Hermione's main problem was that her reputation was terrible, and that wasn't slander.
She wasn't any kind of genius, she didn't have the kind of innate, astonishing talent that Voldemort, Dumbledore, or even Snape had.
So every day she could only bury herself in books, pouring her entire heart and mind into studying, without spending even a little on extra socializing.
What's more, to outsiders she always looked like she was high above them, at any time possibly saying things people didn't want to hear, for example, imitating Professor McGonagall's tone to lecture everyone about studying harder.
Over time, even the roommates in her own dorm didn't think much of her, and as for boys who would invite her to the ball, there were even fewer.
On top of that, she had already confirmed she wouldn't be Krum's or Ron's partner, plus Link's hidden interference.
So in the end, Hermione still hadn't found a partner even by the very last moment of Christmas Eve.
Link confirmed this news through Harry, and he breathed a sigh of relief, the corners of his mouth slowly lifting.
But soon he couldn't laugh anymore.
Because Emily once again sent people to call Link to go practice dancing with her.
For Link this was truly torture.
He had never learned to dance.
And Emily was especially passionate about it. These past few days she had basically been dragging Link to practice with her every single day.
Sighing, Link finally dragged his weary body to the Room of Requirement.
He could somewhat understand Emily's thinking.
Although Emily had attended countless balls ever since she was a child, this particular Christmas Ball carried special meaning for her.
One could say it was her last dance with Link before their engagement, and also an opportunity to declare their relationship to their classmates, and even the entire European pure-blood aristocracy.
For such an important occasion, it was normal she would want to perform perfectly.
"Your hand just needs to rest on my waist, don't put it higher!"
"Ugh! You're so clumsy!"
"Ah! You stepped on my foot!"
———
Emily's shrieks kept echoing inside the Room of Requirement, which had turned into the Great Hall.
After quite a long time, the other sounds gradually died down.
At last only the heavy panting of Link and Emily remained.
Emily, covered in fragrant sweat, hugged Link.
Unfortunately, at this moment Link didn't have the slightest romantic thought, because one of Emily's small hands had very naturally slipped under his arm into his armpit.
This made Link instantly tense up.
He knew Emily's vengeful pinching was about to begin.
These days it had already become their routine after every dance practice. Link had never gotten angry, after all, his dancing was really terrible, and most importantly, he loved Emily very much.
Yet this time, the pain Link expected never came.
Emily only scratched lightly under his arm twice, then leaned her forehead against his, face full of distress, and said, "Sigh! After teaching you for so long, you still haven't learned. What are we going to do tomorrow?"
"It's fine, when the time comes we'll just hop around randomly a couple of times and call it good."
Seeing Emily didn't intend to pinch him, Link got a bit cheeky, smiling while he spoke, the hand on Emily's waist unconsciously beginning to wander upward again.
"Stop fooling around!" Emily slapped his hand away. "This ball is different! People will laugh at us!"
"Who dares laugh? I'll break their legs!"
Looking at Link acting all roguish, Emily was so angry she could hardly stand it, her small hand once again reaching for under his arm.
But before she could actually act, Link gently said, "Don't worry, when the time comes we'll definitely be the most dazzling pair in the whole room! Everyone will only envy us!"
As he spoke, Link's hand again crept upward from her waist.
And this time, Emily didn't resist, she only glared at him helplessly.
———
[The Next Morning, Christmas Day]
As the golden sunlight streamed through the air vents into the Hufflepuff dormitory, bursts of joyous cheering also pulled Link from his ambiguous, hazy dream.
Struggling to sit up, he discovered that the normally spacious dorm was now somewhat crowded.
Countless Christmas presents tied with ribbons were piled under every bed, and in the spaces between the beds.
John and the others were already happily unwrapping their gifts.
This was not an easy thing to do.
Because the vast majority of the gifts in the dorm belonged to Link, they had to keep rummaging through the piles of presents to find their own.
As for Link's gifts, they couldn't touch them.
It wasn't that Link was stingy, but many of those gifts came from other girls, some of them laced with love potions, poisons, or hidden traps.
John and the other roommates had all fallen for it before, making fools of themselves before things got cleared up.
After that, even if Link asked, they wouldn't touch his gifts again.
Of course, Link himself didn't dare open them either.
As soon as he woke up, he stuffed all the unfamiliar gifts into a special Undetectable Extension Charm bag, leaving only those from Madam Flamel, Emily, and the like.
As for the gifts from Madam Flamel, Emily, or even Harry, Link only opened them perfunctorily.
After all, he could already guess what they had given him, some snacks, toys, or clothes, nothing more.
The gift Link valued most was still the gray paper box from Snape.
Unfortunately, when he opened it full of anticipation, he was disappointed to find Snape seemed to have run out of ideas.
This year, instead of something like a potion grimoire or rare materials, it was yet another vial of Felix Felicis.
Click!
Link smacked his lips, tossed the Felix Felicis into his bag with some disdain.
He really didn't care about it anymore, since before long he would be able to brew it himself.
More importantly, this gift made him feel Snape was just being perfunctory.
And that feeling only grew stronger once he washed up and met up with Emily.
The reason was simple, Snape's gift to Emily was a beauty potion he had specially made using a lost formula from the Slytherin Codex and phoenix tears.
This was basically Snape's painstaking work of the last two months, and its effects were strong enough to be described as turning back time.
Even for someone like Emily, who was naturally beautiful and on whom ordinary beauty potions had no effect, after using it she became even more radiant.
"Do I look pretty?" Emily spun twice in front of Link with a smile, then proudly lifted her wrist for him. "Smell this. Isn't the scent nice? Aunt Leonie gave it to me!"
"Mm-hm, very pretty, very nice…"
Link forced himself to respond, but his expression twitched.
Because he could smell it, what Emily was wearing was a custom perfume created by a French potioneer, with only five bottles produced each year, each costing no less than 1,000 Galleons.
This perfume, called "Dream," was essentially a blend of love potion and precious spices and oils.
But thanks to that master's extraordinary skill, the love potion, normally a controlled substance, was diluted to the point of having no side effects, making it legal to use, while still retaining its personalizing scent effect.
That kind of aroma would automatically become each person's favorite smell.
For Link, what he smelled now from Emily's wrist was the mixed fragrance of roasted pumpkin.
Link gulped hard, forcibly suppressing the urge to bite her wrist, and turned his head away.
He felt speechless, because this year Madam Flamel had only given him a brand-new family-crest brooch to wear with his ball outfit.
Compared with Emily's gifts, it was clearly not on the same level.
But this faint envy and frustration quickly melted away in Emily's bell-like laughter.
He realized it.
Whether it was Snape's beauty potion, or Madam Flamel's "Dream" perfume, even though they were given to Emily, wasn't he, Link, the one who got to enjoy them in the end?
After comforting himself with this thought, Link's smile finally bloomed again.
He and Emily lazed together the whole morning, until after lunch when Emily, cheeks flushed and legs a little weak, stood up from her seat and said to Link, "That's enough, I need to go prepare for the ball tonight."
"There's still plenty of time, don't rush."
Link reached out to pull her, her body had felt so good just now, he wanted to experience it more.
But Emily didn't give him the chance, fluttering away like a butterfly and leaving only her beautiful back for him.
Helpless, Link had no choice but to return to the Hufflepuff common room.
He felt Emily was simply afraid that if things went too far between them, they would break the magical contract Madam Flamel and Victoria had previously set.
After all, what normal person needs an entire afternoon to do makeup and get ready for a ball?
Even the most fashionably late women in his previous life couldn't go that far.
But once he actually returned to the Hufflepuff common room, he was stunned to find that maybe the abnormal one was himself.
Because now the entire common room, boys and girls alike, were all happily doing their hair and putting on dress robes.
Even Cedric and John, usually sloppy and careless about appearances, were no exceptions.
Cedric was already dressed in a plain high-necked robe, spraying himself with some unknown magical cologne.
Notably, besides the Diggory crest, there was also a badger embroidered on his collar, showing their family had been Hufflepuffs for generations.
John, on the other hand, was in trouble.
That morning his mother had sent his dress robes as a Christmas gift.
They were old-fashioned noble robes in the French Versailles court style, ridiculously elaborate.
Naturally, putting them on was also a nightmare.
So when Link came back to the dorm, John ran over clutching a pile of clothes, saying, "Link! Help me figure this out, I'm about to collapse! This thing is impossible to wear! I read the instruction manual for ages and still can't understand how to put it on!"
Hearing this, Link waved his hand.
"Why on earth would you think I know how to wear this kind of robe?"
"You're a noble, aren't you?" John said righteously.
Looking at him like that, Link opened his mouth, then closed it again, in the end not telling him to piss off. Instead he snapped his fingers and said, "You guys should be around, right? Come out and help this guy."
John blinked in confusion, then quickly lit up with joy.
Because moments later, three house-elves in Hogwarts pillowcases appeared out of nowhere, eagerly helping John change.
"This… this isn't good, is it?"
Another timid roommate whispered from the side.
Everyone in Hufflepuff knew the house-elves liked looking after them, staying in the common room twenty-four hours a day, willing to do almost anything for them.
But Professor Sprout strictly forbade ordering the elves around. Anyone who did so would be punished severely.
So this roommate wasn't trying to gloat over John's troubles, he was only kindly afraid John might get punished.
But his kindness was wasted, John completely ignored him, happily letting the elves quickly dress him in the robes.
Because John hadn't gone to the tailor's to be measured, the details of the robes didn't fit well.
Luckily, the good-hearted elves really were all-purpose, using their wands to adjust the robes right there on the spot.
"Thank you so much!"
Once fully dressed, John bowed deeply to Link and the elves.
Compared with possibly being put in detention by Professor Sprout, he was much more worried about looking bad at the ball.
Finally, after the elves, moved to tears by John's thanks, were sent away, Link began dressing himself.
His robes naturally had none of John's problems. His completely pure-black robes, woven from black velvet, were easily worn.
Then Link used magical hair wax to tidy his hair, and finally put on the brooch, cufflinks, and ring bearing the Flamel family crest. At last his outfit was complete.
"How do I look?"
Link spread his arms with a smile, asking John and the others.
At this moment John and the others were speechless.
They only stared wide-eyed at Link.
John even wanted to reach out and touch the robes, but as soon as his hand got close he yanked it back as if shocked.
He could see clearly, although Link's robes looked ordinary, even plain, the faint sheen of the velvet and the flawless stitching revealed their true preciousness.
And once adorned with the golden brooch and cufflinks, Link looked nothing short of noble and imposing.
From their reactions, Link had already gotten the answer he wanted.
He glanced at the clock on the wall, then smiled and said,
"Well then, let's be off!"
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