A Familiar Dream

The room was packed around a full table. It should have been a warm, lively gathering, but the only sound was Belby burying his head over his glass bowl and scraping his spoon against it.

Everyone instinctively gave Belby an odd look, but he only knew how to deal with the ice cream in his own bowl.

"Ah, I never knew Eli had a fiancée. You have no idea—there used to be a potioneer living next door to me who went on every day about marrying his daughter to Eli. Such a promising young man."

Slughorn swiftly launched into another topic to prevent the dinner from sinking into an extended, awkward silence. He turned to Hermione Granger again. "Honestly, I was quite surprised when I learned that Hermione was Eli's fiancée, but looking at you now, you really are a perfect match."

As soon as Slughorn said that, Eli grinned from ear to ear, Hermione's little face turned scarlet, and McLaggen's flirtatious expression—as he kept glancing at Hermione—gradually froze on his face.

Seeing the atmosphere pick up, Slughorn continued, "As far as I know, Hermione, you come from a Muggle family, correct? What do your parents do?"

Slughorn had chosen a relatively ordinary topic.

Hermione was still shy. When Slughorn directed the conversation at her, she could not immediately find the right words to answer him.

"Dentists... They specialize in treating people's teeth." Hermione stumbled over her words. She did not particularly want to explain her parents' profession to Wizards.

After all, there was no such thing as a dentist in the Wizarding World. Usually, if a Wizard had some minor oral ailment, a bottle of potion would restore them with Reparo. Thus, in the Wizarding World, toothaches were hardly a serious problem.

The Wizarding World had always been isolated.