The Admiral of Hogwarts

After the Christmas holidays began, the professors assigned a mountain of homework to the fourth-year students. According to them, the O.W.L. exams were only a little more than a stone's throw away.

Of course, most students had absolutely no intention of doing homework. In the week before Christmas, the library was noticeably emptier than before the holidays.

"It seems like, apart from those fifth and seventh-year students, we're just about the only ones in the library studying," Hugo said quietly to his sister as he was doing his homework in the library that day, after taking a look around.

"There's nothing we can do about it. We have a ton of things to do in the second half of the Christmas holidays, so we have to cram and finish our homework now," Hermione said, shaking her head helplessly.

Actually, several ship girls had previously offered to help with the homework, but Hermione had refused them all, because she felt that it would be meaningless to have someone else do it.

Hugo himself felt that as long as you mastered the knowledge, it didn't matter whether you did the homework or not. However, when his sister was watching him, expressing dissenting opinions was obviously not appropriate.

Thanks to Indomitable and the others' previous investments, the Weasley twins' first product, Animal Transformation Biscuits, was successfully produced and sold on consignment at the Golden Harbor General Store.

Compared to the single Canary Cream biscuits in the original text, the new product, supported by the ship girls, obviously had much more variety. Whether it was the types of transformations or the snack styles and tastes used for disguise, they were all unpredictable.

As a result, apart from a few students who had mastered certain identification spells, most people were now extremely cautious when accepting snacks offered by others.

Snowflakes fluttered down on the castle and grounds. The Beauxbatons' carriage, pale blue, looked like a frost-covered pumpkin in winter, next to the gingerbread house sprinkled with sugar, which was Hagrid's hut.

The Durmstrang ship's hull was covered with a layer of ice, making it smooth and translucent, and the rigging was also dyed with a layer of white frost.

Even at lunchtime, the busy house-elves prepared a variety of hot stews and sweet puddings for the teachers and students.

"The food at Hogwarts is too greasy," Fleur said with a frown as she finished lunch and prepared to go out. "I won't be able to fit into my dress robes!"

"That's why I think it's pretty good that I've become a ship girl now," Hermione said to Hugo through the admiral network as she was heading out. "At least I don't have to repeatedly choose between delicious food and my weight when I encounter something tasty."

"Of course, if that transformation hadn't made me interested in the smell of rust and machine oil, I think I might have been more satisfied with the changes in my body."

As Christmas approached, Hugo received good news from Massachusetts. That was that one of her previous special research projects had now made a breakthrough.

According to her, this breakthrough was unprecedented and could be said to have subverted the foundations of the modern wizarding world. If it were made public, it would cause a shock in the wizarding world.

However, like Veneto and Hermione, Massachusetts was also temporarily keeping it a secret from Hugo, saying that they would present it as a gift when Hugo went to the United States for inspection.

"Now these little girls are all giving the admirals the runaround," Hugo said, shaking his head helplessly after reading these reports that made him feel a little stuck.

Soon, it was Christmas morning. Even though the ship girls hadn't sent the gifts to the school this year to avoid causing unnecessary suspicion, Hugo still received a considerable number of gifts, piled up in a small heap by the bed.

Some of these gifts came from like-minded people he had met during the previous alchemy competition, and many came from friends he had made at school.

Among them, the strangest-looking one was a large, colorful metal-wire-crafted Snargaluff brooch. Without even looking at the tag, he knew that Luna had definitely sent it.

After going downstairs for breakfast, Hugo and his friends returned to the common room to chat, and they chatted until after lunch before he, his sister, and Veneto went to the courtyard for a snowball fight.

Around 5 p.m., the girls began to return to the castle one after another to dress up, while Veneto and Hermione dragged on until 6:30 before leaving.

At 7:00 p.m., it finally got dark, and at this time, the boys gave up on continuing the snowball fight and returned to their respective dormitories to change into their dress robes.

Hugo's dress robes were made for him by the ship girls. The overall design was a deep blue robe, which looked a bit like the ornate military dress uniforms of the 18th and 19th centuries. When he put it on, he looked much more energetic.

After changing his clothes, Hugo and several boys went to the entrance hall outside the Great Hall. Even though they had arrived relatively early, the hall was already crowded with people.

Because he learned from Veneto and the others that Luna would be down in a little while, Hugo simply walked out of the castle along the gate to breathe in some fresh air. As a result, he happened to see a huge figure walking over from the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

"Good evening, Hagrid." Seeing Hagrid, who had dressed himself up according to the image style that Veneto and the others had designed last time, Hugo immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Ha, Hugo, good evening." Hearing Hugo's greeting, Hagrid also waved his fan-like hand to greet him. "Why are you here instead of going inside?"

"There are too many people inside, and my date hasn't come down yet, so I plan to stay outside for a while to get some air," Hugo shrugged. "By the way, is your date Madame Maxime?"

"Of course, of course, it's Madame Maxime." Hearing Hugo ask this, Hagrid revealed a slightly simple and honest smile.

"We've been getting along quite well lately, so today I plan to take this opportunity to chat with her—to chat about some deeper issues."

"Deeper issues?" Hearing Hagrid say this, Hugo immediately pulled him to a shadowy spot by the door, then cast several protective spells to make sure no one could eavesdrop, before asking with a serious face.

"The so-called deeper issues you plan to discuss with Madame Maxime, are they related to the giant bloodline within you?"

"Yes, after all, it's difficult for someone like me to find someone of my kind—" Hearing Hugo's question, Hagrid's answer blurted out, but he realized that something was wrong halfway through. "Wait, when did you start knowing that I'm a half-giant?"

"Shh, keep your voice down." Hugo put his hand in front of his mouth and made a gesture. "Most people don't like half-giants, why are you shouting so loudly?"

Then Hugo said in a calm tone, "You know I've read a lot of books, so I can naturally deduce this from your physical resistance and your aging rate."

"After all, normal people don't recover so quickly after being injured by magical creatures like you do, and they don't look like they're around forty years old when they're over sixty."

"Adding these characteristics to your extraordinary size and your different views on various magical creatures, I was basically able to guess that you were a half-giant when I was in the first year."

"But don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this," Hugo said, patting Hagrid's arm. "I know about the prejudices of wizards in some areas."