"Hermione, don't be angry, okay?"
"Hermione, I have my reasons too. There are things at work that can't be avoided, you know?"
"Hermione, look at the Russian food I've brought you; I promise it's delicious-."
Hermione finally lifted her head and looked at Tom, who wouldn't stop talking. In an irritated tone, she said, "Everyone has different tastes; how can you guarantee I'll like the food you brought?"
"Try it, and you'll see," Tom said as if presenting a treasure, taking out a stainless steel food box.
Hermione glanced at the plain stainless steel box in Tom's hands and shook her head. She didn't believe there was anything tasty inside. However, after all, Tom had worked hard to bring it, and she hadn't eaten much at lunch, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and have a taste.
She opened the box and found it divided into two levels by a separator tray. In the top level, there was bread in one compartment and chunks of roasted meat in another compartment. In the lower level, there was a soup that seemed to be a mishmash of leftover food.
The appearance was mediocre, but after heating it up a bit, the aroma began to fill the air. Hermione tasted a bit and was pleasantly surprised. It had a very appetizing sour taste that whet her appetite, so she ate the entire meal without stopping.
"It's not bad," Hermione said. Perhaps due to the delicious food she had enjoyed, her mood improved considerably.
She stored the food box, wiped her mouth with a napkin, and then handed Tom a parchment. "Take a moment to read this part of my essay and see if there's anything that can be improved."
Tom smiled and took Hermione's freshly written essay. He began to read it.
The parchment used to write the essay had a slight yellowish tone and was filled with Hermione's elegant handwriting, as if it still carried the warmth of a young girl's hands. The soft light of the winter sun filtered through the window, illuminating the table with a golden glow. Hermione sat across from Tom, feeling somewhat lazy from the afternoon and the delicious food. She held a book in her hands, although her mind clearly wasn't on it. From time to time, she would raise her head to look at the boy across from her and then quickly avert her gaze, her cheeks flushed. But once the blush on her face faded, she couldn't help but sneak another glance at the boy who was engrossed in reading her essay.
Happy moments passed slowly, and the year 1994 arrived.
As the New Year approached, both the magical and non-magical worlds faced several significant events. In the non-magical world, the elections for the new Prime Minister were the most prominent news.
In the magical world, the new Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones, issued a very severe wanted order for Peter Pettigrew. The Ministry of Magic offered a reward of 3,000 Galleons for his capture, dead or alive. Furthermore, it allowed Aurors to use the Unforgivable Curse on Peter if they found him, and Dementors could directly administer the Dementor's Kiss.
Apart from the wanted order, the Ministry of Magic announced two other important events. The first was that preparations for the upcoming Quidditch World Cup had officially begun. The second event was that Minister Bones would launch an operation called "Whirlwind" to completely eliminate dark magic items in Knockturn Alley. The operation was kept a secret very well, as Bones summoned all Aurors without prior notice and directly raided Knockturn Alley without leaking any information.
Tom was also involved in this operation, but his participation was purely coincidental.
It was a day before the start of the "Whirlwind." On that day, Bones personally went to Azkaban with her confidants, hoping to obtain some Dementors to help her control dark wizards in Knockturn Alley.
Bones wasn't the first Minister of Magic to target Knockturn Alley. Before her, the Ministry of Magic had conducted several inspections in Knockturn Alley, with the last one planned by Cornelius Fudge. However, all of those inspections had little effect.
Bones knew very well why they had little effect: many officials from the Ministry of Magic had close ties to Knockturn Alley, especially the powerful pure-blood families behind each shop in Knockturn Alley. With those complicated connections protecting them, it would be a miracle if a search operation succeeded.
Bones had ambitions. She wanted to genuinely clean up some of the tumors in Knockturn Alley, instead of just catching a few street vendors like her predecessors had done. In fact, every Minister of Magic had their own ambitions, even types like Fudge. In the operation she organized, Arthur Weasley was in charge.
This decision turned out to be surprisingly effective. Fudge managed to leverage the tensions between the Weasley and Malfoy families to put Lucius in an uncomfortable situation. Under Arthur's persistent pressure, Lucius was forced to address the dark magic items in his home at Knockturn Alley.
Minister Bones focused her attention on the Dementors this time.
Introducing external forces is often a shortcut to solving problems. Pure-blood families and Dementors, as dark creatures, were not connected. Best of all, Dementors and the Ministry of Magic shared a similar stance: catching criminals to send them to Azkaban. For the Dementors, this was good news.
Bones personally went to Azkaban to negotiate with the Dementors. Coincidentally, Tom was also in Azkaban at that time. He intended to transfer a group of Dementors to his own White Dolphin prison.
It was something he had promised earlier.
When they learned that the king would take them to the Promised Land, all the Dementors became excited and gathered around the king. They begged the king to take them to the Promised Land and not leave them in Azkaban, that cold and desolate place.
Whether patrolling or not, the Dementors rushed to meet their king. So when Bones entered Azkaban, she was surprised to find that the Dementors who used to roam outside Azkaban Castle had disappeared. Azkaban seemed empty, as if it were an unprotected area.
She raised her alert level and firmly gripped her wand in her hand under her cloak. With tense nerves, she passed through the main gate of Azkaban and headed for the castle.
It wasn't difficult to find the Dementors, following the direction where the temperature dropped. Bones soon encountered the Dementors of Azkaban. But as she approached, she witnessed an unforgettable scene: a man with a crown made of bones was surrounded by the Dementors.
The Dementors flowed like a tide, and that masked man remained like a rock in the midst of the tide, undisturbed. And those Dementors had no intention of harming him. They knelt before him like humble subjects before their king.