After the competition, Hogwarts students were hit by a long stretch of study with not a single surprise in sight.
Every day brought nothing but dull lessons. No Quidditch matches, no holidays—at least, that was how it felt for most students.
"Ugh..."
Adam let out his third sigh of the day.
"Adam, what's wrong with you?"
Klon leaned closer with a worried look, and the other roommates also turned their attention over.
"Nothing..."
Adam blurted it out, only to receive four pairs of disbelieving, disapproving eyes the next moment.
"What do you mean, nothing? You've never been this depressed before!"
Klon put both hands on Adam's shoulders from behind and gave him a vigorous shake.
"You're Adam—the one who can decisively take on bathroom cockroaches! Pull yourself together! Whatever it is, you can tell us!"
"I know you're worried about me, but that qualifier at the beginning was really unnecessary..."
Remembering that day, Adam's face darkened.
Who would have thought even Eugene, with those thick brows and big eyes, was afraid of cockroaches? And such a tiny one, at that... Though come to think of it, they were pretty rare in Britain. He hadn't expected Hogwarts to have them.
Pulling himself out of those memories of chaos and screaming roommates, Adam sighed again.
"Fine. It's almost New Year, but I can't go home."
Hogwarts didn't seem to have such a thing as taking leave, and traveling back and forth was inconvenient anyway.
"New Year?"
A question mark practically popped up over Klon's head.
"Wasn't January first ages ago? It's almost February now."
"I mean the Chinese holiday—the Spring Festival. It's the Chinese New Year."
As he spoke, Adam sighed wistfully again.
"The whole family cooks together, eats together, puts up Spring Festival couplets, hangs lanterns..."
"Hmm... It doesn't sound very different from Christmas."
Adam immediately turned around to argue.
"It's very different!"
"Uh, right, right. Very different."
Klon turned Adam's head back around.
"Is this holiday especially important to you?"
"It's probably the most important holiday of the year."
"I see..."
Klon turned to look at the roommates behind him.
"Then how about... we celebrate the Spring Festival ourselves at Hogwarts?"
"Hm?"
Adam blinked. That actually... sounded possible?
Since it was a Chinese holiday, Adam had not planned to invite anyone else. Celebrating it in the dormitory would be enough, and according to Klon and the others, they could be considered family too.
Yellow and black had always been the main colors of the Hufflepuff dormitory, but that day, they were replaced by red. Round red lanterns hung from the ceiling like strings of persimmons, while folded red paper cut into the character for fortune stretched into long chains when pulled open, spanning from one end of the dormitory to the other.
Adam even grabbed Kero and Suppi and dressed them in tiny lion dance outfits.
"All right, go play~"
After helping the two little ones pull their wings through the openings in the clothes, Adam patted their bottoms and let them climb down from his lap.
"Adam, does this one need to be pasted upside down too?"
Adam glanced at the longevity character in Uther's hands and hurriedly said,
"No, no! Only the fortune character needs to be pasted upside down!"
When it came time to put up the Spring Festival couplets, Adam stared at the red paper before him in distress. Shouldn't the couplets at Hogwarts have some Hogwarts flavor to them?
But what should he write...
First line: Albus Dumbledore
Second line: Gellert Grindelwald
Horizontal scroll: May you grow old together?
Uh... He had no idea whether the old headmaster could read Chinese. Better not court death like that.
After thinking for a while, Adam picked up his brush and wrote:
A dragon hatches, a serpent bird breaks free, silver bids farewell to the old year
A Phoenix is reborn, a Niffler bears gold to welcome the new spring
Fortune and prosperity in abundance
He couldn't think of anything better for the moment, so he would put these up first.
"Eugene, help me stick this outside the door. I marked it."
"Okay."
There were still classes on New Year's Eve. Most of the preparations had been completed in advance, and many steps had to be simplified at Hogwarts anyway. Soon, it was time for the long-awaited New Year's Eve dinner.
"Wow~"
Klon, who had become quite skilled with chopsticks, picked up a pair and swallowed.
"Isn't this a bit too much food—we can finish all of it?"
Adam had made an entire tableful of dishes: things that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, and swam in the water. There were four staple foods alone. Even someone as gluttonous as him felt it was nearly impossible to finish the table.
"This is meant to last until tomorrow. A little extra is fine."
Adam had realized that he might have made a little too much, but it was not a big problem.
"Oh, right, Eugene. One of these two fish is for tomorrow, so don't eat both in one day."
"Okay."
Eugene stared at the two squirrel mandarin fish with shining eyes.
Even now, he was not particularly good at picking fish bones. A fish where only the head and tail could not be eaten was practically tailor-made for him.
The facts proved that Klon had somewhat underestimated the appetites of boys their age. The five of them ate their New Year's Eve dinner from dinner until midnight, and aside from the squirrel mandarin fish they had deliberately saved, there was barely anything left.
"What? You secretly celebrated a holiday without inviting us?!"
The next day, Hufflepuff students gradually noticed the red papers posted outside Adam and the others' dormitory. Once their curiosity was satisfied, they were immediately devastated.
"That's the Chinese Spring Festival. It's not like you celebrate it."
"That's fine. We can eat... no, celebrate it too!"
Ernie clutched his chest as if he had missed out on a fortune.
After Adam's explanations, how many people at Hogwarts still did not know that Chinese holidays meant delicious food?
"Is there any left?"
Cedric was much more concise, getting straight to the point.
"Nope. The last squirrel mandarin fish was finished at breakfast today."
Klon spread his hands.
"Fine..."
"Are you all that interested in Chinese holidays?"
Adam stroked his chin.
"Yes, yes!"
Everyone nodded in unison.
"There are indeed a few more Chinese holidays coming up..."
There were quite a few holidays in the first half of the year, but...
Under everyone's expectant gazes, Adam opened his mouth and delivered incomparably cold words.
"But do you remember the year-end exams that are no longer far away?"
Yes, as students, there was one hurdle they clearly could not escape: exams.
Although Hogwarts only held exams once a school year, that was precisely why many young wizards only realized around this time that they apparently had not learned much all year.
Many young wizards also discovered that they had been learning and forgetting all year long. Only when reviewing did they realize that knowledge once familiar now felt so foreign.
This was when the thoughtful professors stepped in, forcibly stuffing knowledge points into young wizards' heads through homework.
"Ahhhhhh, there's no time left—"
Klon's quill moved so fast it nearly took flight, and his face was on the verge of collapse.
"Eugene! Bernard! Uther! Help!"
Why not Adam? Because Adam's homework was different from theirs.
"I told you this assignment was a bit much. I told you not to leave it until the last day."
Uther helplessly placed the three assignments before him.
"You didn't say that 'a bit much' meant twice as much as last weekend! Sob sob sob QAQ"
"If you have time for that, you should hurry up and write."
Adam offered a reminder, then took out the letter he had received at dinner from his shoulder bag.
It was from his grandmother... and also her first reply since he had written to ask her about Nicolas Flamel.
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