After hearing all of Harley's analysis, Hermione's face fell.
"I can't believe I gave away so many clues... Boo-hoo, I'm such a failure."
Harley smiled and quietly leaned against Hermione's back, then breathed against the girl's ear.
"Don't be sad. You didn't actually give away that many clues."
"After all, not everyone sticks by your side all day like I do."
"And even if they did, they couldn't possibly be as clever as me and spot every single problem."
Only after hearing Harley's words did Hermione start to feel a little better.
The next day was Friday, but there were only two short Ancient Runes lessons that day.
It was the most difficult of the elective classes, and even among the Ravenclaws, few chose to take it.
So all the students from the four houses who had chosen Ancient Runes attended the same class.
When Harley and Hermione reached the classroom, which could seat sixty, only five people were there. Even just before the bell rang, only twenty students had shown up.
Hogwarts had over a thousand students, and Harley's year was especially large, with well over a hundred and sixty students.
In all of Gryffindor, only Harley, Hermione, and two girls from dormitories far from theirs had chosen Ancient Runes.
Once the bell rang, Professor Bathsheda Babbling, their teacher for the course, walked in.
The moment the professor entered, Harley froze.
Professor Babbling wasn't wearing wizarding robes. Instead, she wore a plain white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, common among Muggles, with a lightweight red sun-protective jacket over them.
She had beautiful blonde hair, blood-red eyes, and a remarkably youthful appearance.
Judging by her looks alone, Professor Babbling couldn't have been more than eighteen.
But that was hardly normal for an Ancient Runes professor, a master of Ancient