The Little Girl Next Door Was Named Hermione

Lynn Belloc was watering his garden when the bouncy little girl from next door passed by his gate with her schoolbag on her back.

"Hey."

Lynn looked up to see the girl standing in front of his house, calling out to him through the fence, so he set down his watering can and walked over.

"That's not very polite. If you don't know my name, you could say 'excuse me' instead of 'hey'."

The girl pouted, seemingly unconvinced by Lynn's words, especially since he looked to be about the same age as her.

However, she didn't dwell on the issue, instead peeking toward her own yard before carefully pulling a bag of dried fish from her schoolbag.

She pursed her lips and handed the dried fish to Lynn.

Lynn didn't reach for it immediately, instead raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"What, are you trying to bribe me with this bag of dried fish to play with you? If so, you've sent it to the wrong person. I prefer sweets, like candy, not salty fish."

The girl kicked Lynn's fence and made a face at him.

"I don't want you to play with me! This bag of fish isn't for you; it's for the stray cats that wander around here every day. Mom won't let me feed them, saying they're full of viruses and bacteria."

"But actually, I really want to keep a cat. Dad said if I keep my grades up, he'll buy me a clean cat when I'm a bit older."

"But those stray cats are so pitiful. They're cats too, yet they have to run around hungry every day. It's not fair."

"Yesterday, I saw you feeding them some broken biscuits, so I used my pocket money to buy some dried fish today. I want you to take care of them for me."

That's some high moral ground...

Lynn muttered silently to himself.

It was clear the girl was a chatterbox who couldn't stop once she started, though she had acted a bit tsundere earlier.

Lynn didn't feel embarrassed about misinterpreting her intentions; his skin was thick enough for that.

He took the bag of dried fish from her hands. "Alright, I don't have much to do every day anyway, so I can help you look after them."

After saying that, he casually plucked a lily from his garden and handed it to the girl.

"Consider this a thank-you gift from them, delivered by me."

The girl didn't act shy; she accepted the lily from Lynn with grace and said with a grin, "My name is Hermione Granger. What about you?"

"Lynn Belloc. I just moved here not long ago. Nice to meet you."

Lynn felt the girl's name sounded familiar, but he didn't give it much thought.

After introducing themselves, their relationship naturally grew closer. Hermione leaned against the fence of Lynn's house, standing on her tiptoes to peer into his home.

"Do you live here by yourself?"

Lynn took off his gloves, feeling in the mood to chat with Hermione. He hadn't been in London long, and with summer vacation starting soon, he wasn't in school and had plenty of free time.

"Yes, I'm the only one living here for now."

Hermione's eyes widened. "What about your parents? Are they comfortable with you living here alone?"

"They passed away when I was very young. I live with my foster father now, though he doesn't come back very often." Lynn's expression remained calm.

But Hermione looked sad and apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Lynn waved it off dismissively. "It's fine. That happened a long time ago, and my life is actually quite good now."

"What about you?" Lynn shifted the topic, taking the opportunity to probe into his neighbor's situation. "What do your parents do?"

Hermione smiled, revealing her white teeth.

"My mom and dad are both dentists. If your teeth hurt in the future, you can go see them."

Dentists, huh? That was a high-income profession in England, true middle class.

Moreover, the British placed great importance on oral health, and skilled dentists usually had extensive connections.

This neighbor was worth getting to know better.

While he was still young and could get away with acting cute to build a rapport, it would surely be helpful in the future.

So, Lynn flashed a bright smile and extended an invitation.

"Do you want to come in for a bit? I made some mung bean soup for lunch; it's great for cooling down and quenching thirst in the summer."

Hermione looked tempted, but she glanced back toward her own house and finally shook her head.

"Thank you, but I've been out for a long time. If I don't go home, my mom will get worried."

"Then next time." Lynn didn't press her. "I'll make sure to take good care of those stray cats."

Hermione felt her new neighbor was a great person and that she had gained a new friend.

"Goodbye, Lynn."

She waved happily at Lynn, her bushy hair looking like a cloud of cotton candy, and skipped back to her house.

Hermione's appearance was just a small interlude for Lynn.

He put his gloves back on, hummed a little tune, and continued tending to the blooming flowers in his garden.

Lynn is a transmigrator.

In his past life, he was a teacher who had been working for less than two years, only to accidentally ride his e-bike into a river on his way to work and drown because he couldn't swim.

When he regained consciousness, he had become an orphan who had just lost his parents at an orphanage in England called Starting Point.

It was hard to say whether this was a stroke of luck or a misfortune.

The good news, however, was that his parents, whom he had never met before they passed away, had left him a massive inheritance. He just had to wait until he came of age to claim it, find a wife, and live a life of unbridled happiness thereafter.

But capitalist welfare institutions were not purely charitable, and there were plenty of sordid affairs going on inside. Plus, the group of troubled children, while pitiful, were also a handful.

So, when Lynn turned eleven, he secretly used some methods to find himself a convenient foster father, moved out of the orphanage, and returned to the home his parents had lived in before they died.

Life was temporarily stable now, but Lynn hadn't thought through his future plans, nor did he intend to.

Plans could never keep up with changes.

There was plenty of time ahead; the more plans he made now, the more he would only regret that his current self was just wasting time.

Since heaven had arranged for him to be reborn in England in the second half of the 20th century, he would just have to honestly establish a firm foothold in this country first.

Thus, the eleven-year-old Lynn now housed a twenty-five-year-old soul and lived the life of a seventy-year-old.

He was quite helpless about it, but entertainment in this era was truly scarce. Aside from tending to flowers, weeding, and feeding cats, he really didn't know what else to do.

After tidying up the garden, Lynn put down his tools, took off his gloves, and stretched toward the setting sun.

The air in London was poor; despite increased efforts to regulate it, the sky was still gray at times.

Lynn squinted, vaguely seeing a small black dot flying toward him from the horizon.

It wasn't until the black dot drew near that he realized it was an owl.

This type of bird was not rare in England, so Lynn didn't pay much attention to it. Instead, he picked up the dried fish sent by a little girl named Hermione and locked the garden gate, preparing to go out and feed the cats.

He failed to notice, however, that the owl flying over his head had dropped a thick letter exactly where he had been standing.

The owl then perched on his roof, watching his retreating back, and tilted its head in confusion.