Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ The students were very excited about the journal Elias had described.
Those with strong grades in particular felt as though they had discovered the secret to making money.
They believed they could finally put their talents to use.
The liveliest places in the Great Hall were still around Hermione and Penelope.
Their papers were now being passed around among the students.
The high quality of the essays left the younger students looking at Hermione with admiration.
It made Hermione very embarrassed, so she only kept her head down and ate her mashed potatoes.
Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin came over haughtily to ask for Hermione’s essay.
The Slytherins intended to find several mistakes in it and humiliate Hermione properly.
Hermione calmly cast the Doubling Charm on her paper and handed one copy to Daphne.
Daphne returned to the Slytherin table with Hermione’s essay.
After the Slytherins gathered together and read Hermione’s work carefully, they finally gave up on embarrassing themselves.
After dinner, Hermione was immediately escorted back to the Gryffindor common room by her Housemates.
The Weasley twins had prepared quite a grand celebration party for her.
They had even obtained many glasses enchanted with automatic refilling charms.
Whenever a student lifted one, it would automatically refill with butterbeer.
The tables were piled high with all kinds of sweets from Honeydukes.
Having made a great deal of money from their booklet, the Weasley twins were much more generous now.
They also set off Filibuster Fireworks without restraint inside the Gryffindor common room.
For once, Percy did not stop his two younger brothers.
Instead, he buried himself in organizing his own essays.
He planned to revise several strong papers and submit them to the journal.
When the party reached its height, several upper-year students even lifted Hermione and tossed her high into the air.
Hermione screamed with excitement.
She enjoyed the atmosphere just as much as everyone else.
Ron struggled to catch a Chocolate Frog that had almost escaped and stuffed it into his mouth.
He and Harry were sitting comfortably on the common room sofa.
As Hermione’s friends, her success made them feel proud as well.
In the middle of the party, an owl came to the Gryffindor common room with a letter from Professor Vale.
Ron noticed it first.
After handing the letter to Hermione, he saw that the owl had not left.
He took out a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Bean and tried to feed it to the bird.
The owl stared at Ron in surprise, pecked his finger hard, and flew away.
Hermione opened the letter.
It was from Professor Vale.
In it, he invited Hermione to come to the Magical Close-Quarters Defense office the next morning to arrange her work as his Charms assistant.
Hermione read the letter carefully, placed it solemnly in her pocket, and patted it once.
She was determined to make a good first impression on Professor Vale the next day.
So the next morning, Hermione was late.
When Hermione woke, warm sunlight was shining over her eyes.
The previous night’s party had relaxed the nerves she had kept taut for days while writing her essay.
Hermione lay lazily in her warm bed and rolled over.
Everything was so quiet and peaceful.
The cozy atmosphere was soon shattered by Hermione’s scream.
Horrified, Hermione realized that she had already missed her appointed time with Professor Vale.
Ignoring Ginny, who had been jolted awake by her scream and was still at a loss, Hermione hurriedly dressed.
She did not even have time to fix her hair before rushing out of the room.
At the doorway, she crashed into Ron, who had been preparing to greet her.
Poor Ron spun in place twice.
Harry had to catch him in time to keep him from falling.
Ron muttered complaints about Hermione, feeling that she was starting to resemble his mother.
When Elias opened his office door that morning, he found Penelope already waiting outside.
It was clear she had been there for quite some time.
When she saw Elias, Penelope seemed a little nervous and uneasy.
Elias politely invited her into his office.
Penelope looked around with curiosity.
Elias’s office was unmistakably full of witcher style: simple, austere, and hard-edged.
His two swords hung on the wall.
Beneath them stood the Wolf School witcher armor on an armor stand.
On the central wall of the office hung a shield painted with grape-laden vines.
It was the shield the Duchess of Toussaint had given Elias when she knighted him, and it represented his status as a knight of Toussaint.
On the windowsill were flowers Elias had brought from the other world.
The flowers had originally been medicinal plants used as potion ingredients, but Elias had placed a charm on them to keep them from ever withering and set them on the windowsill.
That way, even in this world, whenever a breeze blew in, he could still feel a trace of home.
When Penelope was about to close the office door, Elias stopped her and gestured for her to leave it open.
Muggle-born Penelope quickly understood his intention.
She gave Elias a grateful look, then left the office door open.
That small action made Professor McGonagall, who was hiding in the distance in cat form, let out a deep breath of relief.
Dumbledore had repeatedly asked Professor McGonagall to observe Elias.
Dumbledore naturally knew about the large movements Elias had made over the past few days.
He had not interfered at all, but he had instructed Professor McGonagall to watch Elias closely and report any developments at once.
Professor McGonagall trusted Dumbledore unconditionally, so she carried out his instructions meticulously.
When she learned that Elias had invited two female students to his office in the morning, she had been somewhat nervous.
After all, Elias was striking enough that some teenage witches could easily get the wrong idea.
But when she saw Elias specifically remind Penelope not to close the door, Professor McGonagall already believed in his character.
That only made her understand even less why Dumbledore remained so wary of him.
“Miss Clearwater, I have to say your understanding and application of Charms and Ancient Runes are truly excellent,” Elias praised.
“Far above that of many adult wizards.” “You are too kind,” Penelope said.
She squeezed the notebook in her hands with such excitement that the knuckles of her slender fingers turned slightly white.
Receiving praise from Elias left Penelope genuinely thrilled.
Unlike the younger students, the upper-years faced much stricter training under Elias.
Because their physical fitness was so poor, they found it very difficult to earn his praise.
That was indeed the truth.
Elias believed that these students’ physical fitness was not even comparable to Ciri’s when she was a child.
After that, Elias arranged the relevant duties of the Witcher Sign Studies assistant with Penelope and set their daily research time for after Magical Close-Quarters Defense.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.