Class Time

Hogwarts ' roasted chicken drumsticks are renowned among young wizards. The sauce is rich and flavorful, refreshing and juicy, and made with young, tender chickens, making them the perfect bite-sized treat.

Watching Ron devour the chicken leg, Neville sighed listlessly.

Ron looked up, somewhat bewildered, and glanced around.

There's nothing wrong with me.

That means something's wrong with you, Neville.

Ron pulled the chicken leg out of his mouth, easing his slightly sore gums. "Why aren't you eating? Planning to lose weight?"

Do you look this silly when you eat chicken legs...?

Neville silently looked away. "No, I'm not on a diet. I have something I want to say to Loren, but I don't know how to say it."

Upon hearing his words, Seamus turned around and looked at him with an incredulous expression. "Do you like Loren? Do you want to confess to him?"

Ron was so startled that he dropped the chicken leg into the plate. Ignoring his aching gums, he opened his mouth as wide as he could, his jaw almost dislocating.

Dean earnestly advised, "Give up, Neville. You can't beat Hermione. That's how teenage love is; it usually ends without a trace."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Neville resisted the urge to smear his plate in their faces. "I just don't know how to thank Loren. He healed my parents."

"Oh oh!"

"Thank you!"

Seamus chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head, "My dad said that third grade is a crucial period of adolescence. During the holidays, he kept nagging me about things to be careful about in relationships. When I heard what you said, I couldn't help but think dirty thoughts."

Dean nodded repeatedly. "I was led astray by him."

Ron finally put down the chicken leg and rested his chin on his hand. "No wonder my dad was talking about the Aurors from the Longbottom family getting their jobs back during the holidays, and my mom was wondering how they suddenly recovered. Tell us what happened!"

Neville thought for a moment and picked out some things he could tell to share with a few friends.

"Congratulations, Neville, your mom and dad are back." Harry's eyes held a hint of envy.

"Yeah yeah!"

Congratulations!

Neville smiled shyly.

"So Headmaster Dumbledore and Loren left right after they finished treating your parents?" Ron said, holding his fork. "He didn't treat your parents for anything in return, so you can just thank him directly."

Neville didn't speak, but shook his head firmly and slowly.

He silently stood up, walked a few seats to Loren's side, and patted him on the shoulder.

"?"

Loren turned his head and looked at him with a puzzled expression. His cheeks, stuffed full of chicken legs, indicated that he was not in a position to speak.

Neville's lips were pressed into a tight line. He hesitated for a long time but still didn't know how to speak, and his face turned red.

No, buddy, there's something wrong with your expression.

"Stop! Halt!"

Loren forcibly pulled out the chicken bone, swallowed the chicken leg meat without chewing much, and felt a little choked. Of course, he knew why Neville had that expression. "You're welcome. If you really can't accept this, just send me a gold-packaged deluxe gift from Honeydukes."

"Huh?" Neville was taken aback.

"No, please. The gold-plated deluxe gift set costs one Galleon each, which I usually can't afford. You can give me one as a token of your gratitude. If you still can't accept it, I'll give you one every Christmas from now on."

"..."

Neville arrived bewildered, and returned even more bewildered. He silently resolved that from now on, he would give it to Loren on Easter, his birthday, Halloween, Christmas... whenever he had the chance.

After the banquet, the young wizards left the Great Hall in an orderly fashion, and the Prefect of each house led the way for their new students.

The senior students were in a loose and casual formation, with occasional disobedient individuals wandering around. In contrast, the freshmen were all well-behaved, their eyes sparkling as they looked around.

Looking at the freshmen lined up in two neat rows, Ron shook his head and sighed, "I can't believe we're already third-year students. I can still remember how apprehensive we were in front of the sorting center two years ago when I closed my eyes."

Neville, who also vividly recalled the incident, glanced at him casually and said, "Yes, it was you who spread the horror stories about George and Fred, which terrified us all."

Hearing their conversation, Loren turned to Hermione and whispered with a chuckle, "I remember someone was so scared that they kept reciting the Standard Spellbook."

Hermione gave him a shove, a slight smile playing on her lips.

As they approached the stairwell, the procession suddenly stopped, and a commotion arose from the Slytherin group at the front.

There's going to be a good show!

Seamus's eyes lit up, and without the slightest hesitation, he squeezed to the front with an enthusiastic smile.

Five minutes later, he returned looking disappointed.

"What's wrong? What happened up ahead? Are the Slytherin fighting each other?" Ron quickly went over and asked.

"There's nothing to see." Seamus pursed his lips, seemingly regretting missing out on the excitement. "A Slytherin freshman fell down and blocked the way a little."

"Was the fall serious?" Hermione asked curiously.

"It's not serious, but the person who fell is named Astoria Greengrass."

Hermione was even more curious. "What do you mean?"

"I know!" Ron chimed in. "The Greengrass are one of the Twenty-Eight Pure-Blood Families. Their family has a blood-borne curse that weakens the body. It takes a long time for members of the Greengrass Family to recover from a fall."

"Another Blood Curse." Hermione recalled Professor Babbling's experience and couldn't help but ask, "Are Blood Curse common in Pure-blood Families?"

Loren also turned his gaze to Ron, wanting to hear his answer.

"Blood Curse are extremely evil Dark Arts, how could they be common?" Ron looked at them both suspiciously. "You said 'again,' do you know anything else about Blood Curse?"

"No, no, I saw it in a book," Hermione stammered, remembering Professor Babbling's advice.

Loren pondered for a moment, then offered a different perspective. "Her symptoms sound like hypoglycemia. It's normal for children born from inbreeding in Pure-blood Families to be weak. Greengrass may have inherited a pathological gene; it's already quite good that she doesn't have any deformities or other genetic diseases."

With both her parents being medical school graduates and her family steeped in medical knowledge, Hermione's eyes widened immediately; this line of thinking seemed to make a lot of sense!

"Genes?" Percy turned around when he heard the word, his face full of interest. "I heard about this in Muggle Studies. Could you explain it in more detail?"

"Hmm..." Hermione frowned, trying to recall her knowledge of genetics. "Because of consanguineous marriage, the couples have more similar genes, which makes it easier to Genetic Inheritance are detrimental to the survival of offspring. As a result, they may give birth to children with poor health, who are at risk of heart disease, intellectual disability, congenital deafness, and blindness. In addition, they are more prone to mental illness, epilepsy, and other Genetic Inheritance diseases."

At this moment, some young wizards from Pure-blood Families around had already pricked up their ears and were quietly comparing these symptoms with those of their own relatives.

Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff, her breathing quickening, said in a heavy voice, "I have an aunt's son who was born deaf."

His two companions nodded repeatedly. "We have relatives like that too!"

My grandma has six fingers.

"Marcus's youngest daughter married her cousin, and I heard their child is mentally challenged."

Ignoring the incoherent noises, Percy continued, "What are the symptoms of mental illness?"

Hermione counted a long list on her fingers. "Irritable, manic, violent, withdrawn..."

The young wizards from Pure-blood Families were even more alarmed, feeling that there were countless wizards like this in the Wizarding World. Everyone joined in the discussion, with the Pure-blood wizards describing the symptoms and the Muggle wizards sharing their knowledge of hereditary diseases. They chattered on and on until they returned to the common room.

After Loren washed up and went to bed, the rain outside not only didn't stop, but it got heavier and heavier, the sound of the rain growing louder and louder, gradually drowning out everyone's breathing, drowning out Neville's snoring, and drowning out the distant sound of the wind.

But this sound of rain is not noisy at all; instead, it brings an indescribable peace to one's heart, allowing one to think of nothing.

Loren slowly, slowly closed his eyes...

The young wizards, weary from a day's journey, fell into a deep sleep, but the candlelight in the Castle did not completely go out; a few offices still glowed faintly.

Remus Lupin on the bed in the lounge of the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor's office, staring blankly at the flickering candlelight on the candlestick above him. His gaze was unfocused, as if he were looking at the candlelight, or perhaps seeing something else in it.

He had been in this position for two hours and still couldn't fall asleep, probably because he had slept enough during the day.

His body still had some aftereffects from last night's transformation, with slight soreness in his muscles. This condition might last for three to five days, and Lupin just hoped he wouldn't miss any teaching opportunities.

The scene of his brief conversation with Snape after the banquet kept replaying in his mind...

Arrogant, aloof, and sarcastic... Lupin felt that his reunion with his old classmate was exactly as he had expected.

But a strange intuition kept reminding him that Snape didn't seem quite the same as before.

The window wasn't closed tightly, letting in some stray cold drafts. The candlelight on the candlestick flickered, its pale yellow glow stretched into all sorts of strange shapes, becoming blurry and out of focus.

Lupin had a long, hazy dream.

He dreamt that on the eve of his sixth birthday, Greyback broke into his house;

He dreamt that Dumbledore permission to attend school;

Snape dreamt of the four of them bullying the boy;

I dreamt of James and Lily's graves.

The next morning.

Loren opened his eyes; the rain that had fallen all night had stopped.

Walking barefoot across the carpet, pushing open the window hung with what seemed like dew or rain, a cool autumn breeze eagerly rushed into the room, circled the walls, and brought fresh moisture to the still-sleeping group.

Neville didn't react much, while Seamus, Harry, and Ron grunted a few times and simultaneously burrowed under the covers.

After washing up and going downstairs, Hermione was already waiting on the sofa in the Common Room.

The girl was engrossed in reading a book called "Transfiguration Today," her unkempt hair obscuring half her face, but her long eyelashes, blinking incessantly, were visible through the other half, her snow-white skin reflecting the light of the pages. She wore a simple, elegant Gryffindor Colors magic robe.

Loren strode downstairs and sat heavily next to the girl, making the sofa bounce. "What classes do you have today?"

Hermione put down her book, her gaze lingering on his tie for a few seconds before she frowned slightly. "Why aren't you wearing the tie I gave you?"

Loren grinned. "I won't use it daily; I plan to keep it as a treasure."

Hermione didn't say anything, but a slight smile appeared on her lips, "From now on, you'll have to remember your own schedule. Our electives are different."

Having attended Hogwarts for two years, Loren only saw the class schedule during the first week of his first year; the rest of the time he spent with Hermione.

Hermione pulled out a full parchment timetable and pointed out the times for several elective courses. "The elective courses are concentrated on Monday and Tuesday, so there are some time conflicts. However, the classes you are taking do not conflict. Arithmancy is on Monday morning, Care of Magical Creatures has two periods on Monday afternoon and four periods on Tuesday morning, with Divination Class in the afternoon."

By the time she said the second sentence, Loren had already emptied his mind.

"Got it." Loren gave a lazy "hmm." "Anyway, you're going to be there, so remember to call me."

He clearly wasn't paying attention, so Hermione gently patted him and emphasized again, "I can't call you like before. I'll be using the Time-Turner to attend class. I can't let myself discover my whereabouts. Professor McGonagall said it would cause a huge mess."

It took Loren some time to figure out the logic in the little Witch's words.

The two of them usually spend time together, but Hermione isn't always the Hermione next to Loren when she goes to the next class. If she has to spare time to remind him, the risk of Hermione being discovered by him increases.

"Oh, oh!" Loren snapped out of his daze and suddenly became interested in her Time-Turner. "Could you take me with you through time? That way, I won't need to remind you?"

"No way!" Hermione exclaimed, her cheeks puffed out in anger. "I promised Professor McGonagall that I must use the Time-Turner strictly according to the rules."

"All right."

Loren sighed. "Then I'll have to find my own schedule and attend classes by myself. There are no elective classes today, Thursday. When you have A History of Magic later, could you copy down the schedule for me and remember to write down the classroom locations?"

"Go ahead and be even lazier!" Hermione glared at him through gritted teeth.

Loren didn't care at all and pulled the girl up to go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"The first lesson of the new semester's A History of Magic should be about the general outline of this academic year. There are no specific points, so I'll copy one for you when I have time."

Hermione, you're the best!

"Only elective courses!"

Just as Hermione had predicted, Professor Binns, holding a thick book, began reading aloud the outline of the third-year A History of Magic from the table of contents during the first lesson of the semester.

The classroom was filled with drowsy sleepers, the young wizards wearing peaceful smiles as they drifted off into sweet dreams.

Hermione carefully filled out the course information on the form, then turned around and saw her deskmate, Loren, who was sleeping soundly with his head bobbing. She took a quill and drew a line on his lips.

In September 1993, they began their third year at Hogwarts.