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Chapter 1270: The Second Change
🕑 Added 2024-10-20 09:55:10 +0000 UTCElaine bared her sharp fangs; she always seemed to want to bite Evan and never let go of the thought.
The bad thing about making friends with vampires was that when the desire for blood came, it was difficult for them to resist.
This happened a few times last term. In the classroom, the common room, the library, and other places, in front of many students, she would suddenly put Evan's fingers, arm, neck, or some other part of him in her mouth. Evan could feel the pain of her sharp teeth pressing against his skin, though on the surface, their actions appeared quite intimate.
Every time Elaine did this, everyone would quickly turn their heads, look at the two of them excitedly, and whisper.
Then, in just a few minutes, those little brains would come up with all sorts of bizarre stories.
When asked what she was doing, Elaine always replied that she liked the smell of Evan...
Generally, that meant she might be hungry or craving something, and Evan would need to take her somewhere private and give her a small bottle of blood, a snack to replenish her energy. But it could also be that she was just bored and wanted to tease Evan or put something in her mouth for fun.
Evan didn’t mind too much; he just wished Elaine wouldn’t do such things in front of so many people...
It wasn’t until later, with Hermione’s help, that Elaine finally learned some common sense, understanding that normal people didn’t behave that way and that it was inappropriate to joke like that with boys. Gradually, she restrained herself, and with Evan buying various candies that suited her taste, Elaine stopped suddenly putting Evan’s fingers in her mouth.
"Because that monster disappeared, and without its power to support me, I have to rely on blood to replenish my magic. Uncle said I might need more blood this term," Elaine finally said.
"Okay, did he prepare the blood for you?" Evan asked with a sigh.
"No, uncle said he’s relieved that you are in charge of everything at school," Elaine replied, staring at him.
"Yeah, that's right. Don't worry, I'm ready," said Evan. It seemed that he needed to ask Dobby to buy a batch of dragon blood and Blood-flavoured lollipops. It would be another big expense, but luckily Elaine didn’t eat much...
After that, Evan and Hermione asked Elaine about her summer vacation and the situation in the Underworld.
Evan also briefly talked about his experiences in Egypt, and the prefects came to report to this carriage one after another.
This year's Head Girl was a seventh-year girl from Slytherin House, Caroline Faith. She was a very low-key student and Evan had never spoken to her. He only knew that her family was an ancient pure-blood Wizarding family that had remained neutral during the First Wizarding War and had not sided with Voldemort.
It seemed that the school did not want Slytherin House to be completely isolated.
At this time, choosing students with a neutral stance and gentle personality to serve as student leaders of Slytherin House would make it easier to maintain unity and stability.
So, Evan was not surprised to see that the new Slytherin female prefect was Astoria.
Like the Faith family, the Greengrass family was also an ancient pure-blood Wizarding family. Though they tended to support Voldemort, they at least maintained a neutral stance on the surface. Astoria also had a very pleasant personality.
More importantly, Evan knew that her concept of pure-blood was different from that of other pure-blood wizards.
If Astoria could influence the others, she could change Slytherin House from within.
Hermione had already thought of what to say, calling on the prefects to guide the students of their respective Houses to interact with the students of Slytherin House, further regulate Slytherin's areas of activity, etc., but unexpectedly, Malfoy did not come to the gathering at all. It seemed he had no intention of continuing as a prefect.
This was the second unexpected change since the start of the new term, making Malfoy all the more noteworthy.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
It was really abnormal that Malfoy actually gave up the position of prefect on his own initiative.
Three hours later, after Evan and the others finished their patrol, they joined Harry in his compartment, still discussing the topic. In the compartment with Harry were Luna and Neville.
Before they came in, Neville had been talking to Harry about his O.W.L. exam results. He was a bit worried. His grandmother wanted him to continue studying Transfiguration, but he had only earned an "Acceptable" grade in that subject, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to take Professor McGonagall’s N.E.W.T. class.
As for Luna, she was still in her mad state, with a copy of The Quibbler in her hand, buried in her reading, and when she put the magazine down, they could see that she was wearing a pair of colourful spectacles, which gave her the look of a demented, multicolored owl.
"These are the free Spectrespecs from the latest issue of The Quibbler," she said, and after greeting everyone, she buried her head in the magazine again.
The group exchanged glances, and Harry quickly asked, "How was your morning?"
"Convincing students to sit in Slytherin’s carriage wasn’t easy," said Ron eagerly, plopping down next to Harry and rubbing his stomach. "I really hope the trolley comes soon; I’m starving, and I still have to find Lavender later. She asked me to —"
"— sit in Slytherin’s compartment?"
"Yeah, Hermione's idea..." said Ron in a low voice. "She didn’t want Slytherin to claim extra compartments and use them for dominance, so she wanted to stop them. All the prefects had to help. I tried sneaking away earlier, but it didn’t work."
Harry was a bit confused, and Neville didn't understand what was being said, so Evan explained it to them.
It turned out that at the suggestion of Hermione and the call of the prefects, the Slytherins gave up their compartment.
But the problem was that other students still didn't dare to sit in that carriage. They would rather squeeze in other carriages than go there.
By doing this, they not only did not change anything, but only reminded Slytherin that they could use this privilege.
Hermione had no better idea. The Slytherins even took the initiative to ask the Head Girl to provide them with separate spaces and various "Slytherin" privileges, respect their habits, and distinguish them from the other three Houses, as if they were about to split from Hogwarts...
It was truly frustrating. In the end, the Slytherin students returned to their original carriages.
Seeing how smug and arrogant they looked, it seemed like they believed they had the upper hand in this round.
Perhaps they were enjoying the benefits of privilege, along with the thrill of instilling fear in others.
This was not a good thing. Those who were originally hesitant might decide to join Voldemort...
"Students just need more courage. They need to understand that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are not actually that scary. The more they do this, the more arrogant the Slytherins will become," said Hermione, not ready to give up. "We want to change this. We must do something in this regard."
"Yeah, but it's going to take a long time, isn't it? It's not like we can tell them that Death Eaters aren't scary and they won't be afraid anymore. Oh, let's get back to Malfoy, Harry has to know about it," Ron told them what they had been discussing. "Malfoy didn’t show up for the prefect meeting. He was just sitting in a compartment with some other Slytherins. When we asked him, he said he wasn’t planning to be a prefect anymore."
"What?" Harry was stunned.
"He told us that he’s going to apply to Snape to give up the prefect position, and it’s none of our business, and he doesn't owe us an explanation," said Ron, making a rather crude gesture. "That guy’s definitely up to something. He doesn’t even want to bully first-years anymore. It’s really suspicious."
