The Day of the Draw at Hogwarts

When he woke up early this morning, Tom felt a little restless. He always trusted his instincts, so he knew something bad might happen today. But the scope of "bad" is a bit too general: he accidentally rolled down the stairs and screamed, and the food at tonight's death anniversary party was too pungent and made him vomit. Voldemort suddenly resurrected and found that his Horcrux was placed in the doghouse. He smiled evilly and ordered a hundred thousand Death Eaters to rush over.

Tom walked around the office with a heavy heart. The heavy mood was weighing on his heart and it was difficult to relieve it.

The door opened and Hermione walked in holding a roll of parchment.

"Professor~ I've finished my paper," Hermione put the paper on Tom's desk with a smile, then pulled out the chair very skillfully and sat on it.

Tom noticed that she was wearing the same robe that he had altered that day.

"Okay, let me take a look." Tom suppressed the anxiety in his heart, took the paper, and read it carefully. Tom had read all the reference books Hermione had found - thankfully there were no books in Latin among them.

Hermione was a little confused and pursed her lips, "Have you read all those reference books?"

Tom was immersed in the world of the paper, so he just said "hmm" without replying.

Hermione:!

She thought she could read books fast enough, but was Tom actually a little faster than her?

Tom reads quickly because he reads some chapters selectively. There is no need to read the full text of many documents. You only need to take a look at the experimental conditions and conclusions. Some even just read the introduction. As for books on the magical world, the same principle applies. There is no need to read every chapter.

After a while, Tom finished reading Hermione's paper. He thought for a while and said to Hermione: "As a group assignment, this paper is already very good. However, have you considered submitting this paper to In a professional academic journal?”

Hermione was a little surprised. In her eyes, professional journals and magazines were too far away from her. She had never considered this issue.

"I just brought a few books -"

"More than a dozen," Tom corrected from the sidelines.

"——Okay, let's put together the contents of more than a dozen books and summarize and analyze them. How is this possible?"

"Why not?" Tom leaned on the back of the seat. He read a few journals and found that it might be because there were relatively few wizards in the magic world. Even in the top journals in the British magic world, there were many very bad ones. paper. Hermione's article can even be considered to be of high quality, but it lacks original research content.

"Here, let me teach you how to write a citation." Tom asked Hermione to sit next to him, and then taught her step by step how to write a paper in the correct format. Although papers in the magical world do not have a very strict format like papers in the non-magical world, it never hurts to write more neatly.

Hermione sat aside, holding her chin with one hand, watching Tom carefully correcting his paper, and couldn't help but smile. She moved a little closer to Tom and asked, "Where did you learn these things?"

Tom's heart skipped a beat and his posture became a little stiff. "Look more, learn more, and think more."

Hermione's paper was not long and she revised it very quickly. In less than half an hour, Tom had finished revising a brand new paper. If it wasn't for the vague smell that made Tom's heart beat faster, he might have been able to do it faster.

Hermione took her group paper and it looked really pleasing to the eye at first glance, and the various references were very clear.

"Okay, if there's no problem, just leave the paper here for now and I'll send it out for you - I'll give it to you and I'll put in the call, okay?"

The "corresponding author" often refers to the person in charge of the project, who is responsible for designing the project and paying for it. In addition, he is also responsible for checking the article, and is fully responsible for the authenticity of the content of the article, the reliability of the data, the credibility of the conclusions, and whether it complies with legal norms, academic norms, and ethical norms.

Hermione didn't understand this, so she nodded in confusion. To her, there seemed to be no difference between these terms. After finishing the paper, the two fell into silence. Tom was depressed and didn't know what to say, and Hermione was waiting for Tom to stir up the topic...

"You seem to be in a bad mood?" Hermione noticed the gloomy look on Tom's brow and couldn't help but ask.

"I'm just...a little upset. I feel like something bad is about to happen."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She thought it was something serious, but it turned out to be just a vague intuition. "Don't think too much," she rolled her eyes and suddenly approached Tom. The two were so close that they could even feel each other's breathing.

"Tom, I bought a new hand cream today, what do you think of the taste?" She stretched out her right hand and flapped it twice in front of Tom, bringing out a faint fragrance.

"Hey, it's too close...uh...huh?" Tom was a little confused. He sniffed lightly and came up with an answer without any brain analysis, "Grape?"

"It's pretty accurate." Hermione didn't seem to expect that Tom would guess it right the first time. She retreated a little and sat back down in her seat. But her fragrance still seemed to linger on Tom, making him unable to sit up.

Tom himself didn't realize it. He was actually a little disappointed, and he vaguely felt that it would be great if he guessed wrong.

Being interrupted by Hermione, Tom's mood improved a lot. Seeing Hermione happily rolling up his paper seriously, Tom felt relieved. He remembered that there was a death anniversary party tonight, which Hermione would be very interested in, so he told Hermione about this event. Of course, he made no secret of the ghosts' tastes in food and music.

Sure enough, Hermione ignored those disadvantages and was in high spirits. "Death anniversary party?" Hermione's whole body seemed to light up, "It must be very wonderful! How many living people can attend such a party?"

Tom: "Ah, Hermione...I was talking about you..."

Apparently, Hermione didn't listen much.

"So you must go?" Tom was helpless.

"Of course!" Hermione looked at Tom, "It's hard to follow a promise, so you will go too, right? Do you want to go back on your word?"

Tom shook his head and promised Nick that he would not go back on his word.

The haze disappeared, and the content of the conversation between the two gradually became broader. They talked about a lot, from the specialty shops in Hogsmeade, to the qualifying form of this year's Ravenclaw Quidditch team, from the recent strange happenings in the wizarding world to the customs and customs of other countries.

"Do you have any plans for the summer vacation?" The topic finally turned to the summer vacation arrangements. Hermione changed into a more comfortable position in the armchair. "I kind of want to go on vacation in France, but I haven't made up my mind yet - mainly because I'm not sure if I can complete the paper on the local history of witchcraft assigned by Professor Binns in France..."

"Hey! The concentration of milk in the air is too high! After all, France is an ancient country with a long history. It can be traced back to the Roman Empire and Celtic Gaul. Beauxbatons, one of the three major magic schools in Europe, also has a long history. Build it there.”

"Then do you want to go?" Hermione blinked and looked at Tom.

"I, I want to go on an adventure in Egypt." Tom recalled the two mission rewards he had received before and felt that it was still necessary to go to Egypt. "Maybe I need to explore the desert."

"Egypt?" Hermione thought for a moment, "The ancient Egyptian wizards are very magical. If you go there, it will be very easy to write the paper."

It was obvious that Hermione was a little moved. The only thing that bothered her was how to explain to her father and mother that she was going to Egypt.

She was a little hesitant because she remembered that her father seemed to have the idea of ​​going to France last year, but it seemed that it would be good for her parents to enjoy a world for two?

"So have you made a plan?"

"No."

"Do you know what to prepare for going to the desert?"

"water?"

"Then do you have a destination?"

"..."

Hermione: ...

It’s so unreliable! Co-author Don’t you have any ideas other than wanting to go to the desert?

"Are you going to die?" Hermione bit her lip and said angrily.

"I'm a wizard... and I won't die in the desert."

Hermione was speechless for a moment, unable to find a point to refute. Yes, Tom is a wizard. If there is a shortage of water in the desert, he can use "clear water like a spring". If there is no material for living, he still has "blazing flames". Food can be stuffed into a bag with a traceless expansion spell...

It seems that the restricted area of ​​human life is just like that for wizards?

"But Egypt is very big. If what you are looking for is in the desert, it will be even harder to find." Hermione thought about it seriously and felt that Tom's summer plan was really unreliable. "Why are you going there?" Egypt?"

"To gain the Sands of Time and knowledge."

"Knowledge?" The Sand of Time Hermione knew what it was, but "knowledge" was too general.

"Alchemy," Tom did not dwell on this topic. When it came to knowledge, he remembered something. He took out two notebooks from his drawer and handed them to Hermione.

"This is the opinion of Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. After reading it, it will be very beneficial to your Transfiguration and Charms. You can pick a book and read it first."

"Hey!" Hermione almost jumped with joy, but she suppressed her inner excitement, "These are the notes given to you by the two professors, I can't..."

"Is there any difference?" Tom said calmly, "Take it, I believe if you got the notes, you would lend them to me, right?"

"That's not necessarily the case, you have to beg me properly~" Hermione was in a very good mood, and she happily accepted Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Notes - she struggled for a long time, and finally decided to read about Transfiguration first. , because she felt that there was more room for improvement in her transformation skills.

"Oh?" Tom glanced sideways at Hermione, whose tail was about to rise to the sky, and quickly took the note back from Hermione's hand, "Then you can start begging me, say a few nice words, and I might I will lend you this note out of mercy——"

"The notes are flying!" Hermione took out her wand and cast a flying spell on the notes. Tom felt a pull coming from his hand, as if the note had wings and the idea of ​​pursuing freedom came into being. Tom was afraid of tearing up the notes, so he gave up. Watching the note fall into Hermione's hands again.

Hermione said arrogantly: "Does Lord Yodel still want to grab the book himself?"

"Don't you know how to cast spells?" Hermione suddenly realized something. She covered her mouth and snickered unabashedly, "No way, right? Are there any spells that Professor Yodel doesn't know?" she said. He also clutched his wand and notes and twisted.

"Expelliarmus!" Tom didn't even take out his wand. Tom just waved his hand, and Hermione's wand flew away from her hand.

"Tie Baa!" Tom jumped up, "Eat a note from me and fly over (physics)!"

The two played around for a while, exhausted their energy, and sat on the floor together, breathing heavily.

Tom threw the note into Hermione's hands.

"You will share half, no, three-quarters of my Transfiguration homework next semester."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, "No!"

"Be good, be obedient! Just show me your homework then." Tom picked a white rose flower from the flowerpot outside the window, and then he pointed with the wand, and the flower turned into a butterfly. It flew to Hermione's fingertips and turned back into the form of a flower with a "bang" sound.

Hermione blushed, "Then... okay, but it's only for answering each other's questions! It's impossible for me to give you the homework directly to copy."

"No problem," Tom patted his head: the answers to the homework were all in his head.

Time flies by, the sun is about to set, and the Halloween dinner is about to begin. However, less than a quarter of an hour before the dinner started, the auditorium was still empty - not only was there no one, there wasn't even much light.

All the students were crowded outside the auditorium, afraid to go in. The reason is also very simple. The auditorium is now full of ghosts. The dim green candlelight is projected from the cracked mouth of the jack-o'-lantern. From time to time, bats fly in front of the eyes of the little wizards, and the thunder is looming. The human face and the vague joy...

Almost all the little wizards chose to stand at the door of the auditorium and watch.

"The address written on the invitation letter I received is not the door of the auditorium." A proud female voice suppressed the whispers of other students. Cassandra from Slytherin College, dressed in a full dress, lined up the wizards blocking the door. , minding his own business, he walked into the gloomy auditorium.

The moment she walked in, all the candles in the auditorium were lit, the darkness was replaced by warm yellow light, and the gloomy music was replaced by cheerful and lively music.

"'Song of Wine and Pastoral Wind'" she recognized this European folk song, "The feeling of harvest is very suitable for the Celtic New Year." She showed an elegant smile and looked for it at the Slytherin table. He took a seat and watched the other little wizards filing in.

Tom, who was not far away, showed a smile: the Halloween dinner had begun successfully.