"How did you guys get so many prizes?" Charlie Weasley asked.

He was currently helping George and Percy toss out Toffee Eclairs, Liquorice Wands, and Fizzing Whizbees towards the crowd.

Because the 【Differently Colored Team】 that George and Percy were on lost to Fred's 【Same Colored Team】, according to the rules of tonight's social, the 【Differently Colored Team】 had to accept a random little punishment.

The punishment was drawn from the lanterns hanging above the common room – sharing the candies won during tonight's event.

Only at this moment did the young wizards directly realize how much the "cross-house team" had gained during tonight's social. Just the candies that George and "Peach Xia-jie" carried out took several minutes to scatter completely.

There was more than one "big winner" group like this. For example, the prefect duo of Percy and Penelope followed closely behind.

"Charlie, you need to find a girlfriend... then you'll understand, some things are different..."

George whispered into Charlie's ear, his eyebrows and eyes unable to conceal his smug expression.

Although he lost to Fred, seeing George's attitude of fighting until his forearm cramped up, "Miss Peach" reluctantly agreed to still make fruit salad for him afterward. It wasn't in vain that he gritted his teeth and cast a jinx on himself.

On the other side, the atmosphere between Percy and Penelope's "Weak Prefect Team" was even more harmonious.

Penelope was originally a little unhappy, but Percy must have said something to her, because she was now completely without the disappointment she had previously shown after losing the game. Instead, she stood generously on the table, happily tossing snacks to the crowd.

The girl's charming and bright smile added unknown amounts of potential rivals to Percy.

Only one person didn't attend the banquet below.

Ailina was lying on the quiet and cool stone railing of the girls' dormitory, quietly watching the lively social. Hermione, who had finished the "Sudoku" game booth, quietly left the main venue below and came to Ailina's side.

"So... you're not planning to go down and join in?" she asked softly.

"Why are you back up here? Go down quickly –"

Ailina said, patting the little beaver's bottom beside her and gesturing downward.

"You must be exhausted tonight, right? Seize the time to go play some games. After tonight's social, it might be a long time before there's another large social event like this. Don't worry about me, I'll just watch from the side..."

"B-but... I feel like you really want to play too..."

Hermione frowned and looked at Ailina, noticing the yearning in Ailina's eyes when she was below.

You know, Ailina spent so much effort designing the games and specially arranged the "random grouping," and put a lot of thought into preparing the prizes—but all the joy was for the participants; Ailina got nothing.

As the planner of tonight's social, she didn't get to play any of the content.

"It's just childish games that little kids like, I only—when did you start believing in feelings?"

Ailina snorted softly, replying with a disdainful expression.

Childish games?

When preparing for the social and assigning work, Ailina didn't say that.

Hermione's gaze swept over the little ahoge on Ailina's head.

The usually lively ahoge drooped down extremely rarely, incongruous with the pride, confidence, and ease in Ailina's tone.

—As expected!

This white-haired dumpling... is lying!

And more importantly, Hermione looked at the corner temporarily cleaned up behind Ailina.

"Where are Luna and Hannah? Haven't they finished their work yet—"

Behind them, Luna and Hannah were still earnestly tabulating the distribution of prizes for tonight's event.

Unlike the other booth holders in charge of the game segments, their task at the social was to distribute prizes.

As the exclusive welfare givers of today's social, whether it was small snacks, drinks, toys, or the large抱枕(bào zhěn - hug pillows), date vouchers, Hogwarts kitchen double set meal (three days) that would be distributed uniformly later... all of these had to be registered and verified by them one by one before being submitted to Ailina after the social and distributed sequentially.

"Not yet, they should have a while longer. Besides..."

Ailina said seriously, glancing at the two little witches who were quietly checking the ledgers, "They're not suitable to participate either."

"Because you guys are prize distributors, planners? That's too ridiculous—"

"No, mainly because, uh, okay, the three of us participating would affect the balance of the game."

Ailina sighed and pointed to the game projects in the common room below, explaining calmly.

"Guessing the number of dice in ten dice cups, arm wrestling, blindfolded sticker game... we're not suitable to participate in these games. Unless we deliberately throw the game, no one can win against us in these projects. It would severely dampen everyone's interest.

"Affect the balance? Then why can I..."

Hermione raised her eyebrows high, crossed her arms, and said with some amusement, her smile gradually disappearing.

This was obvious. Luna had never lost in any luck-based situation, and Hannah, who had both high Strength and Dexterity, was the infamous 【Human Tyrannosaurus - Prefect】 of Hogwarts now.

As for Ailina, that was at least double-S...

"This isn't a competition or an exam... If you want everyone to have fun, then you have to be as equal as possible—"

Ailina said, leaning on the railing and looking at the bustling common room below, saying dejectedly.

"In this situation, these purely luck- and strength-based game projects are undoubtedly the most suitable choice. As long as there isn't anyone out of the ordinary causing trouble, then everyone's gap will narrow. Hermione, your strength lies in studying. This is an advantage that has been deliberately evened out, so it's okay—but I, Luna, and Hannah, it's best if we don't participate."

"So from the beginning, you deliberately arranged for Luna and Hannah to be the prize distributors?"

Hermione looked at Ailina calmly.

"Because you knew that you wouldn't participate in the social games no matter what?"

"That's right," Ailina nodded lightly, answering quickly.

"I asked for their opinions. If they were unwilling—but neither Hannah nor Luna had any objections. Not everyone can be playing at the social, right? Someone has to do the work. That's it, Hermione... Okay, explanation over."

"But shouldn't tonight's theme be the Quidditch Cup celebration party? Are you overthinking it?"

Hermione frowned in confusion, her gaze sweeping over the laughing Ravenclaw students in the venue.

Perhaps students from other houses are worth Ailina treating like this, but the discord between those Ravenclaw girls and Ailina is almost a school-wide secret. She really doesn't understand why Ailina should take care of their feelings.

"Oh, so this is the Quidditch problem, right?"

Ailina said, playing with her hair, replying casually.

"The competition for the Quidditch Cup has made inter-house relations tense, but the appearance of the Freshmen Team and the Master Team broke this vicious cycle. Ravenclaw lost their own team—this is the second good news. They can neutrally support any team they like, and the prerequisite for this is that they have to have more friends..."

"Support... any team? I don't quite understand—"

"Alliance, this is the trend—Madam Malkin's Robes is sponsoring the head coach, the Freshmen Team will definitely not be the last team with external sponsorship, nor will it be the last team with cheering from multiple houses—you'll understand next time."

Ailina looked at the small wizards paired up and whispering to each other, forming teams, and a smile appeared on her face.

Without realizing it, Cho Chang had already sat down with Cedric, discussing how to defeat the duo of Charlie Weasley and Lee Jordan in the next round of the three-legged race;

And Ginny was telling Harry a story with great animation. Judging from Harry's silly deer-like expression, it was probably the story about the Burrow that the head coach had specially instructed beforehand...

Compared to inter-house friendship, some feelings are more likely to bloom with a certain distance and differences in personality.

Perhaps some flowers will grow a little slower, but it's not a big problem.

Anyway, Hogwarts never cares about young love. As long as you don't do anything that affects others or violates school rules in the library, empty classrooms, or after curfew, no professor will interfere.

Given the low birth rates of recent decades, many magical families' parents even wish their children would get married right after graduation. For example, the two in the Weasley family are the most obvious examples.

Unknowingly, the clock passed twelve o'clock, extending into the next day.

This social party exceeded the originally planned end time. Whether it was the little Ravenclaw witches or the Gryffindor students, they seemed to have forgotten the time and were still tirelessly laughing and playing in the common room.

In order to have enough space to unfold activities such as 【Dodgeball】 and 【Pillow Fights】, Percy Weasley, as a prefect, even took the initiative to direct the older male students to clean up the dormitory and free up a floor of the dormitory as a game venue.

Hogwarts' dormitory curfew is only for boys. Girls can enter and exit the boys' dormitory at will.

Faced with this serious "infringement of the right to choose a spouse," the Gryffindor girls naturally wouldn't return to the dormitory to sleep.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the Gryffindor boys' dormitory quickly turned into a new round of game carnival—or rather, a hunting ground.

As time passed, almost all the little wizards completed the pairings of 【Same Color Team】 and 【Different Color Team】.

At one o'clock in the morning, Professor McGonagall, wearing a plaid flannel dressing gown and a hairnet, came to the common room, urging everyone to go back to sleep with an unhappy face.

Appearing with her were Professor Flitwick, who discovered that most of the students in the entire academy were not in their dormitories and the corridors were empty, as well as Professor Snape and Professor Sprout, who were called up by the other two heads of houses.

Under the gloomy faces of their respective heads of houses, the social party in the Gryffindor common room finally came to an end.

The students from the other houses reluctantly left the Gryffindor common room, while the Gryffindor students climbed the stairs back to their respective beds, still excitedly discussing the games at the social just now, and their respective "partners."

Of course, there were some condemnations of Percy and George, these two "big traitors."

Many Gryffindor girls were even rubbing their fists and palms, wanting to take back their own耕牛(gēng niú - plowing oxen, slang term for desirable partner) from the Ravenclaws.

The Gryffindor boys' discussions were mostly envious, especially those students who missed the "Potato War" compensation jumps last semester. As time passed, most of the boys discovered the additional benefits of that compensation.

Compared to the valiant lionesses of their own house, the Ravenclaw girls seemed obviously much gentler.

A small group of boys were even plotting to reenact the "Potato War" once, of course, they still had to lose—

Little master, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading, it's even more exciting!

It's just that the students' discussions didn't last too long.

"Everyone be quiet now!"

Professor McGonagall walked into the buzzing dormitory, loudly exclaiming in annoyance.

"I want everyone to go back to bed and sleep, stop talking! If you want to hold similar parties in the future—"

She waved her wand, and all the candles and magic lamps in the dormitory immediately went out.

The only light was the moonlight projected in from the window. The round-faced chubby chickens gathered by the windowsill were also driven back to the owlery by Professor McGonagall—she had long known about the students secretly sending "messages" at night, but she was just too lazy to care before.

But she certainly couldn't continue to condone it tonight, otherwise these little guys might even chat all night.

Under Professor McGonagall's inspection, the girls' dormitory quickly quieted down.

As the excitement dissipated in the silence, drowsiness poured out of the little wizards' bodies like a tide.

Many girls lay in bed and remembered that they hadn't washed up tonight. There was another rustling sound of groping for wands and casting spells in the dormitory.

Today's social wasn't completely one-sided. The Gryffindor girls also learned a lot of techniques from next door.

For example, when unable to enter the dormitory washroom to wash up, how to quickly complete makeup removal and personal cleaning using a wand—since the bronze eagle ring fell into the hands of the "witch," this was almost a must-have skill for all Ravenclaw girls.

And these practical combinations of small magical techniques quickly spread in the Gryffindor House girls' dormitory.

"...After reciting the cleaning spell, remember to put the wand by the bed."

Professor McGonagall shook her head helplessly, thought for a moment, and reminded them.

"If you don't want to lose a section of your eyebrows or hair in your sleep... please remember, don't put the wand under your pillow or sleep holding the wand—okay, good night, girls."

With that said, Professor McGonagall turned and walked towards the door.

She still had to go to the boys' dormitory to take a look, especially to check whether they had restored the dormitory to its original state.

On the other side, just as Hermione climbed into bed and pulled up the curtains to block the moonlight, she felt a familiar little dwarf burrow into the quilt.

"Ailina, this is my bed—you haven't washed your feet, have you!"

She lowered her voice, complaining softly, trying not to attract Professor McGonagall's attention by the door.

"Shh—"

Ailina yawned, casually poked Hermione's waist, dispelling the other's resistance.

"We have to go outside the school tomorrow, rest early—if I oversleep, you must remember to wake me up. Tomorrow's courses are quite exciting, if you're lucky enough, you might witness the opening of a completely new era of magical education..."

Hermione's struggling movements slowed slightly, and she asked curiously.

"Outside the school? A completely new... era of magical education? What is that?"

"Hehehe, if you call me 'Papa' once, I'll mercifully tell you—"

"Get out! Don't force me to kick you down!"

"Actually..."

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Yay!