When he woke up early this morning, Tom was a little uneasy. He had always trusted his instincts, so he knew that something bad might happen today. But the scope of "bad" is a bit too general: it's bad if he accidentally rolls down the stairs with a gurgle, and it's bad if tonight's death anniversary meal smells too much and makes him vomit. It's also bad when Voldemort suddenly comes back to life, finds his Horcrux in a kennel, grins wickedly, and sends 100,000 Death Eaters to Hogwarts.
Tom walked through the office with a heavy heart, and the heavy feeling weighed heavy on his heart, which was difficult to resolve.
The door burst open and Hermione walked in with a roll of parchment.
"Professor~, I've finished my thesis," Hermione smiled as she placed it on Tom's desk, then deftly pulled out her chair and sat down.
Tom noticed that she was wearing the same robe he had transformed that day.
"Okay, let me take a look." Tom put aside his anxiety, picked up the paper and read it carefully. Tom had already read all the reference books Hermione had found; good thing they weren't written in Latin.
Hermione was a bit confused, she pursed her lips, "All those reference books, have you read them all?".
Tom was so engrossed in his dissertation that he just said "hmm" and didn't answer anything.
Hermione: "!!!!"
She thought she could read fast enough, but, is Tom a little faster than her?
Naturally, Tom read quickly because he was selective in some chapters. It was not necessary to read the whole text, only the experimental conditions and conclusions, and in some cases, only the introduction. The same was true of books about the magical world, where it was not necessary to read every chapter in its entirety.
After a while, Tom finished reading Hermione's paper and, after a moment's reflection, said to her, "As a group assignment, it is an excellent paper. However, have you thought about submitting it to a professional academic journal?"
Hermione was a little surprised, in her eyes, professional journals and magazines were too far away from her, she had never considered this topic.
"I'm just putting in a few books..."
"A dozen," Tom corrected from the sidelines.
"-Okay, I gathered the contents of over a dozen books, summarized and analyzed them, how is that possible?"
"Why not?" Tom leaned back in his seat, he had read some magazines and found that, probably because there were so few wizards in the magical world, there was some pretty watered down work in even the top magazines in the British magical world itself. Hermione's work was even of good quality, though it was a little less original research.
"Here, let me show you how to write a citation." Tom sat Hermione down next to him and showed her how to write a paper in the correct format. The magical world didn't have the same strict format as the non-magical world, but it never hurts to be neat.
Hermione sat to the side, resting her chin on one hand, watching Tom earnestly correct the thesis, she couldn't help but smile, she moved a little closer to Tom, "Where did you learn all this stuff?"
Tom's heart flipped and his sitting posture was a little stiff, "Look more, learn more and think more."
Hermione's thesis was not long, and he went through it very quickly. In less than half an hour Tom had a new paper done, and if it weren't for the faint smell that made Tom's heart beat faster, he probably would have done it even faster.
Hermione took her own group paper, and at first glance it looked very pleasing to the eye, and the various references were also very clear.
"Well, if it's okay with you, I'll leave it here, and I'll post it for you, as soon as it's ready, and I'll hang up the correspondence, okay?"
The "corresponding author" is usually the one responsible for the project, who is in charge of designing and paying for it. In addition, they are also responsible for the editorial control of the article,
They are responsible for the authenticity of the content, the reliability of the data, the credibility of the conclusions, and compliance with legal, academic, and ethical standards.
Hermione didn't understand and nodded in confusion, as the terms didn't seem to have much significance to her. When the paper was finished, the two were silent. Tom was depressed and didn't know what to say, and Hermione was waiting for Tom to initiate the conversation....
"You don't seem to be in a good mood?" asked Hermione, noticing Tom's depressed expression.
"I'm just... a little upset, I feel like something bad is going to happen."
Hermione was relieved, she had thought it was something serious, but it turned out to be just a nebulous premonition. "Don't think too much," she said with a twinkle in her eye, suddenly leaning close to Tom, so close that she could feel the other's breath.
"Tom, I have a new hand cream today, how do you like the smell?". She stretched out her right hand and fanned it twice in front of Tom's face, letting out a faint fragrance.
"Hey, it's too close... uh.... huh?" Tom was a little confused, sniffed lightly and, without thinking, gave a random answer, "Grapes?"
"That's pretty accurate." Hermione didn't seem to expect Tom to get it right the first time, she stepped back a little and leaned back in her seat obediently. But her scent, it seemed, still lingered on Tom, making it impossible for him to sit up.
Tom didn't even realize he was a little disappointed, and felt a vague sense of how good it would be if he had been wrong.
Hermione's interruption made Tom feel better, and he felt a sense of relief as he watched Hermione cheerfully roll up her thesis in earnest. He remembered that there was a death anniversary tonight, which would be of great interest to Hermione, so he told Hermione about the event, of course, holding nothing back about the ghosts' tastes in food and music.
Of course, Hermione ignored the downsides and got excited. "A death anniversary?" Hermione's whole being seemed to light up, "It must be amazing! How many people alive have ever been to a death anniversary like that?"
Tom: "Ah, Hermione... I said..."
Hermione apparently hadn't heard much.
"So you're going?" Tom was a bit puzzled.
"Of course!" Hermione looked at Tom, "A promise is a promise, and you're going, right? Do you want to go back on your word?"
Tom shook his head, he wouldn't go back on his promise to Nick.
Once the gloom was gone, the two talked about a wide variety of things. They talked about many, many things, from the special stores in Hogsmeade, to the form of this year's Ravenclaw Quidditch team, from the latest news of the magical world to the sights and customs of other countries.
"Do you have any plans for the summer?" The conversation finally turned to preparations for the summer vacations, and Hermione settled back in her armchair, "I'm looking forward to going on vacation to France, but I haven't decided yet, mostly because I'm not sure I can finish my thesis on the local history of magic that Professor Binns has assigned me in France..."
"Hey, there's too much lacto in the air! France is at least as old as time, going all the way back to the Roman Empire and Celtic Gaul, and one of the three great schools of magic in Europe, Beauxbaton, was built there."
"So, do you want to go?" Hermione blinked and looked at Tom.
"Oh, I want to go on an adventure in Egypt." Tom remembered the two mission rewards he had received earlier, and thought Egypt was a place he had to visit, "Maybe explore the desert a bit."
"Egypt?" Hermione pondered for a moment, "Ancient Egyptian wizards are very magical, if you go there, your paper should be very easy to write."
It was clear that Hermione was a little impressed, the only thing she was worried about was how to explain to her mother and father that she was going to Egypt.
She was a little hesitant, as she remembered that her father had thought about going to France last year, but it seemed like a good idea for her parents to spend some time together....
"So, have you made a plan?"
"No."
"Do you know what to prepare for going to the desert?"
"Water?"
"So. Do you have a destination?"
"..."
Hermione: "..."
That's too unreliable! Don't you have any ideas other than going to the desert?
"Are you going to die?" said Hermione, biting her lip and pouting.
"I'm a wizard... and I'm not going to die in the desert."
Hermione was speechless for a moment, unable to find a point of retort. Yes, Tom was a wizard, and if there was a water shortage in the desert he could use "Aguamenti", if he didn't have the materials to live he had "Incendio", and food could be put in a bag with an undetectable extension enchantment....
As if the forbidden zone of human life was the only thing a wizard cared about?
"But Egypt is huge, and if what you're looking for is in the desert, it'll be even harder to find." Hermione thought long and hard, thinking that Tom's summer plans were really very unreliable, "Why are you going to Egypt?"
"To get the Sands of Time and knowledge."
"Knowledge?" Hermione knew what 'The Sands of Time' were, but 'knowledge' was too general.
"Alchemy," Tom didn't dwell on the subject, and speaking of knowledge, he remembered something. He pulled two notebooks out of his drawer and handed them to Hermione.
"These are Professor McGonagall's and Professor Flitwick's notes, they'll be useful for Transfiguration and Charms, so pick one and read it."
"Hey!" Hermione nearly jumped for joy, but forced herself to suppress her inner excitement. "These are the notes you got from the two professors, I can't..."
"What's the difference?" Tom said calmly, "Go on, I'm sure if you had gotten the notes you would have lent them to me as well."
"That's not necessarily true, you have to beg me~" Hermione was in a very good mood and happily accepted the Transfiguration notes from Professor McGonagall; she struggled for a long time and finally decided to read Transfiguration first, because she felt there is more room for improvement in her Transfiguration.
"Oh?" Tom squinted at Hermione, whose tail was about to fly up in the air, and quickly took the notes from Hermione, "Then you can start begging me, say something nice and I might have the mercy to lend you the notes...".
"Accio notes!" Hermione pulled out her wand and cast a summoning spell on the notes. Tom felt a tug on his hand, as if the notes had grown wings and the idea of freedom had arisen. Tom was afraid of breaking the note, so he let go. He watched as the note fell back into Hermione's hands.
Hermione said domineeringly, "Does Master Yodel still want to grab the book by himself?"
"Don't you know the Summoning Charm?" Hermione suddenly realized something, covered her mouth and let out a disguised giggle, "No way, no way? is there a spell that Professor Yodel doesn't know?" And she twirled her wand and notes.
"Expelliarmus!" Without seeing Tom draw his wand, Tom merely waved his hand and Hermione's wand flew out of his hand.
"Protego!" Tom jumped up, "Accio notes (physical)!"
The two played for a while, exhausted their energy and sat together on the floor, panting heavily.
Tom tossed the notes into Hermione's hands.
"You'll have to share half, no, three quarters of your Transfiguration homework next term."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "No!"
"Be good, be good! Then let me see your homework." Tom plucked a white rosebush from the pot by the window, then pointed his wand and the flower turned into a butterfly, fluttered to Hermione's fingertips and returned to its flower form with a clatter.
Hermione blushed, "Well...okay, but only if we agree on the answers! I can't give you my homework to copy."
"No problem," Tom congratulated himself: the answers to the homework were in his head.
The sun was about to set and Halloween dinner was about to begin. But with less than a quarter of an hour to go, the Great Dining Hall was still empty, not only of people, there wasn't even any light.
All the students were huddled outside the Great Dining Hall, not daring to enter. The reason was simple: the Great Dining Hall was now haunted, with the dim green light of candles coming out of the mouths of the pumpkin lamps, bats flying from time to time next to the young witches, and the faint appearance of human faces in the lightning and the faintest hint of mournful music....
Almost all of the young witches chose to stand at the entrance to the Great Dining Hall and watch.
"The address on the invitation I received was not the entrance to the Great Dining Hall." A condescending, feminine voice quieted the whispers of the other students as Cassandra, of Slytherin house, dressed in full regalia, stepped past the wizards blocking the door and entered the eerie Great Dining Hall alone.
The moment she entered, all the candles in the Great Dining Hall were lit, a warm yellow light replaced the darkness, and a cheerful, lively melody replaced the somber music.
"The Song of Wine and the Pastoral Wind," she recognized the continental ballad, "A harvest song, appropriate for a Celtic New Year." He sketched an elegant smile and took a seat at the Slytherin table, watching as the other young wizards entered.
Not far away, Tom cracked a smile: the Halloween dinner had begun successfully.