Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts

Faced with Marietta Edgecombe's in-your-face outburst, Cho Chang was both relieved and worried.

Relieved that Sherlock was likely mistaken, and her friend hadn't done anything wrong.

Worried that Sherlock's deduction was incorrect, and he would lose face.

Alicia, on the other hand, looked curious, a pure bystander, just wanting to watch the fun.

Only Hermione and Penelope firmly believed that Edgecombe was the culprit.

Hermione's trust in Sherlock went without saying, and she had just found corroborating evidence.

Penelope, on the other hand, trusted her own eyes, after all, Edgecombe's previous abnormal behavior was tantamount to self-confession.

However, looking at her current appearance of being unafraid, both of them frowned.

Where exactly did the problem lie?

Sherlock looked at Edgecombe with an idiotic gaze, "If you could be a little more patient, you wouldn't ask such a stupid question."

Following Sherlock's gaze, everyone noticed Mrs. Norris repeatedly patting the bottom of Marietta's cabinet with her paw, making a hollow "thump thump" sound.

"Could it be—"

Several girls simultaneously thought of something upon seeing this scene.

Penelope quickly walked to the bedside table and cast a spell directly at the place Mrs. Norris was patting:

"Revelio!"

As soon as the revealing charm was cast, a new drawer suddenly popped out from the bottom of the cabinet.

"It's a hidden compartment with an extension charm!"

"Oh my gosh, that's my sandalwood box!"

Hermione and Cho Chang exclaimed simultaneously.

Penelope frowned, took the sandalwood box out of the hidden compartment, opened it, and handed it to Cho Chang.

Seven porcelain rouges were embedded in the sandalwood box with plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum carvings, as if condensing the four seasons of Jiangnan into a square inch, ranging from dark cyan to imperial concubine pink.

Just as Cho Chang had described before.

"The amount of gold eyeshadow used is more than other colors, and the traces of use are the newest."

Sherlock gave his judgment directly after a glance.

"Gold eyeshadow, shimmering with tiny light, can make the user more charming and attract the attention of others when used in social situations."

At this moment, Hermione also remembered Cho Chang's seemingly useless description of the seven-color eyeshadow.

"Marietta, why?"

Cho Chang turned to Edgecombe, her eyes full of regret and disappointment, "We are clearly best friends. You know, if you like it, I can totally have my father buy another one!"

Edgecombe glanced at Cho Chang, her eyes were cold at this time, and there was no longer the false sympathy that Sherlock had called it before.

"Things have come to this, I have nothing to say."

"Tell me, give me a reason!"

"If I said I was just curious, so I took it to play with for a few days, would you believe it?"

"This——."

Cho Chang hesitated a little.

"If that's really the case, you could have just told Cho."

Keith was immediately furious when she heard this.

"But you not only secretly took the eyeshadow, but even used magic and a hidden compartment with magic attached!"

"Miss Keith, if you want to know her motive, I can explain it."

Sherlock suddenly interjected.

"That's right!"

Alicia reacted all of a sudden, and she looked at Sherlock with amazement, "You said that just now!"

Sherlock looked at Hermione: "Hermione, please read what I asked you to find just now."

Hermione nodded, then took out a stack of paper from her body.

"The Daily Prophet, March 27th, Mrs. Edgecombe is once again recognized for her Floo Network reforms, this time awarded by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge himself.

It is reported that this is the seventh time Mrs. Edgecombe has been recognized by the Ministry of Magic in the past year.

The Ministry of Magic's Department of Transportation and the Floo Network Administration have repeatedly highly praised Mrs. Edgecombe, believing that she has made outstanding contributions to the monitoring and management of the Floo Network—"

The content that Hermione read next was largely the same, all of which were positive evaluations and commendations of Mrs. Edgecombe by The Daily Prophet.

After listening to Hermione's description, several girls faintly understood Sherlock's meaning.

Then Hermione said: "Edgecombe's Potions class grades are not excellent, but they are passable.

But recently, her grades have shown a significant decline—coincidentally, Professor Snape's recent thesis topic involved 'the fragility of kinship magic contracts'."

"Thank you, Hermione."

Seeing Hermione put away the materials, Sherlock then turned to Edgecombe and said:

"Miss Chang told me before that your mother works at the Ministry of Magic.

It's just that she's very busy, even busier than Miss Chang's father.

You once complained to her unintentionally that 'not all parents remember to give their children gifts'. Miss Chang only remembered this sentence, but did not associate it with more.

Combined with The Daily Prophet, it is not difficult to see that she is a workaholic.

So I guess that you are psychologically unbalanced because Mrs. Edgecombe has long neglected the family, jealous of the paternal love that Miss Chang has obtained, and vented your emotions by stealing her precious gifts.

The decline in Potions class grades also provides corroborating evidence."

"Marietta, is that really so?"

Cho Chang looked at Edgecombe in shock, the hand holding the sandalwood box even began to tremble.

Edgecombe looked at Cho Chang without speaking.

"Jealousy is more pathetic than theft because it cannot be returned."

When Sherlock said this quietly, Edgecombe finally broke down:

"That's right, I did it!"

Edgecombe suddenly screamed, snatched the sandalwood box from Cho Chang's hand, and smashed it to the ground.

Cho Chang didn't even have time to react, but fortunately, Penelope was quicker to cast a banishing charm.

Edgecombe's sobbing awakened the owl on the windowsill.

Looking at her friend's distorted face, Cho Chang froze in place.

At this moment, Cho Chang suddenly remembered Edgecombe's trembling fingertips when she stroked the eyeshadow, and remembered that she always said, "Cho always gets the best things."

Perhaps long before she discovered the loss of the eyeshadow, the friendship had already faded.

"Let's go, Hermione, there's nothing for us here—Head Girl Penelope will take care of everything."

Sherlock, who had expected this result, said that sentence again:

"Ravenclaw's wisdom, after all, cannot defeat the thorns that grow wildly in the heart."

"Wonderful, truly wonderful!"

When Harry and Ron heard Hermione tell about Sherlock's detection of the Seven-Color Eyeshadow theft case during dinner in the evening, they couldn't help but exclaim.

Harry, who had almost been drained of his energy by Wood, looked at Hermione sitting next to Sherlock with envy.

If he hadn't gone to training today, the person accompanying Sherlock to solve the case should have been himself, right?

But he was just thinking about it, but Ron directly said it:

"Sherlock, you're too unkind!

Next time there is such a thing, be sure to call us!"

"I think your purpose is the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory, right?"

Hermione said unhappily.

"What are you talking about, do I look like that kind of person?"

Ron stood up dissatisfied, "But speaking of which, I really haven't been to the girls' dormitory—"

Hermione rolled her eyes helplessly, she was too lazy to say more to this guy.

Harry asked another question, "How will Ravenclaw deal with the girl who stole things, will they let her drop out of school?"

During the period when school just started, he was always worried that he would be expelled from school for violating school rules.

He even thought of Dumbledore making an exception and letting him be Hagrid's assistant.

Several times he dreamed of carrying Hagrid's bag, dragging his heavy steps around the field, and eagerly watching Sherlock and others become wizards.

"No, buddy—"

Ron looked at Harry in surprise, "How could you think that way? The punishment for theft is just deducting points and detention, at most inviting parents."

Harry breathed a long sigh of relief when he heard this.

Looking at his good brother like this, Ron couldn't help but find it a little funny.

He was about to say something, but found that Harry's gaze passed over Sherlock's shoulder and was fixed on the entrance of the auditorium.

Ron curiously followed his gaze and immediately saw two figures walking towards this side over the blue and silver Ravenclaw curtain.

Harry and Ron's actions naturally did not escape Sherlock's eyes.

He turned slightly and saw Cho Chang following behind Penelope.

"They came faster than expected", Sherlock tapped the oak table with his index finger twice, "It seems that Ravenclaw has made a decision."

Soon, Penelope and Cho Chang came to the table of Sherlock and the four.

Harry and Ron didn't know Penelope, but the Ravenclaw Head Boy badge similar to the style on Percy's chest made them guess the other party's identity at once.

Undoubtedly, this is a girl with both beauty and wisdom.

But they quickly turned their attention to the younger Cho Chang.

Her black hair was loosely tied up with a sandalwood hairpin, and a few strands of broken hair hung on the side of her neck, swaying gently with her steps.

Harry's fingers tightened the dining knife unconsciously.

He had seen Cho Chang—the smile before Christmas had left a deep impression on him.

But she was different from that time at this moment.

A few freckles on the tip of her nose were like stardust sprinkled on parchment, not only did not show flaws, but added three points of girlish freshness to her porcelain-white skin.

A pair of beautiful big eyes carried a hint of faint melancholy.

"Merlin's beard", Ron nudged Harry with his elbow and whispered to him, "Your ears are red."

The preoccupied Penelope did not notice Harry and Ron, she took out a Galleon: "Mr. Holmes, this is our commission fee—."

Seeing this scene, Ron immediately couldn't care about looking at his good brother anymore.

You know, his family's gold inventory only has one Galleon.

So—is accepting commissions so fast to make money?

Sherlock did not accept it immediately: "You gave too much."

"Mr. Holmes, you have maintained Ravenclaw's reputation—"

Penelope sighed and looked at Cho Chang.

The latter immediately pushed a silk package embroidered with the Leifeng Pagoda pattern to Sherlock: "Mr. Holmes, this is the West Lake Longjing tea that my father brought from Hangzhou."

"In addition, I hope you two will not disclose the details of the case."

Penelope lowered her voice and looked at Harry and Ron, "And Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley are the same."

This time, Sherlock accepted the gifts from Penelope and Cho Chang, and then smiled, "Does Ravenclaw's pride need to be maintained by hush money?"

Cho Chang hurriedly waved her hand: "No, it's not! Marietta has been punished, I just don't want her to be pointed at—"

Her voice was very light, like falling parasitic leaves.

Harry suddenly felt that his ribs had turned into a group of rampaging Bowtruckles.