a fruit bowl to weigh it down.

On Sunday afternoon, all the Gryffindor Quidditch players were present again.

Even Captain Wood was there this time.

He didn't come last time because he had put himself in the heavy rain after the game.

When he saw Harry, he said that Harry was not to blame at all for what happened.

This statement comes from the heart.

The problem was that hearing him comfort himself in that hollow, dull voice only made Harry feel worse.

Hermione, Ron, and Cho Chang only left Harry's bedside at night.

Everyone is showing their care for Harry in their own way.

However, Harry's best friend Sherlock's behavior surprised everyone.

Aside from taking Harry to the infirmary with Headmaster Dumbledore on the day of the Quidditch match, he never appeared again.

Even Hermione and Ron had no idea where Sherlock had gone this weekend.

However, Harry didn't seem to care much about it.

Losing the game, the flying broomstick being destroyed, falling from a great height...

These things only accounted for half of his worries.

The other half was that "ominous" thing—the big black dog he saw in the stands.

Harry didn't mention this "ominous" thing to anyone.

He didn't even treat Ron, Hermione, and Cho Chang, who had always been by his side, the same way.

Because he knew Ron would panic.

Hermione would scoff.

As for Cho Chang, Harry didn't want her to see his vulnerable side.

It's better if Sherlock doesn't come, since he doesn't plan to tell Sherlock about this for the time being anyway.

Harry recalled the events of his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, when Boggart had come to his side, but Sherlock and Professor Lupin stopped him.

This made him feel that neither of them believed that he was capable of dealing with Boggart on his own.

Perhaps they meant well, thinking he would faint again?
Unfortunately, their idea was correct.

Facts speak louder than words; he really does faint again when he sees a Dementor.

Now, the thought of Dementors fills Harry with nothing but disgust and shame.

Yes, Dementors are indeed terrifying; everyone who has seen them says so.

But of all people, only Harry fainted.

Furthermore, when the others saw the Dementors, they did not hear the voices of their deceased relatives.

So for two nights in a row, Harry was in a daze, sometimes drifting into dreams and sometimes suddenly waking up.

Every time he falls into a dream, he sees those cold, sticky, rotting hands and hears his mother's heartbreaking pleas.

In this listless state, a new week finally arrived.

"Sherlock, where are you this weekend?"

When Ron saw Sherlock again in the Great Hall, he couldn't help but ask, "You didn't go back to your dorm every night when we went to sleep."

“My dear Ron, you were already asleep when I got back to the dorm.”

“I know, Neville said you wake him up in the morning to go for a morning workout together.”

But after morning exercise, you always let him return to the dormitory alone, while you yourself disappear somewhere.

Ron said, somewhat annoyed, "You didn't even go see Harry, that's too mysterious, isn't it?"

Harry, who was standing nearby, quickly said, "I...I'm fine."

Sherlock smiled slightly: "My dear Ron, if I tell you, can you keep it a secret?"

“Of course!” Ron immediately patted his chest to assure Sherlock.

"Then I can, too."

"..."

It took Ron a while to realize what Sherlock meant.

"Sherlock, you tricked me!"

“My dear Ron, I promise you, I will tell you everything when the time is right.”

Sherlock's gaze swept over the bulge in Ron's pocket, then turned to Harry, and said in Harry's surprised look, "Do you still have that miniature spyglass on you?"

"I put it in my dorm room, what's wrong?"

"May I borrow it for a while?"

"Of course, I'll give it to you when I get home after class today."

Noticing that Sherlock's attitude towards him was exactly the same as before the Quidditch match, Harry suddenly felt much happier.

Soon, the week's Defense Against the Dark Arts class began.

On the way to the classroom, Ron suddenly elbowed Harry. "Old Harry, help me see who's inside first."

"What's wrong?" Harry asked curiously.

"If Snape comes to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts again, I'm skipping class!"

Ron said angrily, "I'd rather lose a few dozen points than see his stinky face again!"

Harry was speechless at Ron's firm stance.

However, just as he was about to scout out the classroom door, the little lions who had arrived there cheered.

Professor Lupin is back!

(End of this chapter)