Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 543 Ron's Attack

"What?! You've all found dance partners already!"

Gryffindor common room.

When Ronald learned that his three best friends had all quietly found their dance partners for the Christmas ball, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise and stood there dumbfounded.

"Bloody hell!"

He looked at Sherlock, Harry, and Hermione with a gaze that seemed to indicate betrayal.

How could you do this!

Ron pointed at the three men with a trembling finger, his words barely coherent:

"So, I'm the only one left now?"

"Obviously, my friend."

Sherlock looked at Ron and even offered a helpful explanation:

“My dear friend, your reaction is a bit too strong. It’s okay if you don’t have a dance partner.”

"How can it not be related?" Ron asked, both puzzled and dissatisfied.

"Sherlock probably meant that the warriors should lead the dance when the ball begins."

Hermione added, "Hogwarts took the lead in the first event, so it was Sherlock, Harry, and Diggory who led the dance."

Harry then had a look of sudden realization: "Sherlock is right! So even if Ron doesn't have a dance partner, he won't make a fool of himself like we did!"

Ron: ┭┮﹏┭┮
Listening to his three friends talking back and forth, Ron felt a pang of heartache!
The key point is that they were telling the truth.

"Fine……"

Ron, having given up all hope, said, "Tell me, who are your dance partners?"

"I invited Qiu today, and she accepted."

“As expected,” Ron shrugged. “Can you tell us what happened?”

Harry briefly recounted how he invited Cho Chang.

As he spoke, he glanced at Ginny a few times and found that she was listening attentively to him, which made him secretly relieved.

"Congratulations, Harry."

After Harry finished speaking, Ginny said very seriously:
"As far as I know, quite a few guys have invited Qiu out recently, but she's rejected them all. It's clear she's been waiting for you all along."

Ron looked at Ginny in surprise upon hearing this.

It was as if she had never expected her younger sister to say such a thing.

Harry scratched the back of his head, grinning foolishly without saying a word.

"And what about the two of you?"

Ron then looked at Sherlock and Hermione and said, "Don't tell me you're each other's dance partners?"

Hermione blushed slightly and did not answer.

“You have really improved, my dear Ron,” Sherlock smiled slightly. “Your deduction is absolutely correct.”

Ron: テ_デ

Is this a compliment?
Why does that sound so heartbreaking?

"So, it really is just me left!"

Ron pointed to himself and said the words again.

“Yes,” Sherlock said.

Harry nodded. "That's right."

Ron fell silent.

Tomorrow is the last day before the Christmas holidays, and he suddenly felt that his future was bleak.

Although his three friends said it didn't matter that he didn't have a dance partner, but...

That's a really embarrassing thing.

So he made up his mind that he must find a dance partner in the next few days.

In the last few days of the semester, rumors about the Christmas ball spread everywhere.

Most of these claims lack credibility; for example, Dumbledore supposedly bought eight hundred barrels of flavored mead from Rosmerta, the Three Broomsticks.

However, Hermione points out that the rumor about the eccentric sisters being booked might actually be true.

The so-called Eccentric Sisters are a very famous music group in the magical world.

This is good news for those who grew up listening to WWN (The Wizarding Network).

Seeing that everyone was not paying attention in class, the good-natured Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, simply stopped lecturing.

He allowed them to play games in his class, which won him unanimous praise.

He himself pulled Sherlock and Harry aside and talked to them about the brilliant summoning spell used in the first event of the Triwizard Tournament.

"I knew you could do it!"

Professor Flitwick stood with his feet on a pile of books, looking at Sherlock and Harry with his eyes shining.

“I knew you could do it back in first grade!”

"I remember Sherlock used a summoning charm back then?"

"Yes, but it wasn't a complete success at the time."

"Haha, that's a spell that's supposed to be mastered in fourth grade. You two and Diggory did a fantastic job this time, and you used that spell beautifully..."

Professor Lupin, who teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts, is also quite good; he arranged some relaxed and free activities for everyone.

Then he pulled Sherlock and Harley aside to discuss the Triwizard Tournament with them, praising them highly.

However, the other teachers were not so easy to talk to.

Professor Binns, the history of magic teacher, continues his arduous trek through his pile of notes on the goblin rebellion.

According to Sherlock's deduction, since the professor did not let his death stop him from continuing to teach, a trivial matter like Christmas could not possibly distract him.

Given Professor McGonagall's personality as a metamorphosis teacher, she naturally wouldn't let her students be idle, and she was still arranging lessons and assigning homework until the very last second before get out of class ended.

These things are one thing, but the most hateful one is Potions Professor Snape.

He would never allow anyone to play games in his class, nor would anyone expect it.

It was expected that he would teach classes as normally as Professor McGonagall.

But to everyone's surprise, he looked at the whole class with a gloomy gaze and told them some terrible news:
That is, he will test their antidote in the last class of the semester.

"He's so bad, really!"

That evening, Ron was particularly angry in the Gryffindor common room, "They deliberately chose the last day to test us, ruining the last bit of the term with a mountain of homework."

"But actually you didn't work overly hard, did you?"

Hermione took Sherlock's Potions notebook and casually remarked something.

As she said, Ron was busy at that moment.

He built a castle using a deck of exploding cards.

This kind of pastime is a toy that combines excitement and fun; if not handled properly, the thing he builds could explode at any time.

"But it's Christmas, Hermione."

Harry said lazily.

He was sitting in an armchair by the fire, reading a book called "Flying with the Artillery Corps".

He relaxed immediately after Qiu Zhang agreed to be his dance partner.

Hermione had been speaking casually to Ron, but now she was looking at him with a serious expression.

“Harry, I think even if you didn’t want to learn about the antidote, you’d do something more creative.” “Like what?”

As Harry asked the question, he watched as Joel Jenkins of the Cannons slammed a runaway ball into a Chaser of the Barryburg Bats.

"That golden egg!" Hermione whispered through gritted teeth.

"Alright, Hermione, we can rest until February 24th, and besides, we still have Sherlock—"

Harry looked at Sherlock as he spoke—oh, he wasn't there.

Not long ago, Gemma had just managed to lure Sherlock away.

“But we can’t just leave everything to him,” Hermione frowned. “We should do something too.”

"I think this is fine; one person doing the thinking is enough."

Ron said, placing the last two cards on top of the castle.

With a deafening roar, the entire castle exploded, singeing his eyebrows.

“It looks really good, Ron…it suits your formal robes very well.”

The twin brothers sat down beside them. "What... you guys still haven't found dance partners?"

Upon hearing this topic, Ron's face darkened. "I'm the only one who hasn't found one yet."

“Brother, you’d better hurry up, or all the good girls will be picked up,” Fred said.

"So who are you planning to go with?" Ron asked.

“Mind your own business, Ron, or I’ll burn your nose too,” George said, waving his wand at Ron.

"I should take action too...invite someone."

After the two left, Ron couldn't help but mutter to himself:
"He may be a scoundrel, but he's right—I don't want to end up dancing with an ugly woman."

Hermione frowned.

Harry couldn't help but ask, "Ron, what are you talking about?"

“Well—you know that without me saying it,” Ron shrugged and said, “I’d rather go alone—than go with someone like, say, Eloise Midgen.”

“Her acne has gotten much better lately—she’s actually quite pretty!” Harry couldn’t help but say.

“But her nose is a little crooked,” Ron said.

"Judging a person by their appearance is too superficial, dear Ron."

Just then, Sherlock walked in from outside the common room and overheard Ron's words, immediately giving his assessment.

"Please, Sherlock, not everyone can be as indifferent to their dance partner's appearance as you are."

Hermione's eyebrows immediately shot up, but Ron, completely oblivious, continued:

"Besides, I'm just an ordinary person!"

Hermione sneered:
"Heh, to put it bluntly, you want to invite the most beautiful girl who's willing to accept you, even if she's a complete and utter villain?"

“Hmm—yes, that’s mostly right,” Ron said.

Harry couldn't help but laugh: "You're quite honest."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Just as Harry said, Ron said frankly, "You'll see, by tomorrow... no, by the day after tomorrow, I'll definitely have a dance partner!"

Ron clenched his fist and strode out of the common room, giving off the feeling of a hero going off to never return.

“Superficial!” Hermione couldn’t help but exclaim.

“It’s superficial, but it’s also realistic,” Sherlock said.

“Actually, I think he could go to Lavender,” Harry said thoughtfully. “She would definitely be Ron’s dance partner.”

"Why?" Hermione asked curiously.

Then Harry recounted how Ron had asked to see Lavender Uranus during Divination class.

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand in surprise.

“But no, she’s already promised Seamus.” Hermione was Lavender’s roommate, so it wasn’t surprising that she knew this.

“That’s such a shame,” Harry said, spreading his hands. Then, he asked curiously, “By the way, Fred and George said they’ve found dance partners too, didn’t you know…”

"The Petit twins."

Sherlock gave the answer directly: "Fred and Parvati from our class, George and Padma from Ravenclaw."

"Twin brothers and twin sisters?" Hermione found it rather amusing. "That's quite interesting."

Harry glanced at Hermione, then asked:
"Sherlock, Gemma is looking for you. Does she want to invite you to be her dance partner?"

Harry was a kind person, and he knew very well that Hermione hadn't left because she wanted to ask Sherlock about this matter.

But given her current state, it was clear she didn't know how to start the conversation, so I simply asked the question for her.

Sure enough, Hermione immediately perked up her ears when he asked about it.

"You could say it's an invitation, or you could say it isn't."

"what?"

Harry blinked. "What do you mean?"

"She guessed that Hermione had already invited me."

Sherlock's words stunned both Harry and Hermione.

"She wanted to dance with me again after I finished leading the dance with Hermione, and I agreed."

Sherlock continued.

"So that's it."

Harry secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he was right; Gemma's intelligence was indeed no less than Hermione's.

This should be considered the best possible outcome, right?

Hermione, listening to Sherlock's words, seemed to have made up her mind as well.

Over the next few days, the Hogwarts students and teachers continued to demonstrate their desire to impress Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's guests.

They seem determined to showcase the castle at its best this Christmas.

The school was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, and all the young wizards from first to seventh grade said they had never seen such beautiful decorations since they entered the school.

The marble staircase railings were covered with icicles that never melted, and the twelve Christmas trees that were always placed in the auditorium were decorated with all sorts of little trinkets.

From the shimmering holly berries to the incessant chirping of the living golden owl.

The armor was enchanted; it would sing Christmas carols whenever someone passed by.

It always feels particularly comical when the empty helmet sings "Oh, come on, you devout people".

Unfortunately, the armor only knew half of the lyrics.

The administrator, Filch, was quite diligent and came over to Sherlock for help several times.

Because he needed to find Peeves, who was hiding behind those armors, and whenever the armors couldn't finish their song, he would make up some lyrics to fill in the gaps.

Unfortunately, those words were very crude and offensive, damaging the image of Hogwarts.

When Filch once again struggled to pull Peeves out of his armor, he said with considerable gratitude:
“Thank you, Sherlock—you know, the teachers are all incredibly busy right now and simply don’t have time to help me…”

“It’s nothing,” Sherlock said. “But I suggest you go to Moody. He’s been at school all this time, and he can find Peeves faster than I can.”

"Mad-Eye Moody?"

Filch shook his head at the thought of his prosthetic eyes and legs: "Never mind."

Just then, a commotion arose from the lobby, as if something had happened.

(End of this chapter)