"What, you've all already found dance partners!"
In Gryffindor common room.
When Ronald learned that his three closest friends had all quietly secured Christmas ball partners, he couldn't help crying out in surprise, standing there dumbfounded.
"Bloody hell!"
He looked at Sherlock, at Harry, at Hermione with eyes as if he was betrayed.
"How could you do this!"
Ron pointed at the three with a trembling finger, unable to speak properly.
"So now I'm the only one left?"
"Elementary, my friend."
Sherlock looked at Ron and even thoughtfully provided an explanation.
"Dear friend, your reaction is a bit too intense. Actually, it doesn't matter if you don't have a dance partner."
"How does it not matter?" Ron asked, both confused and dissatisfied.
"What Sherlock means is that the champions must lead the opening dance at the ball."
Hermione added, "This time Hogwarts took the lead in the first task, so Sherlock, Harry, and Diggory will be the three leading the dance."
Harry showed an expression of sudden understanding. "Sherlock's right! So Ron, even if you don't have a partner, you won't make a spectacle of yourself like we will!"
Ron: ┭┮﹏┭┮
Listening to his three friends speak one after another, Ron felt his heart aching!
The key was, they were telling the truth.
"Fine..." Ron essentially gave up. "Just tell me, who are your partners?"
"I invited Cho today, and she agreed."
"As expected," Ron shrugged. "Can you tell us the process?"
Harry briefly described how he invited Cho Chang.
While speaking, he deliberately glanced at Ginny a few times, and found she was listening seriously to him speak, which relieved him somewhat.
"Congratulations, Harry."
After Harry finished, Ginny said seriously, "As far as I know, quite a few boys invited Cho during this time, but she refused them all. Clearly she was waiting for you."
Ron looked at Ginny in surprise.
As if he couldn't believe his sister would say such a thing.
Harry scratched the back of his head, grinning foolishly without speaking.
"What about you two?"
Ron said, looking at Sherlock and Hermione. "Don't tell me you're each other's partners?"
Hermione's face turned slightly red, not answering.
"You've really come a long way, my dear Ron," Sherlock said with a slight smile. "Your deduction is completely correct."
Ron: テ_デ
Was that supposed to be a compliment?
Why did it sound so painful?
"So it really is just me left!"
Ron pointed at himself and said this sentence again.
"Yes," Sherlock said.
Harry nodded. "That's right."
Ron stopped talking.
Tomorrow was the last day before Christmas break, and he suddenly felt his future was dim.
Although his three friends said it didn't matter if he didn't have a partner, but...
That would be a really embarrassing thing.
So he made up his mind—within these few days, he must find a partner.
In the last few days of term, rumors about the Christmas ball circulated everywhere.
Most of them weren't credible, like Dumbledore buying eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks.
However, Hermione pointed out that booking the Weird Sisters might actually be true.
The Weird Sisters were a very famous music group in the wizarding world.
For those students who grew up listening to WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network), this was good news.
Seeing everyone had no heart for lessons, the good-natured Charms professor, Professor Flitwick, simply stopped lecturing.
He allowed them to play games in his class, winning everyone's unanimous approval.
As for himself, he pulled Sherlock and Harry aside to discuss with them the excellent Summoning Charm they used in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
"I knew you could do it!"
Professor Flitwick stood on a pile of books, looking at Sherlock and Harry, his eyes sparkling.
"In first year, I already knew you could do it!"
"I remember Sherlock used a Summoning Charm then?"
"Yes, though it wasn't completely successful at the time."
"Haha, but that's a charm you're only required to master in fourth year. You two and Diggory all performed excellently this time, and that spell was used beautifully..."
Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lupin was also good, arranging some light, free activities for everyone.
Then he too pulled Sherlock and Harry aside to discuss the Triwizard Tournament with them and praised them highly.
However, other teachers weren't so accommodating.
History of Magic professor, the ghost Professor Binns, continued trudging through his pile of notes on goblin rebellions.
According to Sherlock's deduction, since this professor hadn't let his death stop him from continuing to teach, small matters like Christmas absolutely couldn't distract him.
Given Transfiguration Professor McGonagall's character, she naturally couldn't let students idle. Right until the last second before class ended, she was still assigning work and homework.
These were tolerable, but the most hateful was Potions professor Snape.
He naturally would never let everyone play games in his class, and no one expected that.
Having him teach normally like Professor McGonagall was also within expectations.
But unexpectedly, he surveyed the entire class with a gloomy look and told them terrible news—
That he would test them on antidotes in the last lesson of term.
"He's really mean, truly!"
That evening in the Gryffindor common room, Ron was particularly indignant. "Deliberately choosing the last day to test us, ruining the last bit of term time with a pile of work."
"But actually, you haven't been overly diligent, have you?"
Hermione took over Sherlock's Potions notes and said this in passing.
Just as she said, Ron was currently busy.
He had gotten a deck of Exploding Snap cards and was building a castle.
This pastime was both exciting and interesting—if not done well, what he built could explode at any moment.
"But it's Christmas, Hermione."
Harry said lazily.
He sat in an armchair by the fire, reading a leisure book called "Flying with the Cannons."
Ever since Cho agreed to be his partner, he had relaxed completely.
Hermione had been casual when talking to Ron, but now looked at him with a serious gaze.
"Harry, I think even if you don't want to study antidotes, you'd do something more creative."
"Like what?"
Harry asked while watching Cannon's Joey Jenkins slam a Bludger hard toward a Chaser from the Ballycastle Bats.
"That golden egg!" Hermione said through gritted teeth in a low voice.
"Come on, Hermione, we can rest until February twenty-fourth, and besides, we have Sherlock—"
Harry looked toward Sherlock—oh, he wasn't there.
Not long ago, Gemma had just asked Sherlock out.
"But we can't just dump everything on him," Hermione frowned. "We should do something too."
"I think it's fine this way. One person thinking is enough."
Ron said, placing the last two cards on top of the castle.
With a boom, the entire castle exploded, singeing his eyebrows.
"Very nice, Ron... matches your dress robes perfectly."
The twins sat down beside them. "So... haven't you lot found partners yet?"
Hearing this topic, Ron's face darkened. "Only I haven't found one."
"Better speed up, little brother, or all the good girls will be taken." Fred said.
"So, who are you two going with?" Ron said.
"Mind your own business, Ron, or I'll singe your nose too." George said, waving his wand threateningly at Ron.
"I should take action too... invite someone."
After the two left, Ron couldn't help muttering to himself.
"Though he's a git, he's right about that—I don't want to end up dancing with some ugly troll."
Hermione frowned.
Harry couldn't help asking, "Ron, what are you saying?"
"Well—you know what I mean," Ron shrugged. "I'd rather go alone—than find, say, Eloise Midgen."
"Her acne's much better lately—she's actually quite pretty!" Harry couldn't help saying.
"But her nose is a bit off," Ron said.
"Judging people by appearance is rather shallow, dear Ron."
At this moment, Sherlock walked into the common room from outside, having just heard Ron's comment, and offered his assessment.
"Please, Sherlock, not everyone can be like you, not caring about their partner's appearance."
Hermione's brows immediately rose sharply, yet Ron didn't realize this at all and continued, "Besides, I'm just a common person!"
Hermione laughed coldly.
"Heh, so fundamentally, you want to invite the prettiest girl who'll accept you, even if she's a complete villain?"
"Well—yeah, that's basically right," Ron said.
Harry couldn't help laughing. "You're honest, at least."
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about."
Just as Harry said, Ron said honestly, "You'll see, tomorrow... no, by the day after tomorrow, I'll definitely find a partner!"
Ron clenched his fist as he spoke, then strode out of the common room with the air of a warrior going to his doom.
"Shallow!" Hermione couldn't help saying.
"Very shallow, yet also realistic," Sherlock said.
"Actually, I think he could ask Lavender," Harry said thoughtfully. "She'd definitely be willing to be Ron's partner."
"Why?" Hermione asked curiously.
Then Harry recounted how Ron wanted to see Lavender's Uranus in Divination class.
Hermione gasped and covered her mouth in surprise.
"But no, she's already agreed to go with Seamus." As Lavender's roommate, Hermione knowing this wasn't strange.
"That's really too bad," Harry spread his hands, then asked curiously, "By the way, Fred and George said they found partners too. You don't know..."
"The Patil twins."
Sherlock directly provided the answer. "Fred with Parvati from our class, George with Padma from Ravenclaw."
"Twin brothers with twin sisters?" Hermione found this somewhat interesting. "That's quite amusing."
Harry glanced at Hermione, then asked, "Sherlock, Gemma asked you out—did she want to invite you as her dance partner?"
Harry was kind-hearted. He clearly knew Hermione hadn't left because she wanted to ask Sherlock about this.
But her current appearance clearly showed she didn't know how to bring it up, so he simply helped her ask.
Sure enough, as soon as he asked, Hermione immediately pricked up her ears.
"You could say it's an invitation, but you could also say it isn't."
"Huh?"
Harry blinked. "What do you mean?"
"She guessed that Hermione had already invited me."
Sherlock's statement stunned both Harry and Hermione simultaneously.
"She hopes to dance one more dance with me after Hermione and I finish the opening dance. I agreed."
Sherlock continued.
"I see."
Harry secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he hadn't guessed wrong—Gemma's intelligence and wisdom were indeed not below Hermione's.
This should probably be considered the best result, right?
Listening to Sherlock's words, Hermione also seemed to have made some kind of resolution.
In the following days, Hogwarts teachers and students continuously showed their desire to leave a deep impression on the guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
They seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas.
The school was decorated festively. All the young witches and wizards from first to seventh year said they had never seen such beautiful decorations since entering school.
The marble staircase banisters were hung with icicles that never melted. The twelve Christmas trees usually placed in the Great Hall were decorated with all sorts of trinkets.
From shining holly berries to constantly hooting live golden owls.
The suits of armor were all enchanted—whenever someone passed by, they would perform Christmas carols.
It felt especially funny when the empty helmets sang "O Come, All Ye Faithful."
Unfortunately, the armor only knew half the lyrics.
Caretaker Filch was dutiful, running to find Sherlock for help several times.
Because he needed to find Peeves, who was hiding among the armor. Whenever the armor couldn't continue singing, he would make up his own lyrics to fill in.
Unfortunately, those words were all very crude and offensive, damaging Hogwarts' image.
When Filch once again used great effort to pull Peeves out of the armor, he said rather gratefully, "Thank you, Sherlock—you know, the teachers are all too busy now and have no time to help me..."
"Just lending a hand," Sherlock said. "However, I suggest you could ask Moody. He's been at the school this whole time, and he can find Peeves' whereabouts faster than I can."
"Mad-Eye Moody?"
Filch thought of his magical eye and wooden leg and couldn't help shaking his head. "Never mind."
Just then, a commotion came from the entrance hall, as if something had happened.
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