Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 125 Building Favorability

Loren suppressed a laugh. Compared to the always decisive and shrewd young lady at school, the little girl at home, anxious because she couldn't eat dinner after drinking too much sugary drink, was exceptionally adorable.

He glanced outside; the sun shone a golden light. He said, "Let's go for a walk in your backyard. A walk will help digest the water in our stomachs."

"Really?" Hermione peeked into the kitchen. Monica had only just started preparing the ingredients; it would probably be a while before dinner was ready.

She nodded and led Loren towards the backyard.

The bright floor-to-ceiling windows are the doors to the backyard, outside of which are lush green lawns and trees.

The courtyard was enormous, more than half the size of the house. A few steps ahead of the floor-to-ceiling windows was a concrete platform, a little over a meter wide. A row of low shrubs stretched out, beyond which lay a flat lawn, in the center of which stood a small tree. Tall green trees, of unknown species, lined the three outer walls.

Under the golden sunlight, everything was lush and green, and the air was exceptionally fresh.

Hermione wasn't in such a hurry anymore.

Loren squinted slightly before opening his eyes again, adjusting to the light, and asked, "Why is everything green? Aren't there any flowers planted?"

The two strolled slowly in the yard, their footsteps crunching on the soft grass, breathing in the fresh air. The sun was no longer as scorching as it had been at midday.

This was Hermione's first time in the backyard since returning from vacation. She touched and tugged at things here and there, glancing upstairs before whispering, "My dad killed all the flowers he was growing, so he switched to planting easier-to-grow trees and shrubs..."

Before he could finish speaking, a window upstairs was pushed open.

Hermione looked over nervously.

Wendell leaned out of the window and shouted to the two people below, "Where did this furniture come from?"

Even from a floor away, Loren could clearly see the excited expression on Wendell's face.

Before Loren and Hermione could answer, he waved another hand and shouted, "It's magic, isn't it! I need to take a good look at the bed you conjured with magic."

Wendell disappeared again.

Hermione coughed lightly and said, "Don't worry about it, my father has a strange perception of wizards."

Loren nodded slightly, he could tell.

Hermione, not wanting him to focus too much on her father, quickly continued, "This little tree in the middle, I planted it myself."

Speaking of this, Hermione's face showed a hint of pride, and her voice was filled with smugness: "Our whole family went to buy it together. My dad bought a lot of flowers, and I only bought a sapling. But only the sapling survived; it's the longest-living plant in this yard."

"What about the trees around here?" Loren asked, pointing to a ring of trees along the outer wall; those trees were even taller.

Hermione glanced upstairs again and whispered, "These were transplanted from outside after all of my father's flowers died."

"When I'm home, I always want to prune the shrubs and trees, but I can only do it on weekends under their supervision. I can only water them during the week."

Hermione pulled out a hose from somewhere and started watering the plants.

Her eyes shone brightly as she carefully restrained the urge to swing the hose and spray water into the distance, saying, "Since I went to Hogwarts, I've had someone come and trim it regularly."

The water jets cascaded over the bushes and then onto the grass, swaying in the air as they traced arcs.

Walk slowly, water slowly, everything is fine ahead.

Hermione didn't know how she got bewitched by Loren, but she blocked the water outlet with her finger, and water sprayed from one end to the other.

"Higher, higher!" Loren directed from the side.

Hermione nodded happily.

The water in the pipe quickly rose higher than the trees, splashing everywhere and creating a light mist.

The two of them quickly got carried away and had a blast.

Most of the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the moon's shadow could even be seen in the sky, but it was not yet completely dark.

"Dinner's ready!"

Monica's voice startled them from their merriment.

The two looked at the courtyard, which resembled a flood-damaged place, exchanged a glance, and both felt somewhat embarrassed.

Loren felt bad that he had corrupted Hermione as soon as he arrived.

Hermione felt embarrassed about her crazy behavior.

"The sun is strong in the summer, so we won't water it tomorrow," Hermione said, raising her chin and adopting the air of a homeowner.

"That makes sense, let's have a rain shower then."

The two agreed not to mention the matter again, nor to let the Grangers know. After washing their hands, they went into the house one after the other.

Hermione saw the dinner on the table and, remembering what had happened before, quickly said, "I'll be right back!"

She ran to the bathroom, leaving Loren alone.

"Sit here! Make yourself at home, do whatever you want." Wendell patted Loren on the shoulder and led him to a chair at the dining table.

Loren gave a somewhat awkward smile.

Monica brought the fish and chips out of the kitchen and said with a smile, "Make yourself at home here."

The Grangers were very enthusiastic, but their enthusiasm was tinged with a hint of awkwardness.

Monica prepared a very lavish dinner, but it consisted of mostly home-style dishes, all tasted just right. The atmosphere at the table was warm but tinged with a strangeness.

Loren swallowed a piece of roasted meat and looked up to meet the eyes of Wendell and Monica.

The two quickly looked away.

Loren ate another piece of pie and looked up.

This time, I didn't meet their gaze, but their quick head-turning movements left afterimages.

Loren felt that the host family was more nervous than he, the guest.

That was indeed the case. Hermione had hardly any friends growing up, and she would never invite classmates over. This was the first time the Grangers had hosted one of Hermione's classmates, and one with a tragic past.

The two worried that they might have overlooked something, and also that their excessive enthusiasm might make Loren uncomfortable. Their plan to interact naturally and treat him like Hermione during the day simply didn't work at the dinner table.

Therefore, the aforementioned actions occurred.

Hermione, completely oblivious to the situation at the table, thought everything looked delicious.

Loren picked up a piece of beef with his fork and put it in his mouth, a satisfied smile instantly spreading across his face: "Delicious!"

Before Monica could react, he chewed twice and swallowed, saying, "The roasting temperature is just right, tender enough without any bloody taste. This requires precise control of the heat."

Monica smiled faintly, while Hermione and Wendell were somewhat bewildered.

Loren ate another piece: "It's even better than Hogwarts food! You know what wizarding food is, right?"

"Say the name of the food, and the food you want to eat will appear in front of you."

Hermione stared blankly at Loren, wondering why he was acting so strangely and what he was saying.

Wendell's eyes widened as he listened to Loren's follow-up.

"Many of the Hogwarts menus were left by Hufflepuff, one of the founders and a legendary wizard. House-elves were in charge of cooking; they used magic to cook, and the food would cut itself up and serve itself."

"But I must say, Ms. Granger, your cooking is a million times better than those magical chefs!"

After his words, Wendell's curiosity and thirst for knowledge were satisfied, and Monica beamed with pride at the praise.

The slight oddity mixed in with the warm atmosphere on the table was shaken off, replaced by another kind of oddity.

Loren has something to praise in every dish, from the cooking time and sauce to the selection of ingredients, and they all connect to the magical world.

The meal struck a chord with Wendell and Monica, and both felt thoroughly entertained.

Hermione was stunned; she couldn't understand it at all.

Loren poked at the rosemary garnish on his plate with his fork and said in an exaggerated tone, "This rosemary is used perfectly. The aroma of the spice blends perfectly with the aroma of the oil, cutting through the greasiness of the oil."

Monica grinned: "Eat as much as you like. Make yourself at home. Just tell me what you want to eat."

"Tell us again how to peel potatoes with magic." Wendell's cutlery hadn't been touched in a long time, so he listened to Loren talk; it was his spiritual nourishment.

Hermione: ...

After the meal, the Grangers completely relaxed and grew to love Loren.

After finishing the meal, Monica stacked the cutlery and smiled broadly, saying, "You guys watch some TV and chat."

Loren then demonstrated how to wash dishes with magic, instantly solving Monica's most arduous task.

Monica and Wendell sat with Loren in the living room, the TV turned down to the lowest volume, just for background noise, as they mainly wanted to chat with Loren.

To be honest, Hermione felt a bit superfluous.

This felt strange; for the first time in over a decade, Hermione, who had no siblings, felt that her parents' affection had been taken away.

No matter how she looked at it, she felt that Loren was the real Granger family's biological child, and that she was just a classmate who had been invited as a guest.

Meanwhile, Loren was still trying to improve the Grangers' favorability.

"Your house is so tidy, and your cooking is so delicious, I almost thought you were a full-time housewife. No, you're better than many full-time housewives." Loren didn't even glance at the 480p color TV.

Monica couldn't stop smiling. She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed for a while before saying, "Like Wendell, I'm also a dentist who graduated from medical school."

Loren's expression became more sincere. "A female medical student in the 70s, that's outstanding."

These words struck a chord with Monica.

In that era, less than 5% of women who passed the entrance exam for medical school actually graduated. In the 70s, women only made up a little over ten percent of the dental profession, and that figure was supported by dental nurses and dental assistants. Monica, a fully-fledged dentist, was truly a leader of her time.

"Female students will encounter many invisible obstacles when they go to medical school, some from society and some from their families," Loren said seriously.

Monica nodded in agreement, "I've wanted to give up many times, but..."

The three chatted happily. Loren asked them about their interesting experiences at the medical school, led them to complain about their professors, and used the professors at Hogwarts as an analogy to join in the吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for complaining/criticizing).

Loren also revealed his background in the conversation: he came from a Muggle family, and the orphanage helped him find his grandfather. However, Grandpa Bates is currently traveling and won't be home for a while.

Then the Grangers began praising Loren for being outstanding, handsome, and having a good personality.

Hermione sat on the sofa, practically invisible, her eyes fixed on Loren's face, which was full of sincerity and joy. It seemed her conversation with her parents was entirely heartfelt.

Finally, Monica said, "Loren, you can stay here as long as you want."

Hermione felt a mix of joy and confusion.

……

Loren changed into the pajamas he had brought in his suitcase, lay on the bed and recalled the day's events. He concluded that apart from feeling a little uncomfortable at the beginning, his performance afterwards was simply perfect.

Two weeks later, the Grangers were probably already considering adopting him.

However, adoption was not an option, as Loren did not want to become Hermione's sibling.

"Knock knock knock"

The sound of knocking on the window.

Loren looked outside and saw an owl gently tapping the glass with its beak.

Who would write to him at this time?

I paid the owl a tip with the few candies I had left, and watched it fly out the window and disappear into the darkness.

Loren then opened the letter and began to read it.

The letter was an urgent letter written by Dumbledore.

The letter mentioned that Nagini had awakened, but things had taken an unexpected turn. The healing effect of the Philosopher's Stone combined with the ritual was not permanent, and Nagini said he had restarted the process of transforming into a snake.

However, this process will last for several years, and Nagini is very satisfied, believing that the results are already very good.

In his letter, Dumbledore reassured Loren not to worry, explaining that Bates' condition was different from Nagini's; blood-cursed orcs were far more stubborn than werewolves. Even if the ritual's effects weren't permanent, it could be used as a periodic treatment, much like the use of wolfsbane.

Outside the window, the night was cool and still.

Loren gazed at the night outside the window, folding the letter in his hands again and again until it was finally crumpled into a wad of paper.

He comforted himself, thinking Dumbledore was right; using rituals as a form of periodic therapy was fine. The effects of one session lasting for several years was enough.

But there was a pent-up anger in my heart that I couldn't shake off or let go of.

He began to recall if there had been any loopholes in his question to Mary, or if he had forgotten to add any qualifiers related to timeliness.

Or perhaps it's a problem with the ritual, or a problem with the spell to restore human form.

Unable to come up with a solution, Loren took out the Book of Fantasy from his suitcase and immersed himself in it.

In the bright library, Flamel sat leisurely on a bench, surrounded by books about bel canto and opera.

"Flamemer!"

Loren sat down directly opposite him and began to recount what had happened: "I discovered a ritual that, through the Philosopher's Stone, utilizes the medicinal properties of two-horned beasts and two-eared herbs to perfectly fulfill the conditions for using the Restoration Charm. Dumbledore and I used the method on a Blood Curse Orc, but..."

Loren was getting anxious: "The ceremony was perfect, so where did things go wrong?"

Flamel listened quietly to Loren's story, and only spoke after Loren had calmed down: "I can't find the cause of the problem either. Whether it's the blood curse or the restoration spell, these are very mysterious spells, and modern wizards can no longer decipher their mysteries."

Flamel said, "But I can show you a way."

Loren looked up at Flamel.

"Forge your own magic stone, a stone with the unique characteristic of being bio-transformed!"

The sound echoed clearly and loudly in the open space.

(End of this chapter)