translating_wizard
patreon
Chapter 272: Boys' Talk and the Forbidden Forest
🕑 Added 2018-10-20 17:44:47 +0000 UTC
Under Hermione's insistence, Harry and Ron reluctantly sat beside her and began to study the Centaurs.
However, the two of them could not focus, always whispering about the match.
Harry thought he should have caught the Snitch sooner; he had a chance before.
Ron told him that he was too polite to Cho Chang, and he was tied up in his early performance.
Then the conversation shifted from Quidditch to Cho and the other girls, bringing Evan into the discussion when Hermione wasn't paying attention.
“All in all, Ravenclaw’s Seeker flies very well. She is probably the best among all the girls in the school.” Ron covered himself with a book and whispered, “But she’s still incomparable to you. On top of that, your broomsticks are also on totally different levels. The Firebolt is the best, it is a world-class broomstick. It’s not popular even in the professional league."
"Cho Chang is Great, I am not much better than her.” Harry said objectively, “if it hadn't been for the Firebolt, I might not have won this easily today.”
He smiled slightly; the appearance of Cho in sky blue robes popped up again in his mind; she was extraordinarily beautiful.
"You are just too kind with her because she is a girl." Ron disagreed with Harry. "Like Wood said, you’ve been too much of a gentleman."
"But..." Harry wanted to explain.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask Evan; he also witnessed the whole process."
"Let me say, while Cho is really good, but her forte is that she’s also really beautiful." Evan said with a sigh, “Harry, if you have a crush on her, you can try to ask her out. I heard Luna say that she doesn't have a boyfriend yet!"
"I don't have that idea..." Harry tried to explain.
His face was red and it looked hard to be convincing.
In fact, as Evan said, he really liked Cho.
To be more precise, he liked her deep down inside. However, Harry was rather clumsy and inexperienced in this regard, and he was not aware of it.
He was just thinking about Cho, and he felt pure excitement and his heartbeat raced.
As the topic went deeper, Harry felt that his face was getting redder and redder, and in order not to let Evan and Ron laugh at him, he quickly shifted the subject to Hermione.
"Evan, how are you getting along with Hermione?!" Harry gave Hermione his back and lowered his voice. "Tell us the truth, have you ever done that?"
"What?!" Evan looked at him strangely.
"That is..." Harry hesitated and whispered, "Kissing!"
Hearing his words, Ron spit out the sip of juice he had just taken.
He coughed hard and stood up from the sofa. He almost knocked the small round table because of his exertion.
Hermione looked up as she heard Ron’s noise.
She squinted and stared at them three suspiciously, her eyes full of doubt.
"You kissed Hermione?!" Ron said in surprise, he looked at Evan hesitantly, then looked back at Hermione.
Before Evan had time to explain, Harry went on to say to Ron, "On Christmas Eve, Evan and Hermione went out alone off the Leaky Cauldron pub. About twenty minutes later, Hermione herself came back with her face red and looked very unusual...."
Harry and Ron all looked at Evan, and their eyes were full of inquiry.
"Well, in fact, it can't be considered a kiss." Evan argued. "At the time, under the mistletoe in Diagon Alley, it was just a slight touch."
Time seemed to stagnate, his thoughts returned to that night, and his heart beat slightly faster.
Harry and Ron looked at Evan with amazement; their expression was even far more lost than his.
Harry looked completely stunned. He opened his mouth and didn't know what to say. He just wanted to make a joke. He didn't expect Evan to admit it. However, he quickly recovered and became extremely excited, and sincerely, he was happy for Evan and Hermione.
Ron was not in a state of shock; he was deeply concerned about this matter, and seemed to want to say something.
Without waiting for him to talk, Fred and George came to toast with butterbeer.
They laughed happily, disturbing Hermione who was upset. She raised her head irritably, chased them all away, and let Harry and Ron leave to join the party so that she could catch up and concentrate on reading the remaining four hundred pages of the book at hand.
The rave seemed to last forever.
“Does he know what we are about to do in a moment?!" Hermione whispered as she huddled on the sofa and stared at Sirius. "The Forbidden Forest at night is very dangerous. We should be prepared, not drinking and reveling here..."
At about ten o'clock in the evening, she suddenly put down her magic book.
She seemed to have made some kind of decision. She walked over and had a few words with Sirius. Evan saw that Sirius seemed very regretful, as if apologizing to Hermione.
A few minutes later, Hermione walked straight back with a satisfied smile on her face.
"Get ready to go, Evan!" she whispered.
Hermione pulled Evan out of the Common Room, and behind them, there was a mess of whistles. They were not the first couple to go out. Everyone had a clear look on their faces, as if they already knew what Evan and Hermione were going to do.
Both Evan and Hermione blushed and tried to pretend that they didn't hear the whistles.
"What did you say to Sirius?" Evan asked curiously.
"Nothing, just reminded him to pay attention to time."
In the dark corridor, Hermione recounted to Evan what she had just said to Sirius.
But Evan kept thinking of what he talked about with Harry and Ron. He looked at Hermione in front of him, and his thoughts drifted away.
Time passed, and at about 10:30 p.m., Sirius, Harry, and Ron came out in turn.
Fred and George seemed to be performing a show, the Common Room was still noisy, and the party showed no sign of ending.
"Let’s set out, and go to the Centaurs’ colony in the Forbidden Forest." Harry said excitedly, not feeling fatigue after the entirety of this active day.
"We’d better hurry up, don't let others notice that we left the castle." Sirius was completely back to normal, not looking drunk at all. "I just asked Fred and George, and they’ll just try to keep the party go on."
Sirius led them all to the hall, telling them what to pay attention to. They walked through the gates of the old castle, striding through the dark ground. The closer they approached the dark, silent Forbidden Forest, the tenser the atmosphere became, and the more careful they were.
The moon was bright and clear, but there were clouds coming up to cover it, causing them to fall into darkness.
It was hard to imagine that just a moment ago, they were reveling in a well-lit Common Room, but now they were wandering into the dangerous Forbidden Forest.
Harry and Ron looked more and more gloomy, and had no energy to think about the mess.
They seemed to realize that venturing into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night was not as simple as they had imagined.
