Harry remained silent for a moment, "I heard you successfully conjured a corporeal Patronus. Could you tell me the trick?"
His attitude was like that of a struggling student in the classroom, who had failed along with another lagging student yesterday, but suddenly that boy scored a perfect grade in the exam. Naturally, Harry was curious about how Tom achieved it.
Tom scratched his head from behind, "How did I do it? The truth is, I've always been able to conjure a corporeal Patronus..."
In other words, the boy who failed alongside you simply forgot to mark the answers on the answer sheet...
This truth was too cruel for Harry, so Tom chose to tell a white lie.
"Find something happy in your mind, and then practice more."
With that nonsense thrown out, Tom flew away.
Leaving Harry and Ron there to reflect slowly.
"How about we take a walk by the Black Lake?" After leaving the school hospital, Hermione suggested voluntarily. She thought that staying in the common room or library all the time would decrease efficiency, so it would be better to go for a walk, which would help improve efficiency.
Often, distress and frustration are caused by a lack of physical activity. Just by taking a walk outside and letting the cold air enter your lungs and chest, all negative feelings will dissipate.
"However, you'll have to wait for me while I return to my room." Hermione adjusted her clothes, "This outfit is really uncomfortable to wear."
Of course, Tom had no objections.
They arrived at the Ravenclaw Tower and rang the doorbell.
The eagle-shaped doorbell asked the usual question, "What is a nose without a body?"
"No one knows." Tom pushed the door of the tower open: "I'll be waiting outside."
Hermione entered the common room. She was somewhat bewildered by Tom's decision to stay outside; at first, she thought Tom just wanted to get some fresh air, but soon she understood the reason.
Once inside the common room, all the young wizards who were busy with their tasks stopped working and stared at Hermione.
Hermione: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
Suddenly, she understood the reason: yesterday, she had attracted a lot of attention, so it was normal for everyone to watch her. So she hurriedly entered her own room before her roommates surrounded her.
But once inside the room, she realized it was like going from the tiger's mouth to the wolf's den; her "roommates" were already waiting for her.
"Hermione Jean Granger," Sue Li quickly approached her, blocking her escape route, "Could you tell us where you were last night?"
The other girls approached, surrounding Hermione.
Hermione's eyes darted, "I got drenched in the rain, and I was getting cold, so I went to get a warming potion from Madam Pomfrey, and then she left me in the school hospital for observation overnight... You know, Madam Pomfrey is very kind, sometimes even too kind..."
Hermione felt that at that moment, she was like a television actress, and she was sure her facial expression must be very stiff; her acting skills were definitely of low quality.
"That makes sense." Sue Li spoke with a dignified expression, like a judge.
"However, according to the testimony of witness number one, Padma Patil, after the Quidditch match ended, you didn't immediately leave the field. So, Miss Granger, can you explain why, if you were soaked by the rain, you didn't quickly return to the castle and instead stayed in the same place?"
Hermione: ???
"Witness number one?" She thought that this group of girls was prepared today, and it would be hard for her to get through smoothly.
But Hermione was not one to give up easily. The pressure from her roommates was awakening her competitive spirit, so she maintained her composure and claimed she was freezing.
"So someone took you back, right?" The girls present had starry eyes.
"Yes, Tom took me to the school hospital."
"Wow!" Hermione's roommates erupted in a wave of joyful exclamations.
"So, he spent the night with you in the school hospital?"
"Did he really spend the night in the school hospital?"
"Where did he sleep?"
The girls asked.
"Did anything happen between you?" Mandy Brocklehurst asked with a gossipy and nervous air.
Hermione remembered the "wild kitten" outfit and felt a strange sensation, but quickly composed herself.
"Nothing happened at all, we were in the school hospital!"
Sue Li frowned, feeling that things weren't so simple. She thought this matter required further investigation. And she, Hogwarts' famous love detective, Sue Li, would be the one to uncover the truth behind the hazy relationship between Tom and Hermione.
She approached Hermione and sniffed her scent gently. "This is the smell of a lie..."
Hermione: ???
"What are you saying? I don't understand..." She felt a little guilty.
Sue Li squinted her eyes.
"In any case, give me some space; I need to change my clothes." Hermione pushed her friends aside and rushed to her wardrobe, opening it and her trunk, starting to search and select.
This successfully drew her roommates' attention away from where Hermione had been the night before, and they began helping her coordinate her clothing.
"How about red? With a yellow scarf, you'll look beautiful."
"If you wear red, I think you also need to wear that purple skirt to make it perfect, even though it's a bit cold now..."
"And what if it's cold?!"
While the girls discussed animatedly, Hermione found a gray woolen skirt. The skirt was long and covered her knees; it looked very warm. Under the skirt, there was also a scarf of the same tone and a light gray knit coat. Additionally, she pulled out a pair of brown boots from under the bed.
This outfit stood out for keeping warm.
"Our Hermione doesn't need clothes to stand out; even if she wears a burlap sack, she's still beautiful, and if Yodel dares to say anything bad, I'll rip his mouth off!"
"Our Miss Granger definitely can't..."
Hermione was already accustomed to her friends. She changed her clothes, but before leaving the common room, her friends stopped her.
"Merlin, have mercy! Aren't you going to put on makeup?" They pressured her into a chair and did her eyebrows, foundation, and eyeliner.
"Use this color; you'll look pale but not overdone."
"This is how you should draw your eyebrows to make them look longer..."
"Where's the eyeliner?"
...
When Hermione left the common room again, she looked completely different.
"Sorry for the wait," she said with her head down, rushing up to Tom, feeling a bit embarrassed. She knew she had kept Tom waiting outside for a long time.
"It's okay; I went down to get two breakfasts." Tom showed Hermione the kraft paper bag he was carrying in his hand.
"You also put on makeup," he noticed the sophisticated makeup on Hermione's face. He thought it must have taken a lot of time and effort to achieve that makeup.
"Yes," Hermione lowered her head, surprised: Weren't boys supposed to be unable to tell if a girl was wearing makeup or not, as long as she didn't wear lipstick or blush? Why did it seem like Tom somehow noticed?
"You look very nice."
"...thank you."
The two of them walked down the stairs, crossed the castle courtyard, and exited through the back door of Hogwarts. Not far away were the greenhouses and the school orchard. Professor Sprout cultivated many teaching plants and common vegetables there.
"Do you want some cherries?" Tom opened the kraft paper bag and took out a smaller one filled with thumbnail-sized purple cherries.
Hogwarts' orchard and garden were enchanted to produce a variety of fruits and vegetables, regardless of the weather. Like these cherries, they usually ripened in May or June, so it wasn't easy to get fresh cherries in this autumn season.
But at Hogwarts, there were always freshly picked cherries.
"Have some!" Hermione approached, her hands crossed over her chest as she peered over, eagerly eyeing the cherries in the bag. Then, she reached in and plucked several cherries that looked delicious.
"They're very sweet!" Hermione praised. "I'll test you. What kind of cherry do you think these are? If you guess correctly, you'll get a reward."
Tom: Eh?
"There are four types of cherries: cherry, sweet cherry, sour cherry, and wild cherry," Hermione informed Tom as she ate the cherries. "Think it over; it's not difficult."
"Um, sweet cherry?"
"Correct!" Hermione snapped her fingers. "How did you guess?"
"We're in Europe, and it's very sweet..."
Hermione: ...
"Alright, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Remember, the fruit of the sweet cherry is nearly spherical or oval, ranging from red to dark purple, with a diameter of 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters."
Tom nodded obediently.
"Here's your reward." Hermione took a cherry, gestured to Tom, and then, in the instant he turned away, brought it to her mouth and fed it to him.
It was like a round ball making its way between Tom's lips, delivered by a little trickster. Before Tom could react, the little trickster had already completed its mission and run off.
"Mmm..." Tom swallowed the sweet and juicy cherry and was about to say something, but he was interrupted by the crunchy sounds coming from the nearby orchard.
He looked towards the sound and spotted a beige-colored rabbit.
"Bunny!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly and threw a cherry towards the rabbit from the bag.
The rabbit jumped in fright, almost running away, but upon seeing that the two people weren't approaching and that there was another cherry in front of it, it crouched down again.
After a few seconds, it realized there was no danger and cautiously approached the cherry. It opened its mouth and snapped the stem of the cherry with a click, swallowed it, and began to chew with delight.
Watching the rabbit eagerly munch on the cherry, Hermione blinked: It seems the rabbit interprets cherries differently than we do?
"Maybe it's grinding its teeth," Tom speculated.
They couldn't know what the rabbit was thinking. After finishing chewing the cherry stem, the rabbit hopped away.
After playing with the rabbit for a while, Tom and Hermione continued to walk through the orchard.
"Look, Hagrid's pumpkin patch has something!" Hermione pointed towards the pumpkin patch in the distance. Tom looked in that direction and immediately saw the huge creature that was crouched at the edge of the field. It had the body, hind legs, and tail of a horse, but the front legs, head, and wings of an eagle.
It was the hippogriff Buckbeak, a magical creature with an eagle's head, a horse's body, and wings.
When Buckbeak saw Tom and Hermione approaching, it went on alert, fixing its large orange eyes on the two people. Its steel beak gleamed with a cold glint, and its half-foot-long talons scratched the ground, leaving deep marks.
Fortunately, it was tethered with a thick chain around its neck, securely fastened to a wooden post, which confined it to a specific area.
"Tom, be careful," Hermione said with concern as she grabbed his sleeve. Although Malfoy deserved it, after all, it was an animal that had injured people. You never know if its predatory instinct will return...
Hermione shuddered at the sight of the sharp claws of the hippogriff.
Tom looked into Buckbeak's orange eyes and faced it directly, bowing in reverence to him. Buckbeak gave Tom a couple of glances and then bent its scaly knees into a standard bow.
"We did it," Tom signaled to Hermione to do the same. Buckbeak responded once more, though this time it seemed somewhat impatient, bending its knees somewhat hastily.
One on each side, they gently stroked Buckbeak's beak, making it close its eyes comfortably. It seemed to enjoy this treatment since it was hard to touch its beak from its position.
"Hey!" Suddenly, a panicked cry startled them. Tom raised his head and saw Hagrid running towards them like a tank, abruptly stopping a few meters away once he understood the situation.
Buckbeak emitted a grunt of displeasure towards Hagrid, who quickly came to a halt.
"How did you get here? I mean... well, I didn't expect you to get along with him so well..." Hagrid calmed down upon seeing Tom and Hermione were safe. He was really scared, fearing that Buckbeak might hurt someone again.
"Well, since you're here, why don't you come in for a cup of tea?" Hagrid unhooked a furry and undefined creature from the nearby fence and threw it to Buckbeak.
With a bone-crunching sound, Tom and Hermione entered Hagrid's cabin. As soon as they entered, Tom caught a strong scent of coffee.
"Take a seat wherever you like." Hagrid invited them to sit down as he took out two teacup-sized bowls from a cupboard and grabbed a teapot steaming on the stove.
"Tea?"
"Coffee, please."
In the morning, coffee would be perfect.
Tom placed the paper bag containing breakfast on the table and watched Hagrid prepare the coffee.