Mysterious Journey

Chapter 953 A New Chapter

"Alas, indeed."

Hermione nodded, softly agreeing, and sighed with a hint of helplessness.

"It's not just your year; the current crop of boys at Hogwarts is a bit daft..."

At any time, disparaging boys is always the best topic for girls to reach a consensus on.

Especially in the current first and second years at Hogwarts, thanks to the example set by Aileen, the young witches are generally more dazzling, intelligent, and independent than the boys of the same year. And comparing them vertically to the older years at Hogwarts, there's also "Miss Peach" and her useless man.

Girls are naturally more mature and sensitive than boys, and this advantage in magical learning is much more obvious than in the non-magical world.

Hermione left the lavatory, tidying up her textbooks for the day, while grumbling with some dissatisfaction.

"Alas, why can't we meet contemporaries like Professor Lockhart?"

"Lockhart?" Aileen narrowed her eyes, raising an eyebrow.

"Then why don't you just say Professor Dumbledore, or Professor Snape? Professor Quirrell is also good..."

It seems the campus idol project needs to be pushed forward as soon as possible, otherwise, she might have to think about how to reasonably exile an O5 member.

The situation of Gilderoy Lockhart dominating the scene is not conducive to the healthy growth of young witches in their adolescence. Selecting several idols to form a balance of power on campus is the only way to have a chance of mutual exposure or a war to divert attention—if it weren't for considering the impact, she would even plan to have a wave of 'impure earth reincarnation' of the appearance representatives among Hogwarts' well-known alumni from previous years, and even foreigners could be considered."

"Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor Quirrell, Professor Lockhart?"

Hearing the conversation between Aileen and Hermione, Hannah pondered earnestly for a rare moment, and then said.

"Then I choose Professor Snape. As for the other professors, although they each have some charm and charisma, they are too easy to attract bees and butterflies. Mom says if you want to find a boyfriend, you should find one who can earn money and take care of the family—Professor Dumbledore doesn't seem like he would earn money to support a family."

In the impression of most young wizards, Professor Dumbledore's image is equivalent to a carefree school mascot.

Perhaps he is quite worthy of respect in terms of personal achievements, but dating and the like are out of the question.

Over the years, Professor Dumbledore has not had a girlfriend, let alone a rumored object of ambiguity.

And in the interval of their conversation, the girls in the lavatory also came out one after another.

Everyone sat on the edge of the bed and began to put on socks and shoes—this is not a simple matter, after all, everyone's shoes and socks are mixed together. Compared with clothes with obvious and named labels, there seems to be almost no difference in shoes and socks except for the college.

The only way is to distinguish them by their respective smells...

"If we're talking about making money, then it's better to meet Mr. Lovegood in his student days."

Cho Chang carefully sniffed a stocking held between two fingers, and luckily locked in her socks directly, while casually saying.

"Luna's mother should be the happiest witch in the entire magical world now. Her husband can write manuscripts and earn money at home every day. Any newspaper or magazine or merchant has to take into account the comments of *The Quibbler*. She can buy whatever she wants, I don't know if the school still has such potential stocks..."

Along with Cho Chang's voice, the room suddenly fell into a strange silence.

A few seconds later, in the increasingly suffocating atmosphere, Cho Chang finally realized something was wrong.

"Sorry, did I...did I say something wrong just now?"

Cho Chang was still holding the socks in her hand, looking around in some panic, and asked cautiously.

"Luna's mother passed away," Hermione said softly, "before she came to school, and before *The Quibbler* became popular—"

Then, another brief silence.

"I'm sorry. I never knew..." Cho Chang said softly.

"It's nothing, Mom was a very amazing witch, especially fond of doing experiments, before most of the family's expenses were based on Mom. She always said she was the happiest witch in the world." Luna lowered her eyes and shook her head gently, her voice drifting as she continued, "Until one day, one of her spells went terribly wrong. The year before I came to Hogwarts—thinking about it now still makes me and Dad very sad, but..."

"But, it doesn't mean you'll never see her again."

Aileen walked behind Luna, gently hugged her, and patted her arm.

"She's just hiding, right? Besides, you still have Dad, Mr. Lovegood can be said to be the most doting father I've ever seen, I'm sometimes a little jealous. Not to mention, besides Dad, you still have us by your side..."

"Yeah, yes, they're just hiding."

Luna turned her head to look at Aileen, with a faint smile on her face.

Perhaps Aileen often has many troubling bad ideas, but Aileen is also the only friend who truly understands her.

"They?" Astoria asked curiously.

Daphne tugged at her sister's robe, and lowered her voice anxiously, "Aileen is an orphan."

"Sorry—"

Astoria said quickly, and dodged to the side in fear.

Although Aileen also had a lot of setbacks in the game session last night, her coldness when maintaining order was equally impressive.

You know, in the eyes of the lower-grade students, Aileen is not as harmless as Luna—as Hogwarts' "Four-House Walking", "Empress of the Sky", "Chief Chef", "Potions Class Teaching Assistant"... her infamy in the school is as well-known as her good name.

However, Astoria obviously forgot a very important "Aileen Rule."

When facing this silver-haired witch, you must not first show a pitiful posture, otherwise, you are likely to arouse someone's teasing desire.

Especially little girls like Astoria, who are timid, weak, and look very easy to bully.

"Apologize? If verbal apologies were useful, then what would we need Aurors for?"

Aileen sized up the timid Astoria, with a wicked and arrogant smile hanging on the corner of her mouth.

Speaking of which, this seems to be Draco Malfoy's future wife in the original book. As expected, she looks lovely and cute. Last night, she casually found an excuse to abduct the Greengrass sisters. She hasn't had time to tease and bully her properly, so it's just right to make up for it now that she's awake.

Aileen stood up, walking towards Astoria with a half-smile, exuding the aura of an evil villain.

After Grindelwald's teaching, she gradually learned how to use magic and talent to create a sense of oppression.

"Heh heh heh—this is not the sincerity an apology should have. An apology should be obediently lying on the bed, sticking out your butt; or showing—"

*Slap!*

Before she could finish her words, a loud sound interrupted Aileen's atmosphere rendering.

The aura that originally enveloped the Greengrass sisters instantly dissipated.

Hermione coldly withdrew her paw, and said calmly.

"Alright, ignore this crazy dumpling, we have to hurry up and pack up, girls—it's almost eight o'clock."

Perhaps other students occasionally succumb to Aileen's tyranny, but this definitely does not include Miss Granger. Since she started serving as the head coach in the freshman team this semester, she has been responsible for suppressing Aileen in a timely manner every time she starts to "go crazy".

"Hermione, you actually dare to hit my butt!"

Aileen looked incredulously at the rebellious little wing beside her.

"You were going too far just now." Hermione pouted, glared at Aileen unhappily, walked to the table in the bedroom and poured several glasses of "Revitalizing Potion·Modified", waved her wand gently, and the cups floated in turn in front of each girl in the room.

"Luna, Hannah, you guys also take care of this white-haired dumpling, don't let her flirt around."

Luna looked a little puzzled, blowing on the mist on the water glass.

"Why?"

"Because the three of us are school prefects!" Hermione said, putting the golden-red 【Prefect·G】 armband on the edge of the bed into her pocket, "Besides us, no one can stop some of Aileen's bad behavior—this is our due responsibility."

Luna said nothing.

Perhaps Tie Hanhan would be moved by Hermione, but she never thought that disturbing Aileen's interest was a good thing.

For so long, Luna only agreed with some of the "calculating machine"'s judgments: No one can stop Aileen from doing what she likes. These short-term victories of theirs are just pushing themselves out to become the demon king's sacrifice at some future time.

Luna always felt that the identity of the prefect was more of a sacrificial marker than a special right and importance given by the school.

Professor Dumbledore and the others... are probably helpless with Aileen, right?

…………

With Cho Chang and Astoria's interruption, the girls also lost the interest to continue gossiping.

They obediently drank the "Revitalizing Potion·Modified" handed over by Hermione, and hurriedly carried their schoolbags, and climbed out along the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room's tunnel, after all, it was already past eight o'clock, and many early-rising students might have already arrived at the hall.

However, Hannah and others soon calmed down, because there were quite a few students who were also late along the way.

They came to the marble staircase, and a group of older students from Gryffindor were sleepily passing through the entrance hall.

When they saw Luna and the others, they waved friendly hands, seemingly not affected by the Quidditch game loss yesterday.

"I said, losing to the freshman team may be a bit of a surprise, but that's all there is to this kind of game that loses to luck... the first round of the Hogwarts Quidditch preseason is not over yet, winning or losing is normal, so you don't have to worry about everyone's opinion in the academy."

Aileen nodded towards Ginny, smiling lightly and pinching the tip of her nose.

After experiencing the Quidditch bombing of the "Moonlight Seven" last year, many academies are quite tolerant of the freshman team.

Anyway, no matter how brilliantly the freshmen perform, after they enter the second grade, they will eventually join the representative teams of various academies. This year's freshman representatives may be lucky, but compared to the desperate demon team of last year, that's much better.

They followed the Gryffindor students into the hall, and the girls' teams were divided into several small teams.

Cho Chang, Luna, and Danilova still went to the Ravenclaw long table, while Ilena led the Greengrass sisters back to the Slytherin dining area. Ginny originally wanted to go to Gryffindor, but seeing that Hermione didn't move, she also stayed.

The sky outside the hall seemed to be drizzling, and the magically-treated ceiling looked gray.

However, compared to the gloomy ceiling, the colors on the faculty seats were obviously much brighter.

Umbridge was chatting with Dumbledore, and her eye-catching pink double-breasted sweater looked exceptionally garish among the teachers.

"Oops, that woman is back again, this is too strange, right?"

Ginny said in a low voice, as they were walking towards the Hufflepuff table.

Hufflepuff's three meals have always been the most abundant in the entire school, she had already heard her brothers say it, and today she just happened to go to Hufflepuff with Hermione to sponge a breakfast, "Professor Lupin's course won't be returned to her, right? That's really a nightmare."

According to the course arrangement here at Hogwarts, most of the lower-grade courses are in charge of Umbridge.

For the young wizards, the tedium of the Defense Against the Dark Arts course is even above the History of Magic.

At least in Professor Binns' class, they still have a chance to doze off, but in Dolores Umbridge's book-copying class, let alone sleeping on the desk, even dozing off slightly may result in points being deducted or even homework.

And the most cruel thing is that last week they had a brief experience of Professor Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts course.

"Well, actually..."

Hermione said thoughtfully, "Professor Umbridge's return may not be entirely a bad thing."

"What?!" Hannah and Ginny asked at the same time.

"Oh... this means that many interesting changes may happen at Hogwarts."

"What do you mean by interesting changes?" Hannah frowned, and said in a stuffy voice with some nervousness, "If it's more courses, then only you and Dani might find it interesting, anyway, I also think it's quite outrageous that she can return to Hogwarts."

"That's right, it's because it's unreasonable. After all, Hogwarts is on the winning side, right?"

Hermione chuckled softly, glanced at Aileen's expression, and became more certain of her guess.

"After such a secret arrest incident, especially after being defeated in front of the entire school, the Ministry of Magic has no reason to continue to allow Professor Umbridge to teach at Hogwarts—unless there were new unexpected circumstances in between, and the two sides re-conducted a round of consultations and negotiations."

"This shows that Hogwarts may have obtained more permissions, so the Ministry of Magic has the position to try to interfere again..."

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Good!