In front of the faculty common room, Ron waited quietly at the door, then he waved excitedly at Harry and Lupin when he saw them.
"Harry, Professor Lupin, you're finally here!"
"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked curiously, he looked around and spotted Hermione around a corner, she and Professor McGonagall discussing something in a whisper.
Shortly after, they came over talking with a smile, and walked into the faculty common room together. The room was reorganized, the old dark wood chairs stacked on the side of the long room near the fireplace, with a long table in its place.
Flitwick cast a spell on the ceiling, making coloured ribbons dangle, Felix conjured a small white ball, which floated to the ceiling, emitting a gentle glow, illuminating the room with warmth and brightness, Hagrid carried a large barrel of mead, while Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall smiled and turned the tables into miniature creatures.
Harry temporarily forgot the sadness of parting, as he happily gobbled up, at Hagrid's recommendation, he also tasted a small glass of home-brewed wine of the house-elf, when Professor McGonagall cast a reproachful gaze, Hagrid consciously took the glass away: "You are still young, Harry ... "
In addition to the many flavours of hot dishes and sweet puddings, there were a few more novel dishes on the table, Ron forked up a meatball dripping with sauce and asked curiously, "What's this? I've never seen it before," he put his fork into his mouth, then his eyes lit up, "Harry, Hermione, you've got to try this!"
Harry forked up a yellow cube that tasted sweet and sour, "It's pineapple." He said with certainty.
"What's this dish called?"
A house-elf wearing a chef's hat said respectfully: "This is pineapple sweet and sour meat, recently developed, Mr. Hap gave Cloudbur a recipe book for Christmas, there are many magical dishes in it."
Hermione said hesitantly, " Are you the kitchen house elf? How about joining us over here ..."
Cloudbur the house-elf took a few steps back, "We will dine in the kitchen," he bowed, "the dishes are all served, please enjoy." He disappeared with a thud.
"You're scaring him, Hermione." Ron said.
At this point, Professor McGonagall began to ask Lupin about his plans after he left school, and Lupin stated the job posting he had seen in the newspaper, "I fit the bill in every way except ancient runes. So I am going to submit a resume."
Professor McGonagall showed a smile as she said enthusiastically, "Which one is it? Maybe I know them, and I can write a letter of recommendation for you."
Lupin said gently, "A new company called Future World, it's not quite well known yet-"
"Future World?" Felix repeated, he looked at Lupin with a strange look, Lupin looked a little puzzled, after a while, Felix raised his glass: "You will succeed, Lupin."
"Thanks."
"Ding!"
The two men's glasses clinked together.
...
The next morning, Harry got up from bed early and dressed hurriedly, Ron is sleeping heavily and talking in his sleep, "This is delicious, Harry ..."
He put on another robe on himself as he walked out of the common room with a couple of steps, disturbing the fat lady's good dreams by coming out too early.
"Son, it's the end of the school year." She said feebly, whirling around and moving out of position.
"I'm not confused, it's urgent." Harry explained as he walked down the grand staircase and made his way out, passing through the doors of the great hall, where he spotted the back of Professor Lupin carrying his suitcase from a distance.
He caught up with him, panting, "Professor... Professor, I've come to see you off!"
They strolled down the lawn, greeted by the golden morning sun until they came to the front door of Hogwarts, they talked like real friends, unrestrainedly, and when it came to parting, Harry felt even more reluctant.
Lupin smiled and said: "I left quietly, because I did not want to increase the feelings of parting, and besides, it will not be long before we will see each other again."
"You mean, Sirius's brother's funeral?"
Lupin nodded, " Honourable person ... " he waved and walked away briskly.
Harry watched him until he had disappeared at the end of the path before he made his way back to the castle. The rest of the day flew by, and he threw all his energy into learning ancient magic, so much that he couldn't even be bothered with Apparition for a while, not counting Hermione, there are already many who had learned the magic from the club - it was Percy Weasley, followed by Geoffrey and Penelope.
"They're all seventh years, the advantage is too obvious." Ron said.
"Cedric is tentatively mastering it too." Harry said sensitively, "I always fell a little short."
"Mate, he's two years ahead of you, why would you want to compete with him?" Ron asked in disbelief.
Harry didn't say anything, he also found his thoughts a bit boring, but he always couldn't help but fight in his mind.
In the blink of an eye, the final day before the holiday arrived. On that day, the school announced the examination results. Harry, Ron, and Hermione passed every class.
Harry got an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and an E in Ancient Runes, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures and Ron glanced at them, "I only came out worse in Defense Against the Dark Arts, everything else is the same."
He looked at Hermione's report card again thoughtlessly and found a single E in the table as everything else is O: " Defense Against the Dark Arts ... I remembered that boggart you ran into on the test again."
Hermione met a cunning boggart during the practical exam, it turned into a professor told her that she failed all the exams collectively, for which she had to repeat the grade, which took her a lot of time to calm down, for which the exam had to be interrupted for ten minutes.
Hermione glanced at Ron and reminded him, "I learned the Apparition."
Ron frowned and grunted in a small voice: "I also succeeded twice ..."
"Lost half an eyebrow once and shredded a cloak once - yeah, if you count them as successes."
"I should probably go find Fred and George, their asses are going to be swollen from mommy's beatings ..."
When they appeared in the great hall, they saw that Professor Hap had been surrounded by excited students, and Percy loudly announced, "All outstanding!"
Geoffrey reminded him, "You forgot Marcus."
"Well, there's one E ... Let's try to ignore that."
Felix became surrounded and spent a good deal of time trying to get out of the center, but it was happy trouble. The seventh-year graduates were still celebrating enthusiastically, and even Snape hadn't given them a deduction, something that would have been unthinkable in the past.
"Severus, I need a steady source of wolfsbane potions."
"For that werewolf?" Snape asked in disgust, ever since the night after the Battle of the Bridge, he had stopped saying Lupin's name in conversation with Felix, always using 'that werewolf' as a substitute.
"You don't seem like a nosy person." He said.
Felix sighed, "He'd make an excellent employee."
"That company of yours?" Snape asked, not rejecting it immediately, but thinking hard, "Do you still accept investments?"
"If it were anyone else, I would refuse, but not from you, Severus."
"Give me a position that must be higher than that werewolf, and I'll interview him personally." Snape clenched his fingers and gave a grim smile.
"You look terrible, that little wizard's fork is falling off."
Snape glanced over and said dismissively, "A silly fellow, eating pie in my class, and I made him dispose of two vats of Horned Toad livers."
"Did he? No wonder I thought he looked a little familiar ..."
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