Throughout the winter break, besides reading, Sherlock spent most of his time corresponding with his friends.
Harry, Ron, Cho Chang, and even Penelope, who stayed at school, would share their experiences with him. Gemma, Neville, Hannah, and others who returned home also wrote to communicate with him.
At school, everyone who stayed at Hogwarts enjoyed the Christmas feast immensely.
The Christmas Great Hall was even more magnificent than during Halloween.
Not only were there more than ten silver-frosted Christmas trees, thick decorative bands of mistletoe and holly crisscrossing the ceiling, but there was also enchanted snow—warm and dry—gently falling from the ceiling.
Although Headmaster Dumbledore wasn't there, Professor McGonagall still led the remaining students in singing several of his favorite Christmas carols in commemoration.
Hagrid, already loud-voiced, became increasingly boisterous after downing cup after cup of eggnog.
Percy Weasley didn't notice that Fred had cast a spell on his prefect badge, changing the words to "Prat," and kept asking everyone what they were laughing about.
Draco also didn't leave for the holidays.
As for Crabbe and Goyle, they always did whatever Malfoy did, so they stayed too.
According to Malfoy himself, the Malfoy family was noble purebloods, so they feared no harm from Slytherin's heir.
But Ron thought he had deliberately chosen to stay after seeing Sherlock leave while Harry remained.
The reason was that he loudly mocked Harry's new sweater at the Christmas feast and continued to do so gleefully every day he saw Harry afterward.
If Sherlock had been there, he definitely wouldn't have acted this way.
But the consequence of his behavior was making Harry suspect he had been possessed by Colin—otherwise, how could he always position himself so precisely in Harry's path?
Originally, Harry and Ron just ignored Malfoy's mockery.
But when Malfoy started imitating Colin, Harry really couldn't stand it anymore.
Mainly because his imitations were malicious, such as.
"Potter, can I take your picture?"
"Potter, can I have your autograph?"
"Can I lick your shoes? Please, Potter?"
Lies don't hurt people—truth is the sharp blade.
Malfoy's imitations weren't just malicious; they were annoyingly accurate, which made them intolerable to Harry.
Harry had originally planned to give Malfoy a good beating.
Unfortunately, without Sherlock there, he and Ron didn't think they could handle Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry was confident he could use magic against Malfoy.
However, if he struck first, even being in the right would become wrong.
Fortunately, when it came to trash talk, Ron Weasley was undefeated in his lifetime.
He fought against Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle three-on-one without falling behind.
Just as Malfoy was about to draw his wand, Harry trembled with excitement.
As long as the other side dared to make the first move, he would teach them a lesson.
Unfortunately, because there were so few students during the holidays, their conflict quickly attracted attention from others.
Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater rushed over immediately.
Although Malfoy looked down on Percy, the deterrent power of two prefects present simultaneously was quite formidable.
He could only leave after uttering a few harsh words.
"Percy, if you had come any later, we could have beaten up Malfoy!"
"Ron," Percy said sternly, "casting spells in the corridors isn't allowed. If such a thing really happened, I would have to report it!"
"Who cares!"
Ron said irritably, "As long as we could beat up Malfoy, it wouldn't matter if Gryffindor lost another ten or twenty points—Neville would earn them back from Lockhart anyway!"
Percy was thoroughly annoyed by his foolish brother, fortunately Penelope pulled him away.
Apart from Malfoy, Harry and Ron were doing well at school.
Without Wood making Harry attend Quidditch practice, Harry could completely control his own time during the holidays.
Besides playing chess and games with Ron, he devoted most of his time to Cho Chang.
According to Harry, he was mainly studying with Cho how to avoid getting clothes wet during exercise.
Time passed day by day like this.
When the Christmas holidays ended, Sherlock was sent by his parents to King's Cross Station Platform 9¾, successfully meeting up with Hermione.
Since Neville was late, he couldn't catch the same compartment as Sherlock and Hermione—those two seats were taken by Dean and Seamus.
Fortunately, Hannah from Hufflepuff summoned him over—after all, they were good partners who had once performed together on the Defense Against the Dark Arts stage.
As for Luna, she still sat alone at the end of the train car.
However, she didn't mind this treatment at all and continued to go her own way.
"Sometimes I really envy people like you," Hermione couldn't help but sigh to Sherlock upon seeing this scene. "Being able to ignore others' gazes and do what you want to do."
"You can too."
"No, I can't." Hermione was very self-aware.
"Hey, stop talking about that, let's do something interesting instead!"
Hearing Sherlock and Hermione's conversation, Seamus couldn't help but interrupt. "How about letting you see the new spell I learned—"
Before he finished speaking, three voices rang out in unison.
"Put down your wand and we can still be friends!"
Seamus's wand had just been raised when Dean, sitting beside him, pressed it down directly.
After all, none of the three wanted to endure the impact of an explosion in such a cramped space.
Compared to Seamus's magic that had a high probability of exploding, Dean was better at entertainment.
He directly performed a singing, dancing, and rapping show for the three of them.
According to him, this took him a full two and a half years to perfect.
Dean's performance undoubtedly received thunderous applause.
It had to be admitted that the young man had some talent in this area.
Thus, the train rumbled northward all the way.
By the time they reached the school, it was already dark.
Compared to the start of term, it was much colder now.
Fortunately, it wasn't snowing, so the road conditions weren't too treacherous.
However, once the young wizards entered the castle, they felt something was wrong.
Although not many people had stayed at school, it shouldn't be this deserted, right?
More importantly, the professors who came to greet them all had grim expressions, as if they had eaten something bad.
"What's wrong?"
Hermione couldn't help but whisper to Sherlock.
Sherlock raised his eyebrows. "It seems we've arrived at just the right time!"
"What do you mean?"
Before Hermione could react, familiar voices reached them.
"Sherlock!"
Turning around, they saw Harry and Ron hurrying toward them.
Not only them, but Peeves, the most annoying of all the ghosts, was also following behind the two.
He was high in the air, looking down at the scene of students returning to school, grinning with a malicious smile.
This behavior gave Hermione an ominous feeling.
Because Peeves always delighted in chaos.
The next moment, her premonition became reality.
Because Peeves suddenly began to sing.
"Oh Potter, you rotter, what have you done, You're killing off students, you think it's good fun—"
At this song, all the students couldn't help but gasp in shock. Then, realizing what was happening, they all stepped back, leaving a large empty space in front of Harry and Ron.
Only Sherlock and Hermione remained in place, appearing particularly conspicuous at this moment.
"Hey, those two are both Muggle-born wizards—aren't they afraid?"
"Of course they're not afraid, they're people Potter has acknowledged!"
"Keep your voice down, do you want to die too?"
"Mm-mm, I won't say anything more—"
The constant whispers made Harry feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.
"Stop it, Peeves!"
Professor McGonagall's voice rang out, and Peeves stuck his tongue out at Harry before hastily retreating.
However, Harry couldn't care about any of this now.
He looked ahead with difficulty.
At this moment, only Sherlock remained in his field of vision.
For him, what had happened today was too bizarre. If even Sherlock wouldn't believe him...
Fortunately, Sherlock didn't abandon him.
His gray eyes were as sharp as always, or rather, even more piercing than usual.
"Harry—" Sherlock gave his friend a smile, "I bet you have a lot to tell me, don't you?"
Harry's eyes grew moist.
'Sherlock, you understand me!'
"It really is him, caught red-handed!"
Just then, someone finally couldn't help shouting out.
Harry's gaze immediately turned toward the voice.
It was that Hufflepuff—the guy Ron had mentioned who specifically came up to him to declare his pure-blood status.
Faced with someone who repeatedly slandered him, even Harry's good temper flared with anger. "What's your name?"
However, his inquiry about the name seemed to cause a misunderstanding.
The tall student, upon hearing this, seemed to think of something and his face changed. He immediately said hastily.
"If you're thinking of targeting me, I might as well tell you—our family can trace back nine generations of wizards. My bloodline is as pure as anyone's!"
Hearing this, Sherlock also realized who this boy was.
This made him find it rather amusing.
Never mind that Harry wasn't Slytherin's heir—even if Harry really were Slytherin's heir, what made him think Harry would spare him because of his so-called "pure blood"?
Even more ridiculous was that since he believed Harry was Slytherin's heir, why would he publicly provoke such a dangerous person who dared to open the Chamber and release monsters?
Wasn't he afraid Harry would become angry at this public provocation and make him the next target?
Or was this just the Hufflepuff characteristic?
Being afraid of being targeted, so hastily throwing out his pure-blood identity, while also eagerly pointing out the supposed heir?
Honestly, quite brainless.
Just based on his individual performance, it really matched the stereotype of Hufflepuff as "a bunch of brainless good-for-nothings."
Fortunately, someone soon broke this impression.
"Don't do this, Ernie. You can't be certain Potter did it."
A taller, more handsome Hufflepuff stopped Ernie Macmillan.
A girl with a golden ponytail also hurriedly said. "Potter always seems so friendly. He couldn't possibly do such a thing."
"Hey, Cedric, Hannah, don't speak up for him!"
"It's not speaking up for Potter," Cedric frowned. "We've all just returned. Making such a decision based solely on Peeves's word is too hasty."
'Yes, this was a normal person's thinking!'
Sherlock glanced at Cedric. As Hufflepuff's top point-earner, he indeed had brains!
However, Macmillan would soon prove with facts that there was at least a two-Hannah gap between him and Cedric.
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