Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 367 Scream
After lunch, Harry promptly dragged Sherlock and Hermione to see the Firebolt.

The Weasley twins wandered off—Sirius had said they'd be fine as long as the ceiling wasn't torn down, and they were just worried about finding a place to go anyway.

The cave dwelling space was rather cramped, and the commotion caused by their little experiments was getting bigger and bigger, which made Mrs. Weasley increasingly dissatisfied.

Ron and Ginny came with Sherlock and Hermione.

Ron really wanted to see the Firebolt again.

Ginny's true intentions were not what they seemed.

While the Weasleys were at Number 12 Grimmauld Place for the next two days, she was trying to get closer to Harry and make the most of every opportunity to be alone with him.

Such opportunities are rare in school.

Unfortunately, Harry had been preoccupied with dealing with the old house for the past two days and hadn't noticed the girl's feelings at all.

Seeing Ginny sneaking up on him, Sherlock turned to Harry and asked, "How does the Christmas present Ginny gave you taste?"

"It tastes really good..."

Harry answered instinctively, then realized, "Hey, how did you know what Ginny gave me? I haven't told you yet!"

"infer."

Sherlock then looked at Hermione on the other side and asked, "Ginny gave you cookies for Christmas too, right?"

"Yes, but it's the taste..."

Hermione glanced cautiously at Ginny, then leaned closer to Sherlock and whispered:
"I asked her, and she gave us the cookies she used for practice, and gave the ones she was most satisfied with to Harry."

Actually, our portion was alright; at least it was edible.

The first piece she made was her practice piece, and the one she was least satisfied with, was made by her brothers.

Ron said Percy almost choked while eating it.

Sherlock nodded upon hearing this, so Ginny does seem to have quite a talent.

The gift given to Harry in the end even received a "good" rating.

There are some useless older brothers.

After seeing the fire bolts with his own eyes, Sherlock concluded that it was indeed a flying broom worth the price.

Unfortunately, he originally wanted to ask how much the price of the Firebolt differed from his estimate, but Sirius Black did not follow the usual path and directly sent the shop assistant to his own vault to get gold.

Now, apart from the shop assistant, no one knew exactly how much Sirius had spent to buy Harry the Firebolt.

One can imagine the sensation that would be caused if a flying broom, which is usually reserved for international competitions, suddenly appeared in a magic school like Hogwarts.

"I can't wait to see the Slytherin guys' expressions."

Ron grinned from ear to ear as he looked at the gleaming golden crossbow bolts in front of him.
"In order to get Malfoy into the Slytherin Quidditch team, Malfoy's father bought a Nimbus 2001 for every player on the team."

But to his utter surprise, this single fire crossbow bolt was more expensive than all seven Light Wheel 2001s combined.

“Ron, actually, with Malfoy’s own abilities, he could be a good candidate for the Seeker position even without his father paying him.”

Harry thought for a moment but decided not to say the second half of his sentence, after all, the statement "Actually, Malfoy flies better than you" was too hurtful.

Even though he didn't say it, Ron still expressed his displeasure: "Harry, how could you side with Malfoy?"

"I'm just stating a fact."

Harry thought to himself, "If I were to actually speak up for him, you'd be jumping up and down."

"You're mimicking Sherlock again, really..."

Ron muttered something, then suddenly remembered something and asked Sherlock directly, "Malfoy's flying broomstick was also smashed by the Whomping Willow. His father probably won't give him a Firebolt too, will he?"

If old Malfoy did the same, then he wouldn't have anything to laugh about.

"impossible."

Seeing Sherlock's unwavering stance, Ron asked curiously, "Why? With their family's wealth, they should still be able to afford fire bolts, right?"

"They could afford it, but for the Malfoy family, it would be a huge expense."

As you just said, one Firebolt is more expensive than seven Nimbus 2001s combined.

Malfoy's father bought seven Nimbus 2001s last year, which was already a considerable expense.

The successful resolution of the locked-room incident caused him another major loss, leading to his expulsion from the school board.

He spent a considerable amount of money to resolve the aftermath.

Therefore, buying another fire crossbow at this point would be a devastating blow to their family, something they could not accept.

"Sherlock is absolutely right."

Hermione nodded and added, "Another important reason is that the Firebolt is advertised as being able to accelerate to 150 miles per hour in ten seconds, if that's true..."

"This must be true!"

Before Hermione could finish speaking, Ron shouted:
"The Irish International Club ordered seven fire bolts; if they dared to make false advertising, they would have already started a fuss."

"...If this is true, it's absolutely terrifying!"

Ronald, do you know what it means to accelerate from a standstill to 150 miles per hour in ten seconds?

Not only Ron was shaking his head, but Ginny was too.

The two people, born into wizarding families, had virtually no concept of physics.

Harry vaguely understood what Hermione was trying to say, but even so, he didn't understand why Hermione had such a serious expression.

Only Sherlock remained calm throughout.

Hermione sighed upon seeing this, "This means that its acceleration has reached nearly 6.7 meters per second squared, which is close to 70% of the acceleration due to gravity!"

What is gravitational acceleration?

"...You don't need to understand this concept. In other words, its acceleration performance far exceeds that of ordinary cars, reaching the level of a cheetah sprint and a top sports car."

"What's the problem with that?"

Even though Hermione had given specific examples, the Weasleys still didn't understand what she meant.

"This is a big problem. When a person is driving a vehicle, they are in a protected state, but when riding a fire crossbow, they are completely exposed in the air!"

More importantly, 150 miles per hour may not even be the maximum speed of the Firebolt, so even professional pilots would likely find it difficult to successfully control it.

She looked at Harry with a worried expression and said, "Harry, this is too dangerous. You have to be careful."

Before Harry could speak, Ron waved his hand with a smile and said:

"Don't worry, Harry is a once-in-a-century Quidditch genius, he'll be fine."

Ginny also reassured her, "Hermione, you don't need to worry. Top-tier flying brooms like Firebolt have excellent protective features."

Harry then understood Hermione's meaning and said with a smile, "Hermione, it's okay. If someone can ride a firebolt in a competition, then I can too."

Hermione: "..." Compared to the somewhat excited Hermione, Sherlock was much calmer.

After all, this is a magical world, so some physical laws don't need to be paid too much attention to.

How do you say that?

If it doesn't make sense, magic will be added.

As for Hermione, since the Firebolt was a Christmas gift from Sirius to Harry, and Harry was happy about it, she couldn't say anything more.

But she was certain that if Harry's mother, Lily, were still alive, she would have been quite lenient to kick him out of his room if she knew Sirius had bought him a Firebolt when he was only 13.

Unfortunately, Lily is no longer here.

Thinking of this, Hermione suppressed her sadness and quickly changed the subject:

"Our match against Slytherin should be in the last term—after they switch places with Hufflepuff."

Harry nodded. "Yes, but this adjustment actually spreads out our competitions this school year, making it exactly one per semester."

Next semester they'll face Ravenclaw, and the final semester after the Easter break will be against Slytherin.

"Ravenclaw is nothing to me!"

Ron said confidently.

“Ravenclaw is much better than Hufflepuff, Ron.”

Hermione was already worried about the fire bolts, and now she couldn't stand Ron's arrogant attitude, so she immediately rebuked him.

"Our loss to Hufflepuff last time was due to an accident!"

Quidditch and Wizard's Chess were among the few sports that made Ron feel he was better than Hermione, and upon hearing this, he immediately retorted defiantly:

"Now the biggest problem that was bothering Harry has been solved—the Dementors have left the school and will never come back!"

Ravenclaw's Seeker, Cho Chang, is quite skilled, but still a bit inferior to Harry. Besides, her flying broomstick is Comet 260—everyone knows that compared to Firebolt, it's a joke!

Under these circumstances, I really can't understand how we could lose, unless..."

Ron then looked at Harry with a meaningful gaze, "Now that Hermione has said that, I'm actually a little worried about you, brother."

Why are you worried about me?

Harry asked, confused.

Now that the Dementor problem has been solved and I now have a top-tier flying broom that's miles ahead of the competition, what is there to worry about?
Ron looked at Harry and suddenly grinned: "You can't go easy on him just because you're on good terms with Cho Chang!"

Harry: "..."

Ginny, who hadn't said a word, couldn't help but give Ron a thumbs up.

This older brother finally came in handy!
"Ron, what are you saying? How could Harry be that kind of person?"

When Hermione heard Ron say that Harry would throw the game between the two teams because of his good relationship with Cho Chang, she immediately expressed her dissatisfaction.

Harry sighed. "Ron, you're overthinking it. Cho already mentioned this when I first met her."

Harry smiled when Cho Chang was mentioned. "She said she would look down on me if I deliberately let her win in the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match!"

Sherlock nodded slightly, and Hermione gave him a thumbs up: "Well done!"

Ron touched his nose sheepishly: "I was just saying, just saying, haha."

Ginny looked at Harry's proud face: (;Д`)
At this point, Ron realized that his joke was somewhat inappropriate, so he simply changed the subject:

"Oh, right, there's something else I need to tell you. Sirius gave me an owl."

As he spoke, he produced a small gray owl as if by magic.

As soon as the owl appeared, it chirped and pecked at his finger.

“This is how pigs show affection,” Ron said with a look of disgust. “I’ve told it so many times, but it just won’t listen.”

Sherlock and Harry, who already knew about this, exchanged a glance and smiled without saying a word.

Hermione was taken aback: "What did you call it, little pig?"

“Yes, because it’s a bit silly,” Ginny said, shaking off her disappointment and laughing. “Actually, its original name was Zhu Weiqiong.”

"Yes, that name isn't stupid at all."

But Ginny thought the name was especially cute, so she called it that.

By the time I wanted to replace it, it was too late—because the owl now only recognizes this name.

Now if you call it anything else, it won't respond, so in the end it became a little pig.

Ron glanced at his sister and said with a smug look:

"It's too noisy. Errol and Hermes both hate it. To be honest, I hate it too."

As soon as Ron finished speaking, Zhu Weiqiong flew around the room happily, emitting piercing cries.

This time, Sherlock and Hermione exchanged a glance.

Both of them knew that Ron's words were just for show; taking them seriously would be a mistake.

After all, the most obvious example happened not long ago.

From the time he started first grade, Ron had been complaining about his mouse, Scabbers, all the time.

At the time, the truth was unclear, and Crookshanks was extremely angry when he relentlessly pursued Scabbers, which caused him to completely fall out with his friend Hermione.

Of course, Hermione was also at fault in this matter, but this alone shows that Ron is the kind of person who says no but his actions tell a different story.

The same way they treated Banban back then, and the same way they treat this owl named Little Pig now.

They might complain outright, but deep down they absolutely love it.

Remembering the big cat that had helped him capture Peter Pettigrew, Sherlock turned to Hermione: "Where's Crookshanks? Didn't you bring it with you?"

"I brought it over. It's probably playing in the room. After all, it's never seen so many new and interesting things before. It seems to enjoy chasing Kreacher..."

Hermione said, "Sherlock, I don't think people need to treat house-elves like that..."

Before she could finish speaking, she was drowned out by a terrible, deafening, and chilling scream.

"Oops!"

Harry immediately jumped out of bed.

Sherlock and he exchanged a glance, and both of them instantly understood what had happened. Without saying a word, they ran downstairs.

"Wait for me!"

Hermione quickly called out and followed.

Ron and Ginny hesitated for a moment, then ran down after them.

(End of this chapter)