Purely Platonic?
14: Chapter 14: Just Friends?
Purely Platonic?
At breakfast in the Great Hall— “Harry, go on!” Ron gave Harry a hard shove from behind.
He was only going over to make a friend.
Ron couldn’t understand why Harry was acting so hesitant and nervous about it.
Pushed forward by Ron, Harry stopped in front of Lily.
The moment he looked into her green eyes, his mind went completely blank.
“H-Hello.
I…
would you like to be friends with me?” Harry’s hesitant manner had a shy, awkward innocence to it, and his eyes kept darting away.
One look was enough for Witt to decide something was suspicious.
Before Lily could answer, Witt gently pulled her behind him and planted himself between her and Harry.
“Just friends?” Harry nodded.
He genuinely didn’t have any ulterior motive.
It was simply that whenever he stood in front of Lily, all sorts of inexplicable emotions welled up inside him and made him stumble over his words.
“Purely platonic?” Witt asked again.
“What?” Harry stared at him in confusion.
“Lily, we’re leaving.” Witt turned around, took Lily by the hand, and warned her, “Stay away from fellows like this in future.
One look and you can tell his intentions aren’t pure.” “Wait.” This time, Lily didn’t listen to him.
Instead, she defended Harry.
“I don’t think he means any harm.” Lily held out her hand to Harry and smiled warmly.
“Hello.
I’m Lily.
Lily Evans.” “Harry Potter.” Harry shook her hand, a rather silly smile appearing on his face.
Witt stood awkwardly beside them and muttered, “The fact that he doesn’t mean any harm is exactly what makes him dangerous.” Complaining was one thing, but Witt had no intention of stopping Lily.
Who Lily chose to be friends with was entirely up to her.
Witt had no right to force her to choose otherwise.
After their brief handshake, Lily took Witt by the hand and brought him over to Harry.
“This is Witt Cress, my best friend.” “Hello.” Harry offered Witt his hand in a friendly manner.
Witt glanced at Lily, then reluctantly shook it.
After the introductions were over, the four of them sat down to breakfast.
The food at Hogwarts was quite good.
It was just a little repetitive.
The same few dishes seemed to appear over and over again.
While they ate, Ron noticed that Witt was reading an enormous book.
Not far away, Hermione was reading an even larger one.
Completely baffled, he asked, “Witt, what are you reading?” “Records about Gryffindor.
I’m trying to find out whether he had any strange little habits nobody knew about, or some embarrassing bit of history he wanted kept secret.” “Why don’t you ask the Sorting Hat?” Ron said indistinctly around a mouthful of chicken.
“The Sorting Hat used to belong to Gryffindor.” “If he really had any secrets, it’d definitely know.” “Right!” Witt suddenly realised the obvious.
He had almost forgotten this was the wizarding world.
Instead of wasting time digging through historical records, he could just ask the Hat directly.
“Where do they keep the Sorting Hat normally?” “I heard it’s in the Headmaster’s office.” “Thanks.” Witt grabbed a sausage, stuffed it into his mouth, and rushed away after tossing one last sentence over his shoulder.
“Lily, return the book to the library for me!” ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Witt had to ask several students for directions before he finally found the entrance to the Headmaster’s office.
Once there, however, he ran into another problem.
The staircase required a password.
And Witt had absolutely no idea what it was.
After thinking it over, he could only resort to the stupidest possible method.
“PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!” Witt cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs outside the Headmaster’s office.
He kept it up for more than a minute before the staircase finally began to descend.
Dumbledore stood on it in his nightclothes, looking rather dazed.
He had very obviously just been woken up.
“Mr Cress, are you unaware that sleep is very important to an elderly gentleman?” “But the sun’s already well up.” Witt pointed at the bright sun outside, wearing an expression that clearly said, Professor Dumbledore, even a child like me gets up earlier than you.
“Very well.” Dumbledore had no desire to argue about that particular subject.
“What do you need?” “I want to ask the Sorting Hat some questions.” “The Sorting Hat?
That’s unusual.” In all his years as Headmaster, Dumbledore had never encountered a student who came looking specifically for the Sorting Hat.
Apart from the annual Sorting Ceremony, the Hat spent the rest of the year sitting in the Headmaster’s office, composing the song it intended to perform the following year.
“Come up, then.” Dumbledore beckoned him gently.
Once they entered the Headmaster’s office, Dumbledore asked out of habit, “Would you like a Cockroach Cluster?” “Yes, thank you.” Witt had eaten them before.
They didn’t look particularly appetising, but they actually tasted rather good.
Besides, free food was free food.
“That’s rather unfortunate, what did you just say?” Dumbledore suddenly realised Witt had actually accepted.
“I like straightforward children.” Dumbledore placed the Cockroach Clusters in front of Witt and gestured for him to help himself.
Then he picked one up and popped the whole thing into his mouth.
It burst with syrup.
Witt shamelessly grabbed a handful.
Unlike Dumbledore, however, Witt didn’t put the whole sweet in his mouth at once.
He preferred biting the head off first, sucking out all the syrupy filling, then eating the rest afterward.
After finishing one in three bites, Witt walked over to the Sorting Hat.
“Mr Sorting Hat.” “You’re the boy from yesterday who sensed the Sword of Gryffindor.” “Mr Sorting Hat, I heard you once belonged to Gryffindor.
You must have known him very well.” “Gryffindor?
Of course I knew him well,” the Sorting Hat said proudly.
“I still carry the magic he placed within me.” “I wanted to ask whether Gryffindor had any secret little habits nobody knew about.
Or embarrassing history.
Or mistakes he’d made.
Or weaknesses.
Anything known only to him.” “Anything at all will do.” “Cough!
Cough!” Dumbledore, who had been sitting nearby watching the exchange, suddenly choked on the syrup inside his Cockroach Cluster and began coughing.
He remembered his suspicions about Witt’s strange ability.
“Witt…
you haven’t happened to meet Gryffindor, have you?” “How did you know?” Witt stared at Dumbledore in surprise.
As expected of the boss from a Legendary Dungeon.
He could even guess something like that.
“Gryffindor?” The Sorting Hat immediately became excited.
“You really met Gryffindor?” When Dumbledore and McGonagall had discussed Witt’s situation, they hadn’t bothered hiding it from the Sorting Hat.
There had been no reason to.
“Ah, I do miss the days when I fought alongside him.” “Fought?
You’re a hat.” Witt gave the Sorting Hat a deeply suspicious look.
He found it difficult to imagine a hat fighting anyone.
Fortunately, Dumbledore immediately came to the Hat’s defence.
“Before becoming the Sorting Hat, it was already an exceptional magical artefact.” “It could defend against most forms of magic.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!