After Mrs. Holmes joined in, the atmosphere in the kitchen became even livelier.
The three ladies chatted away merrily while preparing lunch for everyone.
"Let them be busy!"
Mr. Weasley waved his hand grandly and pulled both Mr. Holmes and Mr. Granger to one end of the long table.
His personality was such that he was interested in everything Muggle-related, and it just so happened that both of his son's friends were Muggle-born wizards so naturally, he wouldn't miss such an opportunity.
Although he made quite a few blunders when it came to Muggle matters, both Mr. Holmes and Mr. Granger could feel his genuine sincerity, and the three men quickly hit it off.
Their conversation topics ranged far and wide, from automotive mechanics to recreational fishing, then to international affairs. Despite covering such vast territory, the discussion was surprisingly harmonious.
Sirius once again expressed his apologies to the three ladies before turning to Sherlock with a smile and asking.
"So, how has your holiday been?"
Sherlock answered honestly. "A bit boring. If Harry hadn't called, I would've wanted to return to school."
"Haha, Harry thought the same thing! He said he wanted to go back to school to try out the Firebolt, though I actually think he could test-fly it here."
"Sirius, I don't want to be scolded by Mrs. Black again," Harry said with lingering apprehension.
"Hmph, don't worry about that vicious old hag. I'm the one in charge now."
Sirius showed no respect for his mother in his words.
This made Harry feel somewhat awkward.
Kind-hearted as he was, Harry felt it was rather inappropriate to speak so disrespectfully while living in the Black family house.
Moreover, the lady was Sirius's mother after all, which made her Harry's grandmother by seniority.
Calling her a "vicious old hag" was definitely going too far.
He had reminded Sirius several times over the past few days, but while his godfather was reasonable about everything else, he was particularly stubborn on this matter and wouldn't listen.
Sherlock observed both their expressions and immediately understood the situation.
He glanced around. "The others aren't here—they've all gone to look at the Firebolt, haven't they?"
"Nothing ever gets past you."
Harry was relieved that Sherlock had changed the subject, and said with a smile.
"They're all upstairs. I figure we can call them down once the food is ready."
However, the three of them had barely exchanged two sentences before Hermione pulled Sherlock away.
Sirius and Harry looked at each other in bewilderment.
Sirius especially couldn't help but sigh inwardly, it seemed that not only in the Muggle world, but in the wizarding world too, young girls were becoming increasingly forward.
Fortunately, his godson wasn't doing badly in that department either. Judging from the Weasley girl's behavior over the past two days, she and Hermione were neck and neck.
The only pity was that his good godson seemed a bit slow on the uptake.
But it didn't matter—they were still young. Now that he had regained his freedom and cleared his name, with such a godfather looking after him, Harry's future was nothing to worry about!
A mere Firebolt was just the beginning.
At this thought, Sirius couldn't help but sigh quietly.
If Lily were still here, she surely wouldn't have let him give Harry the Firebolt, would she?
Meanwhile, Hermione pulled Sherlock to the other end of the table.
She mysteriously took out a piece of parchment from her pocket and handed it to Sherlock, looking at him hopefully.
"Take a look—this is what I've been organizing over the past few days."
Sherlock took the parchment and saw that it described the troll incident they had encountered on Halloween during their first year.
"I was trapped in the basement, feeling both hungry and tired... First person?"
"Yes, I think detective case experiences would be more immersive from a first-person perspective. All of Lockhart's adventure books are written that way."
At this point, Hermione's face flushed slightly, and she unconsciously began twirling her hair around her finger.
Telling a story from a first-person perspective would indeed be more immersive.
But this also meant she needed to express her feelings of loneliness and helplessness at the time.
Especially now that she had to show it to Sherlock, who had been there himself—although she had mentally prepared herself, it was still somewhat embarrassing.
"In terms of narrative structure, I'd say it's passable."
Sherlock's eyes quickly scanned the text before offering his assessment.
"The reasoning process is fairly rigorous. If you can continue writing at this level, it should turn out well."
"Well, the content I wrote is factual, so of course it seems rigorous."
Receiving Sherlock's approval made Hermione bloom with joy, but then she complained.
"All these events are things you and I personally experienced together, yet I've discovered that expressing them clearly isn't as simple as I thought."
"That's only natural, Hermione."
Hearing Hermione's complaint, Sherlock said with a smile, "Even when the events themselves are extraordinary enough, making them captivating to read still isn't easy.
That's why I said both you and Harry have a talent for recounting and summarizing.
Compared to you two, Ron is somewhat lacking in this regard.
In fact, just being able to tell a story well is enough to qualify you as an excellent writer."
Hermione's eyes lit up at this, and she grabbed Sherlock's hand, urging him.
"Quick, tell me more details."
On the other side of the table, only Mr. Weasley was fully engaged in discussion with the other two men.
Both Mr. Holmes and Mr. Granger had divided their attention, keeping part of it on their children.
Watching Hermione pull Sherlock aside for a whispered conversation, Mr. Holmes's lips curved slightly up.
In some ways, his younger son was more successful than his older son!
Mr. Granger watched the proactive Hermione and shook his head secretly.
Forget it, forget it.
When daughters grew up, they couldn't be kept at home. Hermione was already fifteen years old.
Seeing the radiance on her face when talking to Sherlock, Mr. Granger sighed quietly, as long as she was happy.
Besides, even the critical him had to admit that Sherlock was indeed an excellent child.
Apart from being arrogant, emotionally distant, controlling, tactless, and eccentric in personality, he had no real flaws.
Wait, that still wouldn't do!
Even though his daughter was fifteen, it was still too early.
Moreover, looking at Sherlock's demeanor, it seemed like his daughter's feelings were entirely one-sided, and that wouldn't do!
In any case, he needed to keep a close watch.
At this moment, Ginny also came into the kitchen.
She hadn't gone to see the Firebolt but had gone to the bathroom instead.
Because of this, she had just missed Harry and Hermione going to meet Sherlock.
This made her somewhat annoyed, so after greeting Sherlock, she sat down next to Harry.
Seeing this, Sirius tactfully left and joined the three men at the other end of the table.
Two wizards and two Muggles.
The wizards were both members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families, this combination was indeed rather odd, but both pure-blood representatives happened to be pro-Muggle, so the four men's conversation was very harmonious.
Time passed gradually, and with the combined efforts of three skilled ladies, lunch was finally ready.
A large pot of stew and a big iron kettle of Butterbeer were first brought to the table.
"Ginny, go call those boys down," Mrs. Weasley said, her gaze sweeping across the kitchen with some dissatisfaction. "Look what time it is."
Ginny reluctantly left Harry's side to go upstairs and call her brothers down for lunch.
"Thank you so much, three beautiful and kind ladies."
At this point, Sirius, as the host, immediately stood up to help.
Harry wanted to follow, but was pressed back into his seat by Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. Weasley.
"Since my dear mother passed away, no one has lived here, unless you count the house-elf she left behind."
Sirius said with some emotion. "But that elf has gone quite mad. It hasn't done any cleaning for a long time, and as for cooking, don't even think about it."
"Mr. Black, I think you treat Kreacher too badly," Hermione couldn't help but interject. "You ignore him completely and always call him a useless waste."
"He IS a useless waste."
Sirius sneered, making no effort to hide his disgust.
"Can't clean, can't cook, can't take care of people...
Hermione, I know you're kind-hearted, but you should have seen his attitude toward me too—even though he's gone quite mad, he still doesn't regard me as his true master.
I know he despises me, and I don't like him either. Because I have no affection for this house, and that creature only makes me constantly recall all of this.
In fact, if it weren't for Harry, I would never have returned to this place."
Everyone heard the resolute tone in Sirius's voice and looked at each other.
Sherlock looked at Harry, who silently mouthed a sentence to him. Seeing this, Sherlock nodded.
No one spoke for the next few minutes, until Ginny and her brothers came to the kitchen.
"Hey, Sherlock!"
Ron rushed over as soon as he saw Sherlock, saying excitedly, "You really should have come upstairs to see the Firebolt—that thing is absolutely brilliant!"
"Please, Ron, you've said that eight hundred times in the past two days," said Fred.
"Our ears are about to be lump," said George.
Ron immediately retorted indignantly. "But you said the same thing yourselves!"
"Yes, but we don't go on and on about it endlessly like you."
Fred turned to Sherlock, "You think our brother is annoying too, don't you? Anyway, did you have a pleasant holiday?"
"Not bad, Fred."
"I'm George, Sherlock, you've got the wrong person."
"No, you're Fred."
"I really am George, right, Fred?"
"Yes, he's George, I'm Fred."
"No, you're Fred. That trick doesn't work on me."
"Alright, alright... I'm Fred."
Seeing Sherlock's determined gaze, Fred could only give up his pretense.
"But I don't understand—why can you always tell us apart accurately? Even Mum and Dad get confused sometimes."
"You just need to observe."
"..."
After greeting Sherlock's family, everyone sat down.
Everyone was curious about the Holmes couple, wanting to know what kind of parents could produce the Holmes brothers.
However, after interacting with them, they found that the couple wasn't particularly unusual.
Mr. Holmes was refined and cultured, Mrs. Holmes was gentle and gracious, and both were very easy to get along with.
Once everyone was seated, all eyes turned to Sirius.
He slowly stood up, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, then began to speak.
"Well, before we dig into this lunch that smells absolutely top-notch—Mrs. Weasley, Mrs. Granger, Mrs. Holmes, I must first say seriously.
Thank you three for your hard work today.
You were properly invited as guests, yet ended up taking care of this bunch of kids for me."
"Not at all!"
"This is what we should do!"
"If we waited for you to prepare lunch, we'd be waiting until evening!"
Hearing the three ladies' words, everyone laughed together.
The kitchen was suddenly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
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