Halloween Eve.
Ron stared at the pumpkin-themed dishes on the table, his expression extremely conflicted. He looked and looked, wanted to speak but hesitated, stopped and wanted to speak again.
Seeing his good friend's state, Harry couldn't help but elbow him. "Ron! What are you doing?"
Ron's expression changed repeatedly, and finally, he took a deep breath and made a difficult decision.
"I'm not going!"
"What did you say?!"
Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny all looked at Ron simultaneously. Harry and Neville's expressions showed surprise, while Hermione and Ginny showed disdain.
Once he had spoken his true thoughts, Ron actually felt relieved. "Sorry, I've thought it over, and I still think Sherlock is right. Compared to a party with ghosts, I'd rather attend the living... uh, I mean the school's feast."
"I think your real purpose is the food at the feast!" Ginny looked at her sixth brother with disappointment. "Running away at the last minute is so embarrassing!"
"Well... Ginny, maybe you shouldn't go either. Didn't you say before that you were only going to accompany me..."
"Ronald, if you want to be a deserter, you'd better not drag your sister into it!" Before Ron could finish, Hermione ruthlessly interrupted him.
"Exactly!" Ginny also decisively hugged Hermione's arm. "I would never be a deserter!" She secretly glanced at Harry while speaking.
"Ahem, it's just a party. How did it become about being a deserter..." Ron muttered under his breath.
He actually knew his behavior wasn't quite right, but the scenario Sherlock had described... Just thinking about having no food that living people could eat made Ron shudder. 'Good heavens, that would be terrible!'
In the end, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny set off at seven o'clock in the evening, just as the Halloween feast was about to begin, passing through a doorway toward the dungeon classroom.
They followed Sherlock's advice and brought some food and drink. Better safe than sorry. Moreover, based on past experience, Sherlock's deductions had never been wrong.
When passing the crowded Great Hall, Harry turned to look. He saw it brightly lit with flickering candles, golden plates on the tables—it was extremely tempting indeed.
He finally sighed deeply. 'What regret!'
Hermione also turned to look, her gaze toward the Gryffindor table. Only Neville and Ginny followed Harry and Hermione step by step, never looking back.
After the four left, Ron moved closer to Sherlock. "Sherlock, was I being too much?"
"Too much?" Sherlock looked at Ron with surprise in his eyes. "Why would you think that?"
"I clearly agreed to go, but when the time came, I backed out... Look, even Ginny looks down on me!"
"Everyone has the right to choose freely, my friend," Sherlock said quietly. "Besides, the one who promised Nick was Harry, not you."
'Right! '
Hearing Sherlock say this, Ron immediately straightened up. The one who promised Nick to attend the deathday party was my friend Harry Potter—what did it have to do with me Ron Weasley?
Having figured this out, Ron looked at Sherlock with different eyes.
'This was his good friend!'
The Halloween feast arrived as scheduled. The entire Great Hall was magnificently decorated with a pumpkin theme, and various pumpkin-themed foods emitted tempting aromas.
This made Ron once again feel that not attending the ghost deathday party was a wise decision. The skeleton dance troupe hadn't arrived yet, so Ron simply took a drumstick in each hand and began feasting.
After finishing the drumsticks, he turned to tackle a pumpkin pie. Just as he was eating enthusiastically, a shadow suddenly fell over his head.
Ron immediately frowned and looked up. He saw a tall, uniquely elegant, beautiful girl standing before him.
Gemma Farley, a sixth-year Slytherin student and also Slytherin's female prefect.
Ron suddenly understood and immediately looked beside him. Undoubtedly, she had come for Sherlock.
Gemma had indeed come for Sherlock, but she didn't ignore Ron either.
"It's been a while, Sherlock, and... little Weasley."
She winked at both of them, greeting each separately.
Gemma and Ron's brother Percy were both prefects, so they knew each other fairly well—the problem was that Ron's relationship with his brother Percy wasn't very good.
Perhaps due to the festive atmosphere, today's Gemma Farley looked even more beautiful and charming than usual.
Ron was stunned for a moment before answering. "Prefect Farley, hello!"
As for Sherlock, he stated straightforwardly. "It hasn't been that long. We saw each other just a week ago."
Gemma: |(*′口)`
Ron: (;´∀｀)
'That's so like you!'
Gemma Farley was beautiful and talented, and as a Slytherin prefect, when she stopped at the Gryffindor table, she inevitably attracted many people's attention.
Sherlock naturally didn't care about this, but Gemma frowned slightly. Hearing Sherlock's typically blunt response, she could only suppress what she had originally wanted to say to Sherlock, leaving behind "I'll wait for you over there" before gracefully departing.
She didn't tell Sherlock where they would meet. With Sherlock's abilities, he would certainly understand her meaning.
Hearing Gemma's words and watching her graceful departure, Ron couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu, as if the same thing had happened before.
Stimulated by the delicious food, his memory became more active, and he soon remembered. This scene had indeed happened before—that Saturday morning when Harry had punched Malfoy.
At that time, he had been eating and watching just like now, when Gemma Farley came over and called Sherlock away in front of him and Hermione. Hermione had been very displeased and had complained to him about it.
Unexpectedly, a week later, Gemma was doing this to Sherlock for the second time. What was even more coincidental was that he was eating and watching again.
"No wonder you said you saw each other a week ago," Ron looked at Sherlock with sudden understanding. "But saying it like that was a bit too... never mind, you're always like that anyway."
He had originally wanted to say that Sherlock wasn't very good at conversation, but thinking that saying so would be pointless, he simply gave up.
"By the way, are you going to see her?"
Seeing that Sherlock had already stood up, Ron wasn't surprised. After all, Sherlock had done the same thing last time.
Gemma could have a second encounter, and Sherlock could too.
Sherlock nodded to Ron and then left the Gryffindor table.
"A guy like him still always has girls coming to find him. It's really puzzling..." Ron sighed, then focused his attention back on the delicious food before him.
For him, food was far more attractive than pretty girls—at least at his current age.
Just as Gemma had guessed, Sherlock easily found the meeting place she had prepared for them—the same suit of armor where Sherlock had discovered Gemma hiding last time.
"Miss Gemma, are you calling me out this time because of Malfoy's matter again?"
"Sherlock, call me Gemma."
"Alright, Gemma."
Seeing Sherlock get straight to the point, Gemma couldn't help but frown and first pointed out the problem with his form of address.
Sherlock seemed indifferent to this—since Gemma had said so, he would call her that.
"You... never mind. It seems you won't be at ease until we finish discussing business first."
Gemma sighed. She had indeed come about Malfoy's matter, but not only for that reason.
Actually, even she wasn't entirely clear about what kind of attitude she held toward Sherlock deep down. She was also constantly confirming this through repeated interactions with Sherlock.
But given the current situation, business before pleasure.
On the day Harry had hit Malfoy, as a prefect, she had already known about it. Based on her understanding of Flint and Malfoy, even without being present, she could guess how things had unfolded.
However, out of caution, she had still clarified the facts before coming to find Sherlock.
"Malfoy's behavior seriously damaged Slytherin's image and caused harm to Creevey. Since I wasn't present at the time, I couldn't punish him immediately."
"It doesn't matter. He's already been punished."
"You mean the punch Harry gave him? But Gryffindor also lost points because of this incident, and Harry himself was given detention."
"My friend was prepared to bear the consequences before he acted."
"Sherlock, I'll make Malfoy apologize to Harry and Creevey."
"I don't think that's necessary."
"I think it is."
"Will Malfoy listen to you?"
"He's already agreed."
For the first time, Sherlock showed a surprised expression. "Oh? Then I'd like to ask what reason you used."
Being able to see a surprised expression on Sherlock's face made Gemma very happy. She put her hands behind her back, leaned slightly toward Sherlock, and said with a smile.
"I told him that if he didn't want to end up like that Flint, he'd better follow my advice."
"I really didn't expect to have such a deterrent effect on Malfoy."
"Sherlock, you're underestimating yourself a bit."
"How so?"
"Through my conversation with Malfoy, I discovered that his fear of you has penetrated to his bones. Every time your name is mentioned, he becomes very unnatural. Especially when I hinted that Flint's fate last term was actually because of you, he immediately agreed to apologize to Harry and Creevey, despite his previous insistence."
Sherlock. "..."
For Gemma to say this, she had obviously concluded that last term's attack on Flint was his doing.
"Flint's fate was his own doing, being taught a lesson by a righteous person. What does that have to do me?"
Gemma winked at Sherlock. "I never said it was you, did I? I meant... when I asked you to find Flint's attacker, you refused. If you had agreed then, this matter could have been resolved satisfactorily."
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