A Certain Scientific Harry Potter 31

She had often met Harry's gaze while washing her hair in the past, but it usually felt novel and amusing; this time, however, the feeling was completely different.

Under the dim candlelight of the room, Harry's eyes were exceptionally bright, his expression earnest, and so...

"What are you looking at?" Harry asked out of the blue.

"N-nothing~" Hermione's face flushed, and she hurriedly closed her eyes, not daring to look again.

"What about that egg? I might as well use it now." Harry didn't sense anything unusual. After rinsing Hermione's hair clean, he remembered that this girl had specifically gone to the kitchen to fetch a 'hair care product.'

"It's right here~" Hermione handed the egg to Harry, looking a bit embarrassed. "Actually, just washing it clean is fine. It's so late, there's no need to go to all this trouble..."

"I never consider this a trouble."

Harry shook the egg vigorously with one hand while testing the water temperature with the other. Finally, feeling it was just right, he mixed the egg liquid thoroughly with the shampoo and applied it evenly to Hermione's hair.

After that, he sank his fingers into the roots of her hair and began a slow, gentle massage... just as they used to do back home.

Feeling the familiar touch on her scalp, Hermione enjoyed the comfort, but suddenly felt a sting in her nose.

Too many things had happened in the few months at Hogwarts, and she really missed home.

"Hey... Harry, what were you and Mr. Filch talking about in the kitchen earlier?" Perhaps not wanting to sink into homesickness, Hermione took the initiative to chat with Harry.

"Just some idle chatter about theories regarding the thief, and then I ended up catching you~" Harry laughed, using a strand of hair to tickle Hermione's little nose.

"You're annoying~" Hermione gave a dissatisfied huff. "By the way, I found a terrifying Three-headed Dog in a room on the fourth floor. It seemed to be lying on a trapdoor; I wonder what it's guarding."

"That room is strictly off-limits by order of Headmaster Dumbledore, so regardless of what's in there, you and I don't need to pay it any mind."

Harry roughly knew what the Three-headed Dog was guarding, but he felt that the matter had nothing to do with him.

Most importantly... he didn't want this matter to involve Hermione at all!!

"Harry... thank you~"

Hearing Hermione's soft murmur, Harry froze in place, his massaging hands coming to a halt...

(p.s. Let me tell you, this image almost made the designer darling have a breakdown on the spot, (＠_＠;))

Chapter 57 The Thief is an Outsider

Harry wasn't entirely sure what Hermione's gratitude truly meant.

He didn't know if she had caught the subtext of his words just now, if she was simply offering a belated thank you for the group brawl earlier, or perhaps... it was just a sudden realization after these past few months?

However, when Harry remained silent for a long moment, wanting to confirm it with Hermione, he found that the girl in front of him seemed to have fallen fast asleep, even beginning to breathe with a steady rhythm.

Colorful bubbles drifted about in a soft rhythm. Looking at Hermione's sleeping face, Harry's heart trembled inadvertently.

He felt that, at this moment, Hermione looked exactly like the mermaid in the painting on the wall.

She lay on the rock, sleeping soundly, her long, beautiful hair brushing against her face, trembling slightly with every breath she took...

Watching Hermione like this, Harry chose not to wake her. He simply helped tidy her still-damp hair, wrapped her carefully in a bath towel, and carried her out of the room.

The distance from the Prefect's Bathroom to the room where Professor McGonagall stayed was quite long. Harry never let go, and every step he took was cautious, as if afraid of waking the girl in his arms...

"Mr. Granger, do you realize how inappropriate this is? You might think it's no big deal, but for Miss Granger, this is re-al-ly inappropriate!"

Sure enough, when Harry found Professor McGonagall while wrapped in a bath towel with Hermione, the professor's face turned from cloudy to stormy in an instant.

Professor McGonagall, whose personality was a bit rigid, had never approved of the Granger Siblings being so close.

She had also always had reservations about the two of them sharing a single wand.

Hmm... clearly, that certain bumblebee hadn't told Professor McGonagall the whole truth about why Harry didn't have a wand.

Originally, when Hermione started keeping a necessary distance from Harry and moved into her quarters, Professor McGonagall had been pleased that the two children were finally starting to be sensible, but she hadn't expected the Granger Siblings to pull such a stunt tonight!

"Not sleeping at three or four in the morning, running around the corridors, and covered in a bath towel, this is simply... in any case, you should be thankful no one else saw you!!"

Professor McGonagall scolded Harry angrily, but Harry could tell her bark was worse than her bite... to avoid waking the sleeping Hermione, her voice remained very low.

"Mm-hmm~" Harry nodded repeatedly like a well-behaved child. "It's my fault, I'll definitely change next time. Professor, let me settle Hermione down to sleep first~"

"I am deducting thirty points from Ravenclaw... you and Miss Granger, thirty points each!"

Professor McGonagall felt her temper flare just looking at Harry's face, because written clearly on both his cheeks were the words 'humbly admitting mistakes, but never changing'!

She waved her hand in disgust, signaling for Harry to settle Hermione quickly and then get out immediately.

"Deducting points is fine as long as you're happy, but in any case... I'm truly grateful that you're willing to look after Hermione during this time!"

"You..." Harry had been grinning a second ago, but then he nodded with a solemn expression, which left Professor McGonagall momentarily stunned.

Harry had already quietly bypassed Professor McGonagall, placed Hermione on the small bed in the room, and then turned to leave on tiptoe.

However, he didn't notice that as he turned to leave, Hermione suddenly opened her eyes, staring blankly at Harry's retreating back.

Back at the caretaker's hut, Filch and Mrs. Norris were not yet asleep.

"You're both quite energetic, so let's talk about the clues."

Since Harry wasn't sleepy either, he decided he might as well help Filch solve the problem first.

"Clues... what exactly is so special about that piece of bread?" Filch asked, his face full of confusion, clearly interested.

Before Harry returned, he had observed that piece of bread repeatedly for a long time, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"There is a huge problem with this bread!" After carefully observing the piece of evidence under the light, Harry suddenly pointed the bite mark on the bread toward the mouth of Mrs. Norris. "Mr. Filch, take a look. Doesn't the bite mark here look very similar to the shape of Mrs. Norris's mouth?"

"Are you suspecting that Mrs. Norris is the thief who stole the food? I tell you, that is absolutely impossible!" Seeing Harry actually pinning the thief's hat on his cat's head, Filch immediately began to huff and puff with indignation.

"Of course I'm not suspecting Mrs. Norris. With how well we feed her every single day, Mrs. Norris would have to be brain-damaged to go to the kitchen to steal bread."

"Meow!" Mrs. Norris raised her paw at Harry in dissatisfaction, clearly feeling that Harry's previous assessment was a bit insulting to a cat.

"The problem with this piece of bread lies in the cross-section of the bite. This kind of conical bite mark, where both the upper and lower jaws protrude forward like a cat's, is unlikely to be made in a single bite unless a human did it on purpose," Harry explained to Filch while holding up the bread.

"So, you think the thief is another cat in the castle?"

"No." Harry shook his head, rejecting Filch's guess. "This bread wasn't bitten by a cat. We can clearly tell that from another mark on the bread."

"Another mark... what is this?"

Filch looked at Harry in surprise. At this moment, Harry was imitating the thief's movements, holding the bread by the pinch marks left on it.

He pressed three fingers together against three tiny indentations on the front of the bread, while his thumb rested exactly against a slightly larger depression on the back, lifting the entire piece of bread with just those four digits.

At this point, Filch finally understood what Harry meant.

Whether it was biting or grabbing the bread, the thief's movements were very hurried, yet there were no marks left by a fifth finger on the bread, which meant...

This thief didn't have a fifth finger at all—in other words, no pinky!

"I haven't discovered anyone at Hogwarts with a similar disability, and combined with the bite cross-section from earlier, I'm afraid the thief we are looking for isn't human either." After summarizing the clues, Harry reached a rough conclusion. "Protruding jaws, a narrow mouth, and only four fingers—the most likely possibility is... a House-elf!"

That's right, the creature that best fits all the characteristics mentioned above is the House-elf who works in the Hogwarts kitchen!

"It was them?" Filch's eyes widened upon hearing this. "I will go notify Professor Sprout tomorrow and have her interrogate every single House-elf in the kitchen one by one!"

"No, that will only alert the enemy!" Harry shook his head, rejecting Filch's proposal. "You only need to have Professor Sprout investigate secretly and tell Dumbledore the results of our analysis."

House-elves are creatures with a heavy sense of servitude; it is impossible for them to steal from their own masters. Therefore, even if the thief is indeed a House-elf, it must be one that snuck into Hogwarts from the outside!

The fact that the other party has been able to hide in Hogwarts for so long suggests they are quite capable. Rushing into a large-scale investigation would likely cause the news to leak, making it impossible to catch them.

What's more, Harry was also worried about another thing... House-elves generally serve wizarding families!

If this one was sent by a wizard to infiltrate Hogwarts, then the motive is very intriguing.

Is it a plot against Hogwarts, or...

Were they sent to deal with me and Hermione?

It seems I need to write a post-launch announcement.

Sigh, it's already 120,000 words. I heard that writing a launch announcement causes a drop in followers—is that true? Let me be terrified for a moment~

After thinking it over, I still feel I should thank all my friends here first.

First, I want to thank a little cutie who first proposed and allowed me to take the childhood classic HP and give it a magical overhaul; otherwise, there wouldn't be this book, A Certain Harry.

I really must emphasize my gratitude here, because from drafting the outline to writing the main text, Sanmiao has been so excited every day that I'm buzzing. There are so many plot points in HP that can be set free, and the wild ideas that can be infinitely expanded just keep coming one after another. I just couldn't stop digging into all sorts of settings!

Then, I want to thank all the friends who have been supporting Sanmiao. Sanmiao was introduced to this site. After arriving, I felt that the atmosphere here is really good, and it's very relaxing and comfortable to write and update. I am truly, deeply grateful for this.

Regarding this book, Sanmiao also knows that my abilities are limited and it's impossible to write a plot that satisfies every reader, so I can only say I'm doing my best.

Some of the issues in the book, such as Scamander appearing in the wrong scene, or the protagonist being dragged forward by fate, are foreshadowing for the plot that will definitely unfold slowly later on. Others are inevitable problems that arise when making a fictional world realistic.

It is true that HP is a fictional fairy tale, but since Sanmiao is writing fanfiction, I cannot write it as a fairy tale, nor can I create a beautiful, floating-above-the-clouds, disconnected story.

Therefore, many issues in the book, such as the collision between magic and science, why Transfiguration ignores the conservation of energy, and many other questions, will have their own reasonable explanations once the worldview is firmly grounded. Using a scientific perspective to interpret HP—a story that seems like a fairy tale but is actually fantasy—is one of the original intentions for Sanmiao starting this book~

Anyway, in short, being a writer is just that kind of job. Every step Sanmiao takes is inseparable from the support of all my old and new friends. I am always very, very grateful to you all!

Finally, let's talk about the question everyone is concerned about: a massive update upon launch is a certainty. Let's just start with a hard update today~

As for tomorrow, heh, that will be a secret for now~

Chapter 58: 'Deception' Must Always Be Exposed (1/10)

After analyzing the conclusion, Filch reported the news the next day. Soon, in the following days, there were no more reports of food being stolen from the Hogwarts kitchen.

Harry didn't think this was a good sign, because it meant the thief was very clever—not only did they hear the wind of change immediately, but they also knew how to lay low and hide themselves.

So... what exactly is Old Dumbledore thinking?

Harry absolutely did not believe that Dumbledore lacked the ability to catch the thief, but he chose to remain still, which gave Harry a lot of grievances.

If you really want to show goodwill toward me, knowing that I have already arranged for Hermione to live with Professor McGonagall to ensure her safety, shouldn't you be proactive and catch the thief immediately to put my mind at ease?

You had the chance, but you didn't take it~

However, as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. Sometimes people are just like that; bad luck comes one after another.

While Harry was busy complaining every day about Old Dumbledore's "playing dead" behavior, another piece of trouble had already arrived quietly...

One day, as Halloween approached, Hermione ran into Hagrid, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, on campus.

"Aha, Hermione!" Hagrid waved excitedly, crossing through a crowd of students to reach her. "It's been a while! How are you and Harry doing? Strange, why aren't you two together?"

"We... you know, Hagrid, we occasionally have our own things to do..."

Hagrid's bluntness made Hermione incredibly embarrassed. She had spent quite a lot of effort recently trying to make her relationship with Harry appear "slightly more normal" to others. As a result, after Hagrid's shout, the surrounding students would definitely be reminded of the anecdotes of the Granger Siblings always being seen together.

Looking at the various scrutinizing, teasing, and pointing gazes around her, Hermione hurriedly pulled Hagrid away to change the subject.

"By the way, I heard from Harry that you're raising a Kneazle. Would you mind taking me to see it sometime?"

Hermione, much like Harry, was a massive cat lover, so she had always been curious about the lineage of Crookshanks and the nature of Kneazles as magical creatures.

"A Kneazle?" Hagrid frowned, looking puzzled. "When would I have ever raised one of those? Harry must have remembered it wrong."

"You haven't?" Hermione was stunned by his reply. "The week we started Flying Class, Harry clearly said you'd found a Kneazle cub!"

"That's impossible." Hagrid waved his hand dismissively. "I'm allergic to cat hair; even a little bit makes me sneeze non-stop. Besides, they aren't friendly at all, and Fang and I... well, in any case, I would never keep a cat. And besides, the week you had your Flying Class, I wasn't even at Hogwarts. If I had been, I definitely would have stood up for Harry after his fight with Malfoy."

"You weren't at Hogwarts? Then where were you..."

"At that time, I was away on business with Professor Kettleburn, who teaches Care of Magical Creatures, to scout out some creatures for next semester's lessons," Hagrid explained. "Professor Kettleburn is getting on in years, and after losing half his limbs to his teaching duties, Dumbledore didn't feel comfortable letting him travel alone, so he asked me to go along as his assistant."

"How could this be... why?!"

After hearing Hagrid's explanation, Hermione swayed on the spot, then suddenly turned and ran away, ignoring Hagrid's shouts behind her as she didn't slow down for a second.

She ran all the way back to the room Professor McGonagall had allotted her, buried her face in her pillow in heartbreak, and stayed there from afternoon until night, not even coming out for dinner.

She simply couldn't believe that Harry would lie to her!