Late February, Saturday.
Eleven in the morning.
Loren walked out of the Entrance Hall. He had just filled out the detention receipt in Professor McGonagall's office and, while he was at it, completed the file information for the Special Contribution Award.
They had previously brought back a great deal of material on school administration from Ilvermorny, including academic magical research and systematic archival record-keeping. Hogwarts had also begun consciously standardizing the storage of its records.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout had started planning to restructure the clubs into research groups, turning club members into researchers. It all looked quite proper. Deputy Headmaster Snape planned to convert Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets into an archive, where research records could also be preserved.
Professor McGonagall had not even formally taken over as Headmistress yet, but the atmosphere among the professors had already changed.
The contrast was striking. He wondered whether a certain headmaster would feel ashamed.
"Welcome to the second half of this season's Hogwarts Quidditch matches! Today's contestants are Hufflepuff! And Slytherin!
"Losers' bracket matches are often even fiercer and more thrilling! The disappointed teams are burning with the desire to wash away their humiliation. The winner of this match will challenge the winners' bracket again and may even have a chance to compete for the Quidditch Golden Cup!
"Which team will break through the barriers and claim victory? Let us witness it together..."
Today was the day of the Quidditch match, a losers' bracket game between Slytherin and Hufflepuff.
Loren had been delayed for a few minutes and missed the start of the match.
When he reached the stands of the Quidditch Pitch, he searched for Hermione while glancing at the scoreboard behind the Quidditch hoops, listening to the students in the stands analyze the situation on the field.
The entire