Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 239 Harry and the Marauder's Map

Over the next few days, Lupin secretly observed Xilun during class, but Xilun behaved normally and seemed no different from usual.

He also tried to create opportunities to say something to Xilen, but was deliberately ignored.

Until one Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he once again kept Siron in the classroom under the pretext of homework.

“I’m really busy right now, Professor.” Celen handed him the assignment. “Professor McGonagall has asked me to send my paper to Transfiguration Today after the Easter break, but I still have a foot of content to write.”

"Also, Professor, you must know that the Easter holiday is more like an assignment week, and there's simply no time for me to write papers."

"Ah..." Lu Ping didn't know what to say for a moment, and after a while he finally said, "I can... um, assign less homework."

“That’s great,” Celen said. “But the assignments for the first subject obviously won’t change much, and I’ll still be very busy.”

"It's just dealing with a mouse. I'm sure you, Professor Lupin, can come up with a good idea, right?"

Xiren put down his homework and left the classroom. Lupin didn't say anything more until he closed the classroom door.

However, Xilun wasn't just making excuses; he'd been genuinely busy lately.

Because of that novel paper, Professor McGonagall has been keeping a close eye on him lately, which has left Siron with no chance to slack off.

More importantly, it seems that others have also noticed this.

They were unaware of the paper's contents and assumed that Professor McGonagall's attention was drawn by Hillen's violation of school rules.

To avoid being implicated, they all distanced themselves from Siron. Seamus and Dean now avoid him altogether, and while Harry and Ron aren't quite as extreme, they still sit even further away from Siron in class... especially in Transfiguration class, where they practically want to be separated from Siron by a Quidditch pitch.

"Sorry, Siron, but there's nothing we can do." Harry said sheepishly after class.

"After all, sitting next to you means that Professor McGonagall will be watching you for the entire class, which is an incredibly unsettling feeling."

“Is Professor McGonagall really that scary?” Siron asked.

“It’s even scarier than you think,” Ron muttered. “Sometimes I’d rather face my angry mom than have her look at me.”

Siron thought Ron was exaggerating a bit. Although Professor McGonagall usually had a serious and unsmiling demeanor, she was definitely a professor worthy of respect.

"It's time for Charms class," Harry said. "We'd better hurry."

The three hurried up the marble stairs toward the Charms classroom.

As they pushed open the classroom door, the class bell rang, and they quickly sat down.

"You guys almost got late." A familiar voice came from the side.

"Hermione?" Harry was startled and asked in a high-pitched voice, "When did you get here!"

He remembered clearly that when they first walked over, there was no one in that spot; Hermione seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time!” Hermione said.

"Impossible, I clearly remember you saying you had something to do and going upstairs by yourself..."

"Everyone, divide into pairs." Professor Flitwick's voice drowned out Harry's confusion, and he could only look towards the podium.

“Everyone, raise your wands,” Professor Flitwick said. “Today we’re going to test the Happiness Charm. I hope you all listened attentively in the last class; I don’t want to see anyone laughing nonstop later.”

……

Sillen suspected that Professor Flitwick also had a talent for prophecy, because when get out of class ended, some people were indeed laughing non-stop.

Seamus Finigan's laughter had been going on for ten minutes, and it wasn't a happy laugh, it was just a loud, uninhibited laugh.

And the person in his group... oh, it was Neville.

Now everything makes sense.

Professor Flitwick had no choice but to step forward and break the spell on Seamus, who was on the verge of suffocation.

The laughter stopped immediately. Seamus looked at Neville with lingering fear.

"I'm sorry, Seamus, I didn't mean to. I... I misremembered the spell..." Neville tried to apologize, but with every step he took forward, Seamus took a step back. In the end, he turned and ran, disappearing at the end of the corridor in the blink of an eye.

“Neville is horrible,” Ron said, his face turning pale as if he had just realized something, and even the effects of the Happiness Charm disappeared.

"Oh, I just remembered, I'll be in the same group as Neville soon."

"what?"

“Fortune telling!” Ron said.

Divination class is also in pairs. He used to be paired with Hermione, but after they fell out because of Scabbers, they switched places.

Hermione went to the row furthest from Professor Trelawney, and Neville, who was already there, naturally sat next to Ron.

“It’s alright,” Harry reassured him. “At least we don’t need wands in Divination class, so there’s no danger.”

“I hope so,” Ron said.

Harry had hoped to use this topic to try and ease the tension between him and Hermione, but when he turned around, he found that Hermione, who had been following him, had suddenly disappeared.

Did they leave from the other side of the corridor?
Wait a minute, there are no stairs on the other side, which means she'll have to take a huge detour to get to the auditorium for lunch... Even Neville wouldn't take that route.

“Sirlen, have you seen Hermione?” Harry asked.

“No.” Xilun shook his head and said, “She probably walked past us while we were talking.”

“Maybe,” Harry said, which seemed to be the most reasonable answer.

The Happiness Charm's effects lasted until lunchtime. When they returned to the common room after finishing their apple pie, they found Hermione fast asleep at the table, her head resting on an open arithmetic and divination textbook.

“That’s strange.” Harry stared at the book of arithmetic and divination, and the timetable next to it.

On the timetable, arithmetic divination is the first class in the afternoon, and divination class is also at the same time.

"If I remember correctly, Hermione has never missed a single Divination class."

“No,” Celen said. “She’s always on time for every class.”

"Then how will she get to her arithmetic and divination class?" Harry glanced at the timetable again, where the times for divination and arithmetic almost overlapped.

"Could it be that she hasn't attended a single arithmetic or divination class?" Harry said thoughtfully. "No, Hermione couldn't possibly skip class... Strange, could she possibly be in two places at the same time?"

“Maybe she has some other way,” Celen said. “You can ask her directly.”

“Let’s forget about it.” Harry gave a wry smile. “Because of Ron, she doesn’t talk to me much anymore.”

“I don’t think it’s because of Ron,” Celen said with a smile. “If you’re reading those big books all the time, you probably won’t want to talk to anyone.”

Harry's gaze unconsciously shifted to the book that Hermione was using as a pillow.

It's really thick, it looks at least three inches thick. Even if he reads until the end of the school year, he probably won't finish reading such a thick book.

Harry licked his lips, not daring to reply.

He sat down on the other side and took out an old, rustic parchment to fiddle with.

"Marauder's Map?" Siren blurted out.

“What did you just say?” Harry looked up.

“Ah, I mean, where did this come from?” Xiren pointed to the parchment.

“Professor Lupin lent it to me before Transfiguration class today,” Harry said. “He said it would be useful to me… but I still don’t understand what use a piece of parchment could be.”

……

(End of this chapter)