London

City of Westminster

Vincent Street

Hermione? Granger sat at his desk all day, with a copy of Standard Spells: Level 6 spread out in front of him, something they hadn't learned at Hogwarts yet, but Hermione had already started preparing.

Ten and three-quarters of an inch of a vine wand, lying quietly next to the spell book, its owner seemed a little absent-minded today, staring blankly at the book on the table, his eyes unfocused, his hands propped up in the gap between his chest and the table, his fingers folded, rubbing the ring on his left index finger back and forth.

After a while, she rubbed her hair irritably, making the already fluffy and frizzy brown hair even more messy.

"Oh my God, I'm fed up with this damn hair." As she spoke, she picked up her wand on the table, apparently intending to cast a smoothing spell on herself, but a shout from downstairs interrupted her movements

"Jane, dear, we're going to get ready for dinner." It was her mother's shout, and Hermione put her wand back on the table, exhaled heavily, rubbed her hair weakly, and got up from the soft cushioned chair.

"Meow-"

The bed/shang gradually swelled up with a large ball of ginger hair, and then a flat cat face stretched out from it, as if it had once rushed to the wall, Crookshan stretched his waist and jumped down from the bed/shang, as if feeling the owner's melancholy mood, it erected its tail that exploded like a bottle brush, and rubbed its body on Hermione's xiao/leg, sprinkling coquettishly.

"Alright, Crookshank."

Hermione squatted down, looking at the big smart cat with a smile on her face, she reached out and gently stroked the cat's brilliant fur,

"Thank you for your comfort—" muttered as the ginger cat rolled hard against his palms and arms, "I'm not thinking about him...... And, of course, about the mystery man...... Things to come back ......"

She crouched on the ground and muttered to herself, but Crookshank sat quietly and listened as if she understood, the cat had a raccoon blood, which made it particularly intelligent and able to recognize bad guys, and was the ideal pet for Hermione, who had cultivated deep affection.

"It's just...... He didn't contact me for so long...... Is that all? All this ...... He didn't even say where he went...... Immediately afterwards, he became the principal of Durmstrang...... Crook Hill ...... It's all changing so fast...... Why didn't he explain it to me? Do you think I'm not important? Or is he just ...... Just having fun? ”

"Dear ——?" Mrs. Granger's voice came from downstairs again, and it seemed that she was going to come up and see what her daughter was doing.

"I'm coming!"

Hermione shouted in reply, and she slowly stood up, stretching as she did in Crookshan, as if it would help her to get rid of her troubles.

"Alright, let's eat first, phew-"

Sighing and gently patting a few yellow sinks of cat hair sticky to the socks on the top of her feet, Hermione walked towards the door, Crook Hill followed excitedly, her fat body walked quite qing/ying, it liked dinner time the most.

"Bang-"

A soft sound caused Hermione to stop, and she looked back in confusion, as if she had just heard something.

"Bang bang—" This time it was two hurried sounds, and Crookshan heard it, and its hair stood upside down and doubled in size, and its nose kept sniffing and making a very ferocious gesture.

It was from the fireplace, and Hermione turned around and grabbed her wand from the table, carefully aiming it at the small fireplace in the room—

"Bang bang! Smack! This time it was a series of noises, Hermione heard it right, it was indeed coming from the small fireplace, and after the noise, she felt that she saw a dark shadow fall in the fireplace.

"Stand back, Crook Hill." Hermione ordered her pet alertly, but Crookshank was furry and grinning and wanted to rush to her master, only to be blocked by Hermione's foot, apparently sensing that something in the fireplace was in danger.

Holding Crook Hill with one foot, Hermione cautiously approached the fireplace, where she had spent the last few winters, and the small fireplace had not been used for a while, and now the things that had fallen into it were throwing up a puff of black ash and sprinkling it everywhere.

A little billowing black shadow staggered to its feet, not much bigger than Crook Hill, and looked like some kind of animal, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, was it a critter that came in from the chimney?

"Clean up"

Hermione pointed to the fireplace and shouted, an invisible wind swept by, and the black ash that fluttered out disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the small figure that stumbled out of the fireplace also revealed its true face, it was a snow-white owl, Hermione had seen this kind of snow owl, Harry's Hedwig looked similar to it, but it was by no means Hedwig, its feathers were not mixed with black spots, but pure white.

Hermione swore that no one she knew had such an owl.

"The messenger?" She saw that the snowy owl had a letter strapped to its feet, and Crookshank had by this time boldly approached the owl, and his large flat face had come closer, and he looked the animal up and down about the same size as herself, and tried curiously to pat it with his paws.

The messenger seemed to have fallen hard, and Hermione hurriedly picked it up, turned and placed it on the desk, and Crookhill jumped on the desk as well, as if full of curiosity about the owl.

"Why did you come in through the chimney, oh my God, you're not Santa Claus." Hermione muttered as she quickly unwrapped the envelope, unwrapped it, and read it quickly, she didn't want her mother to wait too long.

"Dear Hermione......"

When Hermione saw the first sentence, her heart seemed to be hit by something, and suddenly began to beat violently, this familiar handwriting, she was not mistaken, how could she admit her mistake, she was looking forward to this letter all the time, even in her dreams, she often dreamed of such a scene.

Raising her head, Hermione wanted to reach out and pinch her face to confirm if it was a dream, but soon she shook her head in shame, she didn't want to do such a stupid thing, Ning An hadn't contacted her for so long, she should have thrown the letter away now and turned around and went downstairs.

Although I thought angrily in my heart, my eyes still stared at the letter paper word for word, and I read it carefully, and I just stood like this, as if I didn't even want to waste the time I was sitting down.

Crookshan sat on the table directly opposite, tilted his head, looked at his master suspiciously, and after a moment seemed bored, yawned, and curled up into a large hairy ball and lay on the desk with his eyes closed and slept.

"Hermione? What are you doing, I've called you three times-"

This time Mrs. Granger's voice had reached the door, and she could not bear her daughter's cries of ignoring her over and over again, and she pushed the door open to see Hermione standing at her desk in a daze, and the cute big cat on the table, and the owl she had never seen before.

"Uh......" Mrs. Granger knew that her daughter was a witch, so it was natural for her to understand that the owl was a messenger of communication between wizards.

"Is it your friend who wrote from ......?"

"Oh...... Well...... Be...... Yes......" Hermione seemed to read the letter again, and only looked up for a moment, her face already filled with a smile that she couldn't hide anyway.

"Ah...... Mother...... Mom, yes, it's my friend in the wizarding world—" She staggered and put down the letter, completely devoid of her composure and composure, as if out of proportion, but the smile on her face made Mrs. Granger understand that her daughter was simply too happy.

"Forgive me, I'll have dinner later—I'll have to write a reply first." Hermione sat back in her chair, patted the big cat sleeping on it, moved it to the side, and saw the snowy owl tilting her head to look at her, she got up from her chair again, stood up, and said to herself:

"Hmm...... Is this his owl ......? Well...... I've got to get something to eat first......" he said, and under Madame Granger's astonished gaze, he ran downstairs as voices rang from the stairwell

"Mom - do we still have raw meat in the fridge?"

"That's ......," Mrs. Granger shook her head, turned out of the room, and hurried downstairs, "Slow down, dear, I think there's still some veal......

Hermione was running through the hallway and living room to the kitchen when the main door was opened with a key click, and Mr. Granger had returned from the dental office, both of whom were dentists and had their own dental office on Harley Street.

"Oh dear, what are you doing here?" Watching his daughter rummage through the fridges, Mr. Granger was surprised and asked, "What about you/ma/mom——? ”

"I'm looking for some beef...... I'll tell you later, Dad, um......"

"Oh, I'll look for you, dear—" Mrs. Granger also ran over, and when she saw her husband she hurried over and hugged her, and the two of them touched their cheeks, and whispered to him in the face of his bewildered gaze:

"It seems like a letter from a friend at Hogwarts asking Hermione to feed the owl some meat."

"Oh?" Mr. Granger raised an eyebrow, "A letter from the wizards?" ”

He put down his briefcase, took off his coat and hung it on the hanger in the doorway, and entered the house, where Hermione was heading back upstairs with a small piece of beef.

"I'm not going to eat dinner yet, you two are going to eat first—" she said without looking back.

"Hey, wait a minute, honey, wait a minute......," Mr. Granger called to his daughter, and asked softly, "What is the urgency that makes you have to reply now?" ”

Hermione stopped, turned around slowly, thought hesitantly, and said slowly, "It's not an urgent matter—"

"Then we'll reply after dinner, okay?"

Mr. Granger's words still made her daughter willing to listen, Hermione nodded hesitantly, and calmed down, it seemed that this matter did have to be discussed with her parents, who had originally booked this vacation to go skiing.

****

The sky was getting dark, the streets were lit up by street lamps, and there was a new diner on Granger's table.

The big cat, Crookshan, crouched at Hermione's feet, with a small pile of dried fish on his plate, which was his favorite thing to eat, but he was not in a hurry to enjoy it, but stared at the owl next to him, gobbling up the slices of meat on the plate, as if to consider whether the beef was really that delicious.

"So you're at Hogwarts...... Letters from friends? Mr. Granger asked, slicing the steak on his plate.

"Well, not a friend from Hogwarts, but another school......" After a pause, Hermione said in a rare smug tone, "He's the headmaster there." ”

Proud, as if she had become the headmaster of Hogwarts herself.

"Another school, that is...... Also...... A school where wizards studied? Madame Granger looked intrigued, it was the first time she had heard her daughter mention wizarding schools other than Hogwarts.

"Ah...... Well, yes, it's Durmstrang, and when I was in Triwizard Tournament this year, I was at Hogwarts-"

Taking a sip of grape juice, Hermione replied, her mind was still thinking about how to reply to Ning An, although she wanted to hold him for two or three days and let him be anxious for a while, but her body did not obey the call at all, as if she could move, and every second she wanted to run back to the room and write the reply immediately.

"Oh, that's pretty good—"

The couple looked at each other, they were very happy that their daughter could make friends in the wizarding world, both of them were just ordinary dentists, they didn't know much about the life of wizards, and they couldn't help in this regard, and they were worried about their daughters, whether they could get along with those ...... The wizards get along.

They already knew that Hermione had a few good friends, one was named Harry? Potter, and the red-haired kid, who seems to be named Ron, were of course happy to hear that his daughter had other friends and was also the principal of another school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"How did you meet him?" Mr. Granger seemed genuinely interested, "Is he the same as the one you spoke of, Hogwarts - am I right, the great Headmaster Dumbledore?" ”

Hermione rarely talked to them about the wizarding world, which made the couple a little worried at times, but they found that today seemed like an opportunity to help them get to know their daughter better, whether she was an ordinary high school student or a witch, they were happy for her and cared about her all the time.

"It's a little different...... Hermione bit her fork and chuckled, "He's the same age as me—"

"Huh?"

The Granger couple were stunned, and they looked at each other with surprise in each other's eyes, the wizarding world ...... It's really hard to understand.

"Dad, Mom—" Hermione said to her parents suddenly, "our ski plan, can we ...... I mean, I probably won't be able to go ......."

"Did your friend invite you otherwise?"

"Hmm...... He invited me to go and stay at his school for a while......"