Faced with the celebration in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione felt completely bewildered.
Hadn't Sherlock just cost Gryffindor sixty points? And he was going to be in detention! Why did everyone seem completely unconcerned?
She even spotted students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in the crowd. Now she understood where the Weasley twins had gotten the food—with Hufflepuff there, how could there be a shortage of treats?
"Slytherin is so despicable!"
"They always cheat behind the referee's back during matches!"
"Last game they fouled deliberately—our Chaser nearly got knocked off!"
"Exactly! I heard that Marcus Flint knows dark magic!"
"Really? No wonder!"
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were united in their anger, condemning Slytherin. A tall, handsome Hufflepuff student raised his butterbeer high:
"That's right! Here's to Holmes for defeating the despicable Slytherins! Cheers!"
"What? You're drinking alcohol too?" Hermione was even more shocked.
"Come on, Miss Granger! You grew up in the Muggle world!" George Weasley said with a laugh.
Fred Weasley continued: "It's just alcohol—why do you look so traumatized?"
Hermione: (・ω・)/☆
The Weasley twins had good reason to say this. Although the legal drinking age in Britain was 18, the law also stipulated that children over 5 could legally drink under parental guidance.
So, for young wizards like Sherlock who grew up in the Muggle world, he had almost certainly been exposed to alcohol already.
"But—but—" Hermione wanted to say more, but George Weasley was already shouting: "Everyone, Holmes is our king!"
"To the Lion King!" Fred Weasley immediately joined in.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances and started chanting: "Lion King Holmes! Holmes is our king!"
Neville, Seamus, Dean and others naturally followed suit. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students also joined the celebration, especially those young wizards who had previously consulted Sherlock—their voices were particularly loud.
Hermione was completely stunned. She really couldn't understand how things had turned out this way. And she had been worried about him...
Not only Hermione—even Sherlock himself was somewhat surprised.
In fact, before today's match, he and Hagrid had been in the headmaster's office. Under the shadow of Sherlock's threat to "brew dragon eggs into potions," Hagrid had finally confessed to Dumbledore how he had obtained the dragon egg.
Once the truth was revealed, Quirrell was naturally exposed. As Sherlock had said, handling a dragon egg was nothing for someone like Dumbledore. But Quirrell's deliberate approach to Hagrid and his probing questions caught Dumbledore's attention.
Besides this matter, Hagrid had come to Dumbledore for another reason. The Forbidden Forest had been restless lately, so Hagrid immediately reported it.
When Dumbledore asked for Hagrid's opinion, he recommended Sherlock without hesitation.
"Sir, you might not believe this—oh, Merlin's beard! Every time I mention it; I find it magical. Do you know what that little fellow did?
He told me about my past the moment he saw me, and he even knew about me taking the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts for you—
And this time, before I said anything, he knew I had gotten a dragon egg! It's absolutely incredible!
I even suspect he can see into people's hearts like you can!"
Dumbledore: (;'∀')
"Calm down, Rubeus. I don't possess such abilities, and neither does Sherlock." Dumbledore looked at the excited Hagrid, feeling somewhat at a loss for words.
Even someone as wise as he didn't know whether he should tell Hagrid the truth now. Not just Sherlock—even the young Weasley could extract the truth from him with a little cleverness.
Dumbledore ultimately said nothing. The truth was too hurtful.
However, he was very interested in Hagrid's strong recommendation to have Sherlock investigate the Forbidden Forest, and decided to hear Sherlock's thoughts.
When Sherlock arrived at the headmaster's office and saw Hagrid there, he instantly understood what had happened.
"Sherlock, Rubeus has told me about the dragon egg," Dumbledore smiled kindly at Sherlock. "It seems Voldemort can no longer wait."
"Obviously." Sherlock put his hands together under his chin, staring intently at Dumbledore. "So, Headmaster, when do you plan to act?"
"Not yet," Dumbledore met Sherlock's gaze. "I need your help."
"My help, or Harry's help?"
"To be precise, both of your help." Dumbledore paused, saying with some emotion: "Sherlock, do you know? Every time I see you, I can't help but think of an old friend."
At Dumbledore's sentiment, Sherlock immediately thought of something—those thick white woolen socks in the Mirror of Erised.
Combined with Dumbledore's expression, Sherlock answered without hesitation: "I think this old friend must have been very close to you, entangled with you for most of your life?"
Dumbledore: (╥﹏╥)
Indeed, he hadn't been wrong. This young wizard was incredibly perceptive!
"I need you to go to the Forbidden Forest," Dumbledore deliberately avoided the topic and stated his request directly. "With your abilities, you'll surely uncover the truth."
Sherlock didn't press the matter either. Compared to this, he was more interested in Dumbledore's choice of words.
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes gleaming with excitement: "The truth?"
"Hagrid will tell you what happened." Dumbledore shook his head. "But the Quidditch match is about to start—you need to watch Harry's game, don't you?
I'll find a way to arrange for you to be in detention soon, so Hagrid can take you to patrol the Forbidden Forest together."
"Too obvious."
"What?"
"I said your arrangement is too obvious," Sherlock sighed. "I'll find my own opportunity to get detention."
Looking at Dumbledore, Sherlock silently added in his mind: and legitimately beat up fellow students in the process.
Coming out of his memory, Sherlock looked at the jubilant students around him and shook his head. Even with his deductive abilities, this scene was somewhat unexpected.
But thinking carefully, while this result was unexpected, it was reasonable. For the Gryffindor lions, not winning the House Cup wasn't really serious. They had long been accustomed to being at the bottom of the House Cup rankings.
Even without these incidents, they were frequently losing points anyway. Since they were always last place, as long as they didn't get negative points, it didn't really matter whether they had more or fewer points.
It was just that Slytherin's six consecutive championships were hard to bear.
But now Sherlock had led the first-years to publicly beat up Slytherin—and they had won! This was incredibly exciting.
Even Percy, who was usually stern and took rule violations as seriously as Hermione, was smiling broadly.
"This time Holmes did very well indeed, though I think he could have found a better way—"
"Prefect Weasley, don't worry about the process at a time like this!"
Possibly influenced by alcohol, the tall, handsome Hufflepuff from earlier threw an arm around Percy, smiling brilliantly: "This is honor—greater honor than the House Cup!"
"Cedric, you—" Percy frowned, but the Weasley twins immediately appeared with a stretcher team, carrying him aside.
George Weasley even grabbed his head and shook it left and right. "Don't mind Percy—saying such spoiling things at such a happy time!"
"Exactly! Even Granger isn't saying anything!"
Hermione: ((╬`~'))
She felt somehow insulted.
That night, the party in the Gryffindor common room continued until very late. However, the aftermath of this incident was far from over.
"Over there, look quickly."
"Where, where?"
"Between Harry Potter and that red-haired boy."
"That tall one?"
"Did you see his face?"
"Did you see his big nose?"
The next day, when Sherlock left his dormitory, these whispers followed him constantly. Students lined up outside classrooms, standing on tiptoe, trying to catch a glimpse of him. In the corridors, they walked past him, then turned back to stare at him intently.
"This scene seems familiar—" Ron couldn't help commenting.
Harry was delighted, especially when he heard "between Harry Potter and that red-haired boy"—he almost laughed out loud.
At the beginning of term, he had been similarly scrutinized and had found it very troubling. Now it was great—Sherlock was finally getting the same treatment!
He could finally be part of the background!
Unlike him, Ron pouted: "Why are you 'Harry' and I'm just 'that red-haired boy'..."
Harry: ((╬`~'))
So—is that my fault?
While Harry and Ron discussed enthusiastically, Sherlock, the object of observation and discussion, remained completely indifferent.
Harry and Ron didn't know that Sherlock had endured this kind of intense scrutiny when he attended Muggle school. Students at that age were even more lively.
Shortly after starting Muggle school, Sherlock had displayed his talents. So, everyone became interested in this classmate who could "tell what you did today just by looking at you."
Of course, interest was one thing—this didn't mean they would get along peacefully with him, and friendship was absolutely impossible. Mainly because this student had too sharp a tongue.
Everyone treated him as a freak. That intense scrutiny contained not just curiosity, but more malice.
If not for Sherlock's own formidable abilities, he would have been constantly bullied.
So, in this regard, Harry was actually much happier than Sherlock—he had Sherlock, Ron, and Hermione by his side.
Sherlock had been alone.
But that was in the past. Now Sherlock was no longer alone.
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