"Adam, you should not use so much money for the bet." Professor Flitwik reminded Adam while Hermione just nodded her head at Professor Flitwik's words showing her support to his statement. But Adam did not really care about the money at this moment. He was nervous as this was his very first duel in the wizarding world.
Adam was adventurous. He wanted to fulfill his dream by becoming the protagonist of his own life just like the ones that he had read in fantasy novels. He was even going to create a notebook and write down all of his adventures and add some pictures to them. He had many things he wanted to do but now first adventure was already here.
Adam wanted to beat Draco in this duel, in front of all these pure-blood families. Even though it did not prove anything as he was just a little kid in front of all the adults present here, but he still wanted to show his courage at least to professor Flitwik and Hermione. He did not want to do this to show off but his subconcious mind was longing for the attention and praise from the people he knew. He was really alone in his past life so he was really trying to have some trust worthy companions in this life which is why he could not help but try to attract their attention.
Adam looked at Professor Flitwik and gave him a assuring smile before walking in middle of the basement. He looked around to see that there were only empty wooden boxes around him. Even those boxes were broken so he could only use them to throw them at Draco. Adam was not worried as he knew that if this world is quite the same as original world in the story then Draco might not even be able to cast spells other than levitation spell and wand-lighting spell.
Now Adam could only pray that this world was the same as the original one in terms of learning magic. Adam saw Draco walking over to him with a nasty sneer on his face while Lucius just said something to Draco before standing at a distance behind Draco.
"Do you think you can beat me? You lowly muggle-born think that you can defeat pure-blood like me? Today I will show you the power of our blood." Draco said as he took out his wand from the sleeves of his robes.
Adam just laughed lightly at Draco and took out his wand. His wand looked quite different after the transformation. It was not old looking anymore but rather had a gentle Lustre on its black body. There were also some strange patterns on it that people would only mistake them as a fancy design in this age of time.
Adam followed the duel etiquette rules that Professor Flitwik had told him beforehand. He stood straight and looked at Draco before giving him a slight bow. But Draco who was standing in front of him did not follow these things.
Lucius could not help but glare at Draco before telling him to follow the duel etiquette. He didn't want Draco to make fool out of himself in front of so many pure-blood families present here.
"Draco, Bow." Lucius was calm but Draco could immediately tell that he was angry from his father's voice. He immediately made a quick bow and looked at Adam in anger.
Adam smiled at him and shrugged to show him that it was not his fault.
"You can start first, Draco."
Draco was angry. He was never a type of person who could manage his temper. He immediately raised his wand and fired a faint bluish spell towards Adam. "Flipendo."
Adam quickly dodged sideways and let the spell pass by him. Draco's spell did not have that much of a speed so he could immediately dodge it. It did not hit Adam but it definitely made him surprised. He could not believe for a second that Draco used a proper Dueling spell. Flipendo was not something that person at Draco's age could use. Even though it was not very strong, it was still enough to beat him if it hit him.
'How can he use this spell? This damn world is definitely not the same as the original story. I have to end this quickly, even if I have to buy Disarming charm from the system shop.' Adam thought in his heart before raising his wand towards Draco.
But before he could even say the incantation of levitation charm, another blueish spell came towards his direction. Not just Adam but even all people present here were surprised by Draco's power. This spell was just like a tickle to the people present here but this did not mean that they could not see Draco's potential from the way he cast this knockback jinx at the age of 11. This was nearly impossible; atleast none of the people present here could do it when they were 11.
Adam swiftly dodged Draco's spell once again before quickly waving his wand towards the broken wooden box and using levitation charm to throw it towards Draco.
"Wingardium Leviosa" as soon Adam's voice echoed in the basement, everyone from the pure-blood family burst into laughter. Every one of them thought that it was funny for Adam to use levitation charm in a duel as it was not an attacking spell. For them, this spell was just a child's play and no one would think of using it in the duel.
But Adam didn't let their laughter last too long as he made the broken wooden box float in the air and with quick wave of his wand, he threw it towards Draco. Everyone went silent not because Adam successfully used this spell to throw this box but because the speed at which he threw this box was really fast.
Yes, it was very fast. Even Adam did not think that this spell would be so good. This was a system spell so he did not need to specifically learn it as he already got all the information and ways to cast this spell in his mind the moment he bought this spell. Its power was also based on Adam's power so Adam's increased magic level had really helped him this time.
There was still a bit of distance between Draco and the wooden box, which would normally make it impossible to hit Draco. But right now Draco had also joined other people to laugh at Adam. The moment Draco realized that the wooden box was flying towards him at a fast speed, it was already too late. He jumped sideways to dodge it but it was unsuccessful. But it still helped him by not getting hit directly on his body.
"AAAAAAAAH!" Draco's painful scream resounded in the silent basement. His left foot got hit by wooden box that flew very fast, which had increased the impact and injury on Draco's leg. Everyone had gone silent looking at this scene. Lucius could not help but hold his walking cane tightly with both of his hands. He was angry but he could not intervene in this duel, atleast not right now.
Only Hermione and Professor Flitwik were excited but they were also holding their voices back of their initial shock and surprise. Professor Flitwik had thought that he would be seeing Adam lose this duel when Draco successfully cast the Flipendo. But to his surprise, Adam used perfect levitation charm in this way. He could not help but whisper, "Perfect wand movement. Clear incantation. Even the shoulder movement is perfect. This is the most perfect levitation charm I have ever seen in my life." Not many people knew about the small details such as shoulder movement during spell casting, but Professor Flitwik's expertise was the spell casting. At the very first glance he could see these smallest details in Adam's way of spell casting.
Hermione who stood next to professor Flitwik heard these remarks but she did not care about it. She may care about these small details in the future but right now she did not care about these things. She was very excited to see Adam countering Draco in this way. She could not help but stare excitedly at Adam who was fighting this duel just for her. At the same time, she could not help but feel her ears burning up. She did not understand what was going on with her but she found out that it was really pleasant to look at Adam.
The wand that she received in Ollivanders did not just increase her magic level and speed of learning magic spells; It had also helped her mind develop a bit more compared to the kids of her age which made her more sensitive to these emotional changes. She was getting matured ahead of time in regards of these emotional changes.
Having maturity did not just mean that you have all the experience in this world or you are understanding about the situation of others and can act according to those situations or knowing about the complicated feelings such as love. There was still one special factor that also had qualitative influence on the judgment and the way of thinking of a person. This special factor was age. Age did not just mean the growth of the physical body but it also had a significant effect on the soul of a person. It is also the reason why kids with even all the knowledge of the world could not be compared to old wise people in terms of their ability to deal with the society's darker side that sometimes left people cold six feet under the ground.
This special factor also had a great influence on Adam. He might not have noticed this but if he was really 18 years old right now then he probably would have just left with Hermione instead of provoking one of the most notorious death eater, Lucius Malfoy.
Adam had the knowledge of his previous world. He had the information about Lucius Malfoy and knew many secrets about his deeds. But he still decided to provoke Lucius. The reason behind this was not that Adam was confident about his abilities or had a way to deal with Lucius, but because his age had influenced his decision. It made him act reckless when he saw Hermione getting bullied by Lucius in Flourish and Blotts. Compared to other normal kids, age had created a big flaw in Adam as his memories and way of thinking was of the 18 year old boy from the previous world, while his actual decision making and judgement were getting influenced by his immature mind and soul of 11 year old kid.
This problem was so big and dangerous that Adam might not even notice it till he is truly grown up in this world or survives or dies while facing real life-threatening situation that he may find himself in because of this immature mind.
"Draco, end it quickly." Lucious who saw Draco screaming in pain could not help but remind him at this moment. He loved Draco so much that even he was feeling the pain hearing Draco's screams. He wanted to interrupt this duel and treat Draco but he was not able to do so right now in front of these pure-blood families who always tried to find ways to trouble each other.
Draco somehow controlled himself and stood up putting all his weight on right leg. He had faint tears in his eyes which were filled anger and a bit of fear in it.
"You damn mudblood, I will make you pay for hurting me." Draco shouted in anger. He did not care about his father's warning to not use this word in front of other pure-blood families. Even though all pure blood families hated muggle-born wizards but many of these families would not actually use this word to muggle-born wizards. Draco held out his wand in Adam's direction and called out a spell that Adam was quite familiar with. "Serpensortia."
Draco's wand burst with white light and then black snake came out of it. This black snake was just 2 feet in length but Adam was sure that this snake was going to be a really poisonous snake. Draco ordered it to bite Adam which made it move towards Adam.
Adam did not know what to do right now so he used levitation charm on it which miserably failed without even slowing the snake down. Adam knew that he could not control living things with levitation charm but he did not have other options at the moment.
Hermione who stood on the sidelines could not help but shout at Adam, "Adam! Run!"
Adam really did not have any other options so he ran but he knew he could not run as this was not big enough place for him to outrun a snake. He quickly opened his status window and bought Basic Transfiguration spell without thinking about anything else. He knew that now he could not buy Disarming charm but he did not care about this right now.
Adam didn't know if he could use Transfiguration on living things so he looked around to find something to use for Transfiguration. He only saw few broken pieces of wooden boxes around him. He immediately had an idea in his mind. He quickly picked up one of the broken pieces of wood and threw it towards the snake. Many people thought that he was making final desperate struggle but they did not laugh this time. Some of them even looked forward to see if this boy had anything up his sleeves.
As broken piece of wood was about to hit the snake, Adam thought of bamboo basket that he once saw in television. He had seen people catch snakes with those basket so he thought of turning that broken piece of wood into snake basket before using the Transfiguration spell. Broken piece of wood vibrated and spun a bit before turning into snake basket. It covered the snake and trapped it under. Adam quickly used another wooden box to make sure that snake would not get out of the basket.
This happened very quickly but everyone saw it clearly. Everyone was surprised to see such precise Transfiguration spell but Professor Flitwik was not surprised at all. He was completely and utterly shocked. He had not taught Adam about Transfiguration so only possibility of him learning it was if he had learned by watching Professor McGonagall's demonstration which would be even more outrageous. How could someone learn magic just by watching it? It was impossible. And the way Adam used this spell made professor Flitwik understand one thing that Adam was 100% sure that he could do it otherwise he would not throw small piece of wood towards snake before using Transfiguration. Then where did his confidence come from?
Professor Flitwik was surprised, puzzled, shocked at the same time but he could not ask about this till this duel finishes. He could not help but look forward to the result of this duel.
Adam calmed himself down and took few deep breaths in relief. He looked at Draco who was panting heavily. Adam did not know what was going on with Draco but he was sure that there was something wrong with him. Lucius noticed Draco's condition, He immediately became anxious. Many people noticed this situation but everyone ignored it.
"I said, Finish the duel, Draco." Lucius shouted anxiously. Adam had heard emotions in Lucius's voice for the first time but it was not the time to notice these changes as he saw that Draco had raised his wand straight in the air towards the ceiling.
"Fumos" With Draco's voice, his wand burst out in Greyish smoke. Adam had never heard of this spell. He saw that there was Grey smoke coming out of Draco's wand but he did not know what it was. He had faintly guessed that it was fog but he was not sure.
In few seconds, Fog completely surrounded Draco. Everyone including Adam was puzzled by this scene. But then suddenly black smoke started coming out from inside of the fog that had covered Draco. It spread at astonishing speed and soon covered the entire basement in black smoke. Everyone was surprised by this scene as they could not see anything anymore.
"Now how can you beat me if you can't see me, mudblood?" Adam heard Draco's mocking voice. He could determine the direction of Draco's voice but he was not sure if his attack would reveal his location. He kept his mouth shut and wand ready. After few seconds, he heard Draco's voice but this time it was not mocking that he heard.
"Sectumsempra."
Adam took a moment to remember this spell as he tried to dodge sideways. Even though he moved right after hearing Draco's voice, He still got several small cuts on his right leg and his abdomen. Feeling these cuts, Adam finally recalled this curse.
'F**k Snape. F**k Draco. F**k Lucius.' He could not help but curse in his heart. Adam never hated Snape, 8n fact he thought that Snape was cool but now he really felt a bit of hatred towards Snape. Adam was pretty sure that Draco was not able to use this curse with such power and speed so there was only one who could do it for him- Lucius. He finally understood the reason why Draco filled this basement with black smoke.
Before he could think of anything else, Draco's voice entered his ears, "Sectumsempra" Another cut appeared on Adam's left arm, this one was deeper and caused quite the amount of blood to flow out of his body. Adam kept cursing and started jumping from one place to another so that Lucius could not target him. By now he had understood that Lucius was able to locate him accurately. He did not know how Lucius located him but he did not want to get hit by these spell anymore.
This situation continued for few more times but black smoke still did not dissipate. Adam's body was covered with many small cuts. Lucius probably controlled his strength to not cause strong fluctuations of magic so Adam was not cut deeply but blood still kept flowing from Adam's body. Adam knew that he could not let this situation last any longer so he finally decided to do something to end this duel.
Ofcourse he was not going to surrender in this duel.
Adam decided to use Disarming charm towards Draco's voice. He had not succeeded in casting this spell during practise but he still got the basics right. He was anxious because if this situation really lasted any longer then he might really die of blood loss.
At this moment, Adam felt sudden warmth in his hand. He looked down to see that his wand was glowing. When Adam brought his wand closer to see what was going on, he saw that strange patterns which normally looked like decoration were now shining with silver light. Adam didn't know what was happening with the wand but he understood one thing, that his wand was reacting to his emotions. This strange feeling kept increasing which provided Adam with confidence.
Adam felt that he could definitely successfully use Disarming charm this time. He tried to remember the feeling of warm current of magic flowing from his body which he immediately sensed with his wand's help. He guided this current in his right hand till it reached the base of his wand. After it reached the base of the wand, his wand automatically absorbed all the magic he had guided to the wand. Adam didn't understand what was going on with his wand but he kept pouring magic into the wand till he finally used all the remaining magic from his body.
At this moment another spell was cast from Draco's side but this time he did not jump out of the way, but rather just tried to move out of the way while listening to Draco's voice. He determined the direction of Draco's voice but in return, he received deep cut on his left shoulder. Blood kept flowing uncontrollably from his wound but he didn't care about it anymore.
Adam was determined to finish this duel right away. He faced towards Draco's direction before raising his wand which was filled with all the remaining magic of his body.
Adam waved his wand and he didn't know why but he shouted with all his might, "Expelliarmus!!!"
Strong red light burst out from Adam's wand and shot out a small ball of red light towards Draco while creating a straight path in the dark black smoke. Everyone was still blinded by black smoke but they clearly felt strong magical fluctuations coming from Disarming charm that Adam had cast.
Ball of red light reached to its destination and accurately hit Draco right on his chest. Adam could see Draco slowly falling on the ground through the tunnel formed in this black smoke by his Disarming charm.
Adam breathed a sigh of relief.
Very first magical duel of his life had just ended.
He finished this duel with first Disarming charm he had ever used.
He had won this duel.
"Draco... Draco?... Draco?!!!" Lucius's worried voice sounded throughout the basement but he did not receive any reply. He knew Draco had lost the duel but he didn't care about this right now. With just a wave of his wand, all black smoke disappeared from the basement and two figures could be seen in the middle of the basement.
Unknowingly both figures had ended up at the same spot where they stood at the start of the duel.
Everyone could see the result of this duel.
Draco who had lost the duel was unconscious on the ground. Draco's wand had fallen few meters away from his body which made everyone believe that the last Disarming charm had been used by Adam. It was difficult to imagine that he could use such a powerful spell but result was in front of them so they had to believe it.
On the other side was the winner of the duel, Adam Taylor, who had his body covered in blood with unknown number of cuts on his body. Not a single person standing in the basement could believe that this was the result of duel between two 11 year old little kids who had not even joined the hogwarts.
Adam could feel his head spinning with all the blood he had lost. He could feel his hands and legs getting numb. But he did not show any sign of weakness. He proudly looked at everyone. He had won this duel which did not even have little significance in the eyes of others but he still felt quite the achievement as he knew that the spells after the appearance of black smoke were being used by Lucius.
Adam looked at Lucius and smiled. This smile was not his indifferent smile from the time before the battle; This smile had genuine happiness and pride in it. "Mr.Lucius Malfoy, I guess I won the duel."
Lucius finally woke up from the shock of his son losing this duel. He was angry as he had lost the duel but he did not care about it. He was more worried about Draco. He ran up to Draco and quickly picked him up in his arms. Lucius glanced at Adam with anger, "You won the duel, Taylor. Show is over now. Everyone can go home."
After giving another glance full of anger to Adam, Lucius apparated from the basement and left.
Hermione was shocked by this entire duel. She was silent even after the duel had ended. She was frightened when she saw Adam's body which was covered in blood. Her heart was beating so madly that she could even feel faint pain in her chest when she looked at Adam who was wounded like this.
Adam had fought for her.
He had fought because of her tears.
These were the only thoughts in her mind. Her face unknowingly had two streams of tears flowing from her red eyes. She finally woke up from her fear when Lucius had just left. She didn't care about anything else as she shouted Adam's name and ran up to him to give him a tight hug. She looked like a frightened little rabbit while she kept weeping as she clung tightly on to Adam's bloody body.
Adam was in pain but he could only smile bitterly as he patted Hermione's shoulder. He felt happy that this girl really cared about him. It was just that his wounds were really hurting a lot.
Professor Flitwik had also run up to them. He was worried about him but not to the point of shouting his name and giving him a hug. This type of wounds were probably normal for him in the duel. Adam looked at Professor Flitwik pitifully asking for help. Professor Flitwik immediately understood and made a coughing sound, "Ms. Granger...his wounds..."
Hermione did not let him finish his words as she directly looked at him and started shaking Professor Flitwik as if he was a doll,
"Professor... Professor , please help him. He lost so much blood. Please professor, do something." She kept crying while asking for professor's help. Adam could only look and laugh at this scene. He felt like he was watching comedy scene from TV serial drama.
Professor Flitwik was just three and half feet tall. Hermione could easily throw him around if she wanted. Professor Flitwik could not even speak when she kept shaking him like that.
Adam somehow picked his right hand up, which was the only part that was nearly uninjured and then slowly caressed Hermione's bushy brown hairs before speaking, "Calm down, Hermione. Calm down. Look, I am totally fine."
She immediately turned to look at him and then started crying even more, "It's because of me... It's all because of me... You got hurt... all because of me..." She could not even talk properly with all this sobbing. Adam didn't know how to Calm her down as he knew that whatever he says right now will only have the opposite effect in this situation. So he just caressed her messy hairs and let her cry.
At this moment, warm current of magic flew in his body. Adam thought that this should be the result of his wand's weird phenomenon but then he noticed that his wand completely calm in his left hand. So he looked around a bit, just to notice that professor Flitwik was using magic to heal his wounds.
"Thank you, Professor. Hermione, look, my wounds are getting healed. Now please stop crying, will you?" Adam said with a smile and raised her head with his right hand. She saw that his wounds were getting healed so she calmed down a bit but did not speak anything.
When Adam was busy in calming Hermione down, someone had approached him. He noticed that the one who walked up to him was a beautiful woman with little girl hiding behind her, presumably her daughter.
"Young man, drink this potion and put this on your wounds so that they won't leave a scar." Beautiful woman wearing pale green robes took out a potion bottle and small flat container which looked like women's makeup item. She smiled at Adam when she saw doubts on his face, "Ofcourse only if you can believe me."
"OH! Mrs.Greengrass, why are you here? Is that a Blood-Replenishing Potion? Can you let me check it?" Professor Flitwik asked politely when he saw who was standing in front of them. From his polite tone, it could be seen that she was not like other pure-blood families. There was a happy smile on professor Flitwik's face when he saw this Blood-Replenishing Potion. He could heal Adam's wounds but he could not help him recover lost blood so it was really helpful.
"You can check it, Professor Flitwik. This is indeed a Blood-Replenishing Potion. And this cream is used for scars. You don't want to have so many scars on your young body, do you?" Mrs.Greengrass looked at Adam and gave him a beautiful smile. Adam had to admit that this woman was really very beautiful.
Professor Flitwik took the potion and went few steps away before taking out something from his sleeves. Adam guessed that the thing professor Flitwik took out was probably used to check the toxicity in potion or type of potion.
"So you are a Greengrass? Then she should be..." Adam looked at the beautiful woman in front of him before glancing at the little girl next to her and thought in his heart but he did not realize that he had spoken his thoughts aloud.
Mrs.Greengrass looked at Adam in surprise and asked, "You know us?" She heard the rumors about the boy in front of her. He was the main topic of gossip since the moment he had confrontation with Lucius Malfoy. But from the information she got, She heard that this boy was a muggle-born. Then there was no reason for him to know her or her daughter.
"No... no... I ... I just heard about Greengrass family and their two daughters." Adam said hesitatingly as he knew that these things should not be known by muggle-born like him who had just entered the Diagon Alley for the first time. He didn't know what to do so he could only open his status window and buy different types of Chocolates from his system shop. Even though food was not that good in the shop, chocolates were delicious and were available in many varieties. He could only take these things out to talk to the little girl in front of him in hope of leaving a little good impression on Mrs.Greengrass.
"You should be Astoria, right? Here try these things. These are chocolates from our muggle world. They are very delicious. Is it okay to give these to Astoria, Mrs.Greengrass? Ofcourse only if you believe me." Adam said with a smile on his face. He especially placed great emphasis on the word Muggle world to make Mrs.Greengrass believe that he was really a muggle-born. He didn't want to have another pure-blood family who was vigilant with him.
"Take it, Astoria. Mr.Taylor, you look trustworthy and this is the reason why I am here. I really wish to speak with you for a while. Alone." She did not wait for Adam to speak and continued, "Today is definitely not possible with your wounds. How about we meet at Florean's shop after a week at noon?"
Adam was startled with this sudden turn of events. He did not understand why she wanted to talk to him. He was not even sure if he should accept this meeting or not. After today's duel, he knew that this world was really different and people in this world were probably stronger compared to the original story. He didn't want to have any dealings with people from Wizarding world before he had done his research in this regard.
"Don't be so sure to decline, Mr.Taylor. I absolutely mean no harm to you and I can give you this potion and cream if you agree for this meeting." Mrs.Greengrass said as soon as she saw Adam hesitating about having a meeting with her. Hermione was angry when she heard Mrs.Greengrass's words. Hermione felt angry when she thought that Mrs.Greengrass was blackmailing Adam with this potion thing in her hands so he would accept this meeting. But she controlled herself and kept her mouth shit as she had already guessed that this woman should also be from pure-blood family.
"I see. I accept this meeting, Mrs.Greengrass. How can I decline an invitation from a beautiful woman such as you?" Adam thought for a second and replied. He knew that he was not in position to decline her right now. He didn't want to go back to his house with all these scars. And in fact he also did not mind having a meeting with her if she really did not mean any harm to him. He really needed some connections right now.
"You are such a sweet talker, Adam. I hope you don't mind me calling you Adam. You can also call me Sophie or Ms.Sophie, as you like." Mrs.Greengrass said as she laughed with her sweet voice resounding in this empty basement. Adam could not help but feel shivers all over his body when he heard her sweet laughter. Hermione standing next to him did not know why she felt uncomfortable but she snorted and walked to the professor Flitwik.
"It's getting late for me so I should get going now. It was nice to meet you, Adam. Astoria, won't you thank Adam for the chocolates?" Adam was still in a daze when he heard Sophie Greengrass say this. He did not know why he went out of control just now but he felt that this should be some kind of magic for sure.
'Women are really dangerous.' Adam thought in his heart.
"Thank you for the chocolates, Big brother." Astoria hid behind her mother and said in low voice. Hearing her call him Big brother, not only Adam but even Sophie was surprised. Astoria didn't like to mix in with people so it was really rare for her to talk to strangers, let alone call someone 'Big Brother'.
Adam didn't know why but it felt really good to hear her call him 'Big Brother'. Maybe because he did not have a sister. He quickly bought more chocolates and handed it to her. "Share them with your sister. There are more types of chocolates in it. Enjoy them. I will buy better ones in the future. Take care, Astoria."
Sophie was surprised to see Adam taking out these chocolates out of nowhere but she didn't ask anything. She took all the chocolates and put them in her bag which was probably enchanted with Undetectable extension charm.
She bid him farewell and then disappeared with Astoria with Apparition.
Adam stood there in daze thinking about all the things that had happened today.
Meeting professor McGonagall.
Meeting professor Flitwik.
Meeting Hermione.
Meeting Lucius Malfoy.
Confronting Lucius Malfoy.
That unnatural phenomenon when he bought wand.
Magic practise.
Then this duel that he had nearly lost.
He also won 500 Galleons in the bet.
Now meeting Sophie and Astoria Greengrass.
Setting up appointment with Sophie in the next week.
It was really an eventful and adventurous day. Adam couldn't help but wonder if his life would be like this from now on. Professor Flitwik returned to him after checking the potion and cream. Then he held Adam and Hermione's hands and apparated back to the leaky cauldron. Adam was already pretty much healed so it was not a problem for Apparition. Now all that was left for the day was his non-romantic date with Hermione which was probably going to be canceled with his current condition.