I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 271 A Toast from Hermione Granger to the Winter Sun

"I?"

"Yes, don't leave Hogwarts recently, and don't go home for Christmas. You should stay in the castle until something is over."

"Why?" This time it was Hibiscus who spoke up. Aren't they just two demons?

What can you do?

Could they possibly rebel?

"It's a real hassle!" Sirius said impatiently, looking like he had something urgent to tell Dumbledore. "That's it. You all go back to the castle and remember what I said."

After entering the castle and passing through the oak door, he hurriedly disappeared down the corridor.

Hermione had no doubt that he was going to find Dumbledore.

But this did not alleviate her doubts.

In the end, she could only walk into the hall with Furong, somewhat dejected.

On Sunday, many young wizards were studying (doing their homework) in the auditorium.

Hermione found the position she wanted very easily.

A short while later, Irving also appeared in front of the auditorium.

He strode quickly toward Hermione, a cup of milk tea burning like flames, his face beaming with joy.

"I'm rich!!!"

"Miss Granger! I'm rich!"

"Hey!" the twins followed closely behind. "That's clearly our product!"

"Get lost! Without my ideas, you two would never have made this much money in your entire lives." Owen glared at them both with disdain. "You two were quite eager to claim credit. Wasn't the drink the flavor combination I wanted?"

"But the finished product was something we tested," George said angrily.

"Who paid for the materials upfront! Who gave GG money! Who found the connections! You two tools have the nerve to do this?"

Harry and Ron, each with a cup of milk tea in hand, gathered together on the bench in Gryffindor.

While scolding Hermione, Owen, with an expression that seemed to say "Praise me!", excitedly asked, "Do you know how much milk tea we've bought these past two days?"

"Milk tea?" Hermione was slightly taken aback. She was a little overwhelmed by the boy's sudden enthusiasm until she saw that they each had a cup of dragon milk tea in their hands, and then she understood what Owen meant.

It's strange, really.

Because when she looked around, she noticed that most of the young wizards were holding a cup of dragon milk tea.

Is this product selling so well?

She looked down at her glass.

The taste is indeed quite good.

"Two days! Two thousand cups!" Irving said excitedly. "I just opened a shop in Diagon Alley yesterday."

"One cup buys one Silver Sike, over a hundred Gallons earned in two days! Woohoo! Takeoff!"

"Once the market expands, we'll head to Europe, and then send troops to North America. I'm going to make a fortune!"

"You own a shop in Diagon Alley?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "When did you get a property deed in Diagon Alley?"

"It was a gift from Malfoy, it doesn't matter." Owen suddenly stood up and shouted loudly towards a corner of the Gryffindor bench, "Colin, come here."

Colin, who was engrossed in drinking the warm sunshine, looked up in confusion.

Upon seeing Irving's burning gaze, he instantly understood and ran over with his camera.

Irving only wanted him to take photos.

Colin was happy to see this, because Irving would pay him every time.

By the time he was in third grade, he had already accumulated a considerable amount of wealth.

"Take some pictures of Miss Granger, and oh, develop them with the color ink I gave you last time. I need to make some posters!"

The last time Irving was referring to was naturally the time he was interviewed by the Warriors.

He and George invented a color ink developer to print on what is now black and white newspapers, but since the current magical machines can only print newspapers in black and white, they didn't use it.

However, if it's made into a poster, it doesn't need to be printed.

He only needs a few.

"When the tournament comes, let's crush them in one fell swoop!" he said, then suddenly looked at Hermione, put his hand on her shoulder, and solemnly said, "Win beautifully, Miss Granger."

"."

A sense of absurdity flowed into Hermione's heart.

After a moment of silence, she asked, puzzled, "What happened?"

"You don't understand, because if you did, I'd have to pay you an endorsement fee, so you'd better not understand," Irving said to himself.

Upon hearing this, Hermione's expression changed instantly. Knowing the boy as she did, she was certain he had done something that would give her a reason to beat him up.

However, she doesn't intend to pursue the matter today.

I'm in a good mood today, so I'm going to let you off the hook.

She squinted her eyes—her cheeks puffed out, she looked incredibly cute.

Of course, there is another reason.

Hermione suddenly seemed to remember something and gradually calmed down.

She swallowed back all the words she wanted to say.

She wanted to tell him about her encounter with Sirius.

And then there's the matter of those two fairies.

But—perhaps Sirius was a bit neurotic—she didn't think those two fairies posed any threat to her, and even if they did, she could easily deal with them.

If we tell Owen, besides being worried, he'll definitely stir up trouble; Hogsmeade Village has finally managed to calm down. It's better to leave him alone.

Hermione, who had quickly figured things out, changed the subject and started talking about something else.

"Have you found any clues about Dean Weasley's test?" she asked calmly, taking another sip of her dragon milk tea.

"test?"

Irving paused for a moment.

test?

Oh! What a test!

He had almost forgotten about it.

Lately I've been busy making money and teaching Hermione magic.

Ahem—look at Miss Granger, she's even concerned about his trials while studying magic.

and himself

But—but! Irving certainly won't just open his mouth and say, "I forgot."

How embarrassing would that be?

He's going to become that Justin guy—"Well!" he stammered.

But his mind was racing.

It was like a revolving lantern of memories of meeting Joan of Arc, my mind frantically deconstructing the test he had been given, the questions left by Dean Weasley.

"Oh! Of course, I've been thinking about this for the past few days and finally found a clue."

In a flash of inspiration, Irving quickly pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket.

Use your wand to write a message on it.

"Beyond the fog that cannot obscure your vision. Beneath the towering buildings of glory and honor, see your humblest friend. Go and search—to retrieve the lost treasure of the Weasley family."

The parchment is precisely Dean Weasley's riddle.

"We've always thought this was a complete sentence. But is it possible that it's actually two sentences?" He used his wand to cross out the Weasley family treasure at the back.

Then, the line "Beneath the towering buildings of glory and honor, see clearly your humblest friend" was drawn separately.

"The 'high-rise' clearly refers to Hogwarts, but what's the 'lowest friend'?" Owen looked at Hermione seriously and asked, "And who does this 'you' refer to?"

"Isn't it yourself?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"How could that be?" Owen retorted immediately. "The mystery originates from hundreds of years ago. Could a wizard from hundreds of years ago have foreseen 'me' in the present? Could he have figured out who my friends are?"

"so what?"

"I have a bold idea!" With a slight tremor of his hand, a two-way mirror appeared in his palm.

"Hey! Is Dobby here? Is Dobby here?!"

Unlike the time at Black's ancestral home, the other elf recovered much faster this time.

"Oh, Mr. Sanchez, were you looking for me?"

A sprite dressed in medieval armor, holding a longsword, appeared in the mirror.

His armor was half the size of the original, fitting him perfectly, but the sword remained exactly the same. He held it up with great effort, looking somewhat comical.

"Yes! To Hogwarts, to the Great Hall."

"Okay, sir, please wait a moment while Dobi returns the costume." After saying that, the two-way mirror went dark.

"???" Owen frowned. "Costume? What costume?"

Just as he was wondering, only a dozen seconds later...

Suddenly, with a soft "poof," a small figure appeared on the Gryffindor table in a corner of the Great Hall.

Dobby landed suddenly, feeling dizzy and disoriented. He covered his head and stepped over the little wizards' textbooks.

"Hi!"

"Oh! I'm so sorry." Dobby quickly took a few steps back and apologized.

But as he stepped back, he stepped on the little wizard's finger behind him: "Ouch!"

"Keep an eye on it!"

"Oh, sir, it's all Dobby's fault. Dobby—Dobby can offer you some compensation." He dared not move again and could only kneel on the table.

"Uh—" The little wizard was still a bit angry, but when he looked up and saw Dobby, most of his anger disappeared.

After all—what could a house-elf possibly compensate him for? Besides, if his friends knew he had accepted compensation from a house-elf, they would definitely laugh at him.

"No need!" the boy uttered, then rubbed his fingers and continued working on his homework—oh! It's Sunday today.

Seeing that the boy had rejected him, Dobby was a little frustrated. He stood up, bent over, and wanted to say something.

But Irving's voice already came through. "Dobby!"

"Um—please take this." Dobby quickly pulled a gold ring from his pocket. He placed the ring next to the boy's book.

Then, amidst the boy's puzzled gaze, she quickly ran towards Owen's direction.

"Where have you been?" Owen asked curiously as they approached.

"Someone wants Dobby to make a movie!" Dobby, dressed in a wool sweater and robe, sat on the edge of the table, swinging his legs, and said happily, "Dobby met a kind man who said he is a Squib, but he has a career in the Muggle world. He has a grand dream, which is to make a movie about the magical world."

"How could that be!" Hermione exclaimed immediately. "The Ministry of Magic will not allow it."

"That gentleman said he could revise the script or adapt a Muggle fantasy classic, then the Ministry of Magic would have nothing to say."

"A classic fantasy novel?" Hermione immediately thought of a fantasy novel that held a significant place in Britain.

"Are you making a Lord of the Rings movie?" she immediately asked.

"Did Miss Granger read that book too?" Dobby asked curiously, then her face lit up with surprise. "Dobby always thought that book must have been written by some wizard, and that wizard named Gandalf in it must be Dumbledore!"

"That gentleman said there's a very challenging character in the book that would be perfect for Dobby, who loves a challenge!"

"stop!!!"

Seeing that the conversation was getting increasingly inappropriate, with the father talking about his son, Irving quickly called a halt.

Then, he lowered his head and whispered to Dobby, "Tell me that kind person's contact information later, I'll invest in him!"

Hey!

Even if it's outrageous, it won't stop me from making money!

Just from the title, you know this movie is worth at least 30 billion US dollars.

A fool wouldn't take the money!

Kyrie Irving could even contribute some 'movie props'!

"Let's get back to the main topic!"

Owen winked at Dobby, and the little elf immediately understood, flashing him a big smile.

“I think the ‘you’ in this proverb doesn’t refer to me, but to Hufflepuff! Helga Hufflepuff.” He pointed to the parchment on the table and said to Hermione, “And her humblest friends are, of course, the house-elves!”

Irving finally voiced the idea that had taken him a few seconds to come up with.

Then he stared at Hermione with a smug look on his face and said.

Although it was rushed, his guess was quite reasonable; at least he convinced himself of it.

However, he clearly did not see any approval on Hermione's face; Owen even saw her frown.

"I don't think so," she said, then pulled a stack of parchment from her pocket.

Or rather, it's a book.

When she opened it, Irving saw densely packed text.

"As is well known, the house-elves of Hogwarts were first brought in by Lady Helga Hufflepuff."

But she didn't grant the elves freedom; she merely provided them with a sanctuary where they could work at the school and wouldn't be mistreated.

Hermione spoke calmly, her slender fingers quickly flipping through the pages of her book.

Although she is not now entangled with everyone to join her cause of liberating the Pokémon as she did in the original story, it does not mean that she will give up on this cause.

She simply understood the rules governing the operation of power in the magical world, and that unless a race itself is unable to awaken, everything done by outsiders is merely wishful thinking.

Now she is focused on doing what she can, such as improving the working conditions for the Hogwarts elves.

Miss Granger is doing great things step by step, like the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains, with unyielding determination.

This is a million times greater than any of those who only know how to talk big, who open their mouths about how difficult the road ahead is, who shut their mouths about how ignorant and foolish the fairies are, while they themselves are unwilling to even speak up, who are numb and indifferent, who are also oppressed but do not know it!

Hermione looked at the parchment in her hand, which contained her records of her investigation into the lives of the Hogwarts house-elves. "You can tell from their attitude toward Dobby."

Dobby gets paid for his work, while the other house-elves are ashamed of it.

"I also thought about knitting scarves and socks and leaving them all over the castle, so that the little elves who come to clean up will accidentally pick them up and thus gain their freedom."

But I found that they didn't change much after I picked them up, so I guessed that they had a mind of their own, and only he had the right to grant them freedom.

"And I believe that's Dumbledore!"

"Stop!" Owen quickly stopped Hermione from continuing to speak; if this continued, she could go on and on until tomorrow.

As for house-elves—it’s not so simple to awaken a race whose servility is ingrained in their blood. He actually thinks highly of what Miss Granger is doing now, because it’s like a great social experiment. The experience she’s accumulating now will be the capital she uses to govern in the future.

There is no other race in the magical world that is as suitable as this one.

Besides, it's in Hogwarts, which is much safer.

"Perhaps so!" Owen picked up the parchment from the table in front of him. "But the humblest friend in the castle can only be a house-elf."

"Oh! Besides you!" He glanced at Dobby, then turned back to Hermione. "It couldn't be the snake in the Chamber of Secrets, could it?"

"What snake!"

"Uh—that's not important. Anyway, the elves who have lived in the castle since the founding of Hogwarts more than 1,600 years ago definitely know more about the secrets of this school than wizards!"

"Dobby!" Irving called out.

"Sir?" Dobby replied happily.

"Go to the kitchen and ask the elves if they know anything about the Weasley family's treasure or anything like that, or about a witch named Shani Weasley."

"Yes, sir."

With that, Dobby jumped off the table and ran happily out of the auditorium.

Watching Dobby's departing figure.

Irving shook his head slightly.

Irving didn't have high hopes that he could find any useful information.

First of all, Dobby is far inferior to those Hogwarts house-elves. Even if a creature who considers himself a slave and a free man belong to the same race, they are two different kinds of beings.

Secondly, given how much time has passed, it's uncertain whether historians still exist among the elves, and whether they would record past history is still a question mark.

That's all I can say!

It's still a clue, isn't it?

Perhaps we can actually find out some useful information.

That possibility cannot be ruled out.

While Owen and Hermione were talking, Fleur was curiously observing the two of them.

Neither their conversation nor the little sprite that suddenly appeared.

Everything about it seemed novel to her.

Wow!

A little elf who always wears clothes.

This was something she had never seen before. Beauxbatons also had many elves, and she was familiar with these creatures, but she had never seen one like Dobby.

Fleur suddenly realized that even though she and Hermione had known each other for so long, she had never really understood this oldest magic school in Europe. It seemed that something shocking happened to her every day here.

The young wizards here generate new ideas and put them into practice every day.

And that boy—he was shrouded in mystery, and every time she thought she understood something, the mystery would deepen.

That sense of mystery always drew her attention.

"What a wonderful place!" she said, a smile playing on her lips as she looked at the two of them.

(End of this chapter)