Epilogue

"By the way, Sean, could I have your home phone number?"

After saying that, Stephanie looked at Sean quietly, her beautiful eyes sparkling behind her glasses, seemingly ignoring everyone else.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Daisy, who had been ignored, immediately turned their attention to Sean, their eyes fixed on Sean like two surveillance cameras.

Sean felt the hairs on his back stand up almost instantly as he was stared at by six eyes.

It was a perfectly normal scene, a room with torches burning, but Sean had a feeling he was walking down a path of no return...

"Forehead..."

Sean had barely uttered a single syllable when Hermione coughed softly behind him.

Then, as if nothing had happened, she said to Daisy, "Next time, add two more torches. The Room of Requirement always looks like an underground classroom, which sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable."

Sean's expression froze. There were so many torches burning in the room... and it was June! Wake up, Hermione!

Perhaps realizing that her excuse was a bit far-fetched, Hermione raised her head slightly after saying that, but her gaze did not leave her.

Stephanie was like a quiet spectator watching a performance; she didn't say a word, just looked at Sean with just the right amount of expectation and indifference in her eyes.

Yes, asking a friend for their phone number is nothing unusual. In fact, it would be abnormal for friends not to have each other's contact information.

Sean had also thought of this. He awkwardly tugged at his collar before saying, "The phone number is fine..."

Before he could finish speaking, he shuddered, as if someone was pointing a magic wand at him from behind.

"Ahem... ahem... I mean, Stephanie, is there something you want to tell me?"

Stephanie tilted her head slightly and glanced at the Collection of Greedy Poet's Stories " in Hermione's hand.

"They know, right?"

"Ah, of course I know." Sean scratched his head, a little puzzled. Hermione was holding the book, so they must know it.

Little did she know that when Stephanie said those words, Hermione's breathing quickened and her gaze turned slightly hostile.

Stephanie pretended not to see it and said softly, "My family has a lot of books, and my grandfather goes out to visit old friends every summer. He has to prepare enough wands for the young wizards to choose from before the start of the school season. He always brings back a lot of books at my request. Of course, the quantity and depth can't compare to the Hogwarts library, but there are occasionally some obscure books that mention various ancient materials."

"I think I might be able to find more clues about that story and that nursery rhyme—I wanted to tell you that information sooner rather than later, maybe it will be of some help to you, well, just some help will do."

It was a very tempting offer, and the reasons were quite reasonable. Sean had also witnessed Stephanie's exceptional memory and sharp mind, so he couldn't find any reason to refuse.

"Ah, right—this is my contact information, here you go..." Sean casually picked up a piece of parchment, scribbled a line of text, and handed it over.

Behind her, Hermione wrinkled her nose in displeasure, especially after seeing Stephanie carefully and solemnly put away the note. A nameless anger welled up inside her.

"Thank you for your hospitality tonight. I'm leaving now, Sean. Sweet dreams."

Having gotten what she wanted, Stephanie politely said goodbye and left the Room of Requirement without any hesitation.

For some reason, when Stephanie disappeared from sight, Sean felt a sense of relief—the pressure had been immense...

He turned around to say something, but Hermione had already packed her things.

The girl, holding Daisy's hand, walked towards the door without glancing at Sean even once.

"Hey, you're going back? Wait for me!" Sean only saw Daisy wink at him playfully before the two of them quickly pushed open the door and left.

The Room of Requirement was empty again. Sean stood there in a daze for a while, then shrugged.

"I can't handle it, I just can't handle it..."

The ring was opened, and Dave poked out a ferocious head, his sharp teeth gleaming menacingly in the torchlight.

Sean smacked it on the head.

"Keep muttering and muttering. If you skip dinner, you'll send me so many thoughts."

Because of Sean's "skimming" of dinner, Dave kept sending "pop-up messages" to Sean through his thoughts while he was in the ring.

"Ah, if I don't get one brain, I'm going to die."

"Sean, I'm hungry. Let's discuss this some more."

"You yourself can't read minds, so what makes you think I can?"

"Pudding stole the Aero-Wing Bird ' fish, and they've now run around here for the twentieth time—should I tell the Aero-Wing Bird that they can fly and don't have to keep chasing a Wampus Cat on the ground?"

Dave emerged from the ring, innocently scratching his head with his bat-wing-like claws.

"You flicked it off... A little higher, it's a bit itchy there."

Sean almost choked on his breath. He rolled his eyes without any regard for his image, then grabbed Dave and pulled out a silver fork to scrape hard on its white, bony head.

"It's all bone, what right do you have to complain about itching?"

"Hiss, a little harder... there, right, right, right here... Ah—, that feels better... The itching might be because you didn't eat enough, like what you said last time about lacking vitamins and rare elements..."

"You remember this so well, don't you?"

Just as he was shaving Dave's head with a silver fork, another shiny head popped out.

It is Aero-Wing Bird.

It stretched out its long tail and wrapped it around Sean's arm in dissatisfaction.

"Waaaah—waaaah—(Dave did something stupid, why should I get punished too?)"

"Even if I don't get punished, I still have to control your food rations. Four meals a day, four fish per meal. You know your kind only eats less than half of what you eat? Last time you ate so much you rolled your eyes back to life, and I had to save you," Sean said irritably.

To everyone's surprise, the Aero-Wing Bird actually started correcting him.

"Waaaaah—waaaaah—(There are four fish that are longer than half your arm—and I only ate two tonight without rolling my eyes.)"

"You've managed to hold up a bird that would take you half an hour to react, and you're still emphasizing meticulousness to me..."

"What is rigor? What does 'holding your breath' mean? Can you eat it? Besides, I react very quickly, Pudding said."

"Ha—" Sean lazily raised an eyebrow, then grabbed Dave's paw and poked the Aero-Wing Bird's tail.

"I'm really quick-witted, you can try me if you don't believe me—I almost caught up with Pudding today... By the way, I didn't eat enough tonight, when are you going to give me back those two fish?"

Dave shook his head and said, "When are you going to give me back the brain I owed you tonight?"

Sean: "..."

A few minutes later, the screams of the Aero-Wing Bird suddenly echoed from the Room of Requirement.

"Ouch—ouch—!!! (It hurts so much! Who bit my tail?!)"

Sean: "..."

This bird is hopelessly slow...

Hermione returned to normal the next day, talking and chatting with Sean as usual, and occasionally scolding him for his lazy appearance. She seemed no different from before.

Daisy was the same, or rather, Daisy had never changed. She was always smiling and sweet, and sometimes she could even discuss Stephanie's affairs with Sean.

However, Hermione and Daisy spent more time together, often whispering among themselves.

Sean sometimes wondered what the two of them were talking about, but he also knew that such conversations between best friends were not something a guy like him should listen to, so he let it go.

A week after the exams, the results were released, but Hermione was quite dissatisfied with the outcome.

For the first time, Sean surpassed Hermione to become number one in his grade.

Both of them received O (excellent) grades in all other subjects, and even in Potions, Sean received normal treatment from Snape.

The only difference was that in their Divination, Sean got an E (exceeding expectations), while Hermione only got an A (passing).

When Hermione received her report card, she was quite angry. She wasn't angry that she only got an A in Divination, since she wasn't planning to take the course next semester anyway.

Her anger stemmed from the fact that she hadn't beaten Sean in any of the other subjects.

Sean could only smile and plead for mercy, "Actually, you did much better than me. You summarized the key points for almost all the written exams and then gave them to me."

Hermione thought about it and realized that was indeed the case, which made her feel much better.

Daisy dominated the third grade, receiving the highest grades in all subjects. Coupled with the Dragon Patronus she unleashed at the broken bridge, the Little White Flower now has the aura of a third-grade leader.

Although this leader is always sticking to Hermione and Sean.

Fred and George each earned three OWLs certificates, which seemed meager compared to their Bill and Percy's twelve certificates each.

But the twins believed they should have gotten at least an E in their other subjects, because their very presence at the exam was beyond expectations.

In addition, Percy passed the NEWTs exam perfectly. Although the relationship between the British Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts had deteriorated significantly, they still sent examiners. Sean thought this was probably the result of Dumbledore's efforts.

However, Percy, who is capable of doing any job, has given up his original ambition to work at the Ministry of Magic, and his new goal has not yet been set—he has to deal with his relationship problems with his girlfriend Penelope first.

Another result made Sean very happy: his first- and second-year students performed exceptionally well, especially the first-year students, all of whom passed Professor McGonagall's test, with only two students even getting an A.

Among the outstanding students, such as Campbell Axston and Natasha Fiora, were praised by Professor McGonagall, and Sean even received an extra teaching assistant bonus for it.

Compared to Galleon, this reward brought Sean far more joy; he had even come to enjoy the feeling of teaching and nurturing students.

The End-of-Term Feast arrived as scheduled. Dumbledore had been frequently seen in the castle recently, hosted the entire dinner. Despite the many accidents and unexpected events that occurred during this combined school year, everyone still enjoyed the dinner.

Dumbledore was never one to give long speeches. He summarized the incidents of the year and then advised everyone to behave themselves during the summer vacation. Although the situation outside had eased considerably, some Dark Wizard were still operating in the shadows.

The House Cup rightfully went to Ravenclaw, and the Eagles triumphantly defended their title, winning the undisputed trophy.

Sean and Hermione's bonuses in various subjects made them Ravenclaw's main force, and they received more cheers and applause—in fact, Slytherin should have had some chance to compete for the House Cup.

After all, Sean, a scoring expert, was second only to Harry in terms of points deductions in Potions, especially after all the troubles that happened this year, which made the old Batman even more ruthless.

But what's even more unfortunate is that Daisy is also in Ravenclaw.

Daisy could get back the points Sean deducted from Snape Sean half the time, and even the Slytherin students would complain about it in hushed tones.

Have you ever seen someone hand a professor some tweezers and then get a "proper way of holding the tweezers, timely help, Miss Daisy, ten points for Ravenclaw"?

Sean felt that Snape not to add five points for Daisy stepping into the Potions Classroom with her left foot first was already quite restrained.

After the banquet ended, the students, having eaten and drunk their fill, went to sleep.

The next day, their luggage had already been delivered by House-elves to the Hogwarts Express (questionable – look how many times the author emphasizes this questionable point, the wizards must have misunderstood the Express), and the students boarded the train in groups under the stricter gaze of their teachers than in previous years.

Sean sat in a train carriage with his friends as usual, enjoying the candies that the Honeydukes owner had given Sean for free and chatting about the various things that had happened over the past year.

When the train arrived at the station, Sean stepped off the platform and saw his parents and sister whom he hadn't seen for a year, no, for two years. He felt a sense of unreality.

So many things have happened this year...

Sean sighed, then laughed and picked up Ayla, who was running towards him.

"Sean, Sean, I missed you." Ayla hugged Sean tightly.

Sean hugged her back tightly. "Of course, I missed you too, Ayla."

Hermione ran into the Mr. and Mrs. Granger ' arms; the year had felt far too long.

After exchanging a few words with his parents and the Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Sean was about to get into the car when a voice softly called his name from behind.

"Sean, remember to keep in touch during the summer vacation—hello Mr. Wallop. and Mrs. Wallop, I am Stephanie Ollivander, Sean's friend at Hogwarts."