This Dragon Is Also Well-Educated

Hermione frowned. She always felt that the two people in front of her were pulling one over on her, but she had no proof.

"I'll give you a little advice: don't entertain any thoughts you shouldn't have.

"If you really can't help it, maybe you could speak openly with Aaron."

"That might as well be giving up!" Harry shook his head. "You know the chances of Aaron agreeing wouldn't be more than one in ten thousand."

"And it would definitely alert him. Then it'd be even harder for us to steal—cough, cough—borrow it," Ron said. "Anyway, don't worry about this. Harry and I will figure something out."

"Fine!" Hermione patted her revision materials. "But don't forget about the important stuff."

Harry and Ron looked at the stack of revision materials, nodded resignedly, and watched Hermione leave.

After she left, Ron took out the little purple bottle. "Get the tools ready, rest up for a day, then find the right chance to act tomorrow."

After class the next day, the two followed Aaron from a distance. Seeing the neatly dressed, lively White Cat at his side, they could only sigh helplessly.

They followed him from the classroom to the grounds, then to the Great Hall, and finally to the library.

But after entering the library, they were at a loss. Aaron took out a permit slip and, with Madam Pince's permission, openly entered the Restricted Section.

"Ugh! This is trouble now." Ron spoke regretfully. "He probably won't come out for a few hours."

"Stop sighing. Opportunities favor the prepared.

"We've followed him all the way here, so waiting a few more hours won't hurt."

"That's all we can do."

The two exchanged a look, then sat down at an empty table, took out Hermione's top-student notes, and began their agonizing revision.

They had thought they could at least read some of it, but after flipping through it for just over ten minutes, both started yawning.

"I really suspect Hermione put a Sleeping Charm on these," Ron said with a bitter smile. It wasn't that he didn't want to work hard—it was just that there were too many words in these notes, and looking at them made him sleepy.

"Hang in there," Harry mumbled groggily. "No matter what, we can't lose to Malfoy."

Ron: ...

Are you seriously saying that with your eyes closed?

Nearly two hours later, Aaron came out of the Restricted Section carrying a book.

"Ron! Ron!" Harry hurriedly patted Ron on the head to wake him up.

"What is it?" Ron opened his eyes groggily.

"He's out."

"What?" Ron instantly perked up. He and Harry quickly gathered the materials from the table and quietly followed behind Aaron.

But the moment they stepped out of the library, things became awkward. Aaron was standing by the entrance, smiling at them. "Could you two tell me why you've been following me all day?"

"Er..." Ron froze slightly. "Who's following you? Do you have any proof?"

"I don't, but I don't believe your schedule just happened to match mine exactly."

"It's just a coincidence." Harry's eyes darted about, but his tone was exceptionally firm. "We just happened to go watch Quidditch on the grounds, then went to eat, and finally came to the library to read.

"I'm sure lots of students do the same thing!"

"Is that so?" Aaron didn't believe their nonsense at all. It was true that many students might have such plans, but these two had followed him far too closely. No one would believe they were not tailing him.

Still, he couldn't figure out what they wanted from him just yet.

"Of course it is," Ron said righteously.

"All right, I can pretend to believe you.

"Then where do you two plan to go next?

"If you have somewhere in mind, please let me know. I promise I'll avoid you both, so none of us have to feel awkward."

Harry: ...

Ron: ...

They knew that if they did not come up with an explanation, they would not get away with this.

Since they had already alerted him, they could only try to deceive him now.

"Aaron, there is something we really want to ask you to help us with," Harry said hesitantly.

"Oh?" Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Then just tell me directly. Whether I help is up to me—there's no need to play at stalking people!

"By the way, your stalking skills are terrible. Especially terrible."

"Haha!" Harry gave an awkward laugh, then took out the notes Hermione had given them. "It's like this. To prepare for the Final Exam, Hermione has arranged devilish training for us.

"She wants us to memorize all these key points. You can take a look at the notes."

Aaron accepted the notebook with some doubt and gave it a quick skim. "There's nothing wrong with them. The notes are very detailed; there are hardly any flaws to pick out.

"Honestly, having a friend like Hermione is really your good fortune.

"So what do you want from me?"

"Er... we want you to talk to Hermione and ask her not to push us so hard." Harry nudged Ron's arm as he spoke.

Ron immediately caught on. "The two of us tried just now, but after reading for only ten-odd minutes, we nearly fell asleep."

"You followed me all day just for that?" Aaron looked at them, speechless. He genuinely wondered whether these two had gotten their brains caught in a door.

Seeing that they had successfully fooled him, Harry was delighted. "You know Hermione's temper. If we make that request, she'll probably be unhappy.

"And she's doing this for our own good, so it'd be even harder for us to bring it up.

"But you're different. At Hogwarts, you're the closest to her. She'll definitely listen to you."

"You two really have nothing better to do." Aaron shook his head. "Sorry, I can't help with that.

"This isn't something I should bring up, or it'll just make things more awkward.

"With Hermione's intelligence, she'll easily guess that the two of you specifically asked me to plead your case.

"If you really find it unbearable, you should go talk to her yourselves. Sometimes being honest works better."

With that, Aaron turned and left.

"Phew!" ×2.

The two let out a sigh of relief together, though they could not help feeling even more frustrated.

"Ugh! This is difficult now." Harry gave a bitter smile. "We got through this, but we can't follow him anymore. Otherwise, he'll definitely notice something."

"Yeah!

"We can't exactly wait for him in the Slytherin common room!

"And we don't even know Slytherin's password!"

"We'll have to think of another way."

The bathroom.

Harry and Ron crouched anxiously by the door beneath the Invisibility Cloak.

Waiting for the rabbit by the tree stump—this was the stupidest but safest plan they had come up with after thinking all night. The only problem was that they had to wait a little too long.

From the end of class until now, at least dozens of people had gone in to use the bathroom, but their target had yet to appear.

"Harry, how about we go back?

"If we stay here any longer, I'm going to start feeling like a pervert."

"Wait a little longer!

"We've been waiting so long already. Aaron will definitely come."

"But we've already waited three hours."

"The longer we wait, the more likely we are to catch him."

"Or the less likely," Ron muttered, but in the end, he continued waiting with Harry.

Perhaps their patience paid off. A few minutes later, Aaron arrived.

When they saw the White Cat following beside him, both of them became wildly excited, wishing they could grab it right away.

Before long, Aaron closed the door and left Abei on the washstand, where it stood guard outside like a sentry.

"Is everything ready?"

"Ready." Ron immediately took out a food container. Inside were two chicken legs.

"Good. It all comes down to this."

The two carefully approached, opened the container, and gently set it on the ground.

Beneath the Invisibility Cloak, they kept fanning with their robes, trying to send the aroma of the chicken legs inside.

Abei, who was sitting on the washstand looking in the mirror, caught the scent. Its ears immediately perked up, lifting the hat on its head by two centimeters.

It looked around, then, under the two boys' hopeful gazes, walked to the door and spotted the neatly arranged food container.

Abei's eyes widened at once, becoming especially lively, because it had seen its favorite food.

Eat, hurry up and eat! the two thought excitedly. They had prepared for this moment for days.

But Abei's next actions left them stunned, bewildered, and speechless.

Abei approached the food container and sniffed it carefully, then turned its head to look around, paying particular attention to the spot where the Invisibility Cloak was.

After making sure no one was there, a trace of confusion appeared in its lively eyes.

A few seconds later, the White Cat resisted its craving for food, wiped the drool from the corner of its mouth, and used both paws to close the container. Then it walked back into the bathroom, looking over its shoulder every few steps.

Food that fell on the ground could not be eaten, and food that might belong to someone else was even more off-limits. That was what its master had taught it. This dragon was also well-educated.