On the way to King's Cross Station, Mr. Farley was explaining the concept of pure-blood in the magical world to Mr. Holmes.
"According to their definition of pure-blood, it means these people's family trees have never included a Muggle—which is impossible. Because if you trace back to the roots, if no ancestor had Muggle parents or married a Muggle, then this family simply couldn't exist."
At this point, a hint of contempt flashed in Mr. Farley's eyes.
"In fact, the so-called pure-blood concept is more of a political appeal, a means to gain benefits and achieve goals. If someone truly believes pure bloodlines are superior, they're the real fools."
Perhaps feeling he had said too much, Mr. Farley brought the topic back. "Actually, there are similar behavioral concepts in the Muggle world too."
Mr. Holmes reacted quickly, "You mean—the one-drop rule?"
"Exactly!"
Mr. Farley showed a slightly awkward smile.
"I don't know who copied from whom... Anyway, back to our earlier topic. The Harry Potter we're going to meet is exactly in this situation. his father James Potter's Potter family, like our Farley family, though not in the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families directory, is still a pure-blood family.
His mother Lily Potter was a Muggle-born witch. Broadly speaking, since both of Harry Potter's parents are wizards, he would be a pure-blood wizard. In most cases, that's how we categorize it. But narrowly speaking, although his mother is a wizard, she's a Muggle-born wizard, so Harry Potter is still mixed-blood and cannot be considered pure-blood."
Mr. Holmes's evaluation of this classification method was: "Looking for trouble where none exists."
"Indeed," Mr. Farley agreed, then frowned, "We've been stopped here for almost half an hour. Is this what they call traffic?"
This time it was Mr. Holmes's turn to sigh.
"London is like this—if only we could fly over."
At times like this, he inevitably missed that extraordinary flying car from Ron's family last summer vacation.
But Mr. Farley misunderstood, "You mean flying broomsticks?"
When he said this, Mr. Holmes also realized his mistake. He couldn't mention that flying car. Although Gemma seemed to have some feelings for his son, just like the Granger girl, it was better to be cautious about such matters. He couldn't bring trouble to the Weasley family.
"Yes, that's what I meant," hearing Mr. Farley mention flying broomsticks, Mr. Holmes went along with it. "With those, we'd never have to worry about traffic again."
"If flying broomsticks caused traffic jams, that would really be a disaster."
Mr. Farley laughed, "But our travel methods aren't limited to just flying broomsticks. Even Ministry cars don't really worry about traffic jams."
"Really?"
Mr. Holmes immediately became interested, "Quick, tell me more about it!"
While the two fathers chatted enthusiastically in the front seats, Gemma sitting beside Sherlock was equally excited. After all, this was her first time riding in a car, and the feeling was very novel.
"Doesn't Muggle Studies class cover cars?"
"It does, but that's a theoretical course with no practical experience."
Gemma said, withdrawing her gaze and looking at Sherlock with eyes full of laughter.
"Thanks to you, I only started experiencing cars and telephones after meeting you, oh, and television too—Sherlock, tell me about other things that exist in the Muggle world but not in the magical world?"
"Sure, what would you like to know?"
Gemma: (≧∇≦)ﾉ〃
Due to the traffic jam, when Sherlock's group arrived at the station, Uncle Vernon and Harry were already there.
Although he already knew that Gemma and her father would come with Sherlock and his father to pick him up, when Harry actually saw Gemma sitting beside Sherlock and Mr. Farley in the passenger seat next to Mr. Holmes, he still found it somewhat incredible.
The relationship between Sherlock and Gemma Farley was advancing by leaps and bounds!
Last vacation, they only communicated by letter. Last school year, Gemma had started participating in the Chamber of Secrets investigation. A month ago, Gemma went to Sherlock's house as a guest. Now, both sides had already met the parents!
Wait, this scene seemed familiar. Thinking carefully, wasn't this the same lineup as when they went to Godric's Hollow together last summer? Only the Granger father and daughter had been replaced by the Farley father and daughter.
Thinking of Hermione, Harry couldn't help but get a headache. At this moment, it was as if two little people were fighting in his mind.
The first little person said. "Sherlock is your mate, you absolutely cannot tell Hermione about this!"
The other little person said. "Sherlock is a good mate, but isn't Hermione one too? Harry, you can't play favorites!"
"What favoritism? Sherlock and Gemma are just good friends, there's no need to be so nervous!"
"Hmph, do you even believe that yourself? Even if Sherlock doesn't have such thoughts, Gemma is graduating this year. If she really has any ideas, Hermione is in danger!"
"That's perfect then. Once Gemma graduates, she won't be in the picture anymore, and Sherlock and Hermione will have plenty of time!"
"Too naive! There's still a whole year ahead, who knows what will happen during that time? Besides, why wouldn't she be in the picture after graduation?"
Neither little person could convince the other. Sometimes one had the upper hand, sometimes the other.
Just as Harry's mind was in chaos, Mr. Farley approached and looked Harry over with interest, then spoke.
"Mr. Potter, your reputation precedes you, thunderous to the ear."
Since Harry was still immersed in the choice between helping Sherlock or helping Hermione, he didn't hear Mr. Farley's words.
Mr. Farley had heard Gemma tell stories about the Lion King and the Savior more than once, so he was equally interested in Harry. Seeing his condition, he wasn't angry but chuckled.
"The Boy Who Lived, the Savior of the Magical World, the Nemesis of the Dark Lord, Gryffindor's Boxing King..."
Hearing Mr. Farley say this, Harry finally snapped back to reality, his face turning red instantly.
He stammered, "That's... that's not..."
"Haha, no more jokes. Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Gemma's father, Sebastian Augustus Farley," Mr. Farley said, extending his hand to Harry, "Nice to meet you, please take care of us."
"Very pleased to meet you, Mr. Farley."
"I'm also very pleased to meet you. By the way, may I call you Harry?"
"Of course, Mr. Farley."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Harry's Uncle Vernon said he was in a hurry to pick someone up, so after a simple greeting, he left first.
Mr. Farley watched Uncle Vernon leave as if fleeing, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes.
Pure-blood families had different attitudes toward Muggles. The Malfoy family was purely exclusionary—otherwise Malfoy wouldn't keep calling people "Mudblood" at school.
The Weasley family was the complete opposite; they had strong curiosity about Muggles and were very friendly toward them.
The Abbott and Longbottom families were somewhere in between—neither excluding nor getting close. As for the Farley family, they were more pragmatic. They were very willing to associate with Muggle families that were useful to them or looked favorable, like Sherlock's parents—of course, Gemma Farley played a crucial role in this.
But for those like Vernon Dursley who actively rejected them, they naturally looked down upon them too.
"Oh, sorry, Mr. Farley," seeing this scene, Harry felt somewhat embarrassed and could only force an explanation, "Uncle Vernon actually means no harm, he just always rejects magic, but he's actually a good person..."
"It's alright, Harry. The entire magical world should thank you."
Mr. Farley took Harry's hand and said warmly, "Without you, the British magical world would now be shrouded in the Dark Lord's shadow. How could we have this relaxed and pleasant life?"
Harry was somewhat surprised by Mr. Farley's enthusiasm. After all, he was a Slytherin. But thinking about Gemma's performance at school, Harry was relieved.
According to Sherlock, this was what a real Slytherin was like. People like Malfoy and Pansy had simply gone down the wrong path.
"Sorry, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Farley, I'm causing you trouble..."
Watching Mr. Holmes and Mr. Farley efficiently move his luggage to the trunk, Harry felt somewhat embarrassed.
His relationship with the Dursley family had clearly normalized. He had also made up his mind early that he would stay at Privet Drive this vacation. He never expected that plans couldn't keep up with changes. For long-term considerations, he had no choice but to take this desperate measure.
"Hey, what are you saying, little guy!"
Mr. Holmes patted Harry's shoulder, "Violet wanted to invite you and Ron over last Christmas, and she was disappointed for quite a while when she heard you stayed at school!"
Mr. Farley also smiled slightly, his elegant demeanor even surpassing Gemma's. "Just helping out, don't mind it."
Both men's words moved Harry even more. In this world, he had never seen better people than the Holmes family—even including that brother Mycroft who was seven years older than Sherlock and had a strange personality.
Oh, and the Weasley family too. Every Christmas, Mrs. Weasley never forgot to send him a hand-knitted sweater.
Meeting Sherlock and Gemma was much more natural. Sherlock needn't be mentioned—good friend. As for Gemma, when he saw her, Harry couldn't help but sigh that she had become even more mature than last school year.
Harry had good aesthetic sense. In his opinion, in the entire school, only Percy's girlfriend Penelope Clearwater could compete with her. In terms of looks alone, Cho Chang was actually superior to both of them for him, but she was only one year older than himself and seemed slightly immature compared to these two.
Below them were the prettiest Patil twins in their year... Wait, what kind of nonsense was he thinking about!
Harry couldn't help but secretly despise himself. Acting like he'd never seen beautiful girls before—how embarrassing!
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